
Why were these places focal points for PvP?
Was it merely that they coincided with the paths that players doing quests would follow? How did they come to be? Is there some kind of lore thing behind it?
Honestly I remember Goldshire getting fucked on the regular and I always thought it was because it was as close as you could get to SW before the elite guards turned up. Then when we got enough people together we'd go through SW. Good times.


Like you said, at least for TM, it was a sort of mega zone where ally and horde low lvls would both be questing or travelling through.
This of course led to fights that escalated

[3. Local Defense] The Crossroads is under attack!
[3. Local Defense] The Crossroads is under attack!
[3. Local Defense] The Crossroads is under attack!

I’m sure the developers built the quest content with these kind of organic conflict areas in mind, ensuring that horde and alliance crossed paths at stages throughout the levelling process. That or it was mere coincidence how things played out.



It'll be great doing city raids again where you actually have to go through a bottleneck entry point as opposed to just flying straight in. Will be easier to coordinate a defence and more organic PvP will come of it IMO.

Crossroads remained a focus point for ganking and world PvP because of Warsong Gulch entrance up towards and in Ashenvale. It became a close target for Alliance while they waited for the que to pop. Also, Ratchet being a neutral town made it way easier for Alliance to reach Crossroads as well.
Before battlegrounds, the reason was more or less Ratchet, and the easy access Alliance gained to get there by Booty Bay and landing in a neutral town.

So you’d talk to a battlemaster and be teleported to the entrance, but could still be ganked there by ally!? Newer player here.Firelord wrote: ↑7 years agoCrossroads remained a focus point for ganking and world PvP because of Warsong Gulch entrance up towards and in Ashenvale. It became a close target for Alliance while they waited for the que to pop. Also, Ratchet being a neutral town made it way easier for Alliance to reach Crossroads as well.
Before battlegrounds, the reason was more or less Ratchet, and the easy access Alliance gained to get there by Booty Bay and landing in a neutral town.

Originally, Battlemasters stood outside the entrance of respective battleground. To queue up for Warsong Gulch, you had to travel to the very north of The Barrens as Horde, where it borders Ashenvale, and Alliance had to queue up by a Battlemaster in south Ashenvale. This more or less led people who were waiting on the queue to pop to go and kill each other in the meantime in the world, so it created world PvP.
This stopped happening a bit more and more when Battlemasters were eventually added in the cities.

I like the old mechanics of travelling to the battleground itself - in my opinion it makes the experience more immersive as you actually know where in the world you are fighting (WSG the border between horde and alliance territory) as opposed to being zoned into an instance with no real indication of your whereabouts.
Also like [mention]Firelord[/mention] mentioned it contributes to organic world PvP which is just the best thing ever!



I think that is one of the best QoL features that were implemented in the game. I haven't played Classic WoW so I might be wrong, but having to go all the way to the entrance of the battleground wouldn't make some battlegrounds more popular than others? Because I guess people that are already in Warsong wouldn't want to walk all the way to Arathi if they wanted to play Arathi then.teebling wrote: ↑7 years agoI like the old mechanics of travelling to the battleground itself - in my opinion it makes the experience more immersive as you actually know where in the world you are fighting (WSG the border between horde and alliance territory) as opposed to being zoned into an instance with no real indication of your whereabouts.
Also like @Firelord mentioned it contributes to organic world PvP which is just the best thing ever!


I'm sure vanilla players would solve this by using meeting stones (in a later patch of course) or portals or the like. I do see where you're coming from however - it's a tonne more of a time investment and interactivity with other players required to make switching BGs possible in the old model.Flerex wrote: ↑7 years agoI think that is one of the best QoL features that were implemented in the game. I haven't played Classic WoW so I might be wrong, but having to go all the way to the entrance of the battleground wouldn't make some battlegrounds more popular than others? Because I guess people that are already in Warsong wouldn't want to walk all the way to Arathi if they wanted to play Arathi then.teebling wrote: ↑7 years agoI like the old mechanics of travelling to the battleground itself - in my opinion it makes the experience more immersive as you actually know where in the world you are fighting (WSG the border between horde and alliance territory) as opposed to being zoned into an instance with no real indication of your whereabouts.
Also like @Firelord mentioned it contributes to organic world PvP which is just the best thing ever!



I want to add something regarding to the fact that it helped world PvP. Even though I completely agree that it must have been pretty fun to fight while you're waiting for the BG queue, I remember that when I played Wrath of the Litch King we already had the BG Queue UI and we would still have a lot of World PvP. Especially in places like Crossroads. I don't know what happened in the following expansions but I kinda felt like the magic dissaparead and nobody wanted do fight in the world anymore.


Expansions add new continents, new maps, level caps, new areas for high level players to stay at. It thins the playerbase out over many different maps. Then you can think of many more similar features being added like LFG, which removed the requirement to travel to a dungeon and instantly teleports you to it. Flying mounts which, in my opinion, was pretty cool, but it's nothing I have been fond of for the health of the game world.Flerex wrote: ↑7 years agoI want to add something regarding to the fact that it helped world PvP. Even though I completely agree that it must have been pretty fun to fight while you're waiting for the BG queue, I remember that when I played Wrath of the Litch King we already had the BG Queue UI and we would still have a lot of World PvP. Especially in places like Crossroads. I don't know what happened in the following expansions but I kinda felt like the magic dissaparead and nobody wanted do fight in the world anymore.
It's all of these things added together which caused the "natural" removal of where people go and remain. Battlemasters only? Yes, it works, it had some effect to it all but not on a dangerous level, world PvP did still happen to some degree because there were other reasons making Horde and Alliance clash.
Add everything else like LFG, flying mounts, etc? Yes, that will be a much, much greater blow towards where players find themselves.

This is most likely the case of why world PvP happened to begin with. Horde players going through the quest to gather four zhevra hooves. Alliance noticed the relentless slaughter, and came to stop the Horde.

All u care about is these beasts. Poach them all I say, Firelord is def on the same wavelength as me

More fuel for the Firelord is always appreciated. Biggest wish is to become an Enhancement Shaman with Sulfuras and enjoy my pilgrimage of world PvP, but that’s a dream I’m unsure I can even make come true.Ravenheart wrote: ↑7 years agoAll u care about is these beasts. Poach them all I say, Firelord is def on the same wavelength as me

I think the primary reason was that the Spirit Healers were very close together, so you could get back into the action quickly.

I think that if they'd thought about it more at the time they could have come up with a suitable solution. For instance:teebling wrote: ↑7 years agoI'm sure vanilla players would solve this by using meeting stones (in a later patch of course) or portals or the like. I do see where you're coming from however - it's a tonne more of a time investment and interactivity with other players required to make switching BGs possible in the old model.Flerex wrote: ↑7 years agoI think that is one of the best QoL features that were implemented in the game. I haven't played Classic WoW so I might be wrong, but having to go all the way to the entrance of the battleground wouldn't make some battlegrounds more popular than others? Because I guess people that are already in Warsong wouldn't want to walk all the way to Arathi if they wanted to play Arathi then.teebling wrote: ↑7 years agoI like the old mechanics of travelling to the battleground itself - in my opinion it makes the experience more immersive as you actually know where in the world you are fighting (WSG the border between horde and alliance territory) as opposed to being zoned into an instance with no real indication of your whereabouts.
Also like @Firelord mentioned it contributes to organic world PvP which is just the best thing ever!
No Battlemasters on Holiday weekends, but you get one free teleport daily to the battleground entrance. WPVP is then concentrated to that area, because you know everyone is hanging out, but it gets around certain areas being easier or harder to get reinforcements to (Ashenvale for Alliance especially). Since it's only for the weekend and once daily, it gets around abuse for using it as a teleport to Kalimdor/Eastern Kingdoms, at least somewhat.
Unfortunately now this is all retrospect and people don't want changes. BUT, on Private servers almost everyone went out to que for AV in person for the bonus weekend, so there are still chances for wPvP shenanigans on that front if it continues.
Would be interesting to know why most ppl seem to think Battlemasters in capital cities are ok but LFD are not, when it’s basically the same. Yes you need to go to the actual BG entrance. Just as you need to go to the actual dungeon entrance. And a warlock can solve both. I actually think it would make more sense that the Battlemasters room had 3 mages with teleports to each BG entrance respectively, but no teleport the other way, althogh this would get misused for getting to places in the world.

I got my first HK outside of TM while running around on my priest doing quests. A dwarf rogue tried to kill me.
I remember when we first started the wave upon wave of killing. I got to Stone Guard fast and started a grind to try and get the "free" LTG mounts from pvp.
Sadly the Army had other plans for me and I didnt get it. But man we had some fun wasting time in TM/SS.
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