OutDPS!

Hey all, as promised, I’m going to put out guides on all the different battlegrounds. Today we’re discussing what has been the most strategic battleground since the inception of the battleground system: Arathi Basin. This post will assume you have a general familiarity with the battleground, and will focus on strategies more than basics.

Some of my fondest memories in this game happened in this battleground, and I’m crossing my fingers that rated BGs make some of this info relevant once again. For those who missed it, by the way, all flag caps in BGs are now 8 seconds, and this change will end up being very important in rated Arathi Basin. The difference between 10 and 8 seconds may not seem like much, but the new, reduced window of opportunity for interrupting a flag cap would have made a difference in nearly every organized AB game I played at 60, and I have a feeling it will again when the new level cap is 85.

Arathi Basin isn’t really about the battles (although whoever can capture the blacksmith at the start has increased their chances of winning by a ton), it’s more about strategy and defense. This is why pugs take so long in this BG- nobody defends anything, so every node gets capped and recapped 3 or 4 times which cripples resource gain. If you really want to win AB, you need to follow these tips:

1. Look at your map.
2. See #1.

This is really the most crucial thing to do: see what nodes have been left unguarded by your team, announce that the node is empty in battleground chat, and then go look for weak points in the enemy defense. More on this later.

When you first walk into Arathi Basin, you want to try and get everyone on the same page. Try and explain in /battleground that Lumber Mill and Blacksmith are the most important nodes [ed: I have macros for this :)]. Everyone knows that holding 3 nodes is the safest and easiest way to win AB, but what the casual pvper often doesn’t realize is when you control both lumber mill and blacksmith in conjunction with the farm or stables (and the farm is preferable, sorry alliance!), it forms a triangle of indefatigable strength! Depending on your faction, you basically get the farm or stables for free, and should be defending them as they represent early, easy resources that you might desperately wish you had in the late game. The mine is a terrible node (of course every horde side I’m on zergs the mine for whatever reason- I call this the gold rush) because it’s really far from the other nodes, which means it’s hard to reinforce in a timely manner, especially with the new 8 second cap time. The mine is also at a much lower altitude than everything else, which makes it impossible to keep track of enemy movement around other nodes while guarding the mine. The blacksmith, however, gives you perfect visibility, as well as easy access, to almost all the other nodes, or at least the approaches to all the other nodes, and similarly the lumber mill affords you a great view of the fight and easy access to farm and stables, as well as blacksmith via parachute cloak/slow fall/levitate.

As a pugger, however, what exactly can you do to contribute in this battleground? The main thing you can do is avoid getting tied down at any node (or in between nodes /shudder). When defending a node, you should be in the fight only as long as it takes to make sure that the attackers don’t outnumber the defenders and then you should FD, mount up and prepare to fend off the next assault, or make an assault of your own. Back at 60 I used to yell at my teammates nonstop (I was the raid leader, so I was allowed to be obnoxious) to mount up and get ready to rush off to the next node that the alliance were preparing to hit, because the worst thing that can happen to you in Arathi Basin is getting stuck in a protracted fight to defend or cap a node, while all the other nodes are being assaulted/defended around your ears.

If you’re not in a defending type of mood- and believe me I can sympathize- you should look for holes in the enemy’s defense. If your side is down resources and the other side has 3 nodes, but in an awkward combination like lumber mill-blacksmith-mine or stables-blacksmith-farm, then they can’t reinforce the wing nodes easily. Figure out where the opposing team is concentrated (humanoid tracking ftw!) and head the opposite direction. If they’re all clustered at the farm, hit the stables. Lumber mill? Get the mine.

If you love to 1v1 or 1v2, Arathi Basin can be your best friend, because so often nodes are left guarded by just a player or two. Although 1v1 isn’t the hunter’s specialty, if you’re wily enough you can get a capture against just about anyone. Try and think like a rogue: bait your opponent into using his trinket and then trap/sleep him and cap the flag. If you’re an engineer, you get a mind control cap (dismiss your pet first) and frag belt at your disposal to ensure success.

Persistence is the name of the game here, folks. PvPers are just like other people: they have short attention spans and aren’t going to try very hard when it’s only a few tokens on the line. Say you’re trying to deal with a druid at the lumber mill who gets reinforced from the farm and you are killed ignominiously after blowing all your cooldowns and a health pot. Don’t get frustrated and afk at the stables, ride back up to the lumber mill because chances are all those guys ditched the node as soon as your corpse was looted. Not only that, but you should have been able to figure out the first time how many people are actually guarding the node, which is invaluable info.

Never assume you are only up against what is visible when you first ride up to a node. Rogues (and if you’re horde, night elves) are everywhere, so keep a flare under you and look for any opportunity to freezing arrow.

Most importantly of all, do not fight away from the nodes! This is a complete waste of time. Even being faced away from a flag can result in disaster, so try to pan your camera back even while shooting forward so that you can keep your eye on things. A hunter should really be able to watch over 2 nodes at once, 3 if he has the trifecta of resource nodes, the farm-lumber mill-blacksmith.

That’s it for now everyone!

-jurgwena