Wintergrasp

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Wintergrasp is a large region located between the Sholazar Basin, Borean Tundra, Dragonblight, and Icecrown.

Wintergrasp appears in the second World of Warcraft expansion as the first non-battleground zone fully dedicated to world PvP, even on PvE servers. It focuses on siege weapon warfare.

History

Wintergrasp was once the location of a vast lake known as Lake Wintergrasp; the lake has shrunk since then, leaving the basin open to exploration. Wintergrasp contains a valuable mine, ownership of which is contested by the Horde and Alliance in order to reap its riches.^[1]

Geography

WorldMap-LakeWintergrasp — Wintergrasp map

The Wintergrasp zone in World of Warcraft is about the size of Westfall.^[2] Wintergrasp can be reached via portals from Dalaran, one portal for each side, which open when a battle begins; the portals are shut down once the match has ended. It can also be reached on foot, details of which can be found here.

Players can fly into Wintergrasp under their own power, but in Wintergrasp the air is too thin to sustain flight; players entering this no-fly zone are warned and failure to leave within 8 seconds will result in the player being kicked off of their mount. Players who are kicked from their mount are automatically given a "parachute" effect (similar to Slow Fall).

Players can fly in to or out of Wintergrasp via the flight master near the attackers' rally point. The Horde rally point is on the west side beyond the western goblin workshop (also known as Broken Temple), and the Alliance rally point is north-east of the eastern goblin workshop (also known as Sunken Ring). They can also leave Wintergrasp by moving to one of the various locations that are technically within other zones (but remain on the plateau) then summoning a flying mount.

Maps and subregions

Adjacent regions

Zone Name	Level Range	Direction	Access
Borean Tundra	68-72	SouthWest	By flying mount
Dragonblight	71-75	East	By flying mount
Sholazar Basin	75-78	North	By flying mount
Icecrown	78-80	NorthEast	By flying mount

Notable characters

Main article: Wintergrasp NPCs

Wintergrasp is home to several characters of status. Many of the commanding officers from both sides hail from the early days of Alterac Valley, including Lieutenant Murp and Primalist Mulfort. Senior Demolitionist Legoso and Tactical Officer Kilrath also make a reappearance from their first trials in the Burning Crusade, hailing from Bloodmyst Isle and Terokkar Forest, respectively.

Horde

Alliance

Quests

Main article: Wintergrasp quests

Alliance

[80 Daily PvP] A Rare Herb
[80 Daily PvP] Bones and Arrows
[80 Daily PvP] Defend the Siege
[80 Daily PvP] Fueling the Demolishers
[80 Daily PvP] No Mercy for the Merciless
[80 Daily PvP] Stop the Siege
[80 Daily PvP] Victory in Wintergrasp
[80 Daily PvP] Warding the Warriors

Horde

[80 Daily PvP] Bones and Arrows
[80 Daily PvP] Defend the Siege
[80 Daily PvP] Fueling the Demolishers
[80 Daily PvP] Healing with Roses
[80 Daily PvP] Jinxing the Walls
[80 Daily PvP] Slay them all!
[80 Daily PvP] Stop the Siege
[80 Daily PvP] Victory in Wintergrasp

The PvP quests in Wintergrasp yield money, honor, and one or more [Stone Keeper's Shard] for completing them.

NPCs and monsters

Level 80 elementals of all known kinds (earth, fire, water, air, shadow, life) wander in various areas. The side that controls Wintergrasp Keep will be able to see elemental Revenants, with roughly twice as much health as the regular elementals and a guaranteed droprate for crystallized elements. As of patch 3.0.3, there is no Revenant that drops [Crystallized Life].

Each side also has level 76 elite NPC guards, which can be found near the vehicle shops, attacker's towers, and inside the Keep. The guards, while having health consummate with an elite mob, do not do much damage and can be easily soloed.

Wintergrasp as a PvP zone

The faction that won the last Wintergrasp battle defends Wintergrasp Keep, while the opposing faction attacks the keep.

Both factions can destroy or take control of towers and Goblin Workshops scattered around the zone. To take the keep, the attacking faction must break down walls with siege engines.

After Wintergrasp Keep has been captured, it will be controlled by one faction for approximately 2 hours 30 minutes after capture, after which time it becomes contested. The battle then lasts 30 minutes or until the attackers successfully capture the keep. The status of Wintergrasp and whether or not it is contested can be seen from the Northrend map by the appearance or absence of a faction symbol (or a PvP symbol indicating control of the keep is being contested) over the zone.

To find out when the next battle is starting you can go to the Portal Mage in Dalaran, visit the Zone itself, or view the World Map, which (as of patch 3.1) now displays a countdown timer for the next battle when viewing the Wintergrasp zone.

Ranks

After killing five enemy players, defensive cannons or NPC guards during a Wintergrasp match, you are given the rank of Corporal.[1] This allows you to create Wintergrasp Catapults at a Goblin Workshops. After ten enemy kills after your field promotion, you are given the rank of First Lieutenant, which allows you to create Wintergrasp Demolishers and Wintergrasp Siege Engines.

Receiving Wintergrasp Marks of Honor at the end of match is dependent on reaching the rank of First Lieutenant or higher. This is intended to encourage players to participate in PvP combat and not merely idle in the zone during a match in order to receive "free" Marks of Honor.

As of patch 3.0.8, players will receive the rank of Recruit upon entering the zone during a match; at the end of a match, players will be awarded 1 Mark for being a Recruit, 2 Marks for being a [Corporal], and 3 Marks for being a First Lieutenant.[2] It is currently unknown whether these awards are in place of the current end-of-game awards of 3 Marks for players on the winning side and 1 Mark for players on the losing side, or in addition to the current awards.

Player-held weapons

Players are able to inflict damage to vehicles and turrets with spells and weapons; players cannot damage a wall, tower, or Goblin Workshops without a vehicle or weapon that deals siege damage.

Goblin Workshops inside the keep and on the southern half of the map spawn multiple copies of [The RP-GG], which can be fired at enemy vehicles.

Engineers have access to two schematics for explosives that deal siege damage to vehicles, walls, and towers. Goblin Engineers and Gnome Engineers can both learn to make and use [Saronite Bomb] at 405 Engineering, and Goblin Engineers can learn to make and use [Global Thermal Sapper Charge] at 425 Engineering.

Vehicles

The defining feature of Wintergrasp is the use of vehicles to assault buildings and towers.

In order to create vehicles in Wintergrasp, you must attain a rank of Corporal or better during a Wintergrasp match by killing enemy players or NPC guards. Once a vehicle has been created, any player can pilot or operate a turret on one. Vehicles are created at Goblin Workshops under your faction's control. These factories can be captured or destroyed by the opposing team.

Name	Seats	Rank Req.
Wintergrasp Catapult	One	Corporal
Wintergrasp Siege Engine	Driver, turret gunner, 2 passengers	First Lieutenant
Wintergrasp Demolisher	Driver/gunner, 2 passengers	First Lieutenant
Wintergrasp Shredder	One	Unknown (see below)
Wintergrasp Fighter	One	Unknown (see below)
Wintergrasp Bomber	Two	Unknown (see below)

Catapults are capable of throwing plague barrels along ballistic trajectories which cause small amounts of AoE damage to players, vehicles, and structures. They also can create a flame jet which does a cone damage in the front of the catapult to enemy players and enemy vehicles, but not buildings.

Demolishers are capable of throwing burning boulders along a ballistic trajectory which cause medium amounts of damage to players, vehicles, and structures. They also can ram which does cone damage in front of them, and is particularly damaging to structures. Passengers are vulnerable to attack in the Demolisher but can cast offensive and defensive spells.

Siege Engines are capable of ramming which also does cone damage in front of them and is the highest damage to structures available. They also have a cannon that can shoot boulders which do high damage along a ballistic path; the cannon requires a second player to operate. Passengers are protected from harm but cannot attack or cast spells.

The Wintergrasp Shredder, Wintergrasp Fighter, and Wintergrasp Bomber have not been seen in the game as of Patch 3.1.2. Access to these vehicles may be withheld for a later content patch, or it might require an as-yet-unrevealed rank or condition to access them. As of January 11th 09 a player on US servers has confirmed with a GM that these vehicles are NOT in the current version of the game and there is no current say on them being re added or removed.

File:GMconfirm.jpg

Strategy

Wintergrasp is a classic "assault"-style gameplay. The objective of the attackers is to capture the keep before time runs out. The objective of the defenders is to keep them from doing so. Should the attackers capture the keep, the battle ends immediately and they gain control.

The objective in Wintergrasp is a large orange sphere located inside the keep itself. The sphere must be activated by a player for 10 seconds, in the same way capturing a flag works in other battlegrounds. If this is done successfully, the attackers win. Any damage caused to a player attempting to activate the relic will cause the activation to stop.

To reach the relic, three levels of walls must be breached. First, the outer perimeter of the keep must be breached. This can be done in any of three different courtyards. The front courtyard is empty, other than NPCs, and the east and west courtyard contain Goblin Workshops for the defenders. The inner keep walls then must be breached which leads to a courtyard with higher level NPC defenders. The final barrier is the door to the keep itself. Once that is down, the attackers have access to the relic inside.

Goblin Workshops

Each faction has access to two Goblin Workshops that cannot be captured. For the defenders, they are located in the keep itself; portals allow vehicles to teleport out. For the attackers, they are located between the towers on the southern side of the map. These can be destroyed by the opposing side using vehicles, and do not respawn during a match.

Two other Goblin Workshops are located nearer to the keep. They start out under the control of the defenders, but the attackers can capture them. Capturing is done in a manner similar to the towers in Hellfire Peninsula or Eye of the Storm; the side with more players near the workshop will eventually capture it. Holding these factories has the dual advantage of allowing vehicles to be built closer to the keep and increasing the total number of vehicles a side is allowed to control. In the current patch these workshops can only be destroyed by the faction that does not control Wintergrasp Keep; even if the attacking faction controls the workshop, the defenders cannot destroy these workshops, only capture them.

Towers

The keep has four towers as part of its design, at the corners of walls. The attackers have three towers at the southern end of the map. For each of the attacking team's towers that the defenders manage to destroy, the defenders will be rewarded with bonus honor. [3]

Towers feature defensive turrets which players can use to fire at enemy players and vehicles. These towers do high AoE damage (up to 5000 for a well-aimed shot) and fire quite quickly, thus are quite useful in defense. Turrets can be destroyed with vehicles or by being directly attacked by players; they respawn after some time.

As of Patch 3.0.8, each of the attacking team's towers provide a Tower Control buff, which is a 5% bonus to damage; this buff can stack up to 3 times for a maximum 15% bonus. If the defenders destroy a tower, that tower's bonus will be transferred to the defending team. This is intended to assist the attacking team in taking the keep, and provide a reason for defenders to leave the protection of the keep during a siege. [4]

If all three towers are destroyed the duration of the battle is shortened by 10 minutes. This will in most cases end the battle since there are seldom more than 10 minutes left when the last tower falls. Which when the game starts at 30 mins this could mean the difference between defeat or victory.

Vehicles

The primary purpose of vehicles is to attack structures such walls, towers, and Goblin Workshops; they can also be used to attack other vehicles. Vehicles have a large amount of health, but are not particularly armored and thus are vulnerable to basic infantry attack. A player doing a concerted attack on a vehicle can destroy it quicker than the same player attacking from another vehicle.

Attacker basic strategy

If you are on offense, your first goal is to take the factories near to the keep. If you have to buy vehicles from the factories in the south, it will take a very long time to reach the keep (vehicles move around regular character running speed). Once you have one or both factories, you want to concentrate on breaching the outer wall. You also may wish to fire at the cannons on the wall, as they will do a lot of damage to your vehicle if well aimed. If you break in to the east or west courtyard, destroying the vehicle factory there can be useful, as they can be destroyed. Once you begin to have higher rank players, you should split forces between attacking the keep and attacking players. Siege Engines are the most useful against the keep, and demolishers as well. If you are using a catapult, focus on enemy players and NPCs to try and keep them off your heavier vehicles. Also you can ride along on the vehicles and if they fall under attack, hop off and kill the attacker.

Once the inner keep is breached, all focus needs to go to the relic. Get in there and take it. AoE fears and such to get rid of defenders are useful in here. It is just like a base capture situation in Arathi Basin.

Defender basic strategy

As defenders you need to divide your forces. It is tempting to simply sit in the keep and repel attackers from behind the walls but this is almost certainly doomed to failure. The keep walls aren't that sturdy so even with a heavy defense, you are likely to get breached. Part of the force should stay in the keep and defend it, in particular by manning cannons, the others should go out and assault. If you can keep the attackers from capturing and holding the nearby vehicle factories, you gain a huge strategic advantage. They either need to spend a lot of forces capturing them, or drive vehicles up from the south which is slow.

When you get rank 1 or 2 it can be useful to get a vehicle from the keep and try to strike at the defender's points. If you destroy their southern vehicle points, they then can only purchase vehicles at the northern points and if those are under your side's control, they will have no vehicles. The towers can also be destroyed, as of patch 3.0.8 when the towers are destroyed not only does it transfer their buff to the defending team but when all 3 towers fall the attackers lose 10 minutes off the time they have to take the keep.

If the attackers have breached the inner keep, you need to fall back as that's all that matters. It is then just a fight to keep them off it. If you see someone trying to capture it, hit them, and damage will break their attempt. AoEs are extremely useful. You must keep them off until the time expires to win the battle.

Team balance and tenacity

Being a world PvP zone, it is possible to have grossly unbalanced teams in a Wintergrasp match. This is addressed by granting the smaller team a buff called Tenacity. The greater the difference in the number of players, the more stacks of Tenacity the smaller team gets. Tenacity also applies to vehicles the team controls. However vehicles only get a health increase with tenacity not a damage bonus.

If you have Tenacity, use it to your advantage; you and your vehicles are more powerful than normal. Acting as basic infantry and attacking enemy vehicles will lead to it being destroyed very quickly. Deploying siege engines while your team has Tenacity will allow you to batter walls down quickly.

If you are facing a team with Tenacity, you want to avoid direct conflict with enemy players when possible. Use your numbers to your advantage and focus fire; it will take multiple people to take enemy players and vehicles out.

As of 14 March 2009, "Only players level 70 or higher can count towards the tenacity tally or obtain the tenacity buff and get credit for victory or defeat. In addition, only players level 50 or higher will be able to use the portal to Wintergrasp."^[3]

Wintergrasp and PvE

Control of Wintergrasp affects non-PvP play as well.

Instances and raids

When a faction controls Wintergrasp, bosses in Northrend will drop a [Stone Keeper's Shard] for that faction only. These are used to buy certain PvP gear and Jewelcrafting recipes. The controlling faction will also have access to a raid instance, the Vault of Archavon, within the fortress of Wintergrasp. Like other raid instances, the vault is available in both normal and heroic versions.

Crafting resources

Wintergrasp has the regular mineral nodes and herbs found in Northrend, but is also a prime source of crystallized elements. Elementals of all types can be found in Wintergrasp, which have a chance of dropping their respective crystallized element. More powerful elemental Revenants exist that have a guaranteed droprate of 1 element and as many as 3 elements per mob. Revenants are visible only to the side that is currently in control of Wintergrasp.

Mob name	Element
Chilled Earth Elemental	[Crystallized Earth]
Earthbound Revenant	[Crystallized Earth]
Flame Revenant	[Crystallized Fire]
Raging Flame	[Crystallized Fire]
Glacial Spirit	[Crystallized Water]
Water Revenant	[Crystallized Water]
Shadow Revenant	[Crystallized Shadow]
Wandering Shadow	[Crystallized Shadow]
Tempest Revenant	[Crystallized Air]
Whispering Wind	[Crystallized Air]
Living Lasher	[Crystallized Life]