PvP and me...

Our guild has been steadily participating in pvp battlegrounds the past few weeks.  We are focusing on gathering gear before attempting to do more rated battlegrounds.  We have been having alot of fun doing these together in a group of 5.  We usually spend a few hours on the weekend taking on the alliance in the weekly Call to Arms.  Doing the weekly Call to Arms battleground will yield more honor points for your character.  It is a good way to gain experience in those battleground whlie gaining important honor point for pvp items.

This past weekend was the Call to Arms: Twin Peaks.  This is another 10 vs. 10 battleground where the objective is to capture the opponent's flag.  We affectionately call this one the "Hobbits" battleground with the Wildhammer Dwarf architecture being similar to the Shire from Lord of the Rings.  Both flags are held with a fort with 3 possible entrances and exits.  There is a main gate and 2 side entrances to the fort.  There is also a river that separates the two forts winding through the middle of the map.  One bridge is located at the middle of the battlefield over the river.

The objective is simple; capture the enemy flag and return it to your base's flag room.  You only score when you have the flag and the opposing team does not have the flag at the flag respawn location in your fort.  We had several matches yesterday that went in our favor.  The ones in which we dominated quickly were the result of the opponents attacking in small groups or as single targets.  Although one person is necessary for capturing the flag, a small group of players to support him are just as important.  Generally we had one of our healers follow the flag carrier with crowd controlling dps helping.  The healer's job was obviously to keep the flag carrier alive.  The dps was responsible for splitting up the attackers through various crowd control tactics.  For example, as a shadow priest, I would us Psychic Scream to scatter the attackers away from the flag carrier to allow him to move closer to our fort and away from their damage.  I would also target the strongest dps caster or healer and Silence them.  Followed by a Psychic Horror after that wears off.  This will help give us time to burn down attackers and thin their numbers.

Once we have secured our flag carrier, a few of us would join our attacking squad to kill their flag carrier.  Again, crowd control of the healers and strong dps were our first targets.  If the battlefield message that the "flag carriers have become vulnerable to attack" appears, we would switch to burning down the flag carrier while crowd controlling his support.  As soon as the flag is returned, we would capture it.

Overall, this is not a new battleground concept for World of Warcraft, but the map makes it a newer feel to the experience.  It is one we have been enjoying this weekend and look for to next week, which is Call to Arms: Arathi Basin.

Thank you for following this long, strange pvp post.

Time to go check on my auctions...