AV Weekend Wrap-Up and "Dr. Phil"

trptscott — Tue, 22 Jan 2008 22:39:44 GMT

So AV weekend has come and gone. It was a good weekend... despite the "boycott" that apparently has been taking place on the part of the Alliance. 35-minute queues, 20-minute game, 600 honor. And in between, I'm constantly getting rocked by premade EotS and AB teams. Racked up about 30k honor from my weekend of playing.

Those of you on Horde side, did you notice any of the following?

1) On Thursday/Friday, the whole Alliance team would zerg to the FW RH cap it, cap towers, and burn Drek. Since Horde doesn't usually play much D, this worked for a while. Horde spent most of their time name-calling and bitching instead of adjusting.

2) By Saturday morning the Horde are playing some D and the games slow down a bit. Some Alliance still try to zerg RH, but there aren't enough to make it a quick kill.

3) By Sunday evening, the initial Alliance O push is thwarted, the game collapses, and its almost like the old days with Alliance rolling backwards as Horde push right on into Drek.

So rack up the AV bonus honor I did. Unfortunately, my 3v3 was not so successful. We were up and down throughout the weekend. Almost 100 games played and only a 1568 rating. I'd say that's a fair indicator the team chemistry isn't there. Especially since we all sit above 300+ resilience. There's no doubt in my mind that some team combos just don't work. Not to mention the 400g I spent on respecs throughout the weekend to try and "spark" some competitive play. I think I'lll give the PMR setup a try. Rumor has it those teams are pretty successful. Now to find a good mage.

And the final item on today's rant, WoW and your significant other... hence the "Dr. Phil" tag in my subject line. My significant other is just not accepting of my WoW addiction. And let's face it, I don't do WoW in moderation. Those of us who raid know that *** never gets done on time... ever. In the past, I just chugged along and kept working with the team until the job was done. Nowadays, the GF is asking "when will you be done?" I say 30 minutes, some tard Warlock wipes us, and it's another hour gone by.

So my question to DQ readers... what types of arrangements do you have with your significant other when it comes to WoW? And no, she isn't going to play the game... ever. :-(

5 Ways to Survive Alterac Valley

matticus — Thu, 22 Nov 2007 14:12:00 GMT

Before I played my Priest, I had a 60 Paladin. My first guild was Micro, a PvP group based in Twisting Nether. My time on WoW was spent running organized Arathi Basin and Warsong Gulch for hours on end. This was before the battlegroups concept was introduced into WoW. You may consider me a hardcore raider, but I’m no slouch in PvP tactics either. The mechanics of AV has changed. What's the general premise? Beat the crap out of the other team before they do it to you.

Two Methods to Victory

Killing the opposing team’s General -OR- Running their reinforcement counter to 0

As healers, we will often be one of the most sought after targets. Not all of us have full Season 2 gear with 400 resilience. If we want to give our team even a remote chance of winning, we need to survive. If we can survive, we can heal our own knuckledraggers pew-pewers. Remember, every death sustained is one point taken off of our reinforcement counter. With that said, here are 5 easy ways to live and support your side.

1) Use terrain to your advantage

When a player goes out of your line of sight, your spells automatically cancel. No other battleground or arena has much junk to hide behind. If you’re on the frontlines and you know you’re being targeted by range, duck behind a tree. You can move behind a tower. Don’t just stand in the open and give their mages easy Frostbolting action. Line of sight THEIR spellcasters. If I’m healing a Warrior, I will dismount behind a tree. All that crap you learned in Grade 10 math pays off here. Set up a triangle. You can see the warrior. Enemy mage sees the warrior. You can’t see enemy mage, therefore enemy mage cannot see you. Mage blasts warrior, sees heals, tab targets to you, realizes you’re not in line of sight, gets crushed by Skillherald. And all you had to do was park yourself next to a tree.

2) Do not mindlessly charge into the enemy

If I had a copper for everytime I’ve seen this happen, I’d be able to quit school and sell WoW gold for a living. In a game where every player’s life is precious, people who randomly charge into the horde with no support behind them are pissing away reinforcement points. Please do not do this. Do not stay mounted and numlock your way into Frostwolf Graveyard while realizing that there are 4 players of the opposing faction guarding that flag. If you’re going to go in on the offense, tag along with a few other players. Odds of survivability greatly increase with your proximity to other players.

3) Cut your losses

If your offense is stalling and you’re not able to sustain the health of players around you, do not hesitate to cut your losses and fall back. Being able to think on a macro scale and on a micro scale is an asset. If six players are rushing up the ramp into Tower Point and you just capture it, there’s no way you can hold out that long for four minutes. Forty seconds maybe, but not four minutes. Better to drop a psychic scream, jump off the tower and fallback to the IB graveyard. Because if you think about it, you can either lose the tower and two reinforcement points or lose the tower anyway and come back later with some fire power.

4) Maximize your range

What’s the difference between healing at point blank range and healing at maximum range? Whatever your health is. If your at max, you’re not likely going to be targeted because the opposing team is busy with groundpounders that are smashing their face up front. That leaves you free to drop your renews, healing waves, shields, etc. Use the players your side as a barrier. Keep them alive and they will in turn protect you.

5) Stalling tactics

We have defensive measures at our disposal that we can use to evade enemy attacks or make us stronger. When you’re falling back, slow down the other side. Keep using your global cooldowns. Shamans should be dropping earthbind totems and grounding totems as much as possible. Priests should be tossing up shields, screams, and stoneforms (Dwarves only). Tie up the enemy as long as possible. Delay them. Do whatever it takes. If you see a mounted Tauren ride by, frost shock him. This especially holds true when you’re assaulting a graveyard. Don’t fight ON the flag. Fight between the graveyard and the flag so you can tie up and stall the players that are ressing. Think about it for a moment. What is your first inclination when you see an opposing player that is trying to tag your graveyard? You are going to do whatever it takes to get that player off the flag, right? Exactly. The reverse holds true.

Follow these simple concepts and you will help your side see success in AV. At the very least, even if you don't win, you won't die as much.

Matticus raids on a his Dwarf Priest and PvPs on his shaman. When he's not doing that, he maintains his own blog over at worldofmatticus.com. If you like what you read, come by and read more!

The Daily Quest : alterac

AV Weekend Wrap-Up and "Dr. Phil"

5 Ways to Survive Alterac Valley