WoW Druid

Ever tried to pack sand? It doesn’t work so well. This term came to mind last night when running an Alterac Valley and having a nice frosty beverage. It was nice. Wife was asleep, the dog was asleep, light rain outside…perfect. Anyway, one of the runs had about 30 on each side and it started out like they all seem to do – a massive rush on Galv with a big group splitting off to drive south towards Frostwolf Keep. 

This was one of those matches where you’re not sure what happens but all of a sudden the entire Alliance side is at the Hut bridge fighting like madmen. We had the entire board with the exception of the Hut and the Keep. And yes, some over excited kid got Frostwolf Graveyard right away and had no idea what everyone jumped down his neck. But here’s the thing: we could have taken the Relief Hut without giving up FWGY IF a few people could have opened their eyes just a little bit. 

(If you’re not a big Battle Grounds player click here to see a map of Alterac Valley and here is another one showing all the important spots. Alliance starts at the top and Horde at the bottom. The problem with the Alliance taking the all the graveyards but one is the only remaining spawn point for the horde is deep inside their base, right next to a flag that needs to be captured. Every time you wack a Hordie they spawn at your objective. Not ideal. If you want to learn more about PvP there is a good guide offered right here – Druid PvP Guide.)

So everyone is having a hay-day cutting down the Hordies like wheat and, yeah, that is fun. But we’re not making any progress. (Gotta think o the Honor!) The faster we dropped them the harder it was to take the Relief Hut. Add in the constant shouts of “Push!” and “Drive them back!” (thus the “packing sand” reference – drive them back where?) and it looked like we were just going to have to wait it out for the win. But I’ve been in games where a splinter group rolls off to the right of the bridge to the relief hut, into that open frozen ice area, like a rolling maul (any rugby players here?). All it takes is for 10 or so players to get over there and it opens up all sorts of opportunities.  The smart move is never to take Fwgy prior to the Hut, of course, and if that happens let the Hordies take it back if they will. One of the problems there is many players just can’t seem to let one or two Hordies get by so they can retake a graveyard. It’s against their very nature to let an enemy run past them. What you might have to do is sort of trick your own side. I’ve seen this move work on one or two occasions. And it’s pretty neat when it does. 

By doing this you’ve effectively split the “front” forcing the horde to defend on two sides AND giving those players that won’t let a Horde go past a different spot to fight. (Sort of a “If you start fighting they will come” scenario). You’re basically intentionally weakening your attack for the greater good. If you cause enough of a mess over there you may get players swinging away from the bridge over to you thus giving the poor little Hordies a better chance to sneak by. Hopefully that Hordie will grab the first graveyard they see and the rest will be in the bag. 

Obviously this is not something thats going to happen very often. It pretty much only comes into play when the Alliance side has totally owned the game and has control of the entire board up to the hut. The point is try and get the Horde to take a second graveyard providing them a second spawn point which would allow you to take the Hut. 

I’ve rambled enough. Thanks!