Changes coming to Alterac Valley
by David Bowers 
Sep 1st 2007 at 9:09AM
It looks like Blizzard is finally starting to take this issue of AFKing in Alterac Valley seriously, and not just with the AFK-reporting feature that you've likely already heard about.In response to one poster who begged Blizzard not to implement this reporting feature because he says the map is imbalanced and the Horde always loses anyways, Drysc gave us a relatively long list of changes that Blizzard is making in order to help solve the problem -- not just reporting AFKers, but also finding other ways to encourage them to get in the game as well, such as fixing exploits, changing or removing NPCs, and yes even modifying the map a little bit.
Here's what he said:
There are quite a few changes coming, all of which we hope will culminate into making players want to participate, and ultimately win the battleground.
Obviously as most people know we have the anti-afk reporting measure, by which you can right click on someone in the battleground and mark them as AFK. With enough reports they receive a debuff that keeps them from earning honor in that battleground, and only by entering combat can they remove that debuff. It's going to help, but it's certainly not enough on its own.
Other things we're doing are changing or pulling out NPCs in key locations to help even out the balance of time and effort each side has to take to push through. As well as some minor changes to locations that people find are easily exploited to advance faster.
We're shifting some of the honor from the earlier NPCs, that help make AFKing so lucrative, to the end of the battleground and more for actually winning.
The graveyard spawning is being changed so that players aren't sent back to the cave unless there is nowhere else to spawn, which should help encourage horde to play a bit more defense if they're being beaten back.
And we're also correcting the ... I think Jeff referred to them as "creative pulling mechanics" with the general's.
Everything together, we feel, should help encourage players to participate, while also improving overall balance.
Filed under: PvP
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Barnabas Sep 1st 2007 9:26AM
About time. It should be a win situation period. Like PvE, you get slackers you fail. Then it becomes like that song lyrics "No, you're never gonna get it (Not this time)
Never ever gonna get it (My Honor)
No, you're never gonna get it (Had your chance to make a change)
Never ever gonna get it"
Serious, you get in life what you put into it. Game or IRL.
4STR4STALeatherBelt Sep 1st 2007 9:48AM
The AFK leechers are rampart especially during bonus weekends (this weekend being no different) and it's great to see Blizzard are still working on those changes.
I've always had a soft spot for AV, even going back to the days of 12 hour battles. They felt epic, like a real War. You had to weaken the opposition by taking out their NPC Commanders to stop the flow of troops at key points on the map. Very realistic and added a feel of real warfare.
But I think it's fair to say the length of those battles was insane to put it mildly. AV these days is still good fun if played right and I look forward to these changes.
K Sep 1st 2007 10:37AM
I know of one battlegroup where Horde dominates AV in the 61-70 bracket and another in the 51-60 bracket, which has proven to me that AV can be won by the Horde. However, the battleground does somewhat favour the Alliance (as noted in that thread and many others in the past).
I like AV whether it ends after a 15-20 minute race to drek/vann or a 2-3 hour epic battle. But having over half of your team AFKing is not fun. If these honour farmers actually pulled their weight, the Horde would actually have more of a fighting chance.
unchi Sep 1st 2007 10:15AM
no comment about the Dun Baldar bridge or the turn at Stormpike GY?
Baluki Sep 1st 2007 10:24AM
I miss the days where people actually summoned the big bosses and did the calvary charges and all that, but I don't miss the length of those battles.
It would be nice if Blizz could do something to make doing that stuff more relevant, and zerging the graveyards less relevant. In reality, what good is holding a graveyard?
It's good that they're still making changes to prevent the AFKers in the Peace Cave (heh). I admit I did it a few times, but that was just to get my rep up to Honored after I spent a whole weekend playing for real (I'm not much of a pvper). And back then, I was the only one doing it.
chris poloncic Sep 1st 2007 10:31AM
This is going to backfire imo. Moving the higher honor value npcs towards the end will just screw horde more. Half the time, we don't get past SP GY, so moving them all towards the end...
Jay Sep 1st 2007 11:08AM
When they say "fix", they mean they are gonna make it harder for the alliance.. great. This is why im farming honor now as much as i can, gettin 20k honor a day from AV
Dave Sep 1st 2007 11:33AM
I'm all for changes that'll let Horde win a game or two here and there. I went 88-3 over the course of a month while grinding out exalted rep with all factions for the mounts. It was kinda depressing to say the least, but it's kinda worse because all 3 times we actually won... it was mainly JUST because there were no AFK people and Horde actually tried to win.
Once I got my frostwolf, I haven't been back. I totally can't wait for these changes.
Kadamon Sep 1st 2007 12:38PM
My roommate is Horde and he did AV for his 60 Mount when he was around that level.
The Horde never lost once while he was playing to get his mount and he kept playing until he had all his marks...so I don't see how Horde 'always' lose.
Phil Sep 1st 2007 12:55PM
To the people saying that they don't see how Horde always loses... I've been grinding large amounts of honor on each of my alts and I can assure you that out of the many games I've played on these characters in the last few months, I've won at best a handful. These wins, well most of them were organized horde queues from my server, we brought 35 people and rolled the alliance PUG. The others were late night games (4am) where we were surprisingly organized.
Even when people want to win and we are at a disadvantage from the AFKers, we still lose unless we play very smart. Why? Well, first there is the flag capping of the aid station versus the relief hut. The alliance can duo cap this just like every other graveyard. The horde cannot do this because of the number of NPCs as well as the tower archers that have ungodly range. Now lets say that this isn't someone just stealing a cap but an all out rush. We lose because its much more difficult to invade the alliance base, we have to fight through the towers and all of the npcs. There will always be some ppl defending and they can do it on the alliance bridge whereas the horde have no such choke point. There are the towers in the horde base but as you can ride around the fence, or just ride past them quickly and hide by the bridge, they don't help us in the same way they do alliance.
Mikey Sep 1st 2007 12:59PM
I play on alexstraza(Rampage BG) and we don't really see it as much really or atleast the couple times i have done it i havn't and also i don't think the horde is all that bad at AV. i play a 51 BE pally and i don't think we have ever lost while im playing it.
Jeremy Sep 1st 2007 12:58PM
On my server [andorhal] horde RARELY lose...its like 1 loss after every 10ish or more wins for me
Im not an AFK Farmer...i truly hate players that do it...I really like AV the way it is...no need to change it. IMO
Daveti Sep 1st 2007 1:03PM
@9: The Horde don't always lose, they just don't have a very good win/loss ratio... Kind of like the ratio we Alliance are pretty used to in WSG, AB, etc.
I'm one of the many begging Blizzard to please just leave AV alone, it's the one BG we alliance have, if they "balance" it (read: let the horde win every time like the other battlegrounds) PVP will be absolutely intolerable. All they'll do is wreck the system worse.
agentaero Sep 1st 2007 1:10PM
Ive been in about 25-30 AV matches Id say, and of those id say the alliance won 5 of them, most other times we got steam rolled by the horde with a few close matches, so I dont see this horde always loses stuff. the few times we did win, it was a close match and we won because we had 30 people who knew exactly what they were doing. but the horde seems to dominate most of the BG's on my server when they bring a full team.
Daveti Sep 1st 2007 1:09PM
@10: The Horde have no choke point going into the final bunker? Are you joking? I can't tell you how many times Alliance has been held off in that room in the pass between Frostwolf village and the bunker. You actually have a better choke point than we do because ours doesn't have a 90 degree turn and walls to break line of sight. Go ahead, keep crying little hordies, make Blizz "balance" PVP to the point that Alliance can never win anything ever again. We'll just stop queuing up and you can say hello to ridiculous queue times once again
Hollywood Ron Sep 1st 2007 1:10PM
As a life-long allliance player who rolled horde just to try it, I must say I like actually winning battle grounds occasionally. It's a refreshing change from the routine.
twh Sep 1st 2007 1:17PM
So, the only way that the Horde players will ever be happy is if they win all the BGs without question.
Why not just let premades be made in AV and be done with it?
Melenor Sep 1st 2007 1:32PM
These posts are rather ludicrous (I'm looking at you, number 8). I play Alliance, and I don't recall ever... and I do mean EVER winning more than 5 AV's in my long history of AV's (read: definitely over 200, on three separate servers: Balnazzar, Drenden, and Kel'Thuzad). I also don't recall Alliance having a way to pull Drek'Thar ten minutes before Horde can reach Vandar Stormpike. Maybe that's just me - call me crazy.
And for the record, I've only one I'd say about 30% of WSG/AB matches, and only because they were preformed.
robotrock Sep 1st 2007 1:41PM
Alliance consistently lose AB and WSG at all levels, but Blizzard doesn't do much to change that.
Horde consistently win AV in the 50-60 bracket...but lose the 70 bracket. So let's change things to help them win.
Blizzard aren't even being shy about preferring the horde now.
vern Sep 1st 2007 1:45PM
If Blizzard is willing to change the map that means there is a real issue for the horde to win AV.
Mind the countless trolls writing here, AV is much easier to win for alliance.
I would like to see Blizzard go further.
What compensations are given to Horde players so they could catch up on Alliance PVP gear earned from continuously winning AV ?
Even if you balance the geography of the map, its already too late, Alliance is already better geared.