Alterac Valley 51-60 Bracket 1/27/10

I took my hunter, Brieanna, into the battleground for the first time tonight. She started off at level 59 and leveled to 6o, then 61 in the last battle she was in which put her into the bottom of the next bracket. She ended up with 699 honorable kills.

The Alliance does a lot better in the 51-60 bracket than they do in the 80 slot which doesn't make any sense at all. Most the people in AV tonight were in there for the first time, they were asking a lot of questions. Maybe that is the difference, they were listening and learning, something the Alliance in the 80 slot don't do. They were also following any plan we decided on, another thing the Alliance in the 80 slot don't do. I had Brieanna in 9 battles, 6 wins and 3 losses. Not too bad for groups where the majority of the people were seeing and fighting in AV for the first time. Also there were people in there as low as level 51. I had a really good time and am not going to wait for 69, I am going to have her back in there at 65 and I will level her to 70 in there. I was in the top 10 for Alliance in all the battles I was, in for damage and kills, and in the top 5 for most of them.

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Arathi Basin - Daily Battleground 1/24/10

Today my daily battleground was Arathi Basin. I wasn't really excited about that because we have not been winning the last few times I was in there but we did ok today. I did this one on both Wranngar and Gomorra and they each got their win in the first, and only, battles they were in.

I did it on Wranngar first. We won that one pretty easily. We held 3 nodes throughout and had a 4th for most the time for a decent win. That is unusual for the Alliance, whenever we have won in there lately it has been really close. We won this one by over 500 points. Most the people were playing it smart and guarding nodes instead of running off to try and capture a 4th and 5th node.

When I got in there a while later on Gomorra it was back to business as usual. It only takes 3 nodes to win but why hold and defend 3 when you can have 5. The problem with that strat is that even when we have 5 people can't stay put, they will leave nodes unguarded to try and farm Horde at their rez point and end up losing nodes. We held 3 for the most part, barely, and would get a 4th then lose 2 because everyone left nodes unguarded to try and get another. We ended up winning that one by less than 100 points which is what I have come to expect from the Alliance in there when they win.

I turned this in for 19g86s, 1241 bonus honor and 25 arena points on each.

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Isle of Conquest - 1/24/10

I fought in a bunch of battles today in Isle of Conquest on both Wranngar and Gomorra. We satrted off pretty good but by the end of the night things were really going downhill and I decided to call it a night. I fought in 4 battles on Gomorra, 3 wins and 1 loss. We were still doing well in there at that point. I fought in 10 battles on Wranngar, 6 wins and 4 losses.

In the earlier battles I fought in on Gomorra we were still using the 'get the Hangar and drop into the Horde keep' strat then hit the gate from the inside as well as the outside. It was working well. We would usually get either the Docks or the Workshop so we would have some kind of siege equipment to back us up. That is the strat we had been using all weekend and that is the strat that was working. It was still working when I logged over to Wranngar.

When I got onto Wranngar we were still doing well, we had 5 wins, a loss and another win. Then it was like the entire group of people who had been fighting in there all weekend and winning left. We got people in there saying the Hangar strat doesn't work, everyone to the Docks, we had one person who insisted that we attack the east gate on the Horde keep...

Let me explain why that doesn't work. For starters, if you are coming from the Docks to the Horde keep with siege equipment you have to go by the guns at the west corner, then by both the guns at the east and west corners, and finally by the guns at the east corner to get to the east gate. If your piece of siege equipment is even still running at that point you can be sure it is on it's way out. Also the people inside have to keep running past where the Horde are rezzing to bomb the east gate from the inside and they get wiped out. Here's a little advice: If someone is saying to attack the east gate, put them on ignore and encourage everyone else to do so as well.

That one was a loss and we had 2 more in a row right after that before I called it a night. The other 2 were people saying to forget the Hangar and go to the Docks. Almost the entire Horde team goes to the Docks at the start of the battle and I have never seen us get the Docks at the start, we usually take it over later in the battle. So after everyone got wiped at the Docks we had nothing except a loss. I am probably done fighting in there for awhile now as the Alliance seems to have gone right back to losing in there. The holiday's over as the saying goes.

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The Battle for Alterac Valley - 1/24/10

I fought in 2 battles for Alterac Valley on Wranngar today, one win and one loss.

I got into the first battle a little late, most the people were almost to Galv already. We were only outnumbered by 4 at that point so it looked like a win. I ended up catching up to everyone as they were coming out from killing Galv. I helped capture IBGY then headed with them to Frostwolf Graveyard. Some people stayed behind and took IBT and TP. I stayed behind to guard FWGY until it capped and while I was doing that they took out Drek for the win. A nice easy one and encouraging.

I shouldn't have gotten my hopes up though because we lost the next one to a turtle. The second battle was about what I have come to expect from the Alliance in AV lately. Someone started IBT and TP capping then left them and moved on. Same with IBGY and FWGY, started the flag capping and moved on... Needless to say we lost those and then the Horde took back FW Keep from the 5 or 6 people there trying to cap it. As we had no GY's, because no one guarded them, we all ended up in Dun Baldar for the turtle. The Horde won that one on reinforcements as the do so many.

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Isle of Conquest - Daily Battleground 1/23/10

Today the daily battleground was Isle of Conquest. It is also the holiday weekend in Isle of Conquest so you get double honor for fighting in there. I did this one on both Wranngar and Gomorra today. They both completed their daily in the first battle they were in. Wranngar fought in one more battle, a win, and Gomorra went on to fight in 24 more battles for a total of 14 wins and 11 losses.

I can't believe the Alliance is doing so well in a battleground on it's holiday weekend. Usually the holiday weekend brings out all the weekend warriors, people who only fight in battlegrounds on the holiday weekend for the bonus honor and have no clue what they are doing, and of course the AFK. There were a lot of AFK in there, up to 10 per battle, but people were pretty good about reporting them and getting them out.

The strat that seems to be getting us the most wins in to take the hangar at the start so we have control of the airship. Once we have that we jump off the airship into the Horde keep. Inside the keep we use the Huge Seaforium Bombs, you find stacked there, to start bombing the gate from the inside. If everything is going well there is also some kind of siege equipment attacking the gate from the outside. Once the gate is down we go in and kill the Horde Commander, Overlord Agmar. Of course the Horde are trying to do the same thing and kill our Commander, High Commander Halford Wyrmbane, so it is a race.

I got a lot of honor tonight and look forward to heading in there tomorrow night for some more.

I turned in the daily for 19g86s, 1241 bonus honor and 25 arena points.

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Isle of Conquest - Holiday Weekend 1/22/10

Tonight I went against my own advice and fought in a battleground on it's holiday weekend. Once in a while I am pleasantly surprised when I fight in a battleground on it's holiday weekend and tonight was no exception. The only good thing about a battleground on it's holiday weekend is we usually start off pretty even as far as numbers go.

We didn't start off too well, we lost the first 4 I was in but the honor was good, there is double honor for fighting in a battleground on it's holiday weekend. Then we went on to win the next 8 in a row. The way we were doing that was by taking the hangar at the start so we would be in control of the airship. Once we had that we were portaling up to the airship and jumping off into the Horde keep. Once inside we were bombing the gate from the inside while other players were attacking it from the outside as well as other people on airship hitting it with cannon fire. That strat was working really well. Let me explain that when you jump off the airship you don't just plummet to the ground, you get a parachute and glide down into their keep, nice and gentle. The only drawback to that is if their keep is full of Horde players. Fortunately it wasn't as they were out trying to get into our keep.

That got us a total of 9 wins and 5 losses. As usual there were a lot of AFK in all the battles I was in, they like to come in and leech the double honor. We lost one battle towards the end by total lack of teamwork. The west gate to the Horde keep was down for over 10 minutes but we couldn't get through because everyone was scattered everywhere. The gate was down and all we had to do was go in and kill their General. Everyone should have been at the west gate fighting their way in but over 2/3 of our team was somewhere else. Of course the AFK were just standing in our keep, but the rest should have been at that gate. The Horde ended up winning that one on resources... I liked it better when there were no resources and the better team won but the Horde couldn't get any wins that way. They cried to Blizzard and things were changed to give them an advantage. All in all a good night for the Alliance in IoC. I will be back in there again tomorrow night to see how we are doing.

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Alterac Valley - 1/22/10

The Alliance was doing so-so in Alterac Valley tonight. I fought in 8 battles on Gomorra, 3 wins and 5 losses. We started every one of the battles outnumbered and that had a large impact on the outcome as it always does. We did win a couple that we started off outnumbered by more than 15 though, that is why I said the Alliance was doing so-so instead of bad. When you can start off that far behind and win you usually have a pretty good team.

Out of the 5 Horde victories they only killed Vann twice, the rest they won on reinforcements. That is not unusual, Alterac Valley is set up in the Hordes advantage when it comes to a reinforcement battle and they shoot for it every time.

In the battles we did win we killed Drek in every one. It is unusual for the Alliance to win in Alterac Valley on reinforcements. It happens, but not too often. One of the battles I was in was a QQ pre-made and we won that one. They recall and try to get the bunkers back in Dun Baldar for maximum honor. Sometimes they get them, sometimes not but we usually always win in one of those. I have thought of joining one of those just to see how many times a day you actually fight. I don't think it can be too often as I fight in Alterac Valley a lot and only see them in there once every couple days.

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Alterac Valley 1/21/10

Believe it or not, the Alliance isn't doing to well in Alterac Valley tonight. I only fought in 3 battles, 2 on Wranngar and one on Gomorra but that was enough to see how it was going. Wranngar had 1 win and 1 loss while Gomorra had a loss. The one we won was a pre-made, otherwise it would have been on the loss side.

The pre-made was a QQ, too bad they are so full of themselves. They usually do pretty good as long as the Horde don't decide to Blitz. They try to go on and on about how great they are and how the 'pugs' are going to lose the battle for them but, basically, they are undergeared and inexperienced players that are following orders. At least they can do that. Anyway Wranngar ended up in one of those and it was a win. The other one he was in we lost to basic inexperience. I am not sure where all these inexperienced players are coming from and what happened to all the experienced players but it really sucks. Maybe I am just getting in there at the wrong time every day, I have been doing my daily's first lately, when before I was just going right into the battlegrounds.

The 2 Gomorra were in were just straight up fails. The second one was the only one we came close in and we lost that one by over 240 reinforcements. It was the same stupid shit, see Horde piling into Galv and go in after them... When you see the Horde piling into Galv you skip him. Pretty simple, leave them standing there and go by. Unfortunately the Alliance isn't smart enough to do that. The second battle, the one that was close, we might have been able to pull it off if someone hadn't capped SHGY. I really wish people would smarten up about that GY and stop capping it. There are times when it is ok, even good, to cap it but more times than not it should be left alone. Good rule of thumb then, don't cap SHGY.

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Eye of the Storm - Daily Battleground 1/21/10

Eye of the Storm was my daily battleground today, I did it on both Wranngar and Gomorra. Wranngar won the first one he was in but it took Gomorra 3 battles to get his win.

Wranngar got lucky and got in with a good group on his first one. We held 3 towers and ran the flag some. Those are the kind of groups I like to be in, groups that know towers are more important than the stupid flag. You get in with a group of Flagtards, people who can only see the flag and nothing else, and you will lose every time.

Gomorra was not so lucky. His first battle started off 5x15... I'm not sure what the problem is with Blizzard but starting off outnumbered 2 to 1, 3 to 1 or 4 to 1 is getting old fast. Needless to say we lost that one. The second group he got in wasn't any better. They weren't Flagtards, at least not all of them, but they really had no clue. We held 1 tower for most of that one then lost that. While we didn't have any towers we did have the flag... Flagtard in action... The 3rd group was a lot better. They weren't too responsive to calls of incoming, nor were they big on guarding nodes, all the nodes we had were completely unguarded at one time or another, but somehow we managed to hang onto 3 nodes and run the flag. We won that one by over 700 points.

I handed this in for 19g86s, 1241 bonus honor and 25 arena points. Season 8 opens in a week and I can start getting gear for Gomorra again and re-gear Wranngar.

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The Battle for Alterac Valley 1/20/10

There is really not too much to say about how the Alliance was doing in Alterac Valley tonight. Actually it can be summed up in one word, bad. I fought in 10 battles on Gomorra tonight, 1 win and 9 losses. We won the last battle I was in but by that time I was too disgusted to care. There was only one thing of interest tonight, the fact that the Horde had 41 players in 4 or 5 of the battles. As if it isn't enough that we start off outnumbered the Horde get extra players now? WTF is up with that? Another Blizz fail, nothing new...

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Alterac Valley - 1/19/10

I only fought in 3 battles tonight on Gomorra, 2 wins and 1 loss. We did really well in the 2 battles we won. We got Galv, at least 3 towers and killed Drek. I got some pretty good honor out of those.

The battle we lost was back to business as usual. We were doing pretty good, we had Galv down, were capping IBT and TP and had people in Frostwolf Keep capping those towers and the relief hut. The someone took SHGY. That caused all the Horde to rez at FWGY and from there they went into FWK and took everything back, wiping out our offense, then moved forward to take back TP and IBT. We ended that one in a turtle in DB. You really have to wonder how many times the Alliance is going to make the same stupid mistake before they learn or if they are even capable of learning at all.

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The Battle for Alterac Valley - 1/18/10

The battle for Alterac Valley rages on and the Alliance are still having a pretty hard time of it. I was in some pretty sad battles tonight on both Wranngar and Gomorra. Wranngar fought in 8 battles, 3 wins and 5 losses, Gomorra fought in 3 battles, all losses. The saddest part is a few of those battles we could have easily won but stupidity ruled the day.

We lost a couple battles when someone capped SHGY at the wrong time and got our offense wiped out. I believe it was the same person both battles. I can't stress enough how important it is to look and see where the Horde are going to rez, where the Alliance are and think about what will happen if you cap SHGY before capping it. People don't think and that has always been a major problem in AV, that and general lack of experience.

As usual we started off outnumbered in all the battles I fought in tonight, that is nothing new. The Horde had one Blitz, so that was nice and quick. One of the battles I was in we wasted 20 minutes at Drek when there were 10+ Horde in the room with him when all we had to do was cap another tower for the win. We did end up downing Drek in that one but we could have won it a lot sooner. The other 2 wins were also a result of us killing Drek. The Horde won quite a few of theirs on reinforcements as usual. Alterac Valley is set up to the Hordes advantage when it comes to reinforcement battles. Alterac Valley has always been set up to the Hordes advantage one way of another.

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The Battle for Alterac Valley 1/17/10

I fought in 6 battles in Alterac Valley on Gomorra tonight, 4 wins and 2 losses. That sounds pretty good but 3 of the 4 wins were pre-mades.

We killed Drek in all of the battles we won. In the 3 pre-mades we capped all the towers for maximum honor, in the other we only capped east and west Frostwolf towers. We still got some good honor out of that though, around 1300. In the 2 losses the Horde killed Vann once and won the other on reinforcements. The Horde win a lot of their battles on reinforcements.

The one the Horde won on reinforcements was a turtle and it was close, they only had 46 reinforcements left at the end. The problem was we had all 4 towers down so the only option left for the win was to kill Drek and there were not enough people there to do it. I got some pretty good honor out of that one anyway, over 1800, more than the Drek with 2 towers win. I am about 8k honor away from my next piece.

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Eye of the Storm - Daily Battleground 1/17/10

Today the daily battleground was Eye of the Storm. I did it on just Wranngar today.

The first battle I was in didn't do too well. We had a group of Flagtards. Flagtards are people that go right from the rock to the flag. They don't care about towers, they don't care about winning evidently, all they care about is that flag. All they can see is that flag. Flagtards lose more battles in EoS than anything else. We did manage to hang on to 2 towers for part of the battle but we were down to one a lot of the time. We had no defense at the towers we did have, everyone was at the flag. Needless to say we lost that one like we always do when the majority of the group are Flagtards. At least it didn't end up with a Horde 4 cap like so many of these Flagtard type of battles do.

In the second battle we did a lot better. We got 2 towers straight off, MT and DR, and eventually got a 3rd, BET. We held onto DR and MT but lost BET. We got FRR and hung onto those 3 until the end of the battle. We ran the flag a few times which is fine once you have at least 3 towers and not everyone abandons the towers to do it.

I handed this one in for 19g86s, 1241 bonus honor and 25 arena points.

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The Battle for Strand of the Ancients - Daily Battleground 1/16/10

Today the daily battleground was Strand of the Ancients. I hate fighting in a battleground on it's holiday weekend and I really hate it when my daily battleground turns out to be one that is having it's holiday weekend. I did this on Wranngar and Gomorra and, surprisingly, we didn't do too bad.

There were a lot of AFK as there always is on a holiday weekend, but the Horde must have had their share too. We won the first one I was in on Wranngar and the second one I was in on Gomorra.

The first one on Gomorra we didn't do too bad in I don't think, we just couldn't get to the relic in time. When it was the Horde's turn they were able to get to the relic and capture the titan portal. In Gomorra's second battle we were able to keep the Horde from getting to the relic although I am not sure how. They had the yellow gate down with 5 minutes left on the timer and I figured they would have it but they were unable to get the door down that the relic is behind. When it was our turn we hit 2 gates from the beach, hit the next 2, took down the yellow gate and eventually took down the door to the relic and captured the titan portal.

The one Wranngar was in went really smooth. We started off on defense (it seems to randomly rotate whether you start on offense or defense) and were able to keep the Horde from getting through the yellow gate and into the courtyard. When it was our turn on offense we just plowed right on through the gates, into the courtyard, took down the door to the relic and captured the portal. We did that in under 4 minutes which earned me an achievement.

I turned these in for 19g86s, 1241 bonus honor and 25 arena points. Gomorra can really use the bonus honor.

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The Battle for Alterac Valley 1/15/10

The battle for Alterac Valley rages on. The Alliance was doing a little better in there tonight than they have been lately but not really good. I fought in 10 battles on Gomorra, 4 wins and 6 losses. Not great but better than they have been this last week. I'll take any kind of improvement as a step in the right direction.

We started off bad. I always say there is a time of day to fight in certain battlegrounds and a time of day to stay out of them. Unfortunately Gomorra needs the honor to get geared so I haven't really had that luxury lately. We had 5 losses in a row, then 4 wins in a row and finished up with another loss. The last one I was in was really close, we lost by less than 80 reinforcements. We should have had that one, we were ahead but people got lax, that is the Alliance way. In the 4 we won we downed Drek for the win. Out of the 6 losses the Horde downed Vann twice if I remember correctly, they won the rest on turtles. The Horde win 9 out of 10 turtles because that is a reinforcement win and Alterac Valley is set up to their advantage for that.

Gomorra is about half way to his next piece as far as honor goes. I will be happy when he is finally geared, I like playing Wranngar in the battlegrounds more.

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Isle of Conquest - Daily Battleground 1/15/10

Today the daily battleground was Isle of Conquest. I did it on Wranngar and Gomorra. It took each of them 4 battles to get a win. The Alliance wasn't doing too well in there and a major part of the problem was the battles starting off so uneven. When you are in a 40x40 battleground and you are outnumbered 2 to 1, you don't stand much of a chance. Add to that the Alliance's lack of teamwork and the loss is almost assured.

Eventually we got a roughly even start, 34x40 on Wranngar and 36x40 on Gomorra, and those are the ones we won. In the first 3 on each we got steamrolled. In the majority of the losses we weren't even up to 40 players at the end. I, like many of the Alliance I'm sure, hope one day Blizzard will be able to get it right, but until then I will limit my daily battleground to 5 losses, if we don't have a win in 5 battles I drop it and see what tomorrow brings.

The Horde won a few on reinforcements which means we were putting up a good defense, sort of. The problem with that is everyone was in the keep. It is not too hard to keep them from killing your General if everyone is in the keep. Of course you're not going to win that way either. Ever. That is where the lack of experience that is so obvious in all the battlegrounds comes in. I see that happen a lot in Wintergrasp too. We won each of ours by killing the Horde General.

Anyway, they each handed this daily in for 19g86s, 1241 bonus honor and 25 arena points. Wranngar is capped on Honor but can use the arena points, Gomorra needs both.

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Battle for Strand of the Ancients - Daily Battleground 1/14/10

Today the daily battleground was Strand of the Ancients again. I did it on Wranngar and Gomorra today. It was also the holiday weekend in Strand of the Ancients, or Call to Arms as it's called. You get double the honor on a holiday weekend. A holiday weekend is the worst time to fight in any battleground. One of the reasons for that is all the weekend warriors, people who only fight in the battlegrounds on their holiday weekend for the extra honor. They are usually pretty inexperienced and don't have a whole lot of enthusiasm. The other reason is all the AFK, the leeches like to get in there and soak up all the extra honor while they stand around doing nothing but taking a slot from someone who could be fighting.

Wranngar got his done on the first battle he was in, he got in with a pretty good group. We started off on defense and had no problem at all keeping the Horde from capturing the Titan Portal. They made it through the first set of gates and that was as far as they got. In round 2 when we were on offense we had no problem blasting through all the gates and working our way to the door the portal is behind. It was almost too easy, like the Horde just gave up and were waiting for their mark. We broke down the door to the Titan Relic and captured the Titan Portal. We had 2 AFK who were marked and eventually removed from the battleground.

Gomorra wasn't so lucky. The first battle he was in ended in a draw. That means neither side was able to capture the Titan Portal. A draw is the same as a loss as far as I'm concerned, you get one mark and you don't complete your daily. The next 2 battles were even worse. We had at least 3 identifiable AFK, that's a lot when you only have 15 on your team, and there were a couple more that were only doing enough to keep from getting flagged AFK. We lost those 2 to the point the Horde were farming us at the GY...

Finally in the last battle I got in with a decent group. We had good strong defense and managed to keep the Horde from breaking down the door the Titan Relic is behind. They made it all the way through the yellow gate, which is the last gate, but couldn't get the door down before the timer ran out. In round 1 we were on defense so in round 2 we were offense. We had the full 9 minutes as the Horde ran out the timer on their attempt. We hit both the blue and green gates at the same time, something we didn't do in the losing battles, and hit them from both sides. We got through the red and purple gates which leads to the yellow gate. We had no problem getting through that and to the door the Titan Relic is behind. We broke through that door and captured the Titan Portal for the win.

I handed this in for 19g86s, 1241 bonus honor, which Gomorra really needs, and 25 arena points which the both need. Wranngar is currently maxed out (capped) on honor.

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