Blizzard warns: If you defend towers alone in WoW, you can be banned

Defending towers in World of Warcraft PvP is important. Or? But only if you do it with the group. Lonely Heroes are violating the guidelines.

Battlefields have been part of everyday player life in World of Warcraft for almost 20 years. But even if you’re not a big PvP fan, you’ve already looked into Alterac Valley or other battlegrounds.

For many, it’s perfectly normal to just stand back and defend a tower, even if nobody ends up attacking. But that’s a crime, says Blizzard. Because then you don’t really participate in the battle.

What is it about? The Alterac Valley Battleground is one of the oldest PvP battlegrounds in World of Warcraft. The objectives are relatively simple: you have to capture the enemy towers and graveyards and then defeat a PvE boss in the enemy base. Whoever does this first wins the battle.

Allied towers have to be protected and enemy towers have to be destroyed. Because every tower that is still standing strengthens the boss at the end, so it is worthwhile to switch off the towers beforehand – one should think.

But Blizzard has now made it clear in the official forum: If you defend a tower and nobody attacks it, then you don’t take part in the battle.

PvP battlegrounds like Alterac Valley are also popular in WoW Classic right now, because that’s where WotLK Classic starts:

What exactly was said? A few days ago there was a big wave of bans in which many accounts were wrongly punished. According to Blizzard, this was due to an error in the analysis data and the illegal bans were withdrawn.

However, many players are still banned and will probably remain so, as Blizzard considers the penalties to be justified in numerous cases. When asked whether the ban system in WoW is automated, Vrakthis from customer service explained official WoW forum:

Players can flag you for not participating if they think you are afk or not contributing. If enough of these messages come together, then you usually get a temporary debuff intended to induce you to join the fight. If you don’t, you will be kicked out of the battlefield.

These reports may also trigger an investigation, but none of this happens automatically. A member or members of specific teams who handle these things will then look at the reports and your in-game behavior to determine if there is evidence that you contributed to the battlefield or not.

Concerned that you could get banned if you didn’t stick with the crowd of players that “instantly whips through Alterac Valley” because you’re about defending a base, Vrakthris then went on to explain:

Some might flag you up if you’re not participating in the way they think you should, but that doesn’t necessarily trigger anything. As I said, the application of these penalties is not automated. They are based on your actions and the data your actions provide.

Still, it’s important to remember that Battlegrounds is a team event. You’re not going solo there, and to some extent it’s often necessary to work with your team. If you go off alone to defend a lonely tower without your team’s approval and you never encounter anyone to defend against, well, you don’t really take it [am Schlachtfeld] part.

What does that mean now? In short: Anyone who has thought of himself as the lonely hero who heroically protects the tower and deters attackers just by his presence should think twice about it. Because that obviously doesn’t count as participating in the battlefield.

If you are concerned about the security of your own account, you should rather swim with the crowd in PvP and take part in actual combat operations.

Here’s how the community is reacting: Opinions on this statement are clearly divided. While many scoff at the statement, there are also numerous players who share this view. PvP battlegrounds are a team activity and if you want to do your “ego thing” don’t sign up for a group activity. Some of the Comments in the subreddit are about:

• “So people are supposed to be able to prophesy now and predict whether someone will defend the towers or not? Delaying the recapture of a tower can buy more time to defeat the boss, so it can literally be a matter of win or lose in games like this.”
• “To be honest, I understand what they want to achieve with this. I remember the old days of sitting afk in the tower and watching youtube while the rest of the raid did the actual work. I guess too many people took advantage of that and that’s why we can’t have nice things anymore.”
• “I think it’s stupid (obviously) to ban people for defending, but I can appreciate that catching the right AFKers while not spotting those who are actually defending a turret, but don’t, could be a problem Attack opponents.”

What do you think of this decision? Understandable and sensible? Or absolutely incomprehensible?