PvP
Guides about Player vs. Player (PvP).
[WotLK BG] Strand of the Ancients
I've been enjoying the new battleground, but lamenting the fact that players are woefully unprepared when they enter. Blizzard drops players into the invasion of Normandy without any idea which way is up. This guide is an attempt to orient you and give a few tips.
This is an assault style battleground. One team attacks while the other defends. After a successful attack or 10 minutes (whichever comes first) the attackers play defense and vice versa. The attacking team spawns on two boats (half the team on each boat) which sail to the northeast and northwest beaches during prep time. The defending team spawns at the southern graveyard to start. The defending team can move at will during prep time and can even wait on the docks for the attackers to land if they choose. The goal of the attacking team is to reach the southernmost building and click the artifact inside. To do this they must break down a series of walls between the landing site and the artifact using two kinds of siege weapons.
The first barrier has two walls--one on the east and one on the west. The second barrier has a similar setup. The third and fourth barriers have one wall each, located at the midline of the map.
Graveyards can be captured by the attackers, but cannot be recaptured by the defenders once lost. Capture is achieved by clicking the flag, similar to Arathi Basin (not like EotS).
If the first team successfully captures the relic, the sides immediately swap regardless of the time left on the clock. The second team must then beat the first team's assault time to win. If neither team touches the artifact, the match is a draw. A draw will not count as a win for the daily quest, and both teams receive only one mark. Due to these rules, the maximum time for a complete game is 20 minutes.
There are two brackets for SotA: one for levels 71-79 and one for level 80.
Anti-Personel Cannon
(25000 HP in 71-79 bracket)
Cannon Blast
• Shoots a explosive in the targeted area for 3500 or so damage on demolishers and about 2000 on players in the 71-79 bracket. (2 second CD)
• These do not respawn once destroyed
Battleground Demolisher
These can have 1 driver and 2 passengers. The attackers start with 4 and they respawn at the docks. After you capture the first set of graveyards, they will also spawn at the goblin workshops farther up. Since the tanks move at run speed, capturing these graveyards is important to speed your assault. They have two abilities:
Hurl Boulder
Ram
You have two methods of taking down enemy gates.
1) Demolishers
2) Seaforium charges
Use them both at the same time. Every attacker should carry a seaforium charge at nearly all times. 4 demolishers can carry 12 people with seaforium charges (4 drivers, 8 passengers). If you can mass 4 demolishers and 12 charge-carrying attackers that wall is going down. String the demolishers in a line so the back tanks can give covering fire to the front tanks. When your demolisher is destroyed go straight for the wall and drop the charge.
- Demolishers—Your priority is killing gates, not players. You should be constantly moving toward the gates, only firing on players if your ranged attack is out of range of the gate. Note that defending turrets have a delay between aiming and firing. Use this to your advantage by moving in a constant direction until they fire the turret, then changing direction away from where you were headed.
- Also note that 2 people, other than the driver, can ride in a Demolisher. This is a great spot for a ranged class to dps from. Most players will be targeting the siege tank and not you, so you won’t be cc’d, interrupted, or damaged.
- Seaforium charges—You can carry 1 at a time. The goal is to carry it to the wall and drop it. The defenders then have 10 secs to diffuse them before they damage the wall. If you die, the charge drops at your feet so teammates can pick them up and continue on. They can be picked up wherever tanks spawn, which is at both docks and at the goblin workshops past the first set of gates. They can also be found in the final courtyard on the east and west sides.
- The number one goal of any SotA newb should be to learn how to use these charges. I've played quite a few games at this point and almost never see them used. Note the number of achievements for this battleground that involve seaforium charges. They are clearly meant to be a big part of the game.
- Stealth/invisibility + Seaforium charge = fun
- The Death Knight group aura Path of Frost will allow you to leave the boats a bit before they pull up to the docks and get a bit of a head start. Don't leave the boat too soon though, or you'll be out in the middle of the ocean. Also note that the defenders can break the aura with damage and may drop you in the water.
- Most defending teams fall back immediately when a gate falls. Rush straight for the graveyard flag and cap it ASAP. The defense cannot recap the gy, so don’t worry about defending it.
- If there is a stalemate at a well-defended gate, rogues can shadowstep to reach the cannons from below and ranged classes should also destroy the cannons. These cannons do not respawn.
- Protect the tanks. Melee chasing tanks REALLY hate being snared. The tanks move at run speed so even a second of earthbind totem will make them use intercept/sprint/etc to catch up
- Demolisher hitpoints will likely remain static as gear progresses. This means that it will be easier to destroy them as people gear up. Demolishers are very useful at the moment, but I predict you will see more and more Seaforium charge assaults as gear progresses.
- Anti-personnel cannons should prioritize Demolishers. The cannon charge takes a while to land, so lead your targets.
- You want to stop the attackers from using their two methods of taking down your gates, namely Demolishers and Seaforium. Again, everyone—especially turrets—should prioritize killing Demolishers.
- Anti-personnel cannons have a dead zone. This needs to be covered either by the other cannon at that gate or by players on the ground.
- Tanks move at exactly run speed and have rather small hitboxes. This can make it difficult for melee to keep up if they get even one step behind. Try to stay right up on the tank and shadowstep/sprint/intercept/ghost wolf/etc if you get a step off.
- Set up your defense as far forward as possible. Many teams set up defense at the first gates and don't bother the attackers until they come in range of the Anti-personnel cannons. This effectively cedes ground to the attackers before the battleground begins. You can easily be at the docks when the round starts. You may want to keep someone back in the cannons, but the majority of the team should drop aoe on the attackers as soon as they hit the beach. I like to start by standing 3 people inside the Demolisher model (defenders can't actually get in it), so we can start dpsing it as soon as the round starts and the attackers have trouble targeting us. Note that the tanks become targetable several seconds BEFORE the boats reach the docks. You can usually burn 1 Demolisher completely down before it moves. An aggressive defense can really slow down the attacker's initial rush by reducing their initial 4 tanks to 2 in the first couple seconds. Ideally, you should NEVER give the attackers easy initial access to the tanks and allow them to drive up into the range of the anti-personnel cannons.
- If the green (western) gate falls, keeping the blue (eastern) gate up will still slow the number of tanks reaching the 2nd set of gates. Priority goes to keeping the second line of gates up, but don't just abandon the post automatically, especially if the anti-personnel cannons are still functional.
- Ranged classes should stand up with the turrets and defend them from shadowstep rogues.
- Keep in mind that even when a gate falls, it is still a choke point. Choke points are not totally worthless until the other team is spawning south of them.
- You can play aggressive forward defense killing tanks and ignoring players and win most games, as many people don’t know how to use seaforium charges. This will obviously become a terrible strategy as more people figure out how the seaforium charges work.
- There are restoration leaf buffs in the final courtyard on the far east and west sides.
- If defenders drop down below a gate, they can get back behind the gate by using a portal near the gate. Attackers cannot use these portals. This can be a nice escape if you are being focused, though there is a cooldown to prevent abuse.
- Thunderstorm does appear to work on demolishers.
[Horde] WSG, AB, EOTS and AV Guide for Dummies.
----A guide about WSG/AB/AV And EotS for dummies.
1. The reason why I’m writing this guide is because I cant stand the fact that every single time I get into a horde side Battleground there are atleast 5 players not knowing what to do.
This guide is to get a few normal and simple ways to win Battlegrounds.
2. Alterac Valley (AV)
This battleground has 40 Alliance and 40 Horde players.
- What to do in this battleground :
Kill Vanndar. This is the main boss inside Alterac Valley once he is killed the game ends and the Horde wins.
- Survive. This battleground is the only battleground with Reinforcements. Which are your resurrections. If you run out of them you lose.
You will lose these reinforcements by letting Guard towers get destroyed and letting Generals get killed such as Galv he resides in the Iceblood Garrison.
- And Defend. This is quite simple. Most players will run off to Balinda then camp the road towards IP and Aidstation. Players with a clean way of thinking and listening to others will mostly do this. I’m not saying your not supposed to attack but without defence your pretty much doomed.
A game such as Alterac Valley starts in a cave. (Usually defended by leechers.)
This is where everybody able to buff..should buff..it costs no mana so you can keep on going without having to drink, Mages should try and make a table and Warlocks Healthstones.
This is also the part where everybody should get arranged and know what to do.
There are always a few shouting out stuff like “G1-3 Defend Galv” Meaning that if you are in G1-3 you should go and defend him. This is seriously not a bad thing to do cause this will keep the alliance back and most of the time they lose.
- The Towers
These are attacked by the alliance in order to get your reinforcements down fast.
Defend those at all costs. (Blizz should seriously re-moddel those cause they are quite weak)
The ones inside your main base where Drekk resides will also get attacked frequently by stealthers just cause they can.
- Graveyards. When a group runs off to Balinda 2 people should try and get SH GY.
The best way to do this is by one of them running through the guards training them away and the other one just tags it. This will keep the alliance away and will help out greatly.
- Bunkers : These are your best way of getting the alliance there reinforcements down.
There aren’t allot of them but as our towers are our main prio so are the bunkers for the alliance.
Try and keep about 4 man to defend it till they are destroyed.
The more you destroy these the higher the chance becomes that you win this BG.
You will also be greatly rewarded with honor points.
- Abbreviations :
IB G : Iceblood Garrison
IB GY : Iceblood Graveyard
IB Tower : Iceblood Tower
Drekk : Drekk’Thar main boss in AV for the horde
Vann(darr): Main boss of the alliance in AV.
Galv : Horde Genaral If killed alliance gets about 67 honor points and you lose reinforcements.
Bal: Alliance General if killed horde gets about 67 honor points and loses buff’s/reinforcements
(and 300 more. Usually just short terms of Graveyards and Bunkers)
- Arathi Basin (AB): This battleground has 15 alliance and 15 horde players.
- What to do in this battleground :
- Tag : In this battleground you will find several bases
Such as : Farm , Goldmine , Lumber mill ,Blacksmith and Stables.
By tagging these bases you will start getting recourses these will make you win as soon as you manage to get 2000 of them.
The more bases you get the faster your resources start coming in.
The less you have the slower you will get them as well.
- Defend : Once you managed to get hold of a few stables. Make sure you got more than the alliance else its no use.
You start defending. Try fighting at the flag as much as possible. The closer you do damage near a flag the higher the chances that you can keep the alliance from taking it from you. Sometimes you find yourself defending alone. Do not be scared to call out for help.
- Help out : If you find yourself fighting at flag tagging them and moving on and someone calls out for help, Help him or her then!
You are more beloved when you are helping then when you are in there for Honorable Kills.
- Abbreviations :
ST : Stables
GM : Goldmine
BS: Blacksmith
Farm : Just the farm
LM: Lumber mill
*-Big tip : LEAVE STABLES-* Its damn useless and you wont be able to hold it unless you’re a well arranged fixed group.
- Warsong Gulch (WSG) : This Battleground has 10 alliance players and 10 Horde players.
- What to do in this battleground :
- Steal the flag: This battleground will make you play Capture The Flag. Its quite simple take the flag run to your home base and get one point. You will need to steal 3 flags in order to win. Most horde players run off to get the flag and hope for the best.That’s not really my kind of thing. Cause it takes a whole lot of time because then you wont be able to take your own flag when it gets stolen and you’ll be searching your ass off for an hour or so.. at least that’s how it feels and it gets damn boring then.
- Defend your flag : At the start you’ll have a minute to prepare. Buff up and all that hand out food/healthstones and what not. As I said most horde players just run off to get the alliance flag and hope for the best. This is where you step in and be a defender. What you do is keep the alliance from taking your flag. They usually get a buff from the cave. Charge in take the flag and run off..so..try and slow them down! Every class has a capability to do so.
Once the flag did get out of your reach don’t freak out. Wait patiencely for one of your team members to bring in the alliance flag ones its on your base make sure you defend him further on.
The rest of the party will continue with getting your own flag back. Do this in a large group otherwise you will not stand a chance. The alliance flag carrier should only be defended by 2 players and himself in the base.
- Defend the flag carrier : The flag carrier is the person that managed to get the flag.
I usually like druids cause they can heal themselves and become a bear and have a whole lot of health/armor. Which is good cause they wont go down that fast then.
They can run rather fast as well and won’t have to deal with crippling effect’s.
This doesn’t mean that when you are capable of healing you don’t have to heal him. Keep him up at all costs.
Once the flag carrier managed to get back to the horde base you do not have to stay with him with 10 man. I’d say 2 people + himself are enough. The rest should get our own flag back if it got stolen by the alliance.
For the 2 people that are needed to defend the Flag Carrier I’d go for a healer and a ranged DPS. Such as a mage or Warlock in order to fear/sheep the attackers.
- Abbreviations :
FC : Flag carrier usually shouted out cause he’s under attack
Ramp : A small ramp leading up to the horde/alliance bases. To point out directions where the FC of the alliance/horde is going
Tun : Tunnel to point out directions where the FC of the alliance/horde is going
GY : Graveyard t to point out directions where the FC of the alliance/horde is going
- Eye of the storm (Eots) : This battleground has 15 alliance players and 15 horde players.
What you do in here is kind off the same as what you do in Arathi Basin.
You have 4 bases and 1 flag. Your goal is to reach 2000 Resources before the alliance does.
- What to do in here
- Tag : You have 4 bases consisting of : Dreanei Tower , Mage tower , Felreaver and Blood elf tower. The fastest ones possible to tag are Bloodelf and Felreaver. These bases are there to be able to place your flags in.
The more bases you have the more resources you will get. So a big boost to get some resources is to run to the mage or dreanei tower as soon as you captured the Belf/felreaver tower. This will make the alliance a bit slower with getting resources and a bigger chance for you to win!
- Defend : If you are only holding 2 bases it means the alliance will try and take it from you because you are in a weaker position. Defend these bases. The only way of not letting them taking it is to kill them because the way of getting those bases is by standing near them. You will also have a flag carrier. Usually someone able to run fast. If he is in a sticky situation such as a warrior or a mage on them try and help him out.
- Capture the Flag : The reason why you will be capturing flags is to boost your resources income. The more flags you capture the faster you will win. There is usually one or two people capturing after each other. This will go nice and fast cause as soon as one has the flag the other one should be running back from the base to the middle of the spawn position of the flag this is a nice way to keep up the pace.
- Abbreviations :
FR : Felreaver usually shouted out because is under attack
DR: Dreanei tower shouted out to attack it or to defend it
FC: Flag Carrier mostly used to shout out for help or to kill the alliance FC
Mage: Mage tower shouted out to attack it or to defend it
Belf: Bloodelf Tower usually shouted out because is under attack
[General] The PvP'ers Handbook - Core Rules
Introduction
Welcome to my baby. This is one of many PvP compendiums that i will be releasing over the following months. In here is the experience from many, many, MANY hardworked hours in the field. Please be respectfull if you disagree/agree with something, in the comment section. It is still a Work In Progress, but i feel i've been holding it out too long because of Patches. So here it is! Happy reading.
Core rules
These are the rules that a serious PvP'er should live by and uphold.
1) Start young. Starting a PvP career as level 60 is a battle lost in advance. Though you will gain more honor, there are still limits as to how many ranks you can get pr. week. Not to mention the 20% decay, it is a big plus to start young due to the lowered Honor points you get from Battlegrounds. Being low level also means decreased survivability. You are less gear dependent as a low level, meaning that Skill comes before Gear. This will of course change at the higher levels where Gear becomes the thin red line between "Make it or break it".
Starting young will also get you accostumed to your class, and your prefered PvP style. If you do not know your class, you cannot PvP.
2) Hotkeys. I cannot stress how important it is to have additional hotkeys. Not only does it provide above-average playstyle but also keeps your arsenal within the reach of your left hand. There is no need missing out on vital spells just because the basic action bar does not have enough spaces. I personally use the lower Right and Left action bar, and the Upper right action bar. My keys are currently bound to (Shift) 1-10, Shift (& ctrl) q-w-e-r-a-s-d-f-z-x-c-v. This might seem like overkill, but do not forget that these buttons can be used to both Macro's, Trinkets, Potions, Item Abbilities. Having ALL (and i do mean all) your options within the reach of your fingers is vital if you want to maximize your playstyle.
3) Common Sense. Common Sense is often that which you define the situation with. Regardless if your Raid leader or Raid paticipent. Do not rush into the middle of 3 enemies if you are alone. A good thumb rule is You go alone, You die alone. Assest the situation, look at what classes you are up against and try to find the best strategy to neutralize your opponents. A Druid cannot in a million years solo flags in WSG if the enemy has two hunters on defence, thus he needs support.
Common sense also involves sticking to the plan. If your flag runner says he needs help, HE NEEDS HELP. Don't run off trying to farm Honor Kills as you don't get any honor after killing an enemy four times, or being in a group that kills said target four times.
4) The Raid and You. Obviouslyas you start off PvP'ing, you will join up with what is called PUG's (Short for Pick-up-groups, this will also change at level 60). You might not know the people you are PvP'ing with, and/or might not like them particular much. Well here's only one thing you can do Get over it. A dysfunctional raid is a loosing raid. Teamwork and Tactics win any battle, but if one dislikes the other and refuses to help, it hurts not only that player but the rest of the team. And Battlegrounds are All about Teamwork.
5) Communication. Communication the most important thing. I cannot stress how important this is. Why is it important? Because people need to know where to go, if your flag has been taken and the flag carrier is running on the east side of Warsong Gulch. If half the raid runs west instead of east, your likely to loose. If your flag carrier runs into your Flag Room, thinking he's safe but runs into 4 enemies waiting for him cause the defence didn't relay that single piece of important information, you are likely to use. If a base is under attack in Arathi Basin, getting from point A to B takes time, and they will not be able to get help if they do not inform anyone that they are under attack. I think you get the picture.
6) Hardcore PvP? Go Horde! Why? Because it's a simple and common fact that the Alliance to Horde ratio is 31 on most (if not all) servers. This is important because for one, You'll (as Horde) always be facing more enemies than you have allies. This means that, while the Alliance has to wait in line, you are likely to come in everytime due to the low numbers of Horde vs. the high numbers of Alliance. the high Alliance to Horde ratio also means that the Horde players will gain ranks easier due to the lack of competition (I.E. Lack of PvP'ing Hordes)
BG Reward links
Warsong Gulch http://www.wow-europe.com/en/info/basics/battlegrounds/rewards-warsong.html
Arathi Basin http://www.wow-europe.com/en/info/basics/battlegrounds/rewards-arathi.html
Alterac Vallet http://www.wow-europe.com/en/info/basics/battlegrounds/rewards-alterac.html
Rank System
The Rank system is fairly simple. You gain honor by 3 ways
1) Kills. Each time you kill an opponent within 10 levels of you, you get a pre-calculated amount of honor, based on His rank versus your Rank. How much damage you do to him (If multiple people are hitting same target) And of course your level versus his level. You will find that off-Battleground PvP'ing pays very well for solo kills. For each time you kill a person, you get 25% less honor from said target. Max Kills 4.
2) Battleground Bonus Honor. This differs from Battleground to Battleground. so i will note both three.
A)Warsong Gulch You gain Bonus honor for each time your team captures the enemy flag. 3 x Bonus honor per battle.
B) Arathi basin You gain Bonus honor for ever 200 point score your team collects. 10 x Bonus honor per battle.
C) Alterac Vallet You gain bonus honor for every time you destroy an enemy structure or vital component.
3) Battleground Marks. You gain 1 or 3 Battleground Marks. 1 if you loose, 3 if you win. These Marks can be turned in at the Warmaster for Reputation from Mark faction and Bonus honor. Note that Double Reputation Weekends only affects the reputation gained inside of the Battleground, and not from the reputation gained from turning in Marks.
Quest Items
Ethics 101
While Battlegrounds are battlegrounds, and the ultimate goal is to hurt your opponent, there should still be some base lines as to how one can act. While WoW may just be a game, doing a /spit, or mocking your opponent one too many times, may make the person gain a personal hatred towards your character and yourself.
Amoungst the things you just don't do is
1) Graveyard Camping. All battlegrounds have Graveyards. Though in the Alterac Valley, these are capturable, they are not in the Warsong Gulch, nor Arathi Basin. Nor is it fair to camp these graveyards, because the people resurecting there will be unbuffed, cought flatfooted, and mainly discourage them to fight against you again (I.E. Less battlegrounds for you!) And may if they so wish, take it a step further and slander you on the Realm Forum. Do not think that graveyard campers can hide behind the new Naming & Shaming politics. You can only get so much honor out of one target.
2) Respect. Respect your opponent cause they spend their real life time to fight you, win or loose, it is still of their choosing. Do not call them stupid for trying to achive what you desire. They might just one day find out what they are doing wrong, and it'll be you who's left with the short end of the stick. If you are 15 inside Arathi Basin against 5 enemies, show kindness towards them, and do not kill unless attacked. If they try to beat you, they desirve death, but otherwise leave them alone and do alittle /dance.
3) Stay in one Battleground!. This is a particular touchy area. Blizzard added a feature to the game that will let you queue multiple Battlegrounds (For what reason i have no idear) And this has caused a wave of "Lets join WSG, but if AB comes we join that" meaning that half the raid instantly disapears to go to Arathi Basin, in the middle of a Warsong Gulch game. This shows complete and utter lack of respect for your fellow players as you leave them to be horribly farmed by the opposite team. Not only does it hurt your own but also strenghten your enemy. They will be left facing "X" amount of enemies more than themselves which, trust me on this, builds up personal resentment towards those who leave the battlegrounds. Afterall, in a team game, there's no room for unreliable people.
Class PvP
This is an index over PvP threads from the different Class' Forums.
I've sellected the threads that i found most usefull for PvP, and left out PvE as much as posible.
Druid
1) http://forums-en.wow-europe.com/thread.aspx?fn=wow-druid-en&t=112571&p=1&tmp=1#post112571
(Feral, personal PvP recomendation)
2) http://forums-en.wow-europe.com/thread.aspx?fn=wow-druid-en&t=117464&p=1&tmp=1#post117464
(Balance)
Hunter
1) http://forums-en.wow-europe.com/thread.aspx?fn=wow-hunter-en&t=138053&p=1&tmp=1#post138053
(Look under "The PvP Build and/or PvP Trap Build" - Cookie Cutters)
Mage
1) http://forums-en.wow-europe.com/thread.aspx?fn=wow-mage-en&t=80305&p=1&tmp=1#post80305
(Different Talent Builds. See posts for further comentary)
2) http://forums-en.wow-europe.com/thread.aspx?fn=wow-mage-en&t=19809&p=1&tmp=1#post19809
(Technical Mage Bible - Read All)
Paladin
1) http://forums-en.wow-europe.com/thread.aspx?fn=wow-paladin-en&t=10281&p=1&tmp=1#post10281
(General Guides on Paladins. They're a one way class, whats to say?)
Priest
1) http://forums-en.wow-europe.com/thread.aspx?fn=wow-priest-en&t=123566&p=1&tmp=1#post123566
(I could marry the person who wrote this. Simply Beautiful, Shadow Power!)
Rogue
1) http://forums-en.wow-europe.com/thread.aspx?fn=wow-rogue-en&t=40785&p=1&tmp=1#post40785
(Stealth and You!)
2) http://forums-en.wow-europe.com/thread.aspx?fn=wow-rogue-en&t=135629&p=1&tmp=1#post135629
(Talent Builds / Arch Builds - Read Posts)
Shaman
1) http://forums-en.wow-europe.com/thread.aspx?fn=wow-shaman-en&t=5768&p=1&tmp=1#post5768
(Shaman FAQ - Lack of better information)
Warrior
1) http://forums-en.wow-europe.com/thread.aspx?fn=wow-warrior-en&t=47395&p=1&tmp=1#post47395
(FAQ + Cookie Cutter build - They're warriors, what do you expect?)
Warlock
1) http://forums-en.wow-europe.com/thread.aspx?fn=wow-warlock-en&t=13126&p=1&tmp=1#post13126
(Warlocks PvP Bible - Has my personal aproval)
FAQ - Q & A
1-A) If there's such a large honor difference between the 10-59's bracket and the 60's bracket, how will i be able to compete?
1-B) You won't. It's one of the major flaws in the Honor system. Level 60's will at any point be able to beat the lower bracket's with honor for 2 reasons. 1, Blizzard made it so that you gain more Honor for everyone battleground won at the higher brackets. 2, level 60's simply have more time on their hands for Battlegrounds, as they don't need to worry about leveling or quests.
My own advice will be to run around flagged (PvP tag Active) You'll be surprised how much honor you can get from non-battleground pvp'ing. This is a good addition to already-made Battleground honor.
2-A) I don't think what you have written here is exatly true. My view point is .... etc!
2-B) PvP'ing is an individual experience, and that is what makes the better PvP'ers. I'm not saying that what I have written in this guide is the Truth with capital T, but merely my take on the more important aspects of PvP. What makes a good PvP'er, is their evaluation of individual situations. You are of course welcome to add feedback, but don't expect me to change anything written.
3-A) I'm currently playing -X- Class and I'm on a post-BWL server. I'm considering to make a PvP alt, but I cannot decide wether or not I should twink him. Help!
3-B) Ultimately it's your money and your time, thus your decision. But if you ask me No!
Twinking will prevent you from knowing the fullest of your character's limits, which is important to know in many situations. It will also be unfair to the opposite team and may aswell create a disliking to you & public disgrace through forums (Yes, it happens more than one would think)
And it'll also take away a good deal of the leaning process of PvP if you run around as a level 30 demi-god with twin-Crusader enchantments.
Gear does NOT make Skill.
4-A) I want to start PvP'ing, but my class sucks at it!
4-B) Wrong again! All Classes (Yes, including Paladins) add their unique side to the face of PvP, and no class what so ever is useless. I know most think that, for example, Hunters are a useless class for PvP. But they are infact one of the most effecient defenders available. I will not go into detail here, but check out the different links above to the PvP-Class threads. And be sure to check out the additional posts on those threads, there's some very important information in some of them.
5-A) I want to PvP but i'm stuck in a PvE guild. I'm afraid they'll favor another over me if I choose to respec for PvP instead of PvE. What do I do?
5-B) This is surprisingly not an uncommon issue. My advice is that you take it up with your guild. If you belive that you can do just as good with a PvP talent spec, as a PvE talent spec, Prove it! And get rid of that fear of faliure. Most of the PvP people I know do a heck of a better PvE job than most of the PvE people I know. Talents are nice yes, but they do not make or break the class. The will to actually want to DO your class' role counts ten times more than what talent spec you are. But alas, we are still restricted to rules placed apon us by a gaming system that does favor a strict path. So always remember to have a dedicated set of PvE armor/items to help you make up for the lack of PvE-talents.
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Demonstration in the differences between Epic Tier 1 Set and PvP-Rank Reward Sets
Champion's Battlearmor (6 Piece, Blue, 60, Honor Reward)
Rank 10
Armor 3375
Strength 98
Stamina 122 (+20)
Agility 9
Total 229 (+20)
Bonus
Hamstring Rage Cost Reduced by 3
+5% Critical Chance.
+1% Chance to hit.
Set Bonus
2 pieces +20 Stamina.
3 pieces Reduces the cooldown of your Intercept ability by 5 sec.
6 pieces +40 Attack Power.
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Warlord's Battlearmor ( 6 Pieces, Epic, 60, Honor Reward)
Rank 13
Armor 4087
Strength 120
Stamina 165 (+20)
Agility 42
Total 324 (+20)
Bonus
+5% Critical Chance.
+3% Chance to Hit.
Hamstring Rage Cost Reduced by 3
Set Bonus
2 pieces +20 Stamina.
3 pieces Reduces the cooldown of your Intercept ability by 5 sec.
6 pieces +40 Attack Power.
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Battlegear of Might (8 Piece, Epic, 60, Molten Core)
Molten Core (Boss) Drops.
Armor 4306
Strength 143
Stamina 189
Total 332
(Resistance)Fire 34
(Resistance)Shadow 24
Bonus
+1% Chance to Hit.
+1% Chance to Dodge.
+2% Chance to Block.
+1% chance to Parry.
+29 Defence.
Set Bonus
3 pieces Increases the block value of your shield by 30.
5 pieces Gives you a 20% chance to generate an additional Rage point whenever damage is dealt to you.
8 pieces Increases the threat generated by Sunder Armor by 15%
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World PvP
A short introduction - World PvP is based outside the Battlegrounds.
It's in sellective Areas, such as Eastern Plaguelands.
The differences between the Battlegrounds and World PvP is that you cannot "Win" as such. There are different objectives, that allows you to win various buffs, but no Reputation system like in the BG's.
Battlemaps are also available for EPL/SIlithus, so be sure to have it on if you want to participate (Hotkey Shift+M)
Eastern Plaguelands
The objectives of the Eastern Plaguelands World PvP is to capture and hold 4 towers. The image below displays the different positions of the 4 towers.
Capturing and Holding all 4 towers till result in your team (Those that are inside the EPL at the moment of victory) getting a Buff.
How to capture a tower
If a tower is left unprotected, it will be open for conquer.
You have to enter the tower area and you'll get a buff icon named "Tower Control". Depending on how many of your friends are with you, the shorter time it will take to capture. There are Alliance/Horde Buffers placed around the tower that displays the time left, inform of a level 1 NPC that will fight the other. If you are Horde, you will start spawning level 1 undead NPC's that will fight the Alliance level 1 NPC's, untill they are dead and you have taken the tower.
Different Towers, Different Abilities!
The tower marked as 1 on the map, has a small flight path that allows you to fly on a dead bird, to any of the 3 other towers.
The tower marked as 2 can spawn 5 level 60 elite Ghost guards that will help you kill the opposing forces.
Tactics
It becomes obvious early on that the best way to win is through Zerging.
Take tower 1, so you have access to the other Towers without having to travel a large distance on Mount. Use this by sending your men out in groups to a Tower and take them by surprise and in Large numbers. The more you are, the faster you will have a tower.
If you are 20 people, you can send 5 out to each tower and catch the enemy off guard & take the tower relatively fast.
Remember, there is no Force, if there isn't a raid. Organization wins the battle.
Silithus
Silithus contains a Collection-Based World PvP. On the map below are marked the different positions for the Alliance (Blue !) and Horde (Red !) bases. To win a round in this, your faction must collect and return 20 Dusts and transform them in the Cleansing machine located at every base.
Dust Collection, How to?
There are bunks filled with dust, located at round the black Question marks on the map above. To collect a dust, you must right click on the pile and you will be enveloped in a orange dust cloud. Its your mission to transport this cloud dust on you WITHOUT getting attacked. If you get attacked, DoT'd or other things alike, you will drop the dust. Once the dust is dropped, you'll have to kill the enemy and then recollect the fallen dust off the ground. You have to transport each dust from A->B (Pick-up to Base) and get into a big machine that will cleanse the dust off you and give your team 1 point. Points are shown the same way as Warsong Gulch flag tracking.
Once you've done your first turn-in, you will get a buff that will allow the dust to stick better to you, so you can now have a % chance to keep the dust on you, if attacked.
Help! It's a Sandworm!
With this new patch there comes a new outdoor Boss-encounter related to the World PvP Event. This boss is a gigantic sandworm that will get up from underground and attack everything that comes near it. It's level 63, elite and not to be taken lightly.
Once it spawns, each Officer of the Alliance/Horde camps will shout out and you will be able to locate it on your battlemap.
When you slay a sandworm, it will drop 5-10 Dust spawns, which you can retrive and score an extra large amount of points for your team.
Tactics
It's good to have 1 collector and 1 protector. One to take the hits before the carrier so the carrier can do his job undisturbed.
It's also good to have renegades out scouting for the opposing faction, and try to kill them to delay their Dust gathering.
You can, if enough players, surround the enemy camp (But don't get too close, nasty NPC guards)and make sure nothing leaves or enters alive.
Again, numbers and organization wins the battle here.
[AB] Victory in Arathi Basin, by Kaeldar of "Never Lose"
Victory in Arathi Basin
(Want more on PvP? Never lose a battleground.)
You’re tired of losing. It slows your honor. It slows your marks. Worst of all, it’s demoralizing. No matter which side you play, there are stretches when you get repeatedly stomped, especially if you’re PUGing.
This guide will help you save valuable seconds in every circumstance, maximize the reward for your efforts, and allow you to win far more frequently in Arathi Basin. Once you begin winning consistently, especially after you start 5-capping, you will have more honor and more marks than you can spend.
This is because when you 5-cap, you earn THIRTY resources per tick per node, rather than the usual ten, and the rate of ticks increases to once per second. With four nodes, you get only 3.3 resources per second.. It takes only 1 minute & 6 seconds to amass 2,000 resources with 5 nodes. With 4 nodes, it takes 10 minutes and 6 seconds to amass 2,000 resources.
When your team is good enough to consistently 5-cap, you will earn 3 marks and all the related bonus honor ten times as fast as a 4-cap victory, and twenty times as fast as a “hold three and win”.
Contents:
1. PART I: Arathi Basics
An overview of the battleground for those new to it. The rest of the guide is addressed to experienced players, but some people look for advice before they begin. Skip this section if you are already familiar with the battleground.
2. PART II: The Rules for Victory (Tactics)
Rules to follow at all times for every fight. Some are specific to Arathi Basin, others are helpful for PvP as a whole. This is the core section of the guide, the section most crucial to victory.
3. PART III: Advanced Tactics
Some additional methods that will help you clinch more victories.
4. PART VI: X-Factors
Two additional “X” factors which can at times throw the results of a match into skew, and should be acknowledged.
5. PART V: Strategy
Three of the strategies best suited to victory. I will also explain how to beat these same strategies when they are employed by your enemy. This is the second-most important section of the guide.
6. PART VI: Battleground Myths
Some common battleground myths debunked.
7. PART VII: PvP vs PvE
Chief differences between PvP and PvE to smooth the transition for experienced raiders who may be in the wrong mindset when they come to the battleground.
The second and fourth sections are the most important. Everything else is included as a supplement.
Part I: Arathi Basics
If you are already familiar with Arathi Basin, please skip this section entirely and begin with Part Two: The Rules for Victory (Tactics).
This section is intended to help those who seek advice before their first battle. The remainder of the guide assumes foreknowledge of basic elements, mechanics, and common terms.
Arathi Basin is a 15 versus 15 battleground, fought for control over resources.
The battleground is divided into five regions, each serving as a resource node: Stables, blacksmith, lumber mill, gold mine, and farm. When a team controls the flag at each region, that team receives resources at the rate of 10 resources per tick (except when 5 flags are held). The amount of time between ticks is shortened by 3 seconds for each additional flag held, meaning you accumulate resources more quickly the more flags you hold, and in a non-linear fashion. The first team to reach 2,000 resources wins.
| Nodes Controlled | Resources gained per tick | Tick Length | Resources per Second | Time to Amass 2000 (VICTORY) |
| 1 | 10 | 12 Seconds | 00.8 | 41.6 Minutes |
| 2 | 10 | 9 Seconds | 01.1 | 30.3 Minutes |
| 3 | 10 | 6 Seconds | 01.7 | 19.6 Minutes |
| 4 | 10 | 3 Seconds | 03.3 | 10.0 Minutes |
| 5 | 30 | 1 Second | 30.0 | 01.1 Minutes |
The resources are controlled by physically assaulting the flag located at each node. The flags begin in a neutral state, and thereafter have two modes:
Contested is a state in which the flag momentarily belongs to neither team.
Captured is the state in which the flag belongs to one team or the other.
You must assault a flag to capture it for your team. This is done by right-clicking on the flag. This begins a ten-second attempt with a progress bar labeled “opening”, which must be completed without interruption for success. After a completion, the flag will turn white with your team’s emblem. The flag is now contested, and still belongs to neither team. When the flag has been contested by your team for one minute without interruption, it will turn to your team’s color and become captured.
A captured flag provides two benefits:
1. Resources will be generated for your team according to the table above.
2. Your team will be able to resurrect at the graveyard located at that node.
When a captured flag is successfully assaulted by the opposition, it returns to contested and both benefits are lost. It can be recaptured by a completed 10-second assault from the team who previously held it, and this will result in immediately returning it to a captured state for your team. If no such defensive capture is made within one minute, the contested flag becomes captured by the challenging team. This can occur even when an assault on the flag is in progress, and will interrupt the attempt.
Assaulting a flag to make it contested is the primary objective on offense simply to prevent the enemy team from resurrecting at the connected graveyard.
Preventing a flag from being assaulted is the primary objective on defense. If an assault is completed, assaulting it to regain capture becomes the primary objective on defense.
Arathi Basin has 7 total graveyards: 1 at each of the resource nodes, and 1 dedicated to each team at the entrances. You will respawn at the closest graveyard currently held by your team.
The node closest to the Alliance entrance is the Stables, both at the northwest end of the zone. The node closest to the Horde entrance is the Farm, both at the southeast end of the zone. Both are close enough in distance and elevation to see the Blacksmith, but not each other. The Blacksmith is located on an island in the center of the zone. The Gold Mine is located at the Northeast end of the zone, and is in a valley so low that only players approaching it have visibility on it, and it provides no visibility to any other region. The Lumber Mill is located atop a cliff at the Southwest end of the zone. It is elevated enough to prevent visibility most of the Lumber Mill. However standing at the edge of the cliff provides visibility to the stables, farm, and blacksmith.
Here is a list of commonly used abbreviations and terms:
AB - Arathi Basin
Stables - Stabs, or ST
Lumber Mill - Mill, or LM
Gold Mine - Mine, or GM
Blacksmith - Smith or BS
Farm - Usually just “Farm”, occasionally “F”
Defense - “D” or Def
Offense - “O” or Off
Cap - The capture of a flag.
1-Cap, 2-Cap, 3-Cap, 4-Cap, or 5-Cap - Refers to the number of total flags captured, either currently or in planning.
Tap or Tag - The attempt to assault a flag.
GY - A graveyard.
Rez - Resurrection
Node/Base/Flag - One of the five areas for gathering resources.
FTW - For the win.
FTL - For the loss.
GG - Good game (sometimes used sarcastically).
GJ - Good job.
Ninja - The attempt to capture a flag by stealth rather than force.
Inc - Incoming (hopefully accompanied by a number).
FF – Focus Fire, in other words, “Kill this guy first!”
CC – Crowd control, any spell or ability which can temporarily limit or remove a player from combat.
PUG - Pick up group; any random grouping of individuals not previously coordinated.
Premade - An organized raid group formed in advance for the purpose of playing battlegrounds together.
PART II: The Rules for Victory (Tactics)
These are the key principles you need for victory in Arathi Basin. Follow them while your enemies don’t, and you’ll win hands down. They are not meant to be observed as an ordered checklist, but rather to be absorbed until they become instinctual. First I’ll provide the list in order of importance, and afterwards I’ll explain the significance of each rule.
1. Always fight near the Flag.
2. Speed is Victory.
3. Use Voice over IP.
4. You can’t win on defense.
5. Never leave a flag undefended.
6. Interrupt the capper.
7. Prioritize your targets.
8. Communicate effectively.
9. Travel in packs.
10. Never disparage your own team.
11. Never chase runners.
12. Keep your zone map open.
13. Always take the shortest route.
14. Utilize ghost defenders.
15. Don’t assault more than 6 defenders (except for the final node).
16. Buff in preparation.
17. Always fight near the Flag.
RULE #1: Always fight near the Flag.
Exceptions: Farming the enemy’s graveyard after a 5-cap.
There are some rules for which there are exceptions – the ONLY exception to this rule occurs when you’ve ALREADY WON. This applies on offense or defense, winning or losing, to all races and classes at all times. When you fight near the flag, you are better positioned to defend a teammate capturing it. You are better positioned to prevent an enemy capture, or make a recovery. If you are fighting anywhere but near the flag, you are costing your team valuable seconds of travel before accomplishing anything meaningful. You can outnumber an enemy four to one, but if he’s out of your range when he performs a capture, he will interrupt your flow or resources and prevent your allies from resurrecting at the closest graveyard.
The farthest you should EVER be from a flag if you’re defending or attacking is within shooting/casting range of it. Your travel between nodes should be to and from this radius as well. When you hear people saying, “Don’t fight on the roads!” this is the rule to which they’re referring.
RULE #2: Speed is Victory.
Exceptions: Good teamwork can compensate slightly for poor individual speed.
In any real time strategy, the faster you work, the better you perform. This does not refer just to one type of speed, such as land travel, but ALL types of speed: Travel, DPS/Heals, regeneration, recovery from impediments, communication, combat, controls, and thought. In Starcraft, I had an undefeated record of over 150 wins even though I wasn’t always the better strategist. The fact that I type 96 WPM at 100% accuracy and had every hotkey memorized meant that I could build faster, upgrade faster, attack faster, and (most importantly) recover faster. As the priest says in The Count of Monte Christo, “The stronger swordsman is not always the victor. It is speed! Speed of hand…Speed of mind.”
Here are some tips to help improve your speed in key areas:
A. Recovery abilities are invaluable. The PvP trinkets “Insignia/Medallion of the Alliance/Horde” are must-haves for clearing detrimental effects. (Save it for use against the class or effect which slows you down the most, and/or for the time when cc against you is most crucial…like when you are the only remaining defender.
B. Enchants or enhancements to increase land speed (mounted or on foot) are excellent investments. If you can effectively hotkey them to be swapped with gear better suited for combat, they will serve you even better. (Some addons do this automatically.)
C. Eat/drink/bandage/heal/rebuff THE INSTANT you win a skirmish so you are prepared for the next attack. Then drink AGAIN the INSTANT you are done healing/buffing. If your allies aren’t providing the buffs or heals you need, carry as many self-buff/self-heal items as you can.
D. Practice typing. If it takes you 5 seconds to type “incoming” instead of a fraction of a second, your enemies will be upon you before your team knows you need help.
E. Put your most crucial abilities onto hotkeys in easy reach of your strongest fingers. Here’s how I have my key bindings set up. (You don’t have to mimic this, as long as your system is efficient.)
Default Row: “1” through “=”
Bottom-left Action bar: SHIFT+1 through SHIFT+=
Bottom-right Action bar: ALT+1 through ALT+=
The best position for your key abilities is near your index and middle fingers. In standard typing position, the easiest-to reach keys are (in about this order): 4, 3, 5, 2, 6. My setup gives me 15 total abilities to put convenient hotkeys. I put my “once per fight” or “once per life” hotkeys on 1 or 2, such as charge for warrior (2), or mounting (alt+1). I also have my movement keys set to “ESDF” (instead of the default “WASD”) so that my strongest fingers (index/middle/ring) are ALSO used for movement and I don’t have to move my hands AT ALL to type. I type over 90 WPM, so in combat I average about 6 keystrokes per second – for abilities, movement, communication, or targeting. If your enemy can do that and you can’t keep up, you’re cannon fodder. (If you type so slow that you need amateur abbreviations like “u”, “ur”, and “any1” even in the safety of the trade channel, you are SEVERELY dragging down your team in PvP.)
F. Use autorun when possible so your fingers are free for other needs. Autorun will self cancel the instant you hit a “back” key, and you can turn any which way you like while autorun is on.
G. Dismount with spell/ability which automatically dismounts you rather than wasting a keystroke on the act of dismounting.
H. Slow the enemy. Use your crowd control abilities like fears and snares in ways which slow them down. Suppose you can do 1,000 DPS to a fleeing enemy with 8,000 hp – it will take you 8 seconds to kill him. But if you have four teammates who each do 500 DPS and you can freeze or snare the enemy into range of your allies, it will take you just 5.3 seconds to kill the same opponent. Suddenly you have five people with 2 more full seconds apiece to devote to another target – a total of 3,000 more damage given the above numbers.
I. Learn the EXACT timings of the interface. There is a split second before your mount appears in which you can autorun without interrupting the summon. You will appear to leap forward on foot but at mounted speed an instant before the client’s graphics catch up and your mount appears. This is most noticeable with exact timing on a broadband connection at a high performance machine. This is true of some other abilities also.
The interface was altered slightly in 2.3 to allow you to “queue” a spell slightly. I don’t know whether this change was ever announced, but it was a pronounced difference in fluidity for someone who relies heavily on speed. My testing indicates that you can queue your next spell while your current one is still being cast as long as:
a. Both spells have casting times (i.e. neither one is instant)
b. You press the hotkey for the 2nd spell after the global 1-second cooldown of the first spell.
J. Move your ghost to the edge of the Spirit Healer’s radius. This saves you valuable seconds in returning to fight near the flag (Rule 1). It always amazes me how few people bother doing this. Even if it only saves you one second of travel, 1 second times 15 people times 4 deaths apiece suddenly means your team has A FULL MINUTE against your opponents. EVERY SECOND COUNTS.
K. Set pets on “Aggressive”. Sometimes the AI governing your pet will spot someone before you do. The “sight” of NPC mobs is not limited by an interface or camera angle, and sees “through” other players, elevation, and certain objects. When you keep your pet on aggressive, it will automatically attack the closest enemy every time it detects one.
If that enemy is a poor target (Rule 7), you can manually switch the pet to a better target, and should. But for the few seconds between those events, your pet will have contributed more to the fight than if it were on passive or defensive.
L. Duel in your free time. This will give you practice in the most crucial kind of speed: Speed of mind. It will also help you figure how to better organize your hotkeys for maximum efficiency, and help you figure out your strengths and weaknesses against certain classes or builds.
RULE #3: Use Voice over IP.
Exceptions: None
This means using Ventrilo, Teamspeak, Skype, or any other software which lets your team communicate by voice rather than by typing/reading. While this alone will not guarantee victory (even the worst of organized teams already does this), it is a necessary first step. When you communicate by voice, you eliminate valuable seconds from your fight. Furthermore, if you can do so hands-free, you can talk and fight simultaneously, accomplishing twice as much as anyone who doesn’t (rule 2).
RULE #4: You can’t win on defense.
Exceptions: The “Mobile Defense” Strategy (See Below)
There is a school of thought for Arathi Basin that says, “Hold three and win!” This will certainly work if your enemies are dumb as posts, or just sit on their heels waiting for defeat, but in an actual battle this strategy is very flawed. I’ll demonstrate:
To hold three with a team of fifteen, you have to divide your force into an average of three groups of five. Meanwhile, your enemies can consolidate all fifteen players into a single attack. Fifteen against five will win and you will lose the flag. Even if you have ten at one flag (unlikely), those fifteen attackers will STILL win. Furthermore, if your raid leaders (or misguided backseat drivers) are screaming, “HOLD THESE THREE” without any offense, your enemies can (and will) completely abandon their flags if it’s in their interest to do so.
RULE #5: Never leave a flag undefended.
Exceptions: None
This should be common sense, but I have been shocked to see flags left completely unattended. In most cases, the MINIMUM number of defenders to be left at a flag is TWO. A flag with JUST ONE defender should be considered UNDEFENDED because crowd control abilities such as sap, fear, or polymorph can eliminate one player from combat long enough to capture. (There are certain circumstances where it is helpful to leave just one defender, but only in cases where your position on the map makes an assault against that defender unlikely. See the strategy section below.)
RULE #6: Interrupt the Capper
Exceptions: None
When an assault is being made on your flag, interrupting the capper is your only priority. If they attempt a second or third assault, you keep them targeted and keep interrupting capture. As long as you hold the flag, allies can resurrect at the nearby graveyard and provide an unending supply of reinforcements. Since it only takes 10 seconds to assault the flag, and up to 30 seconds to resurrect, this can be tricky, but by keeping this rule in mind, one or two defenders can delay capture by five defenders or more.
If someone is assaulting the flag when you die, AS SOON AS YOU REZ, throw the fastest interrupting spell you have at him as soon as you’re in range. THEN worry about prioritizing your targets appropriately (see Rule #7, below).
Ranged weapons are excellent for interrupting flag cappers. Don’t underestimate the speed and range of a wand, bow, or gun for this purpose even if it has little other application for your character.
RULE #7: Prioritize your targets.
Exceptions: None
Attention to the wrong target is a waste of time (rule 2), not to mention mana/rage/power. In roughly this order, these are your top priorities:
a. Healer > Non-healer
b. Near the flag > Away from flag (rule 1)
c. DPS > Non-DPS
d. Cloth > Leather > Mail > Plate (rule 2)
e. Ranged > Melee
f. Damaged > Healthy (rule 2)
g. Has Mana > Out of Mana
h. Closer to you > Farther away (rule 2)
i. Not-CCed > CCed (rule 2)
j. Character > Pet
k. Ally is attacking > New target (rule 2)
l. Unbuffed > Buffed
m. On foot > Mounted (rule 9)
Don’t try to use this as an ordered checklist, but rather try to absorb its principles over time until they become instinct. These are not hard and fast rules, but general guidelines; combining them will reveal the exceptions. For instance: The exception to H is when a hunter or warlock out of attack range sends his pet to harass you at the flag (B and G). Of the healing classes (A), priests should be your first priority because wearing cloth makes them much easier to kill than druids, shamans, or paladins (D). Of the DPS classes (C), hunters, warlocks, and mages are more threatening than fury warriors, shamans, or rogues because they can kill you from farther away (G/rule 2), not to mention warlocks and mages wear cloth (D).
The principle is simple at each step: Kill the BIGGEST THREAT, go for the FASTEST KILL. Healers are the biggest threat of all because they can keep EVERY other alive and kicking. Then those who can dish out damage are more threatening than tanks, and so forth.
Also consider your strength versus a particular class. Some players believe these are hard and fast rules, but in my experience, this can vary greatly depending on gear, play style, and build. Just target the classes YOU excel at destroying, while bearing in mind the above principles.
RULE #8: Communicate Effectively.
Exceptions: None
First, this means communicating at all, which many people don’t do. And second, doing so effectively. On PvP servers, I was amazed at vague ‘incoming’ callouts in world PvP, missing such crucial details as level, class, precise location, or other details which would clue you in to those factors. (I.e. “mounted paladin” tells you he’s at least level 40. Just “paladin” could mean level 10 or level 70).
In battlegrounds, the principle is the same, but the crucial information is different. Here’s what you need to communicate:
A. How many attackers/defenders (What)
B. Location (Where)
C. Progress (How)
D. Assignments (Who)
The difference between “3 inc stables” and just “inc stables” is the difference between victory and defeat. By being vague, you may get everyone or no one to rush to your aid. If three are incoming, and 7 of your allies rush to help, you’ve tied up half your team to meet just 1/5th of the enemy team. However, if everyone has his/her zone map open (rule 12), and you call “3 inc stables”, everyone can see that 2 people are already defending the stables, and 2 or 3 assisting (at most!) will assure victory. Furthermore, with everyone’s battleground map open, everyone can see how many are already en route to aid. Just 1? Not quite enough. 2? Probably but no guarantee. When I see three are on the way to help 2 more defend against 3 inc, I know I can keep defending where I’m at. Once everyone on your team instinctively responds in this way, you become a much more fluid and responsive force.
The third thing to call is progress. That is, if you’re assaulting a node but suddenly half the enemy resurrects there, your allies may assume it’s still up for the taking, when in reality it is a lost cause. Call out the success or failure of a skirmish when appropriate to educate your team. A raid leader should also call out an alternative target, and those watching un-assaulted nodes should indicate the number of defenders there to help determine the best target.
The fourth thing to call is assignments, whether self-assigned or the purview of a raid/group leader. When four players are all trying to assault the same flag, they aren’t fighting, and will be easy to interrupt and even kill. An expert player will announce he is assaulting the flag, enabling EVERY OTHER PLAYER to fight to keep enemies off of him. Since you can’t fight and assault at the same time, he will also clue in how many seconds to go. You tend to respond more quickly when you discover that 1 or 2 seconds makes a huge difference.
RULE #9: Travel in packs.
Exceptions: Rogues and Druids using stealth to “ninja” a flag.
When going on offense, travel as part of a large group; always an onslaught, never a trickle. You may outnumber a defense by 2 or 3 to 1, but you arrive all strung out, you give them the opportunity to kill off a few at a time, or even recover, eliminating your advantage.
When you gather for an offense, gather in a tight clump, using the zone map (rule 12) to determine everyone’s location. Then ride mounted all the way to the flag or as close as possible if crowd control prevents you from reaching it (rule 1) and dismount with an instant cast spell into combat (rule 2).
RULE #10: Never disparage your own team.
Exceptions: None
Consistent victory is as much about morale as strategy. Insulting your teammates will never help in battle…it’s a waste of typing (rule 2) and all you will accomplish is making your teammates feel abused and unappreciated. In the first place, the most common insult is what a “newb” someone else is, which is the most meaningless insult in the world. If the person really is NEW to PvP, BGs, AB, or even WoW, is your own world so narrow that you are criticizing someone for trying something NEW? That’s absurd. Everyone has to start somewhere. There’s nobody who was NEVER a newb.
If you have advice, educate your teammates off the battlefield (as I am here), because there isn’t time for an in-depth analysis of strategies and tactics during a match.
The best of leaders are people who can make their team feel good, even when the chips are down and things look grim. The ability to talk up your troops instead of talking down to them…that’s what separates the men from the boys.
RULE #11: Never chase runners.
Exceptions: If you have 5-capped and are farming the enemy’s graveyard.
This rule may be difficult for those accustomed to pre-battlegrounds PvP, world PvP, or instanced PvE. Back in the Everquest days, if you let a mob get away, you’d cause a huge train and a guaranteed wipe. The instinct still exists to smash the heck out of anything running away.
Don’t.
Sometimes one to three enemies will engage you near the flag, and for whatever reason one or more of them will decide to flee to another node. Don’t worry about them, don’t take them down, don’t pursue. If they return, engage them again as you would any incoming attacker.
If you see a drive-by runner, or someone retreats, one of three things is happening:
1. The fastest route for him to reinforce elsewhere happened to pass by your flag.
2. He doesn’t really know what he’s doing, thus he is wandering aimlessly.
3. He is deliberately trying to lure you away from your flag.
In the first two cases, it doesn’t help you at all to bother with him unless you’re after one lonesome honor kill. Whoop-dee-fricken-doo. If you begin winning consistently, you’ll make honor hand over fist. In either case, if you abandon your flag to pursue, you have removed one defender from your flag, violating rule 1 and possibly rule 5. If your target is a deliberate decoy, then he’s got you right where he wants you.
RULE #12: Keep your zone map open.
Exceptions: None
There is a transparent map of the whole battleground you can choose to display on your screen in addition to your regular local minimap. To open it, SHIFT+CLICK on the PvP icon on your minimap, or press SHIFT+M.
On a test run, set this up to your tastes. Choose a location on your screen for easy reference with doesn’t interfere with other data, set desired transparency, and thereafter keep it open all day every day when you run battlegrounds.
The map includes two key pieces of data: Which nodes are under whose control, and the location of your entire raid group.
Keeping this map open at all times will help you determine at a glance:
1. Whether you need to stay behind to defend a node or can afford to go on offense instead.
2. Compare the number of “incoming” to the number of allies you have defending a node.
3. Compare the number of enemy defenders called out to the number of allies on offense at a particular node.
When you can respond to these circumstances without even having to be told, you’re well on your way to victory. When your own assessment begins to match exactly what the raid leader is saying, you are close to functioning as a high-performance team. But you can’t do it if the map is closed.
RULE #13: Always take the shortest route.
Exceptions: None
When attacking or rushing to help defend, do NOT take the long way around. Take the shortest possible route.
There are direct roads between the Farm and Stables. If you have to get from one to the other, use them instead of going by way of the blacksmith, lumber mill, or gold mine, EVEN IF your team holds them. It’s a waste of time (rule 2). If the enemy holds them, so much the better – you’re staying out of their way. If you’re lucky, some may even abandon their flag to chase you (rule 9).
For priests and mages, the shortest route from the lumber mill to the blacksmith or the blacksmith to the gold mine is to drop straight down the cliff. Stock light feathers for this purpose as this is an INVALUABLE time saver (rule 2). Furthermore, amateurs won’t expect it or know to include these people when they call their “incoming” numbers.
Classes with a lot of hit points can also make the leap, as long as you account for the injury in your planning. For my warrior, a jump from the lumber mill and a moment to bandage took less time than going the long way around, and with few enough defenders the bandage or potion wasn’t even needed. However on my warlock, I never had enough hit points for the leap to be worthwhile.
RULE #14: Utilize Ghost Defenders
Exceptions: The local flag is currently in conflict.
This is the method of counting resurrecting players as defenders for the purpose of determining how many to send on offense. For example:
You’ve just defended the blacksmith with six defenders. Three of them died, three survived. Your raid leader calls for the blacksmith and the lumber mill to assault the farm. The three surviving people at the blacksmith should clump together (rule 
and help assault the farm. This is because the three people who died are currently in the graveyard about to resurrect are sufficient to defend it (rule 5) and you will save valuable time (rule 2) by launching your offense more quickly.
RULE #15: Don’t assault more than six defenders (except for the final node).
Exceptions: Varies significantly; consider this the most breakable rule.
I see groups all the time who get it into their heads not only that they need nodes to win (which is true), but that they need PARTICULAR nodes. Then they bang their heads against a wall by repeatedly attacking a sizeable force.
First, you need to know that it’s easier to defend than to assault. This is because:
A. Dead defenders can resurrect nearby with refilled health and mana. This means that three defenders can be as hard to kill as six defenders, whereas three on offense who are killed have to rez halfway across the map before they can threaten you again.
B. Defenders can be dropping prep buffs/spells/traps while you are approaching them mounted and unable to do likewise until you’re already in their range (except for rogues and druids).
C. An assault has to get one attacker 10 uninterrupted seconds on the flag. A defense technically only has to interrupt such attackers (though it is prudent to kill them also).
If you are assaulting a node with over six defenders, think about what this means for the other nodes. A team holding two nodes usually has three groups: One defending each node, and one on offense. If they’re equally split, that’s five apiece. Which means: If you’re assaulting a node with six or more defenders, chances are you’re attacking the MOST HEAVILY DEFENDED FLAG. Why? By the time you kill the fourth defender, the first three will rez, whereas your group will already be half dead.
Instead, you should always be attacking the node with the LEAST amount of defenders. Unless the enemy team is holding two nodes on 100% defense (highly unlikely, as this is a forfeit), chances are almost nil that six defenders is the weakest point.
Once you have four-capped the battleground and only the fifth flag remains, an all-out battle cannot be avoided. Until then, attack where your enemy is weakest – not the other way around.
RULE #16: Buff in preparation.
Exceptions: None
This should be common sense, but there’s still people who don’t do this. Buffs cast before a battle cost no mana. During this interval, you should buffing as many people as possible with the best spells available, providing summoned aids such as food, water, and healthstones, etc.
Also, any down time on defense just after a skirmish should be immediately spent buffing and regaining mana.
RULE #17: Always fight near the flag.
Exceptions: Farming the enemy’s graveyard after a 5-cap.
This rule is so important it bears repeating. It is the first and last thing you should know about fighting in Arathi Basin. If you’re fighting in the roads, on the bridges, at intersections, in the graveyards, or ANYWHERE ELSE, you need to get your wowcrack-loving self to the nearest gods-cursed flag at double-time. Otherwise you are just asking to be defeated, and the rest of us will be happy to oblige.
Capture the flag first, capture it quickly, capture it always, and defend it well. Your first step to assaulting a node is to ensure that your enemies won’t resurrect there. Your next step is ensuring that they don’t get it back.
PART III: Advanced Tactics
1. Rotate, Rotate, Rotate
In Rule 14, I explained the use of rotating defenders out on offense while resurrecting players rotate in on defense. This is a far more effective use of manpower than letting two defenders sit where they are while the “offense” players wait to resurrect, then wait to buff, then wait to mount, and THEN get where they’re going.
Another method of rotation is to momentarily abandon a flag to help another, knowing that a farther flag will reinforce the one you just abandoned.
Example: You hold the Farm, Mine, and Stables with four defenders apiece, and the rest of your offense at the Farm (deciding what to hit next). The Stables get attacked by 5 or 6. The attack isn’t large enough to make you SURE either of the remaining flags (Blacksmith or Lumber Mill) is a good target, but it IS large enough to make you sure you’ll lose without more defense.
MOST of your team is all the way across the map at the farm. Even going around the Blacksmith, they have a long jog, especially if your flag is under assault. To save time, ROTATE your four defenders from the Gold Mine back to the Stables, while your surplus players from the Farm ROTATE in to defend the Gold Mine.
The specific nodes don’t matter; what matters is the principle of using people far away to free up closer players to help. Do this often enough and quickly enough and it will seem to your enemies that you are EVERYWHERE, no matter WHAT they attack or defend. This is how 5-caps are possible.
2. The Advantages of Being Controlled or Dead
Oh no! I’m feared/mind controlled/sheeped/trapped/frozen/dead!
In PvP, this happens constantly, and should (rule 2). Like most things in life, being crowd controlled (or dead) is what you make of it. Now obviously you can employ trinkets to free you of CC effects, but only between cooldowns. But before you do, consider the following.
An amateur player will lean back and relax for a moment, waiting to be able to act again. An expert will take this opportunity to do wonderful things for himself and his team.
A. Size up the situation. When you’re in the fast and furious heat of all-out combat, there’s chaos. When you can’t do a thing, this is your best time to figure out EXACTLY what’s happening around you. How many times have you watched a sport or game and seen obvious mistakes undetected by the players? When you’re uninvolved, things are clearer.
See how many of each team is present. See who’s healthy on BOTH teams by displaying local health bars. Determine whether this assault or defense is winnable or a lost cause.
B. Update your team. If you character can’t act, this is the perfect time to squeeze some typing into chat to give your team the lowdown. If three of your teammates have full health and only one enemy remains, go ahead and call the flag CLEAR so incoming players can direct themselves elsewhere. If it’s a dead even match, ask for a LITTLE more help to secure the advantage from those closest. If you’re drowning in a sea of enemy combatants, call the flag a lost cause so your team doesn’t waste players nickel-and-diming this battle.
C. Let your cooldowns finish. If some of your cool trinkets or abilities are almost cooled down but not quite, DON’T hit your clear-CC trinket. Let the enemy push you around for a few more seconds at the cost of THEIR mana. Then when you’re ready, you have that much.
D. Know which effects don’t scare you. Some crowd controls are FAR more effective than others, either in general or vs. a certain class. If you got hit with something that doesn’t phase you, keep on fighting and DON’T burn your trinket to clear it – wait for a worse circumstance.
Frost effects are much more effective against warriors and rogues than against hunters or any spellcaster. Polymorph has a healing component, which as an otherwise dying warrior I’ve enjoyed many times. Fear has never bothered me on any character, because running around like a maniac makes you that much harder to target, and sometimes moves you out of range. I’ve finished fear sometimes closer to where I wanted to be than I could have gotten by combat, because while you are feared, some players will ignore you.
E. Select a new target. After you have sized up the situation, you will can identify clothy or healer which should be soonest killed. Even if you were frantically defending yourself before you were CC’ed or killed, come back on offense with a target of the highest priority (rule 7) and you will be even more effective. With enough time, you can even type a message to your comrades to focus their fire on the priest, which they may not have seen yet in the chaos of the battle.
3. Whip Out Those “Useless” Spells!
Remember Eye of Kilrogg? Eyes of the Beast? Far Sight? Eagle Eye? Slow Fall? Levitate? Mind Vision? Water Walking? Those spells with some “cool” effect that had no real application in combat?
Find hotkeys for them once again. They have INFINITE application to battlegrounds…when used correctly. The difference between the winning team and the losing team is often communication. But you can’t communicate what you don’t know.
That’s when these spells come in handy. Exit the mundane Warcraft character, and enter the Warcraft Secret Agent!
A. Remote Vision Spells. Gathering intelligence is a huge advantage to your team, especially if you follow Rule 8: Communicate Effectively, the most important component of which is calling NUMBERS to your teammates. With remote vision spells, you can gather more information about the opposing team. Never use a remote vision spell if you don’t have someone watching your back, though, or you’ll get taught a lesson.
B. Additional Modes of Travel. I mentioned Slow Fall and Levitate earlier under Rule 13: Always take the shortest route. Those spells fall into this category, and so does Water Walking. There are two rivers which run smack through Arathi Basin (with the Blacksmith on an island in the middle). Although you are accustomed to using the bridges, occasionally the shortest distance to your target is across water. Become the James Bond of Battlegrounds. Embrace your superhero side. Ritual of Summoning might also be useful in a pinch if you have a stranded player on the opposite side of the map.
C. Your Ideas Here. The key to outmaneuvering your enemy is doing things they don’t expect. And the key to the unexpected is innovation. Think of new applications for old spells or effects and add those ideas to your repertoire.
PART IV: The X-Factors
There are two basic unknowns which can throw any match into skew.
1. Luck. Any experienced strategist knows that luck plays a significant role. As the saying goes, “I’d rather be lucky than smart”. Chess and Othello are the only two games I know of where luck plays no role at all in victory or defeat.
When I was a ranked Warcraft 3 player, I can tell you: Most of my opponents were more or less evenly matched with me in understanding of strategy. The winning factor then came down to speed, familiarity with different units/tactics, and quite often, luck. If I caught someone’s hero in a skirmish with PvE creeps and forced a townhall portal retreat (whereas I got to keep my scroll), that was often the difference which won the game.
When I played a human warrior, I had the racial ability Perception hotkeyed. Often, I’d activate it, find a stealthed rogue creeping up, and try to turn on both auto-attack and Charge to unstealth him. In many cases, he was too close for Charge and too far for autoattack. Then on his approach he’d use his first disabling ability (one requiring stealth) even though technically I could see him, I hadn’t forced him out of stealth mode. I did everything tactically right to prevent this from happening, but in such cases fortune favored the rogue, and luck trumped strategy.
Sometimes luck is going to help or hurt in unanticipated ways. Some days you’ll feel like Neo under a pile of Agent Smiths. You may be the best of the best, but things aren’t going your way at the moment. Other days you’ll feel like Jar Jar Binks at the end of Episode I – wildly effective even though you are technically botching everything.
Remember that fortune favors the the well-prepared, and the intelligent, and otherwise take the good and the bad with a grain of salt. It’s a game. And even the best of the best occasionally lose.
2. Gear. No matter how good your team and your tactics, a team that has out-geared you will be able to hold their own. As to whether your opponents are wearing green quest rewards or tier 6, that’s another function of luck. The nice thing about PvP is that gear isn’t everything; you can begin PvP completely ungeared (I did) and play on a team which wins all the time (we did). When you begin to outfit your team as a whole, you’ll minimize the chances of being out-geared. But generally speaking, there’s always SOMEONE out there with better stuff than you. Once you can accept the fact that you job, spouse, kids, and friends are more important to you than WoW is to the 40-year-old unemployed guy living in his mom’s basement, you’ll enjoy your losses even more than he enjoys his wins.
PART V: Strategy
This is the most flexible section of the guide. Counter-intuitively, it is also one of the most important. The first thing you need to understand is that there is no ONE strategy to win. Study chess openings, become ranked in Warcraft 3, try to build an undefeated record in Starcraft, and you’ll quickly see what I mean. You have to know what you’re doing, you have to know what you’re enemy is doing (and understand it), and you have to be flexible in your goals to accommodate for the actions of the enemy. Sticking to a plan after it has outlived its usefulness is just as detrimental as having no plan at all. (Sometimes it’s worse.)
A good strategy is a starting point from which victory can be achieved – nothing more. Strategy alone will not win the game if your team doesn’t follow the rules outlined above. And a good strategy can lose if your opponent’s strategy is better, or if both strategies are equal but your opponent is better geared, communicates better, etc.
The best general strategy is simple: Find the WEAKEST node the enemy holds and attack it. This is true at every stage of the battle, whether you have just spawned, are currently being destroyed, or are winning by miles. If the enemy brings a huge force to a node you hold, don’t get hung on up defending it through a war of attrition (at best) or outright wasted lives and time (at worst). I CANNOT STRESS THIS ENOUGH: If you’re defending with 3 and the enemy brings 7, it’s a BETTER use of your time to attack the node they left BEHIND and assault it than to defend a node that’s obviously going to lose.
That said, there are specific strategy plans you can employ at your discretion. There are almost infinite variations on these strategies, and others I won’t explore in depth. But these are the strategies I advise.
Strategy 1: Mobile Defense
Rating: Poor
This is my least favorite strategy. I find it stale and gutless, not to mention easy to beat. However, it sometimes works and so it is noteworthy.
In rule 4 above, I said that you can’t win on Defense. This is not 100% true. To be more accurate, you can’t win on Static Defense. With a dynamic mobile defense, you can technically “hold three and win”, but when most people advocate “hold three and win”, they try to force a static defense down your throat, and are easily beaten instead. (Usually scratching their heads or blaming the team for not listening, even though the attempt itself was faulty.)
Here’s how a Mobile Defense works:
1. Capture three flags.
2. Keep enough defenders to stall any offensive long enough for…
3. A large mobile group nearby to provide instant backup against any attack.
Suppose you’re playing Horde, and your 3-cap includes Farm, Lumber Mill, and Blacksmith. You keep three defenders at each (9 players) and the remaining 6 players in your mobile defense. When those six defend any node, that node has 9 defenders (6 mobile plus the original 3). 9 defenders is nearly impossible to defeat unless the enemy brings nearly everyone.
For a mobile defense, you need to know:
1. Don’t bother capping more than three flags.
2. Minimum two defenders on a flag. Three are preferable.
3. Keep the majority of your forces at the MIDDLE NODE between the other two when not needed elsewhere.
4. ROTATE your defenders when your largest force is too far away to help.
The third point is the most important for a mobile defense to work. Suppose you’re playing Horde, and you 3-Cap Farm, Lumber Mill, and Blacksmith. Of those three, the Blacksmith and Lumber Mill are farthest from each other. Between skirmishes, your mobile defense needs to RETURN TO THE FARM to be within easy reach of the other two nodes.
There are two major weaknesses to this strategy. First, it gives your enemies time to organize a major offense, because they don’t have to defend. And second, it gives your enemies many opportunities to catch a weak node.
Using the example above, suppose the Alliance assaults the Lumber Mill with 7. Seven attackers will demolish 3 Defenders, so you (as Horde) send your mobile defense in for backup to make it 9v7 in your favor. While your largest force is still recovering, the Alliance sends their remaining 8 attackers to the Blacksmith. Now they’re attacking 8 vs. 3, and they will easily capture before your large force can make it all the way to the Blacksmith.
This is where you need to utilize step 4, and ROTATE people from one node to the other. You can’t leave a flag undefended (rule 5), but this is a clever way to use defenders from one flag to help another while still defending your first flag. The key is that when a raid leader calls such a rotation, you need to respond INSTANTLY and ACCURATELY to it without hesitation, or it will fail.
In the above example, AS SOON AS incoming to the Blacksmith is called, you must ROTATE your three Farm defenders up to the Blacksmith, while 6 of the people at the Lumber Mill return to the Farm. This is still 8 Alliance against 6 Horde at the Blacksmith, but you will hold it longer, possibly long enough to resurrect and keep defending. Then the six people going from Lumber Mill to Farm split at the bridge… 3 continue to the Farm (to provide minimal defense) and the other three cross to the Blacksmith to aid. This makes it 8 Alliance against 9 Horde at the Blacksmith.
This may sound complicated to read, but it can happen in a moments’ thought if everyone knows what they’re doing.
From Chat: “6+ Inc to BS.”
Raid leader on Vent: “Farm, rotate to Blacksmith, Lumber Mill to Farm. Leave 3 at Mill.” As soon as the six rovers realize that not six are needed on defense at Farm, they will split between Blacksmith and Farm anyway… again, if they know what they’re doing. If not, the raid leader should clarify:
“3 to Farm, rest to Blacksmith.”
How to Beat a Mobile Defense
Watch for the enemy’s weakest node. Hit the nodes farthest apart in quick succession. In the example above, the Alliance did the exact right thing by attacking the Mill and Blacksmith, particularly if the members of both assaults resurrect at the Stables, which is closer to either node than they are to each other. Also take the opportunity if they aren’t performing ANY offense to gather a HUGE force against the weakest node.
Because of the resurrection dynamics and the way players cluster per node, it is much easier to TAKE the third node than it is to HOLD the third node (in spite of the advantage defending). This is because the team holding 2 will resurrect 7 or 8 at a node and immediately have a large force for assault grouped together. This is why “hold three and win” is an essentially flawed strategy.
Strategy 2: Mobile Offense
Rating: Average
This is my second-least favorite strategy.
Apply the principles of a mobile defense strategy above, but instead of waiting to be attacked, your large mobile group of six to eight constantly harasses one of your enemy’s two nodes.
When the large group is close enough to help defend a large attack, they do. When they aren’t close enough, they rotate back on defense to their CLOSEST node, and everyone else rotates to help defend the appropriate node.
When your “extra” group is close enough to fall back and defend, they do. If they are close enough for some to rotate in to defend a node whose current guards are rotating also, they do. If everything is presently held, your extra 6 – 8 people go on offense.
The key factor to this strategy is that your offense MUST go TOGETHER. Suppose you leave 2 at each node and have 9 attackers for your mobile offense. If those 9 attack two or three different targets, they will accomplish nothing. If those 9 attack the same target, but they leave from different nodes, they will accomplish nothing. If those 9 leave from the same node, but arrive too strung out, they will accomplish nothing. They have to hit hard, together, and fast to shake up the enemy and keep them guessing. A mobile offense is your best chance at a 4-cap victory if it does correctly. But there’s a huge margin for error and the stakes are high.
How to Beat a Mobile Offense
The best way to beat a mobile offense is to LET THEM HAVE the node they’re attacking. Yeah, I know this sounds strange…which is why more people don’t do it (and lose). Since I used Horde above, I’ll use the Alliance POV in this example.
Suppose the Horde is employing a Mobile Offense and has taken Farm, Lumber Mill, and Blacksmith. Alliance is left with the Stables and Gold Mine.
Horde minimizes their defenders to two per node, and takes a Mobile Offense to the Stables to attempt to cut off the Alliance reinforcements to Trollbane Hall.
What Alliance needs to do here is NOT defend the Stables. Yes, this sounds backwards to my “hold three and win” audience, but see how this plays out:
Horde is rushing the Stables with 8 or 9 attackers from the Lumber Mill. The Alliance has 7 or 8 each at the Gold Mine and Stables, roughly speaking. Unless you abandon the Gold Mine entirely to bring 11 to 12 defenders to Stables, the Horde will win. Even if you do, a slight interrupt on the Flag will mean respawning all the way at the gate! And no less than 60% of your forces will be fighting just to HOLD your 2nd of two nodes. This is an almost guaranteed 4-cap if the Horde knows what they’re doing.
Instead, this is the right time for your defenders to ABANDON the Stables and RUSH the Blacksmith, where, if you called your ‘incoming’ numbers accurately, there can’t be more than 2 or 3 defenders. Those “extra” at the Gold Mine also should advance to the Farm, leaving two defenders behind.
If you do this QUICKLY, and if you do it CORRECTLY, you will lose the Stables. But 7 – 8 rushing the Blacksmith will beat the minimal defenders, and even 3 – 5 leaving from the Gold Mine should be able to beat 2 at the Farm.
Now the Alliance has 3 nodes (Mine, Farm, Smith) to the Horde’s 2 (Lumber Mill and Stables).
Taking the scenario a step further:
The Horde have MOST of their forces at the Stables, which means the Farm is too far away for them to counterattack, except by rotation. Their best targets are now the Mine or Blacksmith. If they’re working together well on Vent, they will pick a target and win it. If they’re a PUG, chances are they’ll divide their attack and fail, putting the Alliance in good position. But assuming they do the smart thing and assault the Gold Mine, the Alliance takes “let them have it” a step further: The largest alliance force was at the Blacksmith, and returns to the Stables once the Horde abandon it. Or if the large Alliance force was from the Gold Mine to the Farm, the Farm now assaults the Lumber Mill. Either way, even losing the Gold Mine leaves the Alliance with three nodes.
Rinse and repeat to stay ahead of a mobile offense. Make no mistake: In this scenario, the Alliance is on the defensive and a hairsbreadth from losing at each step if a mistake is made. But standing your ground for a massive fight when you are grossly overwhelmed is the biggest mistake you can make vs. a correctly led mobile offensive.
Strategy 3: The 5-Cap Rush
Rating: Good
This is the strategy you need to win. If you employ this strategy and your opponents cannot match you for speed, communication, planning, AND gear, you will dominate. It is my favorite strategy, and it is the one which I have seen win time after time in a fraction of the time it takes to draw out a “hold 3” game.
RAID GROUP:
Set up three groups for your raid with at least one healer apiece, and an otherwise good mix of class roles. Assign each group one of the MIDDLE nodes: Gold Mine, Stables, and Blacksmith. Make sure each group KNOWS where it is going and STICKS TOGETHER for the first step. Afterwards, your organization matters less.
OPTIONAL:
A rogue group of just two rogues/druids can be sufficient to cap a far flag with only two defenders. If you sufficiently out-maneuver and out-communicate the enemy, these two people can afford to be taken out of the main groups. Think of them as an extra two stable/farm defenders put instead to better use. Their first target should be the FARTHEST node from you (stable for Horde, farm for Alliance).
Designate ONE PERSON to capture the “close” flag (Stables for Alliance or Farm for Horde). This is a partial violation of rule 5 above, but if this strategy is performed correctly, it won’t matter. The enemy won’t get to this flag before passing you at one of the other three nodes, so you have enough warning to defend if necessary. And usually, you don’t need to with a good raid group. (It is also customary to rotate this defender each battle, as he will receive far fewer HKs than the rest of the group, not to mention that in a successful 5-cap, this is the most boring duty there is.)
Let’s switch back to Horde for our POV example to continue this strategy.
GROUP 1: Assigned to the Lumber Mill.
GROUP 2: Assigned to the Blacksmith.
GROUP 3: Assigned to the Gold Mine, except 1 member to stay and cap Farm.
In this case, I picked the Gold Mine to be the group of four because it is less visible. At a glance, it appears sizeable forces are attacking the other two nodes, with the Gold Mine as an admitted unknown. If they make the mistake of not reporting numbers at the Mine (rule 7), it will seem an impossibly large force is bearing down on the whole map. This impression alone is sometimes psychologically enough to achieve victory.
Everyone mounted except the Farm capper will reach the other flags fast enough and in enough numbers to cap them earlier if the Alliance has even ONE more person dismounted at the Stables for the cap or defense than you do.
Since most raid groups focus on a set of three including their close node, 9 times out of 10, the Alliance is trying one of the following:
A. Stables, Smith, and Lumber Mill
B. Stables, Smith, and Gold Mine
C. Or Stables, Lumber Mill, and Gold Mine (if they’re really stupid, because this is the hardest triangle to defend).
What that means for the Horde is this: Two of the nodes Alliance encounters will be either evenly matched or outnumbered. The third will be relatively uncontested. From the uncontested node, you IMMEDIATELY advance to Stables all but two defenders.
*NOTE: This is the point where your original groups cease to matter and will have to split up.
BEST-CASE SCENARIO:
Both the uncontested node AND one of the other nodes will win. This results in a three-cap. BOTH teams leave 2 defenders at the flag (just enough to hold it against CC captures) and EVERYONE ELSE from both flags advances to the Stables.
ALSO: Whomever is dead and rezzing at a node (if two or less), they become your defenders WHILE the other three advance, secure in the knowledge they are leaving two defenders behind. Unless you’re still under attack, the Alliance can’t get there and cap fast enough to prevent the rez. This saves invaluable time (rule 2) moving to the next step. If more than two have died, wait until you have all but two TOGETHER before you advance to the Stables.
This best-case scenario results in a three-cap already. Meanwhile, the Alliance is screaming at each other to rush whichever node is still being contested in the effort to hold it against your third group. If you’re lucky, they will, and TWO OF YOUR GROUPS advance to take the Stables. If two groups are free to do so, chances are it will be lost (2 to 4 defenders vs. 6 attackers) and already you have a four-cap.
SECOND-BEST-CASE SCENARIO:
Two nodes are in contention and just ONE is uncontested.
If you had five at the uncontested node, three can advance to the Stables. If the Alliance left 1 behind (as you did), or 2 behind (as is customary), chances are you will still capture this flag, leaving these defenders to resurrect at the Gate, and reducing your effective enemy reinforcements from 15 to about 13 in terms of defending other nodes.
Even if the two other nodes outnumbered you, you have three-capped but cut off their reinforcements to the interior nodes by taking the Stables.
The other option is for your uncontested group to QUICKLY go to the second-least contested node for the fourth cap. If this succeeds, proceed as above and all free attackers (all but 2 per node) advance to Stables AS SOON AS POSSIBLE.
WORST-CASE SCENARIO:
All three nodes are seriously contested. There are two ways this can happen:
1. The enemy did not coordinate their attack sufficiently and has divided their efforts as a result of disorganization.
2. The enemy deliberately assaulted all three interior nodes, just as you did, as a result of already knowing this strategy.
In the first case, you won’t have to worry…communication will break down and laws of numbers guarantee you one win out of the three. If the enemy doesn’t know the other speed tricks like leaving rezzers to be defenders, capping their close node with just 1 person, you will win two or even all three nodes and can proceed as above.
In the second case, chances are you’re facing a highly organized premade with a well-defined strategy themselves. In this case, no set strategy will win…both teams will know the best ways to counter any particular strategy. Whichever team follows the principles outlined in the rules above will gradually gain the advantage in speed resulting in a sustained three-cap or four-cap.
The only thing you can actively do to respond is know that you will have to rotate away from safe nodes to defend crucial nodes. And that it may be in your interest to ABANDON a node to assault the weakest force.
Concentrate your forces where the enemy is weakest, follow the rules presented above, and fight your hardest.
THE CRUCIAL MOMENT: CLINCHING THE 5-CAP
While a good team can stymie you for awhile, if you employ the above strategy while following the rules, chances are you will eventually achieve the upper hand. And by upper hand, I don’t mean a 3-cap; that’s too easily disrupted to be considered victorious (see above). I mean a 4-cap, whereupon you force all of your enemies to resurrect at the same graveyard, thus severely limiting their counterattack mobility.
If you don’t know what to do when this occurs, you will quickly lose the advantage and be back where you were. This is the turning point at which a near-victory becomes a sure thing.
As soon as four nodes are held by your team, ALL members of your team except FOUR – one to guard each flag you hold – should immediately rush to assault the fifth flag as quickly as possible. This is the best way to take it. And everyone who makes this assault should fight AT THE FLAG. While this appears to be a violation of rule 3, never leave a flag undefended, in this case it is a necessary evil. Chances are slim that your opponent will be able to resurrect to mount a true offensive, and even if they do, the 11 attacking players will quickly surround their remaining flag. Their best chance for another capture is to “ninja” a flag by means of a stealth attacker disabling the defender. Sometimes the defender can resurrect fast enough to defend the flag, but even if he can’t, don’t worry about this happening. It’s more important than you bring a MASSIVE offense to the enemy’s last flag.
This rush has to happen quickly. Some of the enemy players will be waiting at their one remaining flag to resurrect. If you give them any time, you’ll have a heck of a time assaulting one flag with 15 defenders while you have only 11 on offense.
But if you move quickly enough with enough players to assault the 5th flag, you can kill half of the enemy team while the other half is resurrecting, and thereafter continue to keep significant numbers out of combat. Best of all, if you can capture the flag quickly, by killing or CC’ing enough of them, you force them to resurrect at their default graveyard, near the entrance.
If you do this quickly and follow the rules, you will 5-cap and gain bonus honor plus three marks in just a fraction of time most games take. Your honor gained per minute will skyrocket as a result, helping you follow rule 2 in your purchase of PvP gear.
If you don’t assault the fifth flag quickly enough, chances are you will spend the rest of the match fighting for it. This still isn’t a bad way to finish, ends much faster than a 3-cap, and yields tons of Honor kills, but it’s far less satisfying and takes about twice as long as a true victory. Furthermore given enough time, the enemy may eventually get an offense past your onslaught and reduce your flags back to 3.
How to beat the 5-cap rush
If you read the above “worst case scenario” for that strategy, you know that someone else attempting the same strategy correctly can effectively block it. That’s one method to beat it, in which case the faster, better communicating, better geared, or possibly even luckier team will win.
The other method is to make your three primary targets include the FAR node instead of the three interior nodes. This means the Alliance picks the Farm as one of their three initial targets, or the Horde picks the Stables. This is because using the above strategy, there’ll be just one defender and you quickly cap. Thus your team has the end nodes (Farm and Stables) and hopefully one of the middle nodes resulting in at least a 3-cap. This only works if you use the inside paths directly from Farm and Stables as your route…if this group attempts to go through another node (even one you hold or are winning), you will have nullified the advantage of this tactic.
You can rarely determine the enemy’s strategy early enough to know if this is necessary. If you’re facing a premade, chances are higher they’re attempting a 5-cap rush, so this may be your deciding factor. Alternately, your optional rogue group (described above) can help answer this problem. Neither one is a guarantee.
PART VI: Battleground Myths Debunked
Myth 1: Premades always win.
This is patently false. A premade alone doesn’t mean anything. It cracks me up to see people announcing the formation of a premade in Trade, because this kind of premade is really still a PUG, and will still likely lose to teams who know what they’re doing. If you believe premades always win, what do you think happens when two premades fight each other?
A premade group has a much higher likelihood of using voice over IP to communicate, but after seeing many premade vs. premade battles, I’d wager the average premade only a 50/50 chance of knowing and executing any of the other 11 rules, and less than a 50% chance of knowing a particular strategy. If you’re doing these things and they aren’t, they’re easily beatable. Even if your side is a PUG, at best, an enemy premade has better initial organization and more faith in each other. At worst, they’re really just a PUG disguising itself as a premade in hopes of intimidation by means of this myth.
Myth 2: Voice Over IP use guarantees victory.
False again. As stated above, voice over IP is a necessary first step to having an organized and responsive team. It alone does not solve problems of miscommunication, or a poor understanding of the methods necessary to win. But with a consistent team, you can far more quickly educate them with voice over IP than you ever will via chat.
Myth 3: The better-geared team always wins.
This is not always true either. While better gear can help you achieve victory, it is not the be-all/end-all of success. Where gear truly shines is when you are up against an opponent (single or team) who is your equal in every OTHER way. When everything else is equal, the team with more hit points, mana, armor, damage, and resilience (etc) will win.
Gear will NOT help compensate for healers who don’t heal, players who fight away from the flags, poor communication, or any other self-defeating mode of play.
Myth 4: Don’t heal non-tanks.
Ok, those of you who understand PvP will wonder whether anyone believes this – but there are people who do. Once in AV, I (a Fury Warrior at the time) commented that my healing from bandages was outperforming the healing numbers put up by priests and paladins, and I wanted to know: what the hell, guys?
Someone whispered me in reply, saying she REFUSED to heal anyone not carrying a shield. This is just about the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard in PvP. The reason to heal shielded people in raids is because they are specialized for protection and have tools to HOLD AGGRO. There is no such thing as HOLDING AGGRO in PvP. Your best weapons are your DPSers, not tanks.
Now, if she’d told me instead that a geared Fury Warrior can only approach 600 DPS whereas Elemental Combat Shamans, Rogues, Warlocks, Mages, and Hunters can exceed 1,000 DPS, and that four of those classes have better CC than a Fury War, thus she was more interested in healing them, that would have been a reasonable argument. But instead, she was arguing that because NOBODY around her was a shield-toting tank, she shouldn’t be healing at all.
The rules are different in PvP, which brings me to the next section.
Myth 5: (Faction) Always Wins
False. Alliance and Horde frequently trade wins. It varies by battleground, by bracket, by battlegroup, and even by time of day. When I played on Emerald Dream, the Alliance won Alterac Valley much more frequently in the morning or midday than in the evening.
The problem is that when you run with pick up groups, your losses are exercises in extreme frustration, and your victories are usually long, drawn-out processes themselves. And when you encounter premades, many people just give up (thanks to myth 1) and don’t bother trying.
When you start running a premade, you won’t win them all, but you will begin to win more and more. PUGs will be your chew toys and other premades will present varying degrees of challenge.
When you can beat even the premades that are clearly playing intelligently, you’ll be at the top of your game. It happens for both factions.
PART VII: The Chief Differences between PvP and PvE.
This is not an attempt at a comprehensive list – that would take months to write. Rather, it is a brief overview of the primary differences of which you should be aware if your main focus is PvE content but you want to foray into PvP for awhile.
Difference 1: There’s no such thing as aggro.
Like the healer’s complaint above, I’ve heard priests and others complain that warriors and paladins weren’t keeping enemies “off of them” sufficiently. In PvP, there is no way to keep anyone “off” of anyone else except by crowd control. A mage has more tools in the CC box than any warrior, so you need to shake the image of a tank toeing the line to “protect” everyone else. If anything, your mages and warlocks can now “protect” a tank by burning down enemies the fastest. Likewise, there’s no reason to conserve your best spells until after threat has been generated. This concept is null in PvP. Burn down what you can as fast as you can.
Also, this misperception hurts when people have the instinct to chase down runners. In a dungeon or raid, an escaped runner can chain pull to cause a major wipe. A runner in PvP is just one guy running away. He doesn’t “pull” extra people to help the way PvE mobs do. Let him go.
Difference 2: There’s no chain pulls.
You won’t aggro a group of PvP enemies by attacking one of them. You may provoke an all out attack, but this isn’t necessarily the case. This makes it far more worth taking potshots (especially CC potshots like concussive shot and frostbolt) than it would ever be in PvE.
Difference 3: Crowd control is severely limited.
Blizzard has no reduced all forms of crowd control to a maximum of ten seconds vs. another player, and most of them (fear, polymorph, banish, charm, sleep, traps) have diminishing returns. (I don’t happen to know if motion-based CC (frost nova, hamstring, wing clip, concussive shot, frostbolt) have diminishing returns, but based on their nature I don’t believe so.
ALL forms of crowd control can also be cancelled by various items, so you should never assume that crowd control will “stick”. In fact, I use polymorph and fear more often as spell-interrupts as I do for any real crowd control.
This also means that forms of crowd control without cooldowns should be valued more highly than those with cooldowns. (i.e., Frostbolt is more effective than Concussive Shot as a snare because if someone purges Frostbolt, you can fire it again).
It also means that PvE CC concepts such as "chain trapping" are not possible.
Difference 4: There’s no boss.
While this seems fairly obvious, there’s a subconscious mentally which factors in against raid objectives which can damage your perception of PvP. The worst way is the pursuit of runners. The “don’t let it get away” mentality is something which applies to PvE bosses, but not to PvP players.
Another “boss” mentality that hurts during PvP is when multiple players gang up against a warrior or paladin with high hit points. Subconsciously, this target becomes the “boss” to burn down because he seems a pillar of survival in a whirlwind of chaos. But this isn’t the case. Once you remove their support, melee classes become much weaker in PvP. Follow Rule 7, prioritize your targets, and realize that a tank’s chief job in PvP is to DISTRACT you from better targets. Take them down last instead of first.
Difference 5: There’s no such thing as a wipe.
If a bunch of your players die simultaneously in a battleground, it can work to your advantage. Instead of resurrecting all strung out, they will resurrect together and make a more effective offense. The worst thing about dying in PvP is that you respawn unbuffed, and that for a few seconds you can’t help your team. When you’re used to PvE content, dying can be discouraging and demoralizing. Go into PvP instead with an attitude of extreme vulnerability. Expect to die quickly and often, and take pride when your death accomplished something.
If you survive and fail to assault a flag, that’s a bad thing. If you die but your team challenged a flag, that’s success. This is the opposite of the PvE mentality.
Difference 6: There are no events.
There are circumstances in PvP which can create circumstances similar to events in dungeons. The “burn down the boss” mentality is just one such problem. Another is PvE events where swarms of weak creatures can be more easily defeated with a few AEs. While a large PvP fight sometimes feels this way, it is rarely the case. Most players are smart enough to step out of an AE given an opportunity.
Difference 7: There’s no AI.
This is both good and bad. No AI means abilities which automatically affect NPCs are greatly diminished in usefulness. Misdirection has no use in PvP. Feign death will clear pet aggro and remove you from targeting, but a smart player will ignore it.
Players are a lot harder to fool than NPC mobs. For some people, that’s why they hate PvP. It’s why I love it. It’s more satisfying to me to outwit another human being. If I get to play WoW at the same time…well that’s almost as good as it gets.
--
The only other things I need are cold beer and an ally at my side.
Anyone who’s read this guide is welcome to join me. I currently play as Kaeldar in the Alliance on Khaz’Goroth.
[AV] Xaknar's Alterac Valley Guide - Basic Rules
This is my first guide and it's about what to do and what not to do in Alterac Valley(AV).
Things to do(Both Sides):
1. Always have a few defenders at your base to slow down the enemy from getting to your boss.
2. If a player of the other faction passes you, try to kill him/her. You never know, that kill could mean an extra few seconds added on to kill the boss.
3. If someone of the same faction is being attacked, help them, even if you are out numbered, luck does exist 
4. Report Leachers/Afkers. These are people who enter the game and dont do anything trying to get the honour from a game. If you go on the world map and right click on these people, you can report them AFK and they turn Inactive, so that they do not recieve honour.
5. Always try and get out of the starting point as fast as possible, for example: Hunter uses Aspect of the Pack, making the rest of the group run faster, and as the gate opens and you get out, mount up.
Things NOT to do(Both Sides):
1. Do not pull the enemy boss outside of its building, because if you do it resets, gaining full health. Thats not good.
2. Never take IceBlood Graveyard or the equivelant to this on Horde side(I play Alliance 
) because then the opposite faction will spawn right next to where you are trying to kill their boss.
3. Never try and take the boss before the Graveyard near there has been captured by your faction. If you wait for the Graveyard then lots of people will spawn there and it will be easier to kill the boss.
Thanks for taking the time to look at this guide, please comment.
19 Mage/Warlock/Priest Twink guide
Hello guys, my name is pyro and welcome to my clothie twink guide. I like making twink guides which I post on my guild website and making twinks as well. So I hope this helps you guys out with making your 19 twink warlock, mage or priest. Hope you enjoy this guide.
ARMOR LIST:
Head: Lucky Fishing Hat [+15 stam] or Green Tinted Goggles [+8 stam, +7 sprit]: Lucky fishing hat is really hard to get. To get it you must have a max fishing skill (150) and u must have about 20 “Aquadynamic Fish Attractor” which give you +100 fishing when you apply it to your fishing rod. When you have done that, then you can participate in the booty bay fishing competition which is held in “Stranglethorn Vale” (STV) on every Sunday between 2-4pm sever time, to get the lucky fishing hat, you will have to capture a rare fish which can be found in the “Tasty school fish” nodes which are located along the Stranglethorn Vale coastline. There are 3 rare fish that can be caught, they are called “Brownell's Blue Striped Racer” (used to get Nat Pagle's Extreme Anglin' Boots), “Dezian Queenfish” (used to get High Test Eternium Fishing Line, increase’s fishing skill by 5), and “Keefer's Angelfish” (used to get Lucky Fishing Hat) And when you get one, you can trade them in to the robot in booty bay (look for the repeatable quest sign to find him). Once you get the right fish, trade it in to the robot to get the Lucky Fishing hat.
Now you think that would be easy right? Will you would be wrong because you guys should know that STV is basically GANK LAND on a PVP sever. This means, that there are going to be a lot of people around which could and most of the time, will kill you and camp you. I’ve done this fishing competition a couple of times and I try to just keep away from the horde and they usually leave you alone, it could help if you had someone to protect you in STV cause the beasts would kill you (they range from lvl 30 to 40).
Green tinted goggles can be made by an engineer and you HAVE to be an engineer to where them, you need to have an engineering lvl of 150 to wear and make them.
Neck: Sentinel's Medallion [+6 agi, +2 stam] or Scout's Medallion [+6 agi, +2 stam]: Sentinel's Medallion can be bought from the pvp vendor at Silverwing Grove in Ashenvale for 76 honor and 20 WSG marks. Scout's Medallion can be bought from the pvp vendor at Mor'shan Base Camp in barrens for 76 honor and 20 WSG marks
Shoulders: Talbar Mantle [+3stam, +6int]:
You can get Talbar Mantle from a quest which starts from an item that drops from the last boss in WC; this is the only cloth shoulders that give stats at lvl 19.
Back: Engineer’s cloak [+5stam, +2 int] alliance only or Feyscale Cloak [+4stam, +5 spell damage and healing] or Battle Healer's Cloak [+4 stam, +2 sprit, +9 healing] horde only or Caretaker's Cape [+4 stam, +2 sprit, +9 healing] alliance only: Engineer’s cloak is a quest reward from a quest in Stonetalon Mountains, the quest giver is called “Ziz Fizziks”, you can find him in Windshear Crag (map mod location 58, 62) There are 5 chains to the quest and you can start the quest chain at lvl 16. Feyscale Cloak drops from the Deviate Faerie Dragon which is a rare spawn in WC, I recommend having a high level running you thru and he can just go straight thru to see if the rare spawn is there, if it isn’t, then just come back out and reset the instance, then you do it again till you kill him and get the Feyscale Cloak.
Battle Healer's Cloak can be bought from the pvp vendor at Mor'shan Base Camp in barrens for 65 honor and 10 WSG marks. Caretaker's Cape can be bought from the pvp vendor at Silverwing Grove in Ashenvale for 65 honor and 10 WSG marks
Chest: Bloody Apron [+12 stam] or Tree Bark Jacket [+6 stam, +10 int] or Robe of the Moccasin [+6 sprit, +6 stam, +7 spell damage and healing ]: Bloody Apron is a drop from one of the bosses in Shadow Fang Keep (SFK), I would only get this if you can’t get the Tree Bark Jacket. Tree Bark Jacket drops form the trash mobs in Blackfathom Deeps and has about a 0.01% drop rate, so It would be better to buy this form the AH for about 40 to 80g. Robe of the Moccasin drops from Lord Cobrahn in Wailing Caverns (WC).
Wrist: Greenweave Bracers [+4 stam or +4 int] or Mindthrust Bracers [-5 stam, +9 int] or Crystalline Cuffs [+2 int, +2 sprit, +4 spell damage and healing]: Greenweave Bracers are a world drop and are best bought from the AH, go +4 stam for locks, + 4 int for mages and priest. Mindthrust Bracers are only good if you get a +9 stam enchant on them, you can buy them from the AH from about 30 to 60g.
Crystalline Cuffs drop from one of the bosses in Rage Fire Chasm (RFC) which is bad news for alliance because RFC is in the middle of the horde city Orgrimmar, and your goin to need someone to run you thru it, a lvl 70 with his epic mount should be able to get in the instance with out being killed (Azurath has tried this) but your twink will have to corpse jump to get in the instance, which will take about 12 rez to get in, But it is worth it to get these bracers.
Hands: Magefist Gloves [+3 stam, +4 sprit, +5 int] or Shimmering Gloves [+4 stam, +4 int or +13 healing, +5 spell damage] or Gold-flecked Gloves [+6 int, +7 healing and spell damage]: Magefist Gloves and Shimmering Gloves are world drops, so you will have to buy them form the AH. Gold-flecked Gloves drop from the second boss in deadmines(VC).
Waist: Keller's Girdle [+3stan, + 8 int]: This is a world drop so you will have to buy it from the AH for about 30 to 50g.
Legs: Darkweave Breeches [+3 stam, +7 int] or Colorful Kilt [+5 sprit, +6 spell damage and healing] or Rigid Leggings of The Eagle [+4 stam, +4 int]: All of these are world drops so you will have to buy these from the AH for about 20 to 50g.
Feet: Nat Pagle's Extreme Anglin' Boots [+12 stam] or Sanguine Sandals [+4 stam, +4 int]:
Nat Pagle's Extreme Anglin' Boots are a MUST have because you can get BC enchants on them, unlike all the other amour that you can get which cant get BC enchants, but the are pretty hard to get . You have to do the same fishing contest that you have to do to get the Lucky Fishing Hat, look at the head amour to see details. Sanguine Sandals are a world drop and the have to buy them from the AH.
Ring 1: Seal of Wrynn [+3 sprit, +3agi, +3 strength, +4 int, +4 stam] alliance only or Seal of Sylvanas [+8 stam, +3 strength] horde only: You can get seal of wrynn from a quest which starts with a quest item called An Unsent Letter, which drops for VanCleef which is the last boss in Deadmines You can only start the Quest at lvl 16, and has about 12 other quests for you to do before you get seal of wrynn, most of it is running around stormwind talking to people but you will need to run stockades and at the last chain to the quest you will have to kill 2 lvl 30’s to complete the quest to get the ring.
Yiu can get Seal of Sylvanas from the Quest called Arugal Must Die, you get the quest from Dalar Dawnweaver in Sepulcher in Silverpine Forest. Quest can only be obtained at lvl 19 and it isnt a chain quest unlike the quest for Seal of Wrynn.
Ring 2: Advisor's Ring [+2 stam,+5 spell damage and healing, +2 mana every 5 seconds] Horde only or Lorekeeper's Ring [+2 stam,+5 spell damage and healing, +2 mana every 5 seconds] alliance only or Lavishly Jeweled Ring [+6 int , 2 spell hit rating]: Advisor's Ring can be bought from a pvp vendor at Mor'shan Base Camp in Barrens for about 65 honor and 20 warsong marks. Lorekeeper's Ring can be bought from a pvp vendor in silverwing grove in ashenvale for about 65 honor and 20 warsong marks. Lavishly Jeweled Ring drops from the 3rd boss in deadmines (vc).
Trinket 1: Arena Grand Master [Equip: +12 dodge rating, Use: Absorbs 750 to 1500 damage for 20 sec, 15 min cool down] or Minor Recombobulator [Use: Dispels Polymorph effects on a friendly target. Also restores 150 to 250 health and mana]:
Now here is where it gets really hard. The Arena Grand Master is a powerful trinket that can be used by anyone at any lvl but it is really hard to get. To get the Arena Grand Master you will have to go to the Gurubashi Arena in STV and open the chest, which appears every 3 hours (12, 3, 6, 9, etc).
You will need about a 4 lvl 70’s to absolutely guarantee that your twink will get the chest. Every time you open the chest you will get one of these ,Arena Master, to get Arena Grand Master you need to get 12 Arena Master and trade them in to the goblin in the arena to get it. The quest to get it is repeatable but I wouldn’t recommend getting 2 Arena Grand Master since it will take too long to get them all.
Trinket 2: Insignia of the Alliance or Insignia of the horde [Use: Dispels all movement impairing effects and all effects which cause loss of control of your character.]: This can be bought from a vendor in the Champions hall which can be found in Old town. It will cost you 2805 honor which takes a while to accumulate. Not sure where the horde one is.
WEAPON LIST:
2 Hand Weapon: Witching Stave [+8 int, +8 shadow damage] or Emberstone Staff [+5 stam, +8 int] or Lorekeeper's Staff [+8 stam, +4 int, +3 mana per 5 seconds] or Advisor's Gnarled Staff [+8 stam, +4 int, +3 mana per 5 seconds]: The Witching Stave drops from the trash mobs in SFK (Shadow Fang Keep ), it has a 0.01% drop rate, so your better off buying it from the AH. Emberstone Staff drops from Captain Greenskin in Deadmines, you can find him on the ship. Lorekeeper's Staff can be bought from the pvp vendor in silverwing grove for 40 warsong marks and 428 honor. Advisor's Gnarled Staff can be bought from the pvp vendor in silverwing grove for 40 warsong marks and 428 honor.
1 Hand Weapons: Evocator's Blade [+4 int, +2 sprit] or Dawnblade [5 stam] horde only: Evocator’s blade drops from the trash mobs in BFD (black fathom deeps), it has a 0.01% drop rate, so again it is better off bought from the AH. Downblade can only be acquired by horde thru a quest in Ghostlands.
Off hand: Everglow Lantern [+3 sprit, use: Heals your target for 135 to 165 hp] alliance only or Totem of Infliction [+50 armor, Equip: When struck in combat has a 1% chance of inflicting 75 to 125 Shadow damage] alliance only or Buccaneer's Orb of … [intellect +5 int or eagle +3 stam, +3int] or Furbolg Medicine Pouch [+10 stam, Use: heals you for 1000hp over 10 seconds] or Antipodean Rod [+6 spell damage for frost and fire spells]: Everglow lantern is a quest reward from a quest at Maestra's Post in ashenvale, you can get the quest at lvl 19, so make sure you have done your twink before getting this offhand, if you decide to get it. Totem of infliction is a quest reward from a quest in duskwood, the quest can be obtained at lvl 18. Buccaneer's Orb of …. drops off a couple of humanoids but it mainly drops in stockades from the trash mobs, for a full list of what this drops off, look it up on thottbot.
Furbolg Medicine Pouch is a faction reward from the Timbermaw hold, you have to be honored with them to buy it and you will need the help of a high lvl to get it, you have to farm the rep from killing the deadwood furblogs in felwood, which will take a couple of days to get honored with them, It takes a while to get but it is worth it for this awesome offhand. Antipodean Rod is a world drop so it will have to be bought from the AH, this is only useful for mages
Wand: Gravestone Scepter [+1 sprit, +5 shadow resistance]:
You can get Gravestone Scepter from a quest in BFD, you can get the start of the quest in BFD and the hand in for it is in Darnassus, for alliance and Thunder bluff for horde, you can get the quest at lvl 18. This is the very BEST wand you can get.
Enchant list:
Head: 100hp (Libram of Constitution/Lesser Arcanum of Constitution)
Back: +70 armor
Chest: +100 hp or + 100 mana or +4 to stats
Bracers: +9 stam or + 9 intellect or +24 healing and +8 Spell damage
Legs: Runic Spellthread (+35 spell damage, +35 healing, +20 stamina)
Silver Spellthread (+16 spell damage, +46 healing, +15 stamina)
Golden Spellthread (+22 spell damage, +66 healing, +20 stamina)
Mystic Spellthread (+25 spell damage, +25 healing, +15 stamina)
You will need a lvl 60 plus to apply these to your pants, and to do this, you MUST not equip them till you have traded them to somone to apply it to your pants, this cant be down in the will not be traded slot.
Gloves: +9 stam or +9 int or +30 healing and +10 spell damage
Feet: minor speed increase or
Boar's Speed (Minor Speed / +9 Stamina); require's level 35+ item. Only applicable to Nat Pagle's Extreme Anglin' Boots in the 10-19 and 20-29 brackets.
Cat's Swiftness (Minor Speed / +6 Agility); also require's level 35+ item. Only applicable to Nat Pagle's Extreme Anglin' Boots in the 10-19 and 20-29 brackets.
2h: +55 healing and +19 spell damage or +30 spelldamage and +30 healing or +22 int
1h: +55 healing and +19 spell damage or +30 spelldamage and +30 healing or +22 int
Warlock Strategy:
For a Warlock, you will want a lot of stamina because you can life tap to convert 65 health to 65 mana (you can increase the mana bonus thru your spec), most 19 twink warlocks that I have seen, have over 2K hp and about 500 to 700 mana, which all DPS twinks hate, since they are a pain to kill. So use your mass amount of stamina to your advantage.
In WSG you should just dot one guy up, then move onto the next and use Drain soul when you see someone get really low on health, so you can get a soul shard or use drain life when you get low on health to heal yourself and you can turn the hp to mana with life tap again.
When you got someone on you, this is what you do, fear then dot him and get your pet to attack him, try to keep him away from you at all times, and to watch that your health doesn’t get too low, and to redot when the dots are close to running out. If you are out of mana and you don’t want to risk doing any life taps, just use your 29 dps wand to keep doing the damage.
Pet: For your pet, it depends on your style and what you want.
Imp: The imp gives you extra health bonus (about 70Hp) thru blood pact and imp’s can hit targets better when they are feared unlike Voidwalkers which can’t hit the target half the time. In your talents, you can improve your imp’s damage, and blood pact bonus by up to 30%, so if you have done this, then I would go with the imp.
Voidwalker: The only reason you would use a Voidwalker is for Voidwalker sacrifice which absorbs 300 damage and is a must in BG’s.
Priest Strategy: Now it depends what you want to do, be a healer or go dps. Now if you go dps you will want a lot of spell damage and a fair amount of intellect, but most of the gear that you get will give you + healing as well but if you concentrate on getting pure healing gear, then your healing will be about 100 points different if you went DPS. If you decide to go with a healing priest then everyone will love you for it, there is a big shortage of twink healers so it is rare to see a fully decked out healing priest.
Now if you decide to be a healer, just stay back and heal everyone and rebuff anyone that you see, but watch out cause rogues are more likely to come and kill you, so just use your shield and fear them and dps them with your dots and stuff, even if you are a healer, you can still do some serious damage just dps priest will do more. If you run out of mana, use your wand which does about 30dps, not including you extra spell damage which will boost the damage that your wand does.
Mage Strategy: For a mage you will want to have a lot of spell damage and a fair amount of intellect and your enchants should be +mana, + health and + spell damage. Now for a mage you will want to stay back and dps them with your spells, and when you use up most of your mana, just use your wand which will deliver a good amount of dps till your mana regains.
A couple of times, you should use frost nova to freeze the horde in place and this will stop them from attacking your group for a while, this also works well when your are covering the flag runner, or if you are the flag runner.
________________________________________________________________________________
If I have missed something ,made a spelling mistake or if there is something that I should mention in this twink guide, post a comment and ill be sure to fix it or add it in striaght away.
If you want a twink guide made for what twink you are making please email me at .
I am currently working on a MONEY MAKING GUIDE and a 29 twink hunter/rogue guide, I will also be posting my 19 twink rogue/hunter guide when I fix up a couple of misakes
My main is Pyropro, I am a nightelf hunter, on the sever Dreadmaul. PVP sever.
My guild: “Flaming Eternity”,
Invisibletaco's Level 19 Twink Rogue Step-By Step Guide (Being Updated for 3.2)
Hello, this is Invisibletaco and this is my first guide. My guide is ALL about the gold, the armor, and the skills to make an incredibly strong and hard to beat level 19 twink rogue. I am experienced with the art of developing twinks and have only used the for one reason... TO COMPLTETLY DEMOLISH THE OTHER FACTION!!
If at any time during this guide you have trouble finding the meaning of a word or ability, I will post a vocabulary/terms section at the end where you can answer your questions.
Vocabulary!:
Rogue - A class in World of Warcraft. He is able to use abilities like Stealth and Backstab.
Twink - A character made by a played used in the 19, 29, 39, 49, 59, 69, or even 79 battleground brackets. They have the best gear possible with enchants as well as skill.
PvP - Abbreviation for Player versus Player. This is where people fight each other for honor and marks.
Enchants - These are added by people who have the proffesion "Enchanting". They improve your armor and skills to help your health and stats.
WSG - Stands for Warsong Gulch. This a battleground in World of Warcraft. In the level 10-19 bracket it is the onloy one you can join. It is capture the flag style PvP between the Horde and the Alliance.
Auction House - Abbreviated as AH this is the main trading spot in WoW. You buy other weapons, items, armor, and consumables here from other players.
Instance - A dungeon zone in WoW that is filled with Elite monsters. These have bosses and monsters that are strong but drop great items.
Clothie - A cloth wearing class. Normally mages, priests, and warlocks. All classes are enabled to wear cloth but it is not particularly acceptable for a leather wearer or mail/plate wearer to wear cloth items do to low armor and stats.
BoA - Bind on Account gear. Refer to the Heirloom section for more information.
WHAT YOU WILL NEED:
Gold:
If you want to make a 'good' twink, you may need from 500 gold all the way up to 5000. Twinking can become VERY expensive and it is wise to have a level 70 or a level 80 to support the large budget. If you are low on gold and want to make a serious twink, there are several ways to pick up some quick gold.
1. First off, there is the fashion of farming. Anyone can do it, no matter what level. Farming is to spend time and run around killing monsters or gathering items that are valuable to other players. You can grind on different humanoids for cloths or mining ores around Azeroth. There are many greens and blues you can collect while grinding or questing to sell on the AH. I suggest downloading the addon Auctioneer to help with prices and 'playing with the Auction House.
2. There is also gaining gold by questing. In the low levels this method is not worth it and is time consuming. Around the higher levels between 60-80 this can work effectively, but may not be as fast as the farming method. It can work just fine, it just depends on your play style.
3. There is one more method I will bring up, buying it online. I DO NOT recommend this to anyone. Plenty of people do this and it is just not right. This method IS ban-able and is a waste of your money. Not only is this ban-able, but it is illegal and a crime. Buying this gold is pretty much handing over your hard earned cash to a criminal. Please do not use this.
Friends:
You will need a lot of friends to help run you through the instances, and protect you while trying to get the Arena Grand Master . They can also support your income for armor, weapons, and enchants.
STEP ONE: Choosing your faction and race.
By now, you should have at your stash of gold and are now thinking about races, factions, and names. This part may be fairly simple for most players, but I urge you to consider the racials and effects of this step.
ALLIANCE
Human:
1.Perception - Increases your stealth detection.
2.The Human Spirit - Spirit increased by 3%.
3.Diplomacy - Reputation gains are increased by 10%.
4.Sword Specialization - Swords and Two-Handed swords +3.
Humans are some of the best rogues in the game. Perception is great for rogue vs rogue combat since the first attack can decide the fight. Spirit and Diplomacy are completely useless since PvP items no longer require certain reputations. Swords can improve damage slightly but have no other advantages.
Gnome:
1.Escape Artist - Escape the effects of immobilization and speed effects.
2.Expansive Mind - Intellect is increased by 5%.
3.Arcane Resistance - Reduces chance hit by arcane spells by 2%.
4.Engineering Specialization - Engineering skill +15.
Gnomes are my favorite pick of Alliance rogues, knowing how I play Horde. Escape Artist is just like a PvP trinket and is great for those pesky frost novas, entangling roots, wing clips and hamstrings. Since you are a rogue, Expansive Mind and Arcane Resistance will do you no good. Engineering specialization gives Gnomes an advantage on the battle field with several more engineering explosives and devices.
Night Elf:
1.Shadowmeld - Allows to escape from the shadows.
2.Elusiveness - Reduces chance to be found when stealthed or shadowmelded.
3.Quickness - Reduces chace hit by melee and ranged by 2%.
4.Wisp Spirit - Transform into a wisp, increasing speed by 50%.
5.Nature Resistance - Reduce chance hit by nature spells by 2%.
Night Elves are a great class when it comes to looks, but it is one of the worst classes for a rogue. Shadowmeld is useless unless it can used right as a sort of vanish. Elusiveness can be slightly effective for being stealthed, but unless you are a ambush/backstab,rogue you won't be stealthed much at all. Wisp is COMPLETELY useless since you will not be running around in ghost form all the time in WSG. Quickness and Nature Resistance are okay, but won't drastically change the outcomes of your WSGs.
Dwarf:
1.Stoneform - While active, grants immunity to Bleed, Poison, and Disease effects.
2.Gun Specialization - Your chance to critically hit with Guns is increased by 1%.
3.Frost Resistance - Reduces the chance you will be hit by Frost spells by 2%.
4.Find Treasure - Allows the dwarf to sense nearby treasure, making it appear on the minimap. Lasts until cancelled.
If you ask any pro rogue, on either faction they would most likely disagree with Dwarf Rogues. None of their racials will benefit you besides maybe a Stoneform every once in a while. I can not MAKE you decide but if you want racials, roll something else.
HORDE
Orc:
1.Blood Fury - Increases attack power by (Level*4)+2 per character level (322 at 80). Lasts 15 sec.
2.Hardiness - Duration of Stun effects reduced by an additional 15%.
3.Command - Damage dealt by Death Knight, Hunter and Warlock pets increased by 5%.
4.Axe Specialization - Expertise with Axes and Two-Handed Axes increased by 5.
Orcs are an impressive rogue race. Blood Fury and Hardiness are great in any bracket and can turn the tide of a WSG. Unless you are using this guide for hunters,Command and Axe Specialization are useless.
Troll:
1.Berserking - Increases your attack speed by 10% to 30%. At full health the speed increase is 10% with a greater effect up to 30% if you are badly hurt when you activate Berserking. Lasts 10 sec.
2.Regeneration - Health regeneration increased by 10%. 10% of total Health regeneration may continue during combat.
3.Beast Slaying - Damage dealt versus Beasts increased by 5%.
4.Throwing Specialization - Your chance to critically hit with Throwing Weapons is increased by 1%.
5.Bow Specialization - Your chance to critically hit with Bows is increased by 1%.
Trolls have critical abilities in the level 19 bracket. Berserking is jut like another 'Slice and Dice' ability and it does not need combo points either. Regeneration is okay, but if have a serious twink, it won't be neccessary since you should have 225 first aid. Beast Slaying is great for leveling your twink slightly faster and it can be used against those annoying little hunters in WSG. Throwing and bow specialization won't do too much, but they can be used to stop someone from running away.
Undead/Forsaken:
1.Will of the Forsaken - Removes any Charm, Fear and Sleep effect.
2.Cannibalize - When activated, regenerates 7% of total health every 2 sec for 10 sec. Only works on Humanoid or Undead corpses within 5 yds. Any movement, action, or damage taken while Cannibalizing will cancel the effect.
3.Underwater Breathing - Underwater breath lasts 233% longer than normaling will cancel the effect.
4.Shadow Resistance -Reduces the chance you will be hit by Shadow spells by 2%.
The Undead are one of the favorite races and best rogues in the game. Will of the Forsaken is just like another PvP trinket and you can get out of that clothie warlock's fear and take him down. Cannibalize is effective and fun to rub in the opponents' faces unless you have 225 First Aid. Underwater Breathing is useless in WSG and may really only be used if you go AFK under water for too long. Shadow Resistance isn't that great but it has a slight chance of resisting a fear.
Blood Elf:
1.Arcane Affinity - Enchanting skill increased by 10.
2.Arcane Torrent - Silences all enemies within 8 yards for 2 sec and restores 15 of your Energy.
3.Magic Resistance - Reduces the chance you will be hit by spells by 2%.
Blood Elves are my favorite race, mainly for looks. Their only racial that is actually beneficial for level 19 rogues is Arcane Torrent. It is like another kick when either Gouge or Kick is on cooldown.
STEP TWO: Name Choosing
This is a difficult step for some people, but not everyone. You want a catchy name that refers to being a rogue, being a twink, your race, your faction, or just something randomly hilarious that people can give you props for on the battlefield. My rogue, formerly known as Chicktwink who has been renamed Prô, was named just for being a female Blood Elf twink rogue. After transferring to Ruin during 3.2 I renamed myself Prô - The name shows I can have skill and it can give you pride (or maybe that is just me).
STEP THREE: The First 10 Levels
Now you should have plenty of gold and have your character made and have chosen a name. There is nothing else to say but pure questing. Levels 1-10 are EXTREMELY easy and I recommend using Bind on Account gear for that extra leveling speed. Quest in your starting places non-stop and be quick. This step will not effect in any way your character or armor. There are some other guides you can find on http://www.wow-pro.com for leveling 1-10 if you need it.
STEP FOUR: Instances
No matter what faction you are, if you want to twink right you need to do many instances. The Alliance have the Deadmines and maybe the Stockades, while Horde have Wailing Caverns and Shadowfang Keep. Around level 10 you should start doing these to gather your armor.
The Deadmines is THE instance for twinks. Both factions can run it, the only thing is that Horde have a harder time getting there. You need to take the Zeppelin to Grom'Gol, and run up the shore of Stranglethorn Vale to Westfall. You need run through or two but you get magnificent drops. Edwin Vancleef is the last boss and he drops Blackened Defias Armor ,which is a the best chest peice you can get, besides maybe a Tunic of Westfall which is from an alliance quest in Westfall. If you are agility based and Alliance, I reccomend this. Two great weapons dropped here are Cruel Barb and Thief's Blade , which are both viable twink weapons.
Jame's The Deadmines Guide:
http://wow-pro.com/node/578
Wailing Caverns is a Horde-based instance in the middle of the Barrens, to the south-west of the Crossroads. You will need a run through, and this is a particularly long instance. It is also easy to get lost! Some items that drop here are Armor of the Fang , Gloves of the Fang , Footpads of the Fang , and Leggings of the Fang. You may want to pick up a quest called Leaders of the Fang, which gives two good twink items, though they won't be too much use to you.
Jame's Wailing Caverns Guide:
http://wow-pro.com/node/580
The last instance I am going to cover is called Shadowfang Keep, otherwise known as SFK. It is buried deep inside a Horde territory called Silverpine Forest, and it is a little harder for Alliance to get there than Horde. For Horde there is a quest here called "Arugal Must Die" that gives a great twink ring Seal of Sylvannas . Some pros say the best twink weapon combo for 19s is Shadowfang and Assassin's Blade . These weapons are VERY rare and you are better off spending several hundred, or thousand gold getting them in the Auction House.
Shadowgang Keep Instance Guide:
http://www.blizzardguides.com/shadowfang_keep_guide.html
STEP FIVE: Herbalism
Due to the recent twink nerfs and changes added in patches 3.1/3.2 Herbalism is now a twink must-have. Why? At level 75, 150, and 225 Herbalism you gain access to this so useful ability - Lifelood. With an only 3 minute cool down, this spell can help you so much! Don't question it - just go go herbalism!
Herbalism Leveling Guide:
http://www.wow-professions.com/wowguides/wow-herbalism-guide.html
STEP SIX:First Aid:
First Aid is a useful and valuable skill to have for a twink of any class. This is not expensive and will not cost much more than 50g-100g. You start out making linen, heavy linen, wool, and heavy wool bandages until skill level 150. At 150, to get to 225 First Aid, you need to buy the item Expert First Aid - Under Wraps . Most of the time you will be able to find this book in the Auction House for a price around a gold or two. You then should buy the skill for Silk Bandages, Heavy Silk Bandages, and Mageweave bandages until 225 skill. Once you are at 225, you can get a higher level to make you Heavy Runecloth Bandages . You can buy them off the Auction House for several gold a stack.
First Aid can be used at any time during a WSG. Bandages may be used right in the middle of a fight. If you are on a one vs one situation and are low on health, use Gouge and try to run away and Stealth . Just as they regain control, Sap , unstealth, then use your bandage for a quick heal. Equip your dagger and do a quick backstab. Re-equip your sword and spam your attacks as fast as you can to finish the fight.
STEP SEVEN:Fishing and the Lucky Fishing Hat
Every Sunday morning at 2:00 pm server time a fishing contest begins in Stranglethorn Vale. This contest requires AT LEAST 150 fishing, but 225 is better. You are able to fish around STV for 2 hours and fish for rare fish. You can get the best head item for a level 19 twink. This is the Lucky Fishing Hat . For more info read the guide below from the site http://www.PWNDepot.com.
STV Fishing Guide:
http://pwndepot.com/forum/showthread.php?t=5392
STEP EIGHT:The Home Stretch
With all the instances you have done since level 10, you should probably be around level 15 with more than half your gear already. Once all your instances are finished and you think you are done, head to the level 10-20 zones. For Horde these are the Ghostlands and the Barrens. I don't know surely for Alliance but I believe it is Westfall, Darkshore, and maybe Loch Modan. You are just going to be grinding and questing from here on out to 19. Once you are 19, you can finish the final few steps...
STEP NINE:Final Armor
CONGRATULATIONS! You have now reached level 19! Wait just a second though, to be a twink you have to have the top armor and enchants. This step will show all of the gear you should have collected from instances and bought from the Auction House.
Head:
1. Green Tinted Goggles (engineering)
2. Lucky Fishing Hat (STV Fishing Contest)
Neck:
1. Scout's Medallion (PvP Reward)
2. Sentinel's Medallion (PvP Reward)
Shoulders:
1. Serpent's Shoulders (Wailing Caverns)
Back:
1. Sentry Cloak (Auction House)
2. Glowing Lizardscale Cloak (Wailing Caverns)
Chest:
1. Blackened Defias Armor (The Deadmines)
2. Armor of the Fang (Wailing Caverns)
Wrist:
1. Forest Leather Bracers (Auction House)
2. Wrangler's Wristbands of the Monley (Auction House)
Hands:
1. Gloves of the Fang (Wailing Caverns/Auction House)
Waist:
1. Deviate Scale Belt (Auctionhouse/Leatherworker)
2. Belt of the Fang
Legs:
1. Leggings of the Fang(Wailing Caverns)
Boots:
1. Nat Pagle's Extreme Anglin' Boots (SYV Fishing Contest)
2. Feet of the Lynx ( Auction House)
3. Footpads of the Fang (Wailing Caverns)
4. Bristlebark Boots (Auction House)
Rings:
1.(Horde Only) Legionnaire's Band (PvP Reward)
2. Blood Ring (Auction House)
3.(Horde Only) Seal of Sylvannas (SFK Quest)
4.(Alliance Only) Protector's Band (PvP Reward)
5.(Alliance Only) Seal of Wrynn (the Deadmines quest)
Trinkets:
1. Arena Grand Master
2. Insignia of the Horde
3. Insignia of the Alliance
STEP TEN:Weapons
Main Hand:
1. Shadowfang (SFK or the Auction House)
2. Cruel Barb (the Deadmines)
3. Butcher's Slicer (SFK)
4.(Horde Only) Wingblade (Wailing Caverns quest)
Off Hand:
1. Assassin's Blade (Shadowfang Keep or Auction House)
2. Thief's Blade (the Deadmines)
3. Scout's Blade (PvP Reward)
4. Sentinel's Blade (PvP Reward)
STEP ELEVEN:Enchants
Back: +12 Dodge Rating OR + 3 agility
Chest: +4 stats, +3 stats or +50 health
Wrist: + 9 stamina
Hands: +15 agility is best but +7 agility if necessary.
Feet: Minor Speed Increase, +7 agility, OR +7 stamina
STEP TWELVE:Weapon Enchants
Main Hand:
I would suggest +15 agility on this one. Mats aren't that easy but it is the best. Besides that you can go for Lifestealing or Crusader. Fiery is OK if you can't afford the others.
Off Hand:
Here your BEST bet is +15 agility as well. It depends on your playstyle and well one other option is Lifestealing. Crusader isnt worthy enough for an offhand enchant. Fiery could help a bit if you are a "budget or "cheap" twink.
STEP THIRTEEN:Talents
I personally chose the Good-All Around Arena Build because I tend to do much arena.
Swords: This is a good out-of-stealth build for constant and considerably high damage.
Improved Eviscerate 3/3
Improved Sinister Strike 2/2
Dual Weild Specialization 5/5
Daggers: This is a dagger build based on crits. This is for people who like maximized Ambushes and Backstabs.
Malice 5/5
Puncturing Wounds 3/3
Opportunity 2/2
All Around: This is an optional build, better used with swords. It provides higher crit rates and stronger white damage.
Mailice 5/5
Dual Weild Specialization 5/5
Good All-Around Arena Build: A strong arena build. Great for not being caught off guard unless especially in a rogue vs rogue situation. This also allows much time to gouge and bandage to full health. I advise using dual wielding swords/maces and to use Garrote unless you are fighting someone you think you can one or two-hit.
Master of Deception 3/3
Opportunity 2/2
Dirty Tricks 2/2
Improved Gouge 3/3
STEP FOURTEEN:Glyphs
Edit: I obliviously left this out at first but it is now here.
Glyphs were added recently since the latest expansion pack Wrath of the Lich King. At level 19 ALL classes are allowed two glyphs; a minor and a major. Depending on what talents you chose, there are better ones than others.
I left out Minor glyphs, mainly because there are no good ones for 19 twinks at this level. The only one you may ever use is Glyph of Blurred Speed which may speed up your time during the Stranglethorn Fishing Contest.
Also to note these are my preferred ones, and they are your best bet for your talent spec. To find more information and to find all of the glyphs available to rogues, visit the page below.
Swords:
Major: Glyph of Sinister Strike
Alternate Major: Glyph of Evasion
Alternate Major: Glyph of Eviscerate
Daggers:
Major: Glyph of Backstab
Alternate Major: Glyph of Ambush
Rogue Glyphs:
http://www.elsprofessions.com/inscription/rogue_glyphs.html
STEP FIFTEEN:The Heirloom Items (BoA)
As of the Wrath of the Lich King, you are now allowed to buy and use Heirloom items. These provide a benefit in low level pvp, though due to the changes in patch 3.1 they are no longer much better than Serpent's Shoulders. This is because the shoulder enchants are not allowed until level 70 and do not work on any characters lower than 70. If you want to use them you can, but I don't.
"Bind to Account equipment:
Shoulders: [Stained Shadowcraft Spaulders] / {Greater Inscription of the Gladiator(30stm, 15res)}
Weapon(Off Hand): [Balanced Heartseeker] {Agility(15agi)}
Ranged: [Charmed Ancient Bone Bow]
Trinket(Alliance): [Inherited Insignia of the Alliance]
Trinket(Horde): [Inherited Insignia of the Horde]"
I personally do not have any experience with these and do not know how or where to get them. I looked up a couple heirloom guides and here are some.
Heirloom Items and How to Get Them:
http://www.wowinsider.com/2008/11/24/wrath-101-heirloom-items-and-how-to-get-them/
Heirloom Items Scale:
http://quickarmory.com/heirloom.php?lvl=19
STEP SIXTEEN:Warsong Gulch Tips and Tricks!
DPS and Farming Honor:
This is the most common and enjoyable thing twinks do. It is the pleasure of killing of others that makes them so popular and fun. I usually spam Sinister Strikes and a Eviscerate for constant damage. Gouge as much as you can for a quick get away, energy regeneration, or first-aid. Stay on top of the clothie casters as well as hunters. NEVER go for any of the pets first, as for while you do that you are getting OWNED by their owner twinks. If you face another rogue twink, try to stealth up to them, sap, garrote, then pop evasion and do your normal cycle with a gouge here and there. I also advise against graveyard camping but if you want to, go ahead.
Killing Hunters:
These are probably the most overplayed low level twink class in the game. As of 3.2, Hunters were allowed to use Aspect of the Cheetah (A +30% run speed aspect, but if hit they are dazed). A smart hunter can know when to switch aspects from Cheetah to Hawk, which can make these overpowered beasts even deadlier than normal. If evasion is ready use it to gain that extra chance to dodge their pets attacks and the nasty Wingclips. If you can learn the jump tricks in Warsong Gulch, getting them out of Line of Sight can be easier. One example is on top of the tunnels. If you can precisely drop down to the bottom part of the top tunnel you can get enough out of Line of Sight for a bandage and stealth to reset the fight or run away. You will usually lose unless the hunter is stupid OR if you have all of your cooldowns ready for use while they don't.
Defending the Flag:
Twinks on defense can sometimes call for a 3 to 0 victory. Your duty here is to stealth in the flag room. When an enemy comes by, use sap. Do your opener (garrote, ambush, etc.) and try to get a quick kill. If they grab the flag before you attack, you can kill them and get a couple honor for returning the flag. If they escape the flag room, call out to your team which way they are going. An example is "The EFC is now leaving the flag room and headed out to [GY, Ramp or tunnel]!" This is a very important role.
STEP SEVENTEEN: You Are Ready!: Killing Time
You are now ready to go to your first battleground as a 19 twink. Your teammates are waiting for you. Come to the the battlefield to kill your opponents. I hope you enjoyed this guide and made a decent twink from the knowledge I gave you.
P.S. - Make sure you turn off your experience!
If you find any mistakes somewhere written in this guide, please say. Thanks!
I am in the Nightfall battlegroup. I have met some of my guide's viewers since this was completed and I feel very proud.
Feel free to contact me in game!
Prô (formerly known as Chicktwink)
Trollbane PvE US
Ruin Battlegroup
Nilz' AV Guide (Both Factions)
This guide was made to help those who don't the reason or what to do during Alterac Valley. In this guide I will explain what to do, how to do it, quests, and how to do those quests. Some people don't realize the potential of AV and how useful it can be. I think it is the most entertaining battleground as well as being a goldmine for honor (don't believe me check my Honor Guide) it is alliance based, however you can use it for horde too.
When you are in AV the point is to either get the other team's reinforcements get to 0, or kill the other team's commanders.
Killing the Main Commanders
Alliance kill Drek'Thar.
Horde kill Vanndar Stormpike
Reinforcements
If you don't want to kill the commander you can try to get the enemy's points to 0. There are several things that you can do to get their points lower:
1. Kill the other team's captains
When you kill the captain the other team's points go down about 100 points.
Alliance kill Galvangar
Horde kill Balinda Stonehearth
2. Destroy the Towers
Both team's have several towers guarded by archers at the top. Every tower you destroy the other team lose points. Some towers contain friendly npcs that you can run back to your camp.
3. Capture the graveyards (GY)
There are GYs all over AV guarded by about 4 npcs. Easily solo able at high levels. These are useful because they help you progress towards the enemy camp. These also decrease the enemy's points.
4. Kill the Other Team
Basically, kill the other team, for every kill made the enemy loses 1 point.
5. Capture Mines
There are 2 mines in AV, when you capture the enemy's by killing the boss at the end of the mine. When you capture a mine your team gain points, which is always helpful, that's all there is to winning ...but wait there more!
Quests
There are a lot of quests to get from this battleground ...and here they are.
Horde
Battle for Alterac - This quest is given by Voggah Deathgrip and in order to complete this quest you need to kill Vanndar Stormpike.
Rewards: 14300 XP + 13
and 20
Hero of the Frostwolf - This quest is a follow-up of Battle for Alterac and all you have to is choose a reward.
Rewards: Wand of Biting Cold
Ice Barbed Spear
Bloodseeker
Cold Forged Hammer
700 XP
Coldtooth Supplies - This quest is given by Frostwolf Quartermaster and in order to complete this quest you need to go to your mine and take 10 supplies and bring them back to Frostwolf Quartermaster.
Rewards: 40
Irondeep Supplies - This quest is given by Frostwolf Quartermaster and in order to complete this quest you need to go to the other team's mine and take 10 supplies and bring them back to Frostwolf Quartermaster.
Rewards: 85
Empty Stables - This quest is given by Frostwolf Stable Master and in order to complete this quest you need to use the Frostwolf Muzzle provided on a frostwolf to tame it then bring it back to Frostwolf Stable Master.
Ram Hide Harnesses - This quest is given by Frostwolf Wolf Rider Commander and in order to complete this quest you need to kill Alterac Rams and loot Alterac Ram Hide and bring them back Frostwolf Wolf Rider Commander.
Alliance
Battle for Alterac - This quest is given by Prospector Stonehewer and in order to complete this quest you need to kill Drek'Thar.
Rewards: 14300 XP + 13 and 20
Hero of the Stormpike - This quest is a follow-up of Battle for Alterac and all you have to is choose a reward.
Rewards: Wand of Biting Cold
Ice Barbed Spear
Bloodseeker
Cold Forged Hammer
700 XP
Coldtooth Supplies - This quest is given by Stormpike Quarter Master and in order to complete this quest you need to go to your mine and take 10 supplies and bring them back to Stormpike Quarter Master.
Rewards: 40
Coldtooth Supplies - This quest is given by Stormpike Quarter Master and in order to complete this quest you need to go to your mine and take 10 supplies and bring them back to Stormpike Quarter Master.
Rewards: 85
Those are just some of the quests that i decided worthy enought to put in the guide if you want the whole list then go here if you are alliance. Go here if you are Horde.
AV is so easy right? Well it can be if you use the right strategy (i.e. the one I explain here) if you use a bad strategy well things can get really ugly for your team ...fast.
The faction strategies differ slightly but are in the general idea.
Horde
When you start mount up and and go in generally straight line towards Balinda Stonehearth, don't go for the neutral GY that is in the middle of the map because usually the Alliance will get the first because it is closer to them, instead send a couple guys to take the GY just a bit farther then Balinda Stonehearth that way if you do die then you resurrect close to the fight. Also take down the tower just before Balinda Stonehearthas well as any other tower you see on your way. After you have killed Balinda Stonehearth go farther north while capturing all nodes on your way. Make your through the Alliance bases until you get to Vannar Stormpike. But, before you go in make sure you have enough guys as well as controlling (not in the middle of controlling it) the GY close to Vannar Stormpike just in case you ever die. After that is done establish your healers, dps, and main tank. Once that is done run in the building and kill Vannar Stormpike's guards as well as Vannar Stormpike just remember that his guards give him extra health, damage, and armor.
Alliance
When you start mount up and make your way to Galvangar, capturing the neutral GY on your way. Then go to Galvangar and kill him, he is kind of easy but requires about 5 guys. Once he is killed get out and go east towards Drek'Thar but make sure you capture/ destroy all of the GYs and Towers you pass. Once you get to the horde camp you have to go through a building which is up a slope to the west, however make sure that you don't aggro any of the npcs befor Drek'Thar because they are a handful if you have to kill them on your way to Drek'Thar. There is a way to do this and basically all you do is not follow the path but instead the should be a little opening between a hut and the slope leading the the big building to the west, go up that way then avoid the npc by her hut on your way to the building which should just in front of you. Go through the building and destroy the towers past the little wooden wall. Then go south a little more past Drek'Thar's Building and capture the GY. Make sure you CAPTURE this meaning that you have full control over it and it isn't contested. Once this is done go in front of Drek'Thar's building and establish you tank, dps, and healers. Then run in the build and kill Drek'Thar and his guards who give Drek'Thar extra health, armor, and damage.
Those strategies, however, work best if the teams are even or you have the upper hand.
If you are overpowered by a lot. this goes for both factions so I won't explain it twice 
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Find the nearest GY and gather your team and wait for the opposing faction to come. When they do stay by the GY and fight, when you die either wait or if that was your first time dying just go to corpse, if it wasn't then just wait by the spirit healer. Then jump back into the fight, if you ever see anyone trying to capture your GY just attack him/her once with any move you can spare, as this will stop the person from capturing it. Sadly, if you are very overpowered you will eventually get taken over and the GY will be captured by the opposing faction. If this doesn't happen then very good! Continue fighting. If it does then just retreat towards the nearest controlled GY, and fight there. Once you get pushed back to your main boss, Alliance = Vanndar Stormpike, Horde = Drek'Thar, go inside the building and wait the there but also make sure the other faction does not capture the GY, however if the do then no worries just stay with your boss and fight there so it delays the loss as much as possible. that is basically the way to lose with pride .
Nilz' AV Honor Guide (Alliance Only)
Introduction
The point of this guide is to explain the best and fastest way to get honor from doing the battleground AV. In this guide I will explain ways for both low level players as well as higher level characters. This is an Alliance only guide, however, it can also be used as a Horde player but all the names are Alliance specific so if you are a Horde just try to convert the names to suit your needs. I got all my info from my main who is level 66 so I am a lower level but as you can see in my screenshots at the bottom i still get high amounts of AV, maybe you will be just as lucky 
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Useful Addons
Curse Website - Download the Client which makes it easier to download addons.
Deadly Boss Mods - Just add some time bars that help during AV.
YouWereKilledBy - Funny to have, lets you know who to hate .
AutoProfit v4.5 - This isn't related to PvP but it helps clear bag space.
DMiniCoords - A simple box which displays coordinates, left-click it to move it where you like.
Jame explains how to put addons on without the client:
In case you don't know how to install add-ons, simply download an addon from one of the links above and unzip it. Then drag the unziped folder in your Addon folder (full path is c:\\Program Files\\World of Warcraft\\Interface\\Addons). Then, restart World of Warcraft and it should be working.
If it isn't working, you might need to log out to your character selection screen and click on "Addons" in the lower-left corner. Tick the box that says "Load out of date Addons". Re-launch WoW.
Rules
1. When I say any level I only say the second digit, the first digit is represented with an x (i.e. x5 = 55/65/75, x7 = 57,67,77 and so on). Also y will represent one higher than x (i.e. y0 = 60,70,80, y1 = 61,71,81 etc.)
2. Most things are color coded:
Quests
Npc
Mobs
Items
First check out this video on AV - AV Video - Not made by me!
Lower Levels 1-5
Even Teams or More Team Members
Before I start I just want to mention that depending on what realm you are on different factions (horde/ Alliance) will win. If you are lower then half of your level range and are unsure whether you are good with your class I would suggest you stand back and watch and occasionally use you aoe spells and heals. The reason why we use our aoe spells is to raise your damage done which makes it look like your doing something. If you are healing (Priest, Druid, Shaman or Paladin) then use ctrl-v to see your team's health bars. If you die, healers especially, you will aggro a lot of enemies and will probably will killed, DO NOT go to your corpse, unless your body is close enough to be resurrected by the npc and can resurrect by your body. The reason is because if your insignia is taken while running to your corpse you waste time getting back to the npc resurrect. It will also help (obviously) if you have extra health because the higher levels will try to kill you so try to get some help from some team mates. Finally if you ever see an enemy trying to retreat back to his team, stop him by any means necessary (i.e. stun, freeze, death grip-DK's only)
Uneven Teams - Overpowered
If your team is overpowered (not 2 or 3 less players) and your team will get destroyed then sadly you will have to forget about honor for a bit and try focusing on training. The quickest way to do this is grind on the Harpies by the cave and work you way through the cave until you reach the Alterac Yeti, he is level y1 (elite). Once you make it to the Yeti you can try to kill it but you most likely will die, especially if you are a lower level. If you ever do die don't worry because by this time the teams should have evened out so then just go and help your team. If it hasn't evened out you will have to go back and continue to grind on the Harpies, another thing to do is you can complete some of the quests at the main camp. Do this until the teams even out, when that happens go help your team (see the above guide: Even or Overpowered). If the teams never even out , sadly, you'll have to continue grinding on the Harpies or you can try your luck at battling the horde team, however, you may die... a lot 
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Higher Levels 8-10
The reason I left 2 levels between the lower half and upper half of the levels is because at those levels it depends on your abilities with your class. This means that if you are good with your class at level 6 then you can go to the higher higher levels, on the other hand, if you... well... suck with your class at level 7 you may want to stick with the lower level guide for a little bit.
Anyway, if you are level 8 or above you will probably be the main dps, so it is vital that you use an aoe spell (i.e. Paladins - Consecration, Mage - Blizzard, Hunters - Frost Trap + Volley, DK's are a little harder to aoe but it is possible - Aoe With a Dk - Provided by Jame. Obviously, it helps to have a lot of health because you will aggro a lot of guys, also if possible use heals - Paladins should bubble heal, DK's should use blood aura. As a main dps you will probably want to use a strong, fast weapon and close to the best gear you can have.
Even Teams or More Team Members
Basically , as a main dps you should stay with the main group and work your way through the bosses until you hit Drek'Thar, when you get to Drek NEVER retreat because then you reset his health and it will take way too long to kill him and a lot of unnecessary deaths will occur. All of the bosses are level y1 (boss) therefore they are impossible to solo, so never go in alone (especially for Drek) wait for your team to rally up then blitz, or attack all at once, the boss. If you ever aggro the boss never run out of the building because he will then reset his health and it will take way to long to kill him.
These are the two Horde bosses that should/need to be killed.
Drek'Thar - when you kill him you win AV!
Galvangar - When you kill him the Horde reinforcements decrease by about 100 points!
Also remember to capture all of the graveyards on your way to the Horde Base because then when you or other people die then it is easier and faster to get back to your team, be sure to get the graveyard past Drek because then you spawn close and never really miss out on the kill, also as an added bonus the horde team cannot spawn there. Once you have killed Drek you win AV instantly. However if, for some reason, you can't kill Drek (Not enough team members/work) then you can capture all of the bases and start killing the horde team for even more honor and wait for their reinforcements to diminish when that happens you win AV!
Less or Uneven Teams
If you are ever overpowered by the other team then sadly you have no choice but to stand and fight. You could grind on Harpies but it may get a little boring and it is very easy. However, fortunately there is a technique that will allow you still get some honor but it is a little slower. When you see that the Horde is coming close, stand at the nearest graveyard (GY) and wait for the horde. When you are at the GY make sure that there is a group of Alliance players because if there isn’t then you will get destroyed very easily ...this is bad . When the horde come, jump right in to the fight (p.s. watch for Dk`s because they will probably use Death Grip to pull you closer so be ready, don’t worry if you die because you will spawn right next to the fight (that is why we fight at the GY). When you are in the middle of a battle use a lot of your aoe spells, or traps ( - hunters only). Sadly the horde should eventually over power your team, however, one way to delay this is that whenever you see someone try to capture the GY flag, attack them by any means necessary because that will interrupt their capture. If they ever do capture the GY so it is contested try to capture t back because if you don’t you will most likely have to retreat to the next GY. If that ever happens, where the Horde control the GY, go back to the nearest GY which is usually the main camp. If it isn’t the main camp just continue to do the same thing as before until it is taken over, if it isn’t taken over then just continue to fight until the game ends. If it is at the main camp with Vanndar Stormpike (our boss) then get your team and run into the building with Stormpike and wait there because most likely the Horde will try to kill Stormpike so as soon as the Horde come in the building start to fight them so you protect Stormpike and delay their victory. If you have downloaded DBM then check it constantly to make sure that the Horde don’t take the GY because if they do then you spawn at the beginning and it takes to long to get back to Stormpike. During this BG you have a very low chance of winning so if you lose don’t worry it was expected.
Possible Objectives (All Levels 1-10)
During AV if you don’t want honor then there are many quests to do at the main camp.
1. Armour Scraps - this is given by Murgot Deepforge (43, 15) a very easy quest to do as well as giving good advantages. When you are in the fights collect the insignias of the fallen players to collect armour scraps, when you have enough, or you want to turn them in, go back to Murgot Deepforge and turn all of your armour scraps in. It is repeatable and a little honor. As well as npc upgrades per 25 turn ins, and 1 Stormpike rep is offered per turn in of 20.
2. Empty Stables – talk to Stormpike Stable Master (42, 16) and accept the quest and you will be given a collar. Once you have the collar get off the road and find any Alterac Ram and use your collar on it and you will begin to tame it. Once it is tamed mount up and go back to Stormpike Stable Master and turn in Empty Stables for some honor and rep (10 Ironforge, 1 Stormpike).
3. This quest is the second part of Empty Stables and you get Ram Riding Harnesses (42, 17) from Stormpike Ram Rider Commander and you need to farm Frostwolf hides, you need 25 for all of the rams.
Here are a few screenshots of my level 66 Paladin. These are not edited in any form except that I made them smaller to be viewed easier.
In this screenshot you can see that I have the lowest damage done and around near the middle for killing blows. This just proves how effective staying back and milking honor off other players is
In this screenshot you see that I have captured one GY, this accumulated a little bit of honor (certainly better than no honor ) also the secondary objective was a quest I got from "Prospector Stonehewer" (43, 14) called The Battle Of Alterac
So that concludes my Guide (this is my first one so any feedback will be great )
Also please ask whenever you have a question about anything concerning this guide (i.e. spelling errors, unclear instructions).
Thx. Go Horde ...Alliance
Rogue's Level 29 Guide to Twinking
Ok this is my first one and don’t want to make the start boring but try to read everything because I didn’t really repeat myself much and also no pictures or screenshots as you can see I will try to add to that and if you have any good ones just tell me please. also im a horde so some item names might be horde only and have a different name for alliance so if they do well then sorry about it.
Ok let me make this as simple as I can
Rogues own in Bg at lvl 29. And when I was making my own lvl 29 rogue twink I searched here to find some advice and couldn’t find anything useful so I came up with the idea of this guide.
I use a lot of add-ons but these are the most useful
- Energy watch adds a small bar counting every time your energy ticks and making a sound if you want it to this is very useful because it enables you to do your move at the last possible time enabling you to get energy back fast
- Stun watch
adds a small bar measuring your stuns(sap, gouge, kidney shot ,etc)so you can be sure when your sap will run out of time or so you can do your move after the gouge at the last possible time - Mobinfo2
adds the health and mana of the target to their portrait. Very useful so you can know what move to do next, only disadvantage is that you need to do some damage befor its exact.(no problem in BG because other people in raid usually do some damage to the player) - Koordinator
simply at the cords on your minimap and map. Useful for pve mostly. - Informant
this is an addon under the famous auctioneer add-on which tells you the vendor price of all items in the game. you can download the whole set if you need it but this one is good for getting money to make a twink and tells you which lotts you should pick and which not to (if its 10c than no point J) - Atlas-loot
this one tells you what the bosses in instances drop useful if you wanna find out where your armor or weapons can be found. - Bam mod
not THAT good a mod but it sounds a bam everytime you crit and also saves your highest crits with each move - AlarBGHelper
This addon helps alot in AB telling you how long it will take to win a game or how many bases you need to win.
Well I advise you either try to make your own so it costs less or just buy the best you can from ah. Just try to have as much agility and stamina s you can. Strength is good but not as good as the others since it just gives attack power.here is a list of the best armor:
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you will have to do gnomeragen to get the triprunner dungarees and if you want an even better chest piece you can do the raptor mastery quest in stv.
| Raptor Hunter Tunic | |
| Chest | Leather |
| 117 Armor | |
| +4 Strength | |
| +3 Agility | |
| +16 Stamina | |
There are also some items like the scouts medalion and the defilers talismon(dispels 300 damage)which you might want to get. you could also get the watchman pauldrons instead of forest tracker epaulets and insignia gloves instead of brawler gloves.
| Scout's Medallion | |
| 20 marks of honor:WSG | |
| Unique | |
| Neck | |
| +8 Agility | |
| +5 Stamina | |
| Requires Level 28 |
| Defiler's Talisman | |
| 30 marks of honor:AB | |
| Unique(you can have only one) | |
| Trinket | |
| Requires Level 28 | |
| Use: Absorbs 248 to 302 physical damage. Lasts 15 sec. |
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| Cooldown: 3 min |
| Gnomish Net-o-Matic Projector | |
| Binds when equipped | |
| Trinket | |
| Requires Engineering (210) | |
Use: Captures the target in a net for 10 sec. The |
| Legionnaire's Band | |
| 20 marks of honor:WSG | |
| Unique | |
| Finger | |
| +6 Strength | |
| +6 Agility | |
| +4 Stamina | |
| Requires Level 28 |
one last thing is that Troll's bane pants are not better then triprunner dungarees but when you add clefthide leg armor to them then they are the best leggings you can have(+30stam and +10 agility). and you can't get these ona bind on pickup item.
| Troll's Bane Leggings | |
| Binds when equipped | |
| Legs | Leather |
| 90 Armor | |
| +24 Agility(14) | |
| +34 Stamina(4) | |
| +4 Spirit | |
| Requires Level 25 | |
I used believed that a rogue with two swords is like a warrior with no charge and some extra moves instead. So I always advise on a dagger for MH and a sword/dagger for offhand. But well if you want to cheapshot i guess a sword with higher dps is pretty good. The best combination for lvl 29 is scout’s blade for main and zealot blade (most damage) or a torturing poker. the poker is hard to get but it is really worth it, you get it off the first boss in greaveyard.
Zealot Blade |
Scout's Blade |
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Torturing Poker | ||
World drop (from AH) |
30xWSG marks of honor +465 Honor |
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Binds when picked up | ||
One-Hand |
Sword |
One-Hand |
Dagger |
One-Hand | Dagger |
43 - 81 Damage |
Speed 2.80 |
25 - 47 Damage |
Speed 1.70 |
26 - 49 Damage | Speed 1.70 |
22.1 dps |
21.2 dps |
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25.6 dps | ||
+5 Intellect |
+7 Agility |
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+5 - 7 Fire Damage | ||
+6 Spirit |
+3 Stamina |
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Requires Level 29 |
Requires Level 28 |
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Requires Level 29 | ||
Well this talent build is based on opening up with ambush and doing most damage in the first chances possible (will explain further down) most useful for defence in ab
7/0/13
Assassination |
7 |
Malice |
5 |
Increases your critical strike chance by 5% |
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Improved Backstab |
2 |
Increases the critical strike chance of your Backstab ability by 30%. |
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Subtlety |
13 |
Master of Deception |
5 |
Reduces the chance enemies have to detect you while in Stealth mode. |
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Opportunity |
5 |
Increases the damage dealt when striking from behind with your Backstab, Mutilate, Garrote and Ambush abilities by 20%. |
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Improved Ambush |
3 |
Increases the critical strike chance of your Ambush ability by 30%. |
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OR you can just open with cheapshot with this one best for attacking and farming
Assassination |
11 |
Improved Eviscerate |
Rank 3 |
Increases the damage done by your Eviscerate ability by 15% |
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Remorseless Attacks |
Rank 2 |
After killing an opponent that yields experience or honor, gives you a 40% increased critical strike chance on your next Sinister Strike, Backstab, Ambush. Lasts 20 sec. |
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Malice |
Rank 5 |
Increases your critical strike chance by 5% |
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Relentless Strikes |
Rank 1 |
Your finishing moves have a 20% chance per combo point to restore 25 energy. |
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Subtlety |
9 |
Master of Deception |
Rank 5 |
Reduces the chance enemies have to detect you while in Stealth mode. |
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Camouflage |
Rank 4 |
Increases your speed while stealthed by 12% and reduces the cooldown of your Stealth ability by 4 sec |
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Ok now there are two real categories of twinks: those who make a new character and keep them at 29(19 or maybe 29 too) and get the best stuff and enchants for them, or those which are just leveling a character and when its at around 29 they want to pvp and own so these guys won’t need any real “twinking” or enchants. (Body enchants list to come)
Here are the best enchants for rogues
Lifesteal
permanently enchant a melee weapon to often steal life from the enemy and give it to the wielder.
- Living Essencex6
- Essence of Undeathx6
- Large Brilliant Shardx6
Crusader
permanently enchant a melee weapon so that often when attacking in melee it heals for 75 to 125 and increases Strength by 100 for 15 sec
- Righteous Orbx2
- Large Brilliant Shardx4
Agility +15
permanently enchant a melee weapon to grant +15 Agility.
- Essence of Airx2
- Illusion Dustx4
- Greater Eternal Essencex6
- Large Brilliant Shardx6
Enchant Gloves - Superior Agility
Permanently enchant gloves to increase agility by 15
- Nexus Crystalx3
- Large Brilliant Shardx8
- Essence of Airx4
Enchant Bracer - Superior Stamina Permanently enchants bracers to give +9 Stamina.
- Illusion Dustx15
Enchant Boots - Greater Stamina
Permanently enchant boots to give +7 Stamina.
- Dream Dustx10
Enchant Chest - Major Health
Permanently enchant a piece of chest armor to grant +100 health.
- Illusion Dustx6
- Small Brilliant Shardx1
Ok so these enchants cost pretty high and different in each realm so no set price and agility+15 is usually more expensive. The best thing to do is buy the mats for the enchant in a span of a few days and ask someone to do it for free or with cheap tip (many people do them for free)
Note: Enchants are not a MUST but if you want to make a permanent twink then they are real useful
If you are going to take a dagger and sword for weapons then I advise crusader on dagger and agility on sword and if you have double dagger then you can use any of these combinations. but crusader is the best thing for main hand so it can proc more. and agility+15 should be in offhand because it is premenant. the most sufficient for dual dagger is crusader on main and lifesteal or agility on off.
Crippling poison Coats a weapon with poison that lasts for 30 minutes.
Each strike has a 30% chance of poisoning the enemy, slowing their movement speed by 50% for 12 seconds.
Mind numbing poison
Coats a weapon with poison that lasts for 30 minutes.
Each strike has a 20% chance of poisoning the enemy, increasing their casting time by 40% for 10 seconds. 50 charges
Instant poison Rank 2
Coats a weapon with poison that lasts for 30 minutes.
Each strike has a 20% chance of poisoning the enemy which instantly inflicts 30 to 38 Nature damage. 55 charges.
Ok so crippling poison is really useful so I advise having that on your fastest weapon all the time now mind numbing poison is good against casters and instant is better against the more melee type enemies. i myself use double crippling to stop enemies from runnign away.
Well this part is really your choice but many engineering is real good for twinks mostly because of the head piece at level 210 but well since this is for rogues I will tell you this don’t become blacksmith, and alchemy is not that great because you could buy your potions, also leatherworking and skinnign is useless since you won't be makin any of your own armor. No comment on jewel crafting.
ClassesThere is a different way to master each class in wow for rogues. I will try to show these ways as much as I can and know:(whenever you are asked to ambush you could sap and ambush after it)also most of the time I will be talking about the cheap-shot technique :cheapshot>backstab>sinister strike>gouge>wait until gouge is almost done>eviscerate.
Mage
Ok hands down the harder of the two classes we have to deal with. Since they can blink and frost nova and frostbolt what you need to aim for is to stop them from moving too far from you. Now you should open with ambush if you can, to kill them fast with their cloth armor. So ambush>backstab>gouge (don’t wait after gouging since they can blink out).evis. Double crippling is almost a must for mage. now many times the mages just frost nova as soon as you ambush and then blink away, which means that your backstab won't be happening, so you should just try to get your crippling to work on them and then hit them as much as you can. Fighting a mage mostly depends on their skill and your timing.
Hunter
This is another of the rogue’s problems. Hunters can just frost or freeze trap and slow you down with their shots, let their pet do damage and put DOT on you so you don’t vanish. most of the time the most efficient way to deal with them out of stealth is to sprint to them and keep hitting them until your crippling poison does its thing, and when their slowed down their as easy to kill as anything. Also one of their disadvantages is that when their running around you and shooting at you they usually have aspect of cheetah on which means if you hit them they get dazed. To open I advise cheapshot then backstab while their stunned then go in front and sinister strike for combo points and then gouge, wait until your gouge is near over and evis.They usually die by then if not just keep on hitting them and gouging them until they die (this technique will be used later on in the guide and I will call it the cheapshot technique)
Warlock
Ok many people say warlocks are the hardest to deal with but all it takes to take a warlock is having will of forsaken or some anti-fear trinket. If they catch you out of stealth you should hit them till they try to fear, then gouge or kick if you get time and if not then wait 1 second then use your trinket or will of forsaken. Now here is when being an undead is good since after you use will of forsaken it stays on you for 5 more seconds and stops the warlocks next fear. When in stealth you should just either ambush and backstab them and then keep spamming sinister strike and evis till they die or you could also do the cheapshot technique. If they don’t die after all this then you should just hit them and not let them fear you. They can only fear you three times without you resisting it and each time it gets shorter
Priest
Almost the same as warlock but since their fear is one-time only then you should just focus on damage and if they fear then anti-fear and get back at them. Dont let them heal and gouge them extra hard. To open you should just ambush and backstab if you can and deal you normal damage or if you can’t and need to stop them from moving you could also sap them. Cheapshot technique is another thing you could do.
Paladin
This is one of the most annoying classes to deal with because of their bubble and their full-healing spell. What I advise is to open on them with the cheapshot technique. but now if they bubble you should just deselect them run away go back in stealth and do the first thing all over you could use a bandage while their in bubble if you have time.
Druid
Now they are really tricky because of their shape shifting and healing. If they get you first just try to keep them close and stunned as much as you can. When in stealth cheapshot and the same old drift. Make sure they don’t heal or regrowth and if they do then a kick or gouge is in place. Now since regrowth is instant then you should just hit them extra hard and kill them faster. If you see them go back in normal form then stun them. Also they can get out of your crippling if they shape shift so don't let them get too far from you.
Shaman
shamans are almost exactly like druids just when you’re going to open on them make sure there are no earthbind totems on and if there are any of those or fire totems then you will have to get to the shaman real fast. If you don’t then well they are not the hardest. Once I fought a shaman who put three totems down(earthbind,mana,fire)and he just healed himself and since I never got to him he beat me embarrassingly. Now I resurrected and took him very easily after but what makes this lesson important is that you should always try to hit their totems. Also there is the poison cleansing totem which many shamans don't really use. But if they do then destroy it as fast as you can.
Warrior
They usually are not too hard to handle unless their health is extra high. A warrior with 200 health more then you and no rage is easy to take if you're good enough. if they get a charge on you then you should just keep running around them and keep doing your sinister strikes and gouges and if lucky backstabs and evis and again till they die. When in stealth you should cheapshot technique once more but try to backstab them even more because their armor does not do as good from behind.
Rogue
Now as for rogues what really matters against a rogue is the opening and the health difference. That's really it. They're just like you so you do the cheapshot move and make sure they are slowed down. If they vanish you should use a bomb or dynamite, but you usually just see them anyway. Also the skill matters
Arathi Basin
Now there are two good tactics used for AB either defensive or Aggressive/Offensive
Defensive is when you just run straight to one of the less populated bases like gold mine or lumber mill , capture the base and stealth and wait there till someone comes. Now it takes around 10 seconds for capturing the flag so if the opponent is alone and does not use some aoe or put a trap on then you should wait a few seconds and then attack them when they least expect and try to kill them before they have a chance of running away or fearing or using any stun or impairing effects on you. Now this varies with each class.
Now if there is two people then well your work is double now you could either shout for help and wait till they try to capture and slow them down somehow or you can just try your best at taking them (best if you still ask for help) so to do this you should sap the one trying to capture (if not both are) and just try to get the other one real fast before the sap is out and if it runs out too early then just kill the one your on and vanish out of their aoe range and wait till you heal (by this time usually someone comes for help and if not then continue as if there was only one person)
Aggressive or Offensive is when you just go on as everyone else does but always remember that it’s best if you let other take the baits and traps and attack later on (unless if you can take them or are alone) and also try not to be lost and alone and I don’t advise going and capturing bases all alone and just leaving them for another one.
Some general tips are using your racial abilities at anytime you can see fit, use evasion whenever there is more than one person or if they’re too strong and use vanish or potions when your are going to die soon. Also one thing that I find annoying is that when the two groups usually charge in numbers some people just retreat backwards towards safety (no offence but mostly alliance do that) so well don’t follow those people cause you will face unfair odds.
also never leave a base unguarded unless you really have two or don’t need it(5-0 or maybe even 4-1) because as it shows in the defensive section a base guarded with a rogue is a lucky base.
Warsong Gulch
now there are three main things you can do in WSG:
Flag defender
you could just stay back at the flag and defend it from being taken by the other faction.but usualy this gets REALLY boring at times so not many people stick to it for long
Flag capturer
in this part you just try to get to the flag.you can try to stealth there if theres too many people and just take the flag fast and run away, or you can fight everyone there and then capture it(this depends on your ability).for this part try to have the defilers or arathi talismon since its good for stopping damage.also have some swiftness potion if you can
Farmer
this is for people who just love killing. you just go and fight anyone you see whereever the action is hottest. dont try to take on too many people on your own though. one thing i want to advise is that if you have a chance of taking the flag do so.cause capturing a flag gives much more honor then farming in the long run
I advise you watch some twink videos since they help understand what you can do in many different situations.
this is one of the best videos i have seen so far: Shinagan's level 29 twink . Also watch imastalker from google videos. (will add my own videos later
Thanks and hope you LOVE it
DanathWrynn
Defias Brotherhood
Rogues guide To WSG, and AB (lv 19-49)
Rogue's guide
First off, I'm not lv 60, or 70, which is why this is for WSG, and AV.
I'm currently lv 45, and I'm not going to go any higher (I despise pve)
Anyway, I've token down many of horde, 9 levels higher then me, its not hard, you just need to know the basics.
WSG-
Rogue can play many roles here,
Offensive
You can join the major amount of people on your side, rushing the flag constantly, or chasing down the opposing faction w/ your flag
Flag carrier
Even though, rogues are not tanks, you can still be effective at this. Stealth up, Imp sap and take out them, steal the flag, and sprint away, try not to go down the middle of the bgs If all else fails, inform your team that your going to pass the flag, and vanish.
Defensive
You can stay and help your team, Stand up at the very top and watch down, stealth(always). Imp fall(skill, passive) helps in maintaining stealth while jumping down. Try not to stand to close to the flag, as if you can be frozen and such. If someone comes in, don't charge them, let your defense buddy's get to fighting, then CS, if there arn't any more coming. If there are, get them. Chase the flag carrier out of the Flag room, but discreetly, mages frost nova, and you can get stuck.
Offensive(Honor farmer)
You could just farm honor also, Your team will probably be mad, but go ahead. Stand in the bushes off to the side, by the middle. Wait for a single horde to come into view. Remember, as a rogue, you always have to be mentally fleet footed, ready to sprint off at a moments interruption. If he has no friends, meet him, with a cs, then get to ssing.
When you get 5 combos, if hes doing a lot of damage, KS him. If he is about to die, Eviscerate him. If hes tanking you out, use SND. Rinse and repeat, when you get 5 combos. If you see the horde tricks(alliance), you might notice that he might be a pawn, if his friends come out, and start charging, gouge him, sprint off. If your going to die, vanish/sprint. You don't even need to stay in stealth, just get out. Only classes you should have a big problem is, Rogues of the same skill in better gear, Warlocks, and occ. priests.
AB-
Offensive
Again, go with the flow, but stay back in stealth, help get the flag, don't be the first to try and open, let one of your stupider teamies take the bait, and take whatever rogue/trap/totem there is. Then open. Basically strait forward.
Defensive
Stand right next to the flag your defending, if an enimy comes, let him start getting it open, then cs him, and kill. If theres lots, sap him, then sap the others. Yell INC XXXX (place). Hopefully your teammates will help.
If standing next to it wouldn't work, go hide inside of whatever your defending, BS, LM, STABLES, FARM, MINE. When they come, do whats above.
Honor farmer
Same as wsg, watch out for adds, Typically alliance will do the chicken sort of maneuver, horde and alliance will commence to running towards each other, and then the alliance will split out the other way, try not to keep on running if this happens.
In ab, always be aware that one of your rogue cousins will probably be hiding, to help out the 'one' guy defending their flag. Be cautious.
Talents
You should use dagger/dagger if you have the appr. number of talent points for mutilate. If not, dagger/sword, and assassination speced.
Combat is fine too, but not as effective, if you must use combat, try for maces, and mace spec, the stun is amazing. If not, do swords, nothing else is worth it, IMO.
Sub, I have no real exp, its basically hit and miss, you do lower dps, but you have more survivability, take this if you find that your semi-tanking in pvp more then quick killing.
Poisons/ Enchants & such
Keep crippling poison on one of your weapons at all times. The other can be instant, anything... I'd suggest crippling on your offhand, because it tends to hit a bit more.
Enchants-
fiery: always great
Crusader: eh, str isn't really our game, but go ahead if you can get it really cheaply.
icy: Unnecessary, you have crippling poison.
+ damage: great
+ agil: great
+ life/stamina: Its okay.
The end.
Rogue WSG Guide (10-19)
Ok, SO, if your reading this, then you either are looking to troll me, getting advice on battlegrounds...or are reading this for some unknown reason.
Well then, onto the guide.
(Note: This is for 19 ALLIANCE WSG ONLY!)
Ok, as a rogue, you already have a distinct advantage over the other classes at 19. What is that you ask? Stealth. This gives you the ability to sneak up on any other class without ever being seen.
Stun Lock(ish):
At this level you dont have any of the good Stun Locking spells. Your roll in the battleground is to camp the enemy flagroom and Gank those people that join and intercept the enemy Flag Carrier. If you ARE looking for a stunlock then the most you can do is this...
1:gouge
2:Backstab
3:Run
Ya...you really have a bad stunlock.
Rotation:
Sub Spec:
Stealth,Ambush,Gouge,backstab,Sinister Strike Spam until dead. ( if needed throw in a kick to interupt HEALERS dont interrupt anything else...just a waste of energy. )
Spec:
Malice - Rank 5/5
Master of Deception - Rank 3/3
Opportunity - Rank 2/2
Combat DPS Spec:
Stealth, Ambush, SS spam..gouge and sprint away if about to die. (Not the best recommended DPS spec Sub is best imo)
Spec:
Improved Gouge - Rank 3/3
Improved Sinister Strike - Rank 2/2
Dual Wield Specialization - Rank 5/5
Flag Carrier Spec:
Your only hope here is skill.
Stealth, ambush, gouge, sprint, run.
=========================================
For grabbing the flag and running.
Stealth, sap the Ranged classes heres the list of the most important to sap: Warlock/Hunter/Mage/Priest/Shaman/Warrior.
Then, pick up the flag, pop evasion, sprint and get the hell outta there.( At 19 ALWAYS use ramp. )
Spec:
Master of Deception - Rank 3/3
Opportunity - Rank 2/2
Sleight of Hand - Rank 2/2
Dirty Tricks - Rank 1/2
Camouflage - Rank 2/3
Assassination DPS:
Stealth,Ambush,Gouge,Backstab,Backstab if possible, if not, Sinister Strike.
Spec:
Remorseless Attacks - Rank 2/2
Malice - Rank 5/5
Puncturing Wounds - Rank 3/3
Here is the way you should take when going anywhere:
Purple: Flag Carrier
Blue: FC killer
Red: Sneakyish Person.
Green: Graveyards
Orange: Ramp entrance
Yellow: Flag
Gray: Start of points.
Map's at the Bottom.
Good luck out there!!
For The Alliance!