Battleground Strategies

[saberon]

What I'm guessing is that with RBGs will come the explosion of a bunch of new PvP guilds into the game. On my realm, for example, we have the world first Battlemaster Braman, who has already stated that he will be expanding his PvP guild for the purpose of RBGs. With the organization of guilds will come an inherent chain of command; atm, any conceivable BG strategy will be known by everyone shortly after its conception, and will therefore quickly have a counter. Because of this, BGs will be more pre-thought improvising than a set strategy, with the chain of command dealing orders that will, in a guild sponsored, communication derived environment, be quickly obeyed.

I think you'll find that any RBG team that has a "leader" dishing out commands will be second-rate, at best.
One person can not see the entire game, and command an entire team. You need a team to do so.

You'll find that the better teams communicate heavily. Constant calls of Inc + numbers, or letting the team know they're on the way to defend are crucial. I often find in BG's atm that you'll call "Inc LM 3", and either nobody will come, or 8 people will come. The better teams will communicate so they get the right amount of players to the right locations at the right times.

Team game, Team effort. There's no room for a Leader after the first 30 seconds of a BG.

[Deleted]

There are the usual tactics of how to win a battleground but in my eyes it's the way how you react on the opposite team's tactic that makes you win the battleground. For example :

Horde choose to rush all to Alliance end boss in AV, while Alliance intended to take bases and defend. If you as Alliance don't make an end at the rush before they kill it, you will lose however the tactic you are using is quite solid to win.

So to conclude, the tactic to win any battleground is just to always be one step ahead on your enemy. The smartest team will always win, no matter what faction you are.

PS: Realy looking forward to rated battlegrounds, makes the whole PVP grinding more interesting towards PVE players aswell.

[jmkiser33]

There are plenty of BG strategies that have existed since the inception of cross-realm vanilla BGs. They are legitimate strategies... Premades for RBGs will need an experienced "raid-leader" that can change strategies on the fly. That was how teams were successful at 60 and that is how they will be successful now. Ventrilo communication is a must. Everyone must report every significant thing they see so everyone can have an idea of what's going on. All of what is said will, of course, be determined by the lead.

One major factor is going to be stealth that can report on a team's defenses for flag/nodes. A leader can keep control of mid in WSG and allow a stealth to bring the flag out with weak D or they can call a mage drop-blink pass to a rogue/druid at the FR exits. If the opponent is prepared for that and turtles FR, a stealth can inform the lead who can then order a tank-style carry with full support.

The biggest thing for teams in RBGs is the ability to be flexible. Have a plan that is similar for each BG you go into. Observe the opponent's reaction to your actions and then react to that accordingly. Whichever teams accomplish this best will be the top groups.

Also, in between RBGs, have your team constantly dueling each other. You want everyone to know exactly what every class can and will do. It's no use having great strats and a strong leader that can observe/react quickly if you're team can't kill the enemies. In my old PvP guild in vanilla, our guild leader app'd candidates by having them win a duel against each class lead in the guild (or if one of the classes was an extreme counter then showing great understanding of how to combat such class was acceptable as well). Just how the hardcore raid guilds in the world trial by fire, the best pvp teams will as well. Arenas are actually a great way to practice for RBGs (which is personally why I think RBGs are more important/difficult). Practicing 5v5 is practicing what your LM group will run into out of the gate in AB. Success in 5s arena translates into practice/success in RBGs

In one way this isn't like raiding is that you can truly make your own strats that will work fine. You don't need a "tankspot" of pvp to see what strats they are doing. In all honesty, your strat that you take out of the gate is going to change as soon as you see what your opponent is doing. The only point of the strat out of the gate is to put yourself in an optimal position to react to what you observe.

PvP with objectives is more fun then the deathmatch style of arenas I can't wait to get back into what I had so much fun with 4 years ago

[Cuddleduck]

It is... disheartening, to say the least.


@OP: It would be quite difficult to create a comprehensive Battleground strategies resource, because, as has been pointed out, your opponent is ever changing and unpredictable.

Even though it's true that there will be so many combos out there and not a chance that one could have strategies for each setup I know that from previous experience in twinking where we had twink matchups in WSG etc, strategies are made & used.

The strategies is not about when to silence who and when to CC who, no, it's about who's taking the flag, who's defending, who's going for the EFC, etc etc.

Kinda hard to explain I guess but TL;DR
There will be strategies.

Hope it made any sense ^_^

[Darnash]

I think you'll find that any RBG team that has a "leader" dishing out commands will be second-rate, at best.
One person can not see the entire game, and command an entire team. You need a team to do so.

You'll find that the better teams communicate heavily. Constant calls of Inc + numbers, or letting the team know they're on the way to defend are crucial. I often find in BG's atm that you'll call "Inc LM 3", and either nobody will come, or 8 people will come. The better teams will communicate so they get the right amount of players to the right locations at the right times.

Team game, Team effort. There's no room for a Leader after the first 30 seconds of a BG.

Some people just have a lot more situational awareness than you might think. If someone is experienced enough in a battleground environment, every move can be predicted, and the best of them can stay 3-4 steps ahead of the other team. Take AV, for example. While I know that AV will cease to be a 40-man in Cata, if you dont have one person formulating strategy and instead everyone chips in, it turns into chaos. The few games I have found where people actually listen to me or another, have been the best AV games I have ever played. Information gets funneled up to command, and he/she can distribute resources (which, in a guild environment, will be consistent and reliable).

Does this mean that personal decision-making and skill is meaningless? Of course not. People will still independently call out incomings, make suggestions, distribute themselves when orders are not given, and will generally know how a battleground works well enough to contribute. But if command issues an order, that probably means that it is of upmost importance, and you should probably listen.

[Heretic013]

I know one. Sacrifice is often the best way. Slow em, distract em, pull em and help your team do its job. The job is to win. Its often better to die and respawn at gy than run and heal yourself - all depends on the situation. One can often turn the tides of battle. Sometimes its a group run and sometimes you must act on your own.
Theres nothing worst than when you try and give your best and the rest just ignores it. Like capping, defending, slowing, distracting attention and the rest just blows it all. You do something to win and they just make random PvP without any brain usage in the most stupid place possible... ehhh
I cant wait for rated BGs. No more random ppl who have no idea what to do or how to react in even simplest situation and if even that happen then they will not be taken anymore to another battle.

[Theonehit]

buy the guide

[aedistan]

I know one. Sacrifice is often the best way. Slow em, distract em, pull em and help your team do its job. The job is to win. Its often better to die and respawn at gy than run and heal yourself - all depends on the situation. One can often turn the tides of battle. Sometimes its a group run and sometimes you must act on your own.
Theres nothing worst than when you try and give your best and the rest just ignores it. Like capping, defending, slowing, distracting attention and the rest just blows it all. You do something to win and they just make random PvP without any brain usage in the most stupid place possible... ehhh

Basically, this.

Arena focuses on DM-style "battlegrounds". Therefore, any spells that have more situational function (like Hawkeye) lose their purpose in that environment. In warfare, DM is rarely a campaign or any situation. While generals might not give a crap about the little elves' flag, at least there is a feasible goal besides "Kill them before they kill us." Killing people will most likely win you the game, but getting killed to distract the opposing team (you don't even have to die, just distracting them is good) means that those people over there are not over here capping our flag or protecting their nodes.

I cant wait for rated BGs. No more random ppl who have no idea what to do or how to react in even simplest situation and if even that happen then they will not be taken anymore to another battle.

Spam trade: "LFM rated bg"
*9 random people show up*
OK, LET'S ROLL.

It's not really going to be any different from pugs in a raid.

[Hatrehd]

Spam trade: "LFM rated bg"
*9 random people show up*
OK, LET'S ROLL.

It's not really going to be any different from pugs in a raid.

I am certainly 120% not going to pug RBG's. My god that will be a nightmare.
Probably going to join a decent pvp guild on one of my characters to save me from that.

[Dinkleberg]

mmm

[Spurmwhale]

its just nobody has played them yet so there has no experience to know what works or what needs to be strategized. its too premature right now to do it, or i guess we can but it'd be just talking out of our ass tbh. 2 premades going at it can do a million different things, but IMO for WSG it'll come down to flag walking as a blob like it usually does. some of the other more complex BG's will have a lot more strategy imo where the vent shot callers get to play general. everyone else gets to play peons.

---------- Post added 2010-11-17 at 12:54 AM ----------

Some people just have a lot more situational awareness than you might think. If someone is experienced enough in a battleground environment, every move can be predicted, and the best of them can stay 3-4 steps ahead of the other team. Take AV, for example. While I know that AV will cease to be a 40-man in Cata, if you dont have one person formulating strategy and instead everyone chips in, it turns into chaos. The few games I have found where people actually listen to me or another, have been the best AV games I have ever played. Information gets funneled up to command, and he/she can distribute resources (which, in a guild environment, will be consistent and reliable).

Does this mean that personal decision-making and skill is meaningless? Of course not. People will still independently call out incomings, make suggestions, distribute themselves when orders are not given, and will generally know how a battleground works well enough to contribute. But if command issues an order, that probably means that it is of upmost importance, and you should probably listen.

the downside of rated(serious) anything to be efficient is most people have to be able to take orders. the more people the more thats a necessity. premade BG's from HWL climb, and pretty much every premade BG i've ever played in since reinforces that when the team is serious. its like the military, and thats honestly how a lot of premade teams are from my experience unless they're just messing around or completely dominant in their BG/realm.

its another reason i often PUG, even when i could've been premading it. its overrated in the context of enjoyment, altho winning/honor and getting to rewards faster tends to be the basis of enjoyment for a lot of players.

[Eldacar]

I wasnt able to post anything at the time as the site was still in development, but now that it's launched here ya go, a fansite 100% dedicated to BG strategy, and discussion: www.BGMasters.com