As you know, many of the “addicted” PvPers... ok the faithful PvPers, are moving up into the 50’s bracket. Unfortunately, I’m not one of them, yet. However, Alterac Valley battles are just around the corner for you 50’s people! So, I thought I would start a data bank on Alterac Valley strategies, information, whatever for those who have never been or who have only been a few times.

Here is a great map that shows the relevant hot spots everyone should know:

First of all, Alterac Valley is basically 40 Horde vs 40 Alliance. Also, the battleground is much bigger than WSG or AB and actually has a lot of quests inside. In addition to this, whiners prevail in this battleground - but that’s for another discussion... To be sure, Alterac Valley can be the most difficult to organize, mainly because of the sheer size of the battleground and the enormous amount of people on both sides. However, this is why, in my opinion, it can be one of the most fun battlegrounds as well.

The overall main objective of Alterac Valley is to get inside the opposing faction’s base and kill their general. As Horde, we’ll be assaulting Dun Baldar. Secondary objectives include: Destroying towers, capturing graveyards, killing Alliance NPC’s, etc. Another key aspect is turn-ins - when you loot a body, you receive several different items that can be turned in for battleground events (I won’t go into detail, read about those here: Objectives.)

Capturing the graveyards that are scattered throughout is one of the most basic functions of this battleground. It is exactly like Arathi Basin flag capturing, except with enemy NPC’s there to kill you! A graveyard is won by holding the flag for 5 minutes. Without graveyards to spawn at, you’ll never be able to advance towards the opposing faction’s home base. Several choke-points exist in Alterac Valley, but two of the most important ones are Iceblood Tower/Iceblood Graveyard as the Alliance advances towards our base and Icewing Bunker/Stonehearth Graveyard as we advance towards the Alliance base. Almost every graveyard is important, but capturing one of these choke-point graveyards for your respective faction will essentially cut off the opposing faction’s team from the rest. As Horde, Icewing Bunker/Stonehearth Graveyard are both very important because taking control of them splits the Alliance in half.

These two provide excellent strategic points at which you can defend against the opposing faction. Several quests exist that include killing NPC’s inside bunkers, destroying towers, etc. You can destroy an enemy tower by, again, capturing it’s flag and holding for 5 minutes. It will then burst into flames and can’t be “rebuilt” for the rest of the battle. Taking out towers and bunkers is indeed important, because enemy archers will sit there and pick you off at those choke-points. Therefore, towers add another aspect to the battleground that is equally important.

The Alliance try to defend their home base of Dun Baldar, and we as Horde try to defend our home base of Frostwolf Keep. The bases are interesting because they kind of have their own strategy to themselves. As we advance towards Dun Baldar, we hit Icewing Bunker/Stonehearth Graveyard. Once we advance past that, though, we come to the Stormpike Graveyard and a bridge. This is the second choke-point for the Horde and it can be one of the most difficult areas for the Horde, if the Alliance isn’t stupid. They can rez at this graveyard as well as cut us off on the bridge, making it difficult to advance. However, if we take that graveyard, things get much easier and we can push into their base. For the Alliance, the East and West Frostwolf Towers and curvey roads make for a kind-of-choke-point, but they can easily get around NPC’s and push into our base. If they take the Frostwolf Relief Hut, it can be tough for the Horde to take it back.

Alliance

Horde

There are many different quests you can do relating to Alterac Valley, but it would take awhile to type it all out. Check out WoW’s website for detailed descriptions of them.

I have seen many different “strategies”, ranging from people screaming and others cursing, to strong raid leaders who organize a win. The most basic strategy that translates into a win, in my opinion, is taking those choke-points that are listed above. Doing so almost always will guarantee a win against a pug Alliance team. That being said, overall strategy will always be disputed as which is the best, which is the quickest, etc. Here are some cool pictures of different ways of getting around. Anyway, I don’t want to push my personal strategy here, so let’s hear from everyone else!

And there you have it, a very basic outline of Alterac Valley. There is much more to know, including Arch Druid Renferal and Primalist Thurloga, turn-ins to NPC’s, etc., but for now, knowing the basic overall idea is a good start. I pulled a lot of information from WoWiki, Blizzardguides , and WoW's official battleground site . I look forward to getting to 50 and battling in Alterac Valley!