Alterac Valley (AV) is the largest of the PvP battlegrounds player capacity-wise. It consists of a 40v40 battle over a large playing field, with the ultimate objective to destroy the other team’s commander. Alterac Valley is currently the only battleground with NPCs that you can interact with, and they play a very important part in the battleground. Unlike the other two battlegrounds, you cannot join AV as a group, and the player matching system tries to keep the teams balanced in terms of numbers, so it may take a while for you to be given a spot in the battleground.
Aim
While there are a number of sub-quests for AV, the main aim is to defeat the opposition’s commander, who resides in the Frostwolf/Stormpike bunker, depending on your faction. When this is completed, the game ends, and you receive your tokens.
Strategies
Originally, AV would consist of a huge battle, mainly occurring in the Field of Strife, in the middle of the map. These games could last hours, with no team gaining any kind of significant advantage, meaning AV was a terrible place to gain honour and quite good for reputation gains. However, that has changed.
The dominant strategy employed in virtually all games is simply the rush to Stormpike/Frostwolf graveyards strategy. This maximises honour and faction gain by ensuring the games finish quickly, often within 20 minutes to ?hour of the start.
If you are playing Horde, you should initially rush to the Stonehearth Graveyard. Leave a few players there to hold off any Alliance players that may rush through. The first rush point for the Alliance, conversely, is the Iceblood Graveyard. Don’t ever bother with Snowfall, if you are looking to make maximum honour, as it will just slow your team down.

From Iceblood/Stonehearth, you should then proceed to Stormpike graveyard for the Horde and Frostwolf for the Alliance. This is where you will meet some resistance (and where your defence should begin, if you are on the defence team. When the match begins, you should assign no more than 10 players out of 40 to play defence, to hopefully slow your opponents enough to prevent them from killing the commander before you do).
The key to offence in Alterac Valley really rests on one class: warriors. A well equipped warrior, with a healer or two to back them up (preferably a priest and a paladin/druid), can cause significant damage and disrupt defence forces. Charge/Intercept are the key, because it breaches the distance, and pushes the rest of your team forward. Another effective tactic is to have a priest or two run in (or less preferably, a warlock), and cast Psychic Scream. This will cause confusion and allow your team to advance.
When playing defence, you should always defend just in front of your flag. Make sure someone is back next to the flag, preferably someone with AoE, to interrupt cappers. The offence have a lot further to travel after they res, so that means a good defence can hold a team back, even if significantly outnumbered. If you can split up the offence so they do not push all at once, you can delay them quite well. Hunter’s Frost Traps are excellent in AV because they can’t be dispelled out of (except Blessing of Freedom) as they constantly reapply.

Taking the next graveyard (Relief Hut/Aid Station) can be quite difficult as there are bottlenecks present which force your attack into a small area. Make sure you kill off the archers in the towers, as they do lots of damage. They are very easy to kill but are quite a nuisance if you let them live. Once you have them down, keep pushing to the final Graveyard. It will now be a race to the finish, to see which defence can hold off the longest.

Pull each of the lieutenants individually, and don’t let the commander run outside the room as he will reset (this feature was added to prevent exploiters, who were pulling the commanders from across the map and killing them in safety). Make sure you have a tank, and anyone that can heal should be doing so. If you die here, and fail to kill the commander on your first try, you are likely going to be beaten, because of the close nature of the games.
Quests
Trinket Quest
This quest allows you access to a trinket which offers a small amount of Frost Resistance, some health restoration, and dodge. It is upgradeable at each level of reputation with your faction, and each level adds one or two of the above stats. To first get your trinket, you must retrieve the Frostwolf/Stormpike banner from the gnoll cave. You can then upgrade it as you progress in reputation.
The most important part of this trinket is the ability to hearth back to your base. This can be used to turn in any collectibles you may have picked up during the battle, or to hold off the enemy for a moment to allow your team to kill the commander before they can. If you are going to be playing AV a lot, it is important to get this trinket, and is not difficult to do so.
The Battle for Alterac
Available to both Horde and Alliance, this is one of the best quests in the game, reward wise. If you are a warrior, paladin, or hunter, you should do this at 51. The Ice Barbed Spear and the crossbow Bloodseeker are two of the best blue quality weapons available in the game, and surpass anything available at that level. Unfortunately, the Cold Forged Hammer has a level requirement of 58, which the other weapons do not, so casters are somewhat disadvantaged.

Still, this quest is easy to accomplish (assuming your faction can win one game of AV), offers a good reward for all casters, and some experience. You should pick it up from the quest givers outside of the gate in the Alterac Mountains, and complete it as soon as possible, especially if you can use the reward at 51.

Capture a Mine
A simple quest to capture a mine, which gives faction. This is not commonly undertaken due to the current tactic of rushing the commanders.
Capture a Tower
To complete this quest, you do not need to personally click the flag. The tower does not need to be destroyed. You simply need to be in the vicinity of the tower when someone else clicks the flag.
Capture a Graveyard
The same rules apply for capturing a graveyard as for capturing a tower.
Rewards
The rewards for AV are some of the most sought after PvP rewards. They are generally not quite as powerful as the rewards from the other two battlegrounds; this is made up by the fact that the reputation comes much quicker in AV than in WSG or AB.
The most sought after reward is the Epic mace the Unstoppable Force. It is one of the highest damage pre-raid weapons, and is easy to get. Other sought after items are the various offhand books (there is one of each spell school available, with different bonuses and damage boosts), as well as the two rings. Don Julio’s Band, the melee ring, is one of the best available for melee PvP as well as PvE, as it has bonuses to the most effective stats. The Lobotomizer is also a good quality dagger.
Reputation
Reputation can be gained from turn-ins of tokens, as well as completing a variety of quests within AV.
Killing Enemy General (389 Rep)
Killing Enemy Captain (125 rep)
Killing Enemy Lieutenants and Commanders (12 rep each)
Killing an Enemy Air Master (5 rep)
Killing any Enemy Guard (5 rep)
Killing an Enemy Player(1 Rep).
Killing Ivus the Forest Lord or Lokholar the Ice Lord (125 rep)
Destroying an Enemy Tower (12 rep)
Armour Scraps, Hides, Frostwolf/Ram returns and Blood/Crystals all give rep when returned.