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WoW: IncGamers Member
Join Date: Aug 2006
Location: Providence, RI
Posts: 79
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At that level mages are alright flag carriers too, because of frostnova, coldsnap, manashield, and blink.
Mages are also extremely important flag escorts. They can poly enemies getting too close to the FC, nova a mob of them, and slow them with blizzard (if talented right). Polying is actually the most powerful of these, as a mage can just keep polying different people as they get close to the FC, and then simply poly a new target since there isn't really a cooldown to speak of on the spell.
You can also play defense and slow down the enemy FC with ice spells, poly a priest or other healer that's escorting him, or simply poly the FC and deal with his escorts first.
General stuff :
There are a lot of acronyms used that were confusing to me as a beginning player. They're important because people will be giving the location of the enemy flag carrier, and since you're chasing somebody you can't spend the time to type "He went graveyard." I'll define them and include a little about each one.
FC - flag carrier, the person who has taken the flag and is trying to run it back to the base. You'll want to defend and heal this guy. Certain things can cause you to drop the flag, basically things that would be unfair for you to still have the flag and do: mounting, iceblocking as a mage, bubbling as a pally, vanishing as a rogue, dying. I have seen some skilled rogues vanish to get out of snares and quickly pick the flag back up. Other things you don't lose the flag doing: shapeshifting as a druid, ghostwolf as a shaman, sprinting as a rogue, blinking as a mage. If an FC dies or otherwise drops the flag, it'll appear next to them. Right click on it AS FAST AS YOU CAN, to either return it to your base or pick it up and carry it yourself, depending on whose flag it is. Sometimes, if you're fast enough, you can pick up the flag even if the FC who died is surrounded by the enemy. These things can be won if you're fast at interactions.
FR - flag room, the place where the flag is, the center of each base. All paths lead to it, so it's a little tricky to defend, particularly because people can take pot shots at you from the higher levels (roof, 2nd floor) and it can be hard to return fire. A good play to hide to avoid this is the little room right at the top of the tunnel. You can actually shoot/cast spells through the glass down into the tunnel.
Roof - you get to this from the FR by going down the tunnel and taking a left. At higher levels, you can actually mount on that ramp thing that goes up to the roof. This is a common place for an FC to go if he can't cap (enemies in the FR, his team's flag has been taken by the other side) because it only has one entrance, which is easy to monitor and an uphill battle. The blocks on the roof make it a little easier to get away from attackers as well. Frequently if the people defending the FC are overwhelmed, he'll drop down to the 2nd level or the FR. If you're clever about timing you can "disappear" by dropping down and hiding somewhere just before the enemy forces come up the ramp, but this can also leave you vulnerable to an ambush. Commonly when dropping down to run away, you'll want to go towards your graveyard in hopes that your allies will respawn and help defend you. In an evenly matched game, FCs for each side can sit on the roof indefinitely. These games can get rather tedious. As a mage I like to play D from the roof, because I can hit almost anything in the FR or on the 2nd floor, and it minimizes reprisals to me. If someone grabs the flag, I either drop down or go back and cut them off in the tunnel, depending upon which way they go. You have to be careful of people sneaking up on you up there, though.
2nd floor - that platform in the FR but off of the floor, on top of that little room. You reach it by exiting the flag room towards your team's graveyard and taking a left up, or from the outside by taking the higher of the two entrances above the general battlefield. Generally at the start of a match this is where the initial attack will come from, particularly in brackets with mounts, because it's the closest entrance when you factor in the increased movement speed from the mount. The small room just outside of the FR is a common hiding place for an FC.
Tunnel - The big tunnel that goes up from the battleground floor into the FR. You can reach the roof from here as well. The most direct / common route to the FR, most incs come from here. FCs will almost always take this route to get back into their own base, so if you're looking to cut them off, the enemy tunnel is a good place to run to. This information is also good to know if you're snagging the enemy flag, because if their FC is coming back, you shouldn't run tunnel because you'll run smack into their escort and get destroyed. Doubly bad because their FC progresses and the one thing hindering them, the flag out of their base, is solved. A speed boost buff appears in the tunnel occasionally, it makes you run very fast for 15 seconds, useful for either running into the FR and grabbing the flag before anyone can do anything, or as an FC for running away from your pursuit. If you're playing defense, you'll want to grab this so some rogue doesn't gank your flag and leave you in the dust.
Ramp - The route to the outside upper level of a base, on the right as you approach. I find this to be my route of choice for getting into an enemy base, as it's not usually guarded, and a lot of people fighting in midfield don't even see you going that way. In higher brackets you can stay mounted, which is nice. The further to right you keep, the less visible you are generally. If you run to the right of the two fences, there is actually a break in the wall a little further back, so you can really sneak into the base with minimum visibility. Sneaky FCs will take this route out of the base, and then keep to the edge of the map to be minimally visible as they run the flag back. If someone takes ramp out of a base, they will likely take tunnel into their base, as it's the closest entrance. This is why it's important to try and stay in the middle, just outside the entrance to your tunnel, when you hear that someone is running with your flag, because they might have gone ramp, or graveyard, and you need to cut them off. The berserker powerup spawn in the hut by this entrance.
GY - Graveyard. This refers to a few things. In reference to an FC running, it is the part of the base where you can jump off of the upper level down to the lower level, right where the healing buff spawns and where the spirit healer/spawn point is. This is a good place to run, but it can be risky if the enemy spawns right on top of you. If you get lucky with spawn times, though, it's faster than ramp while still being about as stealthy. This is my route of choice. Generally, if an FC goes GY he will get back to his base via ramp, but sometimes he will take tunnel.
GY can also refer to the area on the upper level around the spawn point, including stuff far to the left of the base (facing the base). This can be a good place for an FC to hide, because it's close to steady supply of allies from the GY, but further to the left there is a bunch of stuff to hide behind. It's weakness is that there isn't that much of a choke point, so it can be hard to control access to it. A rogue in particular could easily sneak past and quickly execute your FC.
HK - Honorable kill. You get one if you're near / participate in the killing of an enemy. Gives you honor. Can be a good measure of whether or not you find yourself constantly near battles with the enemy. To "farm HKs" is to just go after killing the enemy. The thing is, one flag cap is worth about 18 HKs, so it's actually better to go after the objective.
KB - Killing blow. If you deal the last hit to an enemy that kills him, you get a KB. In the score tab, players are ranked according to KBs, but they don't really mean that much. I can easily get a really high KB count by using my instant casts when an enemy's health is low. However, they are still significant. You are still taking a source of damage out of the battle, and I can't tell you how many times I've seen a player running around dealing damage with very low health because no one realizes they could just off him really quickly. If your ratio of KBs / HKs is very low, it means you've been fighting solo a lot. Not always a good thing.
Heal tent - the little building next to the GY. It contains a buff that quickly heals you AND restores your mana. I use it to buff myself and my team more fully at GY and then get back all my mana. The buff respawns very quickly if someone takes it. If you were farming HKs off of the enemy GY, you could keep picking up quick heals from this.
Berserker tent - Has the berserker powerup. You cause more damage, but take more damage. If you think you can nuke the FC before his defense gets to you, this may help out a lot.
Midfield - No man's land, the area in the middle of the map. If you want HKs you get them here, but FCs going GY or ramp will sneak past you and cap. A lot of people say that if you control the midfield you control the game. Experience has taught me that this is difficult to achieve in practice, although I have won on teams that have taken this strategy.
Inc - Incoming. Some enemies are coming. "Inc tunnel" means that enemies are coming up the tunnel, for example. A warning to your teammates, used most often on D.
D - Defense. Stop the FC at all costs. Ignore his escort unless they are healing him. Delay the FC with slowing effects and snares. You should set freezing / ice traps on the flag if you're a hunter, or be quick with the nova if you're a mage, etc. It's generally a good idea to play D from a less than obvious position: the roof, the room underneath the 2nd floor, or in between the two exits to the FR. You must not fall behind the FC! If he gets out of the FR, you should tell your team which way he's going (either "tunnel" or "GY / ramp"). That way, the people spawning at your GY can cut him off. THIS IS VITAL, and few people actually do it. If your teammates don't know where the FC is and run up the tunnel when he goes ramp you're screwed.
On D protecting your FC, your objective is to take as many of them out of the game via sheep/sapping/whatever as possible. You'll want to prioritize killing the DPSers, as their burst damage is most dangerous to your FC. If you're outnumbered, delay them as much as possible to give your FC a chance to run for your GY.
If you return your flag, or hear that the flag is returned, you should get back to the FR ASAP. So many captures happen not on the first run, but "off the rebound," so to speak. This is because everyone leaves the FR to go after the flag, and once it's returned they get caught up in whoever they were fighting, leaving the FR empty and capping a cakewalk.
O - Offense. Trying to capture the flag. Generally the best route of attack is up the ramp and down from the 2nd floor. It's almost always more lightly defended / watched than tunnel. I find that if I'm going in solo to take the flag, or with 1 teammate, I go ramp. If I'm going in force, a group of 4 or more, we'll be successful going tunnel. You'll want to escort your FC back. Don't try to kill enemies, just delay, snare, sap, and poly them. Keep them back from the FC. Heal the FC. Pick up the flag if he drops it. If you have fallen behind the offensive and are in the enemy base, sometimes it's a good strategy to hide on the roof or somewhere in the FR and wait for them to return the flag. Then grab it and go the opposite way from where the last carrier went, GY if he went tunnel or ramp, ramp or tunnel if he went GY. It can sometimes be really easy to capture the flag "off of the rebound."
Rewards:
You can get some sweet items as rewards for BGs. As I understand it, at least as alliance, it's easier to accrue AB and WSG tokens in a lower bracket, but easier to acquire honor at 60. The first and most useful PvP item you should get is available in the hall of champions in either SW or Ogrimmar. You want the Alliance Trinket / Horde Trinket. This lets you desheep / defear on use, which is INCREDIBLY useful. Hotkey it to something convenient. Since so much of WSG revolves around delaying your enemy, it makes you a much toucher force if you can't be simply dismissed with a poly/fear.
That's pretty much all I've got, but I think it's a lot of helpful stuff that isn't necessarily readily apparent to a fresh WSG player.
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