I thought I'd get the ball rolling on this although I'm by no means an expert
First principles
- you need to form one raid. I've been in several CTF matches with no group, two groups, a raid with only half the players in it. We always get hammered.
- you need someone telling people what to do. If there is a lack of clarity people will solo. Soloing does not win matches, unless the opposition is terrible and you get lucky to boot. When I've been in raids where the raid leader says nothing all match we lose. The job is not simply inviting
- five people telling the raid to do different and conflicting things is quite possibly worse than no one telling people what do to. This is why you need it to be the raid leader making the calls. If he keeps quiet and someone who isn't the leader starts shouting then invariably some other squaddie will start shouting conflicting orders
- all classes have fantastic contributions to make. If you're a hunter track the flag carrier and keep your team posted. If you're a healer, heal. If you're a rogue support other players by applying your surprise attacks at decisive moments
- the flag is more important than the players. Keep moving towards your objective at virtually any time except when you're regrouping
- killing people off is sometimes not an effective move. There are many times in battle when players would much rather respawn ahead of your flag carrier on full health and mana. A snare can be better than a kill
- hunt in packs. Most classes work much better in a group. Even Rogues should sneak along with the pack looking for decisive moments to contribute
- organise groups sensibly. Expecially split up the healers. Don't assume people have RaidAssist or some such mod.
- if half of you are on Teamspeak then type. Teamspeak makes people lazy. If you don't bother to type crucial information and instructions you are a well-organised group of 5 plus 5 solos. Any organised group of 10 will wipe the floor with you
- fragging. If you want to get the most contribution points from a battle you undoubtedly are better off refusing to join the raid and just stalking along getting easy kills while the opponents are engaged with other team-mates. You aren't helping the team. Many many teams we've beaten have a Rogue who is streets ahead of anyone else on either side in terms of HKs. They still lose. Being as how WoW is an MMO game and reputation matters you may want to avoid doing this. It's hard enough for level 60 Rogues to get raids without developing a reputation for selfish play. Then again, if you can hit the top rank by doing this maybe you won't have to care about MC drops :rolleyes:
7, 8, 9, 0s - as you near the top end of the level range for your battlefield you become a much more effective player. It may be wise to do a lot of bg at level 29-30, 39-40 etc, get your fill for a while and then concentrate on levelling and instancing as you pass to the next tier.
Classes
Rogue - great flag carriers simply for the ability to snatch the flag at surprise moments and then Sprint. Very vulnerable to being intercepted in the middle unless you work with the team. Stun and crippling poison makes you very good at stopping or slowing other players. And killing people helps too :)
Druid - the best flag carriers. Stealth, be patient and at the crucial moment (perhaps just after a recapture) grab the flag, cat form and dash out of the base, cheetah and run off home. The ability to change and use instant heals is great so don't persist being a cheetah if you look like dying. Most snares are broken by changing shape, also you can break Rogue snares with Cure Poison. If there's more than one druid have them both do the same job - one is a backup. If the role palls then you have great utility as flag carrier support with speed, heals and entangling roots. In a running fight entangling roots is a one-cast eliminator, possibly the strongest spell in the game. Please don't run around the midfield spamming Moonfire though ;)
Hunter - natural defenders. Aspect of the Cheetah is great for chasing people but not great when you're being chased. Tracking is great if your team has lost sight of the carrier - find him and tell the raid where he is. You may need Track Beast if you're after a Druid. Feign Death is very effective in the hectic atmosphere. Freezing Trap on the flag is a great defensive move, so is Survival tree specialisation for those rare Hunters who take that path
Priest - great in a pack of players working together. If everyone spreads out and does their own thing then Priest players tend to be especially victimised. The natural place for a Priest is in the middle of an alert aggressive group. AE fear is a very strong ability and is useful for clearing oppostion packs, notably in the flag room
Paladin - another great pack player. Paladins are usually bottom of Horde players' priorities simply because they're so frustratingly hard to kill. Stay close to others and use your heals to keep them alive and your group will roll over anything even remotely disorganised and will beat same-sized horde groups that can't match your group's healing power. In a wierd way that fact that shamans have so many interesting things to do with their mana is a Horde disadvantage in pvp since they will often drain themselves spamming marginal damage spells. Turn the screw on any such naievity by making sure no one in your group dies
Shaman - good flag carriers, good pack members, a shaman is a well rounded class which can support anywhere without being outstanding anywhere. Use your snares well and you'll win matches
Warrior - very much a pack player. From a healer's perspective nothing keeps you safer than a Warrior because if they target you the Warrior will rip them apart while you self-heal and if they target the Warrior they will do poor damage which you can easily heal. Warriors work so much better in packs than alone, perhaps more so than any other class. Key skills are Charge Intercept and Hamstring plus Hitting Someone Very Hard ™
Mage - a devastating class. First you have a great ability to control movement, accelerating your own with Blink and slowing others with Frost Nova and chill effects. Next you do good damage. And finally area effect is fantastic against clumped players. Played with agility a mage often attracts people to try for a kill without them being able to quite kill you. Make sure everyone has drink at the start or before, people get a lot of chances to drink during these matches.
Warlock - The main things I found to do with my warlock on the test server were running around dotting people, disrupting people with Fear and Seduce, hitting the flag room with area effect just as our flag carriers go in (they will all focus on you) and sending pets off to harass distant players from a position of safety.
Winning strategies
5 attack 5 defend One of the simplest, 5 of you wait to mob whoever comes into the flag room, 5 of you run up the side of the map, avoiding fights and burst into the enemy flag room as a unit. This is the quickest way to beat disorganised opposition. From the Horde perspective I'd suggest running up along the east edge of the map since the ramp up is that side. Defenders, if overwhelmed, usually respawn soon enough and far enough ahead that they get a second bite. Remember to run towards the middle when you respawn though!
10 attack I've seen this a lot in 51-60 battles. I think the idea is that this strategy beats the very common 5/5 formation - you will easily grab the opposition flag and you may be able to meet a 5 strong flag carrying group with your 10. In practice it always seems to result in both sides getting the opponents flags and then a long drawn out hunt for the flag carrier (who is always very near their own flag room waiting to drop in and win). I'm unconvinced that this beats 5/5 but it's very popular with high level players so I guess people feel it does
9 defend one stealths. Boring but very effective. Your 9 back at base will marmalise the opponents until they get frustrated enough to attack with everything. I've only actually seen this done a couple of times and it's worked both times.
First principles
- you need to form one raid. I've been in several CTF matches with no group, two groups, a raid with only half the players in it. We always get hammered.
- you need someone telling people what to do. If there is a lack of clarity people will solo. Soloing does not win matches, unless the opposition is terrible and you get lucky to boot. When I've been in raids where the raid leader says nothing all match we lose. The job is not simply inviting
- five people telling the raid to do different and conflicting things is quite possibly worse than no one telling people what do to. This is why you need it to be the raid leader making the calls. If he keeps quiet and someone who isn't the leader starts shouting then invariably some other squaddie will start shouting conflicting orders
- all classes have fantastic contributions to make. If you're a hunter track the flag carrier and keep your team posted. If you're a healer, heal. If you're a rogue support other players by applying your surprise attacks at decisive moments
- the flag is more important than the players. Keep moving towards your objective at virtually any time except when you're regrouping
- killing people off is sometimes not an effective move. There are many times in battle when players would much rather respawn ahead of your flag carrier on full health and mana. A snare can be better than a kill
- hunt in packs. Most classes work much better in a group. Even Rogues should sneak along with the pack looking for decisive moments to contribute
- organise groups sensibly. Expecially split up the healers. Don't assume people have RaidAssist or some such mod.
- if half of you are on Teamspeak then type. Teamspeak makes people lazy. If you don't bother to type crucial information and instructions you are a well-organised group of 5 plus 5 solos. Any organised group of 10 will wipe the floor with you
- fragging. If you want to get the most contribution points from a battle you undoubtedly are better off refusing to join the raid and just stalking along getting easy kills while the opponents are engaged with other team-mates. You aren't helping the team. Many many teams we've beaten have a Rogue who is streets ahead of anyone else on either side in terms of HKs. They still lose. Being as how WoW is an MMO game and reputation matters you may want to avoid doing this. It's hard enough for level 60 Rogues to get raids without developing a reputation for selfish play. Then again, if you can hit the top rank by doing this maybe you won't have to care about MC drops :rolleyes:
7, 8, 9, 0s - as you near the top end of the level range for your battlefield you become a much more effective player. It may be wise to do a lot of bg at level 29-30, 39-40 etc, get your fill for a while and then concentrate on levelling and instancing as you pass to the next tier.
Classes
Rogue - great flag carriers simply for the ability to snatch the flag at surprise moments and then Sprint. Very vulnerable to being intercepted in the middle unless you work with the team. Stun and crippling poison makes you very good at stopping or slowing other players. And killing people helps too :)
Druid - the best flag carriers. Stealth, be patient and at the crucial moment (perhaps just after a recapture) grab the flag, cat form and dash out of the base, cheetah and run off home. The ability to change and use instant heals is great so don't persist being a cheetah if you look like dying. Most snares are broken by changing shape, also you can break Rogue snares with Cure Poison. If there's more than one druid have them both do the same job - one is a backup. If the role palls then you have great utility as flag carrier support with speed, heals and entangling roots. In a running fight entangling roots is a one-cast eliminator, possibly the strongest spell in the game. Please don't run around the midfield spamming Moonfire though ;)
Hunter - natural defenders. Aspect of the Cheetah is great for chasing people but not great when you're being chased. Tracking is great if your team has lost sight of the carrier - find him and tell the raid where he is. You may need Track Beast if you're after a Druid. Feign Death is very effective in the hectic atmosphere. Freezing Trap on the flag is a great defensive move, so is Survival tree specialisation for those rare Hunters who take that path
Priest - great in a pack of players working together. If everyone spreads out and does their own thing then Priest players tend to be especially victimised. The natural place for a Priest is in the middle of an alert aggressive group. AE fear is a very strong ability and is useful for clearing oppostion packs, notably in the flag room
Paladin - another great pack player. Paladins are usually bottom of Horde players' priorities simply because they're so frustratingly hard to kill. Stay close to others and use your heals to keep them alive and your group will roll over anything even remotely disorganised and will beat same-sized horde groups that can't match your group's healing power. In a wierd way that fact that shamans have so many interesting things to do with their mana is a Horde disadvantage in pvp since they will often drain themselves spamming marginal damage spells. Turn the screw on any such naievity by making sure no one in your group dies
Shaman - good flag carriers, good pack members, a shaman is a well rounded class which can support anywhere without being outstanding anywhere. Use your snares well and you'll win matches
Warrior - very much a pack player. From a healer's perspective nothing keeps you safer than a Warrior because if they target you the Warrior will rip them apart while you self-heal and if they target the Warrior they will do poor damage which you can easily heal. Warriors work so much better in packs than alone, perhaps more so than any other class. Key skills are Charge Intercept and Hamstring plus Hitting Someone Very Hard ™
Mage - a devastating class. First you have a great ability to control movement, accelerating your own with Blink and slowing others with Frost Nova and chill effects. Next you do good damage. And finally area effect is fantastic against clumped players. Played with agility a mage often attracts people to try for a kill without them being able to quite kill you. Make sure everyone has drink at the start or before, people get a lot of chances to drink during these matches.
Warlock - The main things I found to do with my warlock on the test server were running around dotting people, disrupting people with Fear and Seduce, hitting the flag room with area effect just as our flag carriers go in (they will all focus on you) and sending pets off to harass distant players from a position of safety.
Winning strategies
5 attack 5 defend One of the simplest, 5 of you wait to mob whoever comes into the flag room, 5 of you run up the side of the map, avoiding fights and burst into the enemy flag room as a unit. This is the quickest way to beat disorganised opposition. From the Horde perspective I'd suggest running up along the east edge of the map since the ramp up is that side. Defenders, if overwhelmed, usually respawn soon enough and far enough ahead that they get a second bite. Remember to run towards the middle when you respawn though!
10 attack I've seen this a lot in 51-60 battles. I think the idea is that this strategy beats the very common 5/5 formation - you will easily grab the opposition flag and you may be able to meet a 5 strong flag carrying group with your 10. In practice it always seems to result in both sides getting the opponents flags and then a long drawn out hunt for the flag carrier (who is always very near their own flag room waiting to drop in and win). I'm unconvinced that this beats 5/5 but it's very popular with high level players so I guess people feel it does
9 defend one stealths. Boring but very effective. Your 9 back at base will marmalise the opponents until they get frustrated enough to attack with everything. I've only actually seen this done a couple of times and it's worked both times.
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