Alterac Pass Map Guide

Alterac Pass is a 3-lane Map belonging to the Warcraft universe. The signature Objective of this Map are Cavalries. One per lane, they will fight alongside the team who freed them from Prison Camps, buffing allied Heroes nearby.

Here you can find one or more formations that are viable on this Map. Keep in mind that positions in lane are not strict and will often change based on the situation.

The go-to formation for Alterac Pass is 1-3-1:

• 1 Hero covers the side lane near the next Objective;
• 3 Heroes cover the middle lane;
• 1 Hero, the Offlaner, covers the side lane far away from the next Objective.

• At 1:00 minute or whenever available, start clearing the allied Siege Camp and capture it as soon as possible, then push push with it. Heroes who are covering the side lanes should join for the push when there is nothing to soak in their lanes.
• If you want to contest the Objective, be careful not to die in the process otherwise your team will have fewer Heroes to push with Cavalries and the enemy team will have an easier time defending their Structures. The first Objective of the game is not that powerful, so you should still prioritize soaking during it.
• If you want to give the Objective, poke enemy Heroes that are trying to capture it and do one of the following things: capture the allied Siege Camp, capture the Boss Camp that is on the opposite side from the Objective, or push in the lane that is on the opposite side from the Objective. The enemy team will be near the Objective and thus will take longer to respond far away.
• If you win the Objective, push in the side lane that is on the same side as the Objective was because the next Objective will be on the opposite side and, if you manage to get the Fort, the enemy team will have to defend that lane from Reavers. Also, if you do not clear waves immediately, you can accumulate Minions behind Cavalries to empower your push once they reach enemy Structures.
• If you lose the Objective, try to match the amount of enemy Heroes that are attacking each lane. If you think that you will not be able to save a Fort or Keep, however, you should leave that lane and try to save another Fort or Keep instead. Use single target damage on Cavalries and area-of-effect damage on both Minions and Cavalries at the same time.
• After 10:00 minutes, whenever your team has an advantage while there is no Objective to contest or right after all allied Cavalries have been killed, you can capture a Boss Camp, then capture the other Boss Camp if available, and then push with the last Boss you captured. Avoid doing it earlier if you do not have a dedicated team composition.
• If you are fairly confident that the enemy team is doing a Boss Camp, start clearing the other one. This strategy is meant to deny a double Boss Camp to the enemy team. If it becomes too dangerous (because the enemy team was not actually doing a Boss Camp or because you started the other Boss Camp too late), stop doing it.

As shown in the image below, Alterac Pass has a total of 4 Mercenary Camps:

• 1 neutral Boss Camp in the top lane;
• 2 allied/enemy Siege Camps in the middle lane;
• 1 neutral Boss Camp in the bottom lane.

Mercenary Camps on Alterac Pass disappear from the battlefield once the Cavalries begin spawning and reappear only after all Cavalries have been killed.

Mercenary Camps indicated with a red icon are immune to Bribe effects.

This type of Mercenary Camp features 3 Gnolls. Once captured, it spawns the same unit fighting for your team in the corresponding lane. When possible, push with them to get more value.

Gnolls have a lot of Health and can reduce the Armor of enemy Heroes and enemy Structures, therefore they are great for pushing with multiple Heroes.

This type of Mercenary Camp features 1 Ice Giant. Once captured, it spawns the same unit fighting for your team in the corresponding lane. When possible, push with it to get more value.

While in combat, the Ice Giant will use Mega Smash (10-second cooldown) to damage and Stun all enemies in melee range and Ice Shard (15-second cooldown) to damage and Slow enemies who get hit by them.

While being hit by Ice Shard is not lethal on its own, being Slowed by 50% may cause you to be hit by the next Smash, so you should always dodge Ice Shard like you do for Mega Smash.

The signature Objective of Alterac Pass consists of Prison Camps spawning a Cavalry in each lane. Cavalries empower allied Heroes. Heroes nearby get 30% Movement Speed and deal 10% more damage. In order to free up Cavalries, Heroes have to channel for 3 seconds and then wait for the progress to complete.

While the timer is going, it can be paused or stopped by the enemy team. The progress is paused while enemy Heroes are channeling. The progress is stopped after enemy Heroes channel for 3 seconds or Guards channel for 6 seconds without being interrupted by crowd control or damage.

Prison Camps Capture the enemy Prison Camp to summon your Cavalry. Camps can be retaken by Heroes and Minions, so guard them well!

Cavalry Cavalry soldiers charge down each lane when summoned granting increased damage and movement speed to nearby Allied Heroes.

Generals Each team's Core has been replaced by a General who fights against attacking enemies. Destroying a Keep reduces the General's Armor and damage.

Prison Camps spawn in 2 possible sets: either 2 top or 2 bottom, one per team. Their positions will keep alternating through the course of the game, so you will always know in which lane the next Objective will be. The first team who frees Cavalries from Prison Camps will spawn one Cavalry per lane.

Prison Camps are defended by Guards that spawn from nearby houses. When you see a light inside an house, it means that a Guard is spawning. Guards protecting an isolated Prison Camp (top-right or bottom-left) can be kited around it for not taking damage. Guards do not regenerate their Health, so you can lower their Health before committing. Heroes with Summons (notably Anub'arak) can easily solo-activate a Prison Camp without killing Guards.

Activate the Prison Camp and then wait for the timer to ends. The timer lasts 30 seconds, plus 10 seconds for each past Objective. Guards and Heroes can deactivate the Prison Camp to stop the timer. Heroes will also pause the timer while trying to deactivate the Prison Camp. The first team to finish opening the Prison Camp will win the Objective.

Right before winning the Objective, you should ideally prepare waves so that allied Cavalries reach enemy Structures at the same time in every lane and thus the enemy team cannot easily defend them one at a time. Similarly, right before losing the Objective, you can ruin waves to weaken enemy Cavalries.

When the Prison Camps spawn top side, the left team can use poke from behind impassable terrain near the middle Fort to stall and can kite the enemy Guards around their Prison Camp.

When the Prison Camps spawn bottom side, the right team can use poke from behind impassable terrain near the middle Fort to stall and can kite the enemy Guards around their Prison Camp.

There are 6 Mud Pits located at the borders to the middle area, close to the side lanes. Any Hero who enters a Mud Pit will find their Movement Speed reduced by 16% per second, to a maximum of 60%, for as long as they remain there. Upon finding solid ground, the Hero will regain Movement Speed at 50% per second.

Catapults on Alterac Pass are replaced by Reavers. Contrary to Catapults, Reavers will walk in lane in front of other Minions, tanking damage for them. This characteristic makes them extremely powerful if left unchecked because Minions from multiple waves can build up behind them and, since Minions deal 200% bonus damage to Structures, easily destroy them.

Cores are replace by Generals, who can move and fight against attacking enemies. Generals have 20 Armor for each lane with a Fort or Keep still up. When in combat, they will use Charge (6-second cooldown) to dash towards enemy Heroes and and Whirlwind (12-second cooldown) to deal area of effect damage. When out of combat, they will quickly regenerate Health (about 1% per second).

When trying to destroy the enemy Core on this Map, you have to be sure that it will go down! Contrary to other Maps, where the enemy Core stays damaged and only regenerates its Shield, any failed attempt to kill a General on Alterac Pass is going to be completely nullified by their Health regeneration. The time wasted for trying and failing to kill a General is better used to destroy an enemy Keep, so that you get Reavers in that lane and thus increase the pressure on the enemy team.

To min-max the damage done to the enemy Core while trying to end the game, you should also consider if it is worth to destroy an already damaged Keep in order to remove 20 Armor from the enemy Core, or directly going Core. Generals gain 405 maximum Health per minute for 20 minutes (excluding the first minute), up to 28100 Health at 21:00 minutes. All other Structures do not scale with Game Time. As a consequence, when trying to end the game after 21:00 minutes, you should do as follows:

• if there are 2 Keeps remaining and one of the Keeps is below 60% Health, destroy that Keep and then go Core, else go Core directly;
• if there is 1 Keep remaining and that Keep is below 35% Health, destroy that Keep and then go Core, else go Core directly.

To win the game on Alterac Pass, you should count on any of the following win conditions:

• Map Objective,
• Boss Camp.

• Use the first Healing Fountain (2-minute cooldown) at or before 1:00 minute because the first Objective on this Map activates at 3:00 minutes, so you will have it back in time for that.
• Guards protecting an isolated Prison Camp (top-right or bottom-left) can be kited around it for not taking damage. Heroes with Summons (notably Anub'arak) can easily solo-activate a Prison Camp without killing Guards.
• Given how the Objective on Alterac Pass works, you can almost win the Objective, retreat to recover from that battle, try to stop the enemy team from winning the Objective, and then get some kills to win the Objective or to easily defend your Structures in case you lose the Objective.
• Boss Camps are disabled while Cavalries are alive. To play around the enemy team getting a Boss right after their Cavalries expire, start going to a camp before the last Cavalry dies. If they are there, you could fight. If they are not, you could take the Boss while they are taking the other one.
• Global Heroes should ideally take care of the lane that is farther away from the next Objective location, so that they can use their global tool to quickly join their team during the next Objective phase.