World of Warcraft Arathi Basin Battlegrounds Guide

This guide gives a good basic understanding of how to win Arathi Basin. This guide is what I call a map of success to winning at AB.

Gold Guide

Strategy Guide
Zygor Mastery Guide

Do you find your group getting defeated extremely easy over and over again? Follow this guide and you can see the odds turning around in your favor. Not only does it explain the different nodes available it also gives good tactics and different advantages that can be used.

The main idea of Arathi Basin (AB for short) is to control the flags for as long as you can.

Each flag you get gives resources to your team and the first to reach 2000 wins. If you get 5 it is possible to win in 6 minutes and this includes the time waiting at the start.

Ok the 5 nodes which you can take are:

Stables: This is always taken by alliance at the start. It is probably sensible to send somebody with a slow mount and not great armour to guard it as they can always call for others to help them. It can be accessed from a bridge on the river side and also from the mine and blacksmith so can be attacked easily if unguarded.

Mine: This is basically on a lower level than the rest of the map. You don’t need to go into the mine but I sue it as a place to shadow meld if I need to defend it. It is easily defended because it only has 2 routes to get to it from either side and can be seen from a long way. This is always contested.

Lumber Mill: This is the same as the mine except that it is above instead of below the map. Because of this it’s the easiest place to defend in game because you can see all around you. I would suggest taking this before the mine as it’s easier to defend and helps the rest of the fight.

Farm: The horde equilivant of the Stables. Same as the stables let a worse equipped guy defend it through out the battle. The GY is fairly far away from the flag so it takes longer to get there than at other places except the blacksmith.

Blacksmith: This is slap bang in the middle of the map and most people normally rush here. If either team takes it, it means they can follow on to try to take the others in quick succession.

But it’s the hardest to defend. There are 2 bridges connecting it to the rest of the land as it is an island. Also there are another 2 places which can be accessed by swimming from the other side. This is the most important place on the map because it can attack everywhere else easily.

Tactics:

Normal:
In PUGS (Pick up Groups) don’t expect to win 4-1 or 5-0. The best bet is to go for 3-2. IF you have a large amount of people with epic mounts id suggest rushing to the Blacksmith and the lumber mill and taking those. Make sure you take farm or stables depends which side you are. Then place 3 people on each flag and have the others all attacking one place so they don’t have much chance to attack back.

Zerg:
This is a tactic which I use in premade groups. We send around 1-2 people to each node except stables/farm and blacksmith. 1 person stays at the stables while the others at mine and lumber mill defend as well. All of the rest of the raid take the blacksmith but do not stop and plough through leaving 1 person there yet again. Then we usually use this force to help take LM or mine if needing help or just go for farm. Then we camp the graveyard of the hall so there is no threat.

Advantages:

IF you are rank 6 or over which most people are at 60 then go to the hall of champions not sure of horde version and buy some pots. These are a lot cheaper because they can only be used in BG but are very effective and help a lot. Also if you can it is wise to purchase a battle standard as 10% health is quite a big improvement if you have around 5000 like I do. Also make you have food and water from a mage so you can quickly get health and mana back before going of to fight again. Also bandages are useful but not entirely useful because you will probably be hit when using them that is why pots are generally better.

Gold Guide

Strategy Guide

Zygor Mastery Guide

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Who are the new opponents for World of Warcraft?

Orcs, elves and 10 million paying subscribers: World of Warcraft is a PC gaming phenomenon. Three years since its release and the online game is still riding high, but could 2008 finally see it face some competition?

Blizzard, the creators of WoW, and their cleverly designed virtual world have blown the Massively Multiplayer Online (MMO) genre wide open. Previously a niche gaming offshoot, it is now worth more than $1bn in the west alone.

World of Warcraft is primarily responsible for this growth, adding polish and accessibility to the rough template originally developed by pioneers like Everquest.

“With World of Warcraft we tried to maximize the fun, pick-up-and-play aspects, and make an MMO that was as approachable as possible without losing that lasting depth,” said the game’s lead producer, J Allen Brack. “That resounded with players on a much greater scale than we’d ever anticipated.”

A new expansion pack, Wrath of the Lich King, is due out later this year and is likely to shoot to the top of the charts. But by this time WoW will face the first batch of credible challengers to its online gaming crown.

Worthy competitor

The biggest is Warhammer Online. The game has a similar look and feel to WoW but has far more emphasis on player versus player battle. This large-scale combat will see groups of opposing players battling it out for land and virtual bragging rights. Throw in the Games Workshop licence and you have a potentially worthy competitor.

Oli Welsh, MMO editor of Eurogamer.net agrees: “Warhammer will probably get a little closer to World of Warcraft because it specifically appeals to hardcore fans who are pretty bored with WoW at the moment.”

Another challenger due at around the same time is Age of Conan. This grittier take on fantasy allows players to build and conquer cities, and boasts a more dynamic combat system than the online gaming norm.

Elsewhere, NCsoft’s Aion has the potential to add more depth to the usual conflict with three factions – two playable and one computer-controlled – battling for control.

Lord of the Rings

There is also a substantial new update due for Lord of the Rings Online, which was originally released in 2007 and has quietly built a decent reputation – even if the subscriber numbers are dwarfed by WoW.

“The Lord of the Rings Online isn’t just combat,” says Ed Relf, who heads up the project for publishers Codemasters. “The focus is on faithfully recreating the fantasy world of Middle Earth in an online universe.”

The consoles will also provide some belated competition when NCsoft launches its MMO title for the PS3 in 2009.

Publicly, at least, most of the competitors see WoW as a positive for the market.

“World of Warcraft has been a blessing for the genre and has opened up massively multiplayer gaming for millions of people all around the world,” said Erling Ellingsen, product manager at Conan developer Funcom.

And Blizzard itself is magnanimous: “Rather than look at the new wave of titles as competitors, we see them as games that will further broaden the overall appeal of online gaming – and we’re looking forward to playing them too,” said Brack.

But while the market currently remains dominated by swords and sorcery the real growth is likely to be in less fantastical settings. “I expect The Agency (spies), All Points Bulletin (crime) and Lego Universe to do really, really well,” says Eurogamer.net’s Welsh.

Younger gamers

Titles aimed at casual and younger gamers are another growth area. Disney’s Club Penguin and Toontown Online have been successful in attracting the pre-teen audience – and the latter has over a million subscribers. Jagex’s Runescape, which takes the more traditional role-playing setting and repackages it for a younger age group, has a similar number of paying players.

Relf recognises the trend: “One of the biggest growth opportunities within the online gaming space is represented by the relatively untapped younger or more casual gaming audience.”

Welsh sounds a word of warning though.

“There’s no such thing as a casual MMO player. Successful MMOs turn casual gamers into hardcore gamers – it’s how they work, economically.”

So what happens next in online gaming? Ellingsen thinks diversity is key. “If the message the market receives is that you need to create World of Warcraft in order to be successful, no one is going to dare do it. I truly hope that we will see a lot more niche online games that will get a healthy number of players.”

Welsh argues that price is the real driver. “The growth of the free-to-play market in the west will really help grow the audience for this kind of gaming.”

Diversity, price and big brands like Lego will all help widen the online gaming market, but Relf urges caution to any potential entrant. “World of Warcraft is the iPod of the MMO genre. It’s a phenomenon that may never be replicated again in this space.”

What is so great about World of Warcraft?   Let’s see….