Now that you've familiarized yourselves with the zone and Wintergrasp gameplay, it's time to look at the strategies used in order to win. As you can probably guess, the strategies for offense and defense are somewhat different. Playing defense, you must play for the full 40 minutes in order to win while playing offense, you want to finish the game as quickly as possible. If the timer hits ten minutes and offense hasn't broken down the doors to the inner sanctum, it's in trouble.click buy wow gold, buy cheapest wow gold now!

Just like other Battlegrounds, organization goes a long way. Unlike other Battlegrounds, however, you won't automatically be grouped into a raid, so a lot of the time players will be looking to join a group when the battles start. As long as you know what you're supposed to do, you should be fine, though. The good thing about the zone is that the map will show you where battles are and where vehicle movement is taking place, so even if you're going solo, you'll have an idea of where to head for some action.

Gallery: Wintergrasp Gameplay

Offense
Generally, an unorganized offense will have an easier time winning the game against an unorganized defense. It's just the way the game is built. Offense is designed to have a slight advantage in order to have the zone change control frequently. This is why Patch 3.0.8 will introduce a buff called Tower Control, which grants the offense a 15% damage increase as long as the three towers in the South remain intact.

If you took the erratic now-you-see-it-now-you-don't portal from Dalaran, you should zone in the West landing camp if you're Horde, and in the East landing camp if you're Alliance. Otherwise, you can fly in. In the first battle after a faction has had control of Wintergrasp for one period, the East and West workshops will begin under the control of defense. One of the first things to do is to take control of a workshop -- this works exactly like controlling a tower in Eye of the Storm -- so make your way to one so that control shifts over to your faction once the battle begins. If a faction has had control of Wintergrasp for too long, the battle will start with the East and West workshops under control of the offense.

Once you've taken control of either the East or West workshop, preferrably both, you should go out and kill members of the opposing faction to rank up. You can also rank up from the continuously spawing NPCs throughout the map. In Patch 3.0.8, it takes five kills to move from Recruit to Corporal, and another ten kills to rank up from Corporal to First Lieutenant. If you've got rank, pick up a vehicle and start making your way to the fortress.

If you are ranged DPS, you have one of the most important responsibilities in offense: take out turrets. Fortress cannons are the most potent defense Wintergrasp Fortress has, and they will make short work of your siege vehicles even before they get to the wals. This makes it imperative to destroy the cannons, something only ranged DPS can do. Coordinate with your raid or faction to find out which side they are attacking. Destroying all the cannons on one side makes the fortress extremely vulnerable, I can't stress the importance of destroying turrets.

When using siege vehicles, always move as a group, especially if you're only piloting a Catapult. Players will easily destroy a vehicle as they're simply not as well equipped to deal with personnel. A Catapult's Flame Breath deals good damage against players, but players can very easily outmaneuver the vehicle. Moving as a group will also allow you to concentrate fire on one spot, which is critical because offense is running on a timer.

If you are solo, the best vehicle option is the Demolisher. It has a long range siege attack as well as a battering ram, either of which can be spammed while the other is on cooldown. It also moves relatively fast and thus can get to the fortress sooner. Unless you have a gunner, do not pick up a siege tank. Half of your vehicle will be useless, you will be moving too slowly, and you will be extremely susceptible to player assault.

Offense is rather straightforward unless the defense mounts a counteroffensive, in which case it's important to maintain control of the workshops and defend workshops and towers. If you have no vehicle, protect your faction's. Ride or run alongside one to keep them intact until they get to the walls or gates.

Once you've broken through the fortress walls, some players on vehicles should take the time to destroy the workshops inside Wintergrasp Fortress. It counts towards the Achievement Industrial Warfare, which only counts if you're piloting the vehicle. It will also curb the defense's ability to produce siege vehicles, which will help your side a lot. If the main doors of Wintergrasp Keep are broken through, all efforts must be focused at getting into the room. Riding vehicles into the room is a good strategy because players cannot be targeted while inside a vehicle.

Inside the keep, tagging the Titan Relic shouldn't be a problem. If the door is broken down with ten minutes or so to spare, it's game over for defense. In the ensuing chaos, it should be easy enough to capture. Defense will be spamming AoEs and crowd control in the room because at that point, they're just buying time.
Defense
Unlike offense, there's nothing straightforward about defense at all. With the objective being the protection of the Titan Relic for the full forty minutes, staying holed up inside Wintergrasp Fortress is a recipe for disaster. While there are thick walls and long range cannons, it's not going to be enough to push back a concentrated offense. Here, the old adage of the best defense is a good offense applies perfectly. In fact, it is the most effective way to win on Defense. As usual, organization is key. But if you're ungrouped, it's good to know what you must do, anyway.

Before the battle, players will be porting to the front of Wintergrasp Keep. If you check the map above, you'll see that most Horde offense will be coming from the West and most of the Alliance offense will be coming from the East, so adjust accordingly. It's always good to send out a regiment to either workshop to prevent the offense from taking control of it.

Man your turrets. Turrets are the most powerful weapons at your disposal because of their extremely long range and high damage. Defense with fully-manned turrets will make short work of siege vehicles even before they get to Wintergrasp Fortress, or at least soften them up significantly for players on foot to destroy. Conversely, players must protect their turrets. Kill the ranged DPS first and let the turrets handle the vehicles. A turret firing at a vehicle will kill a vehicle before the vehicle kills the turret every time. The difference-maker are the personnel.

Again, it's important to head out to mount a counter-offensive. This is the most devastating way to deal with an offense -- destroy their siege workshops. The Eastspark and Westspark Workshops are permanently under offense control, so they should be absolute priority. At the beginning of the game, get Rank and send a fast-striking team of 2-3 Catapults to destroy the workshops. If Eastspark and Westspark Workshops are destroyed, the offense's only recourse is to take control of East or West Workshops. If they are unable to do this, it's game over.

Understand that only siege vehicles may damage the Fortress walls. If offense has no access to siege vehicles, the game is done, and it's just a matter of winding down the clock. Putting offense on the defensive will disrupt their efforts and buy you time. The ideal result is to stymie their vehicle production completely, but slowing them up enough to delay their Fortress penetration should be worth the effort.

While it will extremely difficult to stop a coordinated assault, particularly a group on Ventrilo, effort must be made to disrupt them. A coordinated offense can win the game in less than ten minutes, unlocking the currently buggy Within Our Grasp Achievement. The only way to stop them is to block off their vehicle supply at the source, initally the West or East. This where numbers come into play. If they have more, they will simply wrest control.

If the inner fortress walls have been breached, it's important to fall back into the inner courtyard and take out vehicles before they reach the Fortress Keep Door. Vehicles must take priority. In order of importance, players must take out Demolishers first because of their range, Siege Tanks next because of their heft -- and the only way they'll damage the doors is if they're at close range, and Catapults last because they deal the least siege damage and are easy to destroy.

If offense manages to break through the main doors with ten around ten minutes to spare, it's essentially over. The best thing defense can do is mass inside the Titan Relic's room and madly spam AoEs and tab-select targets in order to damage them. It's not important to focus fire on anyone at this point, but damage as many opponents as possible to break channeling. If the inner sanctum's doors are intact with five minutes left, good job. There's a big chance you'll retain control of Wintergrasp.

General tips
Here are a few tips to keep in mind while playing Wintergrasp, whether you're on offense or defense:

If you have Rank and you're not maxed out on vehicles, get a siege vehicle. The more vehicles your side has, the better its chances.
If you're solo, get a Demolisher. It has the best range for siege damage and doesn't require a gunner. If you've maxed out your vehicles, get on one or ride alongside one to protect it. Abuse Tenacity. If you have Tenacity, use it to your advantage by picking off stragglers and solo or few players. Just the same, don't try to take on too many players, because you can still be stunned, feared, or otherwise crowd controlled. Destroy towers if you have the luxury of time. Damaging and destroying towers gives bonus Honor. Pick up an RP-GG. They have extremely long range, even if wildly inaccurate. It helps deal damage before the enemy gets close. Destroy workshops. Aside from getting the Industrial Warfare Achievement, it's an immensely strategic move that can turn the tide of a battle. Protect your vehicles. If you see another player target one of your own vehicles, kill him. Vehicles go down faster to players than other vehicles. Prioritize vehicles. If you see an enemy vehicle, go after it, even if it means enemy players will get free hits on you. Vehicles can't repair themselves -- and Mechanical Repair Kits are simply too low-level to make any difference -- so each hit you make on a siege vehicle is worth more than a hit on a player who will be healed or rezz soon after. In my opinion, Wintergrasp is one of the best features of Wrath. It's fun, it takes little time, and is friendly even if you're not a fan of PvP. Check it out if you haven't, hopefully armed with a bit of knowledge on how to play. And knowing is half the battle.
and always make sure that you join or make a raid group
I'd like to see an upgrade to that there Mechanical Repair Kit for use in siege vehicles. It was disappointing to find out that a Personal Electromagnetic Pulse Generator (engie belt 'enchant'/tinker that AoE stuns mechanical mobs) is ineffective against siege vehicles (you're told it is 'Immune' upon use), so perhaps they'll make up for that little disappointment with a small self-heal ability.

Better yet, why not diversify? Restrict the repair kit to Gnomish engineers, and give the Goblins a scope-like device which permanently improves a siege vehicle's damage done, lasting until it's destroyed or the match ends.

BoP? Requires Engineering rank XXX to use? I'm not sure how to balance this, but hopefully the damage/healing done by either of these devices would be offset by the material cost to create them. Make it a fun option, rather than a tide-turning knick-knack. I won't be holding my breath for this, though.