PVPing as Alliance and Horde

In both of my battlegroups (and, when I still had a couple of level 19s on Whisperwind, on my third battlegroup), Horde tends to dominate everything except the 10-19 bracket of Warsong Gulch (and, to a lesser extent, the 20-29 bracket of WSG, but not to Arathi Basin). I've never made it beyond the 20-29 bracket myself, Alliance-side, but I've heard people complain about the upper levels.

Some of the Alliance-side folks on my battlegroups complain that it is because the Horde side has better racials, or because they are all twinks. This is, for lack of a better way to say it, complete bullshit. I've played both sides, and seriously? Gift of the Naaru and Stoneform, at least, are just as good as any Horde racial. Escape Artist might be, too. And for any Alliance hunters out there, Shadowmeld + Prowl has gotten Ideale pwned a few times. As for the twink argument, one of the main reason Alliance dominates so heavily in the 10-19 bracket of WSG is, in my experience, because there are a LOT of twinks (there are Horde-side, too, but they tend to be in pugs with non-twinks instead of premades).

Again, this is based only on my experience, and these observations may not apply to other battlegroups, or even to my battlegroups at normal playing hours — I'm usually in the BGs around 2 a.m. PST.

So why do I think Horde dominates? Well, last time I went into Arathi Basin on Ideale, the pre-game conversation involved which nodes to take and hold at all costs, which ones to take but let go if needed, and which ones to let Alliance take but disrupt whenever necessary. Some people put themselves on defense at this point. Once the battle started, we followed the plan, and communicated when it wasn't working. When a node was defended, the bg chat was full of "Nice defense! Good job!" Yeah, there were a couple of a-holes who just complained about how we all sucked — there always are — but we ignored them, communicated, and won 2000-1190. Oh, and we were outnumbered.

Last time I was in Arathi Basin with Tshaya, there was no pre-battle communication. Once in battle, the only people talking were the ones complaining that Horde always wins. They complained that there were more hunters and locks Horde-side, even though our numbers were the same. A few people (myself included) would speak up with "nice defense" and they'd deride us. They complained that non-twinks shouldn't even be there. A little way through the battle, me and another guy suggested rushing the blacksmith and taking that, then staging a combo assault-defense from there (because really, it's the key position; nearly every battle I've been in for AB has been won because we took the blacksmith and held it). That idea was "stupid" and we "couldn't do it anyway" so we held the mine and stable and tried to take the farm. We lost big. And then the complainers were saying, "Oh, Horde racials are better, they're all twinks, blah blah blah."

Now obviously not all Alliance players feel that way. There were people in my battle trying to shut up the complainers and come up with a plan. The problem is not whining or a couple of bad players.

The key to winning battlegrounds is, in my experience: a.) Have a plan. b.) COMMUNICATE. This is the most important. c.) Offer suggestions and encouragement even when things go wrong.

This worked Monday night when Ideale was in Alterac Valley, even. We were up against a very good Alliance team, and nine of us had made a rush for the Frostwolf banner for "Proving Grounds" rather than joining in the assault. But the whole time we were there, the rest of the team updated us on where they were, let us know what the other team was like, etc., and we let them know when we were done and on our way. We barely, barely managed to scrape out a win — the other team was excellent, and actually managed to take out most of our resources and hit Drek'Thar before we burned down Stormpike — but we did, and it was because we communicated, and because we didn't waste time complaining when we could be fighting.

I think if the Alliance side communicated as effectively as the Horde side seems to, the wins would be far more even (and I'm sure that on some battlegroups they do, and they are).

That said, unless I decide to transfer Tshaya to another realm (and I might; I really kind of hate Laughing Skull and I'm never on when my friends are, anyway), I probably won't PVP much with her. Which makes me sad, because I really do like her, and I just don't see myself as a regular raider or even a PUGer.