On Monday, the Horde of Retaliation managed to capture every node in Alterac Valley except the Stormpike Aid Station (and the bugged Irondeep Mine), whittling the Alliance down to 0 reinforcements and almost no honor. Surprising to many, this coup was achieved because of a strong, co-ordinated defensive team. This was not achieved through a premade, and voice chats were not used.

As we have mentioned before, playing defensively is not everyone's cup of tea. Recently, as players are adapting to the new Alterac Valley, we are starting to see new defensive maneuvers take shape. In fact, the strategy has actually become a great way to farm some HKs, gain more overall honor from each win, and see some unpredictable action.

At the beginning of the match, defense met up at the Iceblood Graveyard, Garrison and Tower. After being initially pushed down to Frostwolf Graveyard due to Alliance players breaking south, several players managed to monopolize the Field of Strife while offense pushed steadily forward. Soon after, defense reclaimed Iceblood and suddenly the Alliance had nowhere to resurrect except the Stormpike Aid Station.

Defense quickly rode through midfield toward Icewing Bunker. About a third stayed there, hindering the progress of any opposition that tried to slip through by walking past the lake rather than on the road. Another third road forward to help push north with offense, as the Alliance had retaken Stormpike Graveyard by this point. Even though the Horde was forced to resurrect at Stonehearth Graveyard, we managed to push back to Stormpike in no time.

The rest of defense cleverly ensured that any Alliance riding past our bottleneck were quickly overrun, which was not difficult, as they often managed the maneuver alone. Meanwhile, northern snipers capped and held the Dun Baldar bunkers. In the end, the Alliance lost with 0 reinforcements, holding only the Stormpike Aid Station and the Irondeep Mine, the latter of which we could not take, as once taken by the Alliance, it is bugged and cannot be captured.

The defensive team left that battleground having seen at least as much action as the offensive. In fact, the experience was full of spontaneity, suspense, unpredictability, and a real sense of achievement.

I'm certainly not writing this to gloat (for the Horde!); I'm primarily trying to illustrate the importance of the defensive aspect in battlegrounds, especially in the new Alterac Valley. Not only does defense have much to contribute, it can in fact be the star of the match; and not only as a last resort, or turtle.

If you have never played defensively, or have not done so recently, I challenge you to give it the old college try. Especially in the new AV, you never know how valuable your efforts may end up being. In addition, with new and improved benefits for casual players, now is a great time to try something new. Do you have an interesting story of battleground defense? Have you been inspired and would like to go D; or are you still maintaining it is useless?

Tags: alterac-valley, av, av-defense, battlegrounds, bg-defense, defense, patch-2.3, wow-bg

Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Odds and ends, News items, PvP, Battlegrounds