Armaggedon's coming!

As my dear, departed Dingo would say…

I’m guarding the bees… again?

Actually I wont say what he says next, I do still have a few well worn if occasionally broken standards.

Ohhh… he’s dear because, well he awesome…

and he’s departed because he’s gone to the dark side…

Just stand here and scream

When Dingo joined us first for battlegrounds, he was a little undergeared, well ok he had no PvP gear.

At the time we were running Arathi Basin over and over, so he was immediately posted as our Stables guard.

While he was getting honor, often his only action was the odd /dance.

If he saw more action that that, at least early on, his incoming call was usually accompanied by a “rezzing now”.

Guarding nodes was Guarding the Bees… somehow that makes it better for me, though it did make it worse for him.

Hiding in the bushes

Daraiste is my pocket Disc Priest. She is also relatively new to PvP and BGs, but one of the things she discovered early on was that the enemy love healers, in all the wrong ways.

Her solution is to hide in the bushes. She only likes BGs with bushes and most importantly BGs with bushes where running isn’t required (not flag carrying BGs).

I myself am a long time Bee Keeper (unless Dingo is around of course), and I’m always looking for ways to improve my game. So I adopted Dara’s technique of hiding in the bushes.

You can’t see me!

Which was good to a point, the point where an enemy approached and noticed a Water Elemental “hidden” in the bushes.

Phlanker brought this to my attention while riding into the Farm. Apparently I stood out like a sore thumb, well I didn’t, but my elemental was a big red flag, a Hunters Mark taunting the Horde to kill me.

Then I remembered my Elemental’s Move To ability.

Take control!

Well positioned

I now hunker down in a bush and send my elemental either to another bush, or straight to the flag.

Worst case, a cursory scan by the Horde shows them that there are at least 2 people at the node.

Best case they assume I am with my pet and rock in to take me out, while I snipe for another bush.

It’s a bonus if someone else is at the node as well (like Dara… lol), because then it looks like the pet belongs to them.

It also allows me to roam a little way from the flag, knowing my pet is staying to defend the node, with a Pet Freeze and a Waterbolt.

Just in case you weren’t aware, the best way to have your Elemental in BGs is on Passive, with an Ice Lance macro to initiate it’s attack.

Ice Lance & Pet Attack macro

#showtooltip ice lance
/stand
/dismount
/cancelaura Ice Block
/cancelaura Invisibility
/cast [target=mouseover, help] Ice lance; Ice lance; [target=targettarget] Ice lance
/petattack

It will attack even if you can’t (from CC or range) attack. Your command is activated no matter what.

If you are moving, you don’t want your elemental to be left behind, so remember to Passive to call it off a target, or Follow to cancel the Move To command.

At the Lumber Mill, I position my Elemental in the bushes at the flag, while I have a sleep next to the big saw blade. My poor elemental is the target of many charges, but it’s attacker is then the recipient of a barrage of revenge.

Ninja capping a node? You don’t really want your elemental by your side, so send it away a little, preferably in the direction of a possible interrupter. The pet nova won’t break your invisibility, so at that point you have an advantage for your ninja cap.

One button summon Elemental & Pet Freeze macro

#showtooltip Summon Water Elemental
/dismount
/cast [nopet] Summon Water Elemental
/cast !Freeze

Basically, if you are guarding the bees, keep your pet close, but not so close that you become the primary target.

Use it’s ranged nova from a position of range to gain the advantage.

Gnomer and Out!