- PVP / Alterac Valley -
From : http://www.wowwiki.com/Alterac_Valley
AV map (will open in a new page)
AV forum - Alliance. ( Winning Strategies ).
Goals :
If you've just visited AV a few times, and quickly want to know what's going on, here's a short and simple overview. The goal in AV is to kill the enemy general. With the addition of patch 2.3 each team also starts with a certain number of reinforcements, the opposing team can win by draining them to 0. This can be done by killing enemy players, capturing towers/bunkers, and killing generals. Reinforcements can be regained by capturing mines.
The two generals are raid-level bosses that can be found in their fortresses at the two ends of the map - Vann for the Alliance north, Drek for the Horde south. About 15 players need to work together in order to bring one of the generals down. A rather elaborate system of NPCs, fortifications and graveyards fills the map between the generals. Both sides can do quests to improve themselves and their NPCs, and spend quite some time capturing many positions, but usually that's not done. It is far more efficient (considering reputation and honor gain) to just rush the enemy general, and kill him ASAP. Some people think these rush games are no fun and not what the game is about.
Offense and Defense :
In the "rush" games, a strong emphasis is put on offense. Usually at least 30 people will take part in the attack, and at most 10 will try to delay the enemy. The defense needs to be aware that they do fight a losing battle, nevertheless it's usually the quality of the defense which decides the final outcome of the battle.
Important: When fighting the enemy general, NEVER run outside of his building! If he chases you out of the building, his health will reset to full. This common newbie mistake can draw battles out unnecessarily or even cause their side to lose.
Alliance :
The four important graveyards are Snowfall, Iceblood, Frostwolf and the Relief Hut. The Alliance often does not defend Stonehearth and so the Alliance caps Snowfall at about the same time as the Horde caps Stonehearth. A danger of this strategy is that if the Horde assault Snowfall before the Alliance has capped it, the Alliance have only Stormpike to resurrect in. When the Horde assault Snowfall while they also hold Stonehearth the Alliance is often forced into a turtle at Stormpike.
After Snowfall, Galvangar is normally attacked and killed, followed near simultaneous assaults on Iceblood Tower and Iceblood graveyards. The main point of defense for the horde is the bottleneck position in between Iceblood graveyard and Tower Point. Usually, the Alliance waits here until the Iceblood graveyard is fully under control before moving on. After capturing Tower Point, normally Frostwolf graveyard is taken, but lightly defended, as for most of the raid continues on, leading to small skirmishes and occasionally being recaptured by the Horde.
On the final assault on Frostwolf Keep, the Alliance captures the final 2 towers and the Frostwolf Relief Hut. They normally wait until the Relief Hut is fully captured before attacking Drek'Thar. The Strategy for attack Drek'Thar is to first pull any remaining Warmasters out, along with Drek'Thar's two wolf guards. Then, Drek'Thar is finally attacked. Due to the proximity of the AV entrance cave for Horde, Iceblood graveyard and Frostwolf graveyard are both often recaptured.
An effective strategy is to send one or more Alliance directly to the Frostwolf camp, bypassing all other objectives. This advance team prepares the way for the main offensive by capturing the East and West Frostwolf Towers and the Frostwolf Relief Hut. Rogues and Druids are particularly suited to this, as they can stealth past guards. A common newbie mistake is to pull the guards off the Relief Hut and cap it immediately. This alerts the Horde to the attack on their base and can often trigger a defensive response. It is far more effective to kill the guards first, then cap the Relief Hut flag. This allows the advance team to handle any Horde who return to defend the base, without worrying about the NPC guards at the Relief Hut. When the main offensive reaches Frostwolf, they do not have to deal with the NPC archers on the towers and can begin pulling sooner.
Horde :
Three graveyards are usually taken - Stonehearth, Stormpike and the Aid Station. Stonehearth GY is optional, but usually needed if the defense is in any way competent. Stormpike is most important, and at the same often time hard to win, because alliance players often get trapped on defense due to the chokepoint at Icewing Bunker when horde control the Stonehearth GY. Late coming alliance players also often go to defense because the alliance starting point is so close to Stormpike.
Although it seems there's a narrow passage through which all Horde forces must pass to reach Stormpike, advanced players will know that there are several approaches to the graveyard flag. Horde can go up the mountain to the right when approaching the choke then circle around near the mine or come down the cliffs above the graveyard. Horde can also come under the Dun Baldar bridge. The Alliance defense usually focuses on Stormpike, and it is not an unknown occurrence that Horde completely fails to take it. If SPGY has been taken, the Ally forces will defend the bridge next, which is a chokepoint that supposedly cannot be bypassed. However, there are reports that some horde have discovered a way to climb the cliffs to the south of Dun Baldar and enter the base that way.
Balinda (in Stonehearth outpost) may be killed when it's clear that Horde will lose (e.g. when the Alliance has the Relief Hut and pulls Drek for the first time, while the Horde is not past the bridge), in order to gain the additional reputation from her. Horde also have an opportunity to kill Balinda unmolested if the alliance is turtled at Stormpike or Dun Baldar.
Frostwolf Towers and Dun Baldar Bunkers :
For horde, a typical base defense strategy is for hunters to place freezing traps on the ramp by the Frostwolf towers to slow the Alliance and while the NPC archers and horde AOE and ranged attacks cut them down as they come up the steep ramp. Horde also often kite Alliance pets or players into Drek's keep to aggro warmasters and Drek's wolves into the battle. Horde can also try to aggro the wing commanders into the battle as they stand nearby. Horde often run into Drek's keep for cover and to heal.
For alliance, the strategy is similar in that hunter freezing traps and AOE and ranged attacks on the Dun Baldar bridge are effective. The NPC archers in the bunkers aid greatly in the fight. However, the horde often send a stealthed rogue or druid into the bunkers to kill or despawn the archers ahead of the main horde offense. Due to a bug, the archers often despawn when the bunker is assaulted. To protect the archers, a hunter can keep freezing traps and flares on the bridge to prevent stealthers from getting in the base ahead of the horde offense. Kiting horde pets or players back to the druids up the path by the North bunker may draw the druids into the battle. Fleeing to the druids may also serve as a sanctuary for Alliance players to heal. The several NPCs in Dun Baldar help to slow the horde advance.
Frostwolf keep is actually harder to take than Dun Baldar. In Dun Baldar, Horde can just ride in on mounts and swarm the towers, it's even possible to jump with the mount from the mountain in a window of the left tower. In contrast, at Frostwolf Keep the Alliance has to run up a set of ramps, while the Horde are inside their towers blasting away at the invaders. The Frostwolf towers are actually usable by the players, and helpful on defense, whereas the Dun Baldar bunkers are too far away from the entrance, only the NPC archers can reach the bridge. The Dun Baldar bunkers are more of a liability, the horde can reach them more easily than the Alliance can reach the horde towers, and the Alliance have to focus on taking the bunkers back, taking the focus off the bridge. Where with horde their two towers ARE the entrance. Focusing on taking the horde towers back and defending the entrance (to the top level) can be done simultaneously.
Strategies :
Advice to new players - The strategy points below are mostly opinions on how AV does/should play out. Don't enter AV as a new player believing that because you have read the strategies section below that you know what to do and proceed to start ordering other players around. This will most likely result in ridicule; you will not be the first. Additionally, you will not know if people speaking are veterans or newbies. You can only learn how to play AV from experience. Listen, watch, learn and within your first 50 - 100 games you will know all there is to know. Try not to form too many opinions based on your first few games, many new players fall into the trap of assuming that because their side has lost 5 games in a row using the same strategy, that the strategy must be wrong. Play both in the offensive and defensive groups in order to understand how they affect each other.
Standard Battle Strategy :
A battle in Alterac Valley tends to follow a standard pattern:
* Initial Phase: Both factions attempt to gain control of the enemy chokepoint to prevent access to the Field of Strife. For the Alliance, this means capturing Iceblood Graveyard and destroying Iceblood Tower. For the Horde, this means capturing Stonehearth Graveyard and destroying Stonehearth Bunker. Snowfall Graveyard is easily defended and difficult to capture once a side has claimed it.
* Consolidation and Advance: Typically one faction will control the chokepoint and capture the graveyard there. That faction will then attempt to push onwards to the graveyard nearest the enemy base (Stormpike or Frostwolf). The defending faction will attempt to recover their graveyard and delay the advance. Often, both graveyards are captured and the two factions push forward simultaneously, leaving around 10 players on defense.
* Fortress Assault: Once a faction has captured the graveyard outside the enemy fortress, they will attempt to push into the fortress. For the Alliance, this means pushing through a twisty series of ramps to the upper courtyard, where the two Frostwolf towers and the Frostwolf Relief Hut are located. For the Horde, this means fighting across the bridge and into the Dun Baldar Bunkers located north and south of the main road, and then to the Stormpike Aid Station located on the rear plaza. Defenders can use their trinkets to portal back to the main defensive area during this phase.
* Fortress Capture: Each faction has a graveyard close to the enemy fortress. It is important for the opposing faction to take this graveyard and leave a few defenders behind to allow it to cap.
* General Pull:Patch 2.3.0 (11/13/07): After patch 2.3 the generals/dogs can no longer be pulled independently. They are linked to the general and will be reset if pulled outside of the fortress.
* All In: The raid leader should give the "All In" command, and everyone enters the fortress, again allow the main tank to pick up aggro before laying on the dps, again have healers only heal the main tank. If generals/dogs are still left from undestroyed towers, these are usually off tanked, ignored, or killed depending on the group. Defenders may attempt to trinket in and disrupt the fight, or to mount a coordinated attack into their own base from the graveyard outside. Once the general is dead, the match is over.
IMPORTANT: Once the "All In" command has been given, NO ONE must leave the general's room once inside. If the general chases you outside, he will immediately reset and heal to FULL HEALTH.
There are certainly variations on this pattern. The most important factor in the flow of a battle is control of the graveyards. A stealthy capture of a graveyard in the interior of the map while a heavy attack recovers a graveyard at the end of the map (for example, a stealth capture of Snowfall while the Horde recovers Frostwolf from Iceblood), can cause a sudden reversal of the entire match. (In this example, the Alliance would be forced to resurrect at Stonehearth, suddenly losing control of half the map). The use of cavalry or ground unit charges in coordination with an offensive or defensive push is another rich source of advanced strategies.
Patch 1.11 (6/20/06): Since patch 1.11, it is considered a good strategy to allow the enemy to hold at least one friendly graveyard, since recapturing all the friendly graveyards will force the enemy back into its base and make the offense team's job considerably more difficult. This leads to a race of offenses that can be easily lost if there is not some defense to slow the opposing team's assault. So an all-out assault tends to be the fastest way to win or the fastest way to lose. Around 10 defenders will often give your offense time to wage the assault. Balance is key.
Many times you'll find a faction not playing any defense. This could easily lead to disaster. Take the case where one side doesn't play defense, but the other puts 10 on defense. The offense going against no defense will get to the enemy stronghold much quicker than the offense going against the 10. The function of the 10 is not to hold ground, but to delay the enemy's offense. From experience, the Horde has a much bigger tendency to not play defense - and lose accordingly. It is worth noting that a common argument for the Horde's tendency to play full offense is the imbalanced nature of the terrain. While Dun Baldar fortress and its associated bunkers and Aid station are protected by a choke point (a relatively thin bridge), Frostwolf Keep and its associated towers and Relief Hut are easier to access due to the open terrain.
The Ever-Dreaded Turtle :
When the battlefield becomes stalled from many different anamolies occuring (Graveyard / Tower defensive capture, strong holding defense) and the game becomes difficult to rush all the way to the opposing team's leader for both sides, you have a slow moving game aka a turtle.
The strategy will have to change at the point your team realizes it cannot race the other team to killing the other's general. Typically, defense is put to emphasis on the towers in queue of being captured by the other team.
The common mistake that loses the game for most teams is that they focus on capturing the other team's main graveyard early. Example: Horde captures Alliance's main graveyard. The Alliance members playing defense go to a graveyard by their offense to join them. The Horde defense is still intact but gets outnumbered soon and eventually has the main graveyard taken. They join the offensive side, but not for a significant amount of time. The situation is even worse when the Alliance's bunkers have JUST been captured to start the four minute timer on both of them. There will be confusion on whether to put emphasis on "ALL IN" or to camp the towers so they don't fall to Alliance recaptures. In all that time the Horde is divided on the strategy, the Alliance has the full team on the Horde lead captain with perhaps the two last towers in capture queue or not.
If you are sure that the defense is too strong to break without a flag capture, then the next best strategy is to push them towards their base and capture both towers around their main GY. Farm the defensive players, but DO NOT capture their graveyard. This prevents them from joining the offensive side in zerging your defense. Once the last two towers are captured, you can either grind the other team's reinforcement count to 0 or capture their graveyard and ALL IN on their leader.
Common Exploitable Mistakes :
* Open Graveyards - The downfall of a team in a race against each other is the defense being underalloted. Both the Aid Station and the Relief Hut are soloable by anyone strong enough to take on or crowd control all four guards; typically a rogue. If capturing the main graveyard is synchronized closely enough to the capturing of the graveyard before resistance from the other team could be wiped out completely and the last two bunkers / towers could be captured without the worry of getting zerged. This can be prevented if one player camps the flag (preferrably a hunter with stealth detection) so it doesn't get ninja'd. If you are a rogue or a druid that is geared well enough to take on all four of the NPC guards, work from the start of the game only to getting to the enemy's main flag, first. If multiple rogues or druids are working on taking everything early, synchronize it so the opposing team's two graveyards and two buildings before the enemy general are captured. Players who notice this should immediately get to any captured points to secure holding them.
* Hasty Runs - Players running immediately out of captured towers / bunkers right after they capture them also cause problems. If the other team has players that stray off to try to recapture towers, then they can kill the defense if there is any and recapture the contested building. Recapturing will disturb the allocation of players on the other team by having some go back just to capture it again. Time is undoubtedly wasted and sometimes creates a disadvantage. It is hard to call whether to put one or many into a building because it happens in a later phase of the game. Making sure the flags of the buildings are captured as quickly as possible so that players are not left behind for too long and a recapture would be too late. On the contrary, if the other team is attempting to zerg everything in sight, but leaves not enough players behind to camp pending captures, a team of defense can be organized to follow the opposing offensive closely behind only to recapture anything that they fail to keep their eyes on.
Patch 2.3 Changes :
In Patch 2.3 Alterac Valley has seen major changes. At present, these include:
* A "reinforcement count" is a new victory metric introduced. Each team starts with 600 reinforcements that are lost as the battle goes on. When a team reaches zero reinforcements, the match is lost.
* Losing towers costs 75 reinforcements.
* Losing Captain Galvangar or Balinda Stonehearth costs 100 reinforcements.
* Each team member death costs one reinforcement.
* The death of General Drek'Thar or Vanndar Stormpike costs all remaining reinforcements, automatically losing the match for that team.
* Warmasters can no longer be single-pulled.
* Destroying a tower will eliminate an associated warmaster on the opponent's side.
* Warmasters cannot be regained once lost.
* Time required to capture towers and graveyards reduced from five minutes to four - except for the first capture of Snowfall Graveyard which is 5 minutes.
* Players will only respawn at the starting tunnel graveyard if their team controls no other graveyards.
* Bonus honor will be awarded only for destroying towers and the enemy captain, as well as for having any of these remaining on your own side at the end of the match, i.e. bonus honor is now balanced around the other objectives on the map.
* Fewer elites in Stormpike and Frostwolf holds.
* No more lieutenants and commanders.
* Controlling a mine now grants one reinforcement every 45 seconds, or 2 reinforcements every 45 seconds if you control both, up to a maximum of 600.