|
The Ultimate Guide to
Battlegrounds
This guide is mostly for people playing pugs
(pick-up groups) or for guilds that have not yet
established their own strategies. Yet I hope it can
be useful to anyone who wants to play battlegrounds
and win. I am going to do most strategies from the
perspective of level 60 players, though this can
easily be adapted to any level game. Also, these are
basic strategies and rules. Battlegrounds and
complex and constantly shifting. There is no
possible way to cover all the possible "if A then B"
scenarios. I'm just hoping to do a primer to help
out those who have not yet truly mastered the
nuances of the various zones.
Feel free to add comments. I will try to edit the
guide over time to put the best comments into the
main text.
I. General Rules and Suggestions
Winning gets you more honor and reputation than just
killing things. If you play to win, you will get
much more honor, have much more fun, and make your
teammates a lot happier. Playing to win means
sometimes doing defense, sometimes sacrificing
yourself so your teammates can get a point, not
always being in the main attack, and listening to
your teammates and going along with the majority on
strategy.
In a similar vein, keep in mind that honor rewarded
decreases with each kill. Ending a 15 on 15 game
with 50 kills doesn't get you a whole lot more honor
than ending it with 25 kills. Don't be afraid to
play defense when needed. (For a complete guide to
how honor works, see http://wow.allakhazam.com/db/guides.html?guide=476)
Communication is key to all battlegrounds. Make sure
you keep your teammates informed of what is going on
around you and what you see happening elsewhere. The
more specific the information the better. Yelling
"FARM!" is better than nothing, but yelling "4 inc
farm from mine" gives much more useful information.
Nobody ever got yelled at for talking too much about
the comings and goings of the other side.
Equipment and level matter. If you enter a 40-49
battleground and most of your team is in the low
40's and the other team is mostly high 40's the most
well executed strategy will not likely get you a
win. The same goes for level 60 battles. If your
team is in green and the other team is in purple,
you will most likely not only lose but get destroyed
in the process. Just learn to live with it, re-queue
and hope the next group you face is more equitably
distributed.
Wait for teammates before attacking. It is pointless
for you to rez and immediately storm off to a point
by yourself without any support (unless you are
rejoining an existing battle). You are better off
waiting the extra 20 seconds for your teammates to
join up with you and then attack as a group. 5
people attacking at once as a group are far more
effective than 5 individuals arriving at a point in
separate 5 second intervals.
Kill healers first, casters second and everyone else
third.
Don't be afraid to die. Death in battlegrounds means
nothing. In fact, when you are low on mana or hit
points, dying is actually a useful way to regenerate
them fairly quickly. Obviously the longer you stay
alive in a battle, the more useful you will be, but
there are plenty of situations where sacrificing
yourself may in fact help out your teammates.
Don't attack on your own. All you will do is die and
give someone on the other side an easy kill. In
battlegrounds, Rambo will always be a private. The
exception to this is if you are a rogue and can take
a flag held by a single player or if by attacking
you delay the enemy and keep them from reinforcing
As soon as you can, make sure to buy the Insignia of
the Horde/Alliance. Equip it whenever you do
battlegrounds and make sure you put a shortcut to it
on your toolbar. This will save your life many
times.
There are some very useful addons that you should
get if you plan on playing a lot of battlegrounds.
My personal favorites are BGBuddy2 and BGInvite.
Check out http://www.curse-gaming.com for these and
others you can add.
II Warsong Gulch
This is the easiest of all the battlegrounds and the
one most people get introduced with. Still many
people don't understand how to play it to win. Far
too many raids divide into two groups and designate
one for offense and one for defense, placing the
defensive group in your flag room and sending the
entire offensive group to get the enemy flag. This
strategy rarely works and when it does it far too
often ends up with both sides sitting on the other
side's flag, which makes for a long and tedious
game. Others just zerg to the enemies flag point and
then zerg back with it. This is actually a better
strategy since it often gets you into the middle
where you belong, but still one that will not win a
whole lot of games.
Warsong is actually won in the middle, not in the
flag houses. The team that best controls the middle
will almost always win the battle. By controlling
the mid field, you can both stop enemy players from
getting your flag to their base and also aid your
own flag carrier on his way across to your base. The
best strategy I have found is to divide your team
into 3 groups. Remember in a raid, there is no
reason to have two 5 man groups. You can set up your
grouping in any way you please. Here's my
suggestion.
Group 1 - Midfield. My suggestion is to for a 5 man
midfield group. For level 60's I suggest asking who
has epic mounts and assigning them all to the
midfield group. A good mix of classes is needed for
this group and at least one healer should be there
if at all possible. Pretty much any class is useful
for this group, though hunters can really rock in
the midfield. The role of this group is to travel
together and either stop enemy flag carriers from
crossing the field or to aid your flag carrier to
get safely to your flag room. If the offensive group
is having problems getting the flag out of the flag
room because the other team is playing strong
defense, part of this group can break off to help
assault the flag room. The most important rule for
this group is to always stick together. This group
is the most crucial group in the raid. You must make
sure their flag carrier never gets across the field
to cap.
Group 2 - Defense. This group should be 3 players
who stay in your own flag room and protect the flag.
A rogue is crucial here. Other good classes for this
are shaman, warlock and mage. The ability to stun
and slow is very useful to this group, as they are
most likely going to have to stop a druid from
grabbing the flag and running out in cat form.
Inevitably, one will get away. At that point, it is
crucial for you to shout out which way he is going
so that the midfield group can prepare to stop him
when he emerges. Repeat - always yell which way the
flag carrier is going. Also, your job is over when
the flag carrier gets away. Go back and defend the
room again. Resist the temptation to chase him. You
will likely not be able to catch up in time to make
a diference in mid field and if you leave the flag
room, the other team can just sit there, wait for
the flag to drop and pick it right back up again.
Group 3 - Offense. This is a 2 man assault team. One
should always be a druid if possible. A shaman can
substitute if necessary. The other should be a
healer if possible. Paladins are ideal for this, but
a priest, druid or shaman works as well. If you have
an abundance of speed and free action potions, then
any class that can take damage without quickly dying
can also run offense. A rogue with sneak, sprint and
a bunch of speed and free action potions can
sometimes be a one man offense. The idea for this is
to try to sneak into the flag room, grab the flag in
cat form and run quickly out the door. Keep the flag
holder healed until he gets to the midfield where
group 2 can come to assist and run interference to
get him to the flag room to cap. If the defense is
too strong, several people from group 1 can help on
the initial assault.
Some general rules and suggestions for WSG
Whenever your flag is taken, make sure you yell
which way the flag carrier is going so that your
teammates can meet him at mid field. Whenever you
take a flag, yell which way you are going for the
same reason.
Don't fight in the midfield if you can help it
unless you are helping your own flag carrier or
stopping theirs.
Stay together. Going off on your own will just get
you killed and deprive your teammates of help while
you rez. As long as you stay in a group, you will
likely win the battles and ultimately the war.
Don't turtle up with the other team's flag. If both
teams capture the flags, be sure to send a sizable
force to the other side to try to get yours back.
Because of the diminishing returns on honor for
kills, prolonging a game is both pointless and
boring. You are really better off just losing the
match than sitting all ten players in one place with
the enemy flag for several hours.
Potions can make the difference between winning and
losing. Load up on speed potions and free action
potions before queueing up for the game, epecially
if you are going to be trying to get the enemy flag.
Other useful potions include stoneshield for
emergency defense, catseye to detect rogues and
elves, and invisibility.
If there is a healer with the flag holder, get him
first and try to stun or slow the flag carrier while
you do it. It does no good to keep hitting the flag
carrier if someone keeps healing him back up.
When your team gets the flag, the goal is not to
kill the people chasing the flag carrier, but rather
to slow them down and keep them from killing him.
Thus, you should use whatever attacks you have that
stun, freeze or slow the persuers rather than your
best kill blows. If you can get them to drop far
behind the flag carrier, you will end up with the
cap even if they ultimately survive the battle.
..
|