I play defense as well (Disc. priest). I have fond memories (from December 2006, sadly) of some thrilling battles on the bridge defending the Alliance general. I keep going in, hoping to re-create those moments but sadly it is as you said: just me defending a flag or a tower. I hold them off as long as I can and always feel like I've succeeded in slowing down the Horde just long enough....when we win.

Reply

It depends on who I'm with in AV as to what I do. If I can convince at least a few people to defend Balinda, then I'll sit on Def for probably the majority of the match, although on my warlock its all about pushing for the towers and galv.. (even tanked him once hehe)

Reply

I hate to say it, but my playstyle consists of yelling in /bg "We need more D! More D!" and getting in childish arguments over the best (only?) way to win AV.

I love the epic battles that can happen on D. It used to be the huge skirmish around Frostwolf GY, and recently shifted to hard-fought, desperate attempts to fight off the Alliance from zerging straight to the Relief Hut. But currently the hot strategy is to try to out-zerg the Alliance, and so we natural defenders get crushed and have little to no chance to actually buy our offense any time.

Reply

I usually try to play D (Horde) because it helps overall and that is what we are usually lacking on my battlegroup. If there is a decent defense going and they aren't dying for help, I will head to towers, then the general (avoiding the road).

The thing about a good defense though, is that you can rack up quite a few kills and honor if you have the bottleneck secured. Plus, there is nothing more fun than 3 Horde causing the entire Alliance offense to wipe on Galv.

Reply

Epic moments in AV are few and far between these days.

I think rewards, buffs and honor need to encourage more of a balanced strategy. Healing also needs some added HK incentive, especially if HKs wont have diminishing returns.The action, on O and D needs to make group participation a bit more satisfying too.

Siege weapons ftw!

Reply

:( I am sad.

I do not see my play-style up there. Well, I play in a different way, I like to gather up all the supplies and I like to upgrade our guys by turning in the scraps, getting the ice lord or even summoning the fleet ALL BY MYSELF. Though there is no one to help me, I ask if I can have the supplies off the dead bodies of people and once enough, I use my new teleporter thingie to go back to Frostwolf. Then I proceed to turn 'em in and get alot of different kinds of reputation.

Reply

As an Enhancement Shaman, I'm like tower attack and defense.

We're nearly perfectly set for it. Our totems cover the entire tower easily. It's even the rare time SENTRY TOTEM is useful. Tremor Totems prevent running, fire totems break up flag cap attempts, Grounding totems stop spells, and mana totems keep us powered.

The incredibly fast burst damage, with a few helpers, can keep a tower capped, or at least out of enemy hands till help can come. Powerful and fast.

Aces.

Reply

Usually Alliance AV is a mad rush to the Generals, picking towers along the way, who kills em first after burning all the O towers wins.. and yes D is a major part of it so on a nice raid usually 1 or 2 groups are tasked to D.. there are always 2 or more tough healer like a pally or a druid on the D side.. priests go to the O side.. a patrol group of 2 usually a Rogue and a Druid will try to guard the 2 towers after the bridge.. if someone reports that an advance party is there.. then 1 D group pummels them to death that is if the rogue and the druid cant take them.. then regroups with the rest after that.. retreating together as the enemy O tries to push one tower/flag after the other.. the primary objective of D is to slow the enemy O down.. so that your team gets to the General and kills him first.. :)
Always if possible take the mines..
and never take back the SH graveyard or it'll be hell for O.. hehehe..
And post at least 2 people to guard the taken towers until they burn.. there is also a roving group between IB and TP to go when an attempt to retake the towers are called and guard IBGY for a time..
If the horde defends IB.. thats another story.. :)

Reply

If the horde defends IB this is when it gets interesting.. and fun!
Since they will also have group which is on the O side and will try to take the towers.
Alliance will then have to send 1-2 groups back for D and create a choke point near Icewing bunker.
And as usual try to slow the horde down.
The rest of O will bypass Galv, since usually this is heavily defended.
And will try a mad dash to the RH, which is usually lightly defended.
Create a chokepoint between the two Frostwolf towers if successful, and wait till the two towers burn.
After the towers burn alliance will then take the other towers backwards in huge group since a group of horde will usually try and take it back, up until IB then take on Galv.
It is very important that you take at least one mine..
This is usually slow but its all fun if you have a nice group. :)

Reply

oh and whatever happens always take RH first and fast.. :)
cause ive been in one too many AVs where people try to get the 2 towers first and hordes keep respwaning in RH.. :(

Reply

I must say that as someone that only recently started playing PvP that reading the posts here almost stopped me from even trying.

All the "Alliance can never win" posts can be very disheartening.

Needless to say I gave it a shot a few weeks ago & I just don't see what all the fuss is about. I have been running my Holy priest non stop in the all BG's (except EoS so I can't speak about that BG) and have been on considerably more winning teams than losing. About 75% winners if I had to guess. I am on Durotan, Battlegroup Ruin.

Not that I think I had anything to do with it mind you, I just threw around a few heals :0)~

Just wanted to post this to let people know that the Alliance does NOT always lose.

Cheers!

Reply

as a Prot War, AV is the only BG where I can actually do some good. I love to rush up and tank the bosses. I rush the first guy, tank him, head to IBGY, assault that, rush to Drek assaulting anything along the way and get ready for the "ALL IN" call on Drek and try to tank him as much as possible.

I even taunt him off other people..hehe..

Any other BG i am at best left to defend something, or at worst a liability because the oppositiion tends to ignore me, and kill me last. I do crap for damage and am a pain to kill. I spend as much time as possible spell reflecting, disarming and interupting spells as possible. Throw in some AOE debuffs and thats about all I got.

I love AV, its usually fast, its good honor and as a tank I have a job in it.

Reply

The only way to win, is not to play the game.

As in, I don't PvP.

Reply

If i want my faction to win so I can get the honor marks, I usually stay in def, stealthed, and take the towers back (in the frostwolf keep). It works with me, never failed.

Reply

AFK + Waterbreating + running in circles in the pool near the alliance stronghold)

Reply

Until Shadowburn's Alliance learns to play AV (or at least lose with enough honor to make it preferable to any of the other BGs) AV will be dead to me. Hour and a half matches and the only points we get are Galv? **** that, and **** the idiots who lead to it.

Reply

I play differently depending on the strategy we're using. I'm almost lways on the Balinda/Recap group in 300 strat. I'm always on AH rush in YK strat.

On Nathrezim server we've developed two different strats bases around "premade" AV groups. Anyone who frequents Reckoning battlegroup forums has probably seen the posts about us. Haha.

The "300" (or Rath) strat was put together by Rathamus and involves wiping their O at Galv and then systematically retaking towers. We then set up two chokepoints, one at IB and one at IW. Once we take IW Bunker, all choke moves up to IW and we start taking north towers by brute force, while maintaining tower defense in the south using a flex group of 5 or so.

It;s a 25 min ute game, 700 honor for us, and most importanly, NONE for the Aliiance. That's why it's called the 300 Strat. "Give to them nothing! Take from them EVERYTHING!" Mwahahaha.

There's also a second strat running called YK Strat which is a rush + minor defense strat, which usually gets more overall honor, faster, but doesn't always keep the alliance from getting 0 honor.

I prefer the 300 strat because it completely demoralizes the enemy. *evil grin*

Reply