Strand of the Ancients Strand of the Ancients ( originally called Sands of Ulduran , but sometimes spelled Sands of Alduran ) , is a battleground located off the southern coast of the Dragonblight . It may be synonymous with the Northern Islands , though this is speculation . It was introduced in " Wrath of the Lich King " . This battleground consists of 3 walls which have to be destroyed to continue , capture points and a graveyard after each wall . The overall goal is to be the faster team to break through the last wall and capture the relic inside . Overview . Goal . Strand of the Ancients is played in two rounds , each lasting up to 10 minutes . Each team has a maximum of 15 players ; a team will be assigned to be either the attacking team or the defending team . Attackers prepare for battle split into two boats that approach the northern end of the strand , while defenders spawn at the southern graveyard and should move toward defensive positions . The attacking team lands on the island at the start of the battleground and will use siege weapons to break through the island ' s walls and capture graveyards along the way . After the first team captures the relic , or 10 minutes have elapsed , the factions will switch , so the attacking team will become the defending team and vice versa . It is described as a " scenario " . In patch 3 . 2 . 0 a " coin toss " was implemented for Strand of the Ancients , which randomizes which faction starts on offense and which starts on defense . Prior to this coin toss , the Alliance team always started on offense . Entrance . Players must be at least level 70 to be eligible to join the Strand of the Ancients Battleground . Brackets are 70 - 79 and 80 . As of patch 3 . 1 . 0 , players can enter all battlegrounds via the " Battlegrounds " tab in the " Player vs . Player " window . Before then , players had to interact with a battlemaster to join Strand of the Ancients . Battlemasters are located in all capitals back in Azeroth , Shattrath City in Outland ' s Terokkar Forest and Dalaran in Northrend ' s Crystalsong Forest . There is no known physical entrance at the moment . It is possible that an entrance will be at Moa ' ki Harbor and / or The Forgotten Shore , even though this is very unlikely . As of patch 3 . 1 . 0 , a player may queue up for the Strand of the Ancients anywhere in the world by going to the battlegrounds tab of the Player vs . Player window . They will return to the location they chose to enter the battleground , not the queue , when the game ends . Honor Reward System . Strand of the Ancients items were available by spending honor accumulated and a varying amount of Strand of the Ancients Mark of Honor . Each victory in Strand of the Ancients awards three marks , and a loss awards one mark . If neither side breaches the final gate the game is drawn awarding all participants a single mark . Marks were removed in Patch 3 . 3 . Bonus Honor . Bonus honor is awarded as follows ( level 80 ) : " Attacking Team " " Defending Team " " End of Game " Reputation . The Valiance Expedition is the Alliance faction for the battleground , and the Warsong Offensive is the Horde faction . However , no reputation is earned by competing in this battleground . Tactics . Some common tactics include rushing walls with charges , leaving so many charges at the wall makes it hard to defuse them before they all go off , Vehicle assault with melee defending the demolishers , or a combination of the two . Defenders should make use of the turrets and pick off rushers as they run in . Paladins on a mount with crusader aura make this very difficult , but noticing the rush can save the wall . Also , try to take out demolishers unless a rusher gets your attention ; most of the time , you will be in a lot more trouble against demolishers than a single mage targeting your turret . NOTE : Before Patch 3 . 2 , The Alliance used to always go first , so they get to know their time to capture the relic in the first round ; and so can do high DPS on the second round until the time that the Alliance have captured the relic has passed , letting the Horde get the relic . You generally get slightly less Honor this way , however it speeds up the second round quite a bit . Graveyards . As stated above , graveyards are captured via clicking on them and completing a channeled effect similar to the various capturable points in Arathi Basin and Alterac Valley . On offense , you want to capture the Eastern and Western Graveyards as soon as possible in order to gain the additional demolishers . Some people argue that the Southern Graveyard shouldn ' t be captured until the relic door has been destroyed because doing so makes your team respawn away from tanks and bombs which slows down your team ' s ability to get new tanks back into the fight . However , capturing the Southern Graveyard makes your enemies spawn further away from the Yellow Gate which allows your tanks and bomb carriers to approach the gate unharmed . On Defense , defend your east and west GY ' s with a furor . The turrets on the Red and Purple walls can shoot players that are trying to capture them making it very easy for 1 person to defend a GY . Let the Offense cap the south GY if the walls are still up , it will slow them down . Turrets . Use Turrets to destroy tanks and defend East and West GYs . A tag team of turret operators at a gate can kill a tank before it reaches the wall . The closer the target is to where the rocket lands the more damage it will take . Up to 6000 dmg against a tank and 3000 against a player . Note that the turret projectile has a significant travel time . When taking out a moving target , you must anticipate where it will be in the 1 – 2 seconds it takes for the rocket to explode . When firing on moving demolishers , target the ground about one tank - length in front of it . Demolishers move and turn slowly compared to players , so it is much easier to use the turrets on them . Additionally , enemy players tend to crowd around the demolishers , and will take damage as well . The turrets cannot hit targets beneath them , so a tank that is left or right justified on the wall can only be hit by 1 of the turrets . Tanks . Some people argue that Tanks are the best means of winning this fight . Always capture the Eastern and Western Graveyards to increase tank supply and reduce travel time . Tanks should operate in groups , never go in one at a time . You will get 1 ) Owned 2 ) Yelled At 3 ) Laughed at by opposing team . Tanks spawn two at a time at each workshop , so jump in one and wait for another player to jump in the other before rolling out . A note on tanks : ALWAYS DRIVE THEM TO THE WALL . NEVER USE A TANK TO ATTACK PLAYERS . It ' s pointless to attack players with a tank , just keep the tank moving to the wall and always use the Ram ( 2 button ) and alternate in the Cannon ( 1 button ) . Ram does more damage . While tanks are very effective at breaking through the walls , they are slow and vulnerable . Other players need to provide support for the tanks , by killing or CCing enemy players who are attacking them . Snares and roots are effective at keeping melee away . Ranged classes should take passenger seats on the demolishers and take care of anyone that is attacking the demolisher . Bombs . Seasoned players have discovered that Bombs are the most effective way to destroy walls for several reasons : Seaforium bombs can be found near almost any graveyard . They can be picked up while mounted , and carried while mounted , stealthed or invisible . After resurrecting , always grab a bomb , even if you aren ' t planning on using it immediately . It will come in handy if you make it to a wall . Defenders should be on the lookout for enemies that try to sneak by towards a wall - they are probably carrying seaforium . Strategies . Offensive . The primary goal of the offense is to get through all the gates to the ancient relic in the keep at the end of the battlegrounds . The gates can only be brought down through seaforium charges and demolishers . When you are coming off the beach , take a seaforium charge if you intend on using it on the gate . This comes useful when you ' re going against a defensive group that doesn ' t like to be out further than the gate and therefore wouldn ' t be able to disarm the charge in time . The defense will probably be waiting by the demolisher on the beach ready to attack it and destroy it before you have a chance to use it . Here and all throughout the game you have to make sure that opposing players on foot can ' t damage your demolishers , otherwise they ' ll never make it to the gates they have to knock down . Any players that can do slowing effects and damage from the passenger spots should join the demolishers : The defending team will have two turrets to every gate , and it ' s important that if they are manned that ranged players work to destroy them without placing themselves in danger of getting shot by turrets . It ' s possible that once the gate is down melee players can walk around and attack from there . Capturing the first two graveyards will enable the workshops which allow more demolishers and are a good spot to pick up new seaforium charges . If a Shadowstep or Killing Spree Rogue is on the offensive side , they can use their respective abilities to teleport themselves up behind the turrets and either assault them from there to distract the turret ' s pilot or run past the gate to capture the next graveyard undetected . Capturing the last graveyard will push the defensive side back to spawn in their own courtyard . If you are having trouble getting tanks through because of players on foot destroying them , synchronize your demolishers to move in at the same time so that focus will be divided , or at least be too focused to take out every tank before they hit the final door . Clicking the orb at the end will instantly win the round . Defensive . Strand of the Ancients Defense is unique among battlegrounds in that your team is free to move on the map during the initial countdown to the start of the round . A common mistake by less experienced players is that they stand around at the initial spawn point . The defense " absolutely must " use the time to get in to position to engage the enemy as soon as they land on the beach . Right at the start of the game , you want to have people on the turrets for both the blue and the green gates . The rest of the group goes onto the beach getting ready to greet the incoming offense . Defense should be relatively split between the two landing docks , as the offense will also be split evenly on the incoming boats . The demolishers have to be destroyed as soon as possible to prevent the gates from going down . Therefore , the one demolisher on the beach is often popular to destroy first . Demolishers also take priority to kill over players , unless they were hindering your ability to attack the demolisher . If you can crowd control any players trying to intercept your assault on the demolishers , then do so and continue on the demolisher until it is destroyed . Upon destruction , the driver will dismount and be very vulnerable if caught in a large group that just destroyed the demolisher . Once the first gate is down ( blue or green ) the Eastern and Western graveyards are now open for the enemy to take . As soon as these graveyards are taken , the enemy gets better forward position when resurrecting , and additional demolishers from the adjacent workshop . Though it is still more important to destroy demolishers and keep the enemy from breaking the next gate ( red or purple ) , holding these graveyards will do a lot to hinder the advance . Pay attention to your map as well . Just because you ' re holding off people just fine at the purple gate might not mean the same for red . All active demolishers are visible on the map to all players . A single demolisher that has reached a gate with no one nearby to destroy it will be able to burn through a gate in about 15 seconds . Be prepared to concede that gate and fall back to the next one . If there are demolishers incoming to the yellow gate , you will have to fall back and destroy it before trying to push forward again on defense . Typically , once both red and purple gates are down , the entire defense should fall back to the yellow gate and be prepared to destroy vehicles coming from either side . Watch the map to see where the closest demolisher is , and move towards it as a group . Do not wait for it to get within firing range of the yellow gate , or it will eventually go down . Good teams will send demolishers in groups of two from each vehicle emporium , which makes it more important to intercept them early and burn them down before they reach firing range of the yellow gate . Always watch the map and be ready to mobilize and meet demolishers coming from either side . If the yellow gate goes down , you will have to use it as a chokepoint to prevent players and demolishers from getting past . If your entire group has not moved back and tanks are not going down quick enough before being able to touch the door , you will not have the best chance of lasting the timer . While in the final courtyard , a few players on the offensive side tend to stray off and go west towards a pile of seaforium charges . If they are not intercepted , they will circumvent your group to the door and plant the seaforium charge . A couple people with good crowd control can guard the steps and prevent a seaforuim assault on the final gate . Though , it is best for most of the team to be at the yellow gate chokepoint , to prevent players from ever getting in the courtyard , and to burn down demolishers as quickly as possible . If the door to the keep goes down , do your best to drag out the timer for as long as possible by keeping players out of range of the orb either through snares , disorients , stuns , or knockbacks . Any player on the opposing team has to be just lucky enough to charge through and click on the orb in order for the offensive team to win the round . The most important thing to remember on defense is to hold back anything that can do damage to the gates . This means always attack demolishers as soon as possible , before they are in range of a gate . Also be on the watch for players who rush past towards a gate , as they probably have a seaforium charge to plant . Always work to push the offensive assault back , but be prepared to fall back if something slips through . All it takes is one uncontested demolisher to roll through every gate and lose the match . Expected time for completion and record . It is fairly common to win Strand of the Ancients under four minutes . If your team hasn ' t reached the Yellow Gate after three minutes it is quite probable that it will lose . Reaching the Relic under four minutes completes the achievement . The fastest Strand of the Ancients victories can be done under minute .