Wintergrasp defense / offense on unbalanced realms
by Adam Holisky 
Dec 17th 2009 at 1:00PM
The faction hording of Wintergrasp happens particularly often on unbalanced realms. Because the faction imbalance can be so extreme in some cases, the smaller population faction has virtually no chance at winning back the Wintergrasp fortress and obtaining the heirlooms and PvP items, nor any chance at accessing the VoA bosses. This can cause frustration on the part of players in the smaller faction.
In this mechanic, which we presume is live, Wintergrasp zone mechanics will make it easier for the offense to gain access to siege vehicles if the opposing faction holds Wintergrasp more often. Blizzard is not specifying how long the opposing faction must defend Wintergrasp for the the offense to receive these significant buffs, but one can assume there is some sort of threshold.
The full Blizzard statement after the break.
From Bornakk:
We wanted to address some of the confusion we often see regarding the Battle for Wintergrasp. We will not provide exact details on how the system works to try and avoid abuse of the mechanics, but there is a system in place that can change how the battle plays out.
When one faction defends more than the other, the system will give advantages like the ability to use catapults or siege tanks faster to the faction that is on the offensive. On realms where one faction is often able to defend the fortress and the other faction rarely defends, the system tries to help this balance by providing bonuses to the faction that rarely succeeds at defending.
Filed under: Patches, News items, PvP
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 6)
Jonnie Law Dec 17th 2009 1:03PM
this has been in place for a long time and what everyone has been mistaken for "haxxorz."
MechChef Dec 17th 2009 1:09PM
Yeah, that's why every now and again, ally can win it back on my server. Instant tanks, and increasing tenacity will eventually hand it over to them. And that's the same reason why they can never defend/hold it. When the balance is reset, they just get plowed.
Alanid Dec 17th 2009 1:49PM
I see this often on my server as the alliance to horde ratio is 3:1. Sometimes we are barely 5 mins into a game and they already have siege engines and we're like "WTF? This is gonna be difficult" but even then it's 50:50 on who wins depending on whether the allys have all the noobs playing on that particular match.
Something I often tell people is that both factions have the same amount of good and decent pvp'ers, but because the alliance has 3 times the population of the horde on my server we also have all the noobs.
Domina Dec 17th 2009 3:30PM
We may be from the same server (Antonidas) with the 3:1 Ally to Horde ratio...
The insta-sieges are the fault of the defenders in our case. When you run out en masse to the horde spawn point at the very start, and they have 20 stacks of tenacity, you get facerolled in about 5 seconds and bingo, instant sieges.
If you have the numerical advantage, stay in the keep for as long as possible. You'll prevent them from picking up sieges longer. At least, you *would have* before this change...
tkc Dec 17th 2009 3:31PM
I thought it had been in place for a while too. I'm alliance on my realm and it is overwhelmingly alliance. Usually, on defense, alliance can win a few times. By the third or fourth time the horde just roll right over us. I'm talking 2-3 minute battles.
QQinsider Dec 18th 2009 7:04AM
Agreed, has been there for ages. I have seen the Horde on my server have 16 siege engines within a minute of WG starting.
Andrew R. Dec 17th 2009 1:05PM
Sadly someone will find a way to exploit whatever mechanic Blizzard puts in place. On the flip side this is a welcome addition for the unbalanced realms. I play Alliance on my main but an alt on a different realm is horde and they control WG almost every time it's up for grabs. This will make things more challenging for the ones defending too.
I'm all for helping out the underdog....or fellow achievement junkie that can never get into VOA.
GrumblyStuff Dec 17th 2009 3:29PM
Yeah, I can see it now. If, for instance, it takes five wins in a row to kick in, we'll just lose the fifth! Er, wait. Ok, say I'm on the ass end of a 14:1 ass kicking in WG. If I just lose five matches in a row, we'll win the sixth auto..matic..ly....
Hrm.
Actually, I think it'd be hard to game. :P
Saltypoison Dec 17th 2009 1:05PM
Hmm, it will be interesting to see if this makes a difference. There is definitely an imbalance on my server, and its to the point where Alliance just hops in at the end of the battle to get the mark. The only time we actually have WG is Tuesday nights, when a few of the prominent PvE guilds go and do their VoA for the week. The rest of the week it belongs to the Horde.
Ginby Dec 17th 2009 1:08PM
This isn't something new, they're just clarifying that is has always been in place...
Jack Miles Dec 17th 2009 1:08PM
Our server horde hold it for far more than half the time, but I think the numbers are actually only 6:4... Yeah.... We suck
Pyromelter Dec 17th 2009 1:14PM
On my server, horde has it a lot more than alliance, but oftentimes horde dominates alliance when the alliance is at tenacity = 0.
Draw your own conclusions. :)
Manadar Dec 17th 2009 5:09PM
I've never had Tenacity since I play horde on Magtheridon. It's crazy now, but when there was no limits in WG the alliance had ridiculous amount of HP and a DoT from a warlock meant death.
artifex Dec 18th 2009 1:32AM
During a regular week, it seems all the "advanced" players will be wanting to run VOAs as fast as possible. So they're out in force on Tuesdays through maybe Thursdays to win WG, and also get the weekly quests done. After that, there's a lot more people who couldn't get into those earlier runs.
I have to say, after running Isle a couple of times for my 50 kills in Winter Veil, that place seems to rack up honor more quickly, over time.
catharsis80 Dec 17th 2009 1:08PM
The commenting system here has always been sub-par. This is yet a new low.
Cannon_mount Dec 17th 2009 1:15PM
But, will they do anything about the opposing players that log in after battle starts on top of the towers and then proceed to shoot the tower gun? After that hop along the walls to shoot out other defenses? Then there is the trick of logging after battle starts inside the tower and taking out cannons with 5 stacks of tenacity.
It just get tiresome.
Ringo Flinthammer Dec 17th 2009 1:23PM
It would be trivial to warp away everyone of the opposite faction as the battle starts and to have the effect in place for 30 seconds or something, just to stop the cheesing.
Slog Dec 17th 2009 2:16PM
Wouldn't this be possible without "logging"in after battle? Just use your flying mount to position yourself prior to the start of the battle. I do it often enough myself, why else are they letting us fly around there now?
Pyromelter Dec 17th 2009 1:13PM
Don't know if anyone noticed, but yesterdays shifting perspectives druid column had a bug where there were two different comment pages, so some of the earlier comments were not seen by later readers of the column. Pretty sad when the older comment system was far superior to the current one.
Fallacy Dec 17th 2009 1:13PM
Good news! I hope that they keep refining and tweaking it so that the disparity goes away.
The first time Horde successfully defended, I was ecstatic. Then when we had a string of successful defenses, I was amazed. Then when I realized that successful defenses by the Horde on my server had become a matter of coarse, it lost something meaningful.
Triumphing over a difficult challenge is fun. Even *failing* in an evenly-matched fight is fun. Getting together with a bunch of other muscle-bound thugs to repeatedly beat down a 98lb weakling loses it's entertainment factor pretty quickly.