Cataclysm Battlegrounds Guide

[Juggertank]

Updated: May 1, 2015


Note to Players:
This guide can be used for any sort of scenario, whether it be premades or random groups. It's designed to help you develop a more accurate thought process when it comes to quick decisions in battlegrounds. Rarely can you expect a group of random people to know what to do, but this guide should help you visualize a bird's eye view of the chaos in your BG. From there, you can help call the shots, and even turn your Battleground in your favor with enough support.



Table of Contents

Section 1-Preparation
A. Introduction
B. Extra Gear to Bring
C. Your Role (Spec Specifics)
D. UI Configuration
E. Waiting Room

Section 2-Advanced Tips
A. Player Efficiency
B. False Fronting
C. Ghost Capturing
D. Counter-Class Harassment
E. Graveyard Probing
F. Preemptive Guardianship
G. Battleground VIPs
H. Call-Outs

Section 3-Map Specific Tactics
A. Warsong Gulch
B. Twin Peaks
C. Battle for Gilneas
D. Eye of the Storm
E. Arathi Basin
F. Alterac Valley

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Section 1-Preparation

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A. Introduction

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When you enter a battleground, you SHOULD be there to win. whether it be at the Damage board, or the score count.... you should be there to win. Keep that in mind whenever you compete.

The First thing you should know... After playing Almost purely Battlegrounds for three years straight here, I can confirm nobody gives half a damn about deaths or Killing Blows... there's nothing impressive about it. Damage, Healing, and objective play are what count. Keep that in mind.

B. Required Extra Gear

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I'll put this into Three Levels of Emphasis.

Level 1: Basic Needs

-Buttery Wheat Roll
-Highland Spring Water

Don't Enter a BG without These.... Ever. If you ask someone for food, they'll get pissed at you because you've revealed yourself as a "nub" who doesn't even think far ahead enough to buy food from the General Goods Vendor.

Level 2: Optimal Buffs

-Highland Spring Water
-Buttery Wheat Roll
-Fortune Cookie
-(+300 Main Stat) 2-hour Flask
-Draught of War
-(+1600 Main Stat) Burst Potion
-NogginFogger Elixir
-Runescroll of Fortitude
-Halaani Whiskey (+20 stamina, stacks with all buffs)

Bringing these buffs into a BG will give you the max stat performance you can get. The Nogginfogger and Runescroll are included because A) masking your class identity from peripherals is extremely effective in avoiding incoming damage and CC. B) Not every BG will have a Priest, or a warrior willing to commanding shout.

Level 3: Swag-Festival

These People:

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So, let's get onto their list.
On Top of Having everything in Level 1 & 2, they have all this:
http://www.wowhead.com/item=69775/vr...nts:id=1851166

C. Your Role (Spec Specifics)

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I have excluded specs that have absolutely no viability in PvP.
I have also Generalized some specializations that don't have a major difference in role.

Paladin

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Holy:

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Holy Paladins are the Team-Moving healers. Their heavy armor lets them heal in the front. They serve as a good distraction from casters behind and less armored dps nearby.

Retribution:

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Ret paladins should play assuming you have an obligation to be a healer. At the End of a Battleground, your healing should be at least half of your damage. This only changes when there's a significant amount of healers on your team. Even so, Off-Healing will increase your damage significantly in the long run.

Protection:

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You're a flag carrier and a taunt. As prot, you never want to run around without a healer or dps with you. You have an overpowered snare/silence, and you need to use it as much as possible. Tank on, Cpt. America.

Druid

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Restoration:

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You should be in the very back of any engagement, harassing your team to stay in a relatively tight group. It's a good idea for you to use shrinking/morphing consumables to mask your lack of armor.

Balance:

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You need to play boomy as a loose-cannon Warlock. You need to get a healer to your back, and make him not regret supporting you. Spread your dots, your shrooms, and target healers and top dps for your cyclone.

Feral:

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You should be peeling for your healer, or casters. You have serious DoT damage, and your instant casts can and should be used for off-healing unless there is a dps bursting your teammate.

Mage

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Arcane:

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You're the Anti-Healer. You use your long-range GFX-less casts to snipe out healers from an unknown direction. Stay mixed in a group or out of the engagement line. You can and will drop a healer or make them give up healing if you stay on them for any serious amount of time.

Frost:

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Control and Shatter. In the midst of a fight, you should be the one to drop a dps from 50% to 5% at any given time. Use your freeze and frost nova to blue-ball Melee dps about to get a kill.

Fire:

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In small engagements, you're focused on control. Fire is most intimidating when you shut down a target, rather than when you burn them down.
However, in large engagements, you want to shoot for both.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=toSs3Z3IghY

Rogue

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Heals N' Peels.
-Use all of your control to choke off healers in a fight, and cutting off anyone before they can touch your flag carrier. (triple sap is a *****)

Warlock

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Affliction:

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-Remain at the back, Spread Dots, and rotate fears. Quite literally, you should always have at least one target in a fear.

Destruction:

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You are a control-based prick. you shouldn't expect to top damage (though I know some who are good contenders), but rather be the one the other team's pissed off at.
Use your succubus, snares, fears, and stuns to run the fight.

Death Knight

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Unholy:
Heals N' Peels
-Shut down Healers with Necro
-Use death grip, chains, and desecration to Peel for your Teammates.

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x

Frost:

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You Should Mainly be focused on Group Fights, getting into the mix. Howling blast is Broke when it comes to group damage. say you hit 4-5 people with 10k blasts, you're pumping out 50k damage on a GCD, which healers will NOT be able to make up for in spread healing.

Blood:

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You're a tank. plain and simple. You do big slow hits.... and take no damage from warriors.
You want to be in the very front of every single engagement, taking damage for your less-armored teammates. If you sit in the back, you're wasting your armor.

Hunter

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Burst and CC:
You should be using your aimed shot to target high-health targets, and then rotating to a new one.
In your "free" time, you should be using your snares on melee DPS, rather than healers or casters.

Priest

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Disc/Holy:

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You need to stay to the back of any group you heal. You also need to be quick to call out when you need help. If you show a single sign of weakness to a melee DPS, they'll use cooldowns to seal your fate. I suggest that you over-use bubbles for the start of a match, just to improve the team's morale. It's a good feeling to get a bubble even when you're at full health.

Shadow:

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You're the most useful supporting a melee dps such as a death knight or warrior. You may not be a fan of relying on a melee, but it all works out much better if you sit and support a dps with hots, shields, and assisting dps.

Shaman:

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Enhancement:

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Despite how much I hate Enhancement shamans, I've gotta give you the proper way to use it.
Enhancement shamans are the one-shot wonders of Cataclysm. Bugged, Broken, exploit-riddled as they may be, they are one-shotters as they stand.
Enhancement shaman should be played with the shock and awe in mind. Target specifically plate dps such as warriors or paladins, CC their healer, even throw in a /grin at the healer, and then 1-shot the DPS of your choice.

Elemental:

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You have two modes, which both need to be respected.
-Group damage
-Single Target Damage

You can float from back to front of a fight, so long as you return to the back regularly. Look for low health targets to use your lava burst as an execution, rather than a Health-Dropper.

Restoration:

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-Totems Need to be used Generously…. earthbind totem can dramatically reduce damage taken by your team.
-You can run

Warrior

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Arms:

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Tips:
Always be hitting something. If a mage has run far away, switch your damage to another target. Don’t take yourself out of the fight for a single second, if at all possible.

Arms warriors have a very important role to fill… Intimidation. Generally, warriors prefer to stay to the back of any fight, and pick off wondering targets. That’s Doable, it’ll definitely work, but you’re not getting the full benefit of being a warrior.

As a warrior, you’re the one class that can single-handedly make a whole team pull back (assuming you’re in a group fight). If you have confidence in your team, you should “let it all hang out”, and play loosely. It’s overall more fun, and can really pay off at times.

[YT]ALzDuOUOEkQ[/YT]

Fury:

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As fury… what are you? Something you may not expect to hear as a response is… an attack dog. As fury, you should stay at the heels of your healer, focusing on keeping dps off him. Outside of that, you have the freedom to erase one or two targets every 4 minutes. I suggest saving it for a healer or flag carrier, just make sure it’s focused on winning the BG.

Prot:

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-Taunt, Control, Carry
Taunt: you need to play a very intrusive, distracting, almost frustrating play style. you want casters and melee alike to put all of their control on you, so that your team can have their way with them, un-interrupted. You do this by simply being annoying, in every way you can. from spamming hamstring, to throwing down a bursting warrior, to pinning down a single dps for as long as you can.

-Carry: Congratulations, you have Special FC status. You are the only class to break the laws of terrain, and expectable movement rates. your leap, charge, intervene, and intercept can be chained together to not only move much faster than any other carrier, but you can break the expectation of FCing Routes with heroic leap.

D. UI Configuration

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The Settings below will ensure you’re getting all the important information you need during a BG engagement.

-Be sure to display target of target and focus. The more you are exposed to, the more you can see and the quicker your reaction will be.
-Be sure to see the Numerical values on unit frames, so that you can tell “that rogue had 150k health” etc. this helps you easily judge a character’s gear.




These addons are what you need for full Intel on Battlegrounds.

Required Addons:
-Saysapped
-Capping
-Successful Interrupt Announcer
-InterruptBar
-***PvPness (buggy because of warmane's scoreboard updating... You need to refresh scoreboard every time an enemy joins or leaves, or it will freeze)

Required UI modifications:
-I suggest you don't use class colors, because it can be a distraction from actual health dropping.

E.Waiting Room

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So…. when you’re in the waiting room, there’s 3 things you need to do.
Buff Up.
Inspect your team
Look for “Good” players on the other team

From these 3, you should be able to draw a conclusion on the bg balance, and even predict an optimal outcome.

Example: You’ve got no healers, a BDK, two Rogues, a Ret Pally, and other random DPS.
The Other team has two healers (that you’ve never seen before) both restoration druids.

You should be able to assume that the BDK and ret paladin should be the ones to carry the flag home, and that they need to be covered well by Hell-Bent DPS with the interest of keeping them safe.

Section 2-Advanced Tips

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A. Player Efficiency

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It’s a General Concept you should know and understand when it comes to spreading how effective your team is…. Player Count Efficiency.

In it’s most basic terms…. One player to one player is an even “tradeoff”. So, in situations where there are 5 DPS wasting their time on one tank when there’s a healer nearby healing the 5 dps… You can expect me to get pissed off in chat.

Some things that effect Player Efficiency:
-VIP status: Healers, Top DPS, and FCers all deserve some slight expense put into them. Two to three dps hitting a healer is worth ending an engagement rather than letting it drag on for another 5 minutes, essentially letting the other team cap a base or flag.
-Gear and Skill (Overall Performance): One good player can take up the spot of two bad players, or even more. This means that two good players could face off and hold off against 4 players, and probably win with a slight struggle.
-Objective status: Players key to the objective are rightfully deserving of a player inefficiency to kill.

Takeaway:
-Think of the Player Efficiency going on in a fight before you join it. “do they really need my ****ing help” or “Is it worth helping them?”. None of this matters however, when a game-changing fight is ensuing. When game-deciding battles take place, let “player efficiency” become “player effectiveness”, and just decide on who you can dump the most damage or healing into, while still helping the fight.

B. Ghost Capture

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Ghost Capping is an incredibly dirty trick you can pull in a BG, to redirect a team’s attention to a base that is being taken and defended by a lone wolf. When you think about it with a straightforward logic, the Ghost Capper is Straight up screwed when a defensive group swings in. However, The ghost capper is not interested in actually capturing at all. The goal with ghost capping is to weaken any Real Re-capturing efforts against your team’s actual targeted base.

Once the base is “Pending”, the ghost capper can move foreward of the base towards the enemy Graveyard at Farm, and cut off defenders. By this time you can expect anyone on the other team with half a brain to call out “Help Mines” at the same time they’re calling “help LM”, causing a beautiful scene of confusion on the other team. Essentially, you can pull the whole team to the wrong base to defend it, giving your team an easy base, and probably enough momentum to take another.
Example:

C. False Fronting

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False Fronting is Really what sets apart an organized group from a random group as far as strategizing goes. It’s the Dominant Counterpart to Ghost Capping… sort of like Ghost Defending. So… What’s a false front?

A false front is a straight up Bluff, as far as you need to think of it as. It is when you Line up your team to surround one or two bases Tightly to choke them off, while leaving your back bases almost entirely defenseless. This allows you to control 3 bases with the Tight Grip of holding two bases, or holding four bases with a grip on two or three.

Example:

D. Counter-Class Harassment

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It’s a simple Concept…. Harass, annoy, demoralize.
The More Consistent you are with harassing your punching bag (countered class), The less likely they are to Do anything impressive. You may even cause them to just go AFK.
When you start up the BG, you want to count up the classes you counter, and those that counter you. Messing with people’s heads can make them less motivated to fight back.

Some examples:
BDK Chasing Down Warrior.
ENH picking out a Ret.
Warrior Picking out a Warlock
Disc Priest picking out and Mana Burning a Holy Paladin.
Etc.

E. Graveyard Probing

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This goes back to Player Efficiency, but it’s a move that you need to have in mind. When there is a flag carrier about mid-field, the first thing the other team will want to do is to mount up, chase him down, and merk his ***. The only thing standing in their way, happens to be you. You’re going to hit their graveyard harder than this skydiver, and buy your FC some time to get closer to capturing the flag.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4es9IYwdFbM

F. Preemptive Guardianship

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If any of you Played American Football, You Can Call this being in a “blocking” position.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4crnSV-2B9U

So when your teammate is going on the 7-second capture, the very LEAST you can do is prevent someone from mounting towards the base, and interrupting them. You do this by going well ahead or behind the base (depending on what side needs it), and standing guard for enemies coming. You may be at low health, but the score is always more important than your life in a BG. Stun, Snare, Disorient, Root, Fear.. . Whatever you have to do, so that it is the other team racing to recover the base, rather than yours. Doing this right can even spawn re-enforcements to defend the base once it’s captured, so have no doubt that giving up your life to take the base is the right decision.

G. Battleground VIPs

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There are Three Types of VIPs in a battleground.
Top Damage Dealers
Flag Carrying Tanks
All Healers

You need to search for these players. Sometimes it may be You yourself who is in one or two of these positions… It’s just something you need to keep track of.

Top Damage:

Essentially you need to accompany them. These players are (for the most part) more experienced than other players, and know how to get the objective done, or at very least clear the way for it. The opposite is true for The Other team’s VIP DPS, They should be isolated, and you should throw control at them, rather than trying to simply burst alone. Don’t take the VIP DPS lightly on either side, because if they’re a league above everyone else, you can bet your *** they know it, and they’re not going to let it slip easily.

Flag Carriers:

Hands down the top VIP. Flag Carriers Need to have a special level of attention if they want to do any worthy carries. A good Flag Carrier will have enough awareness of their surroundings to stop at the right time, to help out with damage, mitigation and control, all on the fly.

Healers:

Obviously a VIP simply by joining. Healers are invaluable up until theres 4 or more. Three healers is really the top for having an effective group of 10-15. Too many healers means you’re lacking DPS dealers, and experienced healers can put out enough healing to compensate for approximately 3 DPS in any given situation. However, if you overstack the healers, you’ll never be able to kill anyone with a healer of their own.

Treat your healers with some understanding. First off, you need to play a healer if you haven’t before. You can’t demand anything from a healer if you yourself can’t pull off what you’re requesting. Support them with peels, and they’ll pay you back greatly whenever they have the freedom to do so.

One more note… If you have the flag with a healer at your back… It’s only courtesy that you do damage to score kills and lighten the load on that healer who’s probably OOM a few minutes into the fight.

H. Call-Outs

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There are 4 Basic Callouts:
INC, HELP, HIT, DEF.

INC: (incoming)

means that the player is about to fight, and is confident enough in their coming death that they’d use their precious seconds calling for help. The Best Versions of this callout is when it includes numbers such as “6+ inc LH”, so the team can plan around that move being made.

HELP

Generally means that a fight is going on, and the player(s) at the base are losing the fight. Sometimes it’s better to disregard these calls, and just order a counter-attack on a different base. It’s a judgement call on your part, that you can only get better at with experience.

HIT

- you can assume means attack and capture. Before Calling this out, or even Following the Callout, it’s best to look at the current base status…

-Is your team actually in control of the bases you occupy with players?
If not, you want to keep your players present to stop any defenders from returning to the base.

-Is The base heavily guarded?
You never want to send your whole team on a suicide mission to a base you’ll never cap. All it does is set your team into a graveyard, to allow the other team some free time to take whatever base they may like. take caution when you try to stir up something like an order to take a new base.

DEF:

Different from “INC” or “HELP”, DEF serves as a reminder to the team that they’re absent from a base, and they expect someone to take it with ease because of it. DEF callouts are generally most useful when you whisper a specific person in the area. from personal experience, I can say you get a 10:1 better response when you specify a person to do the defending.

Section 3-Map Specific Tactics

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A. Warsong Gulch

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Map Strategies:



Map Tricks:
Where the horde Ramp crosses over the tunnel, there is a Large Spike, with an extremely low spike next to it. You can jump on the low spike, and then jump towards the spike two or three spikes downhill, and you can hop over the fence this way. I tried to find a video of it, with no luck.

B. Twin Peaks

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Map Strategies:


Map Tricks:

C. Battle For Gilneas

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Map Tricks:
Stand at the Black X’s When you capture LH and mines, and give your team intel updates so they can easily counter any moves made. This is essentially a “check”, which will end in a victory via attrition.
Map Strategies:

D. Eye of the Storm

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Map Tricks:
-Stand at the far back of the base’s capture zone towards the outside of the map, so that a bypassing Enemy may not notice you, allowing you an easy cap.

Map Strategies:

E. Arathi Basin

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Map Tricks:
You can literally false front all 5 bases if your team pushes hard enough. Arathi basin has a…. 2 foot doorway that the entire team can be trapped behind. This’s the key to going 1600-0. If you see it starting, CHARGE that gateway, and do everything you can to contain the team while support comes.

Map Strategies:

F. Alterac Valley

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Map Strategies:

Map Tricks:
-Remember, mines are easy points. It’s better to fight over them after the points are already on your side, rather than when you seriously need them to win. Play Proactively, play to win.

If you have any questions, you can find me on Warsong.
"Juggurtank" - Human Warrior.

I hope this guide helped you in one way or another. please leave a comment with your thoughts about it.
If you Liked it, consider checking out my Holy Paladin 4.3 PvP Guide or Arms Warrior 4.3 PvP Guide

[lurtex]

A guide for random battlegrounds... Now I've seen everything.

[romka199]

A guide for random battlegrounds... Now I've seen everything.

someone was really bored xD

[Furiz]

This is actually very nice guide for beginners, well done really,

Sticky This pls ;)

[TheCourier]

What should we do when there is a multi-boxer scum on the other team and obliterates your team?

[Furiz]

What should we do when there is a multi-boxer scum on the other team and obliterates your team?

Zerg the head, the whole snake dies!

[Trashboats]

Zerg the head, the whole snake dies!

It doesn't work like that with most multiboxers. Takes 1 second to switch the main guy.

[TheCourier]

I really do think that more people *NeeD* to see this, cause the autism is growing more and more rampant '-'