PvP Frustrations

I'm pretty much a middle of the road player - I'm not in a raiding guild off doing Ulduar and hard modes, but neither am I what Gevlon would call a slacker (though moron, possibly). My main interest is PvE, questing and instancing with my friends, but I also enjoy the odd bit of PvP in Battlegrounds (AV, SoTA and AB mostly) and Wintergrasp. I won't pretend to be a good PvPer - dogged would be the best description - but I like to think I have some idea of the what to do. It's surprising how many don't though.

In AV I know the importance of taking the towers (and defending them until they're capped) and of denying the same to the enemy. All too often though, people are in a frenzied rush to get to the enemy boss, or else are stood in midfield beating up on the opposition (which is a really efficient way of reducing their reinforcement count ...) and so tower defense comes down to a pair of clothies trying to hold off a horde hit squad .... A lot of times the battle is nothing more than 30-40 individuals running at disparate targets while the enemy seems to be working as a well-oiled machine, picking off lone Alliance troops (or even uncoordinated groups). I'm sure they're not really as coordinated as they seem (unless we're up against a big pre-made) but even a modicum of coordination and tactical thinking can be devastating when you're up against the zerg that is the Alliance in Ruin (or Emberstorm as it is now). It would be nice, for once, to see a measure of coordination on the Alliance side - it happens occasionally by chance, but all too rarely - but I suspect the cries of "we've lost" or "you noobs ..." will continue instead - it's much easier to QQ than to try and solve the problem.

Historically, the Ruin battlegroup has struggled for numbers and balance - we were a (small) mix of pvp and Rp realms (and some newly opened servers) and thus starting battles was always a chore, and when they did kick off there was a good chance that one side (usually the Horde) was grossly outnumbered. A month or so back Ruin was merged with several populous German PVP realms (Emberstorm), which has had two effects on BGs: Firstly, there are a lot more of them (benefits of a larger population). Secondly, because of the way cross-language BGs work you never find yourself teamed up with the Germans (though we have a server of Italians in Ruin so it'd make little difference ...), only opposed by them. As a result, you either find yourself facing off against other Ruinites (so the old imbalance issues arise) or - more often now - partial group of Ruin Alliance/Horde players vs a full opposition group from the German realms. The prior situation was unacceptable, but beyond all comprehension the new situation is even worse! Indeed, one of my associates who is more into PvP than I am decided to move server rather than put up with the situation in Ruin/Emberstorm (though he found the mirror situation there - .many more Alliance than Horde; I presume there were 'technical' reasons why the BG mergers weren't done in more sensible manner ... not that it isn't galling to see the possibilities.)

Which leaves Wintergrasp. That actually runs quite well (and the win/loss balance isn't as one-sided as it was). Yes, there is lots of tactical muppetry and the horde usually has Tenacity (so not much chance of the "Against the odds" achievement for the Alliance at present) but all in all it remains fun. However, having the WG quests go weekly removed some of the impetus for playing (unless you're after Wintergrasp tokens, though to be honest there's not a lot to buy ,,,) which I guess was Blizzards aim to try and smooth out the numbers taking part. I'm not sure how the upcoming 3.2 changes will play out here though, with WG becoming a pseudo-Battleground with restricted player numbers (though I'm not sure having a 100-a-side hardcap will make too much difference on Steamwheedle Cartel).