Turning the tide in AV (as Horde)

[HTeam]

Ok, I've heard that depending on battlegroup, AV can be downhill in either direction. On Cyclone it is the Alliance that will win by default.

Causes:
There seems to be a mentality of getting the BG over quickly, so both sides race. This greatly favors the alliance as it is far easier to waltz into the frostwolf base and tap everything. Even if both sides are uninterrupted, the Alliance side will start the taps first, thereby winning a race to kill the general. Horde meanwhile seems obsessed with sending the entire team to Balinda, not even properly racing. They start the taps at the first two bunkers and graveyard well after the Alliance has tapped their corresponding targets.

How to change it as a multi-boxer without a ton of buy-in from the rest of the raid? Two methods:
1. Offensive - get mounted up, rush past the bunkers, straight to Stormpike Graveyard, tap it and march across, kill all the archers and tap the Aid Station. I say kill the archers because you have to consider that half your team is under 80 and those archers really hurt them. It's good to have their help as any of them that make it up there are going to be the kind to sit in bunkers and actually *try*. I've had some success with this and it really just seems to even up the race, result is 50-50, but it is fast and sometimes even a loss yields 4 bunkers destroyed. I was able to pull this off in the upper 70's.

2. Defensive - The far more successful method. I get to Iceblood Graveyard, just before it on the west side. There is a finger jutting out of the mountain where I can look straight down the road past Iceblood Tower toward Galv's. I stay mounted up here and hide behind the terrain. Titling the camera I can see them coming and get a good shot off as they are on the way in. The Alliance will usually send 5-8 people straight past Galv's to get taps started very early on the Horde base. As I'm affliction warlock (x4), I just put corruption on each person running past. This easily kills anyone under level 80 or forces them to blow their cooldown. Don't chase. Kill all of them that you can at that point. Then when everyone shows up from killing Galv, duke it out with them, kill as many as possible. At level 80, you might actually send the whole band packing, but don't expect it. Instead go for a quick rez at frostwolf and clean up the first guys that ran past.

You'll now have cost them several minutes and should have everything from Frostwolf graveyard south secure. You've also sent numerous Alliance packing back north. This method depends on someone tapping Stonehearth Bunker, so that the Alliance doesn't respawn right on top of your 2 tapped bunkers, taking them back.

Both methods depend on someone else doing something. The first largely hopes that your have some defense with a clue or that the Alliance is inept. The second that someone will tap Stonehearth Bunker. In both cases this is a problem because it doesn't seem uncommon that Horde sends 30+ at Balinda (not many afk's really).


Strategy with buy-in:
1. Send half the team to Stonehearth graveyard. Split up to take bunkers, the majority hold the choke and keep Alliance bottled up north.
2. Half the team goes to Galv and wipes Alliance there. 10 of them go south to recap, clear the runners, the other 10 go north to join #1 at the choke point.
3. Hold the choke until both bunkers are destroyed.
4a. Release the choke and start a race where Horde has a 4 minute time advantage.
4b. Hold the choke and win on reinforcements.
4c. Summon Lok and march north.

[Owltoid]

MB on horde are better at capping alliance towers while MB on alliance are better at defending alliance towers. It's pretty difficult to get 5 toons up the winding staircase in towers that alliance is supposed to attack, whereas it's relatively easy to get 5 toons up the towers that horde is supposed to attack. So, if I was to play horde, I would be offensively capping towers ahead of the Balinda mob. Since I play alliance, i go back and recap the towers that horde captured thereby delaying them and often causing our side to win (if we have a tank that is).

To sum up, as a multiboxer you do most of your tower fighting in alliance towers... whether you're attacking them or defending them.

[Siaea]

MB on horde are better at capping alliance towers while MB on alliance are better at defending alliance towers. It's pretty difficult to get 5 toons up the winding staircase in towers that alliance is supposed to attack, whereas it's relatively easy to get 5 toons up the towers that horde is supposed to attack. So, if I was to play horde, I would be offensively capping towers ahead of the Balinda mob. Since I play alliance, i go back and recap the towers that horde captured thereby delaying them and often causing our side to win (if we have a tank that is).

To sum up, as a multiboxer you do most of your tower fighting in alliance towers... whether you're attacking them or defending them.

Horde boxers definitely have the advantage at assaulting Alliance towers. I usually take the archers from outside (I can get 3 of them from one standpoint before I move to the other side). I will then run in, kill any remaining archers (and possibly the 1 rogue or something that decides to defend) and if I'm the only one in the tower, park at the top of the ramp with Tremor, Grounding, and refreshing 5x magmas to keep anyone from sneaking up the tower. I've never lost a tower when I do that, unless I just get zerged (which is usually because the Alliance knows I'm there boxing).

Once the tower that I hit has capped, I'll go straight north. By then, Stormpike GY has been assaulted, so I go straight to the DB towers.

If someone is already hitting Stonehearth, I'll go straight to Bal after I kill the archers on one side. I can 'solo' Balinda with an earth elemental or two, and then I'll head straight north. When we have a smart raid (and I can get all my toons in one group) we win. Last night I went for about 10 win vs 4 losses.

[HTeam]

I should have mentioned that my strat was also built around not going into bunkers or towers at all. It's been working pretty well, and I don't deal with the frustration of stairs or ramps.

[Gares]

I do the opposite but I'm alliance on Cyclone. I usually end up just going for Galv and after he is dead I retake SH Bunker almost easy every game and then waltz on over the Ice Wing and then just go between the two. Most of the time its enough of a time waste and resource waste of the horde to attempt to take/retake them that allow the retarded alliance who all stand on the hill in front of drek time to AFK some extra time to prep for him.

Best way to win as Horde. Most of the time its tons of low levels guarding IBT and TP, so after Belinda retake those towers and you should most likely win. I will admit though its much easier retaking a tower as a shammy compared to a lock I bet

[HTeam]

Was that you I was slugging it out with the other night?

The shammy team I was up against took me down 3 of 5 times, but on the two times I won I also took out the 20 guys around them (when three volleys of SoC go off at once....)

[Siaea]

I started leveling my original 'main' shammy up in AV with my 4 80s in tow, and I'm surprised at our win ratio. What's really funny is at first people were like "boxing noob, we're gonna lose, etc. ad nauseum", but now people are recognizing me again (since I haven't played AV since 70) and glad to have a shammy boxer.

Lately, I kill the archers from range at SH and whatever that other one is in the middle and let someone cap them, I head straight for the DB towers, kill the archers from range, and then plant 20 totems and start throwing chain lightnings and lava bursts as fast as I can. If need be, I drop 5 fire eles and by then the turtle at SP GY is broken, and horde on Reckoning are winning probably 60% of the time in games I'm in.

[blast3r]

I started leveling my original 'main' shammy up in AV with my 4 80s in tow, and I'm surprised at our win ratio. What's really funny is at first people were like "boxing noob, we're gonna lose, etc. ad nauseum", but now people are recognizing me again (since I haven't played AV since 70) and glad to have a shammy boxer.

Lately, I kill the archers from range at SH and whatever that other one is in the middle and let someone cap them, I head straight for the DB towers, kill the archers from range, and then plant 20 totems and start throwing chain lightnings and lava bursts as fast as I can. If need be, I drop 5 fire eles and by then the turtle at SP GY is broken, and horde on Reckoning are winning probably 60% of the time in games I'm in.

People on Magtheridon and I guess some in the RUIN battlegroup are familiar with The Zerg. I haven't heard anyone gripe about losing because of boxers in a long time. In AV, that is. Perhaps in Warsong Gulch they would cry.

[heyaz]

I was doing good from about 71-73 (on my priest) with my 4 shaman playing defense. Choke point, make FW GY impossible to cap, recap two towers, then go back down and wipe all the lowbies and recap relief hut so they're all gone. Unfortunately I've been getting teams who can't even kill belinda or cap a single tower. I don't know where they all are (never more than 8 or so of us down south), but they just run out of reinforcements. I'm not sure how to prevent this. Most of the time as a last effort I run up and kill belinda myself for the xp.

[gitcho]

if both towers are capped, is it possible to kill drek with 5 80 shamans via rock elementals solo? If not, could I do it by healing the elementals if there was enough dps support? Alliance frequently runs into no-tank games where we've got the towers capped, but there's no tank around ...