So, What's happened to AV?

[Brakogar]

I have read comments both here and in the wow forums that AV has become crap. They say that it has simply become a race and non of the summons like Loklar or the Wind and wolf riders never happen now. I heard that people don't even bother with towers and both armies rarely meet since they are both too busy racing to the opposite end.

Worse of all that I have reard is that most people there go in with the attitude of winning being only a bonus since they would still gain honor anyway so they don't even try to win at all or talk down (sometimes abuse) people who try to make the summons and win the game.

All this that I have read was confirmed when a friend at work who is new to Wow had his first few matches at AV in the Aussie realms and said that he had never seen any of the summons and that it's always a race with not much battle involved.

This saddens me as it used to be my favorite battleground.

So what was nerfed or changed in the past months to cause it to degrade so badly?

[Tillna]

I havewnever been abke to summon the elemntals due to the fact that people get to your base to fats to do the turn in

[Brakogar]

When I started AV almost all matches had a summon of elementals. When both sides managed the summon at the same time it was a sight to behold.

What I am curious about is what is the fundamental change that turned AV into a race rather than an epic battle as it used to be?

[Gavril]

Two things,

First, when they changed AV and eliminated most all of the NPCs, and made turn-in's much easier, the games sped along, and became race-like.

However, still, almost all of these games had summons, and a lot had wolf riders, usually all the flight attackers were up, too.

The final blow was the battle groupings and cross-server PVP. I think the fact that you can join an AV almost immediately depreciates the battlegrounds themselves. Before, you had to wait hours to join an AV, so when you got in, you wanted to make it worthwhile.

[Melairina]

you can kill Van in 8 minutes now using an expliot. I'm seeing this happen quite often now.

[Brakogar]

Thanks for the info.

Well that sucks and it sure kills one of my once favorite wow activities.

[Malakim]

Ya AV is garbage now... they really need to bring back the big troll

[Fallacy]

However, with the new PvP system, I see games dragging out a lot longer because, well, it's worth more honor to try and cap everything and kill as much as you can than just racing to finish the game, especially since the worth of marks has gone down significantly.

[Tillna]

what big troll?

[Malakim]

what big troll?

OMG you don't know about the troll... I am an AV old timer now

[Fallacy]

The troll was the original objective for getting your Ice Barbed Spear and such back in the old days.

[Teelia]

I've had some enjoyable AV's lately. Some are over in 10 minutes, some stretch on for hours. Last night I did two AV's that lasted over an hour each. The second one was the best.....

The horde had steamrolled us by the time I got in, and were all the way at the Stormpike Aid Station taking the flag. We not only managed to get the aid station back, but pushed them out of all the other areas too, and took every graveyard and tower on the map. Somehow, during the confusion, they summoned the ice lord, and began pushing our defense back. We were all the way back at the aid station, with the ice lord at half hit points when the Alliance killed Drek and won the game. It was probably one of the most violent and fun AV's I've ever been in, and if the horde had won I wouldn't have even cared.

Yes, lots of people are trying to get quick honor, but don't lose faith. AV is still the best BG we have right now, in my opinion, and it hasn't yet lost its fun for me.

[Dewce]

what is the exploit? kiting the marshals away and taking van out? i've NEVER seen an 8 minute AV... i wish i have... it usually turns into a race but there is more pvp in it these days than there was when cross server first came out...

[Teelia]

what is the exploit? kiting the marshals away and taking van out? i've NEVER seen an 8 minute AV... i wish i have... it usually turns into a race but there is more pvp in it these days than there was when cross server first came out...

Not sure what the exploit is, but I know I was in one a couple nights ago. We had just got to the FW GY and fought our way through the defense there when we hear Van Shouting, and then soon after the horde won. I wish I had taken a screen. It said elapsed time 7 minutes.

[Dewce]

that's insane there had to be like next to no honor made in that game...

[Keraph]

I've been in AV's that lasted about 20 minutes a piece. That actually seems to be the average length, now. Shame.

[Dewce]

i love it... i mean it's fun when they go longer too, but right now i'm on a mission to get gear... i'll have fun pvp experiences after i get all my gear..

[Keraph]

My fun PvP experiences happen out in the world, so I'm fine with it.

[Cyrass]

Ya AV is garbage now... they really need to bring back the big troll
Agreed. Bring back Korrak the Bloodrager!

[Aurra]

What killed it was the cross realm battlegrounds.

AV's pop almost every minute now...used to be you'd be in cue for hours on end, so people wanted to make the most of their time in there and minimum game used to be 1 1/2 hours up to some lasting 4-5 hours and beyond.

Since you get a lot of bonus honor for "winning" and the cues are 1000 times shorter, people just want to get in, get out.


The marathon AV's are just non existant anymore like they used to be.

[Gavril]

what is the exploit? kiting the marshals away and taking van out? i've NEVER seen an 8 minute AV... i wish i have... it usually turns into a race but there is more pvp in it these days than there was when cross server first came out...

I was actually just in a 9 minute AV; they did the marshal kiting thing. We had killed all lieutenants + Balinda, capped all the towers except the Dun Baldar towers.. so all in all we lost 28 honour, but gained more for the fact that it lasted 9 minutes and we got everything else

[Muatah]

What killed it was the cross realm battlegrounds.



And the removal of what seems to be a good 1/4th or so of the NPC Guards.

Hell, you used to have to fight your way across the Field of Strife through groups of 4 or 5 enemy guards and/or Lieutenants. Now? I can ride all the way north without hardly being touched by anything other than archers....and not near as many of them as there used to be.

[Malakim]

I think you are being generous with the quarter removal estimate I would say more along 80% were removed

[Chingaso]

You can trap Vann in the "hall" and kill him after the marshalls reset. It makes baby Jesus cry.

On a positive note, with honor points being what they are now, no one ever says, "Fuck Balinda, we don't need to kill her," anymore.

[Nadea]

You can trap Vann in the "hall" and kill him after the marshalls reset. It makes baby Jesus cry.

On a positive note, with honor points being what they are now, no one ever says, "Fuck Balinda, we don't need to kill her," anymore.Yeah, thank goodness. But she's such a pushover these days!

[Melairina]

what is the exploit? kiting the marshals away and taking van out? i've NEVER seen an 8 minute AV... i wish i have... it usually turns into a race but there is more pvp in it these days than there was when cross server first came out...

Not sure what the exploit is, but I know I was in one a couple nights ago. We had just got to the FW GY and fought our way through the defense there when we hear Van Shouting, and then soon after the horde won. I wish I had taken a screen. It said elapsed time 7 minutes.

7?! @#$%$#% This is getting stupid now.

[Melairina]

I eat my words.... lawlz

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tR2n4XhRQ58

ZOMGALLIANCEEZMODEPVPAVALLIANCEADVANTAGELOLZ

[Shadowspeak]

AV is stupid as hell... it's not a race anymore- just a waste of time. The only reason I even do it is for the marks. I can get WAAAYY more honor just doing warsong or basin again and again.

Oh, and WSG actually doesnt suck now that more honor comes from killing instead of winning.

[Dewce]

I eat my words.... lawlz

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tR2n4XhRQ58

ZOMGALLIANCEEZMODEPVPAVALLIANCEADVANTAGELOLZ

so they probably got like 50 honor maybe? doesn't really seem all that great. 15 minutes and 250ish honor is better than 50 honor every 3-4 minutes (which turns out to be aboot 187 honor every 15 minutes).

[Chum]

Hey, I go defense in Av for a reason. Full Frontal PvP action!

New Av mount: 8G

New Cape: 30G

Stopping The Alliance at Frostwolf Graveyard: priceless

[Dewce]

defense is fine as long as there is some offensive prgression... you need aboot 10 able bodied people and you can keep the alliance out of frost wolf

[Melairina]

I eat my words.... lawlz

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tR2n4XhRQ58

ZOMGALLIANCEEZMODEPVPAVALLIANCEADVANTAGELOLZ

so they probably got like 50 honor maybe? doesn't really seem all that great. 15 minutes and 250ish honor is better than 50 honor every 3-4 minutes (which turns out to be aboot 187 honor every 15 minutes).

I don't see how you can justify this at all. if the horde got 50 honor, the alliance gets shafted, PERIOD. This makes an easy way to also farm marks if you need them

it's an exploit, blizzard has said it is (but seems unwilling to issue the banhammer), don't try and justify it

[Dewce]

yeah because it's really hard to get marks when you need to grind out 140k and you only get a couple hundred per BG... it's totally logical!

[Phia]

I was burnt on AV -- there were some games where we'd just rush to the end without a single kill -- but I started playing defense last week and it's really brought the game back for me. There's usually five or six of us standing in the gap by Iceblood Graveyard, and it's a rush when the Alliance tries to break through. We fight through wave after wave, occasionally fall back to the graveyard, then push them out and retake our tower. Sometimes they break through we're force to fall back to Frostwolf Graveyard or our base, which is also exciting.

It's the most fun I've had in battlegrounds for quite awhile. And just stalling the Alliance's offense for five minutes usually decides the game.