Capture the Flag Battleground Guides 5.4

[Marco 51]

In this guide we will cover pure Capture the Flag Battlegrounds, which are currently Warsong Gulch and Twin Peaks. Other Battleground modes with flags involved will be discussed in other guides.

 

We will cover these two Battlegrounds:

• Warsong Gulch
• Twin Peaks

 

 

 

General Information

The Capture the Flag Battlegrounds in World of Warcraft are exclusively for 10 players and the basic goal is to capture the opponent's flag. However, there are some mechanics that make this basic goal interesting. The flag has to be taken from the opponent's flag point to your own flag point by a flag carrier. The flag can not be captured when both flags are currently held by a player. This means that while defending your own flag you need to find a way to kill the enemy flag carrier. After 6 minutes the flag carriers receive a stack of Focused Assault every minute when both flags are held. The effect can stack up to 10 times. This does not fade away when the flag is dropped and taken by another player; the stacks are only removed when one flag has been returned.

In order to win the game you need to score 3 flags or capture more flags than the opponent in 25 minutes. Not a single capture in these 25 minutes results in a tie, but such a situation is very rare, if not almost impossible due to the Focused Assault debuff. If the amount of flags captured is equal, the last capture determines the winning team.

 

 

Defense

It is generally advantageous to have a tank - preferably a Blood Deathknight or Protection Warrior - in PvP gear hold the flag in the long run because of their survivability. However, very mobile classes such as Windwalker Monks, Feral Druids or Rogues are especially good to get the flag to your own base or even hold it in random Battlegrounds. A healer - preferably a Discipline Priest or Holy Paladin - should always support the flag carrier as healing is crucial to survive enemy pushes in the long run.


Offense

The offensive should focus on bringing the flag back as quickly as possible. The best defense will eventually break due to Focused Assault, so it is mandatory to focus the flag carrier and crowd control the healers when the debuff has already accumulated some stacks.


Playing Alone

Being alone in a Capture the Flag battleground gives you a few different possibilites, but it generally boils down to supporting offense or defense. Your first priority should be to capture the flag if it is not already held by your team, but there is generally a person that does so - if you play one of the classes mentioned above that are good for capturing the flag go ahead and do so. If you are a healer you should evaluate if your flag carrier is supported by a healer already or needs support either way. Support them if they need the help, otherwise you should consider to support the offensive players if they struggle to survive the enemies' defense.

As a damage dealer you should support the defense if the damage dealt to the enemy players is not enough to reduce threat from time to time. Constant pressure on the defense steals the healers the opportunity to recover their mana and they will eventually burn out of mana, probably leaving the defense shattered. You should also help your healers on the battleground by crowd controlling enemy damage dealers. A healer that can heal without the fear of being interrupted and without the need to fake cast is far more efficient. In the worst case, the healer will even die without your support, so instead of hitting the Blood DK with 600k life you could consider to support your team mates for a second.

Naturally, if the defense does not need support, a damage dealer should support the offense and try to bring down the flag carrier. If some stacks of Focused Assault have already been accumulated on the flag carrier, you should try to bring him down while crowd controlling a healer. If there are two or more healers you can also try to crowd control one while bringing down the other. Focus is key to win here, it is easier to heal three players that take 100k damage than one that takes 300k.


Playing in a Small Team

When you are going into the battleground with a small team (3 to 5 persons) and have a healer, you can try to intercept the enemy players along the red or blue arrow shown in the specific maps, depending on your faction. If you win the fight there is a good chance that the enemy flag carrier will be unprotected for a short time and you can try to kill him in this time frame. You should only use this tactic when you are absolutely sure that you will win the team fight. Losing it will not gain you anything and cause a disadvantage on your side, which is not the goal we wanted to achieve of course. The berserking power-up should possibly be grabbed by the main damage dealer in a team fight. If possible, the group's damage dealers should focus the same target, you can either target the healers of the enemy team or crowd control them and focus on other players. If two or more healers are present, you should try to at least put one into crowd control - but at the end the rule of thumb is: Concentrate on one target.

In a small team you can also try to split up, two people - a flag carrier class and a healer - capture the flag while the other team members try to return your own flag as quickly as possible. Depending on the situation you might want to support the defense with more players, though. Having two healers in the defense is also a good tactic to sustain longer; If the offense is good and fast enough, there is no need for a healer on the front lines.

 

 

 

Warsong Gulch

 

The map above shows the placement of the power-ups, the position of the flags and graveyards, as well as the usual path taken by players in a random battleground.

In Warsong Gulch you can either stand in the flag room when defending or on the roof. The roof has some crucial advantages. First, if you are a Monk or a Warlock, you can set your teleport on the roof, jump down while enemy players are following you and teleport back onto the roof. This will give you valuable seconds and is a very good tactic to survive. A priest can also pull you back up, which makes him a very good flag carrier supporter in Warsong Gulch, apart from the already excellent supportative abilities. The roof also has a very big pillar you can go around, further reducing the incoming damage. Just make sure you stay in the line of sight of the healers as a flag carrier. When you are on the roof you have to pay attention to the enemy flag carrier's status, because as soon as he dies, you quickly have to run to the flag spot before any enemy player can grab a new flag. If you can use the roof tactic described, you can also set your teleport on the roof and stay on the flag spot. Make sure to stay in the range of healers that are on the roof.

Other classes should try to break the line of sight as often as possible when carrying the flag while not hindering their healer. For them it is also generally advantageous to stay on the roof, but because you can not quickly get back there - unless a priest can pull you back up - the fight will eventually shift to the bottom around the flag spot when you try to stand on the flag point to be able to capture the flag.

The enemy flag carrier can use three different ways after having taken the flag, shown on the map with the numbers 1, 2 and 3. Two of these ways can also be taken by your own flag carrier to take the enemy flag to your base.

• The tunnel is often used both for taking the flag out of the base and bringing the flag into it. It is the centric location and can easily be watched by players.
• The ramp can also be taken, but is not as frequently used as the tunnel. The advantage when taking back the flag is that you can walk along the outer side of the battleground, which features many obstacles that make it harder for your enemy to spot you.
• The graveyard can only be taken when taking the enemy flag. Since the graveyard's opposite location is the ramp of the other faction, you can try to get down at the graveyard and walk along the side, using the obstructions to be harder to see.

If you want to capture the flag as fast as possible and have a plethora of speed buffs at your disposal, it is best to take the tunnel.
 

 

 

Twin Peaks

 

In parallel to the Warsong Gulch map, the Twin Peaks map also shows the standard path that is taken by most players in random battlegrounds at the beginning. If you die on your own side, you will respawn at the center graveyard, otherwise at the graveyard near your base.

 

The bases in Twin Peaks are separated into two rooms. The first room is accessible through the bridge, which is point (1) on the map for both factions respectively, and acts as a fore room for the second room, the flag room, which is in the rear half of the building, intuitively where the flag icon is placed. The side of the base where entrance (3) is located has a small balcony on the inside which can be reached from a staircase in the fore room. This balcony is an excellent position to stay at while holding the flag and the same tricks that can be used on the Warsong Gulch roof can be used here as well. However, the same balcony is also an often used point for the enemy to start the attack on your flag carrier, so you might have to relocate into the middle of the flag room after some pressure has been built. Generally, most of the fighting will be done in the flag room when defending.

As entrance (3) on the Horde side is almost a small lake, any form of water walking would be a good idea. Fortunately, there are many classes that have that kind of buff available. Entrance (3) on the Alliance side does not impose any special restrictions, but flag carriers have to cross the river that separates the two sides if they want to go straight to entrance (3), while Horde carriers do not until they reach their side's entrance (3). Entrance (2) is excellent to bring back the flag, on both sides. If you want to use the advantages of the balcony, it is however advised to use entrance (1) instead as the way is much shorter.

Note that the graveyards are placed very centered, meaning that a camping situation at one graveyard may arise more often, especially when both factions have a zergfest in the center of the map and go towards one graveyard. That said, it should be possible to escape such a camping attempt more easily than in Warsong Gulch.

 

 

If you have any questions, suggestions or mistakes to point out, feel free to reply here or send me a personal message.

Edited October 4, 2013 by Marco