Argument to allow non-80s in Wintergrasp
7th April 2009 – 10.44 amI join a raid group for another battle for Wintergrasp in the middle of another discussion about throwing out all the characters below 80th level. The raid leader is 74th level and there is a smattering of other lower-level characters in the group, including myself. Appeals to reason are not changing this fellow's mind about the worth of every character in the battle and so the raid leader has no problem in kicking him out of the group to fend for himself.
The Alliance are defending Wintergrasp Keep and despite the battering of the walls the Horde are kept at bay. Realising the power of the southern towers a couple of groups head down to destroy them to weaken the Horde's attack. With only a few minutes left before the end of the battle I find myself near the south-eastern tower as a siege engine trundles towards it. I jump in to the gunner's position to help protect the vehicle from any Horde that would attack it, as well as to supply additional fire-power to the assault on the remaining tower.
Approaching the tower indeed draws attention from Horde players, who try to destroy the siege engine before the tower can be destroyed. After all, as there are only a few minutes remaining and the destruction of all three towers removes ten minutes from the clock, successfully destroying the last tower would automatically win the battle for the Alliance. The Horde knows this, the driver of the siege engine and I know this. We are close enough to the tower that my gun can begin demolishing it, so I turn it away from defending the vehicle and towards the tower.
The race is on for the Alliance to destroy the tower and the Horde to destroy the vehicle, and the destructive strength of the siege engine prevails. The tower is toppled, the battle for Wintergrasp is successfully defended! With the end of the battle the vehicle is dismantled. The gnomish pilot and myself are thrown out in to the path of quite a few disgruntled Horde, but once we are safely resurrected we both huzzah one another for a job well done.
But I wonder what the argumentative 80th level player would have said about this. I am not 80th level and so, according to him, not effective in Wintergrasp. Yet I had a decisive effect on the battle, instrumental in its victory. I am not about to claim that I won the battle, as there was obviously a lot of fighting and defending that occurred throughout the zone, but I certainly would suggest that I made a difference. The idea that characters below 80th level are not positive contributors to the battle for Wintergrasp is absurd.
There seems to be a notion amongst a few players that the raid spots should be given exclusively to 80th level characters, that anyone below the level cap is not an effective choice. I can see how the idea could come about. In battlegrounds there is a cap on the number of characters present, so it makes tactical sense to include the most powerful characters, even if this excludes others. In general PvE or PvP battles the forty-character limit on raid groups generally excludes anyone not in the group from participating, because of the way tagging mobs and completing quests works within the general group mechanics of the game. But the notion that only 80th level characters should be invited to Wintergrasp needs to be disabused.
Wintergrasp is not a battleground, there is no cap on the number of players that can enter the zone and thus the battle. Neither is it specifically raid content, as the raid group is simply a convenience that allows players to combine efforts better. The raid group means that group members are visible on the map, available buffs can be applied across the whole raid and healers have better visibility of targets. Once one raid group is full a second, and sometimes third, forms, all of them entering the same Wintergrasp battle. Thus there is little negative consequence in allowing characters below the level cap in to a Wintergrasp raid group.
Underpowered players may offer easy targets for the opposition but, just like stopping to mine some titanium, getting distracted by an easy kill removes attention from the main objective. In a timed battle, as Wintergrasp is, distracting the opposition is a viable tactic. They could choose to ignore the lower-level characters as inconsequential, but that just allows those characters to deal damage unmolested. Either way, the characters are contributing. The only real danger of low-level characters in Wintergrasp is giving early, easy HKs to the opposition so that they get quick access to vehicles, but this risk is also present from poor strategies and is easily mitigated by the lower-level characters showing appropriate care in a hostile zone.
In its simplest form, the argument for the inclusion of all characters in the battle for Wintergrasp is to show strength in numbers. We can just send wave after wave of our own men at the Horde until the timer shuts-down. There is no collision detection between characters in World of Warcraft, so it is not like the old Nemesis the Warlock game on the C=64 where the Horde could clamber over an ever-increasing pile of corpses to gain access over the walls of the fortress.
The are some players who need to realise that battle for Wintergrasp has no limit on the number of players who can enter and that the raid group is created for convenience and is neither a requirement nor a restriction. Getting as many players involved in the battle will only lead to positive results, both for morale and the possibility of victory.
3 Responses to “Argument to allow non-80s in Wintergrasp”
Low levels? These same idiots that dont want low levels in are the same idiots that have no idea how important the towers are in the first place. This game is filled with blow hards that roll the most OP class they can, then step on everyone, including their friends to get better gear, then stand around talking about their "skills," like they've actually done something worthwile. They have no idea how to play bgs at all. They all think "Rawr, Smash" wins every bg from wsg, to ab, av, eots, strand and wg. And when it fails them, then its "you guys are bad."
The game is overpopulated with one dimensional thinking morons. Huzzah for you and people who put some thought into bgs. More WSG bgs are won by good defense then "smash and grab." Especially since the enemy has morons that think "smash and grab" is the only way to win. They have no idea of the importance of the flag in eots either. Their only strategy is "if we win fast the flags don't matter.' Thats a big IF moron. I've seen more eots bgs get lost because the enemy storms the flag right away and controls mid the whole game, while my team of mindless players says "forget about the flag" the whole game.
I suggest an minimum age limit and minimum IQ score be instituted to save us from the rampant stupidity on most servers.
Just the other day whilst waiting to enter Wintergrasp someone mentioned that they wished there was a scoreboard of kills so that they could see how they were doing, like there is in BGs, which struck me as missing the point of the battle. I even say that we are here to fight the Horde, not each other, but his attitude is indicative of the points you mention.
Some players seem to miss the overall objective for the sake of showing off.
Great argument. Reminds me of a high level player in an AB battle complaining about lower backet level players playing when we were outnumbered 15-9. Even a low level player can help when your outnumbered. Better someone than no one. These players also gain experience which will help greatly when they level up.