Thinking of doing BGs... not sure

[Marlous]

When I had just started playing and got my Rogue to level 19, I saw two people standing on the square in SW. Upon talking to them they offered me to fight in WSG, and gain things they called honour points and special marks. Well, it sounded fun enough to try out. Not knowing anything about twinks and what they are, I took my moderately-geared PvE Rogue into 10-19 WSG... and got scarred for life. o.O

Now, a handful of toons and levels further, I'm still hesitant to go into a BG again. Not only because of my little traumatic experience, but also because I feel that I will suck heavily at PvP - being so used to PvE only. I've heard that playing against another actual player is a whole different ball game, and I'm a complete newbie when it comes to that. I just don't want to be slaughtered again, and be called a noob because I'm midlevel and don't know anything about PvP.

A friend of mine is trying to persuade me to try out BGs after all, with my BElf Warlock. I've got her to level 37 right now, and am wondering if I should just give it a try once I reach 39. But I'm just not sure, so I thought I'd post here for some advice.

How should I go about this? Is there a specific BG I should try out, or doesn't it matter? I only know WSG, and have no idea what to do in the other ones (read something about capturing towers or something?). I also wonder if I'm suitably geared/specced for PvP, as I hear people say that there are different specs and stuffs for both PvE and PvP (think mage with frost vs fire). I'm affliction specced myself, which is imho the best out of three, but I don't know if it's any good for BGs. And what makes a Warlock good in BGs anyway? This (http://eu.wowarmory.com/character-sheet.xml?r=Lightbringer&n=Maelynn) is the toon I'm talking about.. looking at her would you think I should just forget about it and stick to the easy PvE? :tongue:

[ME<--ShootHere!!]

Going into BG at lvl 19 is facing all the horrid bored people's twinks.

WSG itself is, imho, the most horrible BG as well.

Once you hit higher levels (and I do mean past the 60s) AV and AB are quite fun and even Eye of the Storm with a good team can be quite a challenge.

So don't get discouraged but the low level BGs are indeed little to no fun.

Stick to it and you will enjoy the fun, especially if you can coax your guild/friends to come with you and have an awesome time.

[odinsnephew]

Go for it! Or at least try AB at that bracket. I play the bg's for fun mostly and yes, you can play an entire session and just get slaughtered, but the flipside is you can win too!

And im tempted to roll a new character to help Marlous. Watch this space ;)

[Aerath]

Don't forget - all those 'godly' players once had to set foot in their first BG as well.

Everyone has to start sometime and 37 is a good enough time. As long as you're x5+ (except for the 10-19 bracket, where 18 really is the bare minimum) you can do fine in most brackets.

Don't worry too much initially - just run around and dot everything in sight. Cast the odd fear bomb and you'll be doing more than your share already.

If you do want to prepare a bit better, talk to a lowby guildy enchanter that's leveling his enchanting skill. A +3 stam on boots, +35 health on chest etc don't do a lot, but it all adds up. Getting a bit nearer to 2k health will make you stay alive that much longer.

If you can get there, jewelcrafting has a couple fairly nice trinkets too, around the 200 skill mark.

[caldepen]

the only way to become better is practice so go for it!

[jrichard]

Lots of very good gear can be gotten for bg honor at 70. Waiting to learn how to operate in the bgs at 70 can be a pain for a lock, though. Go in now, learn the battleground maps and objectives, get a feel for using the skills you currently have and at each bracket you just need to incorporate a few new ones into your play rather than having to learn to use them all at once.

As has been said, everyone has to go through the learning process including the idiots who yell at everyone for being a noob. Ignore them and enjoy yourself.

As a lock, keep your fear spell on a pretty handy hotkey. For the most part you'll be dotting and fearing where the player you're attacking isn't being melee'd by someone. Throw curse of tongues and send your felhunter after healers and dps casters. Spread your dots around freely and you'll do fine on damage.

Arathi basin isn't a terribly large battleground. There are 5 nodes: the farm, the lumbermill, the blacksmith, the mines, and the stables. When someone right clicks on the flag that is at each node, they start to "take" that node for their side. A timer starts and if it completes, that side has the node and begins to accumulate resources from it and can res in the graveyard by that node. The more nodes you have, the faster the resources accumulate. First team to 2000 wins. You take a node that the other team has by fighting to its flag and right clicking on it. Go on into ab and you'll find it's not complicated.

You will meet twinks and some of them will roll you. At the 39 bracket, however, they won't be as numerous as you faced in the 19 bracket.

[Findariel]

Well whether you're not you're cannon fodder, BGs are still a team game and you get nice gear regardless ^^

I think 95% of the players engage in PvP at lvl70 simply because the gear is extremely good and easy to get compared to other ways so better get used to it.

[Marlous]

Thanks for all the replies. Hm, I think I'll just go ahead and try it, then. *gulp* But not until I've reached 39 - I have a Necklace of Calisea and an Umbral Crystal waiting for me, and I have a few pieces of gear that are in desperate need of an upgrade. I'm not going in with mediocre gear again. :)

How does it work with accumulating honour in a BG anyway? Will all kills of the entire party count towards my own, or just the ones I kill myself? And does AB have the same brackets as WSG has, or is it different? How long do such battles take, will it cost me my whole afternoon?

Lol Odin, you think you can level a new toon that quickly? ;) If you try be sure to /w me in-game, I'm mostly on with Maelynn these days anyway.

[Aerath]

All kills made in range of you will give you honour, but you'll split the worth of a single kill over all that are in range. As long as you are alive, you'll get honour for people killed.

On top of that, you'll get honour for accumulating resources in AB (every 200-300 resources or so, you'll get one kill worth of honour). You'll get honour for flag caps in WSG. There's a tiny bit of honour at the end, but it ain't a lot.

WSG can take hours. AB tends to take 6 to 20 minutes roughly.

AB has nearly the same brackets as WSG (only the 10-19 one is missing). AV is for 51-60 and 61-70.

You might want to try to get 20 WSG marks too - you can buy some awesome bracers then for level 40.

[odinsnephew]

Lol Odin, you think you can level a new toon that quickly? ;) If you try be sure to /w me in-game, I'm mostly on with Maelynn these days anyway.

Certainly, but if I just leveled one quickly I might not have good gear :grin:

But I am tempted ;)

The main problem is concentration. Can I powerlevel without getting bored of the barrens? Argh!

[Aerath]

Certainly, but if I just leveled one quickly I might not have good gear :grin:

But I am tempted ;)

The main problem is concentration. Can I powerlevel without getting bored of the barrens? Argh!

Some classes don't need good gear. All you need on a Hunter is a BoE blue gun (there's several available in the bracket) and the engineering made bullets. A regular Nightscape LW made set will suffice if you really want to 'twink' beyond quest drops.

Other classes are pretty easy to twink. E.g. Fire/Frost mage only need Of Fiery/Frozen Wrath and enough health to survive an ambushing rogue. Similarly, affliction locks pretty much only need Of Shadow Wrath.

on a side note, seem to recall Marlous playing Alliance - but the armoury is refusing to load once again, so I'm not 100% sure. If she is, you might run into problems if you quest through the barrens again and then discover around level 37ish that she's on the other faction.

[odinsnephew]

Lightbringer is a PvE realm/server Aerath. And yes I may well make a hunter as I know them fairly well. Yes the nightscape stuff is pretty good for that bracket and having been a LW/skinner before that might just do the job I guess ;)

[Aerath]

Lightbringer is a PvE realm/server Aerath. And yes I may well make a hunter as I know them fairly well. Yes the nightscape stuff is pretty good for that bracket and having been a LW/skinner before that might just do the job I guess ;)

Ah, Armoury finally loaded. Yups - BElf Lock = Horde side indeed.

Ork or Tauren Hunter should do fine then.

[Marlous]

on a side note, seem to recall Marlous playing Alliance

Key note here is "as well". *grins* I play both sides, although my love for this lock has made me neglect my ally toons a bit. Well, maybe a bit much. It also doesn't help that I found an awesome guild on the Horde side.

Odin, can't you bypass the Barrens by doing both Mulgore and Durotar, and then take the zepp to SPF? That ought to net you enough levels to move to Hillsbrad after that.. I think..

Anyway, I just dinged 38 tonight, so it's only a short wait for me now. I'll go try AB then, especially because it won't take as long as WSG - I don't fancy spending hours on end in a BG. I might look into getting 20 marks of WSG though, because I'm curious about the bracers you mentioned.

[Marlous]

Well, Monday night I took the plunge and entered Arathi Basin. Oh my, I surely hadn't expected it to be so exhilarating! I went in 3 times total, and got 7 tokens and some 270 honour. And I even managed to kill 2 people all on me ownsies! ^^

I'm so going back in when I'm 49 - right now I dinged 40 just so that I could get my Felsteed and reach the Elders easier.

[odinsnephew]

Good start there Marlous /salute ;)

I have in fact started levelling an Orc huntress. Shes 17 now, so I will catch up soon if my mains guildies dont keep threatening me :laugh:

First character ive really played on a PvE realm......its certainly different from what im used too! Im in Stonetalon mountains atm......and the barrens is almost unavoidable but necessary.

I will /w Maelynn soon, just want to level her up a bit further :)

[xDarkDrifterx]

Practice makes perfect. IMO you can comfortably go in on the 6's (26,36,46, etc) so once you hit 38 you'll have all your new spells and skills for the bracket, so you could go then. As a lock you'll find rogues and hunters (there's tons of them now) rather annoying, but you can tab dot and fear all day long if you're not noticed. Just watch your positioning on the field and stay a bit to the rear as well as use cover to keep out of sight (rocks, building corners, etc). Also look at the WSG and AB guides here (http://wow.incgamers.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=138).

[Marlous]

Hm yes, it might be wise to try and hide a bit - I had the tendancy to just jump out for a face-off, which isn't the wisest thing to do when you're a clothie. I'll also have a look at those guides, thanks for linking.

Odin, you crazy git! :grin: Let me know when you're ready to introduce yourself to me - then I'll introduce you to my guild. I think you'll love them just as much as I do, ha ha.

[Meds tbh]

I'm kinda power levelling my first WoW toon - a pally - will I get slaughtered in end game BGs? Don't see me being raid specced any time soon :(