I wonder if it is a common occurence on all WoW servers that Astranaar is attacked on a regular basis. Is it something about the proximity of Ashenvale to Orgimmar that causes this phenomenon?
It has been a long while since I leveled a Horde character, but I recall that Crossroads used to come under heavy fire by the Alliance from time to time. Especially in the days before Battlegrounds existed, attacking other towns was really the only way to incite some PvP on a larger scale.
I took part in some of these raids on towns, and they were actually very fun. It wasn't an easy task killing all the guards who would just infinitely respawn on us. After a short while, enough players from the opposing faction would show up and drive us away. We were never successful enough to actually kill any quest-giving NPCs or vendors, so we were really just a minor inconvenience. Not to mention if we did kill a "civilian" NPC, we would get dishonor points, remember those?
When Battlegrounds launched, it seemed like the fights in the lower level towns died down significantly. But by this time I was level 60 and no longer hanging out in places like Crossroads. So I wonder if today the Alliance still attacks Crossroads sometimes, and is the attacking of Astranaar something the Horde just does to retaliate?
Is this just the result of an old feud that dates back to the game's beginnings, or is it simply that some people just get a kick out of slaughtering all the NPCs in a lower level outpost? I believe it is probably the latter.
Take my experience this weekend for example. I'm playing my shaman alt on a Saturday and she's currently level 31.
I'm in Ashenvale to do all the quests they added to the Forest Song outpost since the Exodar crashed into Kalimdor. And speaking of Forest Song, how it has changed dramatically! It used to be one lone night elf out there with nothing but a campfire to keep him company. Now there are all sorts of other night elves and draenai out there helping to build an outpost. But after all this time, they've only managed to put up a couple of shoddy tents, and still no inn. But I digress.
I still needed to turn in a couple of the quest chains in Astranaar and as I'm riding up to the entrance of the town, 3 horde on their epic mounts go riding past me.
My first thought is that I have to reach my quest turn-ins before the Horde, because I know they are going to kill them first.
The horde rip through the guards with ease. I run into the little house to turn in the last part of the quest to the guy who is trying to cure his sick daughter. I select my reward, I'm about to hit the "complete" button, and suddenly the NPC is yanked away from me with Death Grip.
I bolt to the inn, maybe I can reach Raene before they get to her. But of course they just follow me there and snatch her away too before I can turn in the last part of Raene's Cleansing.
At that point I just logged out, because I had some tasks that I needed to do and I wasn't going to waste time standing around waiting for the NPC's to respawn.
This isn't the first time I've come to Astranaar to find that everyone has been slaughtered, and it is usually by the hand of a single level 80.
Clearly these Horde were there specifically to kill quest-giving NPCs, so that the level 20-30 Alliance couldn't turn-in or pick up any new quests. This is of course not only an annoyance, but it slows down the leveling process to have to wait on respawn, and then you have to hope the Horde aren't going to be camping your NPCs. You can't hope that any high level Alliance are going to come and save you either, because they are all in Northrend.
When I logged back in later, the horde were gone. But all throughout the day while I quested near Forest Song, I could see that the town kept repeatedly getting attacked.
What is the point anymore of attacking lower level towns? You'll one shot everything with ease and get no resistance, especially on a PvE server. Do some people just really take that much pleasure in ruining someone else's leveling all day long on a Saturday?
I have to say I don't understand it, but if it is going to happen it at least shouldn't be so easy. I say it is time for Blizzard to give the guards an upgrade.
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STO's Early Game
28 minutes ago
I've levelled toons on both PvP and PvE servers and Astranaar was always under attack, and so was Southshore.
ReplyDeleteBut it seems more towns and quest NPC's are attacked on the PvE server, Chillwind Point, Aerie Peak, Hemingway's camp for example, there are often some horde mindlessly hacking away at the NPC's there. (On the PvP servers people are hacking away at each other instead :-)
But I think that on some point during these NPC slaughters high level elite guards/gryphons will spawn (or maybe that has been changed?)
Yes, people really do derive amusement from ruining other players' days, and out-of-the-way towns like Astranaar are the ideal target because they minimize the chances of high level opposition. There are effectively no incentives for anyone who could fight back to do so (a few honor from the HK if the raiders don't escape before you arrive), so it's a griefer's paradise.
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