Blizzard hints at hidden Wintergrasp bonuses  | read this item

I know this system has been in place for a while now, they’ve actually hinted at it before a couple of times. This is actually the first time a Blizzard employee has actually started a thread on the topic. Judging from the amount of ‘wha?’ going on in the thread, its pretty obvious that there are still many people that aren’t aware of this particular mechanic. So, I’ll give you the gist of it.

When Blizzard first talked about Wintergrasp at BlizzCon ‘08, they knew the biggest question on peoples’ mind was “What if I’m seriously outnumbered?”. The answer to that was the Tenacity we all know and love. A buff recalculated at intervals that culminates in a buff to health, healing, and damage. Presumably, this would allow a single player to take on many opponents (or a multiboxer taking on an entire team) when their own team is seriously outnumbered. There are people on both the giving and receiving end of the buff that will point out the flaws and argue whether or not it even works as intended. However, Blizzard has only hinted at a far less quantitative buff that is in place in case a faction seriously “outmatches” another.

No matter how much Tenacity you have, a bad execution of the battle can still result in a failure to achieve victory.  There are certainly many right paths to victory and many wrong paths as well.  Of course, the ultimate goal at Blizzard is that everyone should be able to see content.  Deserving or not so much.  However, if you lose a lot, Blizzard is there to give you a helping hand.

When a faction has been losing repeatedly, a hidden buff is in place that increases the rate at which rank is received.  What this means is that the same number of Alliance would reward you with more ranking.  At the extreme low end of this, you probably wouldn’t even notice its there.  However, its the extreme highend that has gotten some reaction from the players.  You either know its there and understand how it works, or you dont know its there and are left scratching your head over how your dirty, cheating opponents are now rolling sieges against you after 30 seconds.  At the extreme high-end, one kill, just one, be it player, guard, npc, or cannon (yes they count) would result in an instant boost to the highest ranking available.

Just remember, those sieges rollin’ down your throat within the first minute of battle aren’t hackers, just losers… er… players who lose a lot.

Bornakk explains it all… kinda -

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.

The original Blizzard post – http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=21971498555&sid=1