How to Win at a Battleground in World of Warcraft

Many times players enter battleground after battleground, only to meet with abject failure. Players just sitting around doing nothing, often not following leaders’ orders, or completely ignoring orders and just going for kills…it’s a mess out there! No matter how much you yell and complain, no battle ever turns out the way it should. But there is hope on the horizon.

Step1

Don’t sweat it. It’s only a game. The Alliance/Horde WILL NOT crumble if this battle goes sour. Your equipment will remain relatively intact, you will still gain honor and get a commendation, and the world will continue to turn.

Step2

Don’t swear at people. While you’d think this is obvious, so many people do it when things don’t go their way. This is a surefire way to get the troops on your side demoralized, angry and, above all, in the perfect mood to ignore you.

Step3

Come up with a plan! Nothing irks experienced players more than a bunch of goofs who sit around with no plan. Think of what has and has not worked for you. Could you have done this better? What if you did this another way? Offer up suggestions! Most people are happy to have almost any plan instead of no plan at all.

For even more tips, visit this handy guide.

Step4

DON’T ZERG THE FLAG! In plain terms, this means “do not rush the flag.” While this applies particularly to Warsong Gulch, it also holds true for Arathi Basin and Alterac Valley. Running straight up to the flag/resource point and expecting to capture it straight off almost never works. It is a great way to start things off on a bad foot and put your team at an immediate disadvantage. The only way it does work is if your entire team commits to the assault and works together.

Step5

Move in teams. Going at it alone is one of the easiest ways to get yourself killed quickly. Ever wonder why the other team scores so many honorable kills? Take a look. 9 times out of 10 it’s because they move in teams, assault positions in groups and don’t act on their own.

Step6

Take and HOLD resources! In Arathi Basin, the idea is to capture and hold strategic resources in order to collect enough resources to give your side the advantage. Quite often, what you’ll see people do is run up to a resource (Blacksmith, Lumber Mill, Mine, Stable or Farm), begin to capture it and leave it. Do not do this! This leaves the resource that you may have just fought and bled for completely open for some enterprising enemy to take back unopposed!

Step7

Coordinate! One of the biggest handicaps a team can give itself is not to communicate. You have a great advantage real soldiers don’t: you can instantly talk to anyone else in your army. So why don’t you? Find out where they are. Do they need help? Do you need help? Talk to each other. This cannot be stressed enough! Communication is key!

Step8

Be a high level. The battlegrounds are divided by level: levels 10-19 in the first bracket, 20-29 in the next, 30-39, 40-49 and 50-60. A level 12 character will never fight in the same battle as a level 56. What this means is that the level 19, 29, 39, 49 and 60 characters rule the battlegrounds. Wait until you are at least level 17/27/37/47/57 to fight in a battleground (unless you really like getting creamed constantly).

Do you want to learn more?

How Difficult is Heroic Mode - Dungeon Guide

A lot of people want to know about heroic mode and very little information exists on the internet about what it really is and the difficulty level of it. All you really see is misinformation on random websites that claim to know what they are talking about, but they really don’t know that much at all.

I tested this out yesterday (I mean a few wipes at worst right?).
Here is what I found out about heroic mode instances:

These instances are doable, but difficult - not impossible however. In fact they were made to be doable for decent to well geared level 70s. With the right group setup these can be done.

What group setup you will need:
1) Well geared tank
2) Well geared main healer. A holy paladin can be one of the best.
3) TWO DPS/CC classes - *Crowd control is a MUST*
4) Spot healer/DPS (elemental shammies work great). If you can’t find a hybrid then bring a 3rd dedicated DPS.

NOTE: Only carry one melee DPS class with you (other than tank), lots of mobs cleave and it’s too hard to heal more than 2 people being cleaved for 3k each. Also please note that at some heroic bosses its stupid to have any melee besides the tank with you because the new skills severely hurt your chances to win. Two healers also gimp your chances of winning because you will lack the DPS to kill bosses in a quick manner.

What is the difference between Heroic/Normal?

First of all, the trash mob levels increase to 71-72. All bosses are now 72 elites. Some of the mobs gain new abilities. Most of the bosses have one new ability that is significant.

TRASH MOBS: Trash hits hard. Very hard. Can crit a clothy for 10k. Watching aggro and Crowd Control is vital. Use KTM.
The bright side? The trash is just as easy to kill as it would be in normal mode (scaled to lvl 71-72 of course). So basically in CR: Steamvaults, you kill them just as fast… however - they hit a lot harder.
Take agro - and you are usually dead before you know it. Blessing of salvation really helps on the DPS.

BOSSES: The bosses will work the exact same way they did in normal mode, except they will now be lvl 72 elites. They will hit harder (depending on which boss of course). However the real trick is that each boss gets 1 new ability. Or an old ability buffed.
Example: First boss of CR: Steamvault - Hydromancer Thespia.
In Heroic mode she does the exact same thing as she would do in normal
EXCEPT:
1) her adds now hit for 1.3k on me (they used to hit for 250).
2) The thunder cloud she summons hits people for 3-4k each tic. Stay outta the cloud.

Yes, it is tougher. But it is doable. Gear wise it was made to be done for lvl 70s in blue gear picked up off lvl 70 instance bosses (Shadow Labs, Arcatraz, Steamvaults, Mechanar, Botanica, Shattered Halls).

NOTE: Do not think that Heroic mode “CR: Slave Pens” is easier than “CR: Steamvault” - although Slave pens is originally a 64 instance and steamvault is 70, you must remember that all heroic mode instances went up to 72, they didn’t go up +10 lvls or something. Slave Pens and Steamvault are the same difficulty at heroic (same lvl mobs, etc.).

So things to make sure before you try heroic mode instances:
Checklist:
1) Good group setup, the group i went with seemed to work pretty well and we had all our bases covered (crowd control, etc.):
Paladin - main healer
Mage - DPS and Crowd Control
Warlock - DPS and Crowd Control
Shaman - Elemental - Very nice DPS and can kite very well.
Druid - Tank. nice because he can cast “sleep” before bear forming to tank - further CC. Also, it’s nice to have “swipe” because there are 5 elite pulls that this AoE threat causer helps with.
NOTE: You must have at least 2 people capable of CCing. Sheep/fear/banish work fine.

2) Is everyone able to get in? You need to be revered to be able to buy the heroic mode keys (EVERYONE MUST HAVE A KEY IN GROUP). You can get these keys from that factions quartermaster at REVERED. See below.

Table of factions:
Faction (@Revered) - Instance Area (Instances)

Sha’tar - Tempest Keep (Botanica, Mechanar, Arcatraz)
Lower City - Auchindon (Shadow Labs, Auchenair Crypts, Mana Tombs, Setthek Halls)
Thrallmar - Hellfire Citadel (Ramparts, Blood Furnace, Shattered Halls)
Cenarion Expedition - Coilfang Reservoir (Slave Pens, Underbog, Steamvaults)
Keepers of Time - Caverns of Time (Escape from Durnholde Keep, Black Morass)

3) Gear check - don’t bring in that one friend of yours with all greens… this is not the place to do that, it will only cause endless frustration. Lvl 70 blues work great. Bring +hit gear because these mobs are higher lvl than you.

4) Spec check. Shadow priests healing = YES YES! <3

5) Vent check - You can do it without vent, however i suggest you get into a voice server ASAP, as most of the time its a very good idea.

6) MAKE A PLAN. Every single pull needs a plan. You may wipe once on a pull because a mob had an unexpected new ability (cleave or something)… learn from it. Use raid symbols.

7) To enter an instance on heroic mode the group leader must right click his portrait and set “Diffculty: Heroic.”

PHAT LEWTS:

Now for the part you’ve all been waiting for.

1) Every single boss drops a [item]Badge of Justice[/item] - there are 5 on each boss but each member can only loot 1 (yay!). You can use these to buy those awesome epics that one purple Naaru sells in Shattrath (next to A’dal in the center)

2) [item]Primal Nether[/item]’s drop off every end boss (so far as i’ve seen or we were just lucky… did 3 so far).

3) Epic drops off end bosses (jewels, bows, etc.).

4) All the bosses drop some new nice blue items.

5) All bosses drop some of the same blue stuff you can get on normal mode.

The end bosses usually drop 5-6 things (including the Badges of Justice)

Now go get your groups together and dominate!! HAVE FUN!!!