It would be easy to make the mistake of thinking that the new Random Battleground interface is just LFD for Battlegrounds.
Why Easy?
Well, because it is the same thing… but.. BUT!
There is one fundamental difference… actually, there are two…
Nearly everyone “grew up” doing the instances, most of you wouldn’t dare set foot in a battleground before until one of your mates said…
Battlegrounds are easy – Honor falls from the sky – Honor buys gems – Gems give money – therefore Money is falling from the sky!
Please tell me about your mates, all their details including home address because I am going to send someone around to put them down right now…
No seriously, the phone is in my hand, I have an international ring of PvP lovers at my finger tips who would just love to put it into real world action.
The other important reason is this.
In a 5 man instance, with players that are clearly overgeared for the instance, one or two relatively AFK players wont cause a issue, because we are playing against the AI.
No matter how badly you perform, you still get your Emblems at then end.
In battleground you count, everyone on your team counts, because you aren’t playing against AI and if you don’t win the battle… you have just wasted everyone’s time.
It’s easy to fix – you have to play to WIN!
Now this runs the risk of deteriorating into weeks of me naming and shaming people – I don’t want to do that, honest I don’t, I much prefer to hold up shining examples of what people do right in the battlegrounds.
BUT…
If you don’t L2PLAY, I will contact Megan and come and ask her to write a series of posts on people that shouldn’t be allowed in Battlegrounds – in the only way she knows how!
Mmmm that isn’t such a bad idea…
Right, so I’m an angry little Gnome breathing balls of fire… what am I going to do about it?
I’m going to ask in a polite, if squeaky voice, that you put just a teeny weeny bit more effort into learning the battlegrounds before you ruin them for all of us. You can be sure that veterans will soon give up on the random aspect and just go and pwn (you) with their mates, so do the world a favor and read!
Where to begin…
Well you can start with my awesome posts on the subject (if you don’t agree they are awesome, you are welcome to eat a pyroblast!)
- Life is Cheap #1
- Life is Cheap #2
- Life is Cheap #3: The First Battle Grounds as PvE player
- Life is Cheap #4: Your First Alterac Valley as PvE player
- Life is Cheap #5: WSG PvP for PvE’rs
- Dear Mr. Euripedes, Sir
- I Love CriticalQQ: PvP for Fire Mages!
- It’s Simple Mathmatics
- Alterac Valley: ALL IN or Not ALL IN, that is the Question
- The Flag is Noob Bait
- It’s about the towers: Objectives in Wintergrasp
- You lost the BG… what have you got to say for yourself?
- The Horde are in our base eating our babies
- See, I Told You!
- What is Wrong with You?
- Honor in Battlegrounds
- Why did we lose? Ah…. BLUDGERS!!
- SotA tips, better than a guide
- Midfield is NOT an objective!
- Squidly’s Shaman PvP Tips #1: Resto FTW!
- Squidly’s Shaman PvP Tips #2: The Symbiotic Relationship
- Squidly’s Shaman PvP Tips #2: Resto Shaman PvP specs? (OK, I never said I was good at math)
- Squidly’s Shaman PvP Tips #3: Stoneclaw Totem
- Squidly’s Shaman PvP Tips #4: Backend of a Battleground
- We Want You! Healers in Battlegrounds
- Gnome Goggles on: Alar BG Helper
Right enough of my rubbish, now go an read over the genius of these folks.. it’s not limited to them, but this is all I am giving you right now. When you find (or maybe you have written) a good one, tell me and I will add it to the list.
- Cynwise’s Battlefield Manual
- Nerf My Shaman
- PvP Nub
- PvP source
- Fiery Weapons (yes it’s twink PvP, but the strats can be converted with a little brain power)
If we bloggers are all a bit avaunt garde for you, then of course you can read through WoW.com’s compendium of Battleground and PvP guides.
I want to win, unfortunately I am reliant on my BG team mates – if that means you, please do your job. Hell, do it badly, but at least follow the rules of the encounter and we might still win.
I also want you to play battleground… I really, really do. But you wouldn’t walk into a boss encounter without the slightest idea and in relation to PvP, bosses don’t put up a fight.
Come join me in pwning the opposition, not grovelling at their feet!
Gnomer and out
PS: thanks to Sydzy for supplying me with the macro shot.. it’s pretty common, and it sums up the frustration that veterans have with newbies…
Don’t be like Jeff!
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http://gnomeaggedon.net/2010/03/26/this-is-not-lfd-this-is-battlegrounds-and-its/
Thanks for the links; I don’t know what the correct BG strategies really are, but I can sense when my “team” is not playing the correct one. ( Flag in EoTS )
I remember all the AV bgs @ 70 for welfare epics.
I have 3 counterexamples for you. If Blizzard were taking BGs seriously, would they:
1) send all the people who really don’t want to BG to die in a BG with their orphan for an achievement?
2) Have ore and herbs in WG during the battle? I do try, but 4 saronite let alone a frost lotus is worth more to me than my impact on the BG. If Blizzard wanted people to take the BG seriously, the farmables would not be there.
AND THE MAIN REASON IS:
3) Blizzard would do something about the AFKs and bots. I actually enjoy PvP with my rogue. But after playing at 2-4AM and seeing 2 to 5!!!! AFKs in a 15 person group, at least two of which were bots, and reporting the same couple of people every game and seeing them in the next one, it is hard for me to take BGs seriously. And when one of the bots would follow my stealthed rogue, I got upset. If BGs were important, Blizz would spend a modicum of effort on the AFK problem.
I think rightly/wrongly Blizzard sees PvP as a core part of their game, one they want everyone to experience.
The thing is that some people don’t want to experience it… yet want the achievements or “loot” from them.
The new system will encourage those that are prepared to give it a go and will help them gear up (relatively) quickly.
On your last point I totally agree.
I remember having a bot /follow me in IoC,, I laughed when I got it stuck on a tower… then I reported it.
Of course there is a problem with AFK reporting. A good team will have people sitting around doing “nothing”.
A stealthy in Van’s room to call out or disrupt attempts on Van.
People actually sitting on flags and calling out incomings. Some times you can sit there for the whole battle without seeing an incoming.
I am trying to explain the value of this to mates at the moment.. but everyone gets and itch.. it’s about discipline and hopefully your team mates realizing you are guarding, not afk’ing.
Last night I made a mate wait at BeT with me. he was heals I was.. well me. He wasn’t happy, but after the 3rd stealth attack he realized we were as much responsible for winning the game as those shedding blood at other towers.
That people will try to AFK is understandable; or just joined or guarding. Bliz’s system where someone who has 0 dmg/heals and has been reported AFK for 5 straight BGs, by more than one person at least twice, and they are allowed to queue for the 6th, and are back for the next night, seems quite ineffectual. It took a lot of effort to without any arenas to get over 1000 resil. I hate to think how little effort it took them to get better gear. bitter and whiney.
I do think there should be a better indicator, and perhaps hk reward, for being near a resource node even without combat. Defense is not glamorous and is very underused and should be encouraged. Or at least not get reported.
But I am shocked at how little on BG strategy is easily available (WoWWiki, wow.com, Bliz ) – thanks for the links. Without being One of Those Guys, let’s just say I think some of my teammates – and I – could use some education.
I always amazes me when serial offenders in game and real life manage to get away with stuff, yet somehow the authorities miss it until something bad happens.
I cracked it on Twitter the other night when I found myself in our keep in IoC (due to an early death).
I did my bit from the walls etc.. but at the end of the battle got something like 25% of the honor of those that had just rushed ahead… no wonder people don’t bother defending.
That said, the honor in EotS the other night was pretty good for the occasional skirmish at BeT and calling incomings I could see in the distance.
Guides are hard… I admit I haven’t reread mine, but AV has changed a lot over the years. Someone on Twitter asked yesterday when the strat had changed to just rush to the front.
In the group I run with, the strat will often change, not just mid game, but often before we begin, especially if we note that the games are getting harder, thus our last strat must be obvious.
The biggest problem of course is that 99% of BGs you will be in will be PuG, so a strategy guide per se is useless, because you aren’t all playing the same strat. Voice comms is a requirement in pre-mades, just to make sure everyone stays on the same page.. in pugs, no hope.
Often what is better is a “tips” guide, just pointing out the value of landmarks or actions in the game, whether they are game makers or breakers… which GY’s do you take in AV… Do you back cap etc.
You know, I rarely PvP. I’m bad at it, I hate Arena, and I don’t REALLY know the BG strats. Rough idea of the Vanilla/TBC ones.. but generally, I avoid testing them. So thank you thank you thank you for the links I was too lazy to look for <3
One thing that gets me in BGs mind.. When somebody is doing something wrong, and rather than try to help them to improve, they just scream at them. What's that going to solve aside from everybody rolling their eyes and going "oh, that guy again."
My pleasure.. rather be a part of the solution (albeit a grumbling one
) than a part of the problem.
I think why people get “cranky” in BGs is there isn’t really time to explain, even over voice and as I mentioned on the post, there are very few people that enter an instance, let alone a raid without a vague idea of what they are doing..
So I guess that frustration just boils over.