World of Warcraft

First of all, this thread will hopefully show all those who never had the chance to participate in the Old-School version of Alterac Valley how awesome this battleground used to be.
Most people don’t know why a mighty ice golem roams the field of strife or why they get owned by flying gryphons dropping fire bombs at them.

General Information:

Alterac Valley was one of the first two battlegrounds introduced with patch 1.5. Back then, it was completely different from the abomination it has become. This thread shall show all new players how awesome it used to be.

Until patch 2.3 no reinforcements existed, battles used to end only, if the general was killed. This could last for days.

Furthermore, about four times more npcs were located in the valley as today and about 2/3 of those npcs were elite.

Capturing a tower or bunker awarded the general of the faction that captured the tower another warmaster/marshal until a maximum of 8 additional elite guards.

At strategically important locations like towers or graveyards, mighty elite officers were located known as Commanders. These npcs defended graveyards or towers and provided quests (for example killing enemy commanders) and awarded friendly units and players a useful buff known as Aura of Command. 5-10 players were required to kill a commander. Killing a commander awarded honor and stopped the respawn of some npcs.

Lieutenants patrolled in the respective sides of the battlefield and the only difference between commanders and lieutenants was that lieutenants were a little bit weaker than their commander counterparts.

Every faction had explosive land mines in their respective side of the battleground. They dealt heavy fire damage if triggered and you had to search for the Explosive Master and the Mine Layer and kill those two elite npcs, hidden somewhere in the first buildings of the enemies territory. Once the elites who used to control the landmines were dead, the mines would stop respawning.

In the eastern and western side of Field of Strife were two huge areas located, behind the Snowfall Graveyard was Winterax Hold, behind Stonehearth bunker the Wildpaw Ridge.

As mentioned above, Alterac Valley had much more NPC units than nowadays, which used to patrol between towers or graveyards, the Frostwolf Clan for example had Tauren guardians or undeads while the Alliance used sentinels or mountaineers.

Killing a captain (they were guarded by many npcs) used to stop the respawn of all friendly npcs in Field of Strife.

The adds of the generals were not leashed and it was possible and even necessary to kite them out of their fortress and kill them in front of it. If too many adds were pulled at the same time, defeat was often unavoidable.

Furthermore, you could even collect ore and herbs for farming professions and increase your fishing skill at the two lakes inside the valley. Countless players used to meet each other at these lakes to fish together only to kill each other minutes after.

The field of strife - http://www.jennana.com/images/wow/ivus.jpg

Field of strife was full of npcs who tried to kill each other and many players joined them. Furthermore, Frostdagger Pass, located behind the Snowfall Graveyard was often blocked by the cavalry (explained below) and therefore field of strife was the stage of long and epic battles which did not end most of the time without the assistance of Lokholar or Ivus. Or the arrival of the legendary KORRAK!

Korrak the Bloodrager -
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=3592167679986890004#

KORRAK HAS ARRIVED! Snowfall belongs Winterax! – This phrase is legen…wait for it…dary among veterans. But who is Korrak and what is a Winterax? Well, Korrak is a berserk troll and leader of the Winterax tribe who used to live in Alterac.
The requirement of the quest, which nowadays is only a victory in Alterac, was to summon Korrak and slay him afterwards. (The quest awarded the mighty Ice Barbed Spear)
However, 1000 elite trolls had to be slain in order to summon Korrak. Later, Blizzard changed it to 500 and soon after this change; Korrak simply spawned two hours after the beginning of the battle.
Even if you managed to kill all the trolls, Korrak, who was stronger than some raid level bosses, was a force to be reckoned with.
Many players wanted that spear. The enemy faction too. Therefore many tries to kill him failed due to the intervention of enemy players only to get wiped by the resurrected faction again and thus leading to an endless zerg with only one winner, Korrak.
After some time, this led to another change and Korrak became a guardian at Snowfall graveyard in order to protect this strategically important position. The problem however was: Korrak was still too strong and he got simply pulled away by a player while another player captured the graveyard. The result was that Snowfall GY was well protected, however, Korrak was still there and killed everything, Alliance or Horde. In Patch 1.8 Korrak and his Winterax tribe were completely removed from Alterac and Korrak got a new home in Zul’Drak arena.

Winterax Hold and Wildpaw Ridge?

(Please keep in mind that large parts of Winterax Hold got removed completely (cave, entrance))

Wildpaw Ridge:
http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/16/wowscrnshot091911192713.jpg/
http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/26/wowscrnshot091911192849.jpg/
http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/703/wowscrnshot091911193021.jpg/
Winterax Hold:
http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/189/wowscrnshot091911192409.jpg/
http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/195/wowscrnshot091911192450.jpg/
http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/339/wowscrnshot091911192514.jpg/
http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/23/wowscrnshot091911192615.jpg/
http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/16/wowscrnshot091911192713.jpg/

Two huge areas, theoretically located inside Alterac Valley until nowadays, however not accessible anymore due to invisible walls reached in the east and west of the field of strife. Inside Winterax Hold, behind Snowfall GY, many elite trolls were located and had to be slain in order to summon Korrak. Furthermore, valuable treasures (mentioned below) could be found.
Wildpaw Ridge was property of the Wildpaw gnolls, which live now inside the Wildpaw cave in the horde area of Alterac Valley. More important than the gnolls were the neutral syndicate npcs, led by Syndicate Master Ryson (not me^^). Upon retrieving an “all seeing eye” those npcs used to award the respective faction many bonuses.

Quests


Many quests are still implemented in Alterac, but even more got removed. Most quests which are still available are used to summon units (essential back then in order to win) like the famous quests “Lokholar the Icelord” or “Ivus the Forestlord”, which are required to summon these elementals.
Battle quests:

- [Lokholar the Ice lord]/[Ivus the forest lord]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OE7WJi-D5jY <- Lokholar
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xmpBSao6g0E <- Ivus

1000 (now 200) blood phials/storm crystals have to be turned in at primalist thurloga/arch druid Renferal in order to summon Lokholar the Ice Lord/Ivus the Forest Lord. After all items have been collected, they will leave their home (cave below Frostwolf Hold/valley behind Dun Baldar North Bunker) and ride to the Field of Strife, destroying everything in their way. Against smaller groups of enemies really effective, it is very likely that all opponents will try to kill them in order to avoid the summoning ritual.
Once they have reached the summoning place (between Iceblood Garrison and Snowfall Graveyard for Horde/in front of Stonehearth Bunker for Alliance) they will start channelling the spell. Ten players need to click on the altar (which spawns). Unfortunately, the time required until the elemental lord spawns seems to vary a lot. Sometimes it spawns almost instantly when enough players click on the altar, sometimes it lasts 1-2 minutes until they spawn. If the summoning gets interrupted by aoe or other effects, you have to start the channelling all over again.
After Lokholar’s arrival you will need to “feed” him alliance players in order to make him powerful. The ice giant starts significantly weaker and smaller than his Alliance counterpart, but whenever he gets a killing blow, he will gain a “Swell of Souls” buff which grants him +750 attack power, 10% attack speed increase and making him 10% bigger. This buff can be seen because Lokholar will yell: “I drink in your suffering, mortal! Let your essence congeal with Lokholar!” when he gains one Swell of Souls. (As of Patch 1.6 neither Lokholar nor Ivus will attack NPCs, only players!)
After 10minutes have passed, the Lords will run towards the enemy’s main base. During vanilla wow, this was used to break through defending enemies, however unfortunately the lords used to get stuck at many objects (for example Dun Baldar bridge) or were simply kited to the starting tunnel and got killed there by the elite guards. This is no longer possible!
Ivus starts significantly stronger than Lokholar, but he can’t “grow” and his strength is therefore limited to a fix amount.

Call the Cavalry!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iqZ0LXGkEJ8 <- Ram Riders and more

The second most known units in Alterac are the cavalry units. (Ram riders for Stormpike Expedition and Frostwolf Wolf Rider for Frostwolf Clan)
You can still summon them, however you have to collect many wild animals, the respective quest is available at the Stable Master of each faction. If a faction manages to collect 25 rams/wolves, they still have to collect 25 hides, dropped by the enemy animals (Frostwolf Hides drop from all Frostwolf and Frostwolf Bloodhounds and Ram Hides from all Alterac Rams)
If those two quests have been turned in, you need someone with honoured or higher reputation with the Frostwolf Clan/Stormpike Expedition to send the cavalry. (Simply click on the Frostwolf Wolf Rider Commander – Frostwolf Stables on the right hand side after you leave the Frostwolf Starting tunnel /Stormpike Ram Rider Commander – Dun Baldar Stables in front of Dun Baldar Main Bunker)
In vanilla wow, this quest was a task for 5-10 players, thus ensuring a fast progress in collecting the required items.
The cavalry itself consists of ten level 58-83 elite npcs and one level 61-86 elite commander. (npc level depends on the level bracket of your character of course)
After one charge has been ordered, there is a period of waiting until you may send another attack.
The cavalry will first advance until Frostdagger Pass and remain there, patrolling it.
-Nowadays this seems ridiculous, but back then it was extremely useful, because the enemy could not sneak into you side of the battlefield, using the pass.
If the commander is slain or if you simply give the commander the order, the riders will start their assault on the enemy’s main base and kill all npcs and players they find.
The cavalry is an ideal zerg breaking tool and allowed your faction to break through the enemy ranks if timed right.

[Wing Commanders]

Each faction has three wing commanders, Horde Wing Commanders are Goose (Icewing Bunker), Jeztor (Stormpike Lumber Mill) and Mulverick (Dun Baldar North Bunker) and Alliance Wing Commanders are Slidore (Tower Point), Vipore (Frostwolf Village) and Ichman (Western Frostwolf Tower). They can be used to call air strikes at the enemy.
Unfortunately, they all got shot off their flying mounts and you have to escort them back into your main base. Back when AV launched, each bunker was a true bunker and really well protected. Hence you had to clean the bunker first, because otherwise you would send them into their doom.
If they make it back to the base unharmed, you may turn in 90/60/30 flesh or medals in order to start the attack. The number of items depends on the rank of the commander, the highest rank commander (Ichman / Mulverick) lies deep behind the enemies front lines and needs 30 items because he has the longest way back to the base and so on.
Once enough items have been turned in you may choose between two options, on the one hand you may ask the commander for a beacon that can be placed at three different places in the field of strife (eastern, western crater and snowfall banner) and, if protected for one minute, will summon an elite gryphon/wyvern which will drop bombs at the enemy.
On the other hand you may choose to send them into battle personally, however you may not speak to them again if you choose to do so. They will then patrol the area where you have found them before.
Note: In Vanilla, all Wind Riders and Aerie Gryphons had a mighty knockback AoE attack, especially in combination with the Dun Baldar bridge this attack was deadly. Unfortunately it got removed due to whining.
Wing Commanders were extremely efficient in protecting already secured area, but also to annoy the healers of the enemy faction because every flying unit has an AoE stun attack.

[Armor scraps]

Beside the above mentioned quest items and useless trash-fun items you will also loot armor scraps from the enemies corpses. Btw today much more scraps drop from enemies than in the past.
These scraps are used to improve your troops. This was more important back when much more npcs were placed in Alterac and if your faction managed to get champion units upgraded your base was nearly impregnable. In addition, your own faction gains a two minutes buff and your general will then reapply this buff every ten minutes.
Here’s a list of the upgrade levels:

400 scraps -> Seasoned Units (59-84) -> 10% more damage buff
Another 600 scraps -> Veteran Units (60-85) -> 20% more damage buff
Another 800 scraps -> Champion Units (61-86) -> 30% more damage buff

[Ground assault] (You don’t know this quest for sure!)

Ground assault is probably the worst designed quest in WoW. It’s not surprisingly you have never heard of it, the requirements for this assault are exorbitant.

To start a ground assault you must gather supplies. In order to retrieve the supplies, you must gain control of the mine either Irondeep Mine (north) or Coldtooth Mine (south). To gain control of the mine, a player must defeat the boss residing in that mine (all mobs are non-elite and are approx. level 52/62/72/82 respectively).

Once you have control over a mine the miners will start generating supplies for you to return to your base. You must have the respective quest in order to pick up Coldtooth Supplies or Irondeep Supplies. If you speak with the Quartermaster, you'll be informed of the number of supplies needed for the ground assault to begin; as more supplies are collected, the pile nearby the Quartermaster will grow. You need either 280 (28 turn ins) from the mine that is closer to your base or 70 (7 turn ins) supplies from the mine in the enemies territory.

After all the materials are gathered, a player with Honoured or higher reputation can get the assault orders from ANOTHER npc (Corporal Yazra Bloodsnarl/Corporal Noreg Stormpike, both npcs used to be strong elites but nowadays they are easily killed, so beware) - which will spawn Warmaster Garrick or Field Marshal Terravaine in the Field of Strife. Upon turning in the Assault Orders, reaver units for Horde or commando units for Alliance will spawn (number and level depends on the armor upgrade level of your troops). They will move forward through the zone attacking enemy players and NPCs. After the attack is over, there is a period of waiting before you can order another charge.

Unfortunately the Assault Commander will spawn instant after enough supplies have been gathered, thus often resulting in his death long before you could hand over the orders. But if you have made it to turn in the orders, 10-20 elite units will spawn all over field of strife. They will separate, one unit attacking Snowfall GY (where they got killed by Korrak in the past) and one unit with the Commander charging towards the enemy territory.

The reavers (Horde) or Commandos (Alliance) are more or less the same as the cavalry, except that they are not mounted. The difference is that this units scale with the upgrade level of your troops, meaning that if your faction currently has upgraded their troops to veteran units, the ground units will also be veteran units with more health and damage. (Example: Veteran Reaver 85 Elite etc.)

Altogether ground assault was and still is more or less useless, however they could become extremely deadly in combination with the cavalry, and even more dangerous if you would combine these two forces with your elemental lord, which happened rarely but if you could combine them, it lead almost always to victory for your faction.

Removed – [Master Ryson’s All-seeing Eye]

The members of the Syndicate at Wildpaw Ridge wanted their “All-seeing Eye” back. But the elite trolls of Winterax tribe had stolen it and took it to their cave behind Snowfall GY. It worked the same way as the Silithyst in Silithus, everyone could pick it up, however your movement speed was limited to normal amount, you would get marked with some sort of bright light and if you got killed on your way back to Ryson, everyone else could return the eye instead of you and turn it in.

After the members of the Syndicate got their eye back, they became members of the faction that retrieved it for them, granting their new faction some bonuses. First of all, you were able to see enemies on the mini-map just like hunters can and you could also place a beacon inside the enemy base (just like the wing commander beacon). The beacon would not only spawn rogue units into the enemy base, but also allow your faction to take a look into the enemy base (just like hunter’s eagle eye)

Removed – [Master Engineer Zinfizzlex]

The goblin got kidnapped and was taken into Winterax cave, probably because the trolls wanted to eat him later. If you had managed to reach the goblin, you had to escort him back to your base. If he managed to reach it, he became a member of your faction and every player who would provide him with expensive materials (30 Thorium bars, 50 Mithril bars, 75 Iron bars and a steam saw (found at the Lumber Mill inside Alterac Valley)) was able to control a portable shredder unit. This sort of control worked the same way as mind control of priests, the only difference was that it lasted for 30 minutes and you could control an elite shredder unit. The shredder itself was really mean, because he had a cleave attack, high melee damage and an ability called “Melt armor”, reducing the durability of all armor worn by those who got hit by the spell. (It was a fire breathing ability in a cone in front of the shredder)

After three days the item disappeared from your inventory and you had to collect all the materials again, therefore it was a really expensive, but also amusing experience.

Well, I think that’s all you have to know about Old School Alterac Valley and I hope that some of the new players read it. Of course veteran players may also have a look at it, to revel in memories of long forgotten battles. :)

I'm sorry for any grammar mistakes, I’m from Germany and tried to translate my Old School Alterac Guide myself because I wanted to share it with you too.

The NPC's were generally of the same power throughout Vanilla, mainly because the gear scaling was not so dramatic as it is now between each tier. A guy in dungeon blues (which had some wierd and wacky itemisation going on), died not much slower than a guy in tier 2.

Korrack was a pain, because raids didn't automatically form upon starting up an AV. Most of his kills were down to people wanting the quest, but not wanting to kill him because he'd been tagged by the other side or another raid and thus wouldn't get the credit for that quest. His difficulty was more down to that, than anything else.

Lets not pretend the Wolf Riders were as useful as the Ram Riders. The latter took a path the horde had to take to get into the base, while the former could be easily avoided.

I recently made a similair threath, I'd like to have these kind of Battlegrounds back.
Gathering, collecting, mining. It's what requires teamwork to win a proper battleground. It's what I miss in this game, the oldskool Alterac Valley style battlegrounds. I hope we can manage to reach Blizzard with our requests to give us back this old style battleground.

~ Thunkie

I have never played the original AV, but I would like a battleground that wasn't timed or based around resources, but it would have to be off the normal battleground list.
Having one when you can honor kill to cap would please quite a few people, instead of this rushfest AV is now.

I was at 200 honor points sunday morning and by that night I was in my new full brutal gear and every AV battle was pretty much the same, boring.
Well apart from the one when the horde when defensive and when had to battle our way to the boss and it was a real fight trying to get keep the relief hut.

I tried some AVs back in TBC which was even more of a rush fest.

All south - Kill Drek - win!

I wouldnt mind having some battlegrounds that is balanced and where defending acutally is worth it. Removing timing - narh - I like to have some idea when it ends instead of getting stuck in battle that drags out for days, but have not tried, so open minded.

•Until patch 2.3 no reinforcements existed, battles used to end only, if the general was killed. This could last for days.

here is why most people hated it, i still dred getting it has a random to this day, so no thank you.

Given how many players opt for the "let them win" when trailing in a BG nowadays so they can requeue for their easy honour/conquest farming how well do you see the old AV going???

Don't get me wrong I'm right there with you and love the old style AV epic marathons (start first thing in the morning....quit out and go out to the shops, have dinner and log back on at night for the exact same BG to be still running and rejoin the chaos) I think the days of this style of epic war are long dead.

How could people possibly gear up their 7 alts with a single BG taking this long??!?!?! Oh that's right, people played a main character back then and worked for their gear rather than get it free inside a wheaties packet!

1. Put AV under a different cathegory called "PvPvE"
2. Put all old fun stuff back in it
3. Happy fun time

I agree with the above. Bring back the old Alterac Valley.
Who bothers with farming honor if you got such a fun battleground. Add Enchanted version of Alterac Valley to the battleground list, a oldskool style one, a battleground for those people like me. Who are not to bothered about PvP gear farming but who like to play a battleground that requires teamwork and gathering.

Yup. God I miss it. Had an av where we almost won on resources (killed their general when they had like 12 left). Damn it was fun. I miss the old AV so much.

The only thing I didn't like about the old AV's were you would get the !@#$% at drek that kill thw wolves and then loot them so the wolves would respawn but apart from that i miss the amazing battles on the bridge