Guide to battleground tactics.

We’ve all heard of them, but still, in 90% of the PUG BGs, we don’t use them. I’m talking about tactics. Tactics can make or break a BG. Even when your group setup is far from perfect, good tactics can still make your team win. In this guide I will cover a lot of tactics used in BGs and also some counter tactics.

At this moment I don’t write anything about AV. Although good AV tactics aren’t very hard, it’s almost impossible to lead a PUG AV with all the leechers and the people who just spam the usual zerg tactics.

As I play as ally most of the time, this guide will be written from an allies point of view, but, since 3/4 BGs are mirrored, will also work for horde. Just remember to change the name of the nodes. So when I talk about ST in AB, for horde this means Farm etc.

Table of contents

I BG leader
I.01 - how to be a good BG leader
I.02 – sorting out groups
I.03 – explain tactics
I.04 – To fight or not to fight.
I.05 – behavior
I.06 – Dos and Donts
II WSG
II.01 – main tactics
II.01.1 – Zerg
II.01.2 – Balanced
II.01.3 – Turtle
II.02 – phases
II.03 – phase 1 tactics
II.04 – phase 2 tactics
II.05 – phase 3 tactics
II.05.1 – Zerg
II.05.2 – Balanced
II.05.3 – Turtle
II.06 – phase 4 tactics
II.06.1 – Zerg
II.06.2 – Balanced
II.06.3 – Turtle
II.07 – phase 5 tactics
II.07.1 – Zerg
II.07.2 – Balanced
II.07.3 – Turtle
III AB
III.01 – main tactics
III.02 – Various situations
IV EotS
IV.01 – main tactics
IV.01.1 – Zerg
IV.01.2 – Blitz
IV.01.3 – Turtle
IV.02 – The importance of flagcapping
V final words

I - BG leader

The BG leader is the player who gives the orders to other players. It doesn’t have to be the player who got the text battlegroundleader in front of his name, although it is preferred that the player who takes control also gets to be the battlegroundleader title for the group.

I.01 - how to be a good BG leader

Good BG leaders are rare in WoW. Ofcourse there are a lot of players who know 1 or 2 tactics for every BG, but the difference with those players and good BG leaders is that good BG leaders can change tactics according to the situation and don’t rely blindly on 1 “uber” tactic that worked 2 times in a row.

Every BG is different. You’ll have different players in your group and so does the opposite faction. In match #1 you can have the ultimate dreamteam for the BG and the enemies with only 1 healer. In match #2 you can have no healer at all in your team and the enemies are a full S3 premade team. Learn how to handle these situation, adjust your tactics to them and you’re on your way to become a good BG leader.

I.02 – sorting out groups

First thing you need to do as a BG leader is to sort out groups. Try to make sure every group has a healer with them. If there aren’t enough healers, then make sure the groups who will have the most resistance get a healer.

I.03 – explain tactics

Try to keep explaining your tactics as short as possible. Most players won’t read text that’s almost as long as this guide when they are in a BG. BUT also make sure players can understand them. Example: “Group 1 – Belf, Group 2 – Frr, Group 3 – MT , Group 4 – DR.”

Also macro your tactics, so you can spam them 2 or 3 times. Just make sure you give them a logical name, like: EotS1, EotS2, AB1, AB2. If you give them all almost the same name (Tactics1, Tactics2 etc) you can get confused. Also spamming the wrong tactics in a BG (WSG tactics in AB for example) will make it harder for you to get trusted as a capable BG leader.

I.04 – To fight or not to fight.

As a BG leader you can choose to have an active fighting role or passive fighting role. You either fight with an attacking group or you stay defense and have less HKs (honor kills). Whichever you choose is totally up to you. Both have their up- and downsides. As an active fighting BG leader, you’ll have more HKs (and thus honor) but you’ll have less time to type changes in tactics when needed. As a passive fighting BG leader you’ll have less HKs but more time to control the tactics.

I prefer to be a passive fighting BG leader. I just like it to have a lot of time to check on the map and write tactics down during the BG or explain to players personally why I want them to be at a certain location.

I.05 – behavior

As a BG leader, always try to be polite in the BGs. You can be the best BG leader in all of WoW, with the tactics that will never fail, but if don’t behave polite no one will respect you and listen to you.

There will be times when you will get flamed. There will be times when players just won’t listen. There will be times players will make stupid mistakes. Just make sure you won’t misbehave. Don’t go call people noobs just because you are losing. Don’t start flaming players who don’t listen to you. Don’t blame players for your team losing the game. Players might remember you for it.

When players are not listening to you, just say in BG chat: Player x go to location y, please. Then whisper them why you want them to be there. 9 out of 10 times the player will listen to you when you do it this way. If they don’t, adjust your tactics to it.

I.06 – Dos and Donts

Do
ask to be BG leader at the start.
Sort groups
Check you map regularly
Make macros for tactics
Adjust tactics to the situation
Make use of a BG addon!

Don’t
Misbehave

II WSG

WSG. A “simple” capture the flag BG which can take for hours if both teams are turtling. Even with Blizzards latest changes to it, you can still face 1 hour+ WSG fights. I won’t be talking about which class is the best FC(flag carrier). You can find enough info about that on this forum.

Personally, I always point out a main FC. This player will carry the flag if possible. Pointing out a main FC lets other players from your group concentrate on him more, increasing his survival chances when the attacking group goes to the enemy base. I also put 2 at least 2 players in his group that must protect him at all times.

II.01 – main tactics

When playing WSG, I mainly make use of 3 tactics which I call Zerg, Balanced and Turtle. The number of groups and the number of players in each group can vary according to the situation. It is advisable to have a hunter in the defense group in all 3 tactics, so he can spot incoming horde.

II.01.1 – Zerg

This tactic relies heavily on offence. A big offence group will attack the enemy base, grab the flag and come running back to cap it. The defensive group will try to prevent the capture of the your flag by the enemies as long as possible. If they do grab the flag, defense will try to slow the EFC (enemy flag carrier) as much as possible, till the offensive team comes back and join them in killing the EFC.

This tactic is really useful when the other team doesn’t use any tactics or does not attack in groups. When you outnumber the other team, always use this tactic.

When I use this tactic, I usually make 3 groups. 1 group with 3 players defending and 2 groups who will act like 1 big group for attacking.

II.01.2 – Balanced

5 players defending and 5 players attacking or 4 players defending and 6 players attacking. You’ll have a good defense to counter Zerg tactics, while still having enough players to attack the enemy base. Easy tactic, but hard to maintain, as everyone would love to attack the enemies base. Especially when horde isn’t attacking much and players get bored.

II.01.3 – Turtle

More defense the offence. This tactic I mainly use against a good horde group or when we start outnumbered to buy time and wait for reinforcements. Personally not my favorite style of play because the game will take ages, but sometimes there is no other way of playing. Have 6 or 7 players defend while your best geared players will attack the enemy base. You can either have 2 groups defending in flagroom or 1 group defending in flagroom and one group defending in midfield..

II.02 – phases

I like to split up WSG in 5 different phases. Each phase has it’s own tactics for all 3 maintactics. The 5 phases are:

Phase 1. Both teams don’t have the enemy flag
Phase 2. Your team has the enemy flag
Phase 3. Enemies have your flag
Phase 4. Both teams will have grabbed the flag, but at least 1 of the FCs isn’t in his own base
Phase 5. Both teams will have grabbed the flag and both FCs are in their own base

II.03 – phase 1 tactics

Tactics for phase 1 are simple. Defense group defends and offence group attacks and tries to grab the enemy flag. If you’re using turtle tactics with a midfield group, your midfield group will stand between tunnel and ramp, so they can react to incoming horde whatever access point they chose to use. Enemies that go past them must be reported to the defensive team that’s inside the flagroom.

It’s best for the attacking group to enter the enemy base by ramp. Not only will they be able to travel by mount longer and thus reaching the flag faster, they are also less likely to encounter horde. Enemies who spawn at their graveyard will immediately jump down the cliff and be close to the tunnel.

A tactic that I love to use (if possible) is let a rogue or druid stealth into the enemy base, while the rest of the group waits outside of the tunnel. The stealthier grabs the flag and uses sprint to run outside the tunnel. Outside the tunnel he drops the flag, while your main FC picks it up. And brings it home. This tactic often confuses the enemies but need real good coördination

II.04 – phase 2 tactics

Your Attacking group(s) did their job and grabbed the enemies flag while your defense does a good job in not letting the enemies grab yours. Now they must get back and cap it. When you use Zerg or balanced tactics, the attacking group runs back along the FC, disrupting any incoming horde who will try to get their flag back as much as possible. This means slowing/killing any melee that is close to the FC, interrupting/slowing/killing ranged enemies, dispelling any debuffs on the FC and ofcourse healing him when he is getting damage.

When you cap or lose the flag it’s time to regroup and back to phase 1. If the enemies get your flag then you’re in phase 4

II.05 – phase 3 tactics

Your defense wasn’t able to defend your flag and now the enemies are now running back to their base to score 1 point. Now it’s time to follow the EFC(enemy flag carrier) and get back your flag. Try to kill/cc enemy healers ASAP so they can’t heal the EFC. How you’ll get it back depends entirely on the situation and the tactics you are using.


II.05.1 – Zerg

Have a quick look at your map and see where your attack group is. If they are in the enemy base let their attack continue and grab the enemy flag. You’ll now be in phase 4.

If they are in midfield, let them hold their attack for now and concentrate on the EFC. Naturally, your defense group will try to slow down the EFC as much as possible or even get it back. If the enemy cap the flag or you manage to get it back, you’ll be back in phase 1. Time to regroup.

II.05.2 – Balanced

Just like with the zerg tactics, if the attack group is in the enemy base let them grab the enemy flag. If they are not, they must attack the EFC. Your defense group will need to let 2 players behind in the flagroom and defend it for any enemy who will try to grab the flag as soon as it returns. The others will attack the EFC

II.05.3 – Turtle

Nothing hard here. All you defense should attack the EFC, while your offence keeps attacking the enemy base. If you got a midfield defending group, let them intercept the oncoming EFC, while the flag defense group follows the EFC. Should the offence team be dead, then they should join the defense team and try to kill the EFC. Remember to keep 2 players in your flagroom to protect it against horde.

II.06 – phase 4 tactics

Both teams manage to grab the other teams flag and at least 1 FC haven’t reached his base yet. How to react now depends entirely on the situation and your chosen tactics. Just hope that both FCs won’t reach their base or this will be a long fight.

FCs from both factions have some spots they can hide if they reach there base. For both teams, FCs can hide on the roof of their base or on their graveyard. Roof is a nice place to hide as your players can easily spot incoming enemies and the FC can chose different routs to flee, when needed. But the roof can also be a trap. The enemy team can send to players to the 2nd floor balcony, while the others go attack the FC on the roof. Unless the FC got some solid defense around him, he would probably die on the roof or he jumps down, where the 2 enemies on the balcony await him.

Graveyard is a good place to hide because all the players of your team who die will spawn there. When they spawn they can immediately fight the enemies who tries to kill the FC. And with a respawn every 30 seconds, it’s damn hard to kill a FC there. To make it even harder for the enemies, the FC can lay down with his back turned to the spawnstone. The flag he carries will now disappear in the stone, making it harder for the enemies to spot him.

Both factions also have a hiding spot that the other faction doesn’t have. Horde players can hide in the small room under the big saw blade. When you are at the horde graveyarde, look south. See that big round saw blade sticking out of the wall? Around the blade is a small room you can hide. It’s also very close to the horde graveyard.

Alliance players can hide in the doorway on the 2nd floor. There is a small room on either side of the doorway where you can hide. Just remember to not lay down, else your flag will be sticking out on the other side of the wall.

II.06.1 – Zerg

Your FC is safely back in base and the EFC hasn’t reached his base? Leave your FC with a healer and a DPS. All other players must get to the EFC ASAP and try kill him. Your FC will be rather safe inside your base as the enemies will mostly concentrate at protecting their FC. They just can’t risk a big assault on your base to get their flag back, as it will mean the death of their FC

EFC is back in his own base while your FC is still in midfield? Send everyone to protect your FC. Unless ofcource there is a big group of your players in the enemy base busy killing the EFC. Just make sure there’s always some of your players near your FC to protect and heal him.

Both FCs haven’t reached their base yet? Let your defense run attack the EFC while your offence protects the FC. Once the offence in near the EFC, the offence group where the FC is in will continue to run towards the base, while the 2nd offencegroup helps the defensegroup in killing the EFC

II.06.2 – Balanced

For all 3 situations tactics are the same. Defense team hunts down the EFC while the offence group guards the FC.

II.06.3 – Turtle

When you’re using turtletactics, the main thing is to get the FC safely back to your base and keep your base secure. Leave 1 group in your base to defend it from any horde, while your other defensegroup gets to the FC ASAP and defend him. If they have the possibility to kill the EFC, let them do that, but the most important thing is to protect the FC.

II.07 – phase 5 tactics

Both teams have grabbed the other teams flag and both FCs are save in their base. You’ll now have the hardest and most hated situation in all Bgs. Now it’s time to try and get that flag back, but it will probably take a lot of time.

II.07.1 – Zerg

Only let your FC be guarded by 2 players. A healer and a DPS (preferably 1 that can CC) all other players must group up and attack the enemy base and kill the EFC

II.07.2 – Balanced

Let your defense team defend the FC, while your offense team attacks the enemy base

II.07.3 – Turtle

A good turtle tactic can’t go without you defending the FC with as much players as possible. You can wait till the EFC dies of old age and drops the flag or you can send 3 players (rogues/druids) to stealth into the enemy base and kill the EFC while they are trying to get their flag back.

III AB

AB is a “king of the hill” type of BG. For each CP (control point/node) you get recourses. First to 2000 recourses wins the game. There are 5 CPs on the map, so by controlling at least 3 CPs from the start of the game, you win.

The 5 CPs in AB are:
ST (Stables)
GM (Goldmine)
BS (Blacksmith)
LM (Lumber Mill)
Farm (guess what? It’s a farm)
In AB the situation can changes very swiftly. You may have 4 CPs for 5 minutes, then in 1 minute time, you’ve only got 1 left. You’ll be checking your map quiet often, to see where players are and to see which groups are closed to a threat.

This BG relies heavily on good tactics and good communication. I’ll be talking about 1 main tactic in this guide and then some situations which may occur and how to respond on them.

III.01 – main tactics

The main tactics I use for AB are very well known in WoW. Almost everybody uses them, I just perfected them a bit.

At the start of the BG I make for groups. 2 groups with 5 players, 1 group with 4 players and 1 group with 1 player.

Group 1 will have 4 or 5 players. Their goal is to cap GM
Group 2 will have 5 players. These must be the best players you got available. Their goal is to cap BS
Group 3 will have 4 or 5 players. Their goal is to cap LM
Group 4 has 1 player. His/her goal will be to cap and defend ST if you’re alliance and farm if you’re horde. Personally I put myself in this group, as normally, ST or farm aren’t attacked much and I can concentrate fully on tactics and communication.

Once a group has captured and secured a CP, they should leave 2 man behind to defend it. All others in the group should move to the CP closest to your enemies base (ST or farm). If all goes well you’ll have captured 4 CPs within 2 minutes and full pressure on the enemies at ST/Farm. They can’t risk to also lose that CP so most of them will be fighting there which will make defending usually an easy job.

All groups have responsibility for the CP they had to capture. So if GM is attacked, all of group 1 will need to go back to GM and defend it, leaving group 2 and 3 in attackmode.

III.02 – Various situations

Of course not every BG will go as described above. Here are some situations and how to respond to them.

You captured GM+ST+LM, Horde captured BS+Farm.
Theres 2 things you can do in this situation. You can leave group 1 and 3 (the groups at GM and LM) stay at their CP and defend, while group 2 (the group that should have taken BS) helps defend ST. in this case, expect a very long BG, where group 2 will has to assist group 1 and 3 when there is massive incoming on their CP. You’ll just be in defensemode for 30 minutes and win because you’ll have more CPs then the enemies

The other option is to send the players from group 1 and 3 who used to attack farm to BS, to assist group 2 in capping BS.

Of course these tactics can also be used if the enemies has captured any other CP then BS or if one CP hasn’t been captured yet.

Horde is attacking ST while you’ve captured 4 CPs
Immediately start warning people for incoming. All people who are close (just respawned at BS graveyard) should come to your aid. With a bit of luck and skill you manage to hold the horde away just long enough till backup arrives. If horde has already tagged the flag, backup should try to recap ST

You capped GM+BS+LM, horde capped ST+farm
This is a bit of a tricky situation, because you can be attacked from 2 sides and that makes it hard to capture another CP. You can try to defend, but it’s very hard to get assistance to a CP when it’s attacked from both sides.

A better option is to give up 1 CP and attack either ST or Farm when it’s almost defenseless. Put a scout on ST and Farm and attack when it only has 2 defenders.

You’ve capped 2 CPs, horde got 3 CPs
Let group 1,3 and 4 defend your 2 CPs while you send group 2 to the horde CP that is least defended. This will most of the times be the CP that’s hardest to reach for you. Usually this will be farm.

Ofcourse the number of variations is almost endless so I’ll stop here now. I’ll maybe edit this post with some more possible situations.

IV EotS

EotS is a combination of capture-the-flag and king-of-the-hill. Just like in AB there are a couple of CPs that give you resources and like in WSG there is a flag you can capture. The only difference is that the flag gives additional resources and there is only 1 flag which both teams can capture

IV.01 – main tactics

Although there are a lot of different tactics for EotS, I will only write down 3 tactics. 2 of those are used a lot (zerg and turtle) and the other one is a personal favorite, although I don’t use it very much (not even in guild premades)
IV.01.1 – Zerg
I use this tactic a lot. Most of the times it just totally crushes the enemies defense and within 5 minutes the game is over, 2000/200.

For this tactic, I make 4 or 5 groups. The number of groups depends on type of players that are with me in the BG. Group 1 and 2 will both have 5 players. Mostly experienced or good geared players. Group 3 will have 3 players in a 4group setup or 2 players in a 5group setup. Group 4 will have 2 players and group 5 will have 1 player, usually a druid.

Goal of this tactic is to get all 4 towers as fast as possible. At the start group 1 will rush to Frr (Felreaver Ruins), group 2 will rush to Belf (Bloodelf Tower), group 3 goes to MT (Mage Tower) and group 4 goes to DR (Dreanei Ruins). If there is a group 5, this player will go for the flag and his only purpose is to make flagcapping for the enemies as hard as possible (and yes capping the flag is making it hard for the other team to cap it). Group 1 should also help MT when it’s attacked and group 2 should help DR.

When 3 CPs are captured group 1 (or 2) should assist the last group in capturing the 4th CP,l while leaving 2 players behind to defend. If all cps are captured, send your men below the enemies spawnpoint, making it almost impossible for them to recapture a CP and a precious GY.

This tactic works great against a lot of pugs because a lot of players still think that capturing flags is the only way to win EotS. When half of the enemies are busy grabbing the flag, your team will have at least 3 CPs. Almost guaranteeing a victory.

IV.01.2 – Blitz
With this tactic you force your enemies to fully concentrate on defending 1 CP. You’ll have 4 groups just like in the zerg tactics, but you use them differently. Group 1 (5 players) will rush to Frr. Group 2 (5 players) will cap and defend DR. Group 3 (4 players) will also rush Frr. Group 4 (1 player) will cap and defend MT.

This tactic forces the enemies to defend Frr with full force. If they don’t, then Frr is yours and you can send group 1 + part of group 2 to attack Belf. If they do defend Frr, it will leave Belf weakened so you can send group 2 minus 1 player for defending to Belf to cap it.

This tactic usually surprises the enemies, giving you 3 CPs within a couple of minutes. It doesn’t go as fast as with zergtactics, but it usually makes it harder for the enemies to regroup themselves and counter the tactics.

IV.01.3 – Turtle

The most boring tactics, but also the easiest to execute. All you need is 3 groups of 5 players. Group 1 goes to MT, group 2 to DR. both groups defend there. Group 3 goes for the flags. The BG will take a long time if you use this tactics and enemies capping more flags then you will result in your defeat.

IV.02 – The importance of flagcapping

Flags can make or brake a game. I’m not saying that they will, but they can. Capping enough flags can make your team even win when the enemies have 3 CPs. So it’s important to try to disrupt flagcapping by the enemy team. Disrupting flagcapping can be anything from attacking the player who tries to grab the flag with an instant attack to grabbing the flag, but don’t cap it. The longer it takes for the enemies to cap a flag, the more likely you are to win the game.

V final words
That’s it for this basic guide for battleground tactics. I hope you guys learn something from it and make use of it. Suggestions are always welcome, so feel free to respond.

Thanks for reading and hopefully see you soon on the battlegrounds.

Looks like and awesome and useful post,but no way in hell i'll read all that.

Nice one, thanks.

Its shame that tactics cant help horde to win BGs at my battlegroup. Try to use tactics if you are allways starting 15vs8 at EotS and AB.

I was in EotS last night - 15vs4 (after 16min wait time), our tactic was: Ohh, crap. Hey guys, im sorry but im not going down to be slaughtered. Just wait here.

No chance to finish that daily.

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Q u o t e:
Nice one, thanks.

Its shame that tactics cant help horde to win BGs at my battlegroup. Try to use tactics if you are allways starting 15vs8 at EotS and AB.

I was in EotS last night - 15vs4 (after 16min wait time), our tactic was: Ohh, crap. Hey guys, im sorry but im not going down to be slaughtered. Just wait here.

No chance to finish that daily.

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Thanks Zagroff, but please don't turn this in another topic about unbalanced players at the start. there are already enough topics about that.

If you guys got any comments on this guide, please post them. I'll edit the guide when nessesary

Is it true that the BG leader can kick ppl and stuff???
I had it once where I got kicked off, I typed a combo of kaf or so and I got thrown out by him I thienk.

BG tactics by Nethris

1. Make a fixed. As many resto druids as possible.
2. ???
3. PROFIT

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Q u o t e:
BG tactics by Nethris

1. Make a fixed. As many resto druids as possible.
2. ???
3. PROFIT

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7 warlocks 2 shadow priests and a druid > that

i've tried it before

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Q u o t e:
Is it true that the BG leader can kick ppl and stuff???
I had it once where I got kicked off, I typed a combo of kaf or so and I got thrown out by him I thienk.

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no. Bg leaders can't kick. too bad because I've seen enough players who I wanted to kick out.

nice guide, must have taken you ages to write.

sticky?

Thanks Neo. Sticky would be great.

1st after blue

blue reply = stikcy soon :?

Really nice guide you've made there. Let's hope as many as possible read it. Or at least alliance's in cyclone! (olol)