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Hey all
I am almost high enought to really start grinding out some honor. I am wondering what are good things to do in AV? My initial thought was hey I can hold a tower all by myself, however looking and Vyndree's video and reading some other things I am beginning to rethink that. So Im throwing it out to the group, what do you do in AV?
Thanks
I used to take and hold towers by myself. Just align yourself so you are dug in and you can take quite a few people before they manage to get to you as long as you don't get swarmed by 10 at once. Extra points for taking and defending the last few towers or huts yourself.
I routinely cap and hold towers by myself. In fact, I started to skip towers most of the time. I'd ride straight past Icewing Bunker and head for Dun Baldur North Bunker because their base is farther away from the action, so I usually got less alliance coming back to defend the Bunker. Plus, that means that your actual offensive line of attack gets that many less people defending Icewing. I never had a DB bunker taken back from me, and I've had groups of 5-6 rush at me. Those bunkers are made for a Chain Lightning, all those alliance standing together just get blown to bits.
Also, since I'm horde side, I had a close relationship with Galvanger at the beginning of every match. Alliance heads straight there every game, and Galv does some mean damage when you blow up all the tanks first. Looking at your signature, it looks like you're running 5 different classes. I think you should be able to have them all throw dps, but I caution that you're going to have a rough time with them. I found that while in pvp, it's best to have as little function as possible. I had literally 9 buttons that I used. Follow, spread out, chain lightning, lightning bolt, shock, chain heal on each other, chain heal on the main's target, and one button each for pve and pvp totems. PVE = Wrath and Springs, PVP = Grounding and tremors. I kept it as simple as I could, and succeeded. I could have had macros for healing each party member with lesser healing waves, and had one specced resto, but..... it would have made me less effective. Even interrupting spells with earth shocks I deemed unproductive. If you're concentrating on one guy for long enough to interrupt a spell, you're going to do badly.
That being said, it's easy to find those one or two people on the opposite faction that obviously know their $417. I'm 60, but there was one warlock I saw that one top honors from me. He was level 51, but made it on my KOS list! Thing is, he'd come at me in a group, he wouldn't run ahead and get owned. He'd hide and use a very high speed wand to take out my totems! I have to say he did more damage to me than any other player in the game to date. Also, there was a shaman that would run past me in ghost wolf before I could attack him. He'd keep going, to try and fake me out like he wasn't going to attack, but a minute later I'd see one of my shaman's health just plummet. That's how you use your brain. :D
I go Galv defense early on... always.
If there's others on Defense and you can convince them to play D in Galv's room, then go in. Otherwise, I lag a little, picking off stragglers at the choke point, then I go AROUND Galv's bunker (behind it) and enter after they've started on him. The healers always end up standing in the sides, so I blow the healers up first and then drop tanks. Usually this is enough to cause their first attempt to be a fail.
I then do defense for a while and re-cap towers they hit... if O is struggling I'll go up north and head them out. Defense is a blast, though. I just play the Tower Recap game, since the alliance rarely leave enough behind to stop my shamans...
I personally don't have any strats to add to this thread yet, but I can say I am very interested in hearing what everyone does.
MAKE POAST!
/stickied.
AV is a Shammieboxer's dream. All the room... all the targets... on both teams. :)
When I used to pvp with my fury warrior, it took a while to learn this lesson: Don't rush in.
I have ADHD, so sitting in the wings is not instinctual for me. But once you learn to be patient, and NEVER be the first to move forward, you'll find yourself finishing AV with ZERO deaths.
As for myself, I do one of two things. If I see alot of folks head to the IBchoke, I go Offense. If not, I join the choke and stay D. Here's how they each play out:
Defense
My BG rarely has the bawls to defend Galv, so they just camp at IB instead. That's fine with me. The first thing I do is spread my guys across the IB choke point, drop all Twenty Totems, then drag by boys back around the hill, (towards the flag) just out of eyesight of the approaching Alliance. Then I wait.
The totems all spread across the choke point are there for one reason... intimidation. All that red text spread out would make ANY Alliance player pause, and rethink rushing the choke. So I leave them there.
There's always those few Horde who feel just just HAVE to rush out and hit something. They die. But we're patient, and finally that first Alliance idiot rushes in, thinking he can run through my totems on his mount. He dies. I use my Nuke right then an there, drop the guy and his mount in ONE glorious CL shot, which officially puts up a sign to the Alliance who are watching... "No Passing: By order of Thrall"
It works.
The Alliance stop their rush, start chatting to each other about what they just saw, all while I wait around the corner. Every time an Alliance decides to venture further in, they get a face full of LBs flying out from the hill.
After Galv dies, we're eventually rushed at IB by 30+ players, and we finally fall. This pushes me back to FWG. From there I move forward, picking off the Alliance as I find them. They'll eventually push us back to our base, but by then, our Offense has already capped their bunkers, and they take the boss down long before the Alliance even see ours.
Offense
As I said, if alot go to the choke, I follow the rest to Balinda. Now THATS fun. I love to come in after they've pulled her, take my time getting centered in the room, hitting formation, dropping all twenty, popping a bloodlust, then just explode. Balinda just DROPS, and everyone has a good laugh.
From there I like to play sweeper, and sit in the bunkers until each one caps, starting with SH. From there I move up and watch all the others cap. As they do, my team is already pushing into their base, and once again I'm in a fantastic position to move up on a battle, instead of starting my own. That's where we shine. I can normally pick off a good 10 toons before they even know I'm there. I love looking for horde in obvious trouble, then sending 5 CLs into their attackers, dropping them all to the ground thanks to the damage he had already done.
Eventually, I end up in the bosses room, adding a ridiculous amount of damage to the boss fight, dropping him in no more than twenty seconds or so.
I LOVE AV. PERIOD. Good times.
I play on Ruin, as do all of you Mag folks. I still haven't seen any of you in there. I play just about every morning from 4am till 6am, and on Saturdays till noon. There aren't that many instances of AV in Ruin (except on AV weekend) so I tend to run into the same guys alot. I hope to see another multiboxer soon. :)
Boom
As alliance, I go to Capt, then hold a tower or two, then FWGY, then RHGY, then Drek.
Skip any tower or GY if there are enough defending.
But lately, for my BG Group, Alliance has been sucking in AV... so I just find a nice place to turtle and defend at the bridge or where-ever the Hordes are at. ;(
horde side perspective defense 2 variations:
#1. ride straight to galv and delay as much as possible - if you have help you might be able to wipe them, otherwise hang back and pick off as many as you can. Re-cap IB tower/Towerpoint tower and the IB gy and dance with anyone that comes to try and re-re-cap them :). This has worked well for me on teams that know how to play O.
#2. Ride straight to our mine, cap mine then ride to tower point. wait for main group to pass, kill any would-be tower point takers then venture down grab the GY and IB back etc. I don't do this anymore due to it wasting 5 "slots" early in the match for the mine cap.
Either way - if D at ice blood doesn't hold, I will try to beat them back to the base and setup my totem forest right at our upper gate between the towers - earthbind + frostshocks are usually enough to get most would-be relief hut takers low enough that archers/friendlys will finish them off.
Horde side perspective Offense:
I ride straight to Balinda to help out with heals and then straight to DB south bunker (the one with the NPC soldier guarding it) and setup camp there. Once tower caps I will move to north tower if team is moving slow...
For my shams, I've found that i am far more effective on Defense than Offense... mostly due to coordinated AV defense being hard to find these days. However, stretching a match out to 40 mins instead of 12 mins may or may not suit your honor grind style, and if you are playing with a team that is going to lose all towers anyways you might be better served just going full O doing the race thing and just repeating (depending on whether honor per hour or PvP killing is your motivation). On the other hand, if you can rally a few people to play D with you, a win with all towers standing with 15-20 mins elapsed is pretty hot.
I find a multiboxer can be pretty good at any fuction in AV, def, attk, zerg, but some comments.
Tower assault, recapping and defence:
- I have nightmares with my guys breaking follow heading up horde towers, they often end up wandering around in circles on the bottom level while the main caps the flag. Take it slow going up them to make sure all your guys stay together. They are also harder to cap/recap as a boxer, as players can easily move out of LOS of you, just stay in the flag area with your toons back to the walls as much as poss and you can hold off pretty much any assault. Alternatively if none are attacking, you can snipe enemies from the edge to a certain extent. If I have a colleague by the flag (non boxed), I like to put my totem farm just outside the tower and pwn anyone who comes close.
- Ally towers arent as bad in the follow sense, but do take a wide line as you enter and go up the stairs to avoid them getting stuck beind walls. They are also more suited to spreading out and Chain Lightning Pwnage. Intelligent mages however will use the windows in these towers to LoS you.
I found that defending Balinda as alliance can really slow the horde advance. Do it till I die, then res and recap either SH or IWB works well.
If you can get all the way through without being attacked, it is also quite viable to go straight to the enemy base, cap, hold and take the GY all alone. Sometimes you are virtually undisturbed. However, as alliance, it can be hard to make it all the way without getting zerged. I often start the game with this plan in mind, but simply get distracted.
My preferred strat however, is general defence, as ally are generally crap at it, recapping as often as possible. Blocking chokepoints, recapping towers, and trundling back to base to wipe thier attacks on the boss if things are going badly.
Gonna invest the time in getting the Alterac Valley Trinket tonight, as I reckon 4 or 5 chars suddenly appearing shortly after a base cap can seriously dent the opponents progress and turn a match.
All in all I love it. 22k honour yesterday in about 11 hrs play was a record for me.
I actually have found Horde towers easier to scale than Alliance bunkers. I have issues when I'm not careful of shammies getting stuck under edges of the staircase in bunkers. With towers, I was expecting to have trouble initially, but found if I just run up the tower like I would if I was solo, the shammies never get left behind. I do have a very good setup though.
I used to solo Balinda.
Doubt that has changed.
Nope, and with 4 grounding totems... if someone told me she casts spells, I'd be suprised.Quote:
Originally Posted by 'Xzin',index.php?page=Thread&postID=53580#post5358 0
Balinda has been beefed up quite a bit in the last few patches - her spells do more damage, she now does a blastwave with a knockback effect, and her pet elemental hits harder as well. You could solo her still probably, but you'll be there for a while, and you'll need to do a lot more healing. She's still easy mode for shammies thanks to Earth Elemental & grounding totems, and Bloodlust.Quote:
Originally Posted by 'Xzin',index.php?page=Thread&postID=53580#post5358 0
Cheers,
Stealthy
Yeah I spent a lot of the weekend in AV -- only about 12-14K honor though. I can only take it in small 2 hour doses (preferably with booze).
One strategy I picked up on when playing D at Ice Blood is that it is really important to stop the allys who make a break for the relief hut / frostwolf towers right from the Ice Blood choke point. Even with a good D there, all it takes is 1 or 2 to get through and cap your frostwolf towers and relief hut -- sometimes even before they have been able to cap anything else.
So I'd usually set up the totem forest next to the mountain away from the ice blood flag. They usually take the tight turn right between the mountain and fence things. From that vantage you can pick off those runners 1 by 1. They never even dismount. They just take the instagib. Sometimes over and over again (I killed one paly 10 times before he hit his bubble to run past me)
With a good defense at Ice Blood, I was in a few games where we completely shut the Allys down at ice blood with nothing cap'ed behind us for the entire game.
I do 1 of two things:
1st - defense!30-40 minute games. lots of kills! Go to your AS/RH and sit on the flag and nuke anyone who comes through for the initial rush. after the first rush is complete move up to the first choke point (ei: between the two frostwolf towers for the horde and between the north and south towers for the alliance). i usually sit there for the game but if there is alot of D then I move up to retake towers and to the final choke points to wait out the rest of the game and kill any who try to pass.
2nd- Offense! 10-15 minute games. Rush the opposing AS/RH and pass everyone and everything until you get there. once there take it and if they have no defense leave one guy to guard while you cap the two towers.
I have played upwards of 300 AV matches as a multi-boxer now and countless more as solo and have found these are my favorite and most profitable honor grinds to do. I prefer the 2nd obviously for the speed. This Saturday on AV weekend I played for about 10 hours and earned 19.5k honor with a 92% win/loss record (I play horde) doing the offensive approach.
For Horde I find I can usually get the team to cap SP and AS quite easily if we have a numbers advantage. If I just ride through with my entire group, dismount on top of the flag and start PBAoEing like mad I usually create enough of a distraction for our force to join me and cap it. Otherwise they just seem to get distracted killing every single ally 10 vs 1 and chasing them all over the place.
I have Hellfire, Arcane Explosion, Holy Nova and Consecration for PBAoE so the guards go down in seconds and if the alliance focus on me then it means they aren't blocking the rest of the Horde.
I usually defend though. Nuke a few down at IB chokepoint at the start, check on Galv, recap towers if needed. Backtrack to FW/base if needed. I can't quite 5-man Balinda yet. My healer has to chain heal and last time I tried the healer got aggro from the water elemental who was outside consecrate range but even if the tank held aggro on both my healer would have been OOM too quickly.
SInce I play Alliance, and I'm a bit fan of new area's and not standing in one place that often (have found it a few times that people start to aim for me, and allies will be gawking at what I'm doing and soo too many people will stand still). So generally I rush with all of the pack to galv, if its defended or not, I go and pop a heroism and dive in from the side (ofc not agroing galv since he still about 3 shots me). Pick on a few hordies and if it goes fast enough normally just /yell or /bg to hit galv. Sometimes I just rush to relief hut, since taking flags is so darn easy, the guards dieing from 1 CL spam and perhaps a shock or 2. Camping around the choke point at SH gy is also oneof my favorites, picking on the hordies that where late or died too early.
Generally I tend to try and find big pools of players to spam some CL's ;).
Still wondering about that 22k in 11 hours? Thats insane m8, racked up about 10k per day in the past av weekend.
I did a lot of AV this weekend on the alliance side (40-50k honor). I usually rushed ahead to FW west tower. I would cap it and defend until it was destroyed. I was successful well over 90% of the time. Holding off 1 to 5 people was fairly easily. Holding off more than 5 unless it was multiple mages AE'ing was a bit more of a challenge, but was certainly doable. However, if it looked ugly, I would often drop 4x fire elemental, pop heroism, and just start chain casting LHW until the fire elementals had softened them up enough to 4x frost shock kill individual targets. This same tactic was able to wipe the horde when they were on Van and had him down to about 20% health.
If I got cutoff or stopped on my way to FW towers, I would divert to Galv or another tower. In the rare instance of the horde not defending Galv, I was able to kill him with just my 5 guys fairly easily. 3 staggered tremor totems completely negates his fear and with 4 shaman, I had plenty of dps and healing to kill him.
In one match, the horde were pretty much dominating alliance (ok, more than one match, but on this particular match...) taking all of the GYs. My team rezzed back at the GY near the bridge just as several other alliance were rezzing. Some dranei priest decided to heal my group and we went on a 5 to 10 minute long nuke fest as waves of horde tried to break through that ravine just before the bridge. I ran completely out of mana 3 times this was using my mana pots everytime they refreshed. I was able to drink twice refilling my mana as the horde ran back from their nearest GY. That priest did an amazing job healing my team as we proceeded to wrack up 150 kills holding them at the bridge. At one point, all I could see was blizzard and hellfire raining from all directions. I was very luck with the timing of the horde surges, because they happened to coincide with my EM/NS cooldowns. Just as they were about to break through, my cooldowns would refresh and I was able to unleash the chain lightning into an extremely target rich environment. Yes, we lost the match, but it was a total blast fighting non-stop for so long. Obviously this isn't really a strategy, but I felt compelled to share this story ;)