Pugnacious Priest's Warcraft Blog

Our Battlegroups Forums are awash with posts like  “Stop boycotting AV Alliance”   or calls to boycott Av.

Alterac Valley has always been my favourite BG scenic wise, the pristine white snow,  the racing across white fields with my BG Music in my ears, however  the introduction of 2.3  brought about some honour calculation changes as well as reducing the ability of Afkers. What ever they did sure fixed up the Horde attendance and attention problem – and then discovering they then had a chance of winning Horde started playing more,  this desire was further bolstered by the change in Honour calculations depending on how many defences a side had left.  Yes its well known having been accustomed to winning Alliance were in shock at the idea of losing ALL the time,   and trying to get a 10 or 15 man Pug Bg group to co-operate try it with a 40 man – it’s taking a long time for alliance to adjust their tactics – and it doesnt seem that we have worked out what to do just yet, or when we do, getting enough people to listen,  and thus in frustration many have boycotted AV. I also included.

Having already racked up my 100 Av Badges, my main desire out of a good BG is a decent Time V honour return.  A 30 min AB or EOS means that  both sides are almost equally matched and sides are fighting tooth and nail for points,   30 mins on those BGS mean that  points are accumulating for Bases held during that time,  albeit slowly but  still accumulating.  So at the end of the 30 min BG, not only do you have your HK points, but also some ‘bonus’ honour for those points.   AV working on a diminishing return calculation  means that if you lose you get No honour practically  if you have been slogging your guts out on Offence,  you end up with Minimal Honour.  Defence is more likely to rack up more HK just out of shear body count. So my boycott is not necessarily a boycott on the BG – its just I would rather have a good at getting some honour elsewhere –  Im not sure what interesting outcomes 2.4 will bring for honour calculations,   it seems anything Blizzard does to make it more fair for one side ( for what ever reason ) puts the other side at a worse disadvantage.

So some ideas Ive got

I propose a random GY – Alliance and Horde are now complacent with the method of fighting in any BG,  they know the quickest path – So lets swap them, just to see if it’s really the Starting Point that gives one team an advantage.

Pre made V premade. – Would be an interesting fight. ( means that premades can’t run and try and farm honour from Pugs –  Maybe increase the honour calculation for such a fight.  Would this discourage or encourage premades? Or create a new ‘arena’ type battle.

Slight honour adjustments for time spent in BG – eg 1 HP for each min in Game.  Thats not too much  – its reasonable, and at least you know at the end of 30 mins your gonna get 30 honour instead of None.

A minimum game length to get all honour points Eg stop 5 capping ( or 4 capping ) within 1st 5 mins of game.  Make it worth fighting for,    how many people come into a BG late and see crap 4 cap – Im not even going to try.

Make the rocks on EOS lower..  or give us a buff that protects us from the fall – Jumping is a fine art – one some people never learn..   ( I have probs when i wear my riding crop – that speed bonus sends me off the edge..  ) otherwise I’ve got it perfect.