Change Alterac Valley BG

At the end of the day, though Warmane mainly follows a "no changes" attitude and doesn't deviate much from retail, there is a basic precedent set for making some changes to the game, both in PvP and PvE.

Pvp - Blackrock server, a very unique and interesting PvP only serve that merges with the other Realms in BGs and I think is very healthy for the Pvp meta. Obviously, retail never had this and this change has been very positive for Warmane overall

PvE - there is an entirely new custom raid created by the devs, which drops the Zebra mount. Again, changes from retail.

So, let's take the two "raid" style BGS, IoC and AV, and compare them. The essential thesis being, raid based bgs are better when there are mechanics that "split the raid", aka make it worth it for smaller parties of players to split off and do objectives. This encourages players to fight in skirmishes all over the map and discourages just farming HKs. It also makes it possible for players to win the game via objectives as opposed to just fighting the enemy raid.

IoC - IoC is designed by Blizzard with the flaws of AV in mind. You have 3 different points, each allowing you access to different ways to break down the gate. You need to break the gate and kill the boss in order to win. Splitting the raid up is essential to achieving this objective. There are many different interesting, aesthetic places on the map to have skirmishes with smaller pieces of the enemy raid. Though most games open with a fun giant mid battle, losing mid is hardly losing the game. In fact, both Docks and Hangar offer you unique ways to siege the enemy base, sneak inside it, and destroy the gate. Even the defenders camping their base has a solution - taking the graveyard inside the base, picking off players, using the gunship to get onto the enemy roof and possibly even Warlock summoning in raid members, and using the guns on the gunship in mass to assault an enemy raid camping inside the base. These are all fun, dynamic, and require coordination. The game is even winnable by simply fighting to the last reinforcement! It's a very well designed BG.

AV - used to be better designed, but now has a few key problems -
1. most of the NPCs and their quests are useless now, and the old quests such as summoning the raid bosses don't work.
2. There are too many choke points, which favors camping and the stronger raid heavily.
3. The geography also encourages graveyard farming. It's not good for the game when players get angry about people taking the gyards because it stops them from mindlessly camping it!


Fixing AV is really easy ultimately IMO. Here are my suggestions -
1. Make the NPC quests which spawn NPC attackers / the raid bosses work again. Make doing these quests reward small bits of honor so lesser geared players are encourage to do them.
2. Add a two way teleporter (with a long teleporter sickness debuff) inside the "harpy cave" in the North part of the map so players can skirmish there, and teleport past the choke points in mid in order to threaten the objectives deep in the enemy territory. This will function similar to the Hangar in IoC, so players will be encouraged to either fight to win mid and the 2 mid bunkers / mini bosses, or use the cave to sneak into the enemy base and threaten the deep bunkers, thus forcing the raids to split and send back defenders.
3. Make the Gyards cap like Eye of the storm bases, IE if a mass of players are standing there, it is forced to come to their side, so they cannot camp Gyards and must move on to other objectives. This way, the winning team is forced to at least progress down the map, and losing one major raid fight doesn't end the game outright like it does most of the time. IoC has mechanics which already do this, remember?
4. Buff the Alliance Miniboss. I have played on both Horde and Ally quite alot, and it's very noticeable how much stronger the horde Mini is to the Alliance one. You need a Tank, healer, and DPS to kill the Horde mini, whereas you can even SOLO the alliance mini boss as a Balance Druid! I've done this before multiple times! All in all, she is a total pushover.
5. Put railings on Alliance bridge leading to their base. It wasnt designed with Typhoon and Thunderstorm in mind and it gives Alliance an advantage in defending their base vs. the Horde.
6. Perhaps buff the Mines as well in some way, making controlling them more beneficial, so again, players are encourage to split up from the raid and do objectives.

These suggestions alone could make AV more dynamic, like IoC, and I think it will make players alot more interested in playing this BG beyond just HK farming. Again, there is already a precedent set for making changes to the game in both PvP and PvE, so why not?