Forsaken Basin
I’ve been in queue for Arathi Basin for about 8 months. Seriously. Every time I log one of the first things I do is queue up for AB, WSG, and AV.I’ve played more WSG and AV than I know what do about, but yesterday was the first time, with any of my toons, that I’ve ever gotten into AB. What is that all about? It’s not a server thing because I’ve been in the same boat on Khadgar, Stormrage and now Eitrigg. AB is never up, even on AB Bounus Honor weekends. If it sucked I’d write it off as that, but it was a blast. The went really quick (as opposed to WSG which can last hours, or AV which can last days) – I got in 3 times in a row and all 3 rounds lasted under 10 minutes. Of course the horde owned those three rounds as well but that’s to be expected. I just hope I don’t have to wait another 8 months to get in again.
I don’t know what’s up, but I’ve seen the same thing on my server, Llane. AB is just about never up, and when it does go up there usually aren’t enough people on one side or the other so it ends after 5 minutes.
My favorite was 15 on 2. I came in and just stealthed around trying to get at least a single kill. It was amusing, but not really what AB is supposed to be about.
I’m pretty sure I played that map in Warcraft III.
I love AB. Love it. It’s fun and quick and I haven’t quite got the hang of AV yet. Same thing on my server though, it never seems to be up.
It depends on your server, but I’ve found that on Skywall, AB is up usually every day for a few rounds. Peak times are anywhere between 8PM and Midnight server time. AB is usually correlated with WSG as far as queuing goes.
I think it probably has to do with how crowded your server is and how many ppl like to PvP. This will probably get better when Blizz links battleground queues across servers (is that still in rumor stage?).
Arathi Basin is ridiculously fun when it’s 15-on-15, but is particularly prone to population imbalances. Whatever faction PvPs the least gets sick and tired of the 15-on-3 games and learns to stop queueing. I am hoping the 1.12 PvP improvement patch will address this.
I started a new character on Eitrigg but on my last server, Runetotem, the Horde out-PvPed the Alliance considerably so as a Horde you rarely got a PuG AB. You could get pwned by the one Alliance PvP guild, or you could not play. We still played AB whenever we could, accumulating a mark of honor at a time for the ‘For Great Honor’ quest.
AB is prone to horrid imbalance. 15 vs 7 fights are a regular occurance and once that happens, the losing side feels little point in re-queueing. I find AB far more enjoyable than WSG, but who likes playing a game where you’re doomed to failure the moment it starts?