Blizzard has posted a new information page for Wintergrasp, Wrath of the Lich King鈥檚 first open-world PvP siege warfare zone.
The objective of Wintergrasp is simple: storm the ancient titan fortress at the zone's northern edge. Attackers will have to mount an intense assault to overcome the fortress's thick walls and the point defenses that dot the towers guarding the inner keep. The defenders, on the other hand, need to rely on siege-breaking vehicles, defensive turrets, and excellent teamwork to retain ground control and prevent the attackers from breaching the keep's walls.
Check out the page for information on vehicles, factories, walls, turrets, towers, PvP flagging, graveyards and more. Or you can just keep reading after the jump for the full article.
Wintergrasp, one of the newly added regions of Northrend, will introduce a whole new kind of open-world PvP to World of Warcraft. Setting itself apart from previous world PvP objectives such as Halaa or the spirit towers of Terokkar Forest, Wintergrasp is designed to engage players across the whole region in intense PvP warfare on an unprecedented scale.
The objective of Wintergrasp is simple: storm the ancient titan fortress at the zone's northern edge. Attackers will have to mount an intense assault to overcome the fortress's thick walls and the point defenses that dot the towers guarding the inner keep. The defenders, on the other hand, need to rely on siege-breaking vehicles, defensive turrets, and excellent teamwork to retain ground control and prevent the attackers from breaching the keep's walls.
Many of Wintergrasp's buildings are destructible, meaning that siege vehicles such as catapults can damage and eventually destroy them. Each destructible structure has a certain amount of "health"; once depleted, the structure will crumble, either allowing passage or ceasing production. Attackers will only be able to gain entrance by breaching one of the keep's walls, and so clever use of the siege vehicles is the key to taking Wintergrasp.
Both offense and defense have access to workshops that can produce vehicles specially designed to help the two sides accomplish their objectives (see the sidebar for more information about the vehicles of Wintergrasp). Each side has a limited number of vehicle slots. Every vehicle that is brought to the field takes up one slot, but not every player will immediately have access to all vehicles. In order to be able to commission and operate a vehicle, players have to be of a certain rank. Rank is a measurement of the player's contribution to the current battle. As a player earns rank, he or she gains access to more powerful vehicles. However, rank is reset after each battle.
The battle for Wintergrasp has a set time limit of 45 minutes, within which the attackers must capture the keep. If either the keep falls or the time limit expires, Wintergrasp will enter a two and a half hour cooldown period in order to allow attackers and defenders to regroup, lick their wounds, and prepare for the next round. During this brief ceasefire, the keep will be repaired, and the winning faction will be able to enjoy the benefits of controlling Wintergrasp.
The first perk for the winning faction is a zone-wide buff that increases that faction's damage output by a certain percentage. Because Wintergrasp is the main source of high-level elemental materials, this damage buff will make it easier to collect these precious resources. Control of Wintergrasp also gives players the ability to collect stone keeper's shards from the dungeon bosses of Northrend, and the shards can be traded in for powerful weapons and armor. Last, but certainly not least, there are rumors of an ancient titan vault beneath the keep. One can only marvel at the thought of what treasures may be waiting there...
Notes on Wintergrasp
No tag for this post.Vehicles: Making the most out of your vehicles is the key to victory, whether you're attacking or defending. As an attacker, you'll want to take down the towers, walls, and finally the keep's gate. As the defender, you'll want to destroy the bridges, the enemy workshops, and, of course, the enemy vehicles.
Factories: Each side has a number of factories that can deploy vehicles. However, there are only a limited number of vehicle slots per side, so choose wisely. Factories can be destroyed, and each lost factory decreases the available vehicle slots. Make sure to keep an eye on these buildings at all times!
Walls: The keep is surrounded by thick walls, but these walls can be attacked and destroyed. For the attackers, the question is whether to concentrate all firepower on one wall section (and risk a direct counter-assault by the defenders) or to spread out the attack (and risk having the timer run out). For the defenders, the challenge is to keep an eye on the walls' weakest points and prepare added safeguards that will keep the attackers at bay.
Turrets: Thankfully the keep is not entirely without defenses. Mounted atop the walls and other strategic locations are a number of turrets that can lay waste to unwary attackers. Watch out for turrets, and try to stay clear of them unless absolutely necessary. Turrets should be made a primary target once the assault on the walls begins.
Towers: During the siege of Wintergrasp, the defenders should consider mounting an assault of their own. For each of the attacking team's towers that they manage to destroy, the defenders will be rewarded with bonus honor. A good offense is a great defense, indeed!
PvP Flagging: Once you enter Wintergrasp, you will automatically flagged for PvP, even on a PvE realm. If you do not wish to engage in PvP combat, either wait for the relatively quiet cooldown period to begin, or stay out of the zone entirely.
Graveyards: The graveyards in Wintergrasp work exactly like the battleground graveyards.