update link from the pvp forums:
forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.aspx?fn=wow-realm-perenolde&t=109532&p=1&tmp=1#post109532www.dramablight.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=95and just in case it gets archived:
This is a guide for Horde to win Alterac Valley. Feel free to post your thoughts, additions, flames, or whatever on this thread. People often ask me to lead AV's and I wrote this up for those of you that still need AV faction but are having trouble organizing it. This is a complete runthrough of how to win Alterac Valley.
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I. Assigning Class Roles
II. The Battle
A) Moments at the Gate
B) Initial Charge
C) Clearing the Field
D) Pushing to Stormpike
E) Organizing for the Final Push
F) The Final Push
III. Summary
IV. Problems
V. Additional Thoughts/Hints
I. Assigning Class Roles:
Druids- You are going to be part of the Stealth crew, details later on. Keep in mind that your battle rezzes can be huge when assaulting a tower or GY upfield.
Hunters- You are on Defense. Get a perch and snipe people from above. Hold positions and keep people off things. There are plenty of high spots to get on to protect the flags at Iceblood GY and Iceblood Tower. Take advantage of them. Same thing goes for upfield. Stormpike GY is surrounded by perfect spots to mow alliance down from above with. Keep people off flags.
Mages- You are part of the AE crew, details later on.
Rogues- You are going to be part of the Stealth crew, details later on.
Priest- You are going to be on defense. The single most helpful spell in your arsenal is AE fear. Fear bomb people off flags at all costs. Heal in between fears. Rule of thumb: Heal NPC's before PC's. It is much more important to keep your Wind riders, Ice Lord, Commanders etc. alive than anyone else.
Shaman- You are going to be on defense. Drop fire totems to keep people off flags, heal where you can. A good shammy will be on heals and on damage at the same time. Not one or the other.
Warlocks- You are part of the AE crew, details later on. Bring alot of shards chances are eventually you will be asked to summon some people.
Warriors- You are going to be on defense. Im not going to lie to you. Being a warrior in AV sucks. You are going to die many many times. Your job is to flail your body into the swarm of red names to keep people off your ranged DPS. When pushing up the field it is imperative that you keep rushing into the crowd with all your skills going to keep them moving backwards.
II. The Battle.
A) Moments at the Gate:
When you zone into Alterac Valley expect to see a slew of people yelling at each other to start a raid group. If it is you that have decided to take it upon yourself to lead your team to a victory (thats why you are reading this) you need to get as many invites done as possible as fast as possible. Its faster to target people and click their box than it is to invite by name. Get about 10-15 people invited to the raid, make them all assistant leaders and then let them worry about inviting everyone else. Announce to the raid that the initial charge will be upon the first tower in Alliance territory to the east of Snowfall GY and Captain Belindas room.
That all being said there are 3 types of groups you need to make.
1) Stealth Crew: This group is responsible for clearing the field and is absolutely the hinge of this entire strategy. Put all druids/rogues into the same group(s). Instruct them that they must work together in order to win and if they want to win they will work together. Make one rogue that you know can give orders well the stealth team leader. All others in the stealth team are to listen to him for instructions.
2) AE crew: This group is your bread and butter after you have clicked a flag. On defense to keep people from pushing you back by clicking the Iceblood GY or Iceblood Tower flags. On offense after a rogue team has successfully clicked a tower and/or GY flag. Once a tower has been assaulted by your stealth team it is imperative that your AE team arrives within 2 minutes of the click if you want a real shot at holding that flag. Your stealth team needs to be in contact with your AE team so that the AE team can start moving to a tower before it is actually clicked. If things are well planned an AE team will show up within 15 seconds of the flag being clicked and the bunker/GY will be captured.
3) Everyone Else: I know it sounds crude but the fact of the matter is at this point in the game no one else is really swaying the battle based on their class skills. The everyone else group is in charge of fighting the alliance and keeping them distracted while your rogue teams clear the field. This is the meat grinder. Spread out your healers so every group has at least one. Feel free to group up hunters into one group if they prefer. While you may feel like you are getting owned on the battlefield feel confident in your stealth teams ability to clear the field. Your job is to hold the alliance off not to push them back. Think Lord of The Rings when they attack Mordor to draw Saurons forces away from the Volcano so the ninja hobbits can destroy the ring. Same thing.
Dont worry about it if you cant get this all set up before the gates open. You have about 10 minutes before it really becomes an issue that groups are disorganized. Just make sure everyone is on the same page and things are progressing in your raid then worry about setting up groups.
B) The Gate Opens:
Every single person in the zone should move directly to the first bunker. Keys to clearing this (and all other bunkers from here on out) include:
1) DO NOT train the raid. This especially means running to the top of the bunker and training the entire thing on the raid. What you want to do is pull the first room out to the raid, move inside, and pull each pull as if you were doing a 5 man instants (very carefully). While it is possible and probable that you will still clear the bunker of mobile units it is just bad form and promoting bad form isn’t what I’m about. It has screwed up many attempts at capturing a tower in the past and will screw up many more in the future.
2) DO NOT click the bunker flag until every single NPC is dead. Make sure all archers and trash mobs are dead. Chances are that once the flag is clicked the Alliance will be rushing over to you to stop you from getting that bunker and dealing with NPC’s and PC’s at the same time is just a pain in the a-s.
3) Once the flag is clicked make sure everyone is INSIDE the bunker. No fighting outside. Once again the thing isn’t that you cant fight outside its that it is bad form and can lead to problems.
4) AE’ers need to be at the flags base. No running outside to chase that elusive HK. AE’s are the single most effective way to keep people off that flag and should be getting spammed.
5) It takes 5 minutes for that bunker to burn down so don’t get cocky and move away at 2 minutes because not many alliance have showed up.
You may be asking yourself “Hey what if the alliance gets to the bunker before we can click the flag?”. Fortunately, this is the truth of things, the Alliance will make a push for the Snowfall GY and leave the bunker wide open for long enough to assault it. All “PUG’s” will do this. You also may be asking yourself “OMG YOU MEAN LOSE THE KORRAK GY?!?!?!?!”. Yes that is precisely what you are doing. Stop worrying about that GY, get the tower down and be ready for phase 2. People in the raid are going to be complaining about Snowfall the whole raid. Tune them out. Alliance must control it.
C) Tower Down now what?
Once the bunker has burned down you must instruct your raid to fall back to the Iceblood line. That means the Graveyard/Tower area. Yes I am aware that the alliance most likely has captured Snowfall GY by now. I thought I told you to stop worrying about that GY. Now is when the raid leader needs to step up and become just that. Remember that in AV you aren’t going to be surrounded by 40 right-minded individuals that are ready to obey your commands. You will most likely be in there with about 15-20 decent players and about 10-20 AFK, retarded, noob, wiggy, annoying, unskilled, unexperienced PC’s. It’s just the facts of life. Learn to deal with it and expect it instead of trying to fix it and fight it. AV will make your heart explode if you stress the little things. The good news is the alliance has these as well.
DO NOT BY ANY MEANS assault Snowfall GY. This is one of the most pain in the butt mistakes and one of the most argued over points in the raid chat. Every single noob in the raid will be wanting to push that GY. Don’t fly off the handle when you see people doing it because it will happen. As long as the flag isn’t clicked things are fine. Let the noobs do what they must as long as they arent directly hurting things. Key to AV is to keep your cool while dealing with retards because it is inevitable. As long as the Iceblood line is held then things are in good shape. Do not lose the captain, the tower, or the GY and you are doing your job.
Now then, lets talk stealth teams.
Objectives:
1)Lieutenants and Commanders
2)Towers
3)Captain Belinda
4)How Wind-riders work
1)Lieutenants and Commanders: I may be wrong on the exact number but the total I believe is 6. 2 outside of Belindas room, 1 that paths right outside of the first bunker, 1 that paths between the Stonehearth GY and the first bunker, and 1 that paths from Belinda up to the Stonehearth bunker. Lt’s are the reason mobs respawn. If you want to be able to move your army forward on the map successfully these need to die and they need to die quickly. Surgically have your stealth team group up, unstealth together, slaughter one, stealth again, and quickly move on to the next target. Also on the plate are GY commanders and Bunker Commanders. GY commanders must be killed so that GY’s can be captured later on its just that simple, same thing with Bunker commanders. Just because you kill a Commander does not mean you need to capture the flag at that particular spot. Remember you are just clearing the field not assaulting it. This will facilitate your advance later on. Also, if you do decide to assault something then remember that you will be totally blowing your cover and the opponent will now know what you are up to.
2)Towers are a huge part of advancing up the field. One thing you have to remember however is that inside the second bunker resides one of your wing commanders. Before this bunker is to fall it is imperative that your rogue squad escort him home and see to it that he arrives safely. It is a huge source of faction and is an enormous help later on for the push up the field. If the bunker falls without him being rescued he will die. If he is activated and you don’t walk him home he will die. You can stay mounted and train mobs out of his way so he doesn’t agro them. He runs pretty quick so its not that rough. Just walk him home and you will be on your way to victory.
Now that you have rescued your commander it is time to survey the field. It may currently be impossible to assault the second tower. If you really want to make the game go fast here is a strategy I have employed many times. Have your AE’ers start doing everything they can to make it to the lumber mill north-east of the second tower. Remember if one warlock makes it he can probably summon the rest of them. Don’t let the alliance figure out what you are doing. Now have your rogue team move to the City of Stormpike. Watch out for owls they see stealth. Move to the north side of the north tower against the zone wall. You can pull mobs safely back there and not have to worry about any nosey alliance people seeing you. Pull the commander first since he paths in and out. Kill him then start clearing the bunker. Move inside as fast as possible and stay out of sight at all costs. Once the bunker is clear signal your AE group to make its way to the bunker. Click the flag and set your timer. 300 seconds until the bunker is on fire. Do all you can to keep people off that flag. If you can successfully take the north tower early in the game you are making taking the town later on hundreds of times easier for yourself later on in the fight. Around 270ish seconds you may want to release the windrider and try to walk him home. This poor guy 99.9999% of the time never makes an appearance in AV. If he does, consider yourself blessed but never expect him to actually make it in the end, it just doesn’t happen often. If this tower falls consider yourself in amazing shape.
If the alliance is full on attacking you at Iceblood then it is time to take the second bunker. Same thing as with the previous strategy just alittle less complex. Have your AE’ers on standby ready to run up to the bunker once it is clear inside. Click the flag, have AE’ers there within 20 seconds and the bunker should fall no problem. If you can take both these towers consider the fight won and it is just a matter of time. If you cant take the north tower don’t worry about it, its an edge but by no means totally necessary.
3) Captain Belinda is to be treated just like any other Lt. Or commander. Kill her when it is convenient but she is by no means anything special really. You can always fall back for her later on after you control the map so don’t worry about her too much. If you cant kill her without blowing your cover then dont worry about her until later.
4)Wind riders are very nice to have for your assault on Stormpike. The first one controls the pass from Stonehearth Bunker up to Stormpike GY, the second one controls the bridge at Stormpike and the third one rapes the town. At the same time there are non-named units you can summon to fight for you in the Field of Strife. People often make the mistake of thinking that these units are your actual wind rider when they are not. You activate them by getting a beacon from your wind rider and placing it in the Field of Strife. Now a wind rider will spawn and fight for you in the field of strife. If he dies then eventually he will respawn so go ahead and get these up as soon as the wind rider allows it. The named ones however are a one time thing. Once you use them they are gone and will fight until they die. To spawn these guys you need to turn in a ton of flesh. Different flesh for different wind riders. The entire length of the fight you need to be bitching at people about turning in flesh and blood (we will get to blood later).
D) Pushing to Stormpike:
Now that you have your tower situation handled (up to stormpike at least) its time to start the real push. Announce to your forces that you will be pushing shortly. This is where things get really sneaky. Set up your stealth groups at Stormpike GY and have 2 people move to the first alliance GY. AE crew should now procede back to the lumber mill just like when we took out the north tower. What you are going to want to do is tell your people to move north. Ignore Snowfall, run along the east side of the field of strife straight up the gut. Click the flags at both Stonehearth and Stormpike GY’s. Once you see the bulk of your forces starting to move now is a good time to release your first wind rider provided that you have been yelling at people to turn in flesh the whole time. AE’rs should AE from above on the flag if possible at Stormpike GY otherwise just keep people off that flag as the bulk of your force comes to reinforce it. Feel free to leave a couple people at Stonehearth GY but the goal of this push is to get to Stormpike in one swoop. Fortunately if you are doing things right the alliance forces are concentrated at Snowfall GY and they have no real defense for a rush on the other side of the field of strife. Don’t worry about Stonehearth, get to Stormpike. Once Stormpike is taken it is time to get to work on your final assault. If the alliance starts to push the iceblood line and starts working towards your base remember you are leagues ahead of them and they will not be able to beat you to your general. The only way for them to recover is to push you back at the Stormpike bridge. If they try to push your town consider yourself lucky and be ready to win very shortly. If they fall back to their town then get ready for the final push.
E) Organizing for the Final Push:
By now the bulk of your units are at the Stormpike GY but the alliance probably looks like they are controlling the bulk of the field. Now is the time you send your cleanup stealth crew to finish up the map. This includes capturing snowfall/stonehearth, killing Captain Belinda, capturing the wind rider at the lumber mill, and regaining anything else the alliance may have been sneaky enough to capture while your big push across the field. Once this is all completed and you have the alliance cornered in their base fighting for their lives its time to start finishing up a couple things to do the final push. First off get wolves trained and ram hides turned in. Feel free to move your wolf units up to the field of strife but by no means order them to assault Stormpike yet. If you can get Reavers set up through the alliance mine that is great but if time doesn’t permit don’t worry about it. Chances are you will be barely holding Stormpike GY and be unable to sacrafice more people to gather supplies. Reavers are relatively weak and slow. If things are done right you wont need them at all. Next up is the Icelord and the second wind rider. Get your raid to start porting back to town and getting flesh/blood turned in. Get your wind rider ready and get the Icelord ready. Once enough blood has been turned in the primalist will move to the field of strife and you will need 10 people to go summon the Icelord for the final assault.
The final push can be rather spectacular if executed correctly. The coming of the final push is noted by the Icelord getting tired of the Field of Strife and making his push for Stormpike. The Icelord gains power as he kills so during the 10 minute period where he is just standing around you should have people training mobs to him to eat. Once Lok become mobile it is time to fire up your wolf riders, reavers, and wind riders. They will move up the field together and arrive (hopefully) at the same time. Make sure all your healers are focusing on healing the Icelord and no one else. Keep this big guy up for long enough and you will win. At this point people need to be training mobs. Train the bunkers, train the town, kill every NPC you see. Don’t worry so much about PC’s until the NPC’s are dead. If you can click the bunker click it, however your PRIMARY objective is that relief hut flag. Get your AE’ers to move passed the flag and actually sit in the GY spawn area. AE everyone that respawns before they can get down to the flag and capture that relief hut flag at all costs. If you capture that flag you will win and that’s the bottom line. However, don’t get cocky just because you assaulted the flag. You still have 5 minutes until you control it. Don’t go charging the generals room or anything else for that matter until that GY is under horde control. The generals room has many mobs that are pretty rape and you don’t have to want to deal with them while fighting off alliance PC’s. Once again holding the flag is on your AE team. Spam that flag and you will capture it. If you hadn’t captured that north tower earlier in the game then be satisfied with just taking the towers. Taking the relief hut will just be a matter of time. At this point the general really can just be zerged down. I’ve seen the Icelord tank him before and I’ve also seen him bounce around like a ping pong ball, slaughter half the raid, but still get zerged down.
III. Strategy Summary:
Take the first alliance bunker immediately to establish dominance and make yourself a threat. Allow the alliance to have Stormpike GY so as to draw the bulk of their forces away from their vital areas. Use the bulk of your force to keep them from progressing across the Iceblood line. Use coordinated stealth/AE crews to clean up the trash on the field, destroy bunkers, and capture wind riders. Move your forces directly to Stormpike GY skipping Stonehearth. Have your stealth teams fall back to clean up the map and capture any remaining alliance GY’s and kill Belinda. Coordinate the release of your spawnable units to facilitate the final assault upon the town.
IV. Things to watch out for:
- Some moron triggering units prematurely. These things can absolutely cripple your assault and cannot be allowed to happen. People need to be reminded throughout not to touch any NPC’s. You can never remind the zone using general chat enough times. Make sure no one clicks the bubble.
- Alliance characters on horde alts. Alliance people are not below logging in an alt and revealing your stealth assaults to their team and totally foiling this. Unfortunately GM’s have time and time again said this is not an exploit so for now just be ready for it to screw up your day.
- Too many chiefs not enough Indians. There is a tendency for things to dissolve into nothing but a bunch of people barking orders. Assert yourself as the leader of the raid, do not allow yourself to be attacked, say things strongly and clearly so there is no confusion and repeat things. If you are clearly not the leader of the raid don’t try and over take the current leader. It just hurts the team. Listen to a group of 1-5 people.
- Taking Snowfall cannot happen early in the fight. Without the alliance being drawn into your territory your stealth teams cannot clear the field. Do not let the retards in your raid push this GY.
- Retard Hero’s. Unfortunately in every game there is some retard that thinks he would be of better use somewhere other than where you told him/her to be. Most likely he will see the rogues group up the field and think to themselves “Hey I should be up there helping”. These people ruin the entire fight because they give away the position of the stealth group and make it much harder for them to do their job.
- AFK people. I myself am guilty of AFKing in AV to mooch faction but none the less nothing is more annoying that trying to make that final push just to look at your map and see 5-10 people just AFK in random nooks/crannies of the zone with a macro running. Feel free to petition them this is indeed very bannable. (I got a warning once)
- Annoying noobs. Don’t get into fights with the guy that can barely type in raid chat and is constantly questioning every call you make. Just tell him to STFU or get out. Its that simple. There is no reasoning with these people they are insanely dense and it is a waste of your time to argue with them. Let the raid bicker back and forth but don’t allow yourself to get pulled into a gay argument with some random noob that thinks he knows better than you.
- STFU or get out. If you are raid leader don’t be a wuss. It is your show and you need to command your troops if you want to win. This isn’t a popularity contest it is a battle. Random noobs are like dogs in that they can sense weakness and will eat you up if you waver during a battle. The raid leader needs to seem in control, aware of everything, and in control of the situation. If someone is arguing or making raid chat difficult then boot them. Its STFU or get out in my book. If you want to come in and win that’s fine. If you want to be a pain in my ass then get out of my raid and get out of my way.
- Don’t flame people. It’s pretty self-explanatory. Don’t allow yourself to get pulled into a fight of insults with someone it just makes you look bad and you will lose confidence of your troops.
V. Additional Thoughts and Strategies:
- If you fail to take Stormpike when you capture Stonehearth and Stormpike simultaneously then it is ok to settle for Stonehearth. Realistically however, you are going to need your units to take the town so don’t go wasting your resources on pushing Stormpike GY because you will then be stuck at the bridge for about 10 hours until people afk out. Using the Icelord to take Stormpike is outrageously out of the question. Wolf riders are expendable so if you must…well then you must.
- Falling Back is a legitimate strategy. If you get stuck at the bridge, both bunkers up, at a standoff with your Icelord blown you will not be able to take that town unless they AFK out. Your best bet is to hide a warlock and 2 people in the lumber mill and fall back to the Field of strife. Spread the alliance forces thin once again. Allow them to push you back to Iceblood. Once this is done then go ahead and summon about 10-20 people, retake Stormpike GY and like clockwork start picking apart the town before the alliance can get back to reinforce it. Either way you are going to have to fall back and try again. You simply cannot out-zerg a 40 vs 40 fight in such close quarters. It will be stalemate for hours if you don’t fall back and spread the alliance thin.
- Taking too long. If you are in a fight that has been 4+ hours in the making and you arent about to win then its time to start thinking about calling it quits. The fact of the matter is that with the field populated by all upgraded units and all your resources being blown it is just a stale game to play. There is no shame in calling it back to base, turning in all your stuff for faction and starting a new one. Horde have this advantage over alliance so use it. You can get more faction from calling it quits and doing turn ins than you can from actually winning sometimes.
