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October 26, 2005
A good read for you Strategy Buff's
I'm linking to Sun Tzu in wikipedia.
This'll be good for all you Strategy / Tactics buffs. Sorry for the lack of posts, I'll become more prolific when I hit the lvl 60 bracket for PvP.
Posted by mrh176 at 03:58 PM
October 20, 2005
Viewer Mail
I'm going to take some time to answer some viewer mail today, as Arathi has been very quiet on my server this week, so I've been spending my time "Gearing Up". Now to the email.
Thor Thor from Nathrezim writes:
I was reading your blog, perhapse you can give me some insight...
On my server (Nathrezim) Alliance has fewer people, and the majority of us are less geared out then the horde, as a result we often loose BG's to horde Pickup groups... not to mention their coordinated guild groups.
We run a strategy like this...
Group 1 and 2 Zerg blacksmith, while 3 hits Mill.
Leave no less then 2 or 3 at every controlled node, set up a group of 'static defense' to go where they are needed.
I have a hard time getting the guys off a flag when its contested, they don't want to give up on it.. which usually leads to horde getting a respawn at the node that half of my group is at, and we get attacked in a weakspot.
We also seem to be undergeared.. in a 10 on 10 zerg, horde wins 90% of the time. So our strategey has to be superior.
Anything im missing here? Or do we just gotta practice...
As long as your match is 15 v 15, you always have hope. So I'll give you some strategy and tactics that hopefully will help you out Thor Thor.
Strategy
It only takes one person to grab the Stables. The blacksmith is important, but not as important as you might think. Try this your next match. Send one person to the stables, one person (pally or mage) to the mine (they're going to die), one person to the Smithy (again, pally or mage, maybe druid). Then send 6 people to the mill, and 6 people to the Farm.
Get to the Farm using the road on the east side (between the Blacksmith and the Lumber Mill). Some Horde might see you, they might not. Most of 'em will be at the mill or mine.
Capping the Farm right off the bat creates a huge choke point and allows you to focus your forces, and hopefully have superior numbers in all your fights.
Another strategy that I've done, and has worked successfully for me, is to have 5 rogues in a single group, and have them travel from node to node, stealthed, popping when the get close to defenders, and stealing nodes. Staying stealthed after they take it, or leaving entirely (mix it up, so the enemy is never sure). Don't do this in the same match as above though, or players will get confused.
Tactics
The most important thing to do, when defending a flag, is to STOP the ENEMY from capping it at all costs. Fight close to the flag, hit anyone trying to cap it (AoE preferably). If you do this really well, you can have 3 or 4 people defend against 10 for a VERY long time.
The most important thing to do, when attacking a flag, is to CAP it. Have a survivable player (warrior/pally) click that flag, and click it often. People will be hitting him, and the DPS people can focus on whoever is smacking the person capping the flag. It's how to TANK in AB, do it often. Fighting battles doesn't win AB, owning stuff does.
That's all the advise I have for you Thor Thor. Good luck in your upcoming AB matches! Keep practicing! It's worth the faction even if you don't win every match. When victory comes (and it will) it will taste very sweet.
Posted by mrh176 at 08:21 AM
October 17, 2005
Moral
Hopefully a short entry today, again, about Arathi Basin.
Alliance members, we don't "always lose". Stop using it as an excuse to be stupid. A large number of my team members and I have a winning record for this week. If you're in games that "always lose", you may want to question what you bring to the table. I know at least one thing in common with all the games you lost...
Posted by mrh176 at 08:41 AM
October 14, 2005
Of Mice and Men
Witty title aside, this is another Arathi Basin post. A short one today though. I'm also going to work on some graphics for the blog this weekend, although, it is an Arathi Basin holiday this weekend too, so I might be too busy ripping my sword out of orcish gullets to accomplish any publishing activities.
Hilarious AB Story
We were down 2 nodes to 3, and the game was within 40 resource points. We're struggling to take another flag. (Horde owned Mine, Mill, and Farm) As the horde was pushing towards the blacksmith (where I had just died), I figured I'd run up to the mill (after I rez'd) to see what was going on up there. So I run up, there are two horde looking intently at the blacksmith battle. So intently, they didn't notice me capping the flag, not more than 4 yards behind them. I managed to keep them at bay long enough for the node to change ownership too. I bet their team wasn't very happy with that performance o_O.Moving on...
Didn't post a single AB win last night. All our games were close, so it wasn't a total blowout, probably got 15,000 honour or so, which isn't horrible for our bracket (50-59). We managed to co-ordinate a WSG game afterwards too, which was a nice change up, even though we got hammered. In my defense, I completely forgot how to play WSG. It isn't like riding a bike. My brain has been all AB tactics for too long.Anyway, I'll be doing AB all weekend, might do some grinding or a raid in between to lvl and gear up though. Look me up! Send a tell to Airazel on Silver Hand. If you're on Silver Hand, alliance side, and want to join in the Arathi Basin action, join the pvp59 channel.
Have a good Arathi Basin Holiday everyone!
Posted by mrh176 at 08:38 AM
October 12, 2005
Sun Tzu's Art of War
As it applies to Arathi Basin.
I'm all pumped after leading raids and posting a bunch of wins last night, so I thought I'd be all egotistical about it.
There are two parts to every battle, as Sun Tzu would say. There's strategy and Tactics.
Strategy
Strategy is your battle plan before the battle begins. A couple of things that I've been trying to achieve on the strategy front;- Have four groups, Two "Acquire" groups, and Two "Cap" groups. The "Acquire" group consists of four members each and have a single healer. The "Cap" group consists of Night Elves, Druids, or Rogues (things that can stealth). A single Acquire group takes a resource Node, then the cap group moves in and defends it afterwards. The leftover three players either rove, assist on defense, or harass the blacksmith the entire match.
- Have two standard 5 man groups, and 5 one man groups. Each one man group is assigned to a single resource node, and either harasses it, or defends it for the entire match. This forces the horde to either have it's best players holed up on a resource node, or more than one man on defense. This gives our team a numbers advantage, as we can tie up two or three players with one.
Tactics
Tactics is the art of co-ordinating a battle that has already began. I don't want to give away all my secrets, but these two tactics were very effective, and fun, last night.- One thing that worked rather well, If the horde owns the mine, mount up and run around until some hordy is chasing you (hopefully, you'll get a few tailers). Then head towards the mine, and run into the mine. You should be able to get in no problem, and the LOS will screw with root spells. When I did this, I'd usually get three or four people chase me inside. Once I get to the end, I wait for them all to get there, then punch my Intimidating Shout, and watch them run around for a bit. The goal is, to have more than one player tied up, giving your team a numbers advantage elsewhere on the field.
- My other trick from last nights victories, Invisibility Potions. Nothing like letting the horde see you run towards something, then drinking an Invisibility potion. Or even better, using it to sneak up on a node. If the one defender sees you coming, they can call in reinforcements. If he doesn't.... This worked rather well, one time I capped a node using this, another time, I managed to attract five defenders, while we were winning battles at the other four nodes.
Overall
The one thing to keep in mind for your AB games is that there are five objectives. It's better to have small, well defined "Holy Trinity" teams than to run around as a big mass. Sticking with your mini-group is important. If your running solo and can tie up more than one enemy for a non-trivial period of time, that's valuable. But if you get cut to shreds in seconds, it's not valuable. You'll win with the proper support. (DPS, Meatsheild, Healer)Posted by mrh176 at 09:44 AM
October 11, 2005
And the MVP is...
Me!
Every week for a few weeks now, our guild Alliance Guard has a newsletter, and someone is nominated as MVP, this week it was me *blush*.
I had a pretty un-eventful week, besides hitting lvl 56 and finding a lifestone off a Blackrock Warlock.
The question I face now is, to raid or not to raid. I don't need to do a lot of PvP to maintain my rank. I don't think I can rank much higher without jumping into the lvl 60 bracket either.
Raiding, while not giving a lot of experience, does provide a fair amount of good gear and money. I'd really like to get the Battlegear of Valor set. So far, I have the bracers (phear me)!
I'll be on tonight, I'll either be laying some smack down in Arathi Basin, or driving my sword into Baron Rivendare's face.
Posted by mrh176 at 08:39 AM
October 06, 2005
Arathi Basin Slump Subsided
Despite the cheating of the Horde member Asylus, we alliance managed to put together a few wins. It was actually quite nice to win a couple rounds of AB.
I've also spent some time leveling up too. I'd like to get to a more competitive level so I can slice Thorga in half as effectively as I dish it out to other hunters. (I'm coming for you Thorga!)
You can now track my PvP progress on the PvP standings website for Silver Hand. I'm all ranked and stuff.
I've also been AWOL the last few days, been tied up with some non-awesome-me type stuff. I'll get back to living life in Azeroth shortly.
It's all those "responsibility" and "family" and "work" things that keep getting in the way.
If someone wants to give me a big chunk of money so I can remove "work" and "responsibility" from my plate, I'd be more than a welcome recipient.
*wink*
Posted by mrh176 at 03:44 PM
October 03, 2005
Contact Information
I know there are a lot of humans out there who read this BLOG. Thanks for the support. I also noticed that I have absolutely no contact information on here! How silly of me.
If you'd like to send me an email, feel free to do so! mrh176@mail.usask.ca
Posted by mrh176 at 10:11 AM
Alterac Valley....
So, I was pretty pumped on Thursday when I learned that the Stormpike Dwarves would be having a holiday this weekend.... little did I realize that Holiday or no, there are forces that cannot be overcome that drive me away from Alterac Valley. I think it might possibly have something to do with the four hour waits in the queue, and the twelve hour matches.
Needless to say, the only Alterac Valley game that was up, that I was able to attend was Friday Night. There was no game Saturday, or Sunday, and I was unable to play on Thursday. So I'm waiting in the queue... for three hours, it's getting mighty close to my turn to get in...
Then... the shocking realization that we have guests, the computer is in the guest room, the guests are sleeping over, and it's frigging midnight sets in.
No Alterac Valley for me... again. I've done more than my fair share of waiting in that queue, and I've never ever ever been in a match of AV. Like I said, forces that cannot be overcome. The last time I waited five hours, so decided to do BRD (this was right when BG's came out). The notice came up! It was finally my turn! But I was in the middle of BRD and didn't want to leave the peoples hanging... So I hit "Hide". Box pops up two minutes later, so I hit "Hide" again, only to be dequeued entirely.
More of those forces.
Next time I wait in the queue for many hours, the power will go off just before I am to be let in.
I hit lvl 54, I'm 1/2 way to 55, hopefully people well let me into their beloved LBRS or Stratholme raids.
Posted by mrh176 at 08:19 AM