This guide to the Strand of the Ancients is the result of numerous players yelling: “omg how do u play dis?” and “i dont get it, halp plz”. It is also a result of me running around like a headless chicken the very first time I found myself a way into this new battleground. Basically, what I’m trying to do here is creating a complete overview of the goals of the game, and how to reach them. Any input is welcome, because I think this guide is terribly incomplete.

Some notes:

1. Flaming will not be replied to.
2. Also, flaming of the battleground itself should not be here (I totally love it).
3. This guide isn’t finished yet. I’d love any input you can give me.
4. English isn’t my first language, so please be kind towards any dumb mistakes I might’ve made.

EDIT (2-8-09): fixed numerous typos and added some info, mainly a bit about strategies. Also corrected some data.


Introduction:

Strand of the Ancients (SotA for short) is the new battleground in the Wrath of the Lich King expansion. It is apparently located on the southern coast of Dragonblight, but for some reason the coast in this battleground is facing north, not south. In this place, the Warsong Offensive (Horde) and the Valiance Expedition (Alliance) take turns in besieging each others base to capture the relic of the ancients. The battleground is played 15 vs 15, and requires a minimum of 10 players on each side.

This little guide is completely based on my own experience, which is about three days at the time I write this, and on the WoWwiki article, which seems unupdated since the Beta. So, with that said, please note that anything written here may be completely false.


Layout

Use this map: http://img246.imageshack.us/my.php?image=sotamapbi5.jpg

What this is, is an as complete map as possible, displaying every object of interest. Individual objects will be covered in the other parts of this guide.

1 Left landing spot, Seaforium Charges, first two tanks.
2 Right landing spot, Seaforium Charges, first two tanks.
3 First graveyard (spawn).
4 Green Gate (of the Green Emerald), with two turrets and a teleporter.
5 Blue Gate (of the Blue Sapphire), with two turrets and a teleporter.
6 Left (Green) workshop, Seaforium Charges, spawn point of tanks, left graveyard spawn point.
7 Right (Blue) workshop, Seaforium Charges, spawn point of tanks, right graveyard spawn point.
8 Left graveyard (flag).
9 Right graveyard (flag).
10 Purple Gate (of the Purple Amethyst), with two turrets and a teleporter.
11 Red Gate (of the Red Sun), with two turrets and a teleporter.
12 Southern graveyard (flag).
13 Southern graveyard (spawn).
14 Yellow Gate (of the Yellow Moon), with two turrets and a teleporter.
15 Sanctuary graveyard (spawn).
16 Keep Gate.
17 Relic.


Winning the game

It appears there is some confusion on how to actually win a game, other than beating Alliance into a pulp. Let me explain. Say there are two teams: Team A and Team B. Team A starts with attacking, team B starts defending.

Now there are two possibilities. Either Team A does manage to capture the relic, or they don’t. If they do capture it in, say, eight minutes out of the ten they have, then Team B will have to capture it in eight minutes or less. If team A doesn’t capture the relic, team B will have the full ten minutes to capture it.

A team wins by capturing the relic faster than the opposing team. So if Team B captures the relic in six minutes, they win. If they cannot capture it in eight minutes, the timer runs out and Team A wins. If Team A didn’t manage it within ten minutes, and Team B doesn’t either, it’s a draw, and each team will get one mark.

So in the end it gets down to this: capture the relic in less time than the opposing team needs to to the same. If your team is good at defending, you will have more time to attack, and if your team is good in the offense, it doesn’t really matter if the enemy captures the relic fast.


Attacking (General)

The attacking team will start on two ships that will land on the Strand in about one minute from the start. From my experience, the first team to attack has always been the Alliance, though this may be coincidental. (EDIT: after reading some on the forums, I came to believe this is a bug, and it will probably be fixed soon) The ships will land in one of the two docks, visible on the map as the two boats off shore. When you land, two tanks on each side will be immediately available for you. It is recommended to take them, as they are by far the easiest method of breaching the gates. Speaking about gates, you should now see one about a hundred yards in front of you. Watch out for the turrets, and storm it. You will probably encounter some defenders, who will most likely go for the tanks. Make sure they don’t. For the rest of this round, follow the path south, destroying gates and capping the graveyards as you go, until you get to the relic. Destroying the relic makes you win the round. I’m not sure about this, but I believe you capture/destroy the relic by standing in the room for a few seconds. But keep shooting around anyway.

Attacking (Tips)

You can see on which side of the beach you are going to land by looking for the arrows of your teammates on the minimap: are they right of you, then you’re going to land left, and vice versa.

When you move your second tank, the one on the land instead of on the dock, be careful! You are one yard out of the range of the first turret. Sadly, he’s out of your range too, so you’ll have to get hit sometime. It’s just something to be aware of, especially when there are lots of defenders around the tanks.

At the start, you have two tanks per gate. Make sure at least one survives, because the second spawn point probably won’t be available right away when you reach the second gate. You get that spawn point by capturing the flag that is about halfway in between the first and second gate. The tank spawn points are a little back.

If you are in the tank on the beach, wait for the one on the dock before going into the line of sight of the turrets. That way they’ll have to split damage and you might be able to get two tanks through.

If you breached the first gate very fast and moved on instantly, there is a good chance that the turrets on the second gate are not manned yet. That’s one free gate for you.

When you destroy a gate, be sure to kill the turrets! They can’t defend themselves at short range, so either you’ll kill it and then you’ll kill the player, or the player has to jump out, leaving the gate practically unguarded. Two players should be enough for this, and you can protect your tanks from getting shot before they reach the front that way. Note that as soon as the enemy has passed the gates, you should be moving on as well, but even after a gate falls, you'll probably have something left to shoot at. It all depends on the situation.

Though about five people can breach a gate, some people favour the strategy of destroying one gate with the entire team fast, and then rush to the keep. If you coordinate the attack this can work, but you’ll have to drive a long way with your other tanks. It is advisable to at least let a few people harass the other gate. They’ll breach it eventually, which will give you more options later on.


Defending (General)

Defenders start at the southern graveyard, from which they can jump down, skipping a gate. You’ll want to be fast, because your team has one minute got get in position before your enemy arrives. It is mandatory that you meet the enemy team as early as possible. Your goal is to keep them away from the relic as long as possible, with the limit set at ten minutes. When that occurs, you’ve won the round.

First thing to do as a defender is: make sure all turrets on the northernmost gates are manned. Players who aren’t needed at the turrets should jump down and await the enemy at their tanks. You’ll be outnumbered, but the turrets will back you up, and if you can destroy both tanks, the enemy will have a hard time getting any further.

When they breach the gate, keep nailing them with the turrets until they pass behind it. Then, fall back to the graveyard, defending the flag. Your second row of turrets should also be manned as soon as possible, because they will have a clear range over the battlefield. Keep an eye on tanks passing the first gates, destroy them before they can open fire at your gate. When this gate is breached, fall back to the last one and repeat.

Defending (Tips)

If you’re in the outermost turret of the first gates, you should be spamming you fire button, because the enemy will be in range almost immediately. Lay down a cover for your ground fighters, so they can have at the tanks.

You should ALWAYS try to keep as much ground as possible, with the sole purpose of keeping the tanks away from the gates. Without tanks, gates will stand a very long time. Intercept tanks at the gates the enemy has already breached, so you’ll have some time to destroy them.

In the latter half of the game, you have only one gate left to defend. This may look good, but beware that the enemy will come from two sides. Games have been lost because people weren’t watching one side of the gate and let a tank get through.

Gates (General)

The key to this battleground, gates take about 15 hits of a tank to be fully destroyed. You can see the hit points of a gate by holding your mouse over it and looking in the bottom right corner of your screen. Seaforium Charges also work against gates, though they aren’t used much.

Gates (Tips)

Below each gate will be a teleporter, only useable by the defending team. You have to right-click it to work, and it’ll port you to the ramp leading to the turrets, at the other side of the gate. You’ll get a debuff so that you cannot use the teleporter again for 30 seconds.

Gates are a magnificent opportunity to use your AoE skills. Position the melee in the gate, slowing the enemy, get them healed, and target you AoE’s so that they cover the entire entrance. This will make a nice death trap, just like in the good old Alterac Valley.


Graveyards (General)

The graveyard flags are important, and once captured by the attacking team, they can not be recaptured. Except for a new spawn point for themselves, the attackers will also gain a tank spawn point in the workshop a little back.

Graveyards (Tips)

The spawn points of the graveyards are far away from the actual flags, in the direction of the beach. This is a good thing for defenders, since you will be able to intercept enemies who go for the flag.

The middle two graveyards are right next to the workshops. Look for tanks and stack on seaforium every time you resurrect.

There are two graveyards that don’t have a flag: one in the Inner Sanctum (in between the keep and the yellow gate), and the one on the beach. There are always held by respectively the defenders and the attackers.


Tanks (General)

Tanks are the trump card of the attackers. In the lvl 71-79 bracket they have 50000 hit points (80000 on lvl80), and their cannon hits for 2-3k, on a two second cooldown. Their range is slightly less that that of the turrets. Their melee attack hits for 1.5k, but is slightly hard to aim, and is on a four second cooldown. The tanks move at normal running speed. The tanks can be mounted by a driver, and can carry another two passengers. The passengers can use their abilities and can be targeted individually; the driver can’t do any of those things.


Tank Usage Pointers and the Passenger Role (Tank Tips)

Some hints on how to use tanks and what you should be doing if you’re in the passenger seat.


Tank drivers should take these tips into account.

First of all, it should never be a tank's job to take out turrets. The one and only focus of a tank is breaking those gates.

Do not drive over small hills if you’re trying to kill a gate. It will screw your accuracy very badly, like by 30 degrees.

The melee stomp is only any good against gates, you have to rely on players to kill anyone attacking your tank. Players on foot should do this, always.

One last thing; whatever you do while driving those tanks, never ride on top of other tanks. It allows the defence to hit the both of you at the same time, significantly reducing the time you get to nuke walls.


The following should be taken into account if you climb on a tank’s passenger seat.

The tank driver should be someone who will not be able to fight well, either because of his spec or gear, or because he isn’t good at PvP. Ranged classes such as Hunters, Mages and Warlocks and of course healers, if any, should jump in the passenger seats. They will practically have an extra 50000 hit points, because people will go for the tanks first in almost any case. They can deal damage with ranged attacks, and should aim for priority targets, aka players who attack the tanks.

Casters should take advantage of the fact that they can now move while casting spells and that they never get pushback while casting. Also, drivers should consider their passengers’ range and not drive the tank away so the passengers cannot fire at the enemy.

One thing that you should be aware of is that you move half as slow as you could while on a tank, crippling the offense. Mounting a tank is mostly a defensive measure. Melee should never do this anyway, because you will cripple your damage severely.


(With thanks to Auroman, Moonglade, and Numeanor, Kazzak)


Turrets (General)

Turrets, or antipersonnel cannons, defend the gates. They are basically the siege weapons of the defenders, have 25000 hit points in the 71-79 bracket (60000 on lvl80), and deal about 2k damage per shot, on a two second cooldown. They are unmoveable, and can rotate 180 degrees in front of the gate. You can not be targeted when controlling a turret. The gate of the Keep does not have turrets.

Turrets (Tips)

You get the best range with these by making a 45 degree angle with the ground. If you go higher, your range will decrease.

You can not kill players or tanks that are directly below you, so let the other turret keep an eye on you, and you on him.

Turrets can be targeted and killed from the ground by ranged classes. Melees have to wait until the gate drops and then climb the ramps on each side of it. Subtlety rogues and feral druids (?) can jump to the turrets.


Seaforium Charges

These spawn in stacks at the docks and the workshops, for the attackers to use. You can only carry one charge at a time. They can damage gates and players, and especially against the gates they are quite effective. Once planted, the bomb will appear on the ground, and will detonate after ten seconds. Defenders can defuse these bombs by clicking them. On death, an unused bomb will be dropped, and can be picked up by any attacker.


Strategies:

While at first I had planned not to add a segment for strategies (because strategies may vary and have different outcomes for different players), I’ve decided to list the most common ways of assaulting this battleground. These strategies will mostly apply to the attacking team. Defenders need to improvise a lot.

Fifty-fifty split:
This means that as soon as your team lands, the two tanks stay at the side they are and start attacking the closest gate.
Advantages: your team will not lose any time by reorganising the force, since the players are evenly split over the boats. You will also have access to both workshops and graveyards early in the battle.
Disadvantages: you will need to take down more gates before your full force can assault the yellow gate. Also, it is likely that the defenders are evenly split over the sides as well; making the chances that you will be superior in numbers smaller.

All on one gate:
This means that as soon as you land, all four of your tanks and all of your teammates assault a single gate. You should, of course, have decided which gate before the battle starts.
Advantages: Since you now effectively have twice as many tanks, the gates should fall down much faster and the tanks should last longer. You can find yourself before the yellow gate in one or two minutes. Also, if the defending team split up evenly over the gates, you will not only have a superior force, but also render half of the defending forces useless.
Disadvantages: If the defending team is quick to adapt, you may find yourself pinned in a bottleneck. Also, if your zerg should fail for some reason, the other gate will still be up, making it much harder to acquire additional tanks. Lastly, you will likely have missed the other graveyard and workshop. If you need and expect to win soon, this strategy is best.

3 – 1 split:
This strategy follows much the same lines as the above ‘All on one gate’, but in this case you also send a single tank to the gate you did not attack for harassment and distraction. The purpose of this is to avoid that the defending team concentrate all their efforts on a single gate as well. However, the success rates of the single tank are small.

All on one and then split up:
This is yet again a variation on the ‘All on one’ strategy. Since the first gates are often the hardest to breach, the attacking team concentrates on a single one, but when it’s down, they split up to benefit from additional tanks. In addition, the second gate at the side you didn’t zerg it likely to be undefended. The downside of this strategy is that your forces might be too decimated to take both the second gates.


TL;DR version:
I don’t do those, since anyone who is too lazy to read five pages deserves to be ignorant.

First and voted for sticky

To say English isn't your first language, it's written very well.

Thanks! <3

Edit: I suggest [b]olding some of the subheadings? Would give it a better format.

This may actual have been worth your time if the players you target would bother to read the forum . Those on the forum i reckon they are no more than what 1000 ? players, while the game has what, 11 million players ?

Good for you, for taking the time to write this, but as any other guide here on the forum, its impact on the game will practically be nonexistent .

Anyway , you took the time to make a guide for players who are interested in bettering them selfs and can not do so on their own , however small their number may be .

/clap

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Q u o t e:
This may actual have been worth your time if the players you target would bother to read the forum . Those on the forum i reckon they are no more than what 1000 ? players, while the game has what, 11 million players ?

Good for you, for taking the time to write this, but as any other guide here on the forum, its impact on the game will practically be nonexistent .

Anyway , you took the time to make a guide for players who are interested in bettering them selfs and can not do so on their own , however small their number may be .

/clap

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You're right, the forums are useless and only 1000 people stay on them, passing the same useless information around because nobody reads, pays attention or understands a thing here.

Thanks for the positive comments! now for the questions..

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Q u o t e:
Edit: I suggest [b]olding some of the subheadings? Would give it a better format.

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I had originally done that when I wrote it in Word, but the forum doesn't like Word, it seems. Editing now.

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Q u o t e:
This may actual have been worth your time if the players you target would bother to read the forum . Those on the forum i reckon they are no more than what 1000 ? players, while the game has what, 11 million players ?

Good for you, for taking the time to write this, but as any other guide here on the forum, its impact on the game will practically be nonexistent .

Anyway , you took the time to make a guide for players who are interested in bettering them selfs and can not do so on their own , however small their number may be .

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This might be true, but, as you say, it might help other people as well. Why I put that phrase there was more to say why I started writing the guide. Plus, I can now redirect people to this guide instead of explaining it over and over :p.

Seems nice, good effort! Will read when I got time.

I would add that destroying the cannons after a gate dies is close to useless the second the gunner leaves them, moreover on the first two pairs of gates. Hardly anyone holds the turret after the tanks pass through. Also I'd add that it should never be a tank's job to take out turrets. The one and only focus of a tank is breaking those gates. Finally I'd recommend ranged classes to use those tanks as moving fortresses for insane nukage. You've got the tank's health added to yours, since they wreck the tank before looking at you, and you never get pushback when casting. Healers can also tilt the scales of any major battle by aggresively healing the other attackers from the safety of a tank.

EDIT: one last thing; whatever the hell you do in those tanks, NEVER ride on top of other tanks. It allows the defense to hit the both of you at the same time, significantly reducing the time you get to nuke walls.

Sticky pleaseeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

The best tactics of attacking is: one weak class (not healer) takes tank to drive it, huters, mages and lock jump on and ofc healer if any on tank. They are mostly protected and they can damage with range. SPeciality is MM hunter on tank = deadly one (can silence, can slow, can drop healing efect to 50%, can do a lot of damage and have long range (if spend talents in it). So healing classes should only heal in attacking and healing all around u. Melee classes (warriors, paladins, rogues, fereal druids) shoul take charges and bring them to gates ASAP! And also some players defend tank to reach range to shot at gate. All ranged attackers on tank should fire at players defending turrets and gates as well.
Also driver should consider hunter range and not drive tank away so hunter cannot fire at enemy.

Good stuff there, I’m editing it in now.

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Q u o t e:
I would add that destroying the cannons after a gate dies is close to useless the second the gunner leaves them, moreover on the first two pairs of gates. Hardly anyone holds the turret after the tanks pass through.

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This is true in theory of course, but I think the turrets can still be usefull if the enermy gets the fighting back to the gate after you destroyed the tanks (as they should). If you’re pinned there, the turrets can be a great pain, but I don’t know if this happens often.

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Q u o t e:
Also I'd add that it should never be a tank's job to take out turrets. The one and only focus of a tank is breaking those gates. Finally I'd recommend ranged classes to use those tanks as moving fortresses for insane nukage. You've got the tank's health added to yours, since they wreck the tank before looking at you, and you never get pushback when casting. Healers can also tilt the scales of any major battle by aggresively healing the other attackers from the safety of a tank.

EDIT: one last thing; whatever the hell you do in those tanks, NEVER ride on top of other tanks. It allows the defense to hit the both of you at the same time, significantly reducing the time you get to nuke walls.

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Very true things, these. Thanks for pointing them out.

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Q u o t e:
The best tactics of attacking is: one weak class (not healer) takes tank to drive it, huters, mages and lock jump on and ofc healer if any on tank. They are mostly protected and they can damage with range. Speciality is MM hunter on tank = deadly one (can silence, can slow, can drop healing efect to 50%, can do a lot of damage and have long range (if spend talents in it). So healing classes should only heal in attacking and healing all around u. Melee classes (warriors, paladins, rogues, fereal druids) should take charges and bring them to gates ASAP! And also some players defend tank to reach range to shot at gate. All ranged attackers on tank should fire at players defending turrets and gates as well.

Also driver should consider hunter range and not drive tank away so hunter cannot fire at enemy.

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Again, thanks for these tips. I don’t know much of fighting around tanks, as I’m usually the one driving it. If it’s OK with you, I can edit this into a more cohesive bit and add it under “Tank Usage Pointers”or something.



One last thing, I’m still not sure if I should add a “tactics” paragraph or not, because One: different persons may favor different tactics and Two: pretty much any tactic will work. I might add it if I can get enough material. Any input is welcome here.

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Q u o t e:
Turrets (Tips)
You can not kill players or tanks that are directly below you, so let the other turret keep an eye on you, and you on him.

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I found that if you aim at the platform your turret is on you CAN shoot at people below you and your platform.

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Q u o t e:
I found that if you aim at the platform your turret is on you CAN shoot at people below you and your platform.

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I've indeed noticed that sometimes the aiming circle will show up on your platform, though I thought this was a bug at the time. I'll try tonight if I can get it there on purpose.

WTB shorten version, like 1 line :<

I'd like to emphasize a point made concerning defence: two people should man a gate as soon as the one in front of it is damaged. I'm getting sick of seeing the Horde plough through the second gate without opposition because people are caught up in pointless skirmishes, or the people closest to the second gate are riding off towards the first.

A good point is its best to focus 1 side then split up.

Ill add one tip I found very useful.

Rogues can Shadowstep a turret regardless of it being manned or not. This little fact enables me to destroy Turrets on the last gate before the keep without anyone noticing it before it's too late. And that last gate is the toughest one to attack.

Thank you.

What is the tactic when you get to gate before the relic and there is a massive zerg waiting for us?

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Q u o t e:
Ill add one tip I found very useful.

Rogues can Shadowstep a turret regardless of it being manned or not. This little fact enables me to destroy Turrets on the last gate before the keep without anyone noticing it before it's too late. And that last gate is the toughest one to attack.

Thank you.

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and get the gys pretty quick..