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Attacking a Resource Node
Learning how to effectively fight and tackle resource nodes in
Arathi Basin is the difference between winning and losing.
Experienced guilds can steamroll Pick-Up-Groups (also known as
PUGs) just by having good experience battling in small groups
and having a good battle plan.
If you are just starting the match, then the battle will be to
take control of the neutral nodes. Its a bit of chess and luck,
because you wont know where the enemy will send most of their
troops, and how they will divide themselves. Will they send a
large force to take the Smith and send smaller groups to the
Mine and Lumber Mill? Will they even bother with the Mine? Will
they try to take the Mine, Blacksmith and Lumber Mill?
You must assess your own plan and be ready. Each group should
have at least 1 healer (Druid, Shaman, Paladin, Priest), and a
variety of classes are good. Mages are always useful to sheep,
and Priests/Warriors to fear. Charging in, you want
Warriors/Paladins /Druids-in-BearForm first so people target
them first. Rogues and Druids in cat-form should sneak around
the sides and flank the enemy casters from behind. The rest of
the cloth wearers should stay back, and heal and begin to do
their jobs. Here is an in-depth guide of a class job during an
offensive on an opposition-owned node:
Warrior: Youre the first in. Use charge to get to your enemies
fast and if there are a clump of them, feel free to rout them by
your AoE fear. Spreading them out helps their healers lose focus
and makes them attack you as soon as they are out of fear. Go
for healers/casters/rogues first, as you take them down with
ease. Have a healer designated to shield and heal your butt
(although sometimes shield is very noticeable and draws
attention to the Priest).
Paladin: Along with the Warrior, charge in first. Dont really
focus on doing damage. If you have consecrate, feel free to spam
it to provide a bit of damage and uncover any Rogues prancing
around. Your main job (and the one youre must useful as) is
providing support. If you see a Priest or Mage going down, pop
Lay On Hands or Blessing or Protection, and use your
blessings/buffs/heals to keep your team up. If you see an
important Warrior going down, and hes a real asset, use your
shield and heal him up without interruption. People ignore
Paladins because they are low DPS, so make them pay for it by
providing heals.
Rogues: You dont want to be the focal point of a fight. On the
attack, flank the sides and avoid AoE damage. Its best to hit
and preoccupy Priests and Druids first so they spend their time
trying to kill you instead of healing their teammates. Next go
for Mages, then Warlocks, and work your way up the chain.
Paladins are dead-last on your list, after Warriors. Use kick to
interrupt heals and spells, and kidney shot as a last resort to
stop a heal or someone from running away. Dagger rogues do very
well because of high crit ambushes that decimate casters.
Druid:
Bear Form: Charge in and basically follow the Warrior
guidelines. You have the versatility to turn back into
caster-form and heal, so if someone is going down, and youre
okay, pop them a heal or a Rejuvenation.
Cat Form: Waste of time to be in cat-form, because you would
rather be in the front lines as a bear or healing in caster
form, but if you HAVE to be in cat-form, you should follow the
Rogue guidelines and hit the casters from behind. Do your best
to do high burst DPS, and again dont hesitate to transform and
heal yourself.
Moonkin: Slightly more useful than cat-form, Moonkin allows
great Moonfire spam and some great group buffs. Only go Moonkin
if youre okay on healing, and make sure to DoT those Rogues and
keep everyone on Moonfire. Once again C transform and heal
yourself/others when needed.
Warlock: Warlocks are very strong in Arathi Basin. On the
attack, you want your imp out spamming fireballs at targets and
providing your group with the great stamina aura. On the attack,
feel free to spam DoTs on their plate users, but focus your
Shadow Bolts and burns on their casters and Rogues/Hunters. If
you got other Warlocks and dont want the imp, the next option is
Succubus to seduce healers and such. In a hectic environment
like AB C dont seduce someone in the front lines or someone will
break it. Go for a backline healer or Mage who isnt being
touched.
Group Targeting and Assisting
When you have an arranged group versus a Pick-up Group, then the
major difference during battles is that the arranged group (if
they have any clue) will either be on a Teamspeak/Ventrilo type
voice communication program or be utilizing the CT_Raid Assist
add-on, which allows them to choose group targets to focus fire
on. Groups who use Raid Assist as well as a voice communication
program are your worst nightmare.
The key to winning even battles or ones where you are
out-numbered is to target their healers and cloth wearers first
and focus fire (Read: everyone attack the same person). If
everyone hits the same guy, chances are hes going to die. If you
have a regular group you run Arathi Basin with, practice these
battle tactics and you will find success is easier to come by
the more you guys become in-sync with each other.
Strategies
Arathi Basin is very dynamic, so theres no real point in
formulating linear strategies. What you should do is decide on a
starting plan and tell everyone where they are going. Be aware
you have fifteen (15) players to utilize. At the start of every
match, you should have someone assigned to stopping and
capturing the Farm if you are Horde and Stables if you are
Alliance. Whether or not you leave anyone on defense there is up
to you, but someone should cap that first node. Many PuGs seem
to all rush in and no one stops to capture Farm or Stables for
their side, and it hurts them later on.
From there, you have to decide whether you are going for a
full-fledged 5-cap (Trying to capture all five nodes and end the
game in a matter of minutes), go for a 4-cap (Capture
Blacksmith, Mine, Lumber Mill and then depending on your side C
Farm for Horde and Stables for Alliance) or a simple 3-cap (Any
three nodes). Most PuGs try to go for the 3-cap because they
arent organized enough to try for more. The 3-cap, if held,
guarantees a victory. Blizzard has made sure that holding three
nodes in fact does give you an edge, but small enough that the
other team can always come back from it.
As a Horde team, your ideal 3-cap would be Farm, Blacksmith and
Lumber Mill. The three are connected and are the closest three
resource nodes on the map. Alliance often complains about this
combo and say that its too easy to defend, but as you will find,
Alliance can break this triangle with good tactics.
As an Alliance side, most people also prefer the Lumber Mill,
Blacksmith and Stables C but the thing is the Mine is closer to
Blacksmith and Stables then the Lumber Mill so it all depends on
your opinion. Either way, getting the three cap is essential to
victory.
Assisting and Defending the Nodes
Now, once your desired cap (3-cap is always the lowest thing to
aim for C otherwise you lose unless you have a huge lead and can
still win with a 2-cap) is reached then you have to play
defense. Communication is the key. Assign two people
(Warriors/Paladins/Shamans are always good) to defend a node
permanently if you are three-capping and then rotate the other
people to wherever the opposition is hitting. Be careful though
C many times the enemy will send 3-4 people to one place, wait
for your troops to all move to that spot, and then charge the
now empty resource node.
The key to keeping a resource node is to keep the enemy off the
flag until reinforcements arrive. Anytime you are outnumbered or
out-powered, the only thing you can hope to do is delay the flag
cap until reinforcements arrive. You also have the power of a
much closer resurrection point if you own the resource node and
are defending it, so always hold out for the rezzers. Voice
communication programs also help because they let players talk
to each other much faster then typing, so calling out incoming
attacks is faster.
Breaking the 3-Cap
When a good team decides to settle for three resource nodes, its
tough to break their defense. They wont waste troops on trying a
fourth cap and are quick to react to your attacks. Many people
get frustrated at this and give up. There are tactics around
this C but you must be quick and decisive.
The first option is to have a stealth team of Druids and Rogues
to move to a node, and have 4-5 others hit somewhere else. As
soon as the stealthed team sees people leave the node to
reinforce the distractive attack, they can all spring out and
unleash hell. Even organized teams fall for it if you plan it
well enough. One thing to be careful about is not sending
everyone to attack C keep at least one or two on defense in case
they send someone to steal your node while everyone else is
attacking.
How to pull off the 5-cap
Many people wonder how on Earth you can pull off the 5-cap in
Arathi Basin. If you are well-coordinated its very possible.
Horde: Have one person cap and defend the Farm. Send 6 to the
Blacksmith and 4 to Lumber Mill and Mine. The trick here is to
recognize quickly which nodes the enemy has not sent a lot of
troops to. If you see, for example, the Mine or Mill are
basically empty, you have to support the nodes which the
Alliance have zerged, or sent a lot of troops to. If you somehow
win all three battles at the Mine, Smith and Mill, then keep one
on defense at all three nodes and charge the stables. You have
to clear out the Alliance at any of the other four caps first
quickly and then hit the Stables very quickly. If you assist on
targets and heal, you can out-fight them and contest it. If you
successfully capture it, leave two on defense at Smith, Mill and
Mine, and a Rogue or Druid at the Farm stealthed (so they cant
Crowd Control you and then cap it). Call out any zergs, but
mostly you should be stopping anyone from the north resurrecting
and trying to reach the Mine or Mill.
Alliance: Same story. Leave one to cap and defend Farm, and send
identical numbers to Smith, Mill and Mine. Recognize weakness
and double back to support nodes where you are out-numbered.
Otherwise, push forward to Farm and keep them at bay in their
south spawn point. 2 on defense everywhere, except Farm which
should have stealthed defender.
Note: If you are holding the 5-cap easily as Horde, feel free to
send a 2nd defender to the Farm for security. Same for Alliance
and the Stables. !
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