So in Ashran they either need to remove the 15% stat increase buff on Horde side of the map or add a similar consumable on the Alliance side of the map otherwise this BG is laughably ridiculous. How is the Alliance suppose to keep up in damage and healing when the Horde team gets to do 15% extra damage and healing while having 15% more health as well because we get a free buff at the start of the game?
The only strategy the Alliance can do is they either bum rush mage which fails the moment we defend and have our 15% buff, or they can confront us in the forest and try to fight us while a large chunk of us already have a 15% buff or they can get the ancient artifact while our entire raid team gets a 15% buff and then we win at the ogre fight. This isn’t even a challenge to win as Horde. Ashran is a battleground that reminds me how much Blizzard really loves the Horde.
Not that I know of. I think I’d prefer a 15% stat increase though rather than just haste. In a BG where it’s a clash of raid groups that extra 15% to healing and damage is just way too good. I always look at the scoreboard and Horde is massively out healing the Alliance.
I do battlegrounds on both Horde and Alliance depending on how things are going for me at the moment I’m queuing. I just feel like giving one side easy access to a 15% stat buff is kind of ridiculous because it makes a difference. The Alliance can get it too but they have to manage to either ride across the map and wipe the Horde raid in the forest while some Horde already have the buff at the start of the game or be in a position where Horde is pushed beyond their mage tower. Either option is easier said than done.
Both sides get a health buff when in their respective halves of the map… and both factions get access to the 15% stat flower. Literally isn’t Horde bias but keep crying about it.
the reality is that a few players get teh 15% buff, not the whole team. i can scream about flowers till i am blue in the face and still only regular pvpers will pick them up. the pugs go for the rare and never bother with flowers.
if anything, the few players on alliance who get flowers are balancing out the few players on horde who get flowers.
i can’t tell you why horde wins ashran so much, i’ve won it multiple times when it was an uphill game. the AA, the solar sphere, the flowers, the ogre, the elemental, alliance has had all of them and still lost, so none of it really matters.
alliance just plays like most of the time. you see it in strats and plays, alliance often tries exotic stuff like backdoors or mage rushes which are easily disrupted rather than going with solid strats.
I’d say there are a number of things that are stacked against the Alliance’s favour in Ashran, much like Alterac Valley, the stat flowers being one of them. It doesn’t matter if only a few people pick them up (and this has not been my experience, I’d say at least 40% of a team usually grabs them), 15% on top of the melee buff and on top of the defense buffs all add up. Sure, Alliance can get them too, but in order to get to them you have to go through all the players that already have them. The simplest solution is to add in some nodes to the Quarry or Ashmaul Burial Grounds. The route they will probably go down is reduce the effectiveness of the flowers to a 3% stat increase.
Other imbalances include NPCs like Jeron and Kronus dealing significantly more damage than Rylai and Fangraal (not that you ever see the ultimate units any more but it was a big problem in the previous iteration).
^ This has been my experience as well, I’ve been in a number of Ashran matches where Alliance PUGs were actually successful in zerging Jeron at the start (despite multiple people, including me, yelling at Horde PUGs to come back from the woods ).
So right off the bat, Alliance was up 50 points… but that’s where their momentum ended VERY quickly we out-kill and out-DPS them, so fast in-fact that very soon the score goes from A: 150 / H: 99… to A: 121 / H: 97… to A: 99 / H: 95… to A: 71 / H: 89… to A: 55 / H: 84.
To put it simply, Horde actually gets kills, Alliance doesn’t.
Alliance DPS tickles, Horde DPS kills.
I’ve even been in a few games where Alliance wiped us in the Dark Woods, and Alliance got access to the flowers. Despite this, we very quickly recovered and out-killed/out-DPS’ed them in subsequent clashes. So even when they’ve eaten the flowers (to be on an even playing field with Horde stat-wise), they still tend to somehow throw/end up losing.
I find that Alliance tends to rely more on surprise attacks and “sneaky” strats like mage rush, backdoor rush, etc in order to win. In open combat, without any “toys” or other PvE gimmicks, Alliance PUGs don’t seem to fare very well.
~ just my casual observations from doing a ton of Ashran games since it was added to the rotation
Only if the Alliance manages to wipe the Horde in dark woods or pushes them back beyond their tower otherwise… no they don’t both have access to it. Horde get a free 15% stat increase at the start of the battleground. Just face it, you have an advantage in Ashran. Put a 15% stat increase consumable on the Alliance side of the map and then you would have a point. You aren’t overcoming the battleground through skill alone.
I can tell you why and it’s because they have instant access to 15% stat increase.
Because that’s the only options Alliance has. They can either bum rush the Horde in the dark woods or rush the mage. If they do anything else like go ROC it gives Horde and their healers time to get their 15% stat increase for extra 15% healing and then the Alliance can’t keep up with heals and loses a battleground where the entire point is two raids clashing with each other in a fight to the last reinforcement. It’s simple math.
Because you get a 15% stat increase to your damage and 9/10 times that’s going to win you the battleground. The Horde isn’t simply better at “getting kills” there are plenty of random non epic battlegrounds where Horde get stomped where they don’t have a free 15% stat increase on their side of the map and it’s an even fight.
Doesn’t Jeron have a knock back as well and Rylai doesn’t?
He does, but an easy way to counter the mechanic is for the person who gets the debuff to simply move away from the group… it’s proximity-based, it will not knockback people out of range.
If player A gets the debuff, and simply moves to an opposite corner of the tower, only player A will get knocked off… sparing the other 35-38 Alliance from getting knocked off.
I believe it can also be LoS’ed.
Of course, 99% of PUGs are blissfully unaware of the mechanic, and just cluelessly stand there as a “clump” of 35-38 players and get knocked off the tower
Since we’re on this topic, I believe his “Combustion Nova” can also be LoS’ed, and that one does a ton of damage.
Pretty amazing how it’s the year 2020 and so many randoms still don’t understand how to avoid 100% choreographed PvE mechanics.
My friend, the wipe horde on raven boss only works because horde trickle back in when they are killed. The song flowers don’t respawn fast enough for enough alliance toons to make a difference.
If alliance don’t keep that pressure on post horde wipe (ie they listen to the “get ogrez” crew), horde will counter and wipe them with the 15% buff and Jeron as backup.
Alliance have to play the darkwoods strat into pressure F5 or else they will 90% still lose. Alliance can even cap F5 and still lose to Jeron and a small defence because there is no DBM RW to help them overcome nova deaths or stupidity.
Meanwhile the feeble ally ice block mage can be tanked by rogues and 3 manned without healers.
I feel sorry for alliance, there only hope in ashran is to have a healer and smart DK advantage; or run as a premade community.
most of the time. you see it in strats and plays, alliance often tries exotic stuff like backdoors or mage rushes which are easily disrupted rather than going with solid strats.
).
VERY quickly we out-kill and out-DPS them, so fast in-fact that very soon the score goes from A: 150 / H: 99… to A: 121 / H: 97… to A: 99 / H: 95… to A: 71 / H: 89… to A: 55 / H: 84.