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Tuesday, September 19, 2006
The new Alterac Valley
When Blizzard introduced the Alterac Valley battleground to World of Warcraft, I went there a couple of times, and then abandoned it. AV was only open a few times per week, you had to wait in queue very long, and once you got in, the battle lasted many, many hours. I never saw AV finished then, because after a couple of hours I just got exhausted and left. Fast forward to patch 1.12, and boy has Alterac Valley changed!
I don't do much PvP, but some guild mates advised me to visit AV with my Alliance priest, because winning the battle there gives you a very nice wand of biting cold. Okay, the bonus to frost spells is useless to me, but the 64 damage per second were a lot nicer than what I had before. First positive surprise on trying to enter AV is that there are half a dozen and more AV battlegrounds open at any given time. And even for Alliance the queue was only 10 to 15 minutes.
Once I entered the battleground, it turned out that the strategy had changed fundamentally. While in the old AV people were basically meeting in the middle and killing each other, now Horde and Alliance just rush past each other. Very few to no people are defending. Within minutes Horde captures the graveyard closest to the Alliance base, and vice versa. The side that kills the enemy general faster wins. The battle that lead to me gaining my wand lasted less than half an hour. Other battles lasted a bit longer, because some people tried to defend their base, slowing both sides down. I managed to do some AV quests, like capturing a tower or capturing a graveyard. That is surprisingly simple, because nobody defends them, there are just NPC guarding the flag. As priest you just pull them all, do a Psychic Scream to send them running, and if nobody resists you just have enough time to capture the flag.
All in all there was surprisingly little PvP in Alterac Valley. Most players on both sides stuck together in one big group, assaulting the NPCs of the enemy fortress. When I tried to defend, I was quickly cut down. Once I was in a battle where about a dozen people defended the Alliance fortress, and that battle went nearly 2 hours, because without those dozen players the Alliance didn't have enough firepower to take down the enemy general, and their defence prevented the Horde from killing the Alliance general, until the Horde finally broke through and won. After one evening in AV I was friendly with the Stormpike, and had gained 20k honor points, but only had 200 honor kills. In the fastest battle I won without having a single honor kill, as Alliance was fighting NPCs exclusively. What a strange way to do PvP!
- posted by Tobold @ 8:38 AM Permanent Link
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That's no PvP, that's farming Reputation and farming PvP Faction Rewards. Nothing else.
# posted by 
: 19/9/06 10:40
: 19/9/06 10:40
Agreed. But it is not as if you were given a choice. If you want to battle other players in PvP and 39 other players want to rush towards the best reward, your action isn't going to have much impact.
So my theory is that most people aren't interested in PvP, they just want the PvP rewards. So they chose AV, because that battleground allows to get PvP rewards with a minimum of actual fighting other players.
So my theory is that most people aren't interested in PvP, they just want the PvP rewards. So they chose AV, because that battleground allows to get PvP rewards with a minimum of actual fighting other players.
i just found out about this a week ago, it's funny your timing on posting , as i always feel a connection to your blog and things that occur on wow for me. Anyway, i quickley got my pally and hunter up to 51 and headed right for alteric valley, where i was lucky enough to join, and each game won on the first time. The prizes are mind blowing, just for joining. I suppose blizz will fix this one day, because pre patch, i can see that this could be very difficult getting a 40man group to raid with, but with auto-raid, and many more people, it's waaaaay too easy now to get weapons that rival 60 weapons.
ps. hunters.. for god sake go for the bow, NOT the spear.. there are many other weapon choices you could use pre-60 like 2x bone slicing hatchets (from maleki in strat) , huntsman harpoon (from a summon in dire maul), or even 2x dawn's edges (look for a weaponsmith). These are all great weapon choices, but try finding a better bow until WAAAY after 60.
ps. for pallys.. take the spear, the cold forged hammer is not that great. if your going for healadin, compare it to a ez drop in mauradon (fist of stone - loads on landslide) you get a chance on hit for 50 mana.. which hits like a fiery enchant.. you'll get way more mana than 3/5.. for the cold forged hammer.. you'd have to wait 180 seconds to get over 50 mana.. but i guarentee you that you'll get like 3-4 kicks off the 50 mana.. so it's way better for healadin in your late 40's->60. If your a PVP pally, then you need massive hits.. and your not going to get that with a one handed weapon.
ps. hunters.. for god sake go for the bow, NOT the spear.. there are many other weapon choices you could use pre-60 like 2x bone slicing hatchets (from maleki in strat) , huntsman harpoon (from a summon in dire maul), or even 2x dawn's edges (look for a weaponsmith). These are all great weapon choices, but try finding a better bow until WAAAY after 60.
ps. for pallys.. take the spear, the cold forged hammer is not that great. if your going for healadin, compare it to a ez drop in mauradon (fist of stone - loads on landslide) you get a chance on hit for 50 mana.. which hits like a fiery enchant.. you'll get way more mana than 3/5.. for the cold forged hammer.. you'd have to wait 180 seconds to get over 50 mana.. but i guarentee you that you'll get like 3-4 kicks off the 50 mana.. so it's way better for healadin in your late 40's->60. If your a PVP pally, then you need massive hits.. and your not going to get that with a one handed weapon.
# posted by : 19/9/06 14:27
: 19/9/06 14:27
All good things come to an end, so get to exalted 999/1000 in AV, and get your 3-4 epics before AV gets another big makeover. Don't forget the purple level-6 trinket from the "Eye of Command" quest.
If hit rank 7-8 while you're at it, then you can get nice 60-blue armor along the way.
If hit rank 7-8 while you're at it, then you can get nice 60-blue armor along the way.
I got exalted in only 4 weekends. And only 2 of those weekends I spent a lot of time in there. But yes, it's more PvE than PvP now.
I find both the old and new AV to be fun, just different. There's still plenty of PvP if you play defense, or if the other side plays defense. Actually, i've only been in a couple games with absolutely no defense. And we almost always try to get the towers to slow down the alliance so they have more wolves to fight. Though often people leave Balinda untouched. The hard part is getting people to flank the defenders.
Hopefully they'll tweak it more to have more pvp but still keep the matches short enough that people will queue and not afk. Before the games were way too long. If everyone on one side worked together, it could take maybe 2 hours, but obviously that doesn't happen. And there were never enough people queueing anyway. At least now that they're shorter people actually queue for it and you can get a game in.
What's funny is, our cluster went down 2 weeks ago, and we were playing AV against only our own server again (RP server). Which was fun, and amazingly, we mopped the floor with the Alliance. Previously the alliance used to beat us, but I guess we learned from grouping with horde from other servers, against tier 2 and up alliance, and I wonder if the alliance from our server was resting on their laurels the whole time (or the laurels of the better geared alliance from older and pve servers). Because they could not play at all. It was embarrasing.
I find both the old and new AV to be fun, just different. There's still plenty of PvP if you play defense, or if the other side plays defense. Actually, i've only been in a couple games with absolutely no defense. And we almost always try to get the towers to slow down the alliance so they have more wolves to fight. Though often people leave Balinda untouched. The hard part is getting people to flank the defenders.
Hopefully they'll tweak it more to have more pvp but still keep the matches short enough that people will queue and not afk. Before the games were way too long. If everyone on one side worked together, it could take maybe 2 hours, but obviously that doesn't happen. And there were never enough people queueing anyway. At least now that they're shorter people actually queue for it and you can get a game in.
What's funny is, our cluster went down 2 weeks ago, and we were playing AV against only our own server again (RP server). Which was fun, and amazingly, we mopped the floor with the Alliance. Previously the alliance used to beat us, but I guess we learned from grouping with horde from other servers, against tier 2 and up alliance, and I wonder if the alliance from our server was resting on their laurels the whole time (or the laurels of the better geared alliance from older and pve servers). Because they could not play at all. It was embarrasing.
# posted by : 19/9/06 15:43
: 19/9/06 15:43
One other effect because of x-server and the huge number of matches, is it's almost impossible to gain rank anymore. People I know getting 250k a week are standing still, people getting 150k a week are losing rank. It's crazy. So now it seem everyone is just playing for rep, and AV is the easiest place to get rep.
Now that i'm 999/1000 exalted, i'm trying to find a set team to wsg/ab with, to get as much rep as possible before the expansion to get some toys. Since I don't raid.
Now that i'm 999/1000 exalted, i'm trying to find a set team to wsg/ab with, to get as much rep as possible before the expansion to get some toys. Since I don't raid.
# posted by : 19/9/06 15:50
: 19/9/06 15:50
Sadly AV is a PvE race.
All I have to say is I *hate* grinding, YET I hit exalted with Stormpike on two characters in no time flat. That should tell you something about how AVs are run lately.
I often wonder if there are any real life examples where instead of fighting each other, soldiers run past each other like we do in AV...
All I have to say is I *hate* grinding, YET I hit exalted with Stormpike on two characters in no time flat. That should tell you something about how AVs are run lately.
I often wonder if there are any real life examples where instead of fighting each other, soldiers run past each other like we do in AV...
If you don't like the race, be a defender. In my opinion, the defense is what wins you games.
You have to have a nice balance of just enough defenders to slow down the opposition enough for your own offense to finish the job. Too many defenders, and the offense stalls out. Too few, and you can't really delay the other side.
I find defending with my warlock in the new AV to be a whole lot of fun. Especially at the very end, when I'm hiding in Drek'thar's room and Fearing the puller they send in. :)
You have to have a nice balance of just enough defenders to slow down the opposition enough for your own offense to finish the job. Too many defenders, and the offense stalls out. Too few, and you can't really delay the other side.
I find defending with my warlock in the new AV to be a whole lot of fun. Especially at the very end, when I'm hiding in Drek'thar's room and Fearing the puller they send in. :)
This is what I want a new PvP Battleground to be:
Size - Roughly the area and shape of Warsong Gulch, but more of an open flat "battleground". I'd like to see some simple battlements (like the stakes-in-the-ground type, no higher than head height) with some fixed siege weapons that are useable like the Live Stratholme Cannoneer boss.
Number of Players - 40 on each side
Objective - Kill the opposing NPC's (and players)
There should be roughly as many NPC's in this battleground as there are in all of Alterac Valley, but they charge in to fight with you. The goal is to push all the way across and destroy the opponents NPC's and battlements. Then it ends. Ideal game length should be about 30 minutes to an hour at the most. You should be able to heal and buff your friendly NPC's.
What do you think? Fun?
Size - Roughly the area and shape of Warsong Gulch, but more of an open flat "battleground". I'd like to see some simple battlements (like the stakes-in-the-ground type, no higher than head height) with some fixed siege weapons that are useable like the Live Stratholme Cannoneer boss.
Number of Players - 40 on each side
Objective - Kill the opposing NPC's (and players)
There should be roughly as many NPC's in this battleground as there are in all of Alterac Valley, but they charge in to fight with you. The goal is to push all the way across and destroy the opponents NPC's and battlements. Then it ends. Ideal game length should be about 30 minutes to an hour at the most. You should be able to heal and buff your friendly NPC's.
What do you think? Fun?
# posted by : 19/9/06 17:53
: 19/9/06 17:53
Regardless it's still more of a struggle for the horde since alliance have multiple high HP npc's guarding their base, a bridge and a large base area. Horde base is compact and easily taken over... but still, we somehow manage to win. lol
FOR THE HORDE!
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FOR THE HORDE!
# posted by : 19/9/08 16:58
: 19/9/08 16:58<< Home
