Warsong Gulch

Warsong Gulch is a battleground nestled in the southern region of Ashenvale forest. It is located near the area where Grom Hellscream and his Orcs chopped away huge swaths of forest during the events of the Third War. Despite disagreements from Thrall and the shamans, some orcs have remained in the vicinity, continuing their deforestation to fuel the Horde's expansion. They call themselves the Warsong Outriders.

The Night elves, who have begun a massive push to retake the forests of Ashenvale, are now focusing their attention on ridding their land of the Outriders once and for all. And so, the Silverwing Sentinels have answered the call and sworn that they will not rest until every last Orc is defeated and cast out of Warsong Gulch.



Getting there
The Alliance entrance is located in Silverwing Grove, southwest of Silverwing Outpost and Fallen Sky Lake in Ashenvale Forest. The Silverwing Outpost is near the junction of the main road through Ashenvale and the road south to The Barrens. Be very careful if you are below level 20; in the area around the Silverwing Grove are many spiders with strong venom.

Instead of traveling to the actual entrance, you can be transported to the battleground by talking to the Battlemasters in the cities of Stormwind (Stormwind Keep), Darnassus (Warrior's Terrace), the Exodar (Vault of Lights) or Ironforge (Military Ward).

The Horde entrance is on the mountainside to the west of Mor'shan Base Camp at the northern end of The Barrens. Or talk to the Battlemasters in Orgrimmar (Valley of Honor), Thunder Bluff (Hunter's Rise), Silvermoon (Farstriders' Square) and Undercity (Sylvanas' chambers).

Both factions will also find Battlemasters in Shattrath City.

Overview
Warsong Gulch is a multiple instance zone hosting a Capture the Flag style match for 10 on 10 level bracketed PvP action. Each side needs at least 5 players or the game will end after 5 minutes.

The brackets are currently (as of Burning Crusade):
 * 10–19
 * 20–29
 * 30–39
 * 40–49
 * 50–59
 * 60–69
 * 70

There can be multiple instances for a particular bracket if there are enough level appropriate participants for a given level bracket.

Resurrection in Warsong Gulch functions as normal, but if your insignia is taken you can only be resurrected at your local graveyard by an NPC who casts a resurrection every 30 seconds. As of 1.9.2 you do not have to click anything. You are put in the "resurrection wave". Hunters and Warlocks will have their current or most recent pet resurrected as well, even if that pet was not alive at the time of the player's death or if the pet has not been summoned since entering the battleground.

Mechanics
Here are the specific game mechanics related to WSG:
 * Capture requires that both flags be in the same flag spot at the same time.
 * If your flag is out on the field, you cannot complete a capture of the opponents flag.
 * Killing the flag carrier causes it to drop on the ground.
 * A capturing team member can pick it up again and keep running.
 * An owning team member can click on it and it instantly teleports home.
 * The flag can be carried while shapeshifted (cat, travel, ghost wolf)
 * Summoning a mount or stealth drops the flag. Picking up the flag breaks stealth.
 * Paladins casting their "bubbles" cause the flag to be dropped.
 * Using the boots speed power-up does not cause the flag to be dropped.
 * Since Patch 2.3, if you drop the flag you are unable to personally pick it up again for 3 seconds.

Tactics
In Warsong Gulch, it is often useful to form a raid party and separate the group into parties based on offense or defense. These tasks may be further subdivided into inside defense, outside defense, scouts, enemy base patrol, and flag capture. The key to victory is often communication with the other players in your faction. By communicating, your teammates will have the edge and be able to anticipate your enemies' position and movements. It is useful to know, for example, if the opposing faction has characters camped at your graveyard. When allocating parties within a raid group, attention should be focused on not only the classes and abilities of the players involved, but also their levels. For example, it is foolish to send in some level 22 characters when you know that the enemy flag is guarded by multiple level 29s. It is important to keep in mind abilities that can root or snare a player, as well as speed enhancements, and the ability to successfully get away from a group. As in any PvP situation, the key ability to develop with your character is the ability to adapt.


 * You are much more helpful in Battlegrounds when you are at the higher levels of your bracket. If you're playing in a 20–29 Battleground you will do much better as a level 29 than a level 20-27 because you will be much stronger, have more powerful spells, and stronger, higher leveled weapons with more DPS. You will also notice the other faction attacks you depending on your level because a level 29 will know a player two or more levels below them is an easy fast kill and takes only a few hits.

Power-Ups
There are three types of power-ups found in Warsong Gulch. To use them, simply walk up to one. They will respawn after a short period of time.
 * [[Image:BerserkingPowerUp.jpg]] Berserking - Increases all damage caused by 30%, all damage taken by 10% and increases your size by 10%. Lasts 1 min.
 * [[Image:RestorationPowerUp.jpg]] Restoration - Restores 10% of your health and mana every second for 10 seconds. Attacking or being attacked will cancel the effect.
 * [[Image:SpeedPowerUp.jpg]] Speed - Increases movement speed by 100% for 10 seconds.

Honor Rewards
The game awards bonus honor to everyone on your side of the match for reaching certain goals. Those goals are: Honor for lower level matches scales down from the amounts given. Other scored events do not grant bonus honor. These include: killing blows, picking up the opponent's flag, and returning your flag to your base. Honor is awarded for honorable kills as normal.
 * capturing the opponent's flag rewards 40 honor (at level 60)
 * winning the match rewards 20 honor (at level 60)

Winning a complete match (3 captures and the win bonus) gives you 140 honor (at level 60). It also awards you 3 marks of honor. These marks are used to purchase certain items under the new honor system.

Losing a complete match (0 captures and a loss) gives you no bonus honor. The only honor you will accumulate will come from honorable kills. You will receive 1 mark of honor at the end of a loss, so you can still collect some for honor purchases. However, a careless attitude about losing a match is generally frowned on, and considering that a winning match grants three marks and the substantial honour bonus, winning matches allows for accumulating honor points and marks much more rapidly.

During the Warsong Gulch Battlegrounds Holiday, you will earn double reputation bonus for each flag captured on your team. The winning team will earn an additional 100 bonus honor (at level 60) for completing the match, in addition to the usual 20 bonus. The losing team will earn 60 bonus honor at the end of the match. Thus a 3–0 match will award a total of 240 bonus honor to the winners, and 60 honor to the losers during the holiday.

Reputation

 * Flag Capture - 35 reputation for entire team (10 extra reputation on a Battlegrounds Holiday for a total of 45).

New Faction Reward System
Warsong Gulch items are now available by spending honor accumulated and a varying amount of Warsong Gulch Mark of Honor with Kelm Hargunth. Though some of the Sentinel and Outrider factions items have different names and artwork, their bonuses and equip effects are identical. More powerful versions of some items can be purchased as you gain levels, allowing higher level players to receive faction rewards with better equipment bonuses. However, the exalted epic quality bracer rewards are only available from level 40, and the epic quality leggings are only available at level 60.

Old Faction Rewards
Prior to patch 2.01, you had to improve your reputation with the Warsong Gulch faction to be eligible for rewards. See Old Warsong Gulch rewards for details.

Useful Terminology
During the course of playing, you may hear the following frequently used acronyms and term(s) used by players to give out directions:
 * fr: Flag Room
 * fc: Flag Carrier
 * efc: Enemy Flag Carrier
 * inc: Incoming
 * gy: Graveyard (the area or in the proximity of the area in which players re-spawn after death)
 * roof: Refers to the area above the respective flag rooms, accessed via the side exit in each tunnel
 * Twink