I started playing World of War craft about six months ago. My wife started about eight months ago so I gave it a try. I must admit I was skeptical at first and had never played an MMORPG. Why would I want to leave my platform games? I play those games on my big screen T.V., with a wireless remote, lounging on the sofa. Why on earth would I want to leave all that to sit in front of my computer and use a mouse and key board? (I am not great at typing either) The answer is simple, once I hit level ten I was able to enter the Warsong Gulch battlefield, I was hooked.
While there is a pretty steep learning curve, PvP is still fun at low levels. There are a lot of things that make it fun. A huge plus is the camaraderie. It is really fun to work with a team of other players. You will get to learn tactics and strategy in a real-time environment. Since these scenarios are broken up by level blocks of ten you will go in at level ten as the lowest, but will eventually work your way up to level 19 at the top of the tier. These scenarios will also give you honor points that will let you get really good gear later.
Warsong hold is basically a game of capture the flag. Simply put, the goal is to capture the opposing team's flag and return it to your base while preventing the other faction from doing the same to you. The winning team is the team that captures the other faction's flag three times. If this condition is not met within the 20 minute time limit, the side with the most flags wins. In the event of a tie the side with that took the flag last, wins. If nobody gets a flag at all the battle is a tie. The battle is a minimum of five per team and a max of ten per team.
Okay so you're probably wondering how you get to the PvP battlefield. To get to the battle field you have to visit the battle masters. The first thing you need to do is go to the nearest major city and locate one of the guards. When you mouse over him, a scroll of paper will appear. You need to left click the scroll and a window will open up, left click on the "battle masters" option. Once you have done this a small flag will appear on your map. Just keep going until you get to the flag and once the flag disappears, you have arrived. You can left click on the battle masters and they will either tell you that you are too low in level or a window will open. At the top of the box, if there are multiple options, (Warsong Gulch 1, Warsong Gulch 2 ect or first available) just make your selection. Once you have decided which battlefield instance you want, you need to look at the bottom of the window and select, join as a group, join battle, or cancel. This course of action will put you into a queue, so you can go hit the quest circuit or whatever you want to do while you're waiting to be notified that there is an open spot for you in the battle. A window will open asking if you want to enter the battle. You can choose to enter or leave the queue.
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Once you choose enter the battle, you will be placed in holding area with the other players on your side. Watch the chat box in the left corner it will come up in the raid orange color to let you know the battle is starting in one minute and then 30 seconds. I prefer to click on the chat bubble and select raid so I can communicate with my teammates.
If you look to your left you will see the icons of the players you are teamed with, try to keep near them and fight with them as much as possible. Before the battle starts look at your map and make a note of where you base is and where the other faction's base is.
Okay so the battle has begun what do you do? The most important thing is teamwork. You need to stick together. Don't misunderstand, sticking together does not mean clumping together so tightly that you are all getting blasted by area effect spells or are in each other's way. You should be close enough so you can easily assist a teammate. This also does not mean to stay stationary. You can use this same tactic on the move. If you are all in the same area you can come to each other's aid faster.
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Another thing that is very important is local superiority. Once you engage the other side it is important to, as quickly as possible, get local numerical superiority. For example you are engaged with a unit of five and you have five and your tank is fighting, don't engage another enemy, help the tank dispatch his, now it's five against four. If another player joins in he falls that much faster. It is a classic divide and conquer strategy. There are exceptions to this rule however and that depends on the scenario and what character class you have chosen to play. These basic rules modify them to suit your style of play, character and or group.
Situational awareness is also a huge factor. It helps to know the terrain and what types of obstacles and blind spots it has. What areas just scream ambush or where is the best place to set up my ambush. Know the cool down time on your specials so you can use them effectively. What specials do you have that could help you get away or prevent someone else from getting away? Different spells have different animations if you know which is which you can take action against them. The last thing I would like to touch on in situational awareness is other character's racial abilities. All characters have different racial abilities that can make them immune to certain things. If you know which of your attacks which races are immune to, then you will not waste them. If you die, it is the same procedure as it is in the rest of the game, (unless somebody resurrects you then you can chose accept and rise where you died) you will be sent to the graveyard and be resurrected.
If you go into Warsong Gulch at level ten, you will probably die a lot. You have to remember that you are getting experience playing against other players. This type of experience will help you when you do instances in the game. Teamwork takes practice and it is not the easiest skill to learn and once you learn it there is no substitute for it. I have given you many reasons why you should PvP better gear, experience, but the most important reason I do PvP is because its fun even at low levels.
