Battleground Horde/Alliance Win Ratio, Setup of the Month

[Boubouille]

Update - 2200 Weapons Delay

I'll be brief and direct. The PvP item vendors were a little slow on stocking their shelves. They should have them restocked shortly (give or take a few extra if need be.)

They should have these weapons available very soon. We'll keep an eye on things should there be further delays.

Update - They should be available now. We'll be watching just in case any further issues arise with these vendors.

No blue post today as it was a holiday week-end, at this point we're just waiting for Patch 4.1 to hit the PTRs anyway. (Or official Patch 4.1 previews, I guess!)

Battleground Horde/Alliance Win Ratio
People often wonder what the Horde/Alliance win ratio in battlegrounds are, Blizzard never gave away those % but the question can be answered by scanning a lot of characters on the Armory and compiling their battlegrounds wins statistics.

• 1. The first scan has been made a year ago.
  
  
• 2. The "Battles in the Last Year" graph is basically this month's scan minus the results of last year's scan. Deleted/transfered characters were removed from the stats.
  
  
• 3. Even if the amount of people scanned is huge, don't take these stats as a 100% truth. Only Blizzard can be 100% sure of that, especially since it's very hard to gather a lot of data from the Armory.
  
  
• 4. Before you yell on forums, make sure you look at the % on the left, the lowest % is 42% and the highest is 58%.

The "Battlegrounds Wins in the Last Year" graph is the only thing you should look at if you want an idea of how things are balanced these days.

Computers - Setup of the Month (by chaud)
Each month or every 2 months, depending on the hardware evolutions, the lovely chaud will work on a couple of hardware setups for those of you who are thinking of upgrading their computer!

This month
Sandy Bridge motherboards were recalled because of a flaw in one of the SATA ports (see Sandy Bridge). They will not be available for purchase at least until March or April. New SSDs are almost here, faster and more expensive than the current generation.

Make sure to keep your AMD and Nvidia drivers up to date.

Don't hesitate to post any feedback in the comments of that news post, and don't forget to visit the Computer Forum for any extra questions!

Peripherals/Monitors

Component	Puppy	Dolphin
Monitor	ASUS VW224U 22-Inch Widescreen - $148	ASUS VW246H 24-Inch Widescreen - $200
Keyboard	Microsoft Digital Media Keyboard 3000 - $25	Cyborg V.5 - $38
Mouse	Logitech MX518 - $22	Logitech G500 - $54
Speakers	Logitech S220 2.1 Speaker System - $28	Logitech Z313 Speaker System - $40
Component	Narwhal	Unicorn
Monitor	Dell E2311H 23-inch LED-backlit Widescreen - $315	Dell UltraSharp U2410 24-inch (IPS Panel) - $560
Keyboard	Logitech G110 - $65	Razer BlackWidow (Backlit)- $73 ($120)
Mouse	Razer Deathadder - $47	Razer Naga (Buttons on the Side) - $70
Speakers	Creative Inspire T3130 2.1 Speaker System - $50	Logitech Speaker System Z523 - $83

Puppy and Dolphin

Component	Puppy	Dolphin
Case	NZXT GAMMA Classic - $40	NZXT GAMMA Classic - $40
Power Supply	Corsair 650TX - $60	Corsair 650TX - $60
CPU	AMD Athlon II X4 635 AM3 - $100	AMD Phenom II X4 955 Black Edition - $140
Heatsink	Cooler Master Hyper 212 Plus - $28	Cooler Master Hyper 212 Plus - $28
Motherboard	GIGABYTE GA-770T-USB3 AM3 - $90	GIGABYTE GA-890GPA-UD3H AM3 - $135
Memory	4GB PNY Optima DDR3 10600 - $35	4GB G.Skill Ripjaws F3 4GB 12800 DDR3 - $58
Graphics Card	XFX 5770 - $137	XFX 6850 or EVGA GTX 460 - $177 / $222
Hard Drive	Western Digital Caviar Blue 500 GB - $40	SAMSUNG Spinpoint F3 1TB - $62
DVD	Lite-On LightScribe 24X SATA DVD+/-RW - $25	Lite-On LightScribe 24X SATA DVD+/-RW - $25
Total	$555	$725 / $770

Narwhal and Unicorn

Component	Narwhal	Unicorn
Case	Cooler Master Centurion 5 II - $61	Cooler Master HAF932 - $120
Power Supply	Corsair 650TX - $60	Corsair 750HX (7 Year Warranty) - $127
CPU	Intel i5-760 - $210	Intel i7-950 - $300
Heatsink	Tuniq Tower 120 Extreme - $59	Noctua 6 NH-D14 - $85
Motherboard	ASUS P7P55D-E - $156	Asus Sabertooth X58 (5 Year Warranty) - $211
Memory	4GB G.Skill Ripjaws F3 4GB 12800 DDR3 - $58	6GB G.Skill DDR3 12800 - $88
Graphics Card	XFX 6950 1GB OR EVGA GTX 560 Ti- $265 / $275	XFX 6970 - $365 OR EVGA GTX 570 - $380
Hard Drive	Western Digital 1TB Caviar Black - $88	Western Digital 1TB Caviar Black - $87
SSD	None	OCZ Vertex 2 120 GB (Review) - $239 OR Corsair Force 120GB (Review) - $217
DVD	Lite-On LightScribe 24X SATA DVD+/-RW - $25	Lite-On LightScribe 24X SATA DVD+/-RW - $25
Total	$982/ $992	$1647/ $1662

[Azure P]

It's always been known that Horde beat Ally in most battlegrounds.

A little surprised that they're winning more AV this year after last year.

[sluggs]

Those bar graphs are pretty deceiving at first glance. Though 58% to 42% on EotS is quite significant considering the large sample size taken.

[Takkobella]

Does this prove that there are more older/more mature players horde side OR are there better pvp racials attracting these players to horde?

[Simca]

52% to 48% in Horde favor isn't really that bad, all things considered.

Does this prove that there are more older/more mature players horde side OR are there better pvp racials attracting these players to horde?

Racials don't change battlegrounds. That's like arguing gem choice changes DPS by thousands.

Arguing that the better racials (IF that were true) could attract the better players is possible, I guess, but impossible to prove.

Edit: A real interesting thing is that after you account for queue time, who gets more Honor per hour? Probably is about even since the Horde queues are so long.

[Deleted]

Hm, only AV for allies hehe Kinda obvious that it is flaw of terrain

[inyu]

I wouldn't have used such scale, it makes it look worst than it really is.

[Jon]

Those ratios aren't really surprising. The min/maxers tend to favor Horde due to far superior racials.

[Nitrax]

Just.. please.. don't change where x axis intersect the y axis on percentage graphs. I can't infer anything from directly looking at those graphs. A numeric table would have given me a better understanding. It's an abomination!

[venus]

Those graphs are horrrrrible

Should of used pie charts.

[Deleted]

Chuck: There's also the possibility that:
1) Battlegrounds in general are unbalanced due to the BGs themselves being designed in a way that favors the horde ever so slightly.
2) Horde players have better racials for PvP
3) There are more hardcore PvPers on the horde side which means they have longer bg queues and only those most dedicated bother playing BGs (so you end up with hardcore horde vs. hardcore + casual alliance BGs).

Also, I can see why horde keeps losing AV, In my experience horde BG players are actually less organized than alliance (for pure PUG BGs, not talking guild groups) but tend to be a bit more hardcore (better geared, actually have their keybinds setup specifically for PvP and such). Now, in AV it's all about cooperation and zerging the boss, something which the alliance players do quite well while the horde players tend to fan out and go for the regular "duel in the middle" tactic...

[Foxsakes]

Brb... Faction changing to horde

[inyu]

If he didn't use that scale, everything would be too tiny and look silly.

Cause having isle of conquest looking like 5 times more wins on horde side isn't silly.

Should of used pie charts.

Agree.

[thebbandit]

for the horde!

[Jon]

Does this prove that there are more older/more mature players horde side

Considering many PvP enthusiasts are immature little kids (still skilled), no.

OR are there better pvp racials attracting these players to horde?

Yes. Horde racials are better for both PvE and PvP. Those racials don't tip the balance in favor of Horde, but the fact that better players tend to choose Horde because of them does.

[Deleted]

wow, suprise (no sarcasm intended)

[superstargoddess]

I agree, those graphs are very strange. And I also feel that Alliance loses a lot more than it says there. I have no idea why Alliance has such a hard time in most battlegroups. It used to be the other way around for the longest time.

[Deleted]

That also counts lower level pvp.

[Xuvial]

@ Chaud's computer builds, these were good builds in 2009 and 2010 but DO NOT go for any of these builds unless you're absolutely desperate for a computer right now.
The flaw in P67 Mobo's has temporarily put a stop to things, but keep in mind that the new processors still absolutely blow away the previous generations when it comes to performance, efficiency and overclocking. They are worth waiting for.
AMD's Bulldozer series will also put a hole through previous generations (I'm speculating here, but if they didn't then nobody would buy them).

So again, do not go for these builds unless you're on a very strict budget or absolutely desperate for a computer.

[Deleted]

You finally started writing interesting posts again! this is the mmo champion i know!
don't stop or a kitten will die