01-23-2008, 06:36 PM
Funny that I went through every post and didn't see a mention of the mod that really caused the issue. Preform AV Enabler - it was coded by a Horde player with an attitude problem and contained checks that would specifically prevent this mod working for Alliance characters. Look it up on Curse if you don't believe me and see the original author's comments. It's had a few less-than-successful attempts to modify for Alliance use but as Alliance almost always won AV, seeing it (rightly or wrongly) as their "compensation" for Horde always winning the other BGs, it never really got much exposure.
Until the last couple of months, that is. Then, with the reinforcement-based changes, there was an explosion of use of this mod in the Stormstrike battlegroup and Alliance players suddenly began to run into Horde premades. The issue is the map layout and the "scorched earth" strategy that began to be used. The strategy worked something like this:
1) Horde send 20 people, hunters/warlocks and a few healers to disrupt the Alliance at Galv and the chokepoint leading to IB GY. Frost traps, massive tab-dotting and the attempt to ride through to FW or the Relief Hut would run aground. The Galv attack would be broken up via fears etc.
2) The other 20 people move forward, take Stonehearth and Icewing bunkers, then kill Balinda. Instantly the Alliance are down 300 reinforcements.
3) The Horde offence moves forward - if they take Stormpike, Dun Baldar North/South bunkers and the Aid Station, they finish the game there. If they run into a defence at Stormpike they simply fall back to Iceblood and grind out a reinforcement-based win by virtue of the lead gained killing 2 bunkers and Balinda.
Basically, before the reinforcement change, where the victory condition was to kill Vanndar or Drek'thar, the final chokepoint was the telling one. FW Keep's layout is a joke, the Dun Baldar bridge is far far more defensible - Alliance had a massive advantage before. Now, with player kills able to determine the outcome, that later chokepoint pales in significance in comparison to the earlier Horde choke, IB GY.
The combination of this strategy and the Horde using Preform AV Enabler to get their premades into AV against a guaranteed Alliance PuG is what caused the Stormstrike Alliance to drift away from AV, catapulting Horde queues into the 2-3hr stratosphere. What happened after that was an attitude formed among the Stormstrike (and copycat battlegroups) that "if I've had to wait 3 hours for this game, I'm damn well getting maximum honour out of it". Alliance players saw their honour return from AV drop way below that of the other 3 battlegrounds and modified their behaviour accordingly.
Until the last couple of months, that is. Then, with the reinforcement-based changes, there was an explosion of use of this mod in the Stormstrike battlegroup and Alliance players suddenly began to run into Horde premades. The issue is the map layout and the "scorched earth" strategy that began to be used. The strategy worked something like this:
1) Horde send 20 people, hunters/warlocks and a few healers to disrupt the Alliance at Galv and the chokepoint leading to IB GY. Frost traps, massive tab-dotting and the attempt to ride through to FW or the Relief Hut would run aground. The Galv attack would be broken up via fears etc.
2) The other 20 people move forward, take Stonehearth and Icewing bunkers, then kill Balinda. Instantly the Alliance are down 300 reinforcements.
3) The Horde offence moves forward - if they take Stormpike, Dun Baldar North/South bunkers and the Aid Station, they finish the game there. If they run into a defence at Stormpike they simply fall back to Iceblood and grind out a reinforcement-based win by virtue of the lead gained killing 2 bunkers and Balinda.
Basically, before the reinforcement change, where the victory condition was to kill Vanndar or Drek'thar, the final chokepoint was the telling one. FW Keep's layout is a joke, the Dun Baldar bridge is far far more defensible - Alliance had a massive advantage before. Now, with player kills able to determine the outcome, that later chokepoint pales in significance in comparison to the earlier Horde choke, IB GY.
The combination of this strategy and the Horde using Preform AV Enabler to get their premades into AV against a guaranteed Alliance PuG is what caused the Stormstrike Alliance to drift away from AV, catapulting Horde queues into the 2-3hr stratosphere. What happened after that was an attitude formed among the Stormstrike (and copycat battlegroups) that "if I've had to wait 3 hours for this game, I'm damn well getting maximum honour out of it". Alliance players saw their honour return from AV drop way below that of the other 3 battlegrounds and modified their behaviour accordingly.
![[Image: 259402pnMDg.png]](http://wow.tachyonsix.com.nyud.net:8080/armory/sig.php/259402pnMDg.png)