Randomizing the Strand of the Ancients spawn points
by Mike Schramm 
Apr 29th 2009 at 1:00PM
Strand of the Ancients is a battleground that's gotten relatively short shrift lately -- it came along into the game with the crown jewel of Wrath PvP so far, Wintergrasp, and while it's still frequented on honor weekends (it's one of the best ways to farm honor, actually) and for achievements, lots of players, specifically those on the Horde, aren't happy with it. Why? Because right now, Alliance always starts the battle on offense first. The battle is a regular attack-and-defend map, and Alliance reportedly has a "significant advantage" by beginning on the attack side: they only have to play offense for a few minutes, and then defend for the same amount of time, while Horde have to defend the whole first round and then attack if they want to win. Plus, the battleground doesn't always start full, which means whoever attacks first usually is fighting fewer defenders.So how hard would it be to throw a coin flip in there and randomize who starts first? The good news is that Blizzard is working on it, but the bad news is that it's taking longer than they thought. It's not as simple, unfortunately, as choosing a faction randomly -- there are apparently mechanics in the spawn points that make it difficult for them to randomize who shows up on the moving ships. Go figure? We've never understood how Blizzard's code works, and we're not starting now.
But again: Zarhym says a fix is incoming in a future patch. So if you're Alliance and you want to do some honor farming, better start now.
Filed under: Horde, Alliance, Analysis / Opinion, Odds and ends, Blizzard, PvP, Battlegrounds
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
ToyChristopher Apr 29th 2009 1:10PM
The fact that they ever released the map this way is stupid. That's okay though cause I have only done a battleground a few times since wrath has launched and I'm not sure I really miss them.
MacDisciple Apr 29th 2009 2:03PM
That's okay, we're not sure you ever brought anything useful to a BG.
xtole Apr 29th 2009 2:43PM
"Plus, the battleground doesn't always start full, which means whoever attacks first usually is fighting fewer defenders."
In my battlegroup Allys always lose this BG because of this. We always start this BG with few people (usually the ones that multi queue then drop their current BGS [like AB] within the first 30 secs if they aren't winning). By the time they pop into SotA, we're already way behind and if we do capture the orb, its usually just in the nick of time. When the sides flip, Horde has a full group and beats our time....... easily.
Elvrag Apr 29th 2009 4:23PM
This BG is always won by the Alliance in my battlegroup, but it makes up for AV, in which the Horde always wins (I can't even get Call to Arms: Alterac Valley no matter how many times I try).
Kanuris Apr 29th 2009 7:15PM
Reverse is true on EU Cyclone BG Elvrag. SotA is kinda balanced for us, although i've had a lot fo good SotA matches where we've pulled back when losing a gate on defense and ended keeping the yellow gate up, then STEAMROLLING through the puny Alliance defenses.
Alterac Valley is usually a loss because it's a lot of 20 vs 40, although thats become less frequent since 3.1 came out and people started playing again.
CRYOFSOMNUS Apr 29th 2009 1:11PM
Not fair to the Horde? I stopped playing Strand simply because of this: Alliance would get to the objective in record time, every Horde player would log out because they didn't want to bother trying to beat the time, and the Alliance players were left without any reward. When that happened 10 times in a row, I said goodbye to Strand...
Now, I haven't played in a while because of this, but I remember posting the following suggestion: if Horde or Alliance decides to abandon the game, the other side should receive the benefits of the victory. Just my two cents. I do agree that the offense/defense should be randomized.
Handbanana Apr 29th 2009 1:35PM
I have the same thing happen to me. I enjoy this battleground but never being able to finish one unless you lose the first round really sucks the fun out of it for me.
sprout_daddy Apr 30th 2009 6:34PM
^This - Blizzard needs to fix this - it's impossible to win SOTA on extra honor days because every time Alliance captures it, the Horde all quit like the pansies they are. Perhaps a marginal honor total - half of the normal reward, instead of nothing? I don't care about fixing order, but they do need to fix the reward structure.
vazhkatsi Apr 29th 2009 1:12PM
i don't kknow, on my battlegroup the horde defends betters than every alliance group unless they're a premade. haven't won in a long time.
armi0022 Apr 29th 2009 1:13PM
Strand has all but died on my server since 3.1 thanks to the revived interest in AV. They basically swapped in popularity.
Todd Apr 29th 2009 1:13PM
I think the current state of the Strand is just fine, just fine. :)
Jon Do Apr 29th 2009 1:22PM
I entered Strand once, placed a Great Feast, and hearthed out...
Nurowyn Apr 29th 2009 1:23PM
And Alliance put up with AV for how long? Get used to waiting a while for that "balancing."
smiley Apr 29th 2009 1:31PM
umm... AV's map STRONGLY favors the alliance, always has, probably always will. I play alliance and horde, and I can say if you put up a good defence on the bridge the horde can't get to your base. also the alliance archers and npc's keep the aidstation flag safer than the tucked away relief hut flage which only has guards.
the saving grace for horde USED to be a closer starting point to help negate the bottlenecking, but now that thats gone if ally loses in AV its due to being bad not the map.
the other nonfair part about strand and ally starting first is (at least in my battlegroup) horde likes to show up fashionably late thus as always start with ~3-4horde vs 10 ally. on my ally server its usually almost the same 10 ally to a few horde they always fill in by the 5 min mark but the dmg is done
Wulfkin Apr 29th 2009 1:50PM
What smiley said.
Oriflame Apr 29th 2009 4:28PM
Unbalanced interfaction PVP? Gasp!
I don't think this is the main thing killing SOTA - players go where the loot is, and since BGs grant essentially nothing at level 80...well...
That combined with the lack of any balance between factions in my battle group (one side wins 90+ % in my experience) , well, I don't see any reason to play other than for the occasional lark.
Manatank Apr 29th 2009 1:27PM
The fix wont work. Just /afk if you end up on the defending team when you start.
Quickshiv Apr 29th 2009 1:55PM
So you would rather not be able to play again for 15 minutes instead of trying to defend and at least getting some honor?
Manatank Apr 29th 2009 2:04PM
I'll play, but the problem will persist.
Mecer Apr 29th 2009 1:43PM
If they were to remove the timer from the BG so the offense always has the same ammount of time it would balance it so it wouldnt matter who started. Premades would still be able to fly through on offense but they would have to farm HKs while on defense.