Breakfast Topic: Favorite Battleground
by Elizabeth Harper 
Aug 7th 2006 at 8:00AM
With all the recent news and speculation about coming PvP changes - both in patch 1.12 and the expansion - it seems only fitting to have a breakfast topic discussing everyone's favorite source of honor - battlegrounds! So which of the available battlegrounds is your favorite place to slaughter the opposing faction? Of late, I rarely venture outside of Alterac Valley - which, with the rate at which AB and WSG groups loose on my realm, seems to be the best source of honor. I remember, vaguely, a time in which I used to enjoy Warsong Gulch and Arathi Basin matches, but this must have been long ago - all of my recent experience with them have been nothing but quick and harsh losses - with the players of my own faction spending the entire match yelling back and forth and disagreeing about what best to do. (Trust me, such battleground runs are not entertaining.)Filed under: PvP, Breakfast Topics
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Thunderforge Aug 7th 2006 8:54AM
This week ive been playing a 19 twink in WSG. This simultaneously my favorite and least favorite BG to play in. Least favorite for the reasons stated above. Nothing is as daunting as knowing you have the firepower to win but not being able to execute. But sometimes when you get a seasoned group of twinks mixed with some talented and eager begginers, no instance run in the game can match the feeling of being a solidified "Unit".
Ghostle Aug 7th 2006 11:46AM
My real fave is Arathi Basin, the only problem is, it is hardly ever played at the lower levels, and at 60, you got the gear imbalance (which is not as bad as having a gear imbalance in wsg). Usually I stick with AV, as a rogue, I usually team up with other rogues and just go and cause trouble in the Alliance base, capping stuff and killing their quest givers and whatnot
James Aug 7th 2006 12:48PM
My favorite is AB, simply because of the built in time limit. The match will end, sooner rather than later. I don't like waiting 1.5 hours for AV to pop, then spending another 1-2 hours fighting. Sometimes, if both sides are particularly inept, the matches go on even longer. Same with WSG and turtling. I wish there was another type of battleground that was pretty much guaranteed to finish in a certain amount of time, or at least that you could exit with some sort of honor after an hour plus. I think if you exit after an hour you could still get 1 token, or at least some partial rep/honor.
Mr. Tibbs Aug 7th 2006 3:25PM
I have to say that each battleground had its moment as my favourite battleground. But the one that comes out on top these days is Arathi Basin.
Warsong Gulch is sweet because I always enjoyed Capture-the-Flag, but with the exception of 10-19 WSG, it is the most class-specific battleground of the three. It's horridly reliant on movement impairment, speed and player manipulation; there's a definite reason why druids ultimately become the most important class in the team - no class can keep up with a druid once it's burning it up in travel form. There's also a reason why warlocks become the ultimate defensemen - no other class can fear bounce a flagger for a stupifying length of time while everyone jogs back home to gank the fleeing bugger. As I mentioned, 10-19 WSG eliminates this because class-defining abilities haven't been developed, so it's just a big mashup of people pressing 1's and 2's a lot. And unless you use Speed Potions on a consistent basis, very few classes can move faster than a jog.
I really enjoy Alterac Valley for its size and feel, but its shortcoming is often related to the players. On our server, the Alliance is usually not very-well organized, nor motivated. Prior to the AV changes that took away most of the items that would be turned into reputation, our team would have no less than 10/40 people AFK in Dun Baldar or fishing at the small lake south of Dun Baldar. This in turn disheartened our team and people would hate-spam and effectively break the team. After the changes, things got better, but we still have players on the team who will spam stuff like "JUST LET TEH HORDE WIN!!1! U ALL SUCK!" Our side still usually lacks the motivation and teamwork to play, but when the team does work well, AV is a really awesome experience.
Arathi Basin is my favourite because it is guaranteed to end after a certain period of time. And while it can suffer from overpowered teams due to end-game gear, the class-specific abilities that allowed sides to dominate WSG do not play as heavily here. Especially at level 60, the game requires coordination and timing to be effective, since locations respawn every 30 seconds and players have epic mounts to respond quickly. That sets a pace that keeps the game rolling fast. There are of course people who whine, and there are games where it will be 8v15 and we get 5-noded, but when it's 15v15 it's usually a fun game. Yesterday, it was the first time for me that the end-score was 1990-2000. Unbelievably good game.
sollaires Aug 7th 2006 4:29PM
I've levelled a couple of chars to 60 at this point and I love PVP. I think I'd have to say the brackets before 50 are the most fun, mainly because you don't have the HUGE gear disparity and people actually play WSG and AB (maybe those will make a comeback with 1.12, but the AV rep rewards are just so much better). I think AB is my favorite because of what's already been said: the coordination, the relatively constrained time limit, and the pace.
To be a little more general, I think multiplayer is most fun when it feels like the teams are even and there's some amount of success that is tangible, even when you lose. Losing 3-0 in WSG sucks, even if it's a close match that takes a while to lose. I think Halo 2's matchmaking did a fantastic job at making every fight feel pretty close. And close fights are the most fun since you feel like you earned the win. Over a long period of time, I'd rather lose more close fights than win easy ones (the occassional steamroll is nice though, if you're on the winning side, at least).
swiftlydead Aug 7th 2006 4:35PM
Is there any mention of twink nerfing in 1.12? I really hope they do. I cannot STAND how expensive twink gear is for how crappy it is at the moment...
Kaylos Aug 7th 2006 6:19PM
I have to agree with sollaires. Halo 2's matching system was very good. It obviously not usuable in the current system, because the lack of player pool, but with cross-realm battlegrounds, something like Halo 2's system should work well. It would mean those going for GM, would face tough fights every game, playing people closer to their rank. While not full proof, it would really go a long ways to separate the those pugging it all the time, those with bad gear, from the well geared and coordinated groups.
Rolling pugs is fun at first, but it really gets old fast. I have even seen GM groups afk out on my guild, cause they don't want to face us. It really sucks when you only get pugs to roll or the only team that faces you is the horde guild with 5-7 former GMs, and better weapon drops thatn your guild, ie everyone has ahskandi or better, while your guild that has been clearing nef since december, downed C'thun, in Naxx, still had untamed blade as its best 2H drop ever.
With Halo 2 system, every group would have to duke it out. An afk means a drop in rank (or a loss of part of a rank like exp), and automatic loss. A win means a gain in rank (or a gain in a partial rank or exp). Eventually you plateau based on skill/gear, but anyone you face will usually be around the same as you, or on their way past you in ranks and you will only face them most likely that one time.
The only problem I could see if is differentiating between teams and pugs. Halo 2 had different ranks for team and individual games. But they also had a larger pool and did not have to worry about alliance/horde. I defintiely don;t think Halo 2 system is the golden solution, but it would defintiely be a step up, and with cross-realm battlegroups, it might be the time to implement something like that.