July 6, 2008
The Alterac Valley That Was
Ahh AV. The easiest honor grind there is. So far in my years in WoW I’ve come to see that there are certain qualities that belong to the Horde, and there are those that belong to the Alliance. Now that I’ve played both sides I’d have to say that the Alliance own the PvE spectrum, but the Horde DOMINATE the PvP.
Thats of course not to say that we dont win every now and again on the Alliance. We do. But in a general sense the Horde are far more organized and serious about the PvP. But I can remember a time when this wasn’t true. A time when the battlegrounds were new, and the odds were fairly even. I remember when AV was truely epic.
While I, like any other current WoW player appreciate the ease of gather up free PvP epics, I do occasionally miss the sheer awesomeness of what AV was. When there were NPC’s EVERYWHERE and you surely didn’t want to resurrect at Snowfall, because then Korak the Bloodrager would surely own your soul. And I once very early on met my fate against the Alliance’s Ram Raiders. When summoning Lok would turn the odds at a turtle on the bridge outside of the Alliance Base. Sure, you waited HOURS for the queue, but you got to exalted in one shot! And you would walk out with near on 100 thousand honor. There was nothing better then logging on two days later and getting into the SAME AV. Even finding out which side won on the forums three days later.
I was infuriated at first, when AV became the race it was, Horde and Alliance riding right past each other in hopes to down Drek or Van first. The quickest matches ever and it broke my heart. To me, Warsong Gultch and Arathi Basin were there for the quick matches. I wanted AV to stay the epic encounter it was. Apparently Blizzard had other plans for it.
Slowly they took away all the things that made it great. First there was the additon of Cross Realms, which of course, shortened the queue. Then came about the ability of the imfamous “Wall-Pull” for the Horde. Then the NPCs began to disapear, and eventually, were completely gone. Finally they added the reinforcements.
With The Burning Crusade I watched the ways of the 40 man raid die. Epics were no longer epic, and people just don’t understand the sheer amount of work and learning that went into these encounters. Thunderfury became trade spam, and all respect for those that really worked for thier purple pixels was gone. Now, instead of aweing over someone who achieved the nicest quality of gear, we mock those who don’t.
I miss the old days and held out a hope that maybe, just MAYBE, AV would be left be. But it, too, no longer represents the days of WoW that I loved, and miss. Unfortunatly, I’m told I have the same sort of thing to look forward to in WotLK. To all my fellow players who knew World of Warcraft the way I once did, here’s to you! And don’t forget to loot the damn dogs! XD
Altoholic's Are Us 