The specific tips that will be mentioned in this article are for members of the Horde, however many of the general principles are applicable to the Alliance also. The only reason I enter the Alterac Valley Battleground is to grind honor. The longer each battle takes the less honor I end up making that day. I would rather lose three battles in an hour then spend an hour (or more) to win one. Winning, after all, isn’t the reason I’m there. However if the choice is between losing in 15-20 minutes or winning in the same amount of time I’d rather win. The main point is to keep the games short. Win or lose, collect your honor and move on to the next battle.

Destroying Bunkers and killing Lieutenants grants bonus honor.

So take them all out!

At the start of the battle everyone should mount up and rush to SH graveyard. Have someone pull the guards and someone else tap the flag. Make sure everyone stays out of the Icewing bunkers archers range. While the Lieutenants around SH graveyard are being killed a rogue should stealth into Icewing bunker blind/gouge Earl and move up to the flag. Vanish before Earl rapes you. Sap the archer on the northern most side and move back to the right side of the flag. The only archer that should have line of sight (LOS) on you is the sapped one. Now tap the flag. All the archers will despawn. Talk to the wing commander and she will agro Earl. The rogue’s work is done at Icewing, mount up and move north (take a friend with you).

Now that the archers have disappeared and Earl is busy with the wing commander 4-5 people should move in and finish Earl of and guard the bunker til it caps.

While Icewing and SH graveyard are waiting to be capped kill Balinda and take SH Bunker using the same tactics as Icwing. Letting a rogue move in and tap the flag before the archers agro on anyone speeds things up. This way the archers despawn without having to actually kill them. It saves a lot of time. (Side note: if the rogue happens to have shadowstep he can just teleport up to the archer he needs to sap and then move to the flag…. this avoids any confrontation with the elite guarding the bunker and saves the rogue a cooldown on vanish).

After Balinda is dead everyone that killed her should mount up and move north to SP graveyard. Take the high road (east side approach) or go under the bridge (west side approach). Don’t ride up the main road in the middle; this creates a bottleneck if the Alliance have anyone defending the graveyard. A few people (including a rogue/druid) should have worked their way up to SP graveyard before the main force (those that killed Balinda) arrive. With 2 people the SP graveyard can easily be tapped. If no alliance are there have one person mount and pull Duffy and his henchmen down under the bridge while the second person taps the flag. If things work as planned the main force should be arriving shortly to kill Duffy.

As soon as SP is tapped a rogue or druid should move across the bridge and take the north Bunker. (Note: no archers need to be sapped here to tap the flag, just remember to stand out of LOS). Then have a rogue move to the south bunker and sap the Eastern most archer then tap the flag. As soon as both Bunkers have been tapped (and all the archer have disappeared everyone should rush the Aid Station. Once the NPCs that aggroed on the rush toward the aid have been killed start pulling Marshals. Don’t attack the Dun Balder marshals (as the will despawn once the bunkers cap). Save them til last and if they haven’t despawned be then kill them. Then move in and kill Vann.

In my experience (as a rogue) most people agro the archers before I have time to move in and tap the bunker flags. So as an individual my tactics are a little different. At the start of the battle I rush to Dun Balder North bunker. By the time I arrive most of the Horde forces are fighting the archers at Icewing and waiting for SH graveyard to cap. I tap the north bunker then the south. Then I move into the Aid Station. About 50% of the time I can tap the aid before any alliance show up to reclaim the bunkers. If I have Goodhurt with me we can usually defend the aid til it caps. (This is because no more then 1-2 Alliance ever show up this early in the battle to defend the Aid).

If the Aid is taken this early in the game and the remaining Horde forces rush straight to the Aid Station (avoiding SP) it almost always insures a Horde victory. However nine times out of ten it ends up with just Goodhurt and I waiting at the Aid Station until Alliance defenders swarm us.