Alerac Valley map imbalance in 2.2
From AJS.COM
- This article was originally written as a forums post in the PVP forum on the official World of Warcraft site.
In many (but not all) battlegroups, the Horde is winning quite a lot in the Alteral Valley (the PvP/PVE battleground). Some questions keep coming up, and I'd like to address them:
"The Horde is winning, doesn't this mean the map is imbalanced AGAINST the Alliance?"
Battlegrounds are a complex thing with many factors affecting outcomes from play style to choke points to NPC locations, etc. The AV map favors some strategies for Alliance and some for Horde. Right now, both Alliance and Horde on most battlegroups are playing AV as a race, and not running a whole lot of defense. Instead, they kill the commanders and then head straight for the generals. In that kind of a race, the Alliance and Horde are fairly evenly matched. The choke points at Galv and the bridge aren't going to slow anyone down much because they're poorly defended. The Horde gains a small advantage because the Alliance players frankly aren't used to playing against 40 Horde players. That will change, of course.
"Wait, so the map is balanced? Haven't the Horde been whining about it being imbalanced forever?"
The map *is* imbalanced, but that imbalance favors a strategy that no one's playing anymore: heavy Alliance defense at the SP bridge. Back when Alliance queues took forever, it made sense for them to turtle and play out a 2-3 hour game while holding the SP bridge. I've been in those battlegrounds, and I've seen how effective an Alliance turtle can be, and how ineffective a Horde turtle can be, even with superior numbers. Eventually the Alliance will win in a defensive game, but it takes a LOT of time. In a game with some defense and some offense, the Alliance advantage is much smaller (typically resulting in about a 60% win rate), and in purely offensive games like you're seeing now... you'll usually see the Horde win.
"The Horde can't be winning just because of some minor balance issues, can they?"
No, but the other answer is cultural. The Horde tends to be nearly ignored by players who are not very aggressive, while aggressive players tend to slightly favor the Horde. This means that players who do well in a purely offensive PVP race are much more numerous on the Horde side. There are non-aggressive players who are very good in PVP, but they're not as common and tend to do better in a balanced offensive/defensive game. That's just not what AV is right now.
"But I'm an aggressive player, and I'm losing in AV to the Horde. What gives?"
You can't win AV on your own. Get 10 of your buddies to run AV with you (pre-mades are hard on the Alliance side, but doable), and even without voice coordination, you'll see a change.
"What about 2.3. Doesn't that change everything."
Yup! All of this is moot, come 2.3 (see 2.3 and You for more). The advantage of turtling completely goes away when killing enough of the opponent is a win. Frankly, I expect 2.3 AV to turn into a bloodbath in the center field, with only minor efforts to take the closest GYs.
