So I went Merc Mode to help Alliance in Korrak's Revenge

[Zephire]

Solo tower defense vs solo bunker defense is night and day.

I have to choose entirely different talents on my rdruid for horde/ally if my goal is to spin a tower/bunker. Typhoon is very strong and reliable (with wild charge if I get knocked myself) for horde tower defense, but absolutely garbage for bunker defense.

The defensive choices also change dramatically as a result. Properity, renewal, soul, germ for alliance bunker defense; Cen Ward, wild charge, tree form, flourish for horde tower defense. Essences change as well. Seeds of Eonar for horde tower (goes good with in and out bear form swipe spin) and Artice for alliance.

I also need at least two other players when doing alliance bunker spin to cover me during cc's/stuns, since it's impossible to line at leisure, meanwhile lining at horde tower is natural and I know exactly when I'm going to be stuned/knocked/cc because of it (allowing me to mentally prepare to trinket/charge)

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Really? Not long after writing this post I actually clicked a troll port. What happens is you see the soulwell behind you, you come back from making coffee and see the game just started (gates are open), you hastily click behind your character to grab the stones (really helpful as a healer btw since you get trained a lot) and there's a mage port JUST OUT of your camera view (under your action bar) with just a small portion of the port being present on your screen for you to click it instead.

What about bunker "widnow pillars"? Do they not add enough LoS?

I'm a ret paladin so, you know… wings, boubble and AoE. Whatever the situation :P

[Phookah]

The Alliance understood long ago that levelling in Korrak is faster if they throw the match

This. We aren't trying to win and the ones that are haven't got the memo yet.

[Yarathir]

If you are talking about the instant ressing at Vanndar it's fixed, his room is now part of the AV map.

Okay, good. Was curious about that because while I know little about it on technical grounds, I'd heard that that was a major contributor to overwhelming Horde wins.

Thanks.

[Loveliest]

Pet battle faction confirmed.

I laughed so hard. This totally made my day.

[Shalaator]

Really? Give up? I won 2 out of 7 today with Ivus.

Here's the screenshots from my most recent Ivus summon win (you can see my goblin portrait with alliance Drek kill quest completion).

After switching to my main Hpriest, I've had a lot more success healing and holding the turtle long enough to send our summoners forward.



With Ivus selected after Drek died

Showing the summoning:

[Loveliest]

People don't understand that though. Too much talk of "pride" and "fun"

How much do you get for a loss? 5% of the mount bar? I think it's 10% for the win. I wouldn't want to do that thing 20 times, the queue alone is half an hour. I did the mount in 5 runs. And yeah, we had that one run that took about 3 hours, against a Russian Alliance group that I still can't believe we managed to beat, they were much better coordinated (our group was screaming to let them win, they even managed to destroy 3 of our bunkers).

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Really? Give up? I won 2 out of 7 today with Ivus.

Well I haven't stepped in that thing since I got the mount. I'll fight the Alliance tooth and nail to win if I'm in a BG, even if I'm there for a mount. I assume there are loads like me, so there's probably less interested Horde now participating.

[Shalaator]

What about bunker "widnow pillars"? Do they not add enough LoS?

I'm a ret paladin so, you know… wings, boubble and AoE. Whatever the situation :P

No. The are pillars, not walls. They are quite thin. I can line 1-2 horde from one side of pillar, but not be lining the other 1-2 horde on the opposite side.

On horde I'm either lining all of the alliance inside the tower or none of them, thus I know exactly when I'm going to be stunned or cced---when I choose to come in sight of them. The 1-2 alliance that actually try to chase me either get knocked or insta rooted with tree form into a cyclone. It's also much harader to chase a resto druid and kill him around the exterior of the horde tower, it's much easier to kill a resto druid at the alliance bunker.

It makes a HUGE difference.


Also when I root an alliance on top of horde tower ( I play deep roots) the npcs kill them (there's always at least one bowmen that has vision on them, if not the elite commander swinging on them!).

Speaking of the elite commander, I can setup kills with him much easier as horde too by playing deep roots. This really screws the people that pull him with the intention of leaping off the tower to kite him. I'll root them, root them again (after trinket) and root them a third time into dr (from the top of the tower) by which point the commander has caught and killed them.

The only thing that scares me is CC on our commander that I cant' dispel (blind/imprison/etc).


That being said, I find Hpriest safer for Alliance Bunker defense anyway (and not just because it's my geared main). We have a lot of tools to survive being trained as long as we have another healer to pump into our GS/Ray when we're locked out/stunned. Hpriest wouldn't work for solo tower defense on horde since they can die post-trinket without support or get knocked with no recourse (even goblin rocket jump can't beat a ring of peace knock!!!). I can't even sprint/shafeshift snares to get back inside the tower as a hpriest!

However all that being said, Horde tower defense is "soloable," while Alliance bunker defense takes at least 3. This means less people on O for ally! Or, conversely, a longer delay on an alliance offensive from a single horde player! It's even better when I cyclone the person tanking the commander and abuse the healer. People don't expect their voidwalkers to be cycloned or bear tanks to be hiberanated in random bgs lol.

[Polarthief]

Even the mightiest PvP'er might click the health stone from the warlock just when the mage put a portal there. Accident's do happen.

I am not the mightiest nor have I clicked a portal in AV, but it's easily done if said situation happens.

Really? Not long after writing this post I actually clicked a troll port. What happens is you see the soulwell behind you, you come back from making coffee and see the game just started (gates are open), you hastily click behind your character to grab the stones (really helpful as a healer btw since you get trained a lot) and there's a mage port JUST OUT of your camera view (under your action bar) with just a small portion of the port being present on your screen for you to click it instead.

Instead of just *see soulwell, click*, you realize that many humans are just fucking assholes by nature, and you take the extra half-second to notice the glowing portal over it.

Now, if you clicked the same second a portal was cast on it, that's a different story, but again, just take a moment to notice the GIANT GLOWING PORTAL and also note that as of now in retail, portals usually take mouse priority (stupid, I know, but that's the world we live in), so you're almost guaranteed to click it over a soulwell.

Should they ban portal-usage in instanced PvP? Oh absolutely, there's no reason Portals should be allowed, but again, the world we live in. Take a sec to have the awareness that a portal is there. If you can't or are unwilling, you likely don't have the awareness to be a half-decent PvPer (and I say this as someone who is shit at, and generally dislikes PvP, but even I know that awareness is vital).

Here's the screenshots from my most recent Ivus summon win (you can see my goblin portrait with alliance Drek kill quest completion).

Jesus fuck, how do people play like this? 50% of your screen is covered with (100% opacity) UI. Like at least turn down the UI scaling or something.

[Ryonas]

So believe it or not, some people aren't doing Korrak for leveling. We're doing to for PvP.

How sad.

/10char

[Tradu]

Yes, and no.

Alliance has learnt the following.

Moderators, take note, this is not bashing.

1.: Alliance Vs. Russian-Horde -> Drawn out honor farming, botting and lots and lots of camping = Try to lose fast -> Raging and lolling -> zero effort.
2.: Alliance Vs. Horde -> Icewing MUST be taken before Stonehearth, if not = We're gonna lose now.
3.: Alliance Vs. Horde -> Someone calls out for killing Korrak, thus badly distributing people = We're gonna lose now -> Rest goes on doing nothing.

That is how I see it mostly.

2 is pretty hard considering Horde gets something like a 1 min advantage on first cap thanks to their spawn.

[Eliot123]

It's true that Alliance doesn't play optimally but it is kinda demoralizing to start with one bunker automatically down (Horde can reach Stonehearth before the Alliance can) and Horde base is like 10 more difficult to get into than the Alliance one. Been leveling multiple alts from 100 to 120 though KR and so far I've won once.

[Shalaator]

Take a sec to have the awareness that a portal is there. If you can't or are unwilling, you likely don't have the awareness to be a half-decent PvPer (and I say this as someone who is shit at, and generally dislikes PvP, but even I know that awareness is vital).

And yet you can armory my main Trainmeplzz in the screenshots and see that I'm 2100 in 2's and 2100-2200 in rbgs (as hpriest, the ONLY HPRIEST!) on arenamate at any time of the week (2050-2150 avg Sun-Thur, 2150-2250 avg Fri/Sat when my boys are all logged on).

Eventually that portal will get you.

Hpriest pics:




Disc priest pic:




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My druid heals in Korrak (mind you I'm still learning the intricacies and nuances of this class!)






So no, people aren't expecting to be "AWARE" or as Mad-Eye Moody would say "CONSTANT VIGILANCE" in their own damn spawn room! That's not a PvP'er problem, that's a TROLL problem. It happened to me AFTER I mentioned it in this thread from a single "rush to get out the gate and heal my team...btw get some healthstones" moment. So the only thing this mage accomplished was REMOVING THE RAID'S TOP HEALER.

[Doffen]

Instead of just *see soulwell, click*, you realize that many humans are just fucking assholes by nature, and you take the extra half-second to notice the glowing portal over it.

Now, if you clicked the same second a portal was cast on it, that's a different story, but again, just take a moment to notice the GIANT GLOWING PORTAL and also note that as of now in retail, portals usually take mouse priority (stupid, I know, but that's the world we live in), so you're almost guaranteed to click it over a soulwell.

Should they ban portal-usage in instanced PvP? Oh absolutely, there's no reason Portals should be allowed, but again, the world we live in. Take a sec to have the awareness that a portal is there. If you can't or are unwilling, you likely don't have the awareness to be a half-decent PvPer (and I say this as someone who is shit at, and generally dislikes PvP, but even I know that awareness is vital).

Yeah, I meant when you are about to click a health stone then portal just turns up. Of course you need to be unlucky then, but it happens.

I for one wouldn't dare to get that health stone if there was a portal on it

[Shalaator]

(Horde can reach Stonehearth before the Alliance can)

I agree with you on this, be ware though that someone will (correctly) contradict you and tell you how's it theoretically possible for alliance to reach SHB at the same time or earlier...but that's only if the entire Defense team knows the route (very unlikely) and uses their glider at the right time (also unlikely). Meanwhile...the horde noobs simply run at it with no strange detours.

Thus, in practice, alliance cannot defend SHB initially, but can clap the horde with Timewarp/lust inside SHB immediately after and recap (I save my drums for this moment !!!! <3 )

I'm quite sure half the horde AFKS inside SHB at the start of every game since they outnumber our D team and yet they get wiped every time lol.

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Yeah, I meant when you are about to click a health stone then portal just turns up. Of course you need to be unlucky then, but it happens.

I for one wouldn't dare to get that health stone if there was a portal on it

The problem here (when I did it) was a camera clip issue.

The healthstone basin was clearly visible behind my character, but the portal was barely visible and mostly under my action bar due to camera angle. I clicked the well and the nearly invisible portal took priority. Mind you that game had already started and I was in a rush to get out and heal my team, but I need those lock rocks as a healer...and so I got teleported...AFTER I mentioned it in this thread.

[Doffen]

The problem here (when I did it) was a camera clip issue.

The healthstone basin was clearly visible behind my character, but the portal was barely visible and mostly under my action bar due to camera angle. I clicked the well and the nearly invisible portal took priority. Mind you that game had already started and I was in a rush to get out and heal my team, but I need those lock rocks as a healer...and so I got teleported...AFTER I mentioned it in this thread.

No, I totally get it. It is annoying and even if it's there you can be unlucky and just click the portal. The main issue here is like you say, the mages that puts up the portals for fun. And when you get flagged for deserter for doing so makes it a bigger issue than it could be if there some small adjustments to how portals works in BGs. Easy solution is like drusin said about a confirmation thingy when you take portal or just remove the portal ability in BGs completely. It shouldn't be that hard to fix this issue.

Easier than saying NO to the mages that does it. The world and in game world doesn't work like that :P

[Shakana]

That might been have your experience but on my side, Horde does the same thing, communicates and are not always ZUG ZUG, and i never since the first day saw any horde at least from my server doing merc alliance for Korrak, we all just go there. This is basically to me just a conspiracy theory. You don't like horde then go Alliance! It's that simple. I had really good AV runs, that took ages, people talking in chat til the end, about in 10/10 wins the other day, i have always had it balanced and horde knew exactly what to do most of the times, it's like calling boring to people that is doing stuff right. I'm EU, as US i have no idea, but at EU-Horde they might seem to you angry always but they are not. Depends on the people, just like irl. Not everyone is just roses and smiles.

[Shalaator]

That might been have your experience but on my side, Horde does the same thing, communicates and are not always ZUG ZUG, and i never since the first day saw any horde at least from my server doing merc alliance for Korrak, we all just go there. This is basically to me just a conspiracy theory. You don't like horde then go Alliance! It's that simple. I had really good AV runs, that took ages, people talking in chat til the end, about in 10/10 wins the other day, i have always had it balanced and horde knew exactly what to do most of the times, it's like calling boring to people that is doing stuff right. I'm EU, as US i have no idea, but at EU-Horde they might seem to you angry always but they are not. Depends on the people, just like irl. Not everyone is just roses and smiles.

Queuing Horde (non merc) for Korrak is just boring. My heals remove any chance of defeat (and there's already a very low chance of defeat even if I afk lol). I have not lost a single Korrak on horde (non merc) while healing. ever. It's boring and the game never lasts more than 15 minutes.

When I go merc mode I can use my healing to force a turtle on alliance. As of today I went 4-9 (which is really good for alliance!), all wins were with Ivus summons. It's a truly hellish and grueling struggle...and I love it. Several horde players are putting me on focus now, so I have to run standard gfade/concentration on my hpriest. I was getting way with rapid mending/ray for quite some time lol.

From what I gather, the majority of the Alliance players love it and LOVE actually winning (since it's been so rare for them). Report the afks and haters ("LET THEM WIN" crowd) afk. Most alliance will get on board and mass report the "LET THEM WIN" people in chat.


Also we had a super clutch victory on my last win. I told Alliance offense to pull Drek with one tower up and to start burning him since our Defense at Van was going to fall. Horde recapped ALL gy's except Drek's aid station...as soon as Drek was 80% I told our entire Defense team (20 of us) to instantly wipe/die and rez at Drek and win.

We killed Drek when Van was at 40%, had we not wiped as soon as we did, I believe Horde would have marginally won the race instead! (Horde had all four bunkers down and had already started on Van with a small 6-7 man team while we were spinning Van's GY).

[Logwyn]

yeah ofc it was op,but read to what i responded

It doesn't change what I said. PVPers at the top level will pick races based on racials and what gives the advantage. The faction doesn't matter to top PVPers. If horde racials are the best for PVP then top PvPers go that way if its Alliance then that way. At the time Alliance racials were the best way to go in PvP so the top PvPers picked humans. If Orcs got an OP racial then they'd pick Orcs. The faction is not a consideration.

[Shakana]

Queuing Horde (non merc) for Korrak is just boring. My heals remove any chance of defeat (and there's already a very low chance of defeat even if I afk lol). I have not lost a single Korrak on horde (non merc) while healing. ever. It's boring and the game never lasts more than 15 minutes.

When I go merc mode I can use my healing to force a turtle on alliance. As of today I went 4-9 (which is really good for alliance!), all wins were with Ivus summons. It's a truly hellish and grueling struggle...and I love it. Several horde players are putting me on focus now, so I have to run standard gfade/concentration on my hpriest. I was getting way with rapid mending/ray for quite some time lol.

From what I gather, the majority of the Alliance players love it and LOVE actually winning (since it's been so rare for them). Report the afks and haters ("LET THEM WIN" crowd) afk. Most alliance will get on board and mass report the "LET THEM WIN" people in chat.

Ye well, that's what happens when you lose all the time, why is that idk. I think horde is just faster to win cause they have been wining so much they already know what to do back and forth, but they still plan, they still speak, and i for example, focus on healers like you so i can kill other dps around, since i'm too a dps, i death grip a healer on my dk, it's so fun tbh, or a dps that will be far from healing range, and we kill it immediately, because i make sure i bring them all to where we are when i death grip and so it's easy to stop them, or to see which opposite faction is there. It's all strategically done. But don't fool yourself, there is trolls and quitters on horde as there is on alliance.

I can only say play what makes you feel better and have the most fun, if that's not horde, and that was your experience with horde, it's fine, but please don't say horde are trolls that just go merc alliance to make them lose. That might have been the case that time but guarantee most of the players don't want to just sit there on AV for something so silly like that, get honor for blood of the enemy and so on.

[Shalaator]

Ye well, that's what happens when you lose all the time, why is that idk. I think horde is just faster to win cause they have been wining so much they already know what to do back and forth, but they still plan, they still speak, and i for example, focus on healers like you so i can kill other dps around, since i'm too a dps, i death grip a healer on my dk, it's so fun tbh, or a dps that will be far from healing range, and we kill it immediately, because i make sure i bring them all to where we are when i death grip and so it's easy to stop them, or to see which opposite faction is there. It's all strategically done. But don't fool yourself, there is trolls and quitters on horde as there is on alliance.

I can only say play what makes you feel better and have the most fun, if that's not horde, and that was your experience with horde, it's fine, but please don't say horde are trolls that just go merc alliance to make them lose. That might have been the case that time but guarantee most of the players don't want to just sit there on AV for something so silly like that, get honor for blood of the enemy and so on.

I'm not saying the horde mercs are throwing for their "horde buddies." They don't even know each other, but they are purposely throwing for their own xp gain. They are going merc + afk on purpose. I'm the only merc horde that I've witnessed that plays to win. At the start of the match I've now learned to identify all the horde mercs and watch them...I end up reporting all of them afk and getting them removed during the WINNING turtle games. ALL OF THEM. Not a SINGLE merc plays the game, they all afk EVERY GAME.

Also, the "Let them win please," crowd...it's usually a Merc Mode horde. Click on them in raid panel/grid/BGE and look at their portrait and buffs...almost always merc mode.

Some of them RP walk with NPCS and hope they're not seen.

Others sort of follow the herd but don't do anything and then suddenly run into the horde deathball and die...without taking any offensive and defensive action while doing so...as a HEALER I quickly observe and recognize these people...almost always a merc pretending to be not-afk.

I keep my alliance warriors/dk/rets alive with all my vigor, they are the front line the Guards the Realm of Men. But the merc mode mages/locks/hunters that purposely run into the horde over and over...I let them die...they're trying to die. lol. At least merc mode melee actually attacks before they die, but they suspiciously still dont' use any defensives...! lol