Silvershard Mines

Belligerents
	Alliance Deep Mountain Mining Guild;
	Horde Red Canyon Mining & Jewelcrafting;

Conflict in the Silvershard Mines
Location	Silvershard Mines
Result	Unknown, ongoing
Belligerents
	Alliance Deep Mountain Mining Guild;
	Horde Red Canyon Mining & Jewelcrafting;
Previous	Conflict in Tol Barad
Next	Conflict in the Temple of Kotmogu

Silvershard Mines
Level: Silvershard Mines
	; Loading screen
Affiliation	Venture Company, Horde, Alliance
Location	Stranglethorn Vale
PvP status	Combat zone

Diamonds! Stranglethorn Vale's Silvershard mines are full of the gleaming gems, and, while they’re pretty to look at, they’re far more important for what they can buy: new blades, ballistae and battle-gear for the soldiers of the Alliance and Horde. Neither faction wants its opposition digging up diamonds – not when the other option is to spill their enemies' blood on the rocks and make off with the loot in Venture co. mine carts!^[1]

Map of the Silvershard Mines.

Silvershard Mines is a 10vs10 resource race battleground set in Stranglethorn Vale and introduced in Mists of Pandaria. The objective of the battleground is to be the first to generate 1600 resources through controlling and capturing mine carts.

Official overview

Silvershard Mines is the site of a race for resources between two teams, one Alliance and one Horde. Each faction escorts mine carts filled with Silvershard diamonds – and the carts (self-propelled through goblin engineering) just keep on coming. Carts under your control provide your team with an ongoing trickle of resources. When they reach the mine depot at the end of their track, they provide a huge volume of resources to the team that ‘captures’ them. To seize the most diamonds for your faction, you’ll need to keep mine carts under your control, defend them from the enemy faction, and ensure that you try to break your enemies’ control on ‘their’ carts. Be the first team to reach their diamond quota!

Description

This battleground takes place underneath Stranglethorn Vale in a Venture Co. goblin mine. Silvershard Mines is a 10 vs 10 escort battleground, in which each side attempts to control diamond carts until they reach the mine depot.

Mine cart tracks inside the tunnels.

Use the switches to change the course of the carts.

Detailed map of the mines.

How did a hozen get down here?

Overview

Carts

Venture co. mine carts appear in the center of the map, and automatically move along the tracks to their destination – one of three diamond drop-off points at the end of the tracks. They’ll keep appearing and heading down the tracks until one team wins.

Multiple carts can move along different tracks at once, so don’t be afraid to split your efforts in order to control the highest number of carts.

Your team gains control of a cart when there are more members of your team than members of the opposing team in range of that cart. While you have control of a cart, you’ll accrue resources every few seconds.

If you capture a cart – if your team is in control when the cart reaches its destination – your team will receive a large number of resources. When a cart is captured, another cart will appear shortly after in the center of the map.

No more than 3 carts can be active at one time (one cart per track).

Tracks

Carts automatically proceed along 3 different tracks in the Silvershard mines. Each track is a different length – though capturing a cart will earn you the same number of resources regardless of which track the cart is on, you have an opportunity to earn more resources while proceeding down a longer track.

Keep this tradeoff in mind, because you can change a cart’s route, directing it to a different track by hitting one of the two switches found at track intersections. These switches take a few seconds to activate, but they give you the opportunity to send a cart in a different direction – ideally towards your teammates. You don’t need control of a cart to change the track that it’s on, so plan ahead to dodge your enemies and fluster their plans.

Gameplay

The Silvershard Mines are similar to Arathi Basin and Eye of the Storm in that the main goal is to reach 1600 resources before the other faction does.
From the center of the map there are 3 mine carts rolling on rails towards 3 defined endpoints.
There are multiple tracks, and the option to switch tracks at certain points.
Each mine cart is surrounded by a visible circle.
The faction with the most people inside these circle controls the cart. While you are inside the circle you can see a bar similar to Towers in EotS with a red and a blue end.
While your faction is in control of a mine cart, resources are generated.
When a mine cart reaches its end location the controlling faction is granted a large bonus of resources, similar to a flag turn-in in EotS.
Silvershard Mines features only a single graveyard for each faction, located safely within that faction's raised starting area.

Achievements

Note: This list is up to date as of Patch 10.2.6

Title	Description	Rewards
[Silvershard Mines Victory]	Win Silvershard Mines.	10
[Silvershard Mines Veteran]	Complete 100 victories in Silvershard Mines.	10
[The Long Riders]	Escort a mine cart from its spawn to a depot and capture it without losing control.	10
[Mine Cart Courier]	Capture a mine cart using each of the 5 sets of tracks in a single Silvershard Mines match.	10
[End of the Line]	Seize control of a mine cart that is controlled by the opposing team within 20 yards of the depot, and then capture it.	10
[Mine Mine Mine!]	Kill 250 enemies while you are defending a mine cart.	10
[Five for Five]	Capture five mine carts in a single Silvershard Mines battle without dying.	10
[My Diamonds and Your Rust]	Win a Silvershard Mines battle without letting the enemy team capture a mine cart.	10
[Escort Service]	Capture 100 mine carts in Silvershard Mines.	10
[Greed is Good]	Gain both the Berserking and Restoration buffs at the same time in Silvershard Mines.	10
[Master of Silvershard Mines]	Complete the Silvershard Mines achievements listed below. [Silvershard Mines Veteran] [Mine Cart Courier] [Mine Mine Mine!] [My Diamonds and Your Rust] [Greed is Good] [The Long Riders] [End of the Line] [Five for Five] [Escort Service]	10

Notes and trivia

The battlemasters related to this battleground were Silvershard Envoys on the side of the Horde and Silvershard Emissaries on the side of the Alliance. Due to their titles, it seems the battleground is a resources war between Red Canyon Mining & Jewelcrafting and Deep Mountain Mining Guild.
Bonus [Honor] is awarded to the team for every 200 resources gained, or every 130 resources gained when the battleground is the current Call to Arms battleground.
It was called Stranglethorn Diamond Mines at BlizzCon 2011, but had been renamed by the time of the March 2012 press tour.
The concept of the battleground seems to be similar to the Payload game mode in Team Fortress 2.

Patch changes

Hotfix (2015-01-09): The northern track switch should now work correctly.
Hotfix (2014-03-11): Bonus [Honor] is now awarded to the team for every 200 resources gained (down from 265) or every 130 resources gained when it’s featured on Call to Arms (down from 160).
Hotfix (2013-10-16): The eastern mine cart now doesn't spawn in until shortly after the gates open.
Patch 5.0.4 (2012-08-28): Added.