Week 15
S	M	T	W	T	F	S
12	13	14	15	16	17	18

April 14, 2008

MON

APR

Alterac Valley

By Gimmy Vincent

"Alterac Valley is by far the most intriguing battleground, and it's the kind that you either love or hate."Honor system The honor system rewards players that can play on a regular basis. The reason is that there seems to be a general imbalance on every single realm that I've read about. Once a week (usually on Tuesdays, after the maintenance is over), your standing is reassessed and based on your achievements of the week past, your rank will be re-evaluated. On the one I play on (Draenor), the Alliance basically wins 95% of the games. There are fourteen ranks, and the higher you go, the harder it is to get to the next level (but not impossible: each realm typically has a small number of levels 14). It's the opposite on other realms, which probably tends to prove that Blizzard designed AV just right, and the imbalance is simply created by players for various reasons that I won't go into (gear is usually the main factor). On the other hand, the higher you are, the slower your rank will decay if you don't play, thus allowing you to slow down or let one or two weeks go by without playing without seeing your rank drop down too much. The exact formula used to calculate the honor points is not public, but a few facts are known about it. If it's any comfort to you, I reached Exalted status with the Frost Wolf faction after having only won one game. In a nutshell, the final number is calculated from the number of HK (Honorable Kills, see below) and honor points that are granted to you based on achievements performed by you or your team throughout a game. That's right, one game. Whenever you gain one level, you can go to your main city's Hall of Braves to buy the new items that are now available to you. <hr />We lost all the others I participated in (which I evaluate to around fifty). If I can make it to Exalted, anybody can... In the beginning, an AV battle is a massive rush: both sides head strong toward the enemy fortress and try to go as fast as possible. Note that you need to be at least level 6 before you can enter the hall, and to whet your appetite, you will probably be happy to learn that at level 11, you can buy an epic mount for 90g... Marks Finally, each appearance in either of the battlegrounds will grant you either one (if you lose) or three (if you win) ""marks"". wow gold Open in a new window

In a perfect (but boring) game, both factions will soon reach each other's fortresses and it will be to whoever is the fastest to kill the enemy general. In practice, it never happens this way. Very often, a midpoint encounter will happen and one side will prevail, slowly eroding the other's offense. These marks can be turned in at each battleground location for money, reputation and honor for every three marks you turn in. After a while, one side will typically have 80% offense and 20% defense and the other team will have the opposite, guaranteeing a non-stop kill fest on both sides of the map. The first thing you should do when you enter AV is to check out your map and identify the main fight points (there are usually two). While it is possible to turn in marks for each battleground separately, I recommend you wait until you have three marks for each battleground and then turn in the ""For greater honor"" quest. One will typically be behind you and the other ahead. You will get more honor and reputation with all three factions this way. Be aware that each mark only stacks up to 20, so make sure you never have more than 17 marks when you enter a battleground, or you might end up losing some (the extra marks are actually mailed to you in that case, but they have a twenty four hour expiration, so check your mailbox as soon as possible to retrieve them or they will be lost for good). " wow gold Open in a new window

Pick a destination and head there, while paying attention to the messages flying by. Typically, each landmark on the map has two buildings of importance: a bunker and a graveyard. The bunker is defended by bowmen and an elite captain and the graveyard will also have an elite and five guards. wow gold Open in a new window

Bunkers typically need to be taken by force, but graveyards can easily be ninja'ed by two players: one will ride on his mount and ""kite"" the elite and his guards, while the teammate runs to the flag and captures it. Ninjaing graveyards can sometimes be of value, but unless you have a stronger presence, it is very likely that the two ninjas will soon be overwhelmed by the other team that will try and reconquer it right away. " "When you approach the enemy fortress (Storm Pike or Frost Wolf), the first thing you should do is destroy the two towers defending it. This is not mandatory, but doing so will make future walkthroughs easier and it also impacts the number of war masters (assistants) the enemy general will have at his side once you reach him. world of warcraft gold Open in a new window

The next step is to capture the Relief Hut (Horde) or Aid Station (Alliance). This will guarantee that the enemies can no longer respawn inside their fortress. Once you capture the RH/AS, it's usually very hard for the enemies to retake it, and at this point, it's only a matter of time before you kill the general. The next step is to pull the war masters one by one. wow gold kaufen Open in a new window

These are elite characters, so you need to make sure you don't pull out everyone or your offense will quickly get wiped (if you own the RH/AS, you will respawn nearby, so it's typically only a temporary setback). Finally, you will enter the fortress and fight the general (he cannot be pulled).

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April 14, 2008

Alterac Valley