What The Heck Happened To The Alterac Valley Battleground In WoW Patch 2.3?

Man, oh man. I just got done trying to figure out what is going on with the Alterac Valley battleground. It really seems like Blizzard broke this one with patch 2.3. So what I want to know is what do you have to do in order to win at AV now and what are all the changes that Blizzard did to the battleground?

Don’t you love major changes in new patches? With the addition of WoW patch 2.3 there were tons of changes to AV that you have already saw.

First off, the new structure of AV has shifted the focus back to PvP for Alterac Valley instead of just NPC killing. Now, the way it works is each team starts out with 600 Reinforcements (which displays in the top middle of the screen). Each time you take a tower it will decrease the other teams number of reinforcements. The first team to lose all of their Reinforcements loses.

So, how do you make the other team lose reinforcements? That’s pretty simple…you just need to capture enemy towers, kill Captain Galvangar or Balinda Stonehearth, kill other players, and kill General Drek’Thar or Vanndar Stormpike depending which team you are on. Killing Drek’Thar or Vanndar Stormpike reduces the team’s reinforcements down to zero so they are still very much important in the grand scheme of things.

It makes for some longer AV matches but the good part is “turtling” really doesn’t slow down the game that much. As a matter of fact I was in an Alterac Valley last night and the Alliance tried to turtle to slow us down but it really sped up our win even though we never did kill Vanndar Stormpike.

Here is the complete list of the changes that Blizzard made to Alterac Valley from the patch notes:

• Additional Warmasters no longer report for duty upon destroying an enemy tower. However, destroying an enemy tower still eliminates the associated opposing Warmaster.
• All Warmasters are linked to each other and their respective Generals and can no longer be pulled individually.
• Honor from capturing towers has been increased.
• All Commanders and Lieutenants have left Alterac Valley in search for other battle opportunities.
• Players will no longer be sent to their starting tunnels on death unless that team controls no graveyards in the battleground.
• Many NPCs in Stormpike and Frostwolf holds are no longer elite
• Bonus Honor in Alterac Valley is now only awarded during the battle for destroying enemy towers and slaying the enemy Captain. Upon conclusion of the battle, bonus honor is also awarded for intact towers, a surviving Captain, and for victory in the battle. The total bonus honor awarded should be similar to the previous total.
• The Horde and Alliance now have a limited number of reinforcements available in the battle for Alterac Valley. The number of reinforcements available is reduced upon player death, loss of towers, and death of Captain Galvangar or Balinda Stonehearth. In addition, all available reinforcements are lost upon the death of General Drek’Thar or Vanndar Stormpike. If a team is reduced to zero reinforcements, the opposing team wins the battle.
• Towers and Graveyards in Alterac Valley are now captured in 4 minutes (down from 5).

Now knowing this…go out there and make sure you kill at least 2 players for every death you have.