World of Warcraft’s 15th anniversary is now in full swing, with events aplenty for players to dig into. On top of the LFR-styled ‘Memory’ Raids, which cover famous bosses from Warcraft’s first three expansions, Alterac Valley has returned! Based on the original build of the famous Epic 40-Man Battleground, Korrak’s Revenge is a seasonal brawl available through January 7th 2019. With no reinforcements, evolving NPC assaults and a ton of rewards scattered throughout, this is a densely packed holiday event. This week we’ll be peeling apart the particulars and set out a path to maximize your rewards!
The Alterac Valley of olde is infamous amongst Vanilla Purists and regular community goers for how long its matches were. Some took several days due to the deadlocks players would face on the battleground. Due to the variety of scaling in Korrak’s Revenge, however, most matches take roughly as much time as a regular Alterac Valley; up towards several hours long. Accessible from level 60, Korrak’s Revenge is a fantastic way to power level your characters with the anniversary experience buff.
The main draw, however, is the two limited time mounts. Featuring updated versions of the classic Alterac Valley faction mounts, the Frostwolf Snarler and the Stormpike Battle are completely remastered mounts. Featuring higher resolution textures and updated rigging based on newer model skeletons, these are two VERY excellent mounts. Rewarded from the achievement ‘Alterac Valley of Olde’ you’ll need to earn 200 Timewarped Badges while playing in Korrak’s Revenge. This currency can be used elsewhere in conjunction with Timewalking events, and this provides the best opportunity to grind quite a bit for rep tokens, mounts or toys.
"Raised in the Alterac Mountains and trained to bite dwarves."
At first glance, Alterac Valley of Olde may seem easy to complete. Most players will pick up the breadcrumb quest, “Soldier of Time,” which rewards 400 Timewarped Badges for gaining 500 honor inside the Battleground. While this is an easy, and recommended, quest to complete none of these badges will contribute to your total. Instead, you’ll need to rely on the quests in Korrak’s Revenge.
The biggest thing to regularly perform will be COMPLETING the battleground itself. Currently, in the EU, zerging towers and the Alterac Generals has fallen back into the popular meta-strategy. Thankfully, this results in quicker games more often, and simply falls to whichever team can complete strategies quicker. In order to kill Drek’thar or Vandarr Stormpike, you’ll need to burn down every bunker and tower on your way to the enemy team’s base. Each has a nearly 3 minute cap timer, in which you’ll need to defend your claim until it is destroyed. Capturing graveyards along the way is essential to your team’s reinforcement and rewspawning. Winning a match in Korrak’s Revenge will net you 20 Timewarped Badges, while a loss will net you 10.
While most matches may go quickly there are still an incredible host of quests to perform, most of which are daily. A number are not, however, and work as breadcrumb or introductory quests. Korrak the Bloodrager and The Legend of Korrak will see players facing off against the chieftain of the Winterax Trolls. In an effort to control the Field of Strife, the Alliance and Horde will send players to slay this Champion and claim his territory for the respective faction.
Other one-time quests will see you assisting third parties in the Valley. Master Ryson’s All Seeing Eye is given to players by members of the Syndacite, the criminal survivors of the fallen Human Kingdom. Stolen by the Winterax trolls, the object of the same name has been taken deep into their territory. It will require players to group up to fight the elite creatures and push through to the Orb itself. The first faction to push into the caves and save Master Engineer Zinfizzlex will unlock his quest. Zinfizzlex’s Portable Shredder Unit will reward a portable killing vehicle for use in the Valley during the event, and all he requires are some (legally) acquired materials. Each quest will reward 10 Timewarped badges.
There are also a multitude of repeatable daily quests. Each will give 10 Timewarped Badges for your first turn-in every day, while some which include resource deposits will give an additional 2 badges every turn in. Most of the daily quests will involve capturing objectives, such as personally claiming a graveyard, capturing a tower or claiming a mine for a faction. Resources, such as armor scraps or crystals, can be collected off of the bodies of slain enemies and turned into NPCs at your home base. Once daily you can also collect resources from each mine and turn them in for 10 Timewarped Badges.
Not popularly mentioned is a quest that is given at your faction’s stable master. Awarding 2 Badges for each turn in, you must capture an Alterac Ram or Frost Wolf for your respective faction. This is a repeatable quest up until the stables are full, which takes some 20-30 turn-ins. If you join a match late, and your team is already zerging to the enemy base, this can be a great way to quickly collect a few extra badges. Just beware of preying Druids and Rogues!
[caption id="attachment_337914" align="aligncenter" width="560"] "I seem to be a little out of sorts today..."[/caption]
Once you are done waging war inside the Valley, there are still more rewards OUTSIDE. At the world queuing locatins for Alterac Valley, some of the older vendors have crossed into an odd aspect of time. At each entrance in the Alterac Mountains, Jorek Ironside and Thanthaldis Snowgleam have both become displaced in the time ways and are offering unique and old items. Costing both Marks of Honor and Timewarped badges, these two vendors will not only be offering some of the regular fare, but also several removed appearances that have not been seen in-game since before Cataclysm. Some are unique to specific armor types, such as mail and cloth, and must be purchased on characters of that armor class to unlock and save the appearance. Others will require you to kill Korrak before they can be unlocked for purchase. These removed items will only be available while Korrak’s Revenge is ongoing, and on January 7th they’ll be once more gone forever!