When you're loading AV the first thing you have to do is realistically assess yourself as a PvPer. Are you the guy who's been playing since beta and knows every class better than the ppl playing them as well has being able to pwn anyone 1v1 with a 95% success? No really, stop and think about it and I'm not talking just duels. The answer is prolly a no and it�s ok to be honest with yourself because this will stop 99% of your frustration with AV. Next, pause and consider what you know about AV? It's ok to admit you�re an AV noob, and that�s fine because you're willing to learn, right?
So you�ve assessed yourself as an average pvper. How does this affect your role in group and mass pvp? It basically means you should nvr go anywhere alone. When you rez, look for the nearest friendly player and follow them like the buddy system back in kindergarten. Second realize pvp is not all about DPS. Snares, CC and interrupts are what group pvp is about; dps second. If you�re a hunter you should be laying an ice trap every chance you get, sheep that rogue trying to gank your priest and give them a few seconds to escape so the group has time to turn their attention and focus fire.
If you don�t assess your capabilities properly you�re going to be that rogue who tries to 3 shot a resting clothie and ends up humiliated screaming at your monitor BUT I HAVE LEET DPS!!! AV FAVORS MY ENEMY FACTION!! Even if you can 3 shot a resting clothie in world pvp you can�t here unless you really are uber. Why? Cause unlike world pvp they�re expecting you. Everyone is here to fight, there is zero surprise. Also even if you are fairly good 1v1 how much health do you usually finish a duel with?
I�m assuming if it was any sort of a balanced contest you finish with 50% or less. So you won a duel that used 50% of your health. Do you ever start another duel immediately after or do you rest up and wait for your cool downs to reset? See what I�m getting at here? You�ve just set yourself up to be wtfpwnt with easy if you enter AV with a duelist mentality.
Winning AV is not based on how fast you can kill your enemy because they just respawn 30 seconds later. You kill your enemy to displace them. You�re fighting for the ground beneath your feet. In fact you can win ground by not fighting at all sometimes. If your enemy is dumb enough to chase you and leave a flag unguarded to be capped by a rogue you�ve conquered that area without firing a shot.
When played right you�re going to die a lot in AV the only question is how you choose to go! Did you die occupying 4 enemy PCs as long as possible while your friends DPS them down? Did you die while kiting riders to your base for disposal? Did you chase someone for half a minute trying to get that last killing blow only to find your self surrounded by enemy guards who beat your face in? You�ve got to find ways other than DPS to snatch ground away from your enemy; although DPS is good too, it just can�t be the only option for an average player.
Acronyms
FoS = field of strife, this is the center area.
GY = grave yard
FW = frost wolf, the horde faction and main base
RH = relief hut, gy in the main horde base
IB = ice blood, horde controlled area around the FoS.
TP = tower point, horde tower south of IBgy
Galv = Galvanger, the horde captain who lives in IB garrison SW of the FoS
Bali = Balinda, the alliance captain who lives in SH garrison, N of the FoS
SH = Stone hearth, the alliance controlled area around the FoS
SF = snow fall, area on a steep hill NW of the FoS
IW = ice wingside
ID = iron deep mine, alliance side
LT = lieutenant, these guys are elites and follow patrol routes, killing them stops some NPC guard respawns
WC = wing commander, not used much but it fit the pattern thus far
(of course it�s still fuzzy, take some time and study a map ^_^)
Lets start with the basics; there is a multitude of quests to do in AV. The first one every noob should do is the quest for the recall trinket. Once equipped this trinket ports you to your base like a hearth stone. As you raise your rep you can see a vender outside the instance for an upgrade. The quest involves going to the farming cave on your side and getting a banner; easy for a 60 to solo, nearly impossible for a 51 to do alone.
There are other quests for rep like discovering the locations of wing commanders and capturing a bunker/tower. There are repeatable quests for turn-ins some of which are just for rep and others are for in-game events.
The repeatable quests are important so you better learn them. PCs and NPC guards drop items you need for these repeatable quests. There is a racial loot you get that is for rep only, 1 rep from your AV faction and 10 rep from a city depending on the racial loot you turn in. The game event repeaters are for Ivus/Lokholar, armor upgrades, infantry, riders and wing commanders.
Each side has a set of Riders and Infantry they can call. The NPCs are summoned by completing the quest. Getting riders involves gathering harnesses from the enemy�s mobs. For alliance they have to kill wolves and loot their hides and horde kill and loot rams (you don't need skinning). Then each side has to tame mounts for their riders. Alliance tame rams, horde tame wolves. Each side needs 25 mounts and 25 hides before the riders are rdy. After the riders are used it takes around an hour for them to respawn and make the quests available again.
The infantry are called by gathering supplies from the mines. It takes less supply runs when gathering from the enemy mine rather than the one closest to your base. 240 supplies are needed from your own and 80 from the enemy mine. you need the quest before you can loot the supplies and each person carries 10 at a time.
The lords are called after enough turn-ins are done which I believe is around 500. The event is triggered and the turn-in NPCs walk to the FoS where they wait for 10 ppl to help summon. Click their summoning circle and hold it for like 10 seconds. The lord will appear in the FoS and stand around for about 10 minutes doing nothing; then they start advancing on the enemy. The summon NPCs are really really tough. Imo the toughest in the game except for the lords but there�s a couple of them and only the leader of the circle has to make it to the FoS. Using them in a desperate strategy to push the enemy out of your base and off the GY outside is possible. If you�re lucky you can ride them all the way to the FoS for a brutal turn over.
Wing commanders die 99% of the time because of noobs. The wing commanders have to be rescued and if you start them on their walk home they will get attacked by enemy NPCs and die. They're basically an escort quest but they will pull their own agro so protect them on their route. There are 3 wing commanders, for the horde 1 in IWbunker, mill area and nDB bunker. For alliance 1 in TP, 1 in lower FWkeep and the last in eFW tower.
Assuming one side isn't letting you walk right in and take their stuff, you�re gonna need to fight your way in. The game pretty much tells you what to do in the quest reward book, PEELING THE ONION but no one ever reads it. Your gonna hear alot of BS over /1 and /ra that consist of cursing, insults and frustration because said person nvr read peeling the onion, is a noob and refuses to learn anything about AV.
If your team is attacking somewhere and dying alot its probably because there's a ton of NPCs no one bothered to clear. If you don't clear LTs, guards are gonna respawn fast. Invariably someone calls /ra CHARGE TEH BUNKER are you pansies afraid of dying?! So you run into the bunker and meet 10 NPC guards who splat you down in under 4 seconds. Why did this happen? Someone is a moron.
A note on communication in AV: you don't need vent to work together. All it takes is a few ppl who understand what they're looking at and reporting it over /1. The above example should have gone like this...
NPCs aren't pulled. (few minutes later) NPCs are cleared from the Bunker. (ppl start advancing because A: there's no NPCs DPSing you down B: you just told everyone the bunker is rdy to be capped). Notice the lack of commands and orders broadcast in capital letters? This is key to getting things done.
So how does your team get to their objective? Realize there are layers of defense that have to be softened up with each advance. As each side is approaching the enemy you should be looking for LTs to tag and pull away from their supporting NPCs and dispose of quickly. If you mount up and charge into IBgy you will die. Clearing NPCs is vital. It�s gonna take a few minutes to find the LTs in the area and kill them, don't get ahead of yourself. Even if you get onto the flag and sway it, any enemy PCs that show up will easily win if they are mixed in with NPCs.
To sum it up, each side attacks, the zerg will wax and wane like ocean waves. During high tide you should be softening up enemy defense opening the way for the next advance to crest even further. If you don't know who is working on this task, probably no one is and ppl are yelling in /ra to charge and other BS. So instead of succumbing to zerg-lust you might want to take on a little responsibility and do it yourself.
The poor man's guide to Alterac Valley
The Join As Group button is gone, this means AV will always be a pug from now on. With a pug most highly coordinated plans are simply beyond them. Using positive encouragement, discussion and respect the zerglings can be united into a cohesive force. Realize that not everyone is there to win, find the one's who are and make the most of whom you do have working hard. Most of all realize that AV games are long usually lasting anywhere from 2 to 8 hours; it takes time to accomplish objectives and make gains. The rewards are worth it though, a win nets 4-9k bonus honor not counting all the PvP honor points you'll get while keeping the average player who wants to pvp safe from honor farming guilds in AB/WSG and gank squads in world PvP.
I play horde and thus I have unavoidable biases. Alliance all seem to agree that horde have a terrain advantage but theorycrafting over the map, it should appear to the keen eye of a strategist that alliance have a map advantage. I know from experience that it makes for a very boring game running between all the towers to defend against one rogue stealthing past useless NPCs and swaying the flag through the back wall. Further more the alliance triangle arrangement of bunkers is obviously a stronger setup than the horde dangling string of towers.
Assaulting the final bases; alliance say FW keep is hard. Do they know that FW towers can be bypassed? Ranting letters on the forums nvr mention this simply tactic. Do they know that assaulting one alliance bunker is comparable to lower FW keep? They nvr had to pull guards in a sequence until FW keep. They just say we lost therefore the map must be biased! Examine the map as a theorycrafter and explain why horde has any advantage all? There are numerous flaws in the horde setup and the way horde defenses work, but that just adds to the flavor of the horde faction. We're sloppy, dirty, ugly and ruthless. The alliance setup is sturdy, planned and cunning.
Bottom line is; alliance advance through the map easier but have a harder time holding their gains. Horde have a harder time advancing but an easier time holding their front. Here's the kicker; the entire progression horde take going up the map teaches them how to take and hold GYs, assault bunkers and control spawns. Alliance don't encounter this strategy till they hit FW keep. Alliance have a straight forward progression and once they gain the upper hand they must shift strategies to what the horde have been practicing all along. For alliance, the difficulty they face holding their gains is directionally proportional to the ease they had taking them in the first place. Do you realize you're now defending what the horde were trying to defend 30 minutes ago and lost? If the horde lost it with NPC support you sure as heck can lose it too; this is why games swing wildly at the end when horde appear to be losing.
It�s rather easy to blow through IB with 1 solid attack and sit at FWgy for hours. However, getting into FW keep is nothing short of a nightmare. Holding the alliance at the FW gate is still a strong position for the horde. This is where the test of team work and skill is most important. Often I sit up on my perch guarding the ledge under eFW tower and watch a flood of alliance rush to lower FW keep and scatter. They agro more NPCs then they can handle and fall back to the GY. Repeat 3-4 more times and the yard is clear. Repeat the same pattern of chaos and bad play in the mid lvl bunker 4-5 times and the alliance have dicked around so long the NPCs are beginning to respawn on the lower yard area. This cycle takes about 45 minutes; with me personally guarding the ledge they have no way to sneak around to ninja the RHgy which is the favorite tactic of the alliance on my homer server. When the alliance have beaten themselves silly we start turning the game around.
Enough theorycrafting, how does it work irl? The truth is the map is evenly balanced. You might say alliance returning tamed rams is a longer run than returning tamed wolves; but alliance have a shorter run to ID mine than horde have to CT mine. Do the distances matter? Maybe. Are they marginal differences? Yes. Any differences that can be identified are put there intentionally to give each side a distinctive play experience. There is no weakness either side has that doesn't also have strength to make up for it. The winner will be the side that can protect their weaknesses while exploiting their enemy�s weaknesses and blunting their enemy�s strengths.
Understanding class roles
Warrior/Priest, are each half of a class, like the friggin wonder twins. Healy powers activate, form of a ginsu shredder!
Hunters --> yah shoot stuff, alot. plz don't spend more than 10 seconds chasing anyone, if you do you'll probably die. Best roll is stay with the group; hunters are the best group pvp partners to have along side you.
Rogues- the hardest working class and most needed, they die alot, get little thanks ninja'ing PvE mines for the good of all. The rogue is a fantastic support class, like tiger sharks in the water; they're our guard dogs rdy to rip off legs if enemies get too close. Rogues should not be going on suicide assassination runs to 1shot resting clothies. 1 clothie at 10%health vs 1 rogue dead from 100% health is not a decent trade off and your chance of success is slim. Fighting rogues should be swarming the front lines to pin down over aggressive enemies and protecting our rear clothies from other rogues. Ninja'ing mines is the best support in the game, however most rogues will decline this job instead farming HKs. Ask them nicely, sometimes they're willing, other times they�ll tell you to suck pen15 and do what ever they want.
Druids- can ninja objectives with rogues, heal or dps. usually not a lot of them so fit them in any of the 3 roles. Druids tend to be insanely over aggressive in 1.8.x and thus they tend to die alot, often pointlessly. Read my advice to hunters, no long chases, you'll just die.
Mages- tend to die alot due to over aggressive chasing and suicide AE spam runs. Realize once you leave your ranks you are free HK. Best to stay with the group and provide phat nuke and AoE support, you're the hammer to their thumb!
Warlocks- have AV on farm status, easily the most dangerous class in this BG. Any warlock of just moderate skill will get in the top 25% of the kill board. Why? They have tons of tools, counters, nukes, AoE, DoTs and HP. Don't chase them if they retreat, they'll just make you look stupid. They can solo ninja any GY cept SF of course. Send pet to gather guards, AoE fear, passive pet and cap flag. Warlock is the dueler class, realize if you find yourself in some random 1v1 with a warlock you'll probably lose, even 2v1 you stand a fair chance of meeting your spirit healer again.
Shaman- it�s rare to find a truly leet shamy played to his full potential. I've only once seen a shamy near the top of the kill board and it was like 150 killing blows o.O with the second name having around 57 killing blows. Their short range nukes and slow AoE don't really add up. They're great healers and shock troops for assaulting bunkers. Spam chain lighting whenever possible to hit stealthed rogues.
Paladins- why do these guys shield and heal to full when surrounded by 15 horde just to die 3 seconds after their shield drops? The palli class suffers from hound dog syndrome OMGZ LOW LIFEZ, MUST CHASE, KILLING BLOW!!!1! ---> spirit healer. Great shock troops, they break lines and lead charges! Horde should just ignore them when they do this but they don't more often than not. They make flag caps EZmode. There are usually a lot of these guys around and should be the cornerstone of your team work and healing.
Group Organization is pretty simple.
Put the priests with the warriors; these two classes are like butter and toast. They need each other to work their best. Warriors should not suicide charge in, your dps isn't that great while in ghost form ~_^ and priests should not stand at the very back of the group casting heals; they should follow closely and keep mobile. If the priest goes too far the warrior can't come back to save you. The priest should stay near to fear bomb if their warrior gets mobbed, SW:P, mind flay or nuke to help finish off the warriors target. Hunters are still going to try and tag the priests first, warriors need to be aware of their priest at all times and either follow them in retreat or rage face on the priest killer.
Put druids, shamans, paladins in the warrior group too to fill up on healers. priests tend to stay away from AV for good reason. They get targeted first, die often and spend a lot of time chatting with the spirit healer.
Put the rogues together and they might be so inclined to ninja a mine. Rogues work well in pairs; their stuns compliment each other nicely. A group of rogues who've played together before will get into a stun rotation routine, it�s like a death squad from which there is no escape.
That�s really all the grouping that needs to be done, be nice and put friends who want to play together in the same group if they ask. They'll work well as a team if they're already acquainted. If you don't they might just leave the main raid and form their own group anyway. Better to have everyone together.
The games starts, dun dun dun...
If your not a warrior don't expect heals.
Don't chase for excessively long times. If you scatter you're enemy in defeat and then scatter yourselves to chase them down, your gains equal ZERO.
Undead cannibalize is an in combat regen that nets about 65% of their total health in 8 seconds.
First thing that is going to happen is, everyone runs out to the FoS and zergs for a bit. This is important, even if you think its not, trust me it is. If you're raid leader and I don't mean leader of a 40 man guild run all on vent, I mean some average schmuck trying to sort out the chaos and farm some honor points, you�re not a leader at all. Think of your self as a zergling herder! No one will listen; ppl will argue and whine, nothing will be precise or coordinated.
The worst thing you can do is start whining over raid chat, No one listens, I know how to win, follow orders! Boo friggin hoo, if you do this you�re a bad leader, suck it! Go back to playing WC3. Your dealing with ppl now, not peons, treat them as such. In any game there's going to be 2 afk botting rep mooches, 18 ppl who just want to farm honor points, 10 ppl who are first timers and confused by the chaos and 10 ppl who really want to win. Those ppl who want to win are the leaders and you need to recognize them quick. Get those ppl all on the same page and you'll win, they lead and the farmers and dummies will follow.
Get everyone to call out battle info; like how many ppl are attacking Galv, 15 alliance heading for IBgy. No one person can see it all, control it all and manage it all.
Herd the zerg! It�s not really possible to coordinate ppl by group; at any given moment half a group will be dead and rezzing. Traveling to an objective is a problem; roving bands of honor farmers will see your ninj