Euripides over at Critical QQ relates his past 7 months of disastrous experiences in the level 70 BGs as horde. Although by all accounts how each faction fares depending on the battlegroup you are playing in, I have definitely noticed a difference (read “a slump” to put it politely) between the level 70 bracket and all other ones as well, regardless of the BG.
I do believe that an important part of that is due to the level 10-19 and 20-29 bracket which are heavy with twinking since fall 2005. Many players try out their newest toon in these brackets, get crushed, and no longer worry about BGs at all until 70, where they grind honour at all cost for their S1 kit. Which is all fine and dandy, but a combination of the inexperience, the usually wrong specs, daily PvP quests and an overall pessimistic outlook (“It’s a PUG, we’re gonna lose anyway, just hand me my mark and let’s get this done”) give the more dedicated PvPer a miserable team to work with.
Add the general Internet Anonymity factor which tends to turn your averagely educated person into a jerk when faced with adversity (like losing BGs over and over), the matchmaker which still pits organized preforms (premades for us EU players) against ragtag PUGs, and the potential for weeks of horrible BGs gets realized.
There’s one method which works pretty well in AB (a bit less in EOtS and WSG for some reason, go figure). People react to leadership. When you enter a match to grind your marks and your motivation is low because you are already sure the other 14 people with you are scrubs, setting simple instructions can change things entirely. Back in the day before TBC, I could experience this on my level 60 alliance lock: AB was pretty much horde-dominated and alliance did the headless chicken run every single time. And one day, I wrote a simple macro which I would use 15 seconds before the game start unless someone else was taking charge.
The instructions? Simple.
Group 1: Mine. Group 2: Stables. Group 3: Mill.
Announce incoming in chat, and remember, 3 bases wins the game.
That’s all it took to go from a 1-9 win ratio to 4-6 with that toon. Something I verified over several dozen games.
Nowadays on horde, it works the same way, except the dispatches are sent to LM, farm and BS. I usually add a “stables last only after the other 4 are secured” after the first nodes cap for us. And you know what? It works. A ragtag PUG will tend to follow whatever commands are given in a firm and clear manner, simply because everyone craves organization.
Of course it won’t be a 100% win ratio, among others because you can get matched against a preform, or an alliance group which organizes in the same fashion. Still, 18 marks in 10 games is a lot better than 12 in my book.
Organization beats chaos every single time. Rome built an empire which lasted close to a millennium on that principle. And the only thing it needs is a bit of communication. Your BGs suck? Don’t sit on your hands cursing the other 14 people. Take charge. At least if you fail you will have put up a decent fight. That’s always better than getting mad.
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Funny in my battlegroup it is the Horde that win *every single f###ing* BG – EOTS, AB and WSG. The only exception is AV where even playing their usual moronic game the alliance somehow manage to (barely) win for some reason – usually.
It’s gotten so bad that if the daily pvp quest isn’t to win AV I just give up on it since I know 10 BGs later I’ll still be losing.
The problem? Well let me put it this way.
The toons I PvP with are a noob hunter (only 3 parts of S1 gear so far) and a noob priest I recently started to PvP with (0 res, almost 7k life lol, no pvp gear yet).
My hunter routinely gets the most damage done in EOTS/AB/WSG or in the first 3 places, at least for alliance side. My priest routinely gets the most healing done or in first 3 places.
I have the screen-shots to prove this.
* My gear? Sucks, nothing against a full S1 char, never mind S2/3. Check out Supersolid and Solidfaith on EU/Thunderhorn if you don’t believe me.
* Connection? I play with 400ms all the time.
* Uber PvP player? Give me a break I suck at duels, any possible class can kill my chars.
The conclusion? Other alliance are simply *not trying at all*. Well maybe they try to farm HKs but that is it, no attempt at anything like winning
It’s also the key to winning Alterac Valley for both sides. I’ve played Horde and Alliance at level 70 and communication is more critical to winning than any map imbalances or other issues. This is true in all of the BGs. It takes a bit more effort early on to shout down the idiots who say “we always lose” or “we tried that and lost last game” or some such babble, but if you can get people on board with “listen to me and we will win” then you will win. Or vice versa, if someone is taking charge – LISTEN TO THEM.
The truth is that if you aren’t facing a premade then simply following a single strategy (EVEN A BAD STRATEGY) will more often lead to success. This is simply based on the fact that everyone is doing the same thing. In other words, if you see someone trying to take charge in a BG, lend a voice and help them take charge. It’s less important that it’s the perfect strategy and more important that everyone is working together as a cohesive group. Oh – and lending that voice of support is almost as important as being the one to shout out the strategy. Do this, and you’ll find that you start winning more often than you lose in all the BGs.
I agree with you that someone stepping up – and leading can make a huge difference. But the catch is to start the motivation as early as possible. Appearing in a BG that a premade from your own side ran scared from as the gates open, though with no time to buff/organise puts you behind the 8 ball at once. Or counting your Afkers.. ( yeah for changes to come!) Our Trade channel premade pugs which are very popular on our server at the moment, the ones who work – work because they have one voice to listen to. What I find though is that because there is no group cohesion in normal pug Bg – One person steps up – and then someone pips up and says something differnt. And then the QQing starts. “Alliance sucks in Bgs..” And its usually the people who do the least. Motivation and Moral has a huge part to play – and Id rather a good game then a easy win or a loss. Maybe I should start saying stuff like – I agree to follow you.. if a ‘leader’ appears encourage the rest to do so to.
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Heh…very timely article, Gwaendar! I did my very first BGs last night (I have 4 70s!), and had a blast, even though results were mixed. Love your macro, and even though I’m a BG n00b, I’m more than willing to shout it out before the gate opens.
Zahrah makes some good points too. Now that I understand a little bit about what is going on, the BG raid chat just might make a little more sense to me.
It is so very swEEt when people do that team thing. Unfortunately, these days seems like most folk think insulting = leadership, so annoying. What a great macro and ‘do it yourself’ reminder” – thanks! Cause doing something about it > pitchin a fit.
I use to play alot of AB, still my favorite. When I start pvp again I know that’s where I’ll head to sharpen up. (wsg doesn’t do it for me, not sure why.)
It occured to me while reading your post that in terms of poor quality pvp aren’t a lot of the hardcore pvpers spending most of their time in the Arenas? I know that’s what I’d be doing,
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