I’m sitting here having my morning coffee looking down at a scribbled note next to the keyboard… “wtf is fwgy?”…that I wrote done last night. If you’re a player with a Battle Grounds past you’ve probably seen this before, as have I, but last night, for some reason, it struck a chord. Even in casual PvP play communication between players and groups is critical.
This becomes a problem at times, with the extended use of abbreviations, especially in Alterac Valley. I’m not an expert here but I’ve run enough AV’s to see the confusion it causes with the newbies…it’s confusing at first!
I thought I’d put down just the most basic abbreviations used in Alterac Valley (AV) to help the young Druid the first time in. Not a full blown strategy guide here but a primer. I know it took me quite a while to figure out what the hell everyone was talking about. Like a lot of things when you first jump into an AV it’s a bit confusing but keep in mind that a lot of the abbreviated discussion going on concerns the location of, and status of, the objectives of the game. There is a good amount of strategy that goes into effectively winning a match of AV however it’s pretty simple to understand once you know what everyone is chattering about. (These are the abbreviations I’ve seen the most and I’s assuming here there are pretty game wide. I play on Antonidas so if any of these look way off to you let me know what server you’re on and whats different.)
It’s better to have a map to look at while we go over this so click here to see a map of Alterac Valley (should open in a new window) I found over on TenTonHammer.com.
First of all: graveyards. There are seven graveyards (gy) in AV and they play a critical role in the overall strategy. When a player gets killed they re-spawn at a graveyard. Take a look at that map and follow along starting on the north side.
The Aid Station is the graveyard inside the Alliance stonghold. Sometimes called the “a.s.” but typically called “the station” or “aid station.”
Stormpike Graveyard is called either “stormpike, “pike” or “spgy.”
Stonehearth Graveyard is either “stonehearth” or “shgy.”
Pretty much dead center in the map is Snowfall graveyard which is called either “snowfall” or “sfgy.”
On the Horde side you’ve got Iceblood Graveyard called “iceblood” or “ibgy.”
Frostwolf graveyard is typically called “fwgy.”
The Relief Hut is almost always, in my experience, called “rh.”
Typically the chatter is going to be on what graveyards to take and in what order. Keep in mind that the term “cap” is shorthand for “capture.” For example you’ll see this alot when playing on the Alliance side, “Dont cap fwgy before rh!” or “don’t cap igby.”
When you’re new, especially in AV, the urge to capture a node is overwheleming. It’s a big board, there’s a lot going on, you may be a bit lost and you come across a bright shiny flag ready to take. There may be a very good reason someone else on your side has not taken that node! When you’re new and in doubt take two seconds to ask. A quick question like “should I take fwgy?” will go a long way towards winning the game and generally enjoying yourself.
Of course you’ll come across these two tells right next to each other “cap fwgy” and “no dont cap fwgy!” Dealing with that will be up to you! Thanks for reading and see ya next time.
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