AV Problem

[Arnulf]

I've pugged to rank 12 in almost exclusively AV (without AFKing) and I've pretty much seen it all.
No offense, but you need to play AV more, and then you can comment.
-A

Don't come and tell me about Alterac Valley. While this is small consolation to your plight, I made exalted with Stormpike back when

- Alterac Valley was a lot more complicated than today, with lots of distractions
- our server (PVP) had a Horde to Alliance ratio of 2:1, and Horde was BIG in PVP
- there were no cross-server battlegrounds
- it was possible to join as group (and I witnessed the queue clear exploit)

I've never won an AV in that time. And I've seen many AVs that lasted more than 3 hours. You see, when someone has to wait in queue for hours you're really eager to win! And Horde made damn sure that was the case. And if it took them 4 hours to do so, then they did!

It is quite amusing to read that Horde has that disadvantage and that Alliance is favoured by this terrain, when I've witnessed these advantages turned against us time and again. I know now what an uphill battle is (more like a slaughter really) from my experience in front of the Icewing bunker. I've seen many a times how Horde had rained on us hail and brimstone, literally, in the gorge before the Stormpike graveyard. I learned to hate bunny-hopping undead mages who arcane bombed us while healed from behind. I've learned to accept that Horde could (and still can) jump into the Dun Baldar north bunker from the outside rock wall.

It wasn't made any easier that we had on our server three big Horde guilds who had quite a good assortment of Molten Core and Blackwing Lair gear while we had not even Molten Core stuff. Of course our big guilds on Alliance side did Alterace as premades.

Fast forward to today.

I've visited AV on and off in the meantime, and yes I traded long wait times in queue for more wins. I think I'm one of the few who has both the ice barbed spear (quest reward from killing Korrak) and the cold forged hammer for defeating Drek'thar.

Things have changed. Now if we meet Horde from our server they have of course AQ40 and Naxxramas gear. Of course I've been in AVs where stampeding Tauren in complete Dreadnaught took Dun Baldar in record time. The 5 minute win by Horde is possible; guild mates have witnessed it. But they only get more than 100 bonus honour if they really make an effort in destroying bunkers, and capturing graveyards, and killing Lieutenants/Commanders/Captains on the way. But then you can defend.

I've been in AVs that were short, but I've also been in AVs where both sides were defending and pulling out every stop. Where wind riders and Lokholar were summoned etc.

I also know about the join as group. Only it requires that everyone presses on the join battle button at the same time. Everyone has to be on the ball for that one, you cannot synchronize via teamspeak. And if they can pull this off, so can you! I've done it several times, albeit with only ten people max. Sometimes we got into the same instance, sometimes we didn't.