I mentioned the other day about sacrificing a Gnome for the success of a raid, but I’m also a great believer in sacrificing a Gnome to win a BG.
I’m not talking about a pointless waste of life, of charging into an impossible fight throwing a life to the wind, I’m talking about a calculated sacrifice designed for further the objectives of a team.
Before I go any further some disclaimers…
- A Gnome was harmed (repeatedly) and occasionally killed in the making of this post.
- Many Horde were frustrated to the point of losing.
- Many games won by the Alliance and lost by the Horde.
When I play in a BG, I play with one objective in mind, to win.
Sure I don’t mind adding to my HK count, I like the occasional achievement flashing on my screen, but they are incidental, my objective is to win, no matter what the cost to my stats, it’s a team game and I’ll take one for the team.
- Sometimes this means I sit at a node twiddling my four fingers, the whole game, without even seeing the horde or scoring a kill.
- Sometimes this means suicide runs, apparently pointlessly attacking a node, handing the Horde HKs, only to Rez and charge back again.
- Sometimes this means ignoring a team mates plight when they are getting hammered on the road, to ensure a node is taken or kept. Stopping would mean that the cost of their life was in vain, continuing gives meaning to their sacrifice.
Of course generally when I am in a BG it is with an organized group, 90%+ of us are on vent.
We don’t report the node sitter AFK, they are doing their assigned duty.
When the call comes to change targets or objectives or locations, we break off immediately and act. Chasing the HKs and delaying the change can cause losses.
Over the weekend I managed to find some time for 10 Strand of the Ancients. 9 wins, 1 close loss.
I was assigned all sorts of tasks from the standards:
Offense: run bombs, protect demos, CC the Horde off our demos (or at least slow them) and ignore all Horde not attacking our demos. Take the GY flags.
Defense: Destroy demos. Ignore the Horde (apart from the initial landing), unless assigned to protect a gate from bomb runners. Protect the GY flags.
To specific tasks, like guarding the Eastern GY. When I’m guarding the GY that is my focus. I will call out passing Horde, particularly Demos, but if I can’t hit it from the flag, then that’s someone elses job.
As tempting as it might be, chasing the HK off my position is not a winning strategy. Just ask the rogue that kept trying to ninja cap my GY… My presence at the flag was a complete pain-in-the-Horde.
BTW, a tip for guarding nodes. Even if you think you can hold it against the one incoming enemy, call their presence. Their mates may arrive when you are busy fighting and your early call might get a teammate to sweep past on the way to their objective and save the day.
I almost feel sorry for that rogue…
GY flag + Gnome = I can be a solo hero, the Chuck Norris of the Horde!
Next time, remember Chuck’s beard, my beard… I’m Chuck Norris of the Alliance!
When you are doing your job well in an organized group (responding to instructions, calling incs etc), you will know by the number of times you hear your name called in Vent.
I got called to protect the red gate. My mission was to stop, slow and cripple Demos as they came through.
It wasn’t so important that they didn’t get past, afterall there were 13 teammates behind me protecting the yellow gate, but they were relying on that demo being near death.
That was my mission, loose Horde were irrelevant (but let’s face it, the odd living bomb never hurt anyone did it?).
This was where the Horde failed in it’s primary objective – the gates.
They fell for Gnome bait!
At one point I had 7 Horde, 1/2 their team, trying to kill one irrelevant Gnome, fighting on the road, a long way from their gate objective.
Meanwhile I was still killing their Demos!
WTF were they thinking?
WTF were they doing?
They nearly got me after a couple of precious minutes, then I made them see red, I brought the bloodlust to the fore, they forgot about everything else in the battle and beat impotently on my Iceblock.
Say goodbye to another 30 seconds of your limited time guys!
7 Horde hitting and casting at an Iceblock while I /rude /laugh
Gnome bait!
This wasn’t the only time during the battles that they just flocked to me… I hate my “Eat At Joes” Shaman totems when I’m on Squidly, but for some reason, everyone wants to punt the Gnome.
Whatever… your loss, my team’s win.
Having a picnic
Speaking of winning, if you are ever unfortunate enough to join a BG where there is a campfire, picnic basket or Gnomeregan Banner…
Just log off!
Give up now.
You are going to lose.. I will help to make sure of that.
I was wondering what the Horde were thinking in SotA as they approached the docks and there was this little picnic set up and a banner already claiming the docks for Gnomeregan.
Whatever they were thinking it was already too late.
I wasn’t sitting under the umbrella waiting for them.
I was already behind them, watching them do the double-take, then just as they gathered their nerve to launch off the docks…
BAM!
Frost Nova’s in place,
Disoriented with a Dragons Breath
Slowed with a Blast wave
Sniffing at their slowly roasting flesh as the living bombs ticked away
Wondering how the hell four nasty little Gnomes got in amongst them.
Their next thought, as they rezzed at the graveyard on the beach, looking at that perfect picnic settling, was
WHERE THE F’ IS THAT GNOME!
Meh… too much time spent thinking guys… luckily you have some time while the Spirit Rez ticks along again.
Alliance, I’ll meet you on the beach for a cookout…
Horde, you taste sooo sweet!
Gnomer and Out!
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License.
http://gnomeaggedon.net/2010/12/06/gnome-bait/
PS: You can still learn from, or give to Movember!
You can give via Visa, Mastercard, Amex or Paypal.
Paypal, perfect for those abstained coffee donations
Go on.. wouldn’t you buy a coffee to keep someone alive?
fantastic post, as always — LOVE the picnic umbrella and campfire tactic! my question is, what happens if you just PuG into a BG, and don’t have the benefit of vent??
I was in SotA all weekend. It was so frosty outside, I hunkered down with the fireplace channel, chips and dip and a big bottle of coke and put in 8 hours in bgs. (gosh I’m lame – lol)
I spent much of my time yelling “Kill the Mages” when I was driving my demo. It’s so frustrating being frozen and puttering up so slowly. Mages are the bane of my exsistance in Stands now.
I was in randoms no vent so it was pretty much 50/50. With no vent,some people act stupid. Only dedicated players listen to advice, like “hey theres still 3 demos on the beach still”.
Everyone yells “kill the Mages”.. I start getting a complex, even if they are on my side.
Answering Prelimar’s question here as well.. vent is a huge bonus, but SotA is pretty well understood now, and the people in BGs seem to be playing much better now that 6 months ago.
If you are organized with instructions right off the bat, there is a good chance that you can lead the BG in chat… harder but definitely possible.
The advantage of the organized team and vent is you can take on and beat teams that would otherwise steamroll… like the 9 x shadow-stepping rogue teams, who you don’t see until they are capping the relic.
The team that beat us this weekend would have steamrolled a pug, but at least we made them question their invincibility.
That said, there is always time for a picnic…