World of Warcraft: Beginners Guide to Battlegrounds.
Often I get asked, "yeah, but what IS 'Warsong Gultch'?" and I remember my trepidation about going into a battleground for the first time. This was long before the days of the Looking-For-Dungeon feature, even before the Looking-For-Battleground feature. You had to travel to the place to join the battle and then wait around in case you had to re-queue. It was scary! People could be mean and everyone was from your server, so if you screwed up... there was no hiding from the shame! You couldn't even name/race/server change! *gasp*
It happened again the other day that a friend, new to battlegrounds, was asking about what they are. She'd been given tips on PvP, the actual fighting, instead of an explanation of just -what- the battleground is, that's when I decided to write this.
Fair warning... this is for the utter and complete beginner. I'm not a PvPer and I haven't even been in ALL the battlegrounds. I don't even own resilience gear! If you're looking for strategy or tips on fighting, this is definately not the place for you.
How do you get into a BG?
The easiest way is to click the little Alliance or Horde symbol in your in-game system tray (where you find your quest log, spell book and help menu). This only appears when you are eligible to queue... as far as I know that is at level 10. This will pull up a window that allows you to select a specific battleground or "random" into one. You are also able to queue as a group as long as you and your party mates are all in the same 5 level range.
Once you've queue'd you can edit your settings from the new mini-map icon that will appear (to the left of the clock if you have that display feature on).
You are only able to queue for a random OR up to three battlegrounds. You cannot queue for battlegrounds and dungeons at the same time.
Wargson Gulch
This is the first of the battlegrounds you can queue for, the story is pretty basic. The elves of Ashenvale have trees and the orcs of Durotar do not. The Warsong Outriders are working on making room for the grunts to come cut down trees and the Silverwing Sentinels are doing their best to protect this resource.
Mechanics are simple. Up to ten players on each side of the map with the same objective, "capture" the other team's flag and return it to your own flag room (which can only be done if your team still has their flag) three times before the timer runs out. If the timer runs out, the team with the most flags wins.
You are able to mount up (if you're level 20 or higher) in this battleground, but doing so will cause you to "drop" the flag. If you see a dropped flag, right clicking on it will either have you pick it up (if it's your opponents flag) or you'll "return" the flag if it belongs to your team. Druids and Shaman are popular in this battleground since they can shapeshift and still run with the flag (cheetah form; feral cat specced for speed; or ghost wolf).
Arathi Basin
In the Arathi Highlands the Horde and Alliance battle for resources. The Horde is represented by the undead group called The Defilers and the Alliance by humans founding The League of Arathor. The League of Arathor was founded by the remnants of the Kingdom of Stormgarde and seek to reclaim lost ground from the Forsaken.
Mechanics for AB are a little bit more complicated than Warsong Gulch. Up to 15 players (level 10 and up) on each team try to capture five resource nodes. Each node you control gives you resource points and, of course, denies those points to the opposing team. You need 1600 points to win the game. I find it best to try and keep control of three nodes instead of trying to get all five.
Resources start off unclaimed. At the North end of the map (where the Alliance start) is the Stables. South of that from West to East are the Lumber Mill, Blacksmith and Goldmine. On the South end of the map (where the horde start) is the Farm. All nodes return the same number of points and so the only advantages are based on terrain. To claim a node right-click on it and then defend it from the other team.
Common mistakes in AB include; not defending a node (either before it's totally claimed or after it's been claimed); fighting on the roads instead of at the nodes; and trying to capture nodes solo from several defenders.
Alterac Valley
The Frostwolf Clan (Orcs) and the Stormpike Expedition (Dwarves) are, yup, you guessed it... fighting. This battleground feels less about resources and more about border and land dispute. The orcs became established well before the rise of Thrall's horde (interestingly, the Frostwolves were led by Durotan, Thrall's father!) and the dwarves now wish to move in and search for titan relics.
This was Blizzard's first attempt at a really big warlike game. There are up to 40 players on each side, the horde starting out in the south by Frostwolf Hold and the alliance in the north near Stormpike Keep. Legends are told of epic days long battles in the AV of old, but wisely... a timer has been added to the game.
More later...
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