The Battle for Wintergrasp has always been a highlight in World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King. But in Classic, it will play out very differently.
When players think back to their WoW days in Wrath of the Lich King, many a PvP veteran remembers the Battle for Wintergrasp – often simply referred to as “Wintergrasp”. It was a massive PvP spectacle in the open world, where one faction had to capture a fortress held by the other faction. The winner gained access to special vendors, unique mobs with great loot, and even a small raid that could drop both PvE and PvP gear.
However, with Wrath of the Lich King Classic, this PvP experience will be significantly altered. The developers admit: We just can’t get it better.
What was said? In a lengthy blog post, the developers of Wrath of the Lich King Classic explain that the Battle for Wintergrasp will differ significantly from what veterans remember from the “real” WotLK era. There are a whole number of reasons for that.
- On one hand, there are many more characters on a realm in WoW Classic than there were at the time of WotLK – the realms have a much larger capacity.
- On the other hand, there is often a significant imbalance between factions, with many more Horde characters than Alliance heroes.
The consequence would be that many players may not be able to participate in the Battle for Wintergrasp and would never experience this content, or that the battles are so overcrowded that hundreds of players on one side fight against a dozen on the other side. Neither of these are very bright prospects.
What will change about Wintergrasp? Wintergrasp will become an instanced battleground with WotLK Classic, available only at specific times. Unlike, for example, Alterac Valley, the match will start even if not enough players sign up for both sides. This means that it can happen that 40 players land on one side, while only 5 characters are present on the other side.
However, Blizzard also wants to reintroduce the buff “Tenacity” that should ensure more balance and was an important element at that time. If, for instance, 40 Horde players face only 5 Alliance players, then the Alliance champions receive a powerful Tenacity buff. This massively increases their stats – depending on how significant the imbalance is. Thus, individual players can become small raid bosses and control several players at once. This makes even unbalanced matches at least interesting.
If a character from your faction wins the Battle for Wintergrasp, then all characters of the faction receive the buff “Essence of Wintergrasp”. This buff lasts until the start of the next battle period and grants access to the elemental enemies as well as the vendor for Shards of the Stonekeeper and the raid Archavon’s Chamber.
How can one participate in the battle? There are several ways. Every 3 hours, the Battle for Wintergrasp is announced. Whoever is in Dalaran at that time will see a zone-wide message. After that, you can go to a temporarily available NPC and sign up for the battle.
Players who are already in the area of Wintergrasp at that time receive a direct invitation to queue up. You can, therefore, similar to back then, wait for the battle “on site” – or in Dalaran.
Blizzard is disappointed in itself
The developers know that the change won’t please everyone. They also emphasize that they themselves are dissatisfied with not having found a better solution – but that this is the best way to create a Wintergrasp that is as close to the original as possible, while still meeting the demands of Classic. They say:
As we weighed the various alternatives like unacceptable performance, an experience with limited access that would exclude most players, an instanced experience, or a complete redesign of Wintergrasp, we found that instancing was the change that would do the least “damage” and give the largest number of players access.
[…]
We would like to emphasize again how sorry we are that we have not found a solution to implement the original version of the Battle for Wintergrasp in its original form in WoW Classic. We were disappointed ourselves, but we find it more important to be able to offer an experience that is as close as possible to the look and feel of the original Battle for Wintergrasp.
What do you think about these changes to Wintergrasp? Can you live with them, or do you even find the changes good? Or does that mean it’s “just not WotLK” anymore?
Something else will change: Naxxramas will be significantly harder!
