If it was 1.12 Vanilla then BWL, ZG, AQ, and Naxx would be there at launch. But they’re not.
Eventually it’ll end up in that state, yes. But who’s to say Blizz couldn’t have used an earlier iteration? It’s possibly 1.12 was the earliest data they had. But the Blue post when they made the announcement indicated it was a design design (they said they thought npcs were too powerful in earlier versions). If it was a design decision…that’s very sad.
In any event, this ‘debate’ was over long ago. So it is what it is. I’ve already said I have no interest in AV after they made the decision, then repeated it a few times in subsequent posts. And watching these streams I’m glad I already made that decision.
While getting a proper patch progression would be really cool and missing out on older AV is a real shame. There is a reason from a development standpoint that they are making everything 1.12. The wow classic team is probably more of a skeleton crew more than anything else, so given that they “have” a complete 1.12 reference client, I really doubt anyone is going to fund development of some older patches (especially when the are still putting out fires in BFA rather than letting it burn to the ground).
In the end they are just developing a server that will require minimal maintenance and development, making it easier to launch new realms. I wouldn’t be surprised if part of the classic project is also to streamline process of converting other expansions (TBC and WotLK) onto modern server architecture as well.
In order to keep teams in Alterac Valley more numerically balanced, players will now enter Alterac Valley on a one-for-one basis (i.e. if there are 30 players in the battleground for each side with 10 players in the Alliance queue and 2 players in the Horde queue, only two players from each team will be added, bringing the total to 32 per side).
The minimum number of players required to start a battle in Alterac Valley has been lowered to 20 (the maximum is still 40).
Graveyard capture points are now at different locations. The banners players must interact with in order to capture a graveyard have been distanced from each other somewhat in order to alleviate “graveyard zerging”.
Several terrain changes were made to fix some geometry exploits.
Iceblood Graveyard has been fortified.
The Frostwolf Relief Hut now has appropriate guards.
And player feedback is why we have flying, and lfd, and lfr, and every convenience imaginable. The only difference is 1.12 AV is still authentic Vanilla. But that difference is all that matters.
The only ‘nerf’ I see in 1.6 is longer respawn timer for tower guards. Which is meh. But it also added offensive air strikes and reduced the rep needed for cavalry charges.
Aren’t all these players wanting an earlier version of AV giving… player feedback? Blizzard made the choice for 1.12 AV despite all the feedback, isn’t that what you wanted?
This is a very poor attitude for any consumer to have. You should always reserve the right to complain if you are not satisfied with what is being delivered when you are paying for a service. We want that epic battle AV.
So basically the old “Here at blizzard we felt X would cause to much of a problem for Y players, so we’re going to remove X on the off chance Y players might get a little upset”
The whole point of npcs being strong forced your team to work together as a unit.
Original av was a blend of pve/pvp, as a tank you could play your role and round up npcs to help dps burn them down.
You used your npcs to help you push/defend like in LoL.
It added an extra layer of depth to the game, you wouldn’t just run off solo or you would get your butt whooped by npcs, you were constantly aware of who was around you.
Watching everyone in AV just run around in their own little pvp world is kinda sad.
I was excited to watch how the beta testers learnt and adapted to playing the field and coming together as a team to overcome the strong mixed pve/pvp enviroment, which happens so organically in 1.8 AV.
This is just your average retail bg where everyone runs off to do their own thing and screws around in field of strife 1v1ing each other.
Classic av was meant to be a raid battleground, highly disappointed in the direction blizzard is taking classic, especially knowingly removing npcs and mines because they decided it would be to hard for players to overcome.
We overcame all that though and sides won.
I spent hours in there on just single battles.
Heck…our realm’s first AV lasted for days. And everyone was having a blast from what I remember.
![:wink:](https://d38bqls1q93fod.cloudfront.net/en/wow/images/emoji/twitter/wink.png?v=6" ":wink:")