Last week I had a managed to log a lot of time playing the Battlegrounds (BG) in World of Warcraft, specifically in Warsong Gulch. I played various battles with three of my characters, my 29 Paladin, my 29 Priest, and my Mage, in various levels from 16-19. They were all rather different experiences and I thought I’d share some of what I learned. Herein lies Tara’s Strategy Guide.
Warsong Gulch is a 10 vs. 10 game of capture the flag. It’s played on a pretty small map, with each team’s flag housed in a base building with several entrances and exits. There’s a sprawling field between the two bases with minimal cover and rolling hills. To capture the flag, you have to run into the enemy base, click it, and run it back to your base WHILE YOUR FLAG IS THERE. So if both flags are held by flag runners, no one can capture one. The game ends when a team makes three flag captures.
First, the utmost basic strategy: stay together (unless you can stealth). The worst thing to happen is to run across the battlefield alone looking for your teammates and encounter a big clump of the enemy. They will kill you and there’s nothing you can do about it. Next to your minimap is an icon for the BG. Right-click it to bring up a small battleground map. This will show you where your teammates are. Use it!
No matter which class you are playing, if you die, look for your teammates before running off wildly, and try to join them in whatever they are doing. If you see a teammate under assault, HELP THEM. I can’t count the number of times I was fighting 2 players and saw my teammates run right by to attack someone else. Of course we all ended up dying because we weren’t working together.
Next, know your class role. If it’s your first time playing, I’d expect you need to figure it out. But actually try to figure it out. I’ve played with priests that never healed, mages that never sheeped, and hunters who seemed to have left their pets behind. That’s not good. One of the primary ways I’m learning to play my characters is by watching others. For example, when I was playing my priest, mages kept sheeping me to prevent me from healing my teammates. So I got frustrated, because being a sheep is not quite as amusing as you might think, but I also said, “Hey, when playing as a mage I should sheep the healer!”
Those are just basics on what you should do in any PvP situation. Now for some Warsong Gulch specifics.
There’s a pretty comprehensive guide of viable Warsong strategies here. If you want nitty gritty details, I think Eppen has done a better job that I can. But at the highest level, here’s what I know.
You might be asking yourself, should I grab the flag?
First answer is are you high enough level? Warsong Gulch has players level 10-19, 20-29, etc. So if you are at the lowest end of the level spectrum, don’t grab the flag. You’re just going to get chewed up and eaten super quickly by players 5+ levels above you.
Next answer is are you the right class? Flag runners should be preferably be a class that can move quickly. For example, shamans and druids have travel forms that move pretty darn fast. They are great flag runners. Rogues can Sprint for a few seconds, making them good runners as well, plus they can stealth in, grab the flag and then sprint out. Paladins can cast their bubble, Divine Shield and make themselves completely invulnerable for a time, which is pretty cool, so that even if they cannot outrun you, they can just make themselves untouchable. Mages (at lvl 20+) have Blink which let’s them jump ahead a ways, and gets them out of spells that hold them in place. But Mages wear cloth and die really easily, so I’m not sure I’d recommend running the flag as a mage.
Any other class probably shouldn’t run the flag solo. If you’re in a large force moving in to grab it and the leader tells you to take it, then take it, certainly. But I would try to play more of a support role if you don’t meet the criteria I’ve listed above.
Support role, you might ask, what’s that? Haha. That’s when you work as a member of a team to help others. Don’t worry, you’ll still get honor points. The system is pretty good that way.
Priests
I had a friend tell me he thought priests were useless in PvP. I said “you crazy!” Well, not quite. But I definitely have been having fun playing with my priest. I think at the extremes - solo, or in a huge huge group - being a priest isn’t so good. We wear cloth and we can’t really deal damage (even Shadow spec priests aren’t as good as others). And in a huge group, people can go down so fast you can’t even get a heal off. I definitely find it challenging keeping even four party members alive sometimes when they decide to aggro a whole dungeon, but it’s a fun challenge and I’m up to it.
Back to priests and PvP. Cast Power Word: Fortitude on everyone. It significantly increases people’s hitpoints which keeps them alive. Yes, it drains your mana, but it’s worth it in the savings on what you don’t have to heal later on. Plus you get honor for helping them kill others by buffing them. It’s totally worth it.
You will die in the battlegrounds. People love to kill priests. You’re busy keeping everyone alive, but you die super quickly yourself. Of course Power Word:Shield yourself when under attack, but your best bet is to get your teammates to help you out and kill those targeting. Your most important job in WSG is, however, to assist the flag runner.
My best strategy was to run from our base towards the middle of the map when the flag runner was incoming. When our flag runner comes running by, I heal him, I Shield him, and if someone has rooted him in place I can cast Dispel Magic to free him. It doesn’t matter if I go down doing this, the goal is to capture the flag and usually everyone is totally focused on the flag carrier anyway. I was right next to four enemies, alone except for the carrier and they totally ignored me. Their mistake. There was one battle where I assisted the same runner twice within 2 minutes with exactly the same tactic and he managed to score both times. We won that battle in record time, and it was pretty awesome.
Mages
I had a bit of a time figuring out how to play my mage. My main problem was that I kept running off alone and dying from two hits by a rogue. So remember the first rule, stick together. Especially as a cloth wearer. Don’t run off and try to be a hero. Let someone else do that. So stick in a group. Also, let the group get a bit ahead of you. Mages have crazy long range. So hang back and shoot off your fireballs from a distance. Use area effect spells to help detect rogues. I noticed one of my teammates kept casting Arcane Explosion while we were guarding the flag. It’s a quick and easy way to detect rogues - they’ll get hit and pop into view. Clearly you can’t do this all the time, but if you’re somewhere waiting, don’t just stand still. Run around a bit and throw off area effects whenever you feel like it.
Sheep the healer. Haha. As I mentioned above, this is a good tactic for pulling everyone down. I know some people don’t think sheeping in PvP is a great strategy since your target heals super fast. But it keeps them out of the action and that could be long enough to take out another opponent.
Even better, sheep the flag carrier. Only do this if you’re solo and trying to stop the carrier. Otherwise, cast Frost Nova or whatever you can to freeze them in place while your teammates pound them into the ground.
Paladins
Haha. I have no idea. I got creamed in the BG as a paladin. We have no ranged attack capabilities, it’s hard to see what’s going on when there’s all these huge Tauren all over, everything is super fast and you’re in the midst of the fray. It’s pretty hectic. As I mentioned above, you can try to run the flag and cast Divine Shield on yourself to make yourself immune to damage for a while. But beyond that I’m not really sure. Anyone got any ideas?
Hope these thoughts helped. I’m sure that the class specific strategies change a lot depending on your level. For example, I haven’t played in a BG since I hit 20 with my mage, so I haven’t seen how effective Blink is. But if I figure out any other pearls I’ll post some more.
5 Responses to “Battling in Warsong Gulch”
PvP in MMOs is awesome, and definitely what makes me want to keep playing in the longer time range (i.e., once I’m bored of the story content).
I’m only inferring what sheeping does based on what you posted, but it sounds like it’s a perfect tactic, and anyone saying otherwise is a crackhead. =) Temporarily disabling one enemy is always a good idea, especially since you should usually be ganging up on enemies (your primary damage dealers, at least). Taking out the healer for a while is always the right tactic (ignoring more special situations like flag carriers, and even then it’s probably good to mess with the healer).
I certainly don’t really know enough about WOW / Paladins to suggest what they might be good at. Flag carrying does seem good for a “tough melee-proficient healer” (which is mostly what I understand Paladins to be), since they shouldn’t end up going down too fast, but also in the Priest role of assisting the flag carrier (where they would have options of healing vs. attacking in order to aid). I don’t know how much worse Paladins are for healing than Priests (I assume quite a bit worse). That tactic is maybe meaningless.
One of the things I’ve found is that the focus of PvP in many, many games is usually on two types of units: The primary damage dealers (whoever does damage the fastest, i.e. Rogues, Mages) and healers. You should obviously always team up against a single enemy to take her down as quickly as possible, and the healer(s) is typically target #1, though if a weakly armorer high damage dealer is going after you, take them out first. You tend to almost totally ignore the enemy highly armored fighting classes like Warrior or Paladin, just because it’s easier to kill the other people, and once you have a numeric advantage you usually just win.
PvP is one of the reasons I like Guild Wars so much. It’s got pretty excellent PvP (probably moreso than any other MMO, but only because they focused on it pretty heavily). There’s an entire class, Mesmer, that is pretty much only good for disrupting spellcasters. That’s a bit of hyperbole, but it’s definitely what primary Mesmers are best at.
(Everyone gets two classes in Guild Wars, so it’s harder to know what someone is going to do — you mostly have to pay attention during combat. Especially since you only get to bring eight skills to the PvP party, sort of like a Magic deck… but other people don’t know what they are unless they are really paying attention.)
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I have been playing a Pally for a while now and can provide a bit of information regarding the effectiveness of the Paladin role in PVP.
First, a paladin in the 10-19 bracket sucks as paladins, much like warriors, are very gear and spec dependant. You don’t have enough talent points to get deep enough to get the good talents and the gear is rather weak compared to the typical twinking classes of Rogues and Hunters.
Role 1: DPS (Damage) - You are going to want to go deep in the Retribution tree and make sure to pick up Pursuit of Justice talent in the second level as this will increase your run speed significantly. Buff everyone with either Attack Power or Mana Regen depending upon their role/class. When engaging an enemy Seal of the Crusader –> Judge Crusader –> Seal Righteousness or Seal of Command and pound on them with your weapon. When your judgement timer runs up, judge whatever seal you have active and re-seal with your seal of choice. Throw down a concecration both in battles and when guarding the flag. Consecration will break stealth for both druids and rogues.
You will need to load yourself up with as much +STR and +STA gear and enchants as you can as this will increase your damage and health. You can carry the flag, the speed bump from the Pursuit of Justice talent will help a bit. With the absolute best gear you can expect about 40% - 45% damage mitigation. Use your bubble to heal/bandage yourself, though your heals will be fairly mana intensive and a bit on the light side compared to a priest.
Role 2: Healbot (Healer) - For this role you will use your talents in primarily the Holy tree and possibly some in the Protection tree. There are options here as you may choose to get Blessing of Kings in the Protection tree (+10% to all stats) which rocks. Before you go crazy, a simple math lesson may be in order - completely outfitted and enchanted you might see a maximum stat of 300, 10% of 300 is only 30. I prefer to put my points in the Holy tree as you can select talents which make you uninterruptable while casting holy spells (you use holy to heal) and another talent which has a 100% chance to return 60% of your mana for healing spells. Add these talents with a heavy dose of +Healing gear (yes they have mail items that have +Healing) and you can nearly completely heal a twinked rogue or hunter with (2000+ HP) for an extremely small amount of mana. You will want a 1 hander and shield for this task so you can mitigate as much damage as possible. Your tactics should be similar to a priest at this point, assist the flag carrier and heal your teammates (and yourself if necessary).
Remember as a paladin you are a support class by nature, warriors and rogues will always out DPS you, priests will always out heal you! Use the spells and talents you are given to assist your teammates in winning the battle and do not expect to see your characters name at the top of the board when the battleground is over. Use consecration to detect stealthed enemies and deal a little extra damage when fighting. Use Hammer of Justice to stun opponents to catch up or deal additional damage from Judgement of Command. Always judge your active seal when the timer is up! Paladins deal 1/3 of their damage through their seals and judgements and it is important to remember where the additional damage comes from.
Hope this helps clear up the paladin question…
From the warrior perspective: 10-19 stay in one place… blood rage and swing batter. You can ‘t out swing a rogue, and beating up a hunter’s pet just ticks them off … hmmm … but it does tie them up long enough to kill you. But you can get kills. Use all available cover and wait. When they are in range, whammo! That usually aggros 4 or 5 others to stop what they were doing to take care of you. In other words, you are the distraction. And that, children, is why we see so few warriors at the 10 to 19 level in the BG.
If I may, Id like to add a quick blurb about Druids in specifically WG. My Druid is my main and I have logged more hours than I am prepared to admit playing him. From the simple stand point of questing, most Druids speck feral. And I must say when it comes to WG. Of the choices between being a boomkin or a feral, I think I have it all over the boomkins. Sure, boomkins can really disrupt the opposing teams flow. Breaking up a group of people rushing to the opposing side’s flag, or FC for that matter has a tremendous effect on the effectiveness of your opponent. However, I find more times than not. People that are specked to be boomkins simply don’t know how to play them. Sure you still have the advantages of moving quickly by mounting, or going to cheetah. But the advantages in both of these forms you have when you are specked feral are for the most part mitigated in boomkin. What Do I mean? When your primary function is to be in boomkin form, you’re not playing these other forms nearly as much. And for that reason alone, most simply never learn to play them effectively. Second, when you are specked feral, you tend to focus more on armor, even though armor is not nearly as important as having the correct stats, none the less, having pretty decent armor seems to be one of the side effects. Don’t misunderstand me. As a leather wearer, you will never see the kinds of numbers in armor that a warrior has. Nor will the armor you have, have the same kinds of damage mitigation. But that’s not the point. Over your other so called soft targets, other rogues, and cloth wearers, you might just as well be a warrior. And when you go dire bear, its armor is a directly proportional to certain stats you have, and the amount of armor you carry in druid form. As a boomkin, again, you are so heavily focused on balance, that in any form but the boomkin form, your armor is pretty lousy, and if you’re smart, specked for doing magic. Not for doing melee. To be specked for feral, normally means that your armor accordingly will be better. Consequently, most boomkins tend to stay in boomkin form. And everyone knows, Boomkins are SLOW. To be effective as a boomkin, you either have to know when and where to place yourself to be the most effective, or have to know how to use your travel forms to get to where you need to be quickly. Which exposes you to attack in a very vulnerable form. Again, I have seen boomkins that are an absolute nightmare on the field and when played right, in my very humble opinion, you are very happy to have them on your team. But most of the time, the person controlling the boomkin just has no idea what they are doing, and there presence is at most, a nuisances. As for feral spec, By virtue of your great flexibility, you are fast, you are moderately well armored, you can stealth, you can cast a variety of spells to damage and disrupt and you can heal. If there are any people out there shaking there heads, your missing my point. NO, you will never do anything as well as someone that is dedicated to a specific task. You’re never going to be a warrior. You’re never going to be a priest. You’re never going to DPS like a rogue. And you will probably, unless the opposing team is just abysmal, see your name at the top of the list when a BG is over. But I can do just enough of everything to be very effective none the less. You stealth, pull a stun and quickly rip off two mangles and shred for good damage and bleed effects. If you’re attacking a soft target, switch to druid and root, or dire bear and cast natures grasp, if they are foolish enough to touch you they are rooted, or you simply root them anyhow. In dire bare, you mangle them again, and if need be, pull a bash to stun, and finish them. Most soft targets do not require this many attacks. But if you don’t control mages and shadow prelists, or ferie fire rogues. They can quickly get away from you or control you. When attacking really solid opponents, I will stealth, stun, mangle twice, shred, turn to cheetah, run away till I’m out of combat, re-stealth and look for a new target. Remember, your not out to kill everything in sight. In the case of a warrior, you have done some damage making someone else’s task easier, not to mention you have stopped him from moving. Plus, he may want to try and heal, or may need to be healed by someone. All of this takes attention away from more important things. In other words you have effectively disrupted. On the other hand, you can run the flag. Stealth in, wait for the opening, sprint out, run to your mates, go dire bear, do a bark skin, use your insignia, basically, if you have any help at all, your very hard to stop in dire bear from, especially if you get a heal or two and a well placed shield. And lastly, if someone is running the flag, you can stealth, find where they running, if need be, cause your only handy if you can get to the FC alive, stay stealthed to prolong your life on your b line to the FC. Its better than getting destroyed on the way and never getting a heal off. When you do make the FC, you can heal if he needs it, buff him with mark and thorns. You can keep up with the fastest of runners by going travel or cat form. You can hang in a Malay by going dire bear, and at that point, even if you are out of manna and you cant heal the FC anymore, get to dire bear and force at least one, possible more to focus there attention on you instead of the FC. Even just hanging on the FC six o’clock and forcing an attacker to attack through you will give the FC an advantage. And in the best cases, Where the FC is ahead of you and being controlled by a frost spell, or what ever other classes use to control or slow you down. A well placed root will infinitely frustrate anyone in pursuit, no matter what class they are really. This is not recommended if there are multiple people attacking your FC. Your better off trying to heal as much as you can an when your manna is out go dire bear and sacrifice your self to the cause. I have been responsible for many flag plants both run and escorted. Once you learn how to use the abilities you have as a feral speck. You wonder how other classes make due.