How is AV weekend treating you?

[Ualaa]

In the AV's so far...

Alliance does not know if the horde is in Galv until they go into the building.
So there is enough of a head start for the horde, that even if the alliance go straight to Galv with Crusader Aura the whole way, you have no clue if there are zero, six or twenty horde inside; going by this AV weekend, the average is 15 or so guarding Galv.
The horde have to have more than a 10 second advantage in reaching Galv.
Galv is also much tougher than Belinda... with ten alliance in Belinda's room, twenty horde will win almost every time... I like to Cyclone the tank and or healer, then Tranquility x5... then go kitty and kill whatever.
If the alliance has twenty in Galv's room and there are more than 5 horde defending him, enough of the attack is dead that the game becomes an auto turtle.

The alliance bridge is easily easier to defend than the Frostwolf area; there is a breech where you can run around and not even be hit by either of the towers.
That said, it works both ways; if I stealth to Frostwolf and cap RH and both towers.. I cannot guard a single choke point and know there are no horde behind me... if a horde manages to get the last alliance graveyard and both bunkers capped, they can stand on the bridge and know with 100% certainty that no one is sneaking past them.
When I was doing AV's with Shammies.. the alliance bridge was so fun to defend with staggered Thunderstorms; the horde don't have anything even close to that..

So the alliance has a huge advantage in holding their base, and a similar disadvantage at holding the final horde base once it has been assaulted, assuming the horde backcaps which is extremely common in these games.
And the horde has the initial advantage of Galv being much tougher than Belinda.

AV is still one of my more favorite BG's, probably a little behind AB.

[Bollwerk]

FWIW, Alliance sucks hard at AV in my battlegroup. We seem to win about 1 or 2 out of 10. I hate it.

[birdbleed]

FWIW, Alliance sucks hard at AV in my battlegroup. We seem to win about 1 or 2 out of 10. I hate it.

Same here. I lost like, 9 in a row Saturday and didn't even bother the rest of the weekend.

[Sam DeathWalker]

I don't care how it is sliced but about 100percent of the time I see the emote that galv is under attack prior to the emote that bal is under attack. I have run full speed (not CA though) to Gal many a time and Ally is already inside. But sometimes I have been able to set up inside and in those games ally does poorly. I suppose I am not running CA and ally is so that gets them there before me. Yet the emote is always Galv first.

But for sure Ally always sends more to Gal then we do to Bal for whatever reasons. They seem a lot more coodenated or set on a particualr statagy then horde is; none ever agree what to do. Clearly for whatever reasons they can do better with fewer on defense then we can.

Few horde will go to bunker first, I ususally take out the GY myself before heading to bal where all the other horde went as I know that taking the GY will stop ally from harrasing us at Bal.

Well whatever edge its far from insumountable; basically games are won by the side where all agree on a stratagy (no matter what it is) and none are afking or doing other stuffs.


The choke point between the towers (thats where the roads all meet right) is a good spot for me, I like playing there; I can always be fighting and doing dps which is the best way to help my team. And as the GY is near I can get back into action asap.

[Ualaa]

Met a fellow boxer in AV on Monday.

Khaall of Blackwater Raiders, and similar spelled names.
Boxing four or five shammies.

Destroyed me, as I was in a swarm of hordies fighting at a graveyard.
Then suddenly there are multiple Fire Elementals down.
Would have died irregardless, given the allies to hordies there...
But definitely sped up the process.

Khaall was in one other AV on that night, but we did not cross forces since.



I've found in AV...

The horde towers favor Ferals much more so than the alliance bunkers.
The bunkers with the donut ring around the top, rather suck as an area for IWT and follow.
Meanwhile, once you're up top in a tower, the tower room is superb as a melee team.

Totally the opposite from boxing Shammies...

[zenga]

This is a screenie I took last night (after call to arms was over). I play this toon solo, and have 3.7k res.
What I did was making sure I was the first to go north, trying to cap the DB bunkers asap. As you can see from my healthbar, I already had to dismount to heal myself a bit (popped spirit walker grace to minimize downtime).

Doesn't prove the map advantage of course, as there is no ally rushing to frost wolf keep (didn't look at map tbh). This is just to show in what kind of condition you can arrive

Oh and btw, most of the games I play, galv is down before balinda is down, provided no opponents are in the rooms to slow you down. Is that because that in a typical game more allies go to galv than horde goes to balinda or because you can start the fight faster ... I don't know.

[valkry]

This is a screenie I took last night (after call to arms was over). I play this toon solo, and have 3.7k res.
What I did was making sure I was the first to go north, trying to cap the DB bunkers asap. As you can see from my healthbar, I already had to dismount to heal myself a bit (popped spirit walker grace to minimize downtime).

Doesn't prove the map advantage of course, as there is no ally rushing to frost wolf keep (didn't look at map tbh). This is just to show in what kind of condition you can arrive

Oh and btw, most of the games I play, galv is down before balinda is down, provided no opponents are in the rooms to slow you down. Is that because that in a typical game more allies go to galv than horde goes to balinda or because you can start the fight faster ... I don't know.

Thank you for the screenie. As to your question, from my experience, I believe it is because galv is stop no.1 for ally whereas horde visit SHB first (then they hit the SHGY and IWB, with a small group going to Bal). As to why this happens, it's tradition imo. Ally always go down the west side of Balinda, even though the east side is quicker. I believe they do this so they don't come too close to the horde train that is heading straight past the west side of SHB. Horde and ally have taken these paths for years. The other reason could be a mind set. Ally can and do struggle to take down galv, he hits hard, whirl winds, mortal strike and fears the tank out of the room resetting the encounter. How do you guys feel about the difficulty of Bal? In your AVs do you notice most or only some horde go to Bal (for ally it is at least 30 inside galv's room)?

Imagine, if you will, one game where the alliance train heads due south from SH GY, shaving the west side of SHB. They would run straight into horde and it would be a train wreck. Almost guarenteeing a turtle. I've seen a lot of hate of turtles in my AV experience.

[zenga]

Reaching Galv has always seemed to be faster to me than reaching Balinda. When I go to galv's room, I can usually see alliance closing in (i.e. near the beginning of the little mountain). I have just about time to drop totems and pick a side before the first ones run in. Was always under the impression if I could see them, they should seen me too (whereas horde can't really see who went to balinda since the building blocks our view more or less). But it's not something I tested, more an impression and the fact that galv dies faster than balinda most of the time (about 10-15 seconds i'd say).

Balinda ain't hard, as said I can solo her with 5x elemental, with earth elementals and grounding totem on round robin. Wheres when I root a non tank in galvs room, galv will most likely finish that guy.

To answer your last question, besides some left overs, alliance troops have passed that point when we arrive.

[zenga]

Did some google-ing, from wowpedia.org


"The Relief Hut is bit easier for the Alliance to capture than for the Horde to capture the Aid Station. The position of the Relief Hut makes it easier for the Alliance to avoid aggro on other Horde NPCs besides the flag guards. The Aid Station is more open and closer to nearby NPCs, which makes them within pull/train/pet range."



"Before the Horde entrance was moved south, it was common for the Horde to rush an offensive game with little to no defense and often win, the race. The movement of the entrance gave the Alliance an extra 10–20 seconds to maneuver uninterrupted on the field. so now the Horde barely gets in the door of Iceblood Garrison at the same time the Alliance shows up right outside it. At the same time, the offensive Horde players that went straight to Balinda have barely entered the field of strife and have another 10 seconds till they reach Stonehearth Outpost. Obviously, Horde will lose their Captain's buff faster than the Alliance if there is no defense at Iceblood. '



'Offensive players that go straight to the Aid station are also at a disadvantage compared to Alliance that go straight to the Relief Hut. The Horde players have to traverse the narrow road with higher chance of being interrupted by the Alliance than the Alliance do while they run through the open area of Frostwolf fields. The Alliance can travel much straighter and more efficient route from the Frostwolf field to the Relief Hut, while the Horde has to run to Stormpike Graveyard, on one side of the map, and then across the map again to get to the Aid Station.'


This more or less seconds what we've been saying throughout the topic.


In a summary for me:

- easier for alliance to reach balinda than for horde to reach galv
- balinda is (way) easier to kill than galv
- alliance can start 10s earlier on galv than horde can start on balinda
- if rushed and not meeting enemy players, alliance can cap forst w towers faster than horde can cap db towers, due to map and due to npcs.

[Shodokan]

Did some google-ing, from wowpedia.org


"The Relief Hut is bit easier for the Alliance to capture than for the Horde to capture the Aid Station. The position of the Relief Hut makes it easier for the Alliance to avoid aggro on other Horde NPCs besides the flag guards. The Aid Station is more open and closer to nearby NPCs, which makes them within pull/train/pet range."



"Before the Horde entrance was moved south, it was common for the Horde to rush an offensive game with little to no defense and often win, the race. The movement of the entrance gave the Alliance an extra 10–20 seconds to maneuver uninterrupted on the field. so now the Horde barely gets in the door of Iceblood Garrison at the same time the Alliance shows up right outside it. At the same time, the offensive Horde players that went straight to Balinda have barely entered the field of strife and have another 10 seconds till they reach Stonehearth Outpost. Obviously, Horde will lose their Captain's buff faster than the Alliance if there is no defense at Iceblood. '



'Offensive players that go straight to the Aid station are also at a disadvantage compared to Alliance that go straight to the Relief Hut. The Horde players have to traverse the narrow road with higher chance of being interrupted by the Alliance than the Alliance do while they run through the open area of Frostwolf fields. The Alliance can travel much straighter and more efficient route from the Frostwolf field to the Relief Hut, while the Horde has to run to Stormpike Graveyard, on one side of the map, and then across the map again to get to the Aid Station.'


This more or less seconds what we've been saying throughout the topic.


In a summary for me:

- easier for alliance to reach balinda than for horde to reach galv
- balinda is (way) easier to kill than galv
- alliance can start 10s earlier on galv than horde can start on balinda
- if rushed and not meeting enemy players, alliance can cap forst w towers faster than horde can cap db towers, due to map and due to npcs.

Add in that 1/2 of the people in the game are bots/retards... and you have a good summary of AV. Oh and that alliance don't get Gys.