Alterac Valley – why is this fun?

Now, granted I came into the whole PvP side of WoW late. I hardly ever touch a battleground while leveling, so my experiences are entirely from the perspective of max-level battlegrounds.

That said, my experiences in AV have all fallen into one of three categories:

1) Mount up. Ride a long, convoluted path all the way to the other end of the map, avoiding anything you possibly can. Frequently reach the enemy base without even taking a tick of damage, never mind getting dismounted. Run in. Throw 2 – 3 heals and/or lightning bolts. Win. Note: This rarely happens. So rarely, it may be likened to sightings of Bigfoot in New York City or the Loch Ness monster in your bathtub.

2) Mount up. Ride a long, convoluted path all the way to the other end of the map, avoiding anything you possibly can. Frequently reach the enemy base without even taking a tick of damage, never mind getting dismounted. Sit outside trying to figure out who can tank the PvE encounter. Buff up. Listen to someone in /bg scream about something, nothing, and/or everything. Watch some idiot with 12k health run in prematurely and get immediately smooshed. Sit around some more while people bicker until the Horde wins because we all zerged and left no defense.

3) Mount up. Ride a long, convoluted path all the way to the other end of the map, avoiding anything you possibly can. A few people break off from the pack to actually attempt to cap towers and/or graveyards. Reach the enemy base. Wipe horridly. Spend the rest of the battleground getting graveyard camped by 35 of the 40 Horde players in said battleground until we run out of reinforcements and lose.

Do you see a theme here? I don’t think I spend this much time running around Dalaran on my mount on any given day. Alterac Valley doesn’t feel like PvP to me – it feels like a combination of a horse race and failure to herd cats at least 75% of the time.The rest of the time, it feels like a very short heroic set very very very far away from anywhere you might ever be.

If we’re being completely honest, I don’t like most of the battlegrounds – I will take arena or Wintergrasp over battlegrounds any day. But even though I don’t really enjoy Warsong Gulch or Strand of the Ancients, I don’t feel like they’re quite the same exercise in futility on such a regular basis. And yet, overwhelmingly, Alterac Valley seems to be the “go to” battleground, the one everyone enjoys. I just don’t see the allure.