How To Win Alterac Valley Horde

Table of Contents:  

1.0 Introduction To AV
1.1 Offense and Attacking
1.1 Defending
1.2 Hot Spots for Stealthers
1.3 How to take Mines
1.4 Defending Strategy for Drek's Room - The Turtle
1.5 Rushing the Dun Baldar Bunkers

1.0 Introduction to AV:

It is a common belief that a good offense is a sure way to win, however, since the latest patch many things have changed and a tactic where players rush to Van doesn't work anymore. Capturing the towers has become of the essence in AV now, since when a team captures towers the opposing team’s marshals are being removed and their reinforcements are being decreased. Therefore it is no longer wise to go fully offensive and the raid should leave several members to defend the captured towers.

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In order to win, a team will need to balance the amount of players who will go both defense and offense. Offense will have an assignment to cap the Alliance’s towers in order to lower their reinforcements and also to take the graveyards so the Alliance gets pushed back more. While the offense strikes, the defense has an assignment to hold alliance back at Drek’s since the graveyards and towers will be constantly under attack and if captured they will allow players of the opposing team to spawn closer to Drek.

1.1 Offense and Attacking 

Your assignments may sound simple – kill the Alliance team, capture and kill Van if you get the time. However, your task isn't simple at all, since you will have a barrier of the Alliance offense which will protect their defense on the map. This means that when the game starts, Alliance players need to pass so they can get to the defense. If the Horde team goes all in the offense, they will need to estimate the amount of opponents they will be able to cope with. Intercepting the opposing massive army, will result in less work for the defense. However, there are a few things that could go wrong during the time of interception: 

1) If the interception is done as early as possible it can result in minimal number of kills while it will cause the massive offensive force to reach the defenses faster. Howerver, this may also slow you down. It can be a good idea if you have, let’s say, a frost mage and shaman in your group. Anyone who tries to pass will be struck with aoe and slow effects and all others who manage to pass will surely dismount and attack you (suicide). In the big picture it will cause the opposing team to slow down while reaching the defense, as well as it will help scatter players of the opposing team which will make them become easier targets. 

2) If you intercept the opposing team with a large number of people, which is the worst scenario you could pick, it will result in a large number of Alliance being pushed back to the Stormpike Graveyard which will create trouble for players in the offense. This happens simply because there is a bottle neck close to the Icewing Bunker and any Alliance player who wishes to pass will simply be massacred. This may lead your team to a huge turtle in which you will be described as complete noobs.

There is one more trick when it comes to winning in the offense – knowledge of how many players you will have to hold on each tower:

0 - This will give you a faster offense but it might cause the overall battle to prolong as the towers need to be captured again.

3+ - This will give you extremely slower offense but it will help for the overall outcome since the towers don't need to be captured again.

1.2 Defending

When it comes to the defense, your task could be quite difficult and will definitely require good coordination and knowledge of your opponent’s weak spots. Keep in mind that if you totally wipe the Alliance offense, it can create a turtle simply because there will be no available graveyards for them. You might have already noticed that Alliance usually rushes towards the Frostwolf Relief Hut, while skipping Galv. This is very helpful to the Horde since it will grant your entire raid a health increase buff every now and then. 

However, if the Alliance team rushes to Galv, it will cause their forces to be spread thin, since they will leave some of their offense in front and some at the back to clear any Horde player who will try to recap (the arrow effect). Being in the defense, your task is to recap those towers so the timers could reset, which will give the Alliance offense some trouble to kill Drek as they will have to move past the lieutenants.

At the start of the game, the tower defense will be minimal. However, when the towers become constantly recapped, defense will become much harder since there will be more Alliance defending these towers while making it hard for Horde to recap. Even though Alliance will hold a strong tower defense, there will be just a few Alliance players who will hold the graveyards (all except the Frostwolf Relief Hut).

As soon as the towers are capped, few of the Alliance players will go for the graveyards. Therefore it is highly recommended that your team splits into groups of three to four players who will hold a graveyard. If you leave the graveyards to the Alliance, you will probably respawn after death all the way back at Stonehearth Graveyard, which will make it quite a time to get back.

Archers are considered to be an advantage for the Horde, so try to maximize their use. While casting slow or stun effects on your opponents who try to pass through the Frostwolf’s Gate, you can use the archers from both towers to make a great strike. Using the “arrow head effect” (weak offense at the start followed by a greater increase) you will turn your game into a successful one. However, the success will depend on the following things: 

1) The resistance of the defense at the Frostwolf Graveyard. If your team offers a larger defense at this graveyard, it could happen that a few groups pass through the Frostwolf’s gate for the purpose of capturing the Frostwolf Relief Hut. So you need to start with a smaller but consistent group and later on, as the game progresses, you can have a slight increase in defense. However, after the Frostwolf Graveyard is captured you will have to keep in mind that you need to take on around 20 players at a time until all players of the Horde, who were in the graveyard defense, resurrect.

2) The number of Alliance players in the offense compared to the number of Horde players in the defense. This can result in a large group of players skipping the Frostwolf Graveyard and any other major points and heading directly though the Frostwolf's Gate. Another option is that a large number of the Alliance could try to win the Horde defense at those major points, which will result in the same effect as described in '1)' However, the ratio would be larger.

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1.2 Hot Spots for Stealthers 

Every class has its advantages as well as disadvantages. The main abilities any stealther has are to easily ninja towers and intercept and pull out the targets from massive armies. Therefore stealthers play a major role when it comes to winning in AV. 

1) One of the best hot spots for a stealthier is a hill found near the Iceblood Garrison. If you stay on this hill in stealth, you will have the chance to see all players who enter or leave the Garrison. Your task here is killing the targets that pass individually which will earn you some extra honor and on top of that when these players die they will be sent back to the Stormpike Graveyard. If you see two targets, don’t try to take both of them. While you fight one, the other might alert other enemies of your presence and get some backup in.

As a druid, you can’t do much when it comes to separating the targets. As a rogue you can use your Distracting Shot, and then Sap. Use Sap only if the other player notices you. 

2) This is a similar place to 1.) You need to head into the Iceblood Garrison just after most of the opponents have gone away. After the fight with Galv some of the damaged targets will sit and eat in order to recover. While searching for fun and honor, your task will be to take these low hp targets down before they manage to leave the Garrison.

If they manage to get away there is a high chance that you will be spotted by the players at the Iceblood Tower. Therefore, don’t even try taking a Paladin unless his gear is really bad, since Palas can use bubble and then run away from you. 

3) This could replace '1)'. The main task is to kill players who are running away from the archers due to a large amount of damage they suffered. These players are heading inside in the attempt to cap the flag. Killing them will be fairly easy not to mention the extra honor you will get. Any class can be successful here, however rogues and druids will have the most success since they are able to get away easily. Keep in mind that you should prevent your targets from getting away since if they manage to run outside in this area you will surely pull quite a bit of agro on you. 

Good advice is to use ctrl + V all the time (you will see the hp bars of all the players around you) since it will help you keep track of the amount of enemies that are coming up the stairs. This is useful not only because you can see the number of players coming towards you, but also because you can see the targets that are at lower hp. These ones should be taken down first.

4) Later, during the game, you won’t have so many nice opportunities to make easy kills like these. However, you should try to take the towers back at any time you notice they are defenseless or if there is just a few players defending them. Taking the towers back will grant you some easy kills but there is a trick here as well. You should go outside the hut and around it, staying close to the wall. This way you will be able to spot any stealthed enemies who are waiting in the shades for someone to come and reset the tower timer. Since any kill done here might trigger the opponent to come back with some backup, being a rogue is the best option for an easy getaway.

Once inside you should go down close to the bottom of the stairs. When the opponents pass you should use Sap on the last player coming up. Once the first target is dead go up and kill the other player and then recap the tower. After the tower has been recapped again, you should expect many players of the Alliance to come and claim back the tower.

Note that the towers near the Frostwolf Keep are in most cases less defended. Nobody usually expects a ninja on these towers and therefore most of the defense is on the ground. Recapping these towers is great for resetting the tower timers but you will never be able to hold them since there will always be just too many enemies coming back.

1.3 How to take Mines

Capturing the Coldtooth as well as the Irondeep Mine could be a sure way towards winning. By holding these points you will have a steady increase when it comes to reinforcements. Keeping these two points can also help you get to Van when your towers have been captured and the reinforcements have stopped.

During the turtle time, get one of your team mates to go around the top road next to the Stormpike Graveyard, since there will be just a few Alliance or none at all. There are only the guards that could attack you but they don’t have a high damage output so they do not pose a threat to you. Once you get to the intersection, don’t go up the hill but just keep going forward until you see a small cliff.

Once there going into the mine, without anybody noticing you, will be fairly easy. Your goal is to cap the mine by killing an npc, located in the centre of the mine. He is easy to down and same goes for his two bodyguards. Keep in mind, that if you leave the mine once you capped it, it could be easily taken back by an Alliance player who will wait silently in stealth for you to go. 

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1.4 Defending Strategy for Drek's Room - The Turtle

Turtling is the best way to stop Alliance from killing Drek. This could be achieved when the Frostwolf Relief Hut is captured. Once the Hut is capped, there will be no defense spawning at the Frostwolf Graveyard.

If your team manages to cap this particular point, it will be great since you will have a nearby area where your reinforcements can be resurrected. You need around 8 players to cap this point. As for the goal, your final plan should be to run past Alliance’s offense and go directly into Drek's room. At this point you will hopefully posses a few towers which will make the job easier for your team.

Your purpose here is to aim at specific targets like healers or ranged dps while staying as far as possible so the melee classes cannot go for you without agroing Drek. There is a few other classes that can assist you greatly:

1.      Warrior class

2.      Priest class

3.      Warlock class

These classes can aoe fear opponents into the room and make them aggro Drek. The tank of the opposing faction will struggle to receive the damage while his healers are being unable to heal him and are getting hits themselves. Not to mention that your defense can open fire to make the situation even worse for the attackers.

Another good thing to do is to dps the Alliance players as hard as you can while you stun lock the tank preventing him to hold aggro on himself. This will cause Drek chase the random targets that are the highest on the threat meter but with no tanking abilities, such as casters. 

However, do not be too confident as the Alliance graveyard is now very close. Do not run too far off since the opponents may come in one big group after they all manage to resurrect. If it happens that either a hunter or a warlock tries to put his pet on you, don’t fight it but rather kite it to Drek. He will manage to kill it really fast and if the hunter/lock gets within Frostwolf Keep he is most likely to be killed by Drek as well.

1.5 Rushing the Dun Baldar Bunkers

Rushting into the stronghold of Dun Baldar is a necessity if you want to win Alterac Valley. By taking out the Dun Baldar Bunkers it will be a lot easier to take and hold the Graveyards. It would be great if some players, preferably with the stealth ability would take out the bunkers. 

Once the bunkers are taken the archers will automatically despawn which means that everybody can storm through Dun Baldar without being hit. If you get spotted by an archer while taking the flag you should take him out before capturing the flag.

This guide shows the basics of Alterac Valley and we hope that it will be of use to you.

If you are still to low level to play Alterac Valley you can get help from Penn’s Leveling guide which will show you how to level up really fast. If you are looking for detailed PvP tactics then I strongly suggest you try the PvP Bible.

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