Alterac Valley

                                                          A note from the author:

Allow me to start by saying that I have been a Blizzard fan and Warcraft junkie ever since I played Humans and Orcs at my uncle’s house. When Starcraft came out I battled across worlds watching the masterful story unfold, when Warcraft 3 came out I helped defeat Archimonde at the world tree, and when The Frozen Throne came out I saw Arthas crowned the Lich King. I have played the World of Warcraft since I received it the Christmas after it came out. So roughly I have been playing a month after launch, I eagerly jumped in and after some character testing, I chose an Orc Shaman. One of the things my brother and I looked forward to the most was the release of the new Player versus Player battlegrounds. I fought for flags in Warsong Gulch, I battled for precious resources in Arathi Basin, and when I hit level fifty-one, I fought proudly for the Frostwolf clan. Please do not see this as a threat to the way you want to run and create your game, but merely a well written suggestion for you to consider. I write this not as an angry Horde player mad because my battle group is dominated by the Alliance, not because I’m mad that I can’t get high tier gear quick enough, I write this as a long time customer who has seen Blizzard do great things, and I trust you will know the great thing you can do here.

                                                                The Story

Alterac Valley was the culmination of the World of Warcrafts’ original PVP or Player versus Player, system. It should also be noted that this is the first open declaration of war that the player is allowed to participate in the World of Warcraft. Granted only to those who achieved the at the time high level of 51, it was the ultimate reward for hours of dedicated leveling. In its first appearance, it pitted the Horde and Alliance players against each other supported by two factions, the Frostwolf Clan, Thralls very own clan who are fighting protect what they see as their land from a Dwarven invasion, and the Stormpike Guard who are trying to excavate the valley for artifacts. When the Dwarves first arrived, the Orcs saw it as an attack upon their territory, and in their eyes retaliated against the Stormpike. Also another faction, the Winteraxe trolls were interested in the land, but they were neither a major threat nor force. The breaking point came when King Magni Bronzebeard issued a “sovereign imperialistic imperative" to the Stormpike Guard to take Alterac Valley, and the War was on. The stage is set for an epic battle rich with lore on both sides of the playing field. Such a back story and setup should not be wasted on what is unfortunately now, a Zerg fest, a competition to see who can assault the enemies last graveyard first. No other battleground had such a carefully sculpted background or premise to it. Warsong gulches’ story was about cutting down trees, and Arathi Basin’s story was about capturing resources. This is a story of an Epic battle, it is a downright slap to face of the writers who spent so much time crafting a story for it to be half told and over in 10 minutes.

                                                           The Size

Alterac Valley is IMMENSE, it is larger than any other battleground and is nearly impossible to cross in a timely manner without an epic mount. However, all that’s used now is a thin strip of land on hugging the right side of the map. Sure we have the field of strife, gold mines, land mines a whole other NPC faction guarding a graveyard in the middle of the map, but let’s take that all away and force people to stick to the beaten path if they want to have any hope of winning. You used to have alternatives, different strategies and tactics to use, but now it’s just running up the same road trying to get to the last graveyard as quick as you can. You may as well cut out the Field of Strife, the area below Dun Baldar, the area northwest of Frostwolf Village, and Snowfall graveyard all together, because now none of that is necessary. I’m not saying I don’t enjoy those areas, and from time to time do what there is to do there, but I must say people like me are far and few between. Again it’s a slap to the face to poor artists who sat there for hours sculpting and creating that land, only to have one or two people set foot on it daily.

                                                              The Quests

“There are quests in Alterac Valley?” Is a common response I find whenever I bring them up in a conversation. This conversation is also usually me pleading with my group or guild to do the quests in order to reap the benefits. Let me set forth an example, while playing Alterac Valley as an alliance character in the level 51-60 bracket. I suggested because we were winning we start turning in armor scraps, flight master medals, and storm crystals, just for the sake of doing it. Most people understood about the scraps, but I kept finding people, death knights which means they atleast hit level 55 with another character, who had no idea what to even do with the medals. Half the team couldn’t even find the druids, let alone summon Ivus. These quests and NPC’s used to be the lynchpin of Alterac Valley. Completing these quests and unleashing them used to be the only way to win, and now people don’t even know what the storm crystals and flight master medals do. This isn’t just an Alliance issue, I have seen the same with the Horde and their respective turn ins. I hate to say it again but it needs to be said, it’s a waste, and a slap to face of every programmer, who sat in front of a screen typing out lines of code so you could turn in storm crystals five at a time. And now, people don’t even know where the turn in point is! The Reavers and the Riders? Too costly, nobody has enough time anymore to even get these two summons out anymore. I have personally made pre-made groups just to summon the Frostwolf Riders and we have about a 10% success rate, JUST because of the short length of Alterac Valley, win or lose. Five people, skilled, practiced people working the entire length of the battle ground to kill 25 Rams, and tame 25 Wolves, cannot do it. Again a total waste of potential and effort, even then when you finally summon them, they move to west end of Alterac Valley, also known as Frostdagger pass. A completely deserted place, and unless you have someone exalted with the Frostwolf Clan, or Stormpike Guard if your Alliance, there to tell them to move forward the riders will sit there. Lok and Ivus? If you even get enough blood and storm crystals to the respective NPC’s. Then you need to protect them THEN you need to get 10 people to click on a circle and not be disturbed by the opposite faction. THEN Lok/Ivus sits in the field of strife for 10 minutes patrolling it, no game will last this long anymore, if you actually managed to get the summoners to the field of strife your team will win before ten minutes is up. Again, so much time and effort wasted, and an extremely cool mechanic, never used because of the short length. I have only summoned the Reavers once since The Burning Crusade launched. That was because it was a 12 on 15 player match, and guess what? The Reavers made it to Icewing bunker before the game ended because of reinforcements.

                                                                        The Rewards

If you wanted PVP gear, and you needed honor, Alterac Valley was the place to be. With gear like the Unstoppable Force, The Immovable object and the lobotomizer no wonder it was so popular. When The Burning Crusade was launched the battleground specific gear did not receive an update, but the best pieces of honor gear outside were bought with Alterac Valley marks. But now, there is no use for them. I have heard people argue in favor of keeping reinforcements because nobody wants to spend forever in a battleground just for three marks and not enough honor. Well since the marks have no need at level 80 anymore, and honor can easily be adjusted what validity does this statement have? If the honor reward were to be tuned to make it worth the effort I can guarantee you people would love Alterac Valley. A rampant problem that happens now is that because it is so unrewarding to do, teams often start out stacked, and the game is decided that way. I haven’t played a 40-40 Alterac Valley since half way through The Burning Crusade. Bring back Alterac Valley gear; make it rewarding and fruitful to join the battle once in awhile and you will have instantly higher attendance rates, and more importantly, more even battles.

                                                                         My Goal

My goal here is to offer a well constructed argument for a major overhaul to take place in Alterac Valley. As it stands now, it is useless, the Strand of the Ancients gives more honor, the marks are no longer used towards the “For Great Honor” quest for honor points, and you no longer need marks to buy gear. I set forth for your consideration a few possibilities. I understand you have a lot to work on with Icecrown, Wintergrasp, Strand of the Ancients and a new arena season coming out but this may solve your problems in an unforeseen way, if that is you have any.

                                                                    Idea number one

First, and my preferential solution, revert Alterac Valley back to its original state before all the NPC’s were removed and reinforcements added. Update the Honor and offer a Wintergrasp-esque vendor to use your Alterac Valley marks at. I’m not saying make it so people don’t know whether or not to focus on the Wintergrasp rewards or Alterac Valley rewards, make them two separate but equally fruitful things. Maybe you could use the marks to buy reputation tokens, or maybe just a straight honor turn in. Finally scale up the Honor so that it is worth it for the players extra time. If needed add something like tenacity if one team is holed up in their base and the other team dominates the map. In my honest opinion World of Warcraft PVP is missing something epic like this, and if you put it there I can guarantee people will play it.

                                                                 Idea number two

Second, just straight up remove reinforcements, leave it the way it is but without the overall crutch of reinforcements bearing down on the game. I cannot begin to explain how many times I curse reinforcements for a lose, or for not letting me complete something. Most games are resolved with the death of a general, why shoot down a team’s hope for a comeback due to reinforcements?

                                                              Idea number three

If you feel that you must keep Alterac Valley the way it is, at least rework the quests. Turn down the requirements or up the rewards. Sure you have to turn in 25 tamed animals, and 25 pelts, but at least make the Rider’s level 80. Or you can keep the summon the way it is and only require 15 tamed animals and 15 pelts, or just 25 tamed animals, the list goes on. Same for the Reavers, if I remember correctly the amount of supplies need for them is 120, and the enemies mine counts double. So you need to make either 12 turn ins from your mine or 6 turn ins from the enemy, and right now this is impossible. The supplies aren’t as abundant enough to gather ten and have them back in a timely manner, and it requires too many to actually get enough in. Again you can tweak this quest anyway you like less quest turn ins, less supplies gathered per quest turn in etc. etc. As for Ivus/Lok please make him more useful. Either have him be summoned IN the base, don’t require 10 people at the field of strife, and please if nothing else, if you change nothing else, and ignore this essay please change this. Don’t make them sent around for 10 minutes; they’ll never do anything, ever. As for the flight masters, please, just let them spawn in the base. They’ve been lost for over two years it’s time to bring them home. Plus an overall solution for all these quests is to up the honor and reputation gain you receive for turning these in, aside from the difficulty you have completing the quests, you often do not gain the same honor you would if you weren’t farming supplies in the mines all day. Offer not only honor, bet reputation with the faction whose tabard you are currently wearing.

                                                                  Idea number four

Make an “old” Alterac Valley. Give players the choice between the old one and the new one. I trust you’ll be pleasantly surprised at what you see, after all, the war is supposed to have raged in more than just one valley. Of course in order to make it fair you will need to up the Honor gain, but even without it I bet it would still draw a large crowd.

                                                                  Conclusion

Again, I realize you are all very busy and whether or not you will do this you will still make money people will still do Alterac Valley. But please take what I said into consideration. If not for your customers, do it for the poor writers who wrote an amazing story for an epic war, and now it’s used for a 15 minute skirmish. For the artists who created a beautiful world, for us to wage our war in, and now half of it isn’t even seen. For the developers who spent hours coding out each what each quest should do, how it should be down, and where it should be done. And if you will not do it for any of that, do it for the world you have created. You have your quickie battles with eye of the storm and strand of the ancients. Do it because you owe it to yourselves to return something to its former glory, do it for the World of Warcraft.