Was CTF planned to be a fart in the wind?

[Train Wreck]

After waiting 2 1/2 hours (estimated time was 1h 15m) last night to do a battleground for the first time, I was totally thrilled at how much fun it was... until it was over, in what felt like 15 minutes.  I was under the impression that they lasted for hours and hours, but that clearly didn't apply to Warsong.

At least you can play normally while waiting for your turn to come up, although on the second try, I had to give up after reaching 4 hours of waited time (again estimated to be a 1h 15m wait).

[Paelos]

Warsong games can last longer if you have a group that works together. I played in two games last night that were over in literally 10 minutes. Then I played with a group that knew what they were doing and the game lasted an hour. We went down 0-2, rallied, and I carried the winning flag home with my group shielding me the whole way. It was an awsome feeling to win such a comeback victory.

That being said, I recommend two things. First, yell for someone to establish an attack or defense plan. If they don't, you set one up. "Stick together" isn't a plan, that's a way to get everyone killed. Second, having at least one person on flag capture duty with a backup if paramount. They can't capture if you have their flag, so make sure to grab it fast.

[Bunk]

I played warsong twice last night. First game was over in under ten minutes, we got shelacked (sp?).
Second game we got a couple smarter players, we lost 2 - 3 and it took close to 40 minutes.

[Train Wreck]

I've heard of sides literally taking a break to avoid 3-0 shutouts, for the sole purpose of not ending the game too quickly.

It was my first major experience with PVP.  I did much better than I had planned to, though that is probably because I was up against a bunch of other neophytes.  When I activated Ice Block (with Cold Snap), and everybody threw everything they had at me for 20 seconds, I was clued in that they probably didn't know what they were doing.

[kaid]

Warsong is a bit fluky. If the other side or your side has a team of 5 group mates who are all used to working with eachother you can steam roll fast and win before the other side can get their feet under them. On the other hand if both teams are playing good or hehe really really shitty the map can last hours. My last two runs lasted 3 hours and 2 hours respectivly. The first one both teams were pretty inept and it was a lot of folks running around like chickens with their feet cutoff. The second one was by two good teams with some pretty ferocious offense on both sides. It took 2 hours because alot of the times neither side had their flags so they could not cap.


kaid

[tazelbain]

You have to wait for 2 1/2 hours because there aren't enough enemies for you to fight?

[kaid]

The queue times are wild assed guesses and I am not even positive that it has anything to do with not enough opponents. Right now I just run under the assumption that queues are buggy and not working correctly.

I can wait 3 hours to get into a group with 4 friends but if we then get in and then finish the map if we reenter IMMEDIATLY we often times can go right into another instance. This does not always work but it often does and it indicates their queue system is pretty well fucked up.


kaid

[Hoax]

I've been checking on my old server boards to see who is winning the Instance battles and I'm seeing lots of talk of 1-4 hour warsong matches.  I see allot of "steamrolled pick-up groups" too but it seems that the top tier guilds are having some pretty long drawn out fights in there.

[Bunk]

The key to waiting times really seems to be the size of the group you try to enter with. I was entering last night with just a group of 2 and we got in in the middle of the evening after just a ten minute wait.

One thing I'll say, if you are a low/mid level character and you want some pvp practice with your class before getting in to the upper levels, this is a great option.

I'm not a pvp guy by any stretch, mainly becuase I generally suck at it, but this is fun. 

[tazelbain]

I could understand wait times if you side greatly out numbers you enemies.  This is where having 3-sided battles (like DAoC) or no-sided battles (like GW) helps, you adjust.

What are the scale of these things?  How complex are the objectives?
That's 2 areas in GW PvP that is weak and I might be willing switch if a good alternative becomes availiable.

[sidereal]

The scale in Alterac is impressive and the objectives complex.

Of course, on Suramar there is no Alterac instance spawned, and as far as I can tell, there has never been one spawned.  Probably a population imbalance.

[Zetor]

Alterac is awesome (especially the rewards... the ice-barbed spear is as good or better than a reaper and the epic rewards are just wow).. in theory. The problem is that on small PVP servers there's never enough horde to actually start an instance, and when it DOES start, the hordies notice it's 40 vs 25 and bail, ending the instance (can't say I blame them). The cause is two-fold:
- there's more alliance than horde in general (see the other thread)
- the AV entrance is FUCKING OUT OF THE WAY for horde. Alliance just have to griff to SS from IF and autorun north into alterac, enter queue and hearth back to IF to do whatever. Horde have to zeppelin to Tirisfal, navigate UC, bat to TM and then run north and enter the queue. This is exactly the other way around for Shama-- errr, Warsong Gulch: for horde the entrance is a quick jog from Org, alliance have to griff to menethil, wait 5 min for a boat, hope the boat doesn't clip and drop you in the fatigue zone, fly to astranaar and walk through half of the friggin' zone to get to the entrance.

Bliz needs to move BG entrances into major cities imo. The recruitment officers right next to the bank would be a good start.


-- Z.

[Paelos]

What do those recruitment officers do anyway? I just slap them around when I'm bored.

[jpark]

It's best to enter it solo and group inside.

Don't forget - once you que up you can LEAVE the area and mine or do solo quests.  When your time has come you will receive the prompt, and upon accepting you are immediately transported into the instance even if you're in a distant zone.

I've had some bad groups / competitive situations.  One game I had lasted 1.5 hours easily - we were deadlocked, but racked up a ton of kills on both sides.

[Bunk]

Another handy thing I noticed, is that if you are entering as a group, only one of your group members has to go to the entrance to sign up.

[kaid]

Yup we use that trick post one guy at the entrance at the end of the night so the next day if you want to go in just have him group everybody up. Last night was pretty frustrating in 5 hours we got in three times 2 times the mission ended due to not enough horde. At the end of the night my group found ourselves making 5 newbie horde characters. It looks like at this time if we want to do battlegrounds we damn well better just go horde and have enough in a group to start an instance of warsong up by ourselves. Sure we may get steam rolled but at least we should have an easy time of getting into instances and having some fun.

The characters people picked are kinda funny 1 druid 2 shaman 1 rogue 1 mage. Not sure how we will work in pve but damn that should be some funny stuff going on in pvp.

kaid

[jpark]

Another handy thing I noticed, is that if you are entering as a group, only one of your group members has to go to the entrance to sign up.

Aye.  And if the group disbands - I believe each member still retains a spot in the que.  It's another way to que up without traveling to Warsong to do so.  Only did this once - I think it worked that way.

[jpark]

It looks like at this time if we want to do battlegrounds we damn well better just go horde and have enough in a group to start an instance of warsong up by ourselves.
kaid

hehe again, this is one of the main reasons I chose Horde.  TM was a disaster, but I believed all along the line-ups would favor Horde when BG arrived.

Has anyone noticed a change in Warsong?  In the last 2 days when I entered the instance there were some gross numeric imbalances.  Last night there were 6 of us against 10 Alliance.  We got owned - zerg style.  A buddy from last night had the same happen today.  I don't recall a single instance of this happening since release where the instance was allowed to start with such unequal sides.

[kaid]

I know but now as part of my nefarious masterplan I get to play a shaman the character class I really wanted to play from when I first heard about how they worked in wow. But my friends like their pretty characters so no shaman for me. HAHA now though they have gone to the dark side and my moo cow shaman has been unleashed onto the world. 

Basically at this time if you want to not sit in queue for an hour either be horde or go solo as alliance. If you try to get into a instance with a group of friends you better have all day to wait because you will need it.

kaid

[Train Wreck]

I can wait 3 hours to get into a group with 4 friends but if we then get in and then finish the map if we reenter IMMEDIATLY we often times can go right into another instance. This does not always work but it often does and it indicates their queue system is pretty well fucked up.

The prospect of a new system being buggy is absolutely likely.  Did it launch a brand new instance the second time, or did you get put into the middle of an existing one?  If the later is the case, it could be that people dropped out and everybody ahead of you in the queue specified that they only want to enter a new instance.