Alterac Valley (or AV) is a sprawling 40 Alliance vs. 40 Horde instanced battleground for levels 51 through 60 and 61 through 70. The battleground hosts a battle between the Horde’s Frostwolf Clan and the Alliance’s Stormpike Expedition. Players fight over various graveyards, towers, and other resources while attempting to assault the enemy General, whom is deeply entrenched in the enemy keep. AV hosts a variety of PvP and PvE objectives to supply ample ways for any player to get into the fight.
AV contains multiple graveyards, towers, bunkers, and other objectives that can be held by either the Horde or Alliance. After taking these objectives, players are rewarded bonus honor and reputation along with either disabling troop spawns, gaining access to a graveyard, and reducing the number of reinforcements the opponent has. Each objective (or “node”) is guarded by upgraded troops and acts much like the objectives in Arathi Basin.
Alterac Valley Rules
Alterac Valley has two simple win conditions. The first is that each faction has a General housed inside a heavily fortified keep. Once this General is slain, then the battle is won and the game ends. While this win condition is very simple, the actual act of getting to the General is not. Various towers, bunkers, and other defense points lay between your side and theirs. These points must be neutralized to move safely through the battlefield. Not only that, but various graveyards provide tactical positions to assault from and become valuable assets through the fight. Each general is guarded by various lieutenants making it almost impossible to rush him right off the bat. Each of the adds will despawn as the tower they are linked to is taken.
The second possible win condition is reducing your opponent to zero reinforcements. Each team starts with 600 reinforcements and then lose them in various ways. Each death of a player counts as a reinforcement lost. Each bunker or tower taken costs 75 and each captain 100. The best way to win this way is taking all the towers, killing the captains and engaging the enemy for as many PvP kills as possible.
Each side begins from a cave located in the mountains, with an equal number of forces, graveyards, and towers/bunkers on each side. A “herald” announces whenever an objective has been taken and when graveyards change hands. The various Captains also announce when they buff each side with their destructive and protective buffs. There are also friendly NPCs who provide a means to summon destructive elementals, launch an aerial assault, a ground assault,, and a mounted assault.
Taking objectives and graveyards is simple. A flag is located somewhere near the objective/graveyard that shows the current owner. The flag is also well defended by four or more guards (that upgrade through the game by quests players complete). After the flag is activated (by right-clicking on it when you are in range and completing the ten second timer) the location goes neutral before it changes hands in five minutes. The defending team only has to reactivate the flag whilst it’s in it’s neutral state to retake the objective/graveyard, after the flag change hands,, they have to go through the capturing process themselves. Captains are optional objectives that only require your side to kill the opposing Captain.
Honor is gained through kills, like any type of PvP, but the nature of AV makes this honor quickly come to a stop. After a player has been killed five times he becomes worth about one honor point. This tallies up rather fast considering the amount of times players respawn. Killing though, isn’t the only way to gain honor. When various objectives are taken (for the first time) you gain bonus honor. When the game ends, you will gain a large amount honor and tokens (one for losing and three for winning).
Objectives and Graveyards
Graveyards
Graveyards are the most important tactical point in the battleground. Every 30 seconds any player can be resurrected at a friendly graveyard with full health and mana. Warlocks and Hunters will revive with their pets, as long as they resurrect at the graveyard. This means that within 30 seconds of falling to an enemy’s blade, you can be back in the action! However, the location of where you resurrect depends on the closest captured graveyard. This means that if the battle is close by to a friendly graveyard, every 30 seconds friendly reinforcements will arrive. However, if you are fighting near an enemy graveyard, every 30 seconds all of their forces will be back to life with full HP/Mana. That’s why it’s important to work on capturing graveyards in an order that gives your team the most benefit.
There are seven graveyards total. Three alliance, three horde, and one neutral graveyard. Each graveyard (expect the neutral one, Snowfall) is guarded by a Lieutenant and Commander along with four regular troops. The Lieutenants and Commanders do not respawn. Once a graveyard flag is captured (successfully tagged by an enemy faction) it will take five minutes for it to change hands. The seven graveyards are Stormpike Aid Station (A), Stormpike Graveyard (A), Stonehearth Graveyard (A), Snowfall Graveyard (N), Iceblood Graveyard (H), Frostwolf Graveyard (H),, and the Frostwolf Relief Hut (H). There are also two additional graveyards located in the entrance tunnels that cannot change hands.
Towers & Bunkers
Towers (Horde) and Bunkers (Alliance) provide tactical defensive points. The towers contain many strong NPC defenders along with very aggressive bowmen who have very
good range from the top of the tower. To destroy a tower (preventing those bowmen from raining arrows on your team) simply reach the top and activate the flag. After the point has been captured you have exactly 4 minutes until the tower is set ablaze and disabled. During that time the defending team can activate the flag and reclaim the tower. Once destroyed the towers stop spawning troops and become useless. Also, each tower has a corresponding marshal with the warmaster, once the tower is destroyed that marshal de-spawns.
Captains and Outposts
There are two Captains for each side. The Alliance has Captain Balinda Stonehearth and the Horde has Captain Galvangar. The Captains will provide a buff that increases your damage, hp, and size. The Captains are defended wow gold inside of the two outposts, Stonehearth Outpost (Belinda) and Iceblood Garrison (Galvanger). Once a Captain has fallen, the buffs discontinue and it’s reported that the other side will begin receiving their buff more often.
Note for Horde players: Captain Balinda Stonehearth's spells can not be interrupted, silenced, or slowed. In addition, her water elemental cannot be banished, so be careful and ensure you send enough players to deal with her.
Warmaster / General and Marshals
The most common way to victory in Alterac Valley is by killing the enemy Warmaster or General. While you can win by running the opponent out of reinforcements, killing the warmaster is far come common.These final NPC's are found in the enemy headquarters and are guarded by several marshals. All warmasters and marshals are buffed by each other for every one that remains. The buff is a stacking increase of health and damage by 25%. This makes it very important to capture each tower to ensure the corresponding marshal de-spawns, and removes a buff from the Warmaster.
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