Battle In Alterac Valley 11/20/09

The daily battleground today was Alterac Valley. I did it on Wranngar and we won the second one I was in. I ended up fighting in 20 AV's, 10 wins and 10 losses. The new big thing now seems to be The Alterac Blitz. The only problem with that is the people saying "STRAIGHT TO DREK, DON'T STOP FOR ANYTHING" aren't bothering to check and see if we have a tank that can tank Drek at 200% health plus 4 Warmasters and 2 Frostwolves, and healers that can keep him alive, so half the time we get there and can't do anything. That was the case a few times today. We didn't necessarily lose those battles, we just didn't Blitz.

We had the usual problems of fighting in a battleground on it's holiday weekend, the weekend warriors and twice the AFK. People are starting to take an interest in reporting the AFK again it seems, maybe it is because they are AFK'd right out of the battleground after a minute.

We did have a couple wins on reinforcements and those were nice. Those were long battles with a lot of fighting and a lot of kills :). We pushed the Horde back from SPGY to SHGY then took SHGY in one reinforcement battle. I don't usually recommend taking SHGY but in this battle it was Ok because we were winning on reinforcements anyway. I got a lot of kills in that battle and another one. In the reinforcement battles we had to pile 8-10 people into IBT and TP to keep them. The Horde never go to take a tower back with just a couple, they always group up so they figure they will have anyone there outnumbered by at least 2 to 1. We surprised them a few times :). They don't even go to take a mine back unless there are at least 3 of them because they figure it was taken by 1 Alliance. I only got about 700 kills tonight in the battles I was in but I had a lot of fun.

I fought in 2 Wintergrasp battles. I should say I was in 2 Wintergrasp battles, I was in the first one from the start, a win, and got into the second one seconds before we lost. A mark is a mark though.

Battlegrounds 11/2/08

Today's daily battleground was Arathi Basin. I fought in 7 battles on Wranngar before we finally got a win. I had some pretty bad groups but the last 2 were pretty good. We were very evenly matched in the next to the last group, they won 1990/2000. That got them an Achievement too, winning an AB by 10 points :(. In the last group we were doing good, we had a 3 cap almost all the time, a 4 cap most the time and a 5 cap for a minute or two. We won that one by over 1,000 points but no Achievement in that. I am still happy I got the Blitz done in AV yesterday. I thought that one would take foever. I also fought in one losing AV tonight. We weren't doing too bad in it but the Horde got Vann down before we could get Drek down. We got Galv in that one too so we got some pretty good honor anyway. I have over 55,000 kills now, less than 45,000 to go for my title.

Battlegrounds 11/1/08

I hadn't played in a few days so I was happy to see that Alterac Valley was the daily when I did log on again. It took awhile to win one though. As usual I fought on Wranngar. I am not going to go into a lot of detail except to say SHGY played a major role in ALL our losses. I kept playing though, farming kills and all of a sudden the quality of people changed. It was a quick transformation, we went from losing groups that were lucky to get over 100 honor to groups that were doing the Blitz Achievement. The Blitz Achievemant is win an AV in 6 minutes or less. We got that one by rushing Drek right from the cave. There were a few players with full T6 gear and with a couple healers so there was no problem taking down Drek. No one took SHGY in those battles either, it was incredible :). There is one instance where you can take SHGY without too much repercussion. That is when we have all the GY's except SHGY. That causes the Horde to rez in their cave and we seem to have no problem winning at that point. I am still collecting honor to make up for the 55,000 I spent. I am back up to around 45,000, 30,000 to go.

Battlegrounds 10/27/08

I only did 4 battlegrounds on Wranngar tonight. I did 3 Arathi Basin which was my daily and one Alterac Valley. The first 2 AB's I was in were losses but I got into them towards the end so they went quick. In the third one we got a 4 cap going and kept it throughout the entire battle. I capped the Gold Mine and then stayed to defend it. It was one of the places that got hit a few times. At one point I had 2 at once, a shadow priest and a warrior. I killed the squishy first then killed the warrior. I called incoming but nobody came. I was pretty buffed up and my attack power was over 4600 in cat form so I was killing left and right. I had no deaths and finished 4th on the list for killing blows even though I was defense not offense. In the AV I was in I got in right at the start. It went pretty smooth, I helped defend IBT, a small group took out Galv, and we got IBGY and TP. We moved on to FWGY while those were capping and then got FWRH started. We had SFGY and at that point someone took SHGY..... It didn't matter though because we had the East and West Frostwolf Towers capping and the Horde were rezzing in their cave because they didn't have a GY capped. We capped E & W Towers then took down Drek for the win. One of the better AV's I have been in lately. Still looking for a good battlegroup to get Wranngar into.

Battlegrounds 10/25/08

I only had time to do a few battlegrounds tonight. The daily was Warsong Gulch which we won on the second battle I was in. I also did 2 AV's, one win and one loss. I did them on Wranngar. I got in the first WSG after the start. The score was 0/2. It was a pretty poorly coordinated group and we never did capture a flag before the Horde won it 0/3. In the second battle we did a lot better although I saw some people from the first group in there. They must have been the better ones from that group. We won the second one 3/0 and I captured the last flag for the win. In AV the first battle I was in we barely won by taking down Drek, it was close. The reason it was close after we had such a good start was someone took SHGY and held it. Same stupid mistake that is made all too often. In the second battle the same stupid mistake (SHGY) was made and this time it cost us the battle, we got Galv and 2 towers, that was it. We were moving along pretty well until someone took SHGY then ALL the Horde rezzed at FWGY and came back and took everything we were capping. After that is was just a long hard loss. I am really looking to get Wranngar out of this battlegroup and into a better one.

Battlegrounds 10/14/08 - 10/19/08

I haven't been doing too many battlegrounds lately, I haven't really had a whole lot of time to play or update this blog. In the last 5 days I fought in 35 battlegrounds. I can remember a time when I would do that many in a weekend. I should have more time soon though. I did them all on Wranngar. The Alliance hasn't been doing too hot in the battlegrounds lately so there really isn't much to say. There is still a lot of AFK going on and a lot of stupidity in AV surrounding SHGY. I don't know what it is with that graveyard but it has cost us more battles. Since the new changes it is easier to take down Drek and Vann though, it can be done pretty easily with 2 towers up so they must have nerfed that too. The game is a lot easier to play now than when I first started, I guess Blizzard is worried people might find it too hard to level so they made it easier. Any I will try to start updating this blog on a daily basis again going forward. Something they added as part of the new expansion are Achievements. I am not too sure what the points you get will be used for but one of them is a title for the battlegrounds. For 100,000 lifetime kills you get "of the Alliance" added after your name. Needless to say I am going for that one. I currently have 54,000+ lifetime kills.

Battlegrounds 10/5/08

Not a great day for the Alliance in the battlegrounds again today. I did get yesterdays daily done along with today's daily though. I fought in 20 total battles on Wranngar. Yesterday's daily was WSG, I tried one and it was so bad I dropped the quest. I picked it up again this morning before daily's rolled over and got it done on my first, and only, WSG battle. When the daily's rolled over I got today's which was AB. It took me 3 battles to get that one done but I got it done. After that I did a bunch of Eye of the Storm battles with a few AV's mixed in. We had 7 wins and 6 losses out of the 13 battles I fought in EoS. Once again it was going well then you could see when the quality of the players change. We went from 3 and 4 caps with running the flag to barely able to hang onto one tower while half the team, or more, was in the middle trying for flag. The flag means nothing when you only have one tower. Instead of hanging around in the middle trying to get the flag the time would be much better spent getting another tower. I think out of the last 8 battles I was in 6 of them were losses. The Alliance is still doing bad in AV with people taking SHGY and causing the battle plus all the AFK. There was also a lot of inexperience in there. People were calling out to kill Drek while we still had 3 towers up. The groups I was in didn't stand a chance of taking Drek down with 2 towers up let alone 3. We had one battle where we rushed Frostwolf and no one bothered with TP or IBT. By the time we got them it was too late. We had 1 win and 2 losses in AV.

Battlegrounds 10/4/08

The Alliance was having another bad day in the battlegrounds today. The only one we were really winning in today was EoS. I fought in 10 EoS on Wranngar for 7 wins and 3 losses. We had some good groups, some bad groups and some close battles. There was a lot of AFK again in this battleground which is unusual, I am not sure what is up with that. Warsong Gulch was the daily, I tried one of those, keeping in mind it is their holiday weekend, and then dropped it. People seemed to be there to farm kills which is stupid, you don't farm kills in WSG, you farm kills in AV. But the fact remains people were fighting right outside our base and not making it any farther. I tried to run the flag twice but had no flag support either time so I just gave up. I was in 2 battles in AB, one win and one loss. Both of those battles were really close and we either won or lost with less that 100 points difference between us. I also fought in 3 AV's, all losses. In 2 of the battles we took and held SHGY which is pretty much a guaranteed loss. In the third battle we were actually on Drek but the Horde got Vann first.

Battlegrounds 10/2/08

The Alliance was having a pretty bad night in the battlegrounds tonight. I fought in a total of 7 battles tonight on Wranngar, 5 in EoS which was the daily, 2 wins and 3 losses and 2 AV's, 1 win, 1 loss. I don't know why the Alliance is having such a hard time in EoS lately, we used to do really well in there. In our 3 losses we were lucky to hold 1 tower and actually rezz'd on the rock one time because we even lost that. It was sad. In the 2 we won we had a 3 cap the whole time and were running the flag. The Horde never got over 800 in those 2. There were just really bad groups of people who either didn't know how to play EoS or didn't want to play. There were quite a few AFK too, I wonder if it is EoS weekend, that would explain a lot. In AV we had one good group and one bad group. In the one we won we had plenty of time left to get Galv and TP for the extra honor, which I pointed out, but everyone was in a hurry and downed Drek with Galv still alive and TP still up so they lost honor and bonus honor. I don't care anymore, I am just in it for the kills. The loss was a bad group and turned into a turtle for the most part, everyone was hanging around in DB, most of them AFK. The Horde killed Vann in that one. I got the daily done today on the first battle, it was EoS. I got the 11g99s this daily pays and that was about it lol.

Battlegrounds 9/30 &10/1

I only did a few battlegrounds on Wranngar yesterday. I ended up doing 3 AV's, 2 wins and one loss. The Alliance were doing pretty good and even the loss was close. Unfortunately no such luck tonight. I fought in 7 AV's, 2 wins and 5 losses. The ones we won we had a good group of people who knew what they were doing. The ones that we lost were pretty bad, we had bad groups and a lot of AFK in all of them except one which was close. In the first win we rushed Galv, which I usually don't approve of, then went as a group and got a good grip on IBT. From there we took IBGY then moved on to TP. IBGY used to be a really important GY and still is in my opinion. A lot of groups want to bypass it and go right to FWGY and that works too so it is a hard call. I always like to see a group that goes for IBGY after IBT starts capping. Of course this is based on having a good group. If you have a bad group, and it is usually obvious in the first few minutes, then your best bet is to try and get Galv for his 63 honor. It is better than no honor. But I digress, we got IBGY and TP then moved up to FWGY while they were capping. We had a bit of a fight at FWGY, the Horde were defending it pretty well but we got it capping and moved into the Keep. We got the relief hut and towers without much trouble, the horde couldn't get into DB because they had too many on defense and I think they were giving up at that point. Once everything capped we took Drek down for the win. In the second battle we won, we rushed FWGY and got that started then moved into Frostwolf Keep and cleaned that out. That took a little while as there were a lot of Horde on defense. Eventually we had both towers and FWRH capping as well as all the Horde cleaned out and things were looking good. Others had come behind and got IBT and TP capping then took Galv. Once the East and West towers capped we moved in and took out Drek for the win. As far as the losses go they were pretty much turtles, people died in the first rush and didn't leave DB again. I also fought in 5 Eye of the Storm battles tonight. We had 3 wins and 2 losses so it would seem we were doing a little better in there but we weren't, we usually own EoS. We did have one battle where the 2 teams were pretty evenly matched. That one went on for 35 minutes which is a really long battle for EoS. We both crept from 1 to around 1800 points before we took and held the flag, ran it up to 1910 then capped for the win. It was a long intense battle, constant action. In one other one we had a 4 cap going for almost a minute. That battle was a win and not even close, they just happened to lose the one tower they were holding for a minute.

Battlegrounds 9/29/08

Looks like I am back in battleground mode, it is all I have been doing the last couple days and I see no end in sight. This will slow down my leveling on Brieanna but once in a while you feel like doing some battlegrounds. I fought in 9 AV's on Wranngar tonight, 6 wins and 3 losses, the Alliance was doing good for a change. We won two battles by reinforcements and the rest by killing Drek. We had some pretty good battles and some good groups. There was not too much (In Team) fighting going on except one battle I got in late. We ended up losing that one, I think it makes a difference on overall morale when there is a lot of fighting and bickering going on. I am happy to say there was not a single battle I was in where anyone took and held SHGY so that is a step in the right direction. For the most part we rushed FW Keep in the battles we won. A few of them we hit IBT and IBGY at the same time and got them both capping, then with the Horde unable to rez at IBGY we were able to get TP capping. We had one battle, the next to last one I was in, where EVERYONE rushed FW Keep and we didn't have IBT or TP. We had some good defense going in that one though and they kept the Horde out of Dun Baldar. Eventually we went back and capped IBT and TP then got Galv. With 25 reinforcements remaining on the Horde's board we took down Drek for maximum honor which I, unfortunately, don't get anymore. We had one battle with someone in it that was insisting that we take out Drek with 3 towers up. They don't know the importance of the towers. Each tower represents an Elite Warmaster in with Drek and +25% health to Drek in addition to the 2 Elite Frost Wolves with him. So with 3 towers up Drek was at 175% health and he had 3 Warmasters and 2 Frost Wolves with him. It wasn't going to happen. For the most part we had really good groups and really good teamwork going on today and it showed in the wins.

Battlegrounds 9/23/08

Today's daily battleground was Alterac Valley. I did it on Wranngar and we won the first one I was in. I stayed and did 4 more, 1 win and 3 losses. We won the 2nd battle I was in then, you could see it, the quality of players changed. I don't know if school got out somewhere or nap time got over but the quality of players just declined rapidly. In the 2 that we won we got Galv and killed Drek along with capping all the towers so they were maximum honor games although that means nothing to me as I am maxed out at 75,000 honor and can not collect any more. I gave up after that but I did collect my 11g99s, 419 extra honor and 3 marks from AV for the daily.

Battlegrounds 9/11/08

Today's battleground was Alterac Valley. I did it on Wranngar and we won both the battles I was in. We rushed FWGY and once we had that we got the towers, IBGY and the relief hut. After we had all the towers capped we took down Drek for the win. It wasn't even close. I decided to try another one and see how that worked out. We won that one too doing pretty much the same thing but it was a little closer. It goes to show how teamwork, everyone working togther, makes a big difference, not only in AV but, in all the battlegrounds.

Battlegrounds 9/6/08

The daily battleground today was Alterac Valley. I did it on Wranngar and, surprisingly enough, we won the first one I was in. We rushed FWGY, then FW Keep while some stayed back and got IBT and TP. We got all the towers capped then took out Drek. Galv also got taken out along the way so it was a maximum honor game. I might go back in later for a few more if I get bored leveling up Brieanna.

Battlegrounds 9/2/08

Today's daily was Eye of the Storm and I got it done on Wranngar in the first one I was in. I turned that in for 11g99s plus the 419 extra honor that you get from the daily. After that I headed into AV for 1 win and 5 losses, seems the Alliance fell right back into their clueless groove. You would not believe the amount of AFK in all the battles I was in. There is a new twist now that a lot more people are using TuringTest AFK Reporter, you see a lot of people at the end with 1,000 dmg, 1,500 dmg and so on, they just hit something once in awhile so it does not report them AFK. To give you a basic idea, most people have between 50,000 all the way up to 200,000+ dmg when a battle is over. It is really sad that these losers are costing us so many battles... In the one we did win we had a lot of people that were actually playing and we rushed IBGY, got that, then it was no problem to take IBT, TP, Galv then move on to FWGY, FWRH, East and West towers and finally Drek. That was a maximum honor game. We had another battle where we were doing really good then someone decided to take SHGY which cause the Horde to start rezzing at FWRH and that coat us the battle right there. When will people learn? It is the same stupid mistakes over and over again that cost us so many battles along with all the AFK... Blizzard really needs to get their act together and do something about all the AFK in ALL the battlegrounds, it is really out of control. Once someone is marked AFK they should have 60 seconds to clear it or they are kicked from the battleground with a 24 hour deserter debuff. They get 3 of those in one month they get banned from the battlegrounds for a month, first offense. Second offense they are banned from the battlegrounds for life. What they are doing now, if anything, is definitely not working that is for sure.

Battlegrounds 8/21/08

Today's battleground was Warsong Gulch. I did it on Wranngar and we won the first one I was in. It didn't look good at the start but we managed to pull it off somehow, I capped one flag. I got the 11g99s and 419 extra honor this daily pays plus the 3 Warsong Gulch Mark of Honor you get for winning. After that I did one EoS, we lost. I got in late and you could see there was no teamwork, a few people trying for one tower, a few trying for another, they managed to hold one and we didn't get another before it ended. After that I went into AV. I fought in 13 battles, 6 wins and 7 losses. Sad to say that is pretty good for Alliance in AV these days. We had 2 losses where people took and held SHGY which is a guaranteed loss and one win where they took it and we won on reinforcements. The only reason we pulled that off was the Horde team was pretty bad. It would have only taken about 10 minutes if they hadn't taken SHGY, and we would have killed Drek for extra honor, but it ended up taking over 45 minutes after they did. After that the winning plan seemed to be rushing FWGY, then hitting FWRH and having the people that died in the initial rush get TP and IBT. The other losses were just poor teamwork. As usual there were a lot of AFK in all the battles. No surprise as Blizzard doesn't seem to be doing anything about that problem.

Battlegrounds 8/20/08

Today's daily battleground was Eye of the Storm, I did it on Wranngar and got it done on my second battle. The first battle was pretty close but, once again, people were more interested in getting the flag than holding the towers so we went from a nice lead to losing by 200 resources..... In the second battle I had a better group and we held 3 towers throughout and had the 4th tower at the end, we won by 1600+ resources. The daily battleground pays 11g99s, 419 honor above and beyond what you get in the battle and of course I got the 3 Eye of the Storm Mark of Honor. After that I headed into Alterac Valley for 6 more battles, 3 wins and 3 losses. We got our wins by rushing FWGY then moving forward into FW Keep and taking the RH and towers there. The people that died and got sent back to DB came along and got IBT and TP and once we had at least 3 towers capped we killed Drek. In our losses the biggest problem is still people going for Galv at the start. This breaks our offense apart and really gives the Horde a chance to take down the smaller number of people trying to get through to FW Keep. And there was one battle where the Allaince took and held SHGY. How long has it been since patch 2.4 came out and people are still making the same stupid mistakes? It is pretty sad that people can not learn from their mistakes. As usual we had a lot of AFK in all the AV battles and a couple in the EoS battle too. The AFK problem is really getting out of control. I know Blizzard doesn't want to offend the AFKers, they are paying customers, but the people that are trying to win are getting pretty pissed off and they should think about that too.

Battlegrounds 8/19/08

Today's battleground was Arathi Basin. I am not sure what the Alliances problem is lately in ALL battlegrounds but it was another pathetic day in the battlegrounds for the Alliance. It took me 9 battles on Wranngar to get my daily done, 9 battles before we had a win :(. Nap time must have been over and the kiddies were rearing to go it seems. People could not be content with holding the 3 nodes you need for the win, they had to spread out with 2 going to one and 3 going to another, fighting on the roads which leads to nothing and basically leaving one person to defend a node if any at all. When the Horde comes in to take a node they come in 5 or 6 so one person doesn't last long. Anyway we won the 9th battle I was in and I was able to finally get out of there. After that I did some Eye of the Storm, we weren't doing a whole lot better in there. I was in 5 battles, 3 wins and 2 losses. Once again people seemed to be more interested in getting the flag than they were in capping and defending towers. The way to win in EoS is to have at least 3 towers THEN run the flag. We had people, half the team, going for the flag when we didn't even have a tower, tell me those aren't little kids. They would get the flag and have nowhere to go with it. I did 5 AV's also and that was just horrible. We had one win and 4 losses. People were not working together and, of course, they were going for Galv first. In one battle, loss, at least 10 people went for Galv, breaking down the offense, and didn't even kill him, then everyone ended up back in DB and decided to stay there and turtle. In the one battle we did win we won by rushing FWGY then getting FWRH, FW Towers and TP. After we had those capped we killed Drek. Most of our losses the Horde won on reinforcements. The Alliance wins about 1 in 20 wins on reinforcements but people are still arguing that we need the 100 reinforcements Galv knocks off the Horde. It is crazy. There was a lot of AFK in all the battles I was in, the AFK problem now is worse than it has ever been in spite of Blizzard "working" on the problem. In the attached screen shot you can see how many people had 0 damage, 0 heals and 0 caps 10 minutes into the battle. There were also AFK in EoS and AB which really hurts because you have much smaller teams.

Battlegrounds 8/18/08

I haven't written about the battlegrounds lately because the Alliance have been doing so bad there is really not much to say. From 8/15-8/17 I fought in 40 battles on Wranngar, 16 wins and 24 losses. It was a bad few days. I don't know what is wrong but the Alliance is performing worse than usual which is pretty bad.

Battlegrounds 8/18/08 - I fought in every battleground today, we did good in some and bad in others. I fought in 7 AV's, 2 wins and 5 losses. For some reason lately people are taking and holding SHGY, they are doing it on a regular basis and, as usual, it causes a turtle, long battle and loss. In our 2 wins we rushed FWGY or FWRH and capped the towers for the win. The last battle we won it was really close. The Horde started on Vann before we started on Drek but because they had so many on defense we were able to DPS Drek down before they were able to get Vann. In one of our losses we had FWRH, FWGY, and of course Galv as people seem to be doing him first thing lately, but we did not have IBT or TP and could not take down Drek with 2 towers up. You can tell a lot of the people have no clue what they are doing in there when they are saying to rush right to Drek and kill him. I keep telling them to learn the importance of the towers. Each tower represents a Warmaster in with Drek and also adds +25% to Dreks health. When there are 4 towers up Drek is at 200% health and he has 4 Warmasters with him along with 2 Elite Frostwolves. Hopefully people will learn or put their characters back on eBay where they got them. I also fought in 3 Eye of the Storm, 1 win 2 losses. This is a battleground we usually dominate in, if that gives you an idea how bad the Alliance is doing. I fought in 8 Arathi Basin, 4 wins and 4 losses which is about right for that battleground. The strange thing there was it was there holiday weekend which is when you usually get the worst players, the "weekend warriors" that only go into the battlegrounds for the extra honor. I fought in Warsong Gulch too, a battleground we usually do really bad in but we ended up winning 4 and losing 2 so everything is whacked :). Hopefully things will even off during the week and get back to normal.

Battlegrounds 8/14/08

Today's daily battleground was Arathi Basin. We didn't do too well in there, overall I had 4 wins and 4 losses but I got my daily done. The daily pays 11g99s, 419 honor and I also got the 3 Arathi Basin Mark of Honor for winning. After I had finally won I went back in for some more and had 3 good groups where we had two 4 caps and a 5 cap. I only have about 60 of those marks as I used some to buy some gear so I need to build those back up along with WSG marks. I went on to fight in 9 Eye of the Storm battles, 6 wins and 3 losses. We had some good groups and some bad groups, with a couple of the good groups we had 4 caps and held the Horde on their rock. I also fought in 5 AV's, 3 wins and 2 losses so that wasn't a really bad day in AV. We killed Drek in all of our wins and both of our losses involved people going for Galv first which usually ends in a loss and in one of them they defended SHGY which almost always ends in a loss. Overall it seemed like the quality of players was better today. As usual we had a lot of AFK in AV but they are getting reported more and more and people are asking me about the TuringTest AFK Reporter when I post the Leechers/AFK and they are saying they are going to download it. If only 5 people in every battleground had this mod AFK would be a thing of the past as they just would not be able to get away with it. If Blizzard put a little effort in and started removing them from the battlegrounds, say after 3 minutes, and banning them from battlegrounds for a certain amount of time each time, and maybe permanently after so many, I think it would go a long way to solving the problem too.