It seems that all the world PvP enthusiasts want, aside from encouraged city raids, is a PvP-oriented zone.

Yet we've had a PvP zone, and we've had it completely gutted. Alterac Valley was, in every way but one, the PvP zone everybody seems to "want". In the Alterac Valley of old, the primary objective was, yes, to kill the opposing general, but it was also generally accepted that this was not something that could be easily accomplished. Indeed, on some servers, one could leave an Alterac Valley and come back the next day to the exact same game.

The focal point of the zone was the frontline, where scores of players battled viciously in an attempt to gain whatever ground they could over the enemy. The Field of Strife used to be named aptly so; the Alliance and the Horde would push from one end of the field to the other and back again for hours upon hours.

But the frontline was only the beginning. When not fighting to further the cause, players had a multitude of ways that they could assist the frontline without actually being there. Players used to collect supplies out of the mines to be used in summoning a brigade of powerful soldiers, or tame friendly mounts and hunt the skins of the enemy mounts to bring out the riders. The flesh, blood, ears, skulls, tusks, or feet of the enemy were all potentially used for something, from summoning your god to feeding your flyers. Each side even came complete with their own faction, reputation, and handsome rewards!

The one thing that made Alterac Valley not a true PvP zone was just that; it wasn't a zone, it was an instance. Yet, at the same time, that solved what so many people see as a potential issue with PvP zones: faction balancing. In an instance, this is easily controlled, in a pure zone, not so.

So why was Alterac Valley gutted, when Blizzard is trying to bring back the exact same concept?


Edit;


The only people who appear to be opposed to old Alterac Valley are the same people who seem to PvP for the sole purpose of getting gear. The point of Alterac Valley was not to get gear. Let me repeat; The point of Alterac Valley was not to get gear.

If you want honor and marks, that's fine. There were two other battlegrounds for you to reap. If you wanted large-scaled, epic, fun battles where time allowed actual tactics and strategies to emerge, then you could play Alterac Valley. True, Alterac Valley was not for everybody, but nobody was forcing you to play.

Alterac Valley is one of the few cases I can recall of a large chunk of content being outright removed. To say that Alterac Valley was gutted, downsized, or simplified are all terrible understatements; Alterac Valley was removed and replaced with a PvE race.

It was designed like one but it's really an instance and it doesn't have the spontaneity of a zone.

It might have been a battle, but it was still mostly pve <.<

I agree with the dwarf. I wasn't around for old school AV, but it sounded like a PvP dream come true.
You played it because you loved the combat, the battles, the epic scale wars. 40 vs 40 was perfect.
It wasnt about the honor or the tokens, it was about PvP.

And now its just "lets see how fast we can end this game" From horde side, if i ever take SF gy I get %%!@#ed at by pretty much my entire side for attempting to force a turtle, when a turtle games these days tend to just be games that last 30 minutes instead of 10. I happen to ENJOY turtle games. If all I wanted to do was kill some stupid elite NPC and his minions, I'd go to Andorhal and "purge" Araj and the town in an Arthas style cleansing. But no, I want to kill the players, i want the fight and the combat and the thrill of making a difference for your side.

I've never once been able to collect enough mine resources to summon the soldiers or capture enough wolves to get the cavalry to come. There just isnt time in the game anymore. I want to see that stuff happen. I want to play a PvP game that doesnt have to end in 10 minutes.

Personally, I think AV marks should be removed from the game and the game brought back to what it used to be. Play AV because you want to kill the other faction and have a blast doing it. not so you can #*@*@ honor and tokens to get your welfare epics.

When you get bored, you can leave at any time. as the man said, maybe the next day you could come back and be in the same fight!


-My 2 cents

The Field of Strife actually took after its name.

If I recall correctly, Blizzard even stated around the time of the battleground patch that Alterac Valley was indeed intended to be a non-instanced PvP zone. As they built and tested it however, they realized such a feat would not be possible at that time.

My guess would be that some of their ideas and concepts for Lake Wintergrasp are derived from the original development of Alterac Valley.

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Q u o t e:
We plan to give Lake Wintergrasp a definitive play time where the event may last somewhere around 45 minutes. The event would not start again for a set amount of time after the battle is won.

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Meh, I dunno about this. I kind of like instanced battlegrounds, where you can join any time and take part in a massive ground siege.

But I'll hold judgment until I see it in action.

I loved Old AV =(

Bring back Shredders.

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Q u o t e:
It might have been a battle, but it was still mostly pve <.<

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Spoken like someone who never played AV v1.0

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Q u o t e:

This is partially true. Alterac Valley was originally going to be its own zone. We do feel Alterac Valley is fairly well tuned at the moment, though we would like to give players a different type of experience that will include large-scale PvP battles, destructible buildings, siege weapons, and more. These are some of the things planned for the new PvP zone Lake Wintergrasp.

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So 10-15 min "PvP" ride to the general AV games is fairly well balanced. This game has gone so far downhill.

I would interpret that as: "we have spent enough time on AV, and all future efforts will be based around the WOTLK zone PvP"

Honestly do any of you in Blizzard take PvP seriously anymore.

What a joke

50 gold says that, before six months pass after WLK's release, Wintergrasp's "PVP" is gonna end up the same "let them win"/"More honor, less time" garbage AFK/zergrush fiasco the BGs are nowadays.

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Q u o t e:
We do feel Alterac Valley is fairly well tuned at the moment

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Please forgive the harshness of my attitiude, but this particular comment is full of fail. I do appreciate how you managed to couch your statement in such a way as to say "fairly well tuned" instead of "fairly well BALANCED" since even the most rabid alliance fanboi can't spit that precious gem out with a straight face.

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Q u o t e:

We do feel Alterac Valley is fairly well tuned at the moment, though we would like to give players a different type of experience that will include large-scale PvP battles, destructible buildings, siege weapons, and more. These are some of the things planned for the new PvP zone Lake Wintergrasp.

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I have zero faith in that Blue. You lost all credibility when your devs destroyed what made AV v1.0 great. Not only did they destroy it, they continue to act as though they know better than players what the players (the ones after PvP, not simply honor grinding) want.