City Invasions: The War for the Capitals

The War Guide

The shape of a war

An invasion overruns the zone around a capital city and the war has two active phases:

• ✦The Siege. For 5 days the invaders hold the zone outside the gates. Reduce their army strength from 100% to 0% and strike down their warboss 5 times (he returns every 6 hours) before the clock runs out to defend the city.
• ✦The Fall. Fail, and the invaders pour through the gates, as dangerous inside the city as they were outside it. The city then remains fallen with no time limit. Every converted invader and the Commander appears once and never respawns; kill them all to restore the city.

Each eligible invader kill weakens the army. The effort needed adjusts with real players currently online across the realm: about 2,800 kills for one player, 6,400 for ten, and a gentle rise toward 10,000 for large populations. Player-controlled alts can still help their owner fight, but neither they nor random bots increase the target. Earned progress stays fixed when players join or leave; only future kills adjust. Personal contribution still counts your eligible kills.

Contribution: earn your share

• ✦Striking the warboss is still worth it: your first warboss strike of the war arms a one-time bonus that raises your gold and honor payout by 50%.
• ✦Rewards are earned, never handed out: once the war is decided, claim yours from the Invasion Herald within 7 days.
• ✦The Invasion Herald stands in the center of Dalaran, neutral ground for both banners, and reads out the live state of the war.

War spoils

The payout scales with how the war ended. A clean defense pays in full; clearing a city after it falls pays half:

• ✦A defended city pays 100%: 2,500 gold, 20 [Demon Hearts], 20 [Emblems of Frost], 50,000 honor and 1 [Invasion Warseal].
• ✦A city cleared after falling pays 50% of the gold, hearts, emblems and honor. The Warseal is always a full seal at either reward tier.
• ✦The warboss bonus applies to gold and honor only: at full tier that is 3,750 gold and 75,000 honor.
• ✦Normal invaders carry 8–12 gold and make three independent rolls: 50% for one stack of Northrend raw materials, an absolute 10% for 1 Emblem of Triumph, and 20% for a random epic (item level up to 232). Rare lieutenants share the coin, Triumph and epic rolls, but do not carry material stacks.
• ✦When the Triumph roll succeeds, every eligible party member within normal reward range automatically receives exactly 1 emblem. Full bags leave that player's copy on the original corpse. Server drop-rate boosts and Hardmode magic find do not increase this fixed 10% chance.
• ✦Warbosses carry 5,000 gold for the group to share, exactly 2 custom item level 277 set pieces randomly selected from shoulders and gloves (both can be the same slot), and an absolute 1% chance at a mighty mammoth mount. Every nearby credited player also receives 2 Emblems of Frost by mail.

The Warseal economy

• ✦The Herald's quartermaster sells every Wrathful Gladiator (item level 277) armor piece for 1 Warseal plus 68,200 honor. This is the only place Wrathful armor is sold.
• ✦Not a PvP collector? The Herald exchanges 1 Warseal for 10 Demon Hearts instead.

Surviving the war zone

• ✦Graveyards are no-camp pockets: invaders keep their distance, so you will never be farmed at your own corpse.
• ✦A Refugee Courier lands in a besieged faction's starting zone, ready to fly new arrivals to a safer refuge while the fighting lasts.
• ✦The realm's wandering bot residents flee an invaded zone: this war belongs to the players. Your own party bots still fight at your side as usual.
• ✦Follow the war from anywhere: the home page shows the next invasion countdown, and once fighting starts, the live phase, siege army strength or fallen-city invaders, and Commander progress.