Real Time Strategy

Well, it has been a long three months since I quit playing World of Warcraft–or, I should say since I took a 3 month break from World of Warcraft. Anyways, I am back! This time I am going to *try* and keep myself from getting back into raiding, as that is one reason I became so burned out last time. So this time around, I am trying to make PvP my main focus, and would really like to get back into competitive arena. I have not been Gladiator since season two, as it has been that long since I have really wanted to put forth the effort, and had the team capable of making it to the top. Anyways, when I was last playing arena, I was rated 2350 in 2s on my Death Knight(big accomplishment, I know!), and 2200 in 3s on my Resto Shaman. I will say, playing those two classes was not really fun at all. Shamans took a lot of work, and totem management was just not fun at all(talking pre 3.2). And my Death Knight was fun for about, oh, I would say maybe 15 games, then it became boring.

So, I decided I would make the comeback on my fresh level 80 Mage that I achieved level 80 on about 2 weeks before quitting. So, I am starting over completely void of any PvP gear, so I decided it was time to start the dreaded honor grind that we all know and love. I decided I was going to do it as quickly as possible, so that means actually participating in every game(ugh). Now, after playing hundreds of BGs, I have learned little tips here and there that I decided I would share with the community. This little guide will be about getting the absolute max honor per game, which(usually) means you want to get as many HKs as possible(not killing blows). So, here we go.

NOTE: I play Alliance, but the ideas should work for either faction.

Eye of the Storm: this BG can be really situational in terms of which way you should go every time. I generally go DR -> BET, as Horde will often leave it lightly defended, and as long as a couple other Alliance follow you, you should be able to score 3-4 kills easily. From here, your next move is entirely reliant on what your team is doing. If the Alliance are all downies and send 7-8 people straight to the flag, the Horde will likely attack one of your nodes–that is where you want to be. In 3.2, Blizzard added a bonus honor gain as long as you are standing near a node that your team controls. So think of it like this: if Horde attack DR, and there are a few Alliance there, you want to head that way. Basically, the objective here is to be near any battle that is taking place near a node you control. Now, there are exceptions to this. If you control only two nodes, it is usually more effective to try and muster up a group of Alliance to follow you and take try to take a node. This all seems rather “no-brainer,” but a lot of people fail to realize how useless fighting in the middle near the flag really is. When you are standing at a node, you are already in range to get HKs from the center of the map, and when you are standing at a node you control, you will gain the 15% honor increase from every kill the Alliance scores in the middle.

Warsong Gulch: this is still my favorite BG in the game, and the idea for maximizing honor is really fun. For this BG, you want to be a roamer. Be the guy who stays outside of the bases, but just close enough to whichever one has battles taking place. Play power-up control! If you run back and forth between the berserk huts, you can keep it going nonstop. I usually just roam around picking off stragglers, and waiting for the Horde to bring our flag out of base, then I make sure I have berserk up, and pop cooldowns to kill the FC, or his healer(depending on the situation). A lot of people may view this as being useless to the team in the long run, but as long as you participate in battles that take place outside the bases, you are still bringing plenty of help to the team(especially if you always arrive with berserk up). It is also important to remember that you should put surviving ahead of getting killing blows. If you are being focused in a big battle, just do whatever you can to escape, whilst staying close enough to the battle to keep getting honor from any kills that the Alliance makes.

Stand of the Ancients: short and simple. This is one of two BGs where your job is to make sure your team wins as fast as possible, instead of running around collecting kills. For offense, if you are ranged DPS you should always be in the passenger seat of a Demolisher. Whenever the Demolisher is being focused, use whatever snares/CCs to keep the Horde away. As a Mage this is extremely easy as you can Frost Nova any melee that get in range of your Demolisher. For defense it’s basically the opposite. Try to be sneaky and position yourself away from the infantry battles, but still where you can snipe Demolishers as they go by. Your job is ALWAYS to kill Demolishers instead of Horde.

Isle of Conquest: while I absolutely hate this BG, it is usually over quick, and can net a good amount of honor each game. Another “no-brainer” perhaps, but you should always go for Docks first. If you manage to take it, then there are basically two ways you can go. I would try and defend it for a bit first, as it is probably the most contested position in the whole BG. If you choose not to defend, then you will either want to get in a Catapult, and launch yourself onto one of the Horde towers. From here, you want to try and lure the defending Horde little by little of the tower where you can kill them. Perhaps it is only my Battlegroup, but almost every time I play this BG, there are usually only 10 or so Horde that stay back to defend. If you can get a small group to go in, you can get quite a bit of honor from farming the horde in there. Or, you can go from Docks back to your base and defend. Usually(once again, this is speaking from the way it goes on my BG) Horde will get the workshop, and begin pounding on the front gates of the Alliance keep. If there is a large enough group of Alliance defending, you can get quite a bit of honor by staying in the back and sniping Horde(just remember, staying alive is more important than getting killing blows). I do suggest that you avoid fighting at the other nodes, as from my experience, I have been pretty unsuccessful in generating much honor from doing so.

Arathi Basin: quite possibly the most simple of all. Defend the Blacksmith! One thing a lot of people do not know, is that in 3.2 Blizzard also increased the range at which you gain honor from HKs. So, if you stand at the Blacksmith, you will gain honor from EVERY killing blow around the map(except each teams base, of course). This change turned AB into one of the best BGs for generating large amounts of honor per game, as you will often get 100+ HKs each game, and that is with having the 15% honor gain buff the whole time(assuming you actually succeed in defending the Blacksmith).

Alterac Valley: not much to say about this. Like SotA, your best bet is to try and do whatever helps your team win as quickly as possible. I will often just defend the towers that the Alliance take until they are destroyed, as preventing back-caps is probably the best way to assure victory.

Anyways, I am sure most of these tips are widely known, but perhaps there is information in here that will help many people who are not familiar with how to generate the max honor per game. Part 2 will be coming some time in the near future, and it will have to do with more detailed tips on how to get the max number of HKs, other than just where to be each game. Hope you have all enjoyed it!