Poor leadership kills BattleGround teams
by C.K. Sample, III 
Feb 14th 2006 at 8:35AM
Oh, man. So last night, I got a chance to play a few rounds in Warsong Gulch. Usually, I have a good amount of fun doing so, following along with nicely placed orders and helping out while trying not to get slaughtered, lose my tank, or go through all my soul shards. I'm not going to name names here, but last night, I was in a group with a complete and total jerk who continually bossed everyone in the team around because he was a higher level, continually calling us all noobs and flipping out constantly about how we all couldn't do anything right.
The thing is, we were winning until he started yelling repeatedly, "EVERYONE IN THE MIDDLE NOW!" And since the team was a little n00b heavy, most people listened to him. This left our flag unguarded by any but my lone self, who ignored him until I just gave up, and we quickly had our flag stolen and planted and he just kept shouting "WHAT? HOW!?"
Because your strategy sucked. You need people to charge in the raid, and people to guard the flag. Put all your cards too heavily in one place or the other and you are screwed. Word to the wise: good leaders don't start yelling at you and calling you all noobs. If that happens to you in game, it is time to pick a new leader. What do you think? What's your best BattleGround strategy? Who has been your worst leader?
ps—There's an update this morning, and I only need one more signature on the charter for Akama's Horde WoW Insider Guild.
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Odds and ends, PvP
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
jdoublep Feb 14th 2006 9:28AM
one of my least favorite things that can happen in BG is one, maybe two players, who are really doing well in-game, get frustrated that other players aren't able to do as well as they are. so this PC/PCs, starts to bitch and moan about everyone being noobs (although it's highly probable that everyone playing at the moment has level 60 alts). after some time yelling, the frustrated player curses, then simply up and leaves - instead of stepping up to take charge and show a little direction to others who aren't measuring up to their standards. instead of trying to regroup and get a battle plan together - they're out.
my worst experience so far in BG happened this weekend. a particular horde PC on draka realm (we'll call him "killadawg" for the hell of it) captured the flag, got it all the way back to home base - and refused to plant the flag. he just ran around our base until the entire alliance team showed up to slaughter him. my first thought was that killadawg was an alliance plant...but he'd already captured the flag once before. i dunno what the deal was - but that's the most pissed an in-game action had ever made me. our raid leader booted him and KD logged out of the battle shortly thereafter.
Anthony Feb 14th 2006 10:02AM
Having majority of the people in the middle of the battle groud is actually not a bad thing. If the group is attentive enough, it can provide good coverage for defense and offensive at the same time. However, I'd still prefer having one or two players for defense just so they can shout out which direct our flag is going so the big mob in the middle knows where to go to intercept the flag.
Personally, the worst type of Warsong game is the kind where both sides are playing super defensive and the game never ends.
Forlex Feb 14th 2006 10:04AM
hey jdoublep: was this the 40-49 bg? I think I was there, on my 40 alliance forlex (draka). I might have seen the guy in a different BG yesterday, though.
See ya in the field.
jakk on the blackrock server Feb 14th 2006 11:03AM
it only takes one mage to steal the flag in bg. the rest can guard or distract the alliance.
jdoublep Feb 14th 2006 1:01PM
forlex:
it was 30-39 WSG, but i think the dirty punk was 39, so he could've pushed to 40 by yesterday. but if you see a KD out and about on draka, don't hesitate to taunt him, smoke him and give him my love (McJiggy - 37 undead 'lock).
hope to see you soon in those 40-49 BGs!
Embolism Feb 14th 2006 3:10PM
Controlling the midfield, it seems to me, is pretty key in WSG. having more than one player stay behind to guard the flag is bad strategy compared to having all (or 9 of 10) players at midfield. Here's my rationale: The opposing team will almost always split their forces in two, allowing you to crush their offense, of, say 5, and then crush their defense of, say, 5. Then an easy cap...plus, even if one or two people "sneak" by your midfield zerg and grab the flag, it's not much of a problem to intercept them midfield. On my server, I play in the 20-19 bracket and have won around 90% of the games I've played.... but I'm horde and that's to be expected. :)
In fact, most of the games I've lost were because too many people were shouting too many orders and some punk starts going: "YOU SUCK! OMG!" that's the mark of death for any team.
crsh Feb 14th 2006 5:59PM
I found a new love for BGs when I was able to participate in AV (I got sick of WSG in my late 20s and hadn't set foot in a BG until turning 50ish). On my server, the Horde teams are awesome, unfortunately I play an Alliance toon and we have endless streaks of loses in AV; we're stuck with no group spirit whatsoever, perpetually on defense and too rarely on offense, a lot of people just drop out of the game because they're whiners who would rather pay 1000g for an I-win button if they could. This said, whenever I have the spare time, I enjoy spending some 4 hours in a row in there, it's just sheer, enjoyable, chaos!
jakk on the blackrock server Feb 14th 2006 7:21PM
hey Embolism, no offense but the alliance does that every time on blackrock and i always sneak by them and take their flag cuz they only have one guy guarding the flag. i am a mage, that means by the time they realize where i am its to late to do anything but run like a little girl on crack. but yea i agree its prolly cuz they are alliance. :)
Fabian Feb 14th 2006 8:49PM
Damn I play horde and so far have won most of the BGs I've participated in. Today however I experienced the two worst rounds of Arathi I ever saw. No group spirit to speak of, just headless chaos. No directions after the first "Team 1 left, Team 2 right, Team 3 middle" - which worked partially. My team captured the saw right away and held it fast the whole game. Trouble was that all the other players would either run around aimlessly alone or in pairs of 2, just to be slaughtered over and over again by alliance or stay at the saw - as if 8 people defense where needed.
We just couldn't get a foot on the ground and the guys running around would always start yelling for help against 5 or 6 alliance when they were - oh wonder - alone *gasp*.
We only managed to hold the saw and not much else. Sometimes the 2 others of my team and me managed to chase away the frightful guys into battle - at best in 5er groups directed and concentrated, but they sucked anyway ^__-
The only time we got another base was when I was so pissed and bored (at alliance 1600 / horde 350 ressources) that I stealthed into an alliance base that was defended by a 32'er rogue. I nerfed that one pretty quick - being a feral skilled 39'er druid in cat-form. Then I had enough time to take over that base before the alliance reinforcements arrived.
When we were done there and I complained about the worst BG I ever played, we could join the next round. That one was even worse. I think they killed us off in under 10 minutes. That time I only deffed and tried to direct that bunch of loosers that were my horde group. Unfortunately they couldn't manage anything even with directions. My directions might not have been the best, but the best I could come up with when no one provided me with any information from the battlefield...
Anyhow, that was so frustrating I gave up on becoming pvp-lvl 3 before turning 40. I just couldn't stand those loosers. Afterwards, when I complained again about our poor performance (civil, I didn't even call one player a noob - I just said how terrible we were as a team), they yelled at me "that's normal" and "hey it's a bg, what do you expect? of course we get nerfed all the time!".
I think I found the first horde players that I ever remember, who'll probably go around and kill off low-alliance players because they suck so much in actual, fair pvp.
To sum up a long post: Sometimes even leadership doesn't help. If the group has no spirit and is chaotic to the bone you sometimes can't help it.
Forlex Feb 14th 2006 10:43PM
I've been playing BGs for 3 hours straight. I'm hooked again.
I'm finally both a)learning to play a team and b) learning to play a paladin in pvp groups
It's pretty amazing what 1 lvl 41 pally can do. I had 38 kills in my last game, 1 death. I also had 1 capture and 1 return (horde got flag once total)
I swear if I don't go up 5 ranks, I'll be surprised. I was getting 450-750 bonus honor/game.
forzaq8 Feb 15th 2006 12:44AM
Embolism as you say you played in the 20 bracket then thats why holding the midfield worked for you
at the 60 bracket it wouldn't help you , with epic mount you can Run past any gathering on the side of the midfield and they can't stop you , you stop people at your flag
IN WSG you need 3 groups , defenders , flag carrier , and support who move between defence and attack depending on how many on the other team are there
Mazterr Feb 15th 2006 5:02PM
Heh - wanted to give a shout out to my Draka hordelings in bracket 4! Be seeing much more of you. And I'm eith you - fer God's sake let's stop with the "OMG U GUYZ SUCK I'M LEAVING" garbage.
Now let's go chop some goddamn heels!