BG woes... a little look at Arathi Basin tactics.

Going against the grain, a look at the commonly held tactics used in Arathi Basin.

Arathi Basin has always been one of my favorite battlegrounds. You are forced to spread out and communicate in order to succeed. Now there are some stead fast tactics that everyone seems to preach in there. Things that you must do in order to win, otherwise you fail 'u lozer noob'. Yeah well pardon me while I disagree with a few of them.

You must have the Blacksmith in order to win. Bullshit, complete and total bullshit at that. I've had several wins where we don't control it. Many times holding the blacksmith can make you lose instead usually from simple mistakes do to how important people think it is. Teams will over defend leaving to few to go around and take other nodes or they spend everything they have trying to take it. Don't get me wrong it's nice to have with a wonderful tactical position but it's not worth fighting for it while you lose everything else. So if you don't have it, don't worry. Hold onto whatever other nodes you have and keep an eye just in case the opportunity to take it arises.

The Gold Mine is next to useless. Yeah right, only three ways to get at it (each road in and the drop down) which makes it way easier to defend than the blacksmith. You may not have the ability to see the battleground like you can at other points but if communication is going well you don't need to. Not to mention the reputation of the place makes most folks try for other nodes so defenders usually see smaller attacks coming at them. Not to mention the farm or stables can't see you coming until you are more than halfway there. I've personally sat and 'defended' the mines for entire games and never saw a single bit of combat.

You must hold your starting node (stables or farms). Again, nice to keep them, but not necessary. Also this tends to be something the enemy likes to take and hold and will devote several of their force to. So if they hit and take it with a large group then bypass and hit another of their nodes. If you get pinned in at your starting point GY then try to get around (potions to turn invisible are wonderful for this). Actually when they start pinning people in up there they tend to rush from everyplace else to help so it leaves other places lightly or completely ungaurded.

Now another thing I would like to cover isn't really a hard stead tactic but something you see people yelling ALL THE FREAKING TIME. 'Don't fight in the roads fight at the flags' yeah I'm sure you've heard that. To all those genius people I would like to ask “What do you do when you and three teammates run into four team members from the other side while on your way to nodes?”. Do you pass each other and wave nicely and let them continue on to take whatever they want. Hell no. It's a fight right then and there. Sometimes that fighting on the roads keeps them from making it to the flags to fight at. Bonus feature is if they kill you there is a pretty good chance you may rez in time to defend the node they are after, maybe even a few people short themselves now.

Well there is some tactical advice that goes against what a lot of other people tell you. Take it or leave it. Just remember no plan stay intact past the initial encounter with the enemy so be ready to flex.