Blizzard's Latest World PvP Offering

As covered in our first impressions, Lake Wintergrasp is the newest offering from Blizzard to the World PvP enthusiasts, and its reply to Warhammer Online's mechanics with a fully controllable zone that resets every 2 hours (as of last version). So what makes Wintergrasp more appealing than the last few implementations of World PvP such as the Plaguelands, Silithus, Terokkar, Hellfire Peninsula and Nagrand? Well, let's take a look!

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Lake Wintergrasp's Map

PvP-Only No-Fly Zone

Wintergrasp is set in the middle of Northrend, east of the Scholazar Basin, North of the Dragonblight, and West from the Crystalsong Forest. In this zone, you will immediately be dismounted if you are using your flying mount to pass through the zone. This is to avoid people just mounting up and flying into Wintergrasp Keep to capture it, or defend it easily.

For starters, once you enter this zone, you WILL be flagged for PvP combat! If you're in a PvE server, be careful while flying around Wintergrasp to avoid an accidental flagging. Once you engage your enemy and get your first honorable kill, you will obtain the lowest rank there is in the zone, provided the zone is "active" and there's attacking or defending to be done.

What do I mean by "active"? No, it's not that the zone can also become passive, it will always be focused on PvP and quite active due to all the things to do here, but simply put, every 30 minutes to 1 hour you will be given the chance to start advancing ranks in your own faction's efforts, from Private, to Corporal, to First Lieutenant (highest rank). With higher rank, you're able to mount up on new siege weapons and either attack or defend your faction's objectives. In addition, you will gain honor bonuses the higher rank you are. Sadly, you will lose your rank every reset, so nothing is permanent in this battle.

PvP Ranks and their Perks

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Wintergrasp Catapults are useful in the early battle.

The PvP Ranks and their related vehicles as of the last build are as follows:

  • Private: Catapult (1-man vehicle)
  • Corporal: Siege Engine, Demolisher (2+ players)
  • First Lieutenant: Goblin Shredder, Flying Machines
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Storming into the Alliance-Based Wintergrasp Keep

That's right, you read it right - flying machines! you may fly afterall if you put enough time into the battle, and may use it as a bomber (2 people) or a single flying machine. Now, let's just hope they're not as flimsy as the ones in Warcraft III!

Objectives

Alright, so you've come to Wintergrasp and are wondering what to do? Simple, get to killing the opposite faction, and make sure you either storm the Wintergrasp Fortress with the aid of Siege Weaponry, or defend it from invaders with your turrets and better positioning while the time runs out.

You have many weapons at your disposal, but one man will not win this battle - this will be all about teamwork, so get a good group together and try your best to control graveyards, positions, and cripple the enemy before they claim victory in this new PvP environment!

You got your PvE in my PvP!

Great news! Lake Wintergrasp is also a major zone for PvE achievers for many reasons, and you will want to control this zone as frequently as possible over the other faction. Why? simple, very simple, there's:

  • A unique raid boss inside the Keep for the Faction controlling Wintergrasp
  • A lot of elementals to kill for resources around in the area, more than in any other place of Northrend
  • A Northrend-wide buff like the Terokkar one so you may obtain Shards from bosses in every instance to turn-in for additional loot.
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Horde Victory after reaching the inside!

Let's go over them one by one in further detail.

- Wintergrasp Raid Boss. In his 10 and 25-man versions, he drops armor and items equalling Season '5' gear, but without the hassle of PvPing for it! It's a free bag of loot for those able to bring down baddies with their guild or simply with a well-organized group. (Last build, he wasn't that challenging of a boss.) You may face him by zoning into Wintergrasp Fortress and going down to the Titan's Vault to fight him.

- Elementals. Similar to the Elemental Plateau, this zone will have the highest amount of elemental monsters for those aiming to amass riches with their minerals. A lot of shinies here for those brave enough to have some PvP on the side of their farming! Be careful however, monsters are level 77 or above, so you will still find them a challenge in numbers.

- Shards of Wintergrasp. This buff will be highly contested! Let's see what it does currently:

Experience gain, Extra Honor, Acquisition of Shards from bosses in Northrend Instances. What's there not to like? If you have spare time, head on over and help your faction control Wintergrasp to enjoy these buffs over the rest!

Questing

Yes, you guessed it. Even here, there are quests with PvP-based objectives. Anywhere from collecting drops from enemy players to killing enemy players by the numbers, these quests will give you both gold, experience, and tokens to turn-in for powerups and equipment, should you amass enough. Needless to say, you will be quite busy in this zone! There are little to no quests involving PvE content, however, so you may safely skip this zone if your aim is to PvE to get your levels up.

Rewards

By winning the Battle for Wintergrasp, you are awarded 2000 Honor Points and some Arena Points as of last build, along with some Wintergrasp Marks for the usual turn-in at the PvP vendors. Worthy of mentioning here is a special account-only item that grants 2000 honor you may buy, a one-time use Heirloom of Sorts called Wintergrasp Commendation. Pretty cool, huh?

Stay tuned for more coverage on Wrath of the Lich King's PvP here at TenTonHammer!


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Last Updated: Mar 13, 2016

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