Alterac Valley is the new Alterac Valley
by Matthew Rossi 
Nov 14th 2007 at 3:30PM
Today was the first day in my 'Matt runs AV in the morning while his wife's asleep so he can make breakfast for her' scheme since Patch 2.3 changed AV. We all know that I'm a big fan of Alterac Valley, and since my stated goal in running PvP battlegrounds until Arena Season 3 eventually comes out is to collect enough honor to go into full-time arena play alongside my wife wearing as much Season 1 gear as I can get my grubby hands on, the amount of honor I can accumulate in a two hour patch of play is important to me. So far, it's been very nice.
The removal of the lieutenants and commanders and the emphasis on taking and holding bunkers to remove the marshalls means that there's a lot more actual PvP going on, at least in my battlegroup. (Go, Shadowburn!) I ran several matches this morning, and AV doesn't seem to have bogged down as everyone indicated it would: the honor from capping a bunker or tower is adjusted upwards to 62 so there's a real reason to make sure it gets done, while the other team definitely doesn't want you to do it. I fought more in the Icewing Bunker than I have in quite some time. At one point, I managed to hold a druid/warlock/rogue team just long enough to ensure that the bunker burned. Sure, they killed me, but they killed me too late, and that's a victory in my eyes. I stopped running AV long enough to run the daily PvP quest (today it was EotS) and after a frustrating low-honor match, we got that done on my second run, meaning that I actually made a tidy little sum of gold and honor that helped push me over 2000 for the day.
AV seems revitalized to me, and much less a PvE experience. I learned a lot, including that a warrior with even an enhancement shaman tossing him the occasional heal can rip faces off. Icewing Bunker is mine!
How is AV working out on your battlegroup? Are people still trying the zerging tactics without holding bunkers? Are folks hip to capturing mines for reinforcements? Are your matches more PvP oriented than before or less?
Filed under: Patches, Analysis / Opinion, PvP, Quests, Making money
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Anteia Nov 14th 2007 4:33PM
Hrm, It was EOTS for you? Do the daily PVP quests change from server to server? This would make sense as it would allow battlegrounds not to be so bogged down, but for me on Feathermoon, it was winning AV today, and Arathi Basin yesterday.
Bete Nov 14th 2007 8:40PM
here's my issue with bg's since the patch.
even though buffing is free before the battle begins, people still aren't doing it.
so absurd.
Gogey Nov 14th 2007 3:54PM
Not sure bout you guys, but I had AB today.
satansspawn Nov 14th 2007 4:08PM
I had the worst av experience ever on patch day. Everyone seems to think defense will win the game totally so we ended up burning no bunkers and all being forced to defend drek. Needless to say I /afk'd out. :(
Dipstick Nov 14th 2007 4:19PM
Usually people are too scared to try and take a bunker back from the enemy by themselves (unless they're a stealther), so it just takes a little bit of organization.
Mines are pretty easy to take out as well since a player can solo everything inside them.
Been going pretty well so far, I think it will take a while for some people to adapt but it's great seeing people actually fighting each other now instead of ignoring each other. The frame rates when 60 players meet at a graveyard can get a bit hectic (at least with my PC).
Archaic Nov 14th 2007 4:18PM
It's probably grouped by battlegroup. Everyone on Emerald Dream (Shadowburn) had EOTS.
douglas_barrett Nov 14th 2007 5:00PM
I like it better.... but, I would still like to see the end "bosses" come into more play. On my server it is capture the towers kill Belinda/Horde guy and then pvp the rest of the way down. The end "bosses" are not in the equation. Perhaps they could come charging out of their bunkers and fight if you have a certain lead or a certain deficite?
Bentas Nov 14th 2007 4:40PM
People are still figuring it out. Give it some time and there will be an accepted tactic. Right now the team that balances out it's offense and defense the best will win. The team that zergs forward leaving a few at each bunker/tower just long enough to cap it before they rush forward to join the zerg WILL lose the match now. There must be at least 5-10 or even 15 on Defense now. One or two squads of 5 that stop the capping, harrass the defenders of the capped bunkers/towers.
If anything the new strategy far favors the alliance, as it's much easier for a 1-2 man squad to sneak behind the lines and cap the towers. This is of course solved by just a modicum of defensive awareness.
I also think you'll see more small squads declaring early on in the cave "i'll cap the mine" or some such terminology, leaving them to do so, before joining the defense.
Who knows. I could be wrong. We'll see how it develops. A number of my early matches turned into alliance turtles in the usual spots, with a zerging horde force and not enough defense to prevent the alliance capping all the towers in the rear, allowing them to win on reinforcments.
I've not yet actually seen Van in 2.3 so far, though I've heard that some battles have gotten so far as to actually cap the opposing general.
All in all I like it though. Much more PVP fun. Before it was a race to 40 man tank and spank boss fight. Of course now it will probably be far more affected by the play of the people you're with, much like AB has been.
I look forward to running it a few more times tonight.
JediGadget Nov 14th 2007 4:44PM
So far AV has been.....interesting in my battlegroup (Bloodlust). People still try to zerg and single-pull marshalls outside which results in like 8 people in BG chat yelling at them and plenty of name calling...which results in people CONTINUING to pull them outside either because they dont read BG chat or want to be a jerk. :( We actually lost a few matches that were SO close it was painful, JUST because people wanted to be jerks and continue to single-pull and wipe everyone. It sucked.
We tried to capture at least one of the mines (Irondeep) and it was bugged 3 matches in a row, after that we gave up. There were about 7 of us and we cleared the mine, the Horde NPCs all popped up (including the main guy) and it still wouldn't cap for us. The Alliance kept getting reinforcements from the mine even though we'd cleared EVERYTHING out of it. That sucked.
Besides a few people reporting major lag (I didnt have any lag problems) AV was ok I guess. I think it's going to take people a while to get out of the "ZOMGAVISAZERGRACE" mindset. It may never happen. But as long as I can absorb honor, I'll work my way towards having my firs "epiced-out" character". :)
hpavc Nov 14th 2007 4:55PM
AV is much more improved for game play, the zerg wa something that just had to go. I am sure people dislike it in terms of some honor per hour thing.
The actual raid organization bothers me, I dislike being near people that I can only effect in my own group and having limited ability to do much about it in a timely fashion.
Grumaya Nov 14th 2007 5:03PM
Hey, you're in Shadowburn too? I'm Grumaya on Sargeras. Maybe i'll see you around sometime.
Anteia Nov 14th 2007 5:07PM
I've only been in two matches, myself, but we capped all the towers, managed to defend most of ours, and took down Galv and Drek in both matches. Maybe my battlegroup's just more up on the new tactics. I can't say I enjoy it -more- than the old AV... I really miss the lieutenants most of all, but it's still got merit.
Ortai Nov 14th 2007 5:44PM
Still magically craptracular in my battlegroup. Not alot of PvP.
New emphasis on defence favors the Alliance with their more defensiable base, IMO.
ColonelChris Nov 14th 2007 7:01PM
My first match was a horrible "alliance defends base, horde does everything else" match. My second match, on the other hand, was a very intense battle for the bunkers and featured a lot of PvP.
Arnold Nov 14th 2007 7:41PM
Alliance side, US Kael'thas Rampage Battlegroup. TOday was AB daily quest. Weird thing was, that yesterday was also AB daily quest.... How odd...
Yes, AV does seem more PvP now.
dod Nov 14th 2007 9:06PM
Today's daily was AV on our server. Took the quest, won one AV and had 989 honor after the 400 honor from the quest! I'm 69 - and also got 12500 exp! Sweet. 30min - 989 honor. Then played another 45min match, won and had 1750 honor! Not bad at all if you win. The flip side is losing nets you maybe 175-200 honor + honor kills.
ben allen Nov 14th 2007 11:09PM
so far this has actually been a problem for me. prior to the patch, it was 15-20 minute AV matches, yielding around 400 honor, more or less. now, i've had 2 matches that ran nearly or over an hour, again yielding around 400 honor. so i'm getting 1/3rd of the honor for my time as before. (even when i ran with a well-organized pre-made).
of course, it is WAY more PvP oriented, which, while fun, is bogging the matches down in terms of how much honor i'm getting. i will likely flee to other BGs that will provide more honor for my time investment, and only do AV on days when it is the daily quest BG, and i get an additional 400 honor for it.
don't get me wrong; i like the changes, i just wish they didn't eat up so much time.
Blorg Nov 15th 2007 5:23AM
@17
AV was free honour for a long time; it should never have given so much honour in comparison to the other BGs. We'll see how it balances out once both sides have got the hang of it, but compared to the epic battles in the 'olden days' hour-long battles are nothing.
Kanuris Nov 15th 2007 6:51AM
I love it. I'm the kinda guy who hated the whole "OMG ZERG TO DREK ASAP" mindset, i wanted to do a cavalry charge at least once, but AV was such a rush it was pointless.
Now instead of people shouting at me for defending towers to solo capping a mine, i'm praised for it :D
MechChef Nov 15th 2007 9:06AM
I enjoyed the Zerg. I will miss it. Fast-paced smash and grab tactics. It'll take a while to adjust to the new game-play dynamics.