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I’ve been leveling exclusively in the Battle Grounds since Iwas Level 12, now that I’m level 21, you can tell I’ve done a lot of WarsongGulch runs. Sure when I first started out (on many of my other toons) I was wandering around aimlessly a bit. Luckily I had played a mess of Halo. That’s right, Halo. Those of you who have played Halo know that when you get the flag you can’t shoot lasers out your eyes, send your pet out, or even really get healed. All you can do is run the flag and when all else fails you can try to punch the man with the shotgun or rocket launcher with the flag. So you really have to get from their flag post to yours. This is exactly the mindset you should have in WoW too. But I’ll try to get a bit more specific by laying out rules.
Section 1: Assaulting the enemy base.
Rule 1: Always go ramp
The enemy never guards the ramp. It’s that simple. From your graveyard (hereby known as gy) hug the edge of the map go up the side and ride on the outside of their fence. Near the place where the ramp curves in towards the middle of the map there should be a hole in the fence. This decreases visibility. So unless there are hunters, or people smart enough to look to edges of the map you should make it through unscathed. I should know, in lvl 20-29 as a 20 I can consistently make it to and up the ramp and into the enemy base without being touched. Either go in the first entrance you see to the second floor of the enemy flag room (hereby known as the EFR) or just go in the front door. Both are safer than tunnels and the second floor route is the safest.
Caveat:This rule does not apply on the initial run as there will be a large enough group to storm the tunnel and/or the Druid (levels 10-19) or Speed modified mounted players will probably get there first anyway. Also don’t be afraid to vary it up. If you find success on the ramp they may move people out to block, so go tunnel, or take the right in the tunnel and drop down from the roof.
Rule 2: If you cannot speed up you escape and/or take hits DO NOT take the flag.
If you are the bottom level of your bracket, you should never take the flag except in an extreme emergency (i.e. to prevent the other team from capping). Druids, hunters and rouges (especially with the sprint speed increase glyph) are the best players to carry flags. Druids are immune to polymorph and can shapeshift to remove snares. Hunters and rouges have speed increases and stunning and slowing abilities. Mages have blink as well ice barrier if they are frost. Preists have heal over time spells and Power Word: Shield to help them. Warriors and Pallys should not take the flag unless they have a lot of stamina or armor. Locks can take the flag if they have a voidwalker to sacrifice.
Which leads us to
Section 2: Flag Carrying
Rule 1: NEVER BE A HERO.
No amount of undead clowns surrounding hot girls on a tower lift ride should ever change your mind about this rule. Your job is to get from the EFR to your flag room (hereby FR). Nothing else. If you DoT someone as you’re running by, fine, just don’t stop to fight. This is a major issue and sometimes it stems from a lack of knowledge of Rule 2.
Rule 2: Never assume your healer has “got your back.”
Far too many times I see a flag carrier (hereby known as FC) stop to try to clear out three enemies because he’s been getting good heals. In your FR, this may be necessary, but anywhere else this usually means that a rouge will sneak up behind your healer and gut it like a fish. This rule is not an excuse, however, to ignore Rule 3.
Rule 3: Never outdistance your healer.
If the healer has an out of range error show up on their screen, they can’t heal you. So unless you can heal yourself reliably, never loose line of sight with your healer.
Rule 4: If both flags are away, stay where you can capture the flag.
The roof, the second floor ledge, the flag stand and the first floor side room are always places you can cap from. If things get heavy, go to your graveyard, chances go down that you can cap a flag before the enemy grabs your returned flag, but at lesat respawned buddies can help. The top of the tunnel exit/entrance is a great place to hide as a last ditch effort, but you will never capture the flag before an enemy grabs your returned flag. And chasing the EFC all the way across the map is never a good place to be when you have to cap.
Rule 5: If you must be a hero, give the flag to someone who said they’ll take it.
Stalemates can occur, and sometimes your best flag runner is also your best DPS. Offer to give up the flag to one of your protectors, or if you have none capable of defending a flag ask the /bg, when someone says yes wait until they move to you and then drop the flag. NEVER drop the flag assuming someone will pick it up.They may get snared at the last second, may be leaving or away from the flag, or may just not notice.
Section 3: Defense
Rule 1: Make sure there are people who can snare and people who can kill.
First you need to stop the EFC then you need to kill him. Mages can do a great job on defense, Frost Nova, Polymorph and then offensive spells can do a world of hurt. But rouges and pallys have great stuns and in most cases offensive prowess. A healer can double as snare as well, Priests should use Psychic Scream offensively to fear an EFC or clear them away from the flag stand. Psychic Scream also works as an interrupt so stop that pally from landing the big heal. Entangling Roots from a druid is great snare too. Having heals on defense helps but is not always necessary due to the short gy run.
Rule 2: Don’t over commit to an escaping EFC.
If an EFC gets away with your flag give chase, but not everyone on defense. Too many times I’ve seen a group of five or six run out to kill an EFC only to have the two buddies they’ve (and sometimes we’ve, I ain’t perfect you know) left behind alone in the flag room grab the replaced flag.
Rule 3: Get the guy on the roof but not at the expense of the whole group.
Every now and then there will be a lurker above or in the middle of the tunnel, If you got one or two guys who can kill him and get back quick send them out and take care of him. But don’t have the whole group go just to have some druid run in from the front door.
The rest are more hints than rules
Hint- press shift+m. This brings up the minimap in the bottom corner of the screen. It will always show your FC and show the EFC after amatter of seconds. Knowing where either are at all times is a key to the game.
Hint- /bg joins the chat channel, but try not to spam that channel. The occasional “EFC going ramp” helps. “OMFG you noobs need to L2Play,” does not. Seriously, if you are taking the time to type that out, YOU are not giving the bg all you can, and you are the only person you can control in a bg.
Hint- EFC=enemy flag carrier, FC=flag carrier, EFR=enemy flag room, FR=flag room, gy=grave yard, ramp and tunnel mean what the are. These are the most common helpful words you’ll see in Warsong Gulch (also known as WSG)
Hint- Have fun. If you’re out just to kill hordes or allies, WSG isn’t the best place to do it, but you certainly can and should rack up kills there. And truthfully having someone in the middle just killing people distracts the enemy from chasing the FC or assaulting the flag. You may not win, but you may get a bunch of kills.
Hint- in a related note, healing can earn you more honor than killing. Healing an assault group or defensive group or FC running across the middle, you may not get any kills, killing blows or damage dealt, but all the guys you are healing will and when they die you can switch to healing someone else. Staying by the flag is the best way to rack up HKs as enemies will always go after it. Assaulting the enemy flag in a stalemate is usually good HK as well.
