Great article. I especially like the constructive criticism. Not entirely sure I agree with everything mentioned, but I'll get to that. By and large, however, I have to agree with McCurley's analysis.

Tol Barad does indeed need balance. Many other posters have already noted that folks get frustrated spending 30 minutes trying to get something done, only to have the defenders get another win due to the mechanics. What's worse, in my opinion, is that Blizzard has stated that they made the mechanics the way they did to induce participation. I can only palm my face at that type of logic making it through to the actual game.

I've been on both sides, more on the attacker side than the defender, but I can certainly see how the mechanics need to be changed. I agree with giving the defender one commendation for participation. You get in the queue and stick it out to the end, you should get something for that, win or lose.

I agree that the capture mechanic needs to change, and the defense needs to feel compelled to do something other than just zerg and hold one point. And I agree that this should tie in with the towers. Here is what I propose:

* As McCurley mentioned, put a player cap on the capture mechanic. 20 sounds reasonable to me. That way the attacker (of the point) is compelled to push the defender off of it in order to "cap" it.

* Have the towers / captured points provide a buff / benefit to each side. Defenders will get the benefit to start (say a 5% damage buff for example per tower), but as a tower falls, the benefit transfers from the defenders to the attackers. This induces the defenders to defend the towers and gives the attackers strategic options. Towers falling extending the play time is fine by me as well. If the defenders allow a tower to fall, not only do they lose the 5% buff, but their enemy now has it and will be able to use it against them for a few more minutes.

* Modify the victory conditions from all three points being required to achieve victory. Instead, go to a system used by Arathi Basin. Each faction gets some form of resource for how many control points they hold, and the rate these points accumulates goes up if all three points are captured. You could even include the towers in this equation. Rather than providing a buff (or in addition to that) they could also give the attackers a one-time resource point benefit when they are destroyed.

In any case, Tol Barad certainly needs some tweaking, and I think that Blizzard realizes this. I just hope they get around to seriously doing that tweaking soon.