Getting Defensive

Friday, November 6, 2009

After a half day of Athiri Basin and Alterac Valley play I have come to really appreciate playing defense in these battlegrounds.

In Alterac Valley I am really enjoying running around with a small group of people and helping to cap back towers or retake graveyards. It may not seem like it is accomplishing much and your honor kills will be lower than if you were on the offensive or defending the actual keep but, you will be slowing the opposing team's progress by several minutes which in the modern AV is more than enough time to give your team a chance to start on the boss sooner.  This is especially important for Horde players considering how imbalanced the map is in favor of the alliance team.  (The bridge, the route from the starting cave and, the design of the towers all add up to an alliance advantage)

Arathi Basin is by far my favorite place to play defense.  Specifically, at the Blacksmith.  If you can get a job as a Blacksmith guard you will get the buff for defending a flag which will increase your honor gain from all honor kills and, you will get credit for the vast majority of kills made on the map.  Only the extreme ends are out of range.  Just by spending your game at BS you will (if your faction controls it and you can avoid dying) end the match with the most honor kills and the most honor for your faction.  Besides the obvious personal gain for defending BS it is also the most strategic point on the map in my opinion.  The BS grave yard allows quick access to any of the other four nodes.  In addition, it will form a point of the triangle of friendly nodes that your team is trying achieve.  BS, Farm, LM is a lot easier to defend than Farm, LM, Stables.  Take a look at the map and you'll see why.

Warsong Gulch is another map where I enjoy the defense.  As a rogue I enjoy sitting outside of my tunnel and waiting for the Alliance flag carrier to come out. (be watchful of both the ramp and the graveyard fall) You may not be able to get the flag carrier down if they have some friends with them but, you did slow them down allowing your team more time to get their flag across or kill the opposing flag carrier.

There is another reason why I enjoy the defensive style of play in battlegrounds.  Practice.  I don't enjoy being in the 'zerg' I enjoy the smaller scale battles. Being on defensive with 1-4 other people is more than enough to slow or stop a 10+ man rush and your choices and play matter more. Defending the central towers and graveyard with one other person.  Running into a tower held by four alliance and, taking it back feels better and, a lot more fun than running with 32 people up the map and standing around and waiting for towers to cap.

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