7/13: Alterac Valley

I'm getting character #6 from level 55 to 60, and I quickly noticed that it saves some coin to get the epic mount through Alterac Valley over buying the race mount or over the mount for all three battlegrounds. (Since we almost never win WSG, that would involve losing 30 times in a battlefield where D never earns rep; major drag.) So I've played well over 100 matches of AV, and although there are still aspects I haven't figured out, this is what I've worked out so far.

Assumptions to be borne in mind: a) I have only played Alliance. b) I have only played in the 51-60 bracket. Please do not be mean to me because of my limited experience. We're all doing the best we can.

First question: When do I go to Alterac Valley? Well, you can go at level 51. Don't. There are level 60's, both players and NPC's. If you are unable to solo a 60, don't go in there. (All ego and posturing aside, 51's can't solo 60's; any 60 who can be soloed by a 51 needs to quit. No 51's should be in AV.) With 40 people in the battlefield instead of 15, you don't stick out quite as much, but each side only gets a maximum of 600 deaths; if you are level 51 or 52, you're going to die more often than you should, eating up these deaths (which are called "Reinforcements"). That's counterproductive. Keep your little low-level keester out of the battleground.

Once you're around 55 or 56, you're big enough that you won't be a drag on the team. You probably can't do the mine quest until you're at least 56 or 57; that one requires you to be able to take out a 58 with two or three 57's on you. If you can't do that, you can't do the mine quest yet. The others probably won't be a problem after level 55 or 56.

Okay, so you're big enough, and you've decided it's time to begin your AV career. Go to Ironforge and pick up the quest from the guy in front of the bank. Run into the Warrior's Hall and see if the Honor quest for the day is for AV; if so, pick it up, but don't enter the battlefield here. Then fly to Southshore and ride north toward Alterac Mountains. As soon as you get the notification that you're in Alterac Mountains instead of Hillsbrad, turn left off the road and ride the ridge up the hill. (If you get the Corack's Dagger [spelling optional] notification, you're in the right place.) Then ride along the mountains until you're at the base. One guy will have a question mark; do the turn-in and pick up Proving Grounds. There's another quest outside; this is the one to defeat Drek'thar. Pick this up. Go in the cave. There's a dwarf with an exclamation mark; get all three quests. Go to the end of the cave and right-click the marshal to get yourself in the queue.

Now sometimes, this queue moves immediately; other times, it can take forever. If it takes more than two hours, I generally log off. While you're in the queue, there are a lot of things you can do. You're near the lake at the western shore so you can go over by Dalaran and run up and down the shore and fish. If you skin and are grinding Thorium Brotherhood rep, these mountain lions are easy sources of Heavy Leather. It's also easy to run north through Alterac Mountains and work on the quests in Western Plaguelands; you can also fish in the lake there.

So you finally get into the battleground. What now? During the prep period, you should cast whatever buffs you have on the people in your group and perhaps others you see nearby. (Don't forget hunter pets. I usually cast on demons as well, but I don't know how much difference this makes.)

The gates go up. Everyone steps just far enough outside the cave to be able to mount and does so. I have to admit that I find this kind of stirring in a sappy way, The Mounting of the Heroes.

I'll number this (1. 1st time in battleground; 2. between 1st and 2nd time in battleground; 3. 2nd time in battleground; 4. after that) to make this a little easier to follow.

1. Your first time in the battleground, your first priority is to finish Proving Grounds. You're going to go to the cave about a third of the way down on the western side of the map. You'll come across some harpies on the way, but they're level 53 tops; they shouldn't be too bad. Go into the cave. At the fork, go left. Then there's a part that veers down and a part that veers up. Veer down. There's a big ice field with a flag in the middle. Right-click that flag. (You'll obviously have to kill about a dozen harpies on the way. It's not unusual for other people to need this quest as well. You can all get the flag; no worries here. You can't all do it at once, so you'll have to take turns, but you can all claim it.)

After you've gotten the flag, you have some choices. Look at the chat; does there seem to be somewhere you could be useful? Do that. If not, if you're at least level 58, you might go up to Irondeep Mine and complete the Capture a Mine quest. (Capture a Graveyard and Towers & Bunkers you will probably complete quite easily just in the course of naturally running the battleground within the first four or five times, but the mine one requires you to go out of your way.) Go in the mine, killing little trogg things; eventually, there's a named 58 with some company, usually two 57's, sometimes three. Kill the 58, and the quest is done. Just run south and try to make yourself useful in some general capacity.

2. With any luck, you will win your first match. If not, you'll certainly win one of your first two or three. (Alliance seems to win about 80% of the time. This has to do with the map, and when the Horde chooses to play, and no doubt half a dozen other factors. I think the winning percentage is best on weeknights during the school year, but that may just be me.) When the match is over, you will go back to where you entered the queue; if you followed the above instructions, that's in Alterac. Right-click the marshal to get back in the queue. If you get the immediate message to enter the battleground, wait until you've done the turn-ins. If you did the mine quest, you may have that and should turn it in on the way out; it also isn't unusual to pick up the Graveyard and Tower & Bunker quests just in the course of your travels, so turn those in as well. Then run outside the cave. Turn in Proving Grounds and pick up your trinket and your Frostwolf Artichoke. (You should read this once, just because it does give a viable strategy, but then you can auction it off as it is otherwise worthless. Someone will buy it eventually for reasons I am unable to fathom. It costs no deposit on the AH. It might take several weeks, but someone WILL buy this turkey, just like they do the Faded Photograph, and since it costs no deposit, hurray.) If you won, turn in the quest for winning. Then there's an immediate re-turn-in, and you get a fairly good choice of prizes. If you've gotten the battleground entry, enter now; if not, quietly amuse yourself in a useful manner until you are called. Equip your trinket.

If you haven't been called, if you won the battle, and if you had the day's battleground quest for AV, fly or hearth to Ironforge to turn it in.

3. Now you're back in the cave for your next match. Again, buff people. When the cave opens, mount and ride south, following the huge herd of blue dots on your mini-map. There are two strategies Alliance usually uses to win here: most people ride to Galv, or most ride to Galv and some to the Relief Hut. (Occasionally there's a blitz that bypasses Galv; in my experience, that's iffier in its success rate. It might make sense if the battle's going to end because there aren't enough Horde players; this could maximize honor & rep earned for time expended, but it's not a normal winning strategy.) Now since you don't have an epic mount yet, presumably, don't put yourself in the latter group; you will not move quickly enough to be useful. You're following the herd to Galv. (He isn't strictly necessary, but it increases honor and rep and reduces the opponents' reinforcements to kill him.)

On the way to Galv, you will often see that the Snowfall graveyard has been captured by someone on Alliance. That's not a bad idea, but it isn't essential. Often, you'll also get the message that the Irondeep mine has been captured. Mines add reinforcements; reinforcements = deaths, so this can be important if the match is close. If, by your third or fourth round, you haven't completed the graveyard or mine quests, you could join others and do them this early in your next battle, but I'd suggest on your second, after getting your trinket, you just run the battle normally (as described below) and try to figure out the lay of the land and such.

Nine times out of ten, the herd of people wipe out Galv quickly and cleanly, no problems. If you have a trinket (not your AV trinket, but another one) that permits you to resist Fear effects, you should equip it. Under no circumstances should you run out of the tower for this battle or for Drek below; if he follows you out of the tower, his hit points reset, and you have to start all over--and the players' hit points or mana don't reset, so this can be a significant bummer.

After Galv is killed, run back out of the tower and remount. There will be a tower with archers visible to your right (to the east). Are there people with green names up in the this tower already? Have the messages at the bottom said Iceblood Tower has been captured by the Alliance? If not, run into the tower, go up a level, scan for horde, go up to the top, kill any NPC's (many of these are 60's), run inside the little hut and make sure the flag is gray with a lion and not red with the horde doobob, and then run back to the road. (You will sometimes get credit for Towers & Bunkers just riding past this tower or Tower Point; you may as well be helpful.)

On your left, you will very quickly ride past Iceblood Graveyard. If there's still a battle and the flag isn't gray with a lion, or if it's being attacked, stop and be helpful; otherwise, ride on. (It is not unusual to get credit for the Graveyard quest just because of when you happened to ride past here.)

Go south. Soon, you'll be at Tower Point. Again, are there archers, or have they been attacked? Even if Tower Point has been assaulted, glance inside. If there is a dwarf lying on the ground, right-click him; this is a Wing Commander, and he's useful if he gets to Dun Baldar and useless lying on this tower floor. Click on the "You stink" part to get him running back toward home.

Now is the tricky part. Ideally, you want to run south into the village of Frostwolf. You do *not* want to get bogged down at a big battle at the graveyard here. You really don't want to take this graveyard; it isn't particularly defensible, and it becomes a bottleneck. If you see a number of people on your side trying to take the Relief Hut at the very south of the map, do NOT let anyone take Frostwolf Graveyard; if all the horde spawns at the Relief Hut, it's all but impossible to take, and that graveyard is far and away the most desirable for the Alliance.

At this point, it might make sense to run and do Coldtooth Mine; same set-up as Irondeep. Rogues and druids might do well to stealth into Frostwolf and avoid this graveyard. ("Turtling" in this battleground often means, "We can't get past FWGY to help you in the battle at the far south of the map." This is stupid and frustrating. Do what you can to break this deadlock. If you are stalemated, go down to 3b below.)

Okay, now you've come inside the gates to Frostwolf. There's a hut in front of you, a hillside to your right, and a road that goes straight ahead. On the road just beyond the first hut is an elite horde guy named Jorek or Jotek or some such. If someone is fighting him, go into the second hut, the one that faces the road, and free the second Wing Commander. This is a Night Elf. He asks that you cover him; I did once, and it really isn't necessary. Just release the wing commander, and he'll probably get himself to Dun Baldar. If the elf isn't there or Jo-guy is still in the way, just go up the hill to the right. (This avoids several battles; past Jo-guy is a cave with 58 elites, so up the hill is your friend-o.) There are a lot of Horde NPC's here, the various vendors. If you can avoid fighting them, do; they have a crapload of hitpoints and aren't really worth a lot of XP or rep or honor or such. Go into the tower, turn left, and ride up the hill.

As you get up the hill, you go through other gates. On your right and left are two towers. See if the flags have been right-clicked so they're Alliance and not Horde. In the one to the left, there's a human guy collapsed on the floor; here is your third Wing Commander. Again, right-click him to release him.

When both towers have been conquered, go due south to the Relief Hut graveyard. It makes life much easier if Alliance has this graveyard. (This can break the deadlock; if Alliance can die far enough south to resurrect here, then we can get the last two towers and Drek easily.)

3a. About half the time, the match has gone smoothly, and you've been able to get to all these landmarks with a bit of interference from the Horde, but nothing undue. When a Horde person dies, instead of the little money bag a normal corpse has, the cursor turns to an insignia. Right-click it; you will pick up stuff that is potentially helpful. If it seems necessary, it would be appropriate for you to stop and defend any of the landmarks along the way (except the Frostwolf graveyard; this is a black hole).

If all of these objectives have been met, then go back to the middle of the Frostwolf compound and ask what the timers are at. (There's an add-on that will tell you this, and I should probably have it, but I don't know what it is yet.) You do not want to attack Drek'Thar (called Drek) until Iceblood Tower, Tower Point, and both Frostwolf Towers have "capped" (been destroyed or are under the control of the Alliance). This maximizes the XP, honor, and reputation and minimizes the remaining reinforcements for the Horde, which makes it easier to win if Drek doesn't die easily. Each of these landmarks that caps also removes one of Drek's guards; if all four are capped, then he has only the two wolves (easily dispatched by a group) and himself; this is very doable.

3b. If you're waiting for towers to cap, this can be a good time to use your trinket to return to Dun Baldar. (After death or during a stalemate is also a good time.) You've probably got three yellow exclamation points the first time you do this. The one nearest to where you land is probably one asking for supplies. Turn them in in lots of 20. This gives you Ironforge XP; the first time per match you do it, you also get a buff. Very worthwhile. (He's only yellow the first time; after that, his exclamation mark is blue like the other repeatables.)

If you have any Frostwolf pelt thingies from the wolves, they go to the mounted guy with the blue question mark over his head; he's in the pavilion by the trade supplies vendor. (My mother would have a fit at a horse in a pavilion.)

If wing commanders have been released, they're by the griffin master between the pavilion and Dun Baldar South Bunker. (You can't fly anywhere, but there's still a griffin master.) The dwarf guy gets the Soldier medals you may have picked up in exchange for IF and Stormpike rep; the night elf gets the Lieutenant medals for Darnassus and Stormpike rep, I belief, and the human gets Commander medals for Stormwind and Stormpike rep. (I may have the elf and human mixed up.) If a wing commander isn't there, he either hasn't been released, or he hasn't had time to make his way here. (The human way down south has a teleport he uses, but it still isn't instantaneous from his release.)

If you have Storm Crystals, follow the path behind Dun Baldar North Bunker. Turning in the medals or Storm Crystals has the potential to release powerful units to help your side. I was in a battle once where Ivus the Forest Lord was released from the Storm Crystals; that was wicked. If you go behind the North Bunker for the Storm Crystal turn-ins and the elves aren't there, either they've been killed (unlikely; they aren't that worthwhile to the Horde) or they've gone to the Field of Strife to summon Ivus. In this case, hie thee hither to the Field of Strife to help with the summons.

If anything here in Dun Baldar has been taken by the Horde (which it seldom is), you could defend it.

There are two other quests here, one that involves gathering rams and another that involves gathering supplies in mines. I have never done either of those quests, so I don't know how important or useful they are.

3c. Once you've done your turn-ins and all necessary things have capped, git yourself back to Drek and help with the kill.

You may have noticed that capping various towers and controlling various graveyards reduced the opponents' reinforcements by 75 or 100. Once the opposite side hits 0, your side wins. Sometimes, you win on reinforcements. Not quite as satisfying, and it's less rep, but you still get three medals instead of one.

The only, only time to consider killing Drek before everything has capped is if the Horde is just about to win by defeating the Alliance general, Vann. If this is not the situation, than anyone who attacks Drek before everything has capped is merely a) eating up reinforcements by fighting Drek before all his guards are down; b) jeopardizing your reputation and honor earned for this matched. Get that foolish nonsense stopped. (If others are already trying to get it stopped, though, and people are just being jerks to get other people's goats, don't join the general jerkiness.)

4. After two or three rounds of this battleground, your Stormpike reputation has probably gone from Neutral to Friendly. (Compared to Arathi Basin or Warsong Gulch, rep in Alterac Valley accrues crazy fast.) Each time your rep changes, go back to the guy who gave you your trinket and he'll upgrade it. (Neutral, Friendly, Honored, Revered, Exalted; the sixth is from earning Exalted fully maxed at 999.) I usually enter the BG through Alterac until my rep has hit Honored. Then I enter through Ironforge or whatever city is most convenient based on whatever quests I'm trying to further between rounds.

If you haven't gotten the completion notice on the Graveyard or Towers & Bunker quest within four or five times of playing, then see if you can get others to begin the match with you by doing Irondeep and/or Snowfall. Most of the time, though, these two quests take care of themselves. (And yes, these quests are easily soloable by the time you're 58 or so, but someone else probably needs them, too, and if you can avoid a death or two, it helps our side's reinforcements.)

I know there's a lot missing and probably a lot of disagreement, but this is the basic information I wish I could have found before I entered the first time.