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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 2 of 2)
Staghelm Nov 15th 2007 9:03AM
I'm not much into theorycraft, but this is really going to make alliance unplayable. Belinda is still an easy group encounter while galvangar is a raid with his whirlwinding dps. While you're raid is hitting galv, you're losing bunkers/graveyards.
Alliance are typically not working together still and we're not holding stuff. End result, we get no honor and every horde scab will be rolling in season 1 gear soon. Then we're really going to get beat down when the gear gap becomes a factor.
Zequel Nov 15th 2007 10:49AM
When it's good, it's great, main group hits Galv. Advance group takes towers and an advance gy. When it's bad, it omfg terrible. Everyone plays D, ignores towers and wonder why they have no honor. The good games were netting me 500 honor, much better than the 375 or so pre-2.3. Then some n00bs had the audacity to say 'why is it so much less honor', grrrrr....
Ozmo Nov 15th 2007 11:47AM
I have had some very positive experiences in the new AV, winning on a regular basis as a allie feel great! And i usually track the honor gained and see if its the same the next day, the difference used to be like 30 or 40 last night i made 3k honor just putzing around getting a feel for things and this morning it showed only 2k, did i lose 1k honor somewhere?
Manasseh Nov 15th 2007 12:04PM
My experience with the new AV has been GLORIOUS! In terms of actual PvP, I haven't done more than help 12 other people kill a passerby or down a couple of would-be defenders at Stormpike Graveyard in months! The only defensive/turtle game I even saw pre-2.3 our team insisted on pressing forward through the entire Alliance team to kill Stormpike rather than send 6 more people to summon Lokhar the Ice Lord (which I really wanted to see happen). This morning in AV no one's general died. We whittled down the other team, killing Balinda and then focusing our fights around the Horde bunkers (the ones the Alliance wants to burn). We won by attrition and it was a thing of beauty. Never had 81 honorable kills in an AV before. Hope it won't be the last time.
Huntaur Nov 16th 2007 8:59AM
Has anyone else noticed their HPH (honor per hour) ???
I loaded up my "yet to be updated" titan panel mods for honor and it was saying 1200-1500 honor/hr, which is about what I get when playing AV weekend.
Games do tend to run a little longer, but honor diminish is non-existant as rumored pre-patch...
Good_Idea Nov 15th 2007 6:30PM
I found last night's AV games to be... kind of irritating to be honest. Was there more pvp... yes, a little at the towers/bunkers, but mostly it featured the Alliance turtling at SP and Horde being cockblocked just long enough for Alliance to pull off a win.
I kind of like the 15 min rush games, especially when playing a gimp toon.
There were some bugs too. Like the Irondeep mine was bugged and Horde couldn't get control, even though we owned the mine, Alliance still got reinforcements.
NPCs and reinforcements weren't a factor at all. We still had plenty of reinforcements and lost.
Bottom Line: It was like the old AV, Alliance defend at their excellent choke point and without a far superior offense, will hold Horde back long enough to win.
Saw Nov 26th 2007 10:41AM
I have always enjoyed AV and it has just gotten better with 2.3. Yes there is much more rush, but it is a different fashion than before. A good Horde verse Alliance match is such a rush and will get you stoked everytime. I play Alliance (Vindication) with a 70 Arc/Fire Mage and Prot War and either one of them can hold their own.
The only thing I would like to see is the bosses more. Maybe a turn in thing of the old AV like the bloodsoaked rags or something to get them to ride at the head of the Frostwolf/Ramriders charge or something like that for a little more honor.
The best thing I have seen is setting it up so groups 1-4 are Offense and 5-8 are Defense and 5-10 off Offense go spank Galv and grab IBGY and Group 1 grabs the mine and then head to Defense.
Tactically speaking Alliance has never had anything on the Horde (i.e constant AB/WSG loses), but in AV where it is kill or lose we aren't doing to bad. I have a 87% win rate in AV's since 2.3 came out. While gear is always a factor in playing a decent geared player can always overcome an epic'd one if they have are skilled enough.