Isle of Conquest




 * An island somewhere off the shores of Northrend. A rock, hardly worth a second look. A test of strength. A chance to prove your might, to crush your enemies, to make a difference, a chance for endless glory and conquest.

Will you seize it?

Overview
The Isle of Conquest (IoC for short) is a 80-person (40 per team) battleground. Introduced with Patch 3.2.0, it is available only to characters in the 75-79, 80-84, and 85 level range.

Primary Objectives
Like Alterac Valley, this battleground can be won either by defeating the opposing general, or through attrition (loss of reinforcements).

Secondary Objectives
There are 5 separate capturable locations, each of which provides a separate benefit to the side that holds it. Capture of an objective is a simple channeled, interruptable effect.




 * The Refinery: Located on the northwestern end of the island, this smudge in the Frozen Sea produces enough black gold to run a thousand siege engines. Taking this resource gives 15% siege weapon increase, garners precious reinforcements and a continuous flow of honor to the side that controls it.


 * The Quarry: This snow-covered assembly, located on the southeastern end of the island, hides untapped supplies that must be harvested. Taking this resource grants 15% siege increase, and a continuous flow of reinforcements and honor to the side that controls it.


 * The Docks: The western shore's docks will further expand your selection of siege weapons with the devastating new Glaive Thrower and the Catapult. Unleash the destruction of the Glaive Thrower upon the walls of the keep with its incredible range, or launch your invading party over the walls to assault the keep from within. It's worth noting the the Horde can place Glaive Throwers on a peninsula to the West of the Alliance castle and hit their Western gate out of range of the defending cannons.


 * The Hangar: This sturdy steel structure stands on the peak of Mt. Conquest overlooking the eastern side of the island, allowing players to board the airship docked there. This devastating weapon of war is capable of raining death upon the heads of your enemies and destroying enemy defenses. Once onboard the airship, players will find it comes equipped with parachutes enabling a strike team to drop into the enemy keep from above.


 * The Workshop: Situated right between the Alliance base and the Horde base, this siege workshop occupies a strategic hot spot. Seizing it grants the controlling party the ability to utilize an arsenal of siege vehicles perfectly suited to reducing the enemy keep's walls to dust and ashes.


 * Graveyards: There are five graveyards in the Isle of Conquest that are attached to different points of interest on the map: the Horde base, the Alliance base, an oil spill island in the center of the map (attached to the siege workshop), the Airship Hanger, and the Docks.
 * Two additional graveyards of last resort, used only when a faction does not have full control of any of the five primary graveyards, can be found on the northeast and southwest corners of the map, for the Horde and Alliance respectively. These two graveyards cannot be captured by the opposing faction.

Activities
At each location, there are things that can be done to benefit one's side.

Refinery and Quarry
These locations simply add a passive bonus to the strength of the siege forces of the side that holds them. Controlling them also supplies that side bonus honor, just for having them. Controlling them is the limit of what can be done there.

Docks
As noted above, control of the docks causes Glaive Throwers and Catapults accessible to your side to spawn.

Glaive Throwers
Glaive Throwers in Isle of Conquest are largely anti-personnel weapons. They only have a driver's seat. They have two attacks available: a direct (single target) attack that does a fair amount of damage, and a channeled area effect burst.

While their direct attack can be used against individual targets (at range) or against keep gates, it is their area effect attack that provides their signature benefit. Their range combined with their area effect attack make them highly suited to clearing the keep towers of defenders, or for causing havoc among clusters of combatants. Like most siege engines, they are much less maneuverable than individual players, and are susceptible to close-in assaults.

There are three achievements involving the use (or destruction) of Glaive Throwers.

Catapults
Catapults in Isle of Conquest are vastly different from those seen elsewhere, as they have no direct offensive function. Instead, they serve as a means of entry into the enemy keep.

They have two options: First, an ability that allows them to get into position swiftly, greatly increasing the vehicle's speed, and giving it stealth. And second, an ability like the Salvaged Demolisher in Ulduar, to hurl (in this case) the driver to a point aimed at. This allows entry into the opposing keep without having brought any gates down.

Two achievements directly involve catapults (one for driving, one for destroying), and a further achievement (entry into the keep before gates are open) can be gained using one.

Workshop
Like the Docks, the Workshop provides two types of vehicle. It also allows access to Seaforium Bombs.

Demolishers
Soon after capturing the Workshop, four demolishers spawn. These siege engines operate much like the Wintergrasp Demolisher, in that they have a fireball (fiery boulder) ranged attack, and a 'melee' ram attack. Additionally, they have room for two passengers, who are protected by the Demolisher and may attack, but have no vehicle-granted abilities.

Both of the Demolisher's attacks do siege damage, with the ram doing about 30% more than the boulder. The hurled boulder, though, has the advantages of range, and does damage in a 10 yard radius. It is highly suited to most offensive roles, but is most often seen doing siege damage to the enemy keep's gates.

Siege Engines
After holding the workshop for 3 minutes, the Siege Engine will be repaired. (If destroyed, a new one will spawn in 3 more minutes.) The Isle of Conquest Siege Engine has the most active positions of any current World of Warcraft siege vehicle:


 * Driver
 * Controls navigation. Controls the Ram (like the Demolisher, but 30% stronger), and can activate Steam Rush (similar to the Ulduar Salvaged Siege Engine).


 * Main turret gunner
 * Controls the main cannon, which deals a lot of siege damage, but only about the same amount of damage to players.
 * Can also activate a Steam Blast (a point-blank Area of Effect attack), both knocking them back and doing a good amount of damage, but at the cost of the turret's Steam Power generation.


 * Two side turret gunners
 * Controls that side's turret, allowing both a cone attack (Flame Turret) and a ranged attack (Napalm).

The siege engine can do massive siege damage if it can get into range of the target. However, it can also be overwhelmed if swarmed by defenders, particularly those able to deal damage at range. It may excel at defense, though, with numerous AoE attacks and no pesky tower guns striking it.

Seaforium Bombs
Seaforium Bombs are used exclusively to cause damage to the opposing keep's gates. A player may carry only one at a time. As in Strand of the Ancients, these devices must be placed (a short channeled effect), then defended until they detonate (10 seconds later). Enemies may disarm bombs that have been placed, again, by a channeled effect.

Once placed, the bomb disappears from inventory and a new one must be acquired. The bomb is also dropped upon death.

Three achievements involve bombs in this battleground. The Seaforium Bombs and the Huge Seaforium Bombs (see below) are considered separately for the respective achievements.

Hangar
The hangar is the location of the airships for each side. The airships represent a sizable advantage for the side that has them. Once a side has control of the Hangar, two portals become accessible, allowing members of that faction to teleport to the deck of the airship. The airship is on an automated course, circling the enemy keep and returning to the hangar. The portals operate so long as the hangar is controlled, even if the ship is currently on the far side of the enemy keep.

Airship Cannon
There are several Airship cannons mounted on the airship. These cannons do AoE damage both to players and gates. While the strength of the guns is not great, it does damage comparable to the hurled boulder of the demolishers without the vulnerability of that siege engine. While the airship is not always within range of the enemy keep, there are usually enough targets available to keep the operator busy.

Paratroops
All people on the airship are granted the parachute ability. The parachute deploys once you leap off the airship, and lasts until you land ... on something. With only modest amounts of practice, one can parachute into the opposing keep's courtyard without waiting for the gates to fall.

You are also able to cast and attack players as you are falling down.

The Keeps
The Horde and Alliance keeps sit at opposite ends of the island. You are, yes, playing for Keeps. Your own, your enemy's.  Your keep is where your general is.

Keep gates
Each of the keeps has three gates. The defenders have portals at each gate allowing travel to the other side. The attackers must do siege damage to destroy these gates in order to gain admission to the keep. (Other means exist: The airship, and the catapults.)

Keep tower guns
Each keep has two towers, one on either forward corner of the keep. Each tower has three easily accessible guns.

Each tower gun has two powers: Rocket Blast, which deals a hefty whack to everything within 8 yards of the target location. And Incendiary Rocket, which has a smaller area, but deals damage over a period of 15 seconds with a 30 second cooldown.

Keep tower guns are useful against both attacking siege engines and attacking players. They are, though, subject to attack themselves. When destroyed, players can repair them through a fairly short channeled effort. Note that enterprising players may land on the keep towers and attack the guns directly, much to the distress of the gunners.

Control of the keep
A flag towards the back of the keep courtyard signals access to the keep's general. Capture of this flag is handled like that for the other objectives.

Huge Seaforium Bombs
Much like the Seaforium Bombs from the Workshop, ... but larger, and closer to the gates. Like those other bombs, they can be planted, and will do siege damage to the gate unless they are disarmed. You use them against your enemy's gates from the inside, or disarm the ones the enemy tries using against you.

Generals
...

Politics

 * Welcome to the Isle of Conquest.

The Isle of Conquest is a point of strategic importance for the Alliance and Horde campaigns in Northrend. Serving as an ideal staging ground for operations in Icecrown, each side is determined to secure control of the island. With the 7th Legion and the Kor'kron Guard locked in deadly combat, both factions have issued a call to arms in hopes of tipping the scales in their favor and defeating the opposing general.

The ongoing struggle between Horde and Alliance has turned many once peaceful (and some not-so peaceful) places into theaters of constant war. The Isle of Conquest is the latest such place, set to be the location of a battle of epic proportions over the island's precious resources.

An Alliance and a Horde General are fighting for dominance, overseeing the action from the safety of their keeps. Whichever side manages to eliminate the enemy general first will triumph on the island; failure to protect your leader will bring shame, dishonor, and defeat. There is no peace accord here, and it's an all-out war between the factions.

The Isle's specific location is of Northwest of Sholazar Basin and West of Onslaught Harbour, you can see both barely with your view distance maxed out on the respective sides of the island.

Patches and hotfixes