A New Strand of the Ancients... again

I think it's relatively safe to say that in recent times in the World of Warcraft, no BG has gone through quite as many changes as Strand of the Ancients. With Cataclysm, the Battleground was completely redone, but it turned into something of a ridiculous zerg-fest, forcing Blizzard to rework the BG again, into its current incarnation today.

With all the confusion surrounding Strand, I figured now would be a good time to give everyone a quick primer in the ins and the outs of the BG, as well as some solid tactics for keeping on top, and pulling wins out of the fastest battleground.

The Basics

For those of you who aren't already Strand veterans, let me give you a brief introduction. You'll start off randomly put on one of two boats, heading towards shore. This is the time to buff up, as the game starts as soon as you land.

Once you land you'll be on a beach, facing either a green gate or a blue one, with two demolishers at your disposal. The goal is to break down those gates, get to the red, and purple ones behind them and then finally break through a final yellow gate to get into a courtyard and breach a room called “The Relic Chamber.” Once you do that, you'll win the offensive round.

However, there is also a defensive round, (which could actually happen first, it's just RNG), where you play the side holding the demolishers off. This is pretty simple, CC the demos and the bad guys, shoot down the demos, and keep the bad guys from getting into your relic chamber. The team who has offence first sets a time, and the second group to play offense has to beat it. If they do, they win, if they don't, they lose.

Simple enough, right? Now – how do you win?

Offensive Strategies

First of all, it should be noted that in the new patch the demolishers no longer have an extra two seats for ranged dps to park themselves in. The only person who can be in the vehicle is the demolisher. With that in mind, it's more important to have solid CC on the ground than ever before.

The name of the game on both sides of Strand is Crowd Control, and the secret to winning is to successfully CC the defending team enough that your demolishers can get ahead of them. Once the demos break away they opposition will be stuck playing a hopeless game of catch up, and the win will be yours.

There are two main tactics to pulling this off. The first is stacking demolishers. I can't emphasize enough how important this is. The demolishers now move extremely fast, and doors are pretty weak so if you get four (or sometimes, even more) stacked on a door, it'll go down extremely fast. Then you can sprint ahead to the next one, and so on and so forth.

Well-stacked demos lead to an easy win.

The best way to win Strand is to have demos stack on either blue or green, break down that gate, grab the GY behind it, break down the next one, CC the crap out of the other team, get ahead when you get to yellow, and sit back and relax and you faceroll the courtyard to win.

The trick here is both effective CC, and the other main tactic on offence in Strand. Dispelling. You NEED a paladin, or another class capable of purging crowd control from the demolishers because if they get slowed regularly, the other team can and WILL catch up with them, and they'll get burst down.

You need to have a paladin on your team riding ahead with your demolishers on strict dispel duty. Have him mount up, catch up to your demos and STAY WITH THEM. If you can successfully keep the demos at full speed, or close to it, they'll outpace the other team and you will almost always pull a win.

Defensive Strategies

Winning on defence is a little more tricky. Offence is much easier now due to the huge speed of the demolishers. The best way to stop a demo now is with a frost mage, as they can freeze them in place, and keep them rooted pretty well. You'll want to get a frost mage (even in PuGs, most groups have one) on the gate the other team rushes and have him on root duty. If he can hold them long enough it'll give you time to burst the demos down.

Guns are also viable on defence again as they have been buffed significantly. If you get both guns on a gate pounding on the demos attacking they will actually go down, so it's definitely worth it to make use of the guns again.

The secret to winning on defence is to break the initial zerg of demolishers. If you pull a solid offence, you'll make it to the relic chamber with your first batch of demolishers. As a result, if you kill the first group of demos on defence (though it's better if you can stop two waves) the opposition will generally fall behind enough that even if they regroup quickly – they won't have time to get to your relic.

A good way to make sure you're effectively burning the demos down is to have the group leader use raid icons on them. Then call out in BG chat (or vent if we're talking Rated BGs or a premade) “Kill skull, kill cross, kill star,” etc. It's important to ONLY hit the actual players on the other team when all the demolishers are down. If there are demos up on a gate, you should be hitting those, and NOT the players, just CC them until the demos go down. A lot of people get caught up in HK farming and fall behind the wave of demos, which is a sure formula for a failed defensive.

Conclusion

Overall, Strand has changed a lot since its incarnation in the earlier days of Wrath. But I think it's easy to like the changes. It's now the fastest BG, win or lose, which makes it great for farming honour, especially on its holiday weekend. Strand is also a very interesting BG, as unlike focusing on objectives (the flag, territory control etc.) and killing players to do it, Strand focuses almost entirely on non-player goals. Kill demos, kill gates, etc.

The only thing you really want to do is crowd control the opposing players, except when you've got nothing else to do on defence. It makes Strand unique, as it's probably the only BG so focused on NOT killing players. Does that make it good or bad?

That's up to you.

Until next time, practice safe Death!

~Onike

Season 9 Begins December 14th

This doesn't seem like a piece of news that has been a big deal throughout the blog-o-sphere, and the WoW community in general, but today while I was staring longingly at those blank Conquest tabs on my PvP screen, I saw that a little message had been added to the foot of them.

Season 9 will begin December 14th 2010.  This means, for those of you not near a calendar, or not being particularly endowed mathematically, it goes live exactly one day after Cataclysm goes live.  Also, by no coincidence, I'm sure, both these events take place on a Tuesday, just in time for maintenance.

What does this mean?

Besides the obvious, it means Blizzard is intending to make competitive arenas and Battlegrounds available almost immediately after Cataclysm goes live.  If leveling in Wrath was any example (which despite the increase in level being cut in half, I think is a fairly good estimate), then we can expect very few people to be 85 in less than a week.  Sure, some people will have played the beta and already figured leveling out 100%, and then take time off work and ding in a few very short days.  But I'm assuming most of you don't fall into that category.

Personally, I'm estimating at least two weeks (probably more) to get from 80-85.  This means That by the time the average player hits max level again, they'll be able to delve right into serious PvP.

But this also means, that if you haven't started thinking about putting a PvP team together already, you should be.  We now know the next PvP Season is going to be live in less than three weeks.  If you want to catch the first wave of PvPers, you want to be ready with some kind of a team by the time you're at 85.  In terms of arenas, this may mean simply grabbing a few friends who are already max level too.  But rated BGs may require you to wait for slower levelers, like yours truly, due to the larger size.

Get Ready to Rumble

Sounds cheesy, right?  I agree, it is.  But the fact of the matter is that if you're a PvPers, there is no reason for you to stay out of the ring longer than you have to.  Season 8 has been over for almost a month now, and I don't know about you guys, but beyond the amazing new questing content, I'm pretty excited about getting a chance to sink my teeth into some major PvP again.

So, gear up, get those leveling boots ready, and don't hang up your sword just yet.  Things are about to get really interesting all over again.

Until then, practice safe Death!

~Onike

Understanding Battlegrounds: Premades and Group Make-Up

With Cataclysm fast approaching, one of the highest priorities on this list of many PvPers is how everything will play out with the implementation of Rated Battlegrounds.  These will act as arenas have in the past, yielding a rating which will increase with every win, and allowing the purchase of high-end PvP gear with Conquest Points (which will be earned though arenas and rated BGs).  Since Season 9 is scheduled to go live a couple weeks after the release of Cataclysm on December 7th, by the time you've got a team of players up to level 85, you will most likely be able to jump right into competitive PvP.

What does this mean for us now?

It's in your best interest right now, to familiarize yourself with premades and group make-up for PvP.  Especially if you've not had a competitive PvP experience in terms of BGs through the duration of Wrath, or even BC and vanilla.  You should start thinking about putting your premade group for Cataclysm together now, not after the release.

That's not to say that if you can't find a team now, you won't be able to run Rated BGs come Cata.  You'll absolutely be able to fine one after the expansion releases, in fact it will probably be easier after the 7th.  Why?  Because lots of teams will be recruiting.  But you'll be missing out on one of the most important things you can gain between now and Cataclysm.

I'm not talking about gear, or character progression.  And I'm not talking about the bragging rights to say you tore it up in one of the most broken periods of PvP history.  I'm talking about one, last, valuable thing you can gain before Cataclysm.

Experience

Yes, it matters.  If you get a team together NOW, and you practice with them NOW, you'll have a leg up on everyone who's still trying to figure Rated BGs out after the expansion goes live.  You'll have a chance to really get used to working with your group,and what each individual player can accomplish, as well as what you can pull together as a group.  So, with that in mind, I'm going to be posting a series of posts running you through some strategies to try to consider once Cataclysm drops.  And today I'll talk about group make-up.


The Team

The size of your premade group depends entirely on how many PvPers you can  get together.  Maybe your raid group already wants to PvP and you'll be able to jump right into Alterac Valley (which is going to be a 25 man come Cata).  Maybe you're smaller, and you'll be running only 10 mans, and PuGing five players to run 15s.  Or maybe you'll be creating more than one BG team, because you have  so many players.

As Cynwise pointed out a while back in his post on Rated BGs, it's probably a good idea to shoot for AROUND 15 players.  That way you can always run 15 mans, or 10s if everyone doesn't show.  Or you can run an Alerac Valley with a few PuGs if you get extra.

But once you've decided on a rough number, a lot of the decisions about how you want your team to function is up to you.

Ask yourself this question:  "How do I want my team to work?"

Do you want a super-aggressive, all-out beserker team?  Do you want a team that will capture objectives, then turtle them effectively?  Or do you want a balanced, all around team that you'll adapt on the fly.

With those questions in mind, let me introduce you to the four kind of players I'm grouping PvPers into.

1.  The Melee dps

Melee dps is your front line in a Battleground scenario.  While other kinds of players will hang back and attack from behind, melee dps rushes right in (or maybe sneaks in if we're talking ferals or rogues).  They're very important to the group as a whole, because as long as there's a bunch of crazies breathing down your throat, an unorganized team won't have the smarts to take a minute, and focus down your healers (more on that later.)  Melee dps also often has a lot of interrupts available (especially if we're talking DKs) and can be a huge asset in bringing down the opponent's healers.

The Melee's biggest weakness is that it tends to die.  A lot.  Before casters go down, and sometimes before even the healers go down, it's not uncommon for a group to just go after whatever's right in front of them.  And in almost every situation, that's going to to be your melee dps.  Losing this front line means your squishier players are vulnerable, so if the other group takes the bait and goes for your melee, it's important for healers to keep them alive.

2.  The Ranged dps

Ranged enough.

The ranged dps essentially performs the same tasks as the melee.  They do damage.  Lots of it.  But unlike  the melee who need to be right beside a target to blow it up, ranged dps can nuke those baddies from behind your melee.  They can also be positioned more strategically, like little turrets, standing up on higher ground, or in other clever places, out of reach of the enemy melee dps.

The ranged dps also suffers from the unfortunate weakness of generally being fairly squishy.  A warlock is, as a general rule, easier to kill than a paladin.  Sure, there are some specs, like frost mages, that have more defensive cooldowns

3.  The Healer

Possible one of the most important roles in a BG, the healer is that guy that keeps everyone alive.  Once we've had a chance to get our feet wet with premade vs. premade Battlegrounds, I suspect one the main  points in team-building will be the number of healers to bring vs. the number of dps.  A healer doing their job can make or break an encounter.

With this in mind, it's EXTREMELY important to do your part (assuming you aren't healing) and keep your healers alive.  Keep those pesky dps CCed and off your heals as often as possible.  A poor-playing PuG (which is what a premade will probably streamroll a lot of before Cataclysm) might not target your healers, but count on other premades focusing yours down in the blink of an eye.  Healers are what makes Crowd Control in larger-scale PvP just as important as it was in places like the arenas.  Heals make or break a group.

4.  The Off-Healer or the Secret Healer

This is one of the sneakier things you can do with a premade group.  When your team breaks up into little groups to capture certain objectives, you can cleverly plant a player that can heal, but doesn't.  This means you have a character who is specced to heal, and geared and experienced enough to do the job, but have them dps, or pretend that they are.  See, in most cases (with the possible exception of a Holy Paladin, which has a much greater mana pool than any other pally spec), it's almost impossible to distinguish a healer from another member of your group.  Lets use the example of a priest.

What you would do with said priest, is have them specced for healing (let's say disc), but cast a lot of shadow spells.   Now a group that's got their wits about them will notice the priest isn't in shadow form.  But they're probably not going to be looking too closely at that, they'll be going after the paladin a few feet away that's healing like crazy.

Until the group's ordinary healer starts having trouble, you have this closet healer just pretend to dps.  Keep them off the enemy's radar.   THEN, once your main heals starts having trouble, they switch gears and start healing up a storm.  If the other group took the bait, and hasn't been attacking that first healer, this will almost certainly wipe the other group.  However, expect it to only really work once, after you've tricked the other team, they probably wont' fall for it again, and your secret healing player will be up at the top of the hit list with the rest of your heals.

Trees before 4.0.1:  The ninjas of the healing family.

Making the Group

Now, once you've got a rough idea of how you're planning to use each kind of character, you'll have to think about how exactly you're going to put them together.  Working with your team mates, and gaining some serious team synergy, is one of the greatest challenges you'll face as a Battleground group.  But if you take some time now, and practice, you'll find you've left this expansion with something lasting and important, that will carry you well into Cataclysm.

Experience