abstract
| - Snowfall Graveyard is a neutral graveyard found on top of the hill west of Field of Strife and is the only remaining accessible area of Winterax Hold after the avalanche. The actual spawnpoint of the graveyard is located further west, across the rope bridge, in an area known Winterax Hold (although no fortifications or buildings remain). Frost Dagger Pass passes under the bridge connecting the two. It is a key graveyard for the offensive / attacking fraction as it allows them to continue storming of the enemy defences. However, this comes at some costs of defence. Players killed whist north / south or around Snowfall Graveyard whist it is under their control can not respawn at Stonehearth Graveyard or Iceblood Graveyard. This means that, if the oppersite fraction gains the upper hand against the attacking force (and does not capture Snowfall Graveyard), defending players can not adequately reinforce Icewing Chokepoint or Iceblood Chokepoint. In some cases, players that are resurrecting at Snowfall Graveyard are behind the enemy’s main force and are cut off from their defending players (which are subsequently weakened as their players are resurrecting behind the enemy force and unable to meet up). Due to the natural terrain of Alterac Valley, Snowfall Graveyard is first captured more often by the alliance, who often travel south on the western side of the Field of Strife. Horde players often travel north on the eastern side of the Field of Strife, therefore a horde player at the start of the battle would have to divert and travel (most commonly into the alliance forces travelling south) west a considerable distance to capture the graveyard at the start of the battle. Since they are only two ways to reach the Snowfall Graveyard are up two paths / ramps / slopes (one north one south), it is an easily defendable location in itself to hold. Since enemy players must run up one of the two paths to reach the graveyard, there is often enough time to alert others on the battleground to the incoming and mount a reasonable defence - if there is a willingness to defend the graveyard.
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