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March 20, 2006
Beware the Ides of March
Well, fun's over, and I'm getting back into the grove of work. I'm facing a few hundred unread emails, just imagine if I didn't try to keep up with it.
Today's post is about setting up a Warsong Gulch team on the Alliance Side. I imagine that many non-pvp servers have a very similar population imbalance issue (more Alliance than Horde). When it comes to PvP, that creates challenges for the up-and-coming team. These are the following things that our team is having to over come.
1) One hour+ wait times make it difficult for us to get a feel of the tactics of players on our team. To further make this difficult, our "team" officially only runs on Fridays. During the week I play my alt rogue (getting to 60!), and my BG Twink Mage (lvl 29). Many other team members have other commitments, some are hard-core, 100% of the time, PvP'rs. Our time together as a team is limited. Our time together in smaller groups, joining PuGs is more plentiful, but that doesn't help us as much as it could.
2) Horde Teams are really good. Why? Because they get a heck of a lot more time in the Battlegrounds together. So they get better, faster, and roll Alliance PUGS faster and faster. However, when there's 80+ Alliance waiting, and only two matches of warsong going (one Horde PUG, one Horde Team). The chances of drawing the horde PuG are very slim. The Horde PuG's matches last an hour or more (stalemate against an Alliance PuG). The Horde Team rolls a PUG in 10 min or less. This means, we face the phat, well practiced, well strategized, well planned horde team after our one and a half hour queue time. I don't mind playing them. In fact, it's good for us, as we can pick up some cues from their play style. However, we'll never get a handle on our own play style if we get rolled by them in 20 minutes once every two hours (queue time plus game time).
3) Finally, this one isn't based on population... Lack of a Voicecom server. If we ran ever single night, this might be easier to co-ordinate with the team. I would argue, it's one of the critical things to have, as a team, in 60's BG's. I almost wish Blizzard had it built into the game, for use in Raid Groups only. But then I'd think of the extra lag... :D
So, if you're setting up a team, three things to remember.
1) Try to figure out as many times as possible that the bulk of the team can meet.
2) Try to schedule play time during more prime time hours, to increase the likely hood of facing a Horde PuG.
3) Get yourself Teamspeak, Ventrillo, or any voice communication software.
Posted by mrh176 at March 20, 2006 08:22 AM