The idea that the Horde was stronger in PvP while the Alliance was stronger in PvE was only a surface-level impression. In reality, during large-scale PvP battles, racial abilities mattered far less than people imagined. Their real value showed more clearly in small-scale PvP and one-on-one duels.
In battles involving hundreds or even thousands of players, racial abilities were almost negligible. What truly mattered was coordination, and a strong commander could change the entire course of the fight.
The Horde had no unified voice comms. They relied entirely on typing in General chat, /yell, guild chat, and LocalDefense. With hundreds of people spamming messages and everyone talking at once, it was complete chaos. Everyone was trying to command, which meant no one was actually in command.
The Horde's raid battle was just as chaotic as their chat channels. Without a commander leading them, everyone ran around like headless chickens and fought on their own.
"Ah, there's a Rogue! I got killed!"
"Holy crap, Alliance Rogues got behind us. We can't even drop combat to eat and drink."
"Front line, stop charging so far ahead! Pay attention to the healers recovering in the back. Don't let Rogues pick them off."
Because the chat was scrolling too fast, no one noticed the Alliance Rogues ambushing the Horde's rear. The ranged DPS and healers who were killed had barely managed to post warnings before their messages were instantly buried by other chatter.
As commander, Windwalker's messages stayed visible in chat for maybe a second before disappearing.
"We can't keep fighting like this. We're going to lose."
Windwalker frowned deeply, his expression grave. The two sides had not been fighting for long, but most of the bodies on the ground were Horde players.
"Leader, the Alliance commander is terrifying. Their people are moving in perfect coordination. Everyone knows exactly what they're supposed to do, how to fight, and where to attack from."
The Hall of Fame officer, ArcaneDisciple, felt a chill run down his spine after watching the Alliance Mages' performance just now.
In a single clash, the Alliance Mages Blinked into the Horde crowd from the flanks, followed with Frost Nova and Arcane Explosion, and instantly deleted a group of Horde players who had charged too far ahead.
World of Warcraft had no magic defense stat, only resistances. Current players basically had none. Even a Protection Warrior would drop instantly if a group of Mages rushed in and spammed Arcane Explosion.
More than thirty Alliance Mages had taken down at least twice their number before dying. As for the four Mages with Ice Block—Gabryell, Intriguing, OliveDrab, and Coldhands—they used Ice Block on the spot, forcing many Horde players who wanted to kill them to freeze in place helplessly.
A level 30 Mage could effectively Ice Block twice. Once the first Ice Block ended, they could immediately use Cold Snap to reset their Frost cooldowns, then follow with another Frost Nova and Ice Block.
"Mages are so damn disgusting."
A Warrior, frozen in place while staring at the Ice Block in front of him and unable to attack it, could not help complaining.
"From now on, I'm killing every Alliance Mage I see."
The Warriors lucky enough not to be frozen were slowed by countless Blizzards raining from the sky, reducing their movement speed to a crawl.
"Mages! Where are our Mages? Blink in and bomb them!"
The Horde players, barely able to move forward, began complaining that their own Mages were useless and did not know how to copy the Alliance Mages by Blinking in with Frost Nova and Arcane Explosion.
Without unified command, how could the Horde Mages possibly move together? Some of the more frightened ones even Blinked backward, trying to get farther away from the battlefield.
"Everyone hold steady. I'll rez and run back right away."
After his two Ice Blocks ended, Gabryell died gloriously.
This place was close to the Alliance graveyard. They could run back and rez after only a short corpse run. The Horde had it much worse. They had to run all the way from Tarren Mill to resurrect behind their own forces, while also watching out for Alliance Rogues ambushing them.
"Hahaha, that felt so damn good."
Coldhands, who had just blown up five or six Horde players, said excitedly, "Leader, should we charge in again and keep bombing them?"
Gabryell said, "Mages who rez, recover first. Once you're ready, wait for my call and bomb together."
Charging in one by one was just feeding kills. A Mage group's power in raid battles depended on numbers. The more Mages moved together, the stronger the impact.
The Horde had not sent Rogues around to ambush them from behind, so Gabryell and the others could safely sit down to eat and drink.
Windwalker now felt as if his head were splitting. He had seriously underestimated the Alliance's combat strength, and now his main force was stuck in a dilemma.
Advance? How were they supposed to advance? The road was blocked by the Alliance. If they wanted to reach Tarren Mill without breaking through the Alliance army, they would have to take rez sickness at the graveyard.
Retreat? Behind them was Silverpine Forest. Although it was Horde territory, the system had already flagged them for PvP. It would take some time out of combat before they returned to PvE status. The Alliance would never give them that chance. They would chase into Silverpine Forest and beat them while they were down.
"We absolutely cannot retreat."
Windwalker gritted his teeth, resurrected, and continued leading the charge. If they retreated now, they would be routed completely.
"Everyone who died, run back and rez immediately. Keep charging. As long as we break through the Alliance line, victory is ours."
Windwalker encouraged everyone in guild chat. "Everyone in Tarren Mill, come out. The Alliance doesn't have that many people. We have the numbers advantage. Hit them from both sides and push them all back to the graveyard."
I'mNotPikachu said, "I'll bring everyone out of Tarren Mill right away and sandwich the Alliance."
BrokeMage said, "There are dozens of us in Tarren Mill. If we all come out together, we can hit the Alliance from behind and throw their backline into chaos."
Windwalker was still uneasy. He sent private messages to the guild leaders of the other Horde guilds.
"Where are you?"
The Horde guild leaders replied, "There are too many people and the lag is awful. We just reached The Sepulcher. Hold on a little longer."
Their levels were not high enough for mounts. Running on foot in such a laggy environment made it impossible to move quickly.
Windwalker said, "Have your Mages with Blink, Rogues with Sprint, and Hunters with Aspect of the Cheetah come support us first."
The guild leaders all said there was no problem, but whether they would actually send their Mages, Rogues, and Hunters ahead was another matter. After all, everyone had their own selfish motives. They all wanted to compete for the title of number one Horde guild. If Hall of Fame suffered heavy losses this time, maybe they could surpass Hall of Fame and replace them.
Windwalker clearly did not place all his hopes on the other guilds. He asked Voidshade, who was lying in wait at Refuge Pointe, "How's the situation on your end?"
Voidshade said, "The fighting on your side is intense. The Alliance in Arathi Highlands can't hold back anymore. They're rushing toward Hillsbrad Foothills now."
Windwalker asked, "What about Madhouse?"
Voidshade said, "I haven't seen them yet. It's strange. Our intel clearly said they were in Arathi. Why isn't there a single one of them here?"
Hearing this, Windwalker's heart tightened, and his unease grew stronger.
His unease soon became reality.
The Horde in Tarren Mill rushed out of town and reached the fork near the abandoned watchtower, only to be intercepted by Madhouse's main force rushing over from Stromgarde Keep. They were caught completely off guard.
Dozens of Horde players were instantly swallowed by more than two hundred enemies. They had barely left Tarren Mill before they were sent straight back to the Tarren Mill graveyard.
"Leader, we wiped. Damn it, we were about to finish the flank, but Madhouse's main force suddenly came out of nowhere and caught us by surprise. Now everyone's been killed back to the graveyard."
I'mNotPikachu felt utterly hopeless. The battle had barely started, yet the Horde side had already been brutalized by the Alliance.
Windwalker's heart sank straight to the bottom. He wanted to slap himself several times. After all his calculations, he had actually forgotten to send someone to watch Stromgarde Keep, where there was also an Alliance camp.
"It's over."
Windwalker felt the world spin around him, and his vision went dark. There was a very high chance they would suffer a crushing defeat tonight.
"Leader, we haven't lost yet."
A level 30 Rogue, UndeadSlayer, brought Windwalker a glimmer of hope in the darkness. "I was mining in the Yeti Cave earlier. I killed a yeti and got a quest item. I've already reached the final step."
Windwalker's eyes lit up, and life returned to him. "A quest item from the Yeti Cave. Could it be?"
UndeadSlayer, like him, was a beta player. As a Horde player, he had done a summoning quest related to Southshore during closed beta.
UndeadSlayer linked the quest item.
Helcular's Rod (Common)
Item Level 1
Quest Item
Unique
This item could trigger a quest. The quest only had two steps, and its name was Helcular's Revenge.
Windwalker was overjoyed. It really was that quest item. He said excitedly, "I'll arrange people to cover you right away. Stealth to the Southshore graveyard."
As long as UndeadSlayer successfully stealthed to the graveyard outside Southshore, they would have a chance to reverse the unfavorable situation. At worst, they could tie up a large amount of the Alliance's attention and buy time until reinforcements from the other guilds arrived in Hillsbrad Foothills from The Sepulcher.