General battleground strategies

General strategies

Golden rules

No matter the BG, these rules should be adhered to to ensure maximum use of force.

• Never travel alone. The more the merrier.
• Always buff yourself and others if you can.
• Always leave defense at the area you captured.
• Let the team know where the enemy is strong and where it is weak.
• Stay near healers. You help them, they help you.
• Kill opposing healers.
• Remain focused on the overall objective.
• Report AFK players. If you fail to do anything about them, they will continue to earn their meager honor and be OK with wasting everyone's time.

Before you begin

There is a waiting period before each BG for a reason. This period is referred to as the "Buff Phase". If you are a buff class but you don't buff everyone you can, you are not doing everything you can. All buffs cost 0 mana. That warrior you failed to buff might not be able to save you when the time comes. It means you warlocks too! We might not need to breathe under water or to detect invisible mobs that much in a BG, but it will cost their priests more mana to dispel the extra buffs.

Have a plan and stick to the plan. Listen to the BG leader. This may not actually be the player named "Battleground Leader". Usually one person will speak up with advice to help. Give them support, even if you think the idea is not the best, it's better to work together than spend a minute arguing. Plans can change on the fly.

Path to Victory

Some general tips to bring focus to the battleground and quickly give your team the edge.

• Communication is absolutely critical, and often why a pick up group will lose to a premade group, usually a guild. The guild will often be on vent and can quickly and efficiently communicate, while you cannot. But even the barest hint of information can help focus your team's strategy. e.g. If you are a small group of 3 guarding a flag, typing "inc 6 (enemy)" can alert your teammates to rush to your defense or abandon that position to attack somewhere else.
  • Leadership: If no one voices a strategy during the buff phase, take initiative and speak up. Even something as simple as "IBGY first, plz" will help bring focus and help accomplish your initial objective.
  • Roles: Tell others what "Role" you will play in the battle. Let them know if you will be a Flag Carrier or a Healer, or if you will chase or slow down the opponents FC. It is best to do this at the start of the game (Buff Phase) while you are all together waiting for the game to start.
    • Flag Carrier: Also know as a Runner or FC. Person who is responsible for actually grabbing and carrying the flag. It is better to have a Rogue, Druid, or Shaman carry the flag. They can run faster than other classes.
    • Healer: Very important role. This person will try and stay out of harms way and heal the others fighting. If an opponent goes after your healer then target them first. Also, attack opponents' healers rather than their fighting classes.
    • Tanks: Person who takes the most amount of damage. They try to act as a shield to the other players. In PvP, tanks are not as useful as in regular game play. The reason is because Real Human Players are not affected by aggro. In game play tanks can force the computer to focus on them, but Real Human Players can attack whoever they want.
  • MiniMap: You can use the MiniMap to communicate with other players.
  • Keep it simple: Long statements are not productive. Often you only need to accomplish one objective at a time in a step by step fashion. By stating one objective at a time, you will help to keep your team together and avoid spreading players too thin. Which leads to the next tip...

• Groups of 1, 2, and 3 are fatal. You want to move as a steamrolling juggernaut of 5 or more people as you go through any battleground, preferably with a healer. Groups of 2 and even 3 are often easily picked off and should only be used for defense. Consult your map and strategy and move to where you are most helpful.

Battlegrounds

Alterac Valley

Please read this link for an up to date and detailed strategy on Alterac Valley [1]

The goal of AV is to kill the enemy general before your general is killed.

What gives honor in AV?

• Killing enemy General
• Killing enemy Captain
• Destroying enemy Towers
• Capturing Graveyards
• Killing enemy players
• Ending the game with intact friendly towers
• Winning

AV is usually considered a race to the other faction's general. 90% of the players will go on offense, immediately running across half the map. The remaining players are defense that fight a losing battle to delay the enemy from reaching the general. Since AV is a race to the other side, if you fail to "get out of the gate" at the moment the BG begins, you will get stuck behind an advancing wave of enemy players. Your best option is to hunker down with the defense.

If you are on defense, consider rushing ahead with 1 or 2 other defenders. The opposition will certainly kill you, but every precious second they take doing that could be essential for your team.

A good Defense is a Great Offense

Offense Group 1-5

1. Take towers
2. Make sure Towers, and Relief hut are completely capped and get General

Note: You want to make sure to capture the Relief Hut graveyard BEFORE the Frostwolf graveyard (FWGY) or you will get a nice turtle effect where their defense spawns in a nicly protected area with some free offense all around if you don't have the FWK towers. This will cost you precious minutes inching your way fighting the horde to get to Drek while their offense is killing Vanndar.

Offense Group 6-8

1. Kill Lt.
2. Take Graveyard
3. Book it down to General and hope you get in on it.

1. Ensure you have a tank at the enemy base to take on General.
2. If the enemy is already fighting the General, it is sometimes required to take on their General to prevent a loss.

Defense

There is no defense unless you happen to be an unfortunate soul that died before the cap. At this point it is your job to do anything you can to defend the towers, this means you had better be standing in the towers on the flag with a nice hunter who is smart enough to know that on defense the flare is one of the greatest offensive weapons out there... pesky rogues.

Also, let your offense know when the Horde have started fighting our Genreal. Many Alliance losses are due to people waiting on towers to cap thinking the Horde are going to wait indefinitely to start fighting our General.

1. Defend towers.
2. Report to the offense when the Horde have started fighting our General.

This will allow for 10-15 minute AV's Getting roughly 400-600 honor depending on how well you personally do. The one thing to note is that you make sure to allow the towers and the relief hut to completely cap before you even touch the General. I have won with this strategy around 80-90% of the time, unless the enemy happen to have a great defense and you do not have the requisite amount of people on offense.

Note: Beware of priests in the general's keep they like to sit right around the corner and fear you into them, Yes its cheap, but it is also VERY effective if you are peeking in before the relief hut is completely capped

Eye of the Storm

EotS is part capture the flag and part king of the hill. There are 4 towers that capture based on proximity and a flag in the middle that can be captured for points. More flag points are earned for each tower the Alliance controls.

The key to EotS is not the flag, it's good tower control. Controlling 3 towers is ideal for an easy win, but it takes work. Many players get so focused on capturing the flag they fail to defend the towers, leading to the 3-4 cap. I cannot stress how important the towers are. Even a lightly defended tower will have 2 players to prevent a sneaky cap.

Once you get 3 towers secured, everyone should be on defense, shifting players to towers that the enemy is assaulting. Grabbing the flag at this point is nice, but should NOT be a focus. One of the most common mistakes I see when there is a 3-cap is every player rushing the middle for the flag thinking the towers are safe. The enemy usually counter attacks and retakes 2 towers leading to a reverse 3-cap.

Arathi Basin

Arathi Basin is a map with 5 flag points that give points based on how many flags each faction controls. Capturing more flags results in faster points for the controlling team. Owning all 5 flags will result in massive points and a usually win for the 5-capping team if they can hold for a minute or two.

The strategy to use in AB is very similar to EotS. You always want to own 3 or more of the 5 flags. While flags are switching sides, they are neutral. This is when they are vulnerable because defenders will not respawn there.

Once captured, all flags need at least 2-3 defenders to thwart any attack.

Because the map is rather large, travelling alone is certain death.

Some resource points are worth more than others. They all give the same number of points, but the ability to move quickly from one to another and to a lesser extent see what's going on nearby is critical.

Warsong Gulch

WSG is a traditional capture the flag, with 2 bases separated by a short battlefield. It is rather wide, but most action takes place in the middle.

It appears that the best tactic is to simply travel across the map in a group of 10, let a few players go in to cap the flag, and have the entire group shield the flag runner as he runs back to the friendly base. If the enemy captures your flag you need to kill him before he returns to the base and hides, as it is hard to get inside. Usually, a well played team will have little trouble killing off enemies as they spawn or attempt to run out of the base with the flag. The game basically comes down to a giant melee in the middle, usually right near the Alliance graveyard, while fast druids and rogues capture the flag.

The key to WSG is to travel in a huge group and focus fire any enemy you can, and keep their numbers in the Graveyard, not on the field. Once a team gets momentum in the middle, it's over.

Strand of the Ancients

-Offense:

 It is generally a good strategy to choose one Gate (Green or Blue) to zerg first.
It is absolutely crucial that every siege tank is occupied, 

and everyone else needs to be peeling the defender's off your siege tanks: rogues spam FoK w/ crippling poision against enemies on tanks, hunters snare and trap, DK/Frost Mage freeze them, Warlocks Fear bomb, etc.

Once the first gate is down, continue the strategy of peeling enemies off tanks, 

and it is crucial to have a teammate on foot charge the

first available Graveyard (stealthers are usually the best bet.)
Continue your push, and get ready for some more siege from 

the newly openened siege shop near the graveyard.

Send 2-3 to grab the new sieges and continue the warfare.
ALWAYS GRAB A BOMB, especially when snagging a siege. 

Generally, you want to keep pressure on the side of the first gate you've taken down, where you have the momentum.

Continue the siege until yellow (someone should also sneak to 

the opposite GY you've taken to cap it, allowing for more siege and another closer spawn point.)

Once your team has reached the yellow gate, DO NOT cap the Southern Graveyard, 

this will almost always ensure a fail, for you now spawn damn near a mile from the siege shop.

Try to have your sieges timed to go in relatively close to one another to keep maximum pressure on the defenders.
Help your siege's by planting bomb's on the gate, this will also divert some of the opposing team off of your siege, 

whilst they try and diffuse your bomb.

Once the yellow gate is down, you're just a few tanks away from winning the round, 

try to keep your team inside the Courtyard of the Ancients to allow easier access for your siege to roll in.

-Defense:

 Avoid getting on the turrets (at the point in the game, their dps isn't efficient as you burning/slowing the tanks on the beach)
ALWAYS call which gate the enemy team is attacking first.
In addition, make sure there is an even ratio of player's on each side of the beach. 

Your MAIN PRIORITY is to KILL SIEGE, over everything else, you want to always be attacking the siege tank, if you're not, you will probably lose.

Once, or if ;)  the enemy has destroyed your first gate, 

you always want atleast one person to guard the GY flag nearest that gate. Doing this will make it a lot more painful for the enemy team to keep the pressure on your gates, slowing their momentum.

Once the enemy has downed Red/Purple, turtle OUTSIDE of yellow, 

this way you are able to CALL INCS of enemy siege and what side they're coming from, also at this point it's not a bad idea to have a person on yellow's turret, because they can basically do uninterrupted (usually) to incoming siege, AND gives you a nice vantage point. From this point hold them off with everything you have. If they manage to burn down Yellow, turtle inside the yellow gate, and have a few outside the Relic Chamber door to diffuse potential bombs.

Defensively stay INSIDE where yellow gate stood, this way you'll have time to 

slow/burn the tanks before they can start shooting at the Chamber.