The proposed changes to Alterac Valley were posted this afternoon on ye olde World of Warcraft forums.
We all love background flavor, but let’s get down to it. Nethaera said (clipped by me at will):
Each team will have a starting reinforcement count. Reinforcements can be lost in significant amounts if a tower is destroyed or if Captain Galvangar or Belinda Stonehearth is killed. For each team member death, an additional reinforcement will be lost. On the death of General Dre’Thar or Vanndar Stormpike, all reinforcements are lost and the team is defeated. At any point in time, if a team is reduced to zero reinforcements, the opposing team will win the battle. Defending your own teammates, towers, and key NPCs will be an important aspect of maintaining team resources and achieving victory in Alterac Valley.
I think I like … go on …
Warlords and their general will be more closely linked in the next patch. Pulling one is a guarantee the other will come as well. Each team begins with four Warmasters. Destroying a tower will eliminate the associated Warmaster. Unlike the current game play, however, destroying the enemy tower will not add a Warmaster to your own side.
That sounds like code for “we think we fixed that Vann bullshit.”
Where it currently takes five minutes to gain control (of a tower), the time will be reduced to four minutes. The honor for capturing a tower will also be increased.
I like, I like.
Currently, players can sometimes be sent (upon death) to their starting tunnels … players will instead respawn at a team-controlled graveyard. Should the team not have a graveyard under their control, they will respawn in the starting tunnel.
I’m on the fence about that, but ok.
Players will only be awarded bonus honor during the battle for destroying enemy towers and slaying the enemy Captain. Once the battle is concluded, bonus honor will be awarded for intact towers, a surviving Captain, and for victory in battle. The bonus honor awarded should be similar to previous totals …
And I become suspicious. I’ll bet my idea of similar totals isn’t going to be the new reality.
Lastly, we are changing NPC interactions within Alterac Valley. We have reduced the number of elite NPCs in Stormpike and Frostwolf holds as well as sent all Commanders and Lieutenants out of Alterac Valley.
Sounds interesting at least. Sometimes I pine for the old AV days of 6 hour battles and the Forest Lord and Death from Above or the epic squirmishes on the Field of Strife, but then I remember that hardly anyone had time for a 6 hour (or longer) AV, including me — boy, that honor sure was sweet.
Hmm…I don’t want to see the phrase “similar totals.” I want to see mathematics.
So, was ‘squirmishes’ a typo, or a really great fusion-word? ‘Cause, if the latter, I bow to the master.
Hmm… I’m not really sure how I feel about this at the moment.
Certainly, something needs to be done about the current AV to change it back from a PVE style honor farm into a real PVP contest. I think I did a dozen matches during the last bonus honor weekend, and after each one, nobody on either team had more than 10 honorable kills.
But at the same time, I’m *really* not sure I like the idea that Joe Pickup Group, who joins the level 70 AV at 61 and goes around getting owned over and over by the Alliance will be directly causing our team to lose.
For the most part I think these are positive changes. Even though I’ve spent a depressing percentage of my life in that battleground over the years, there are times, especially when playing defense, that AV can be really, really fun. 95% of the time, it’s mind-numbingly boring, but that one game out of 20 where everything just clicks is some of the most fun I have playing this game.
Hopefully these changes put the emphasis back on PVP.
I hope they cap the number of reinforcements a given player can cost their team. So that the lv61 as mentioned above, can only screw his group so much.
So the biggest problem, that on alliance you can run right to the general and kill him within minutes, but on horde you can’t, has not been fixed. Linking them really does nothing since everyone does an FD pull anyway.
So what is the point of all this other crap if they don’t fix the one huge glaring problem?
I like a lot of these changes. I hope this forces more interaction between the 2 opposing forces in terms of PVP combat. Since 2.2 AV has become a run like hell to Drek or Vann; mostly because horde is now taking part of AV rather then AFKave and alliance wants to win. but I have been in games where alliance (me) would lose AV and still come out with more honor points because we were able to take both mines, kill galv, burn 4 towers, and cap 3 GYs.
IMO this should not happen. The winners should always come up with more points for winning.