"Look before you leap". Wise advice, but it's easy to fall into a trap of complacency in WoW, believing that you can conquer anything and everything. Throwing other players into the mix as opponents can make the game change drastically, however.

With the PvP Honor Contest coming to a close this Tuesday, this weekend is an excellent chance to stock up on honor and try to make it to the top. In fact, thanks to the battleground holidays, there's extra honor available this weekend than throughout the rest of the contest.

Having seen several players on the Honor Contest Realm who evidently have no idea what Warsong Gulch is all about, here's a quick guide to what's going on:

• Join the battle queue from the Silverwing Sentinels (Alliance) or Warsong Outriders (Horde) in your cities -- during the holiday weekend they appear near the bank area as well as by the battlemaster.
  
• Warsong Gulch is a capture-the-flag battleground. The Horde and Alliance bases face each other from opposite ends of the map, and are identical in layout. You appear in your faction's base at the start of the game, and the aim is to travel to the enemy base, steal their flag and return it back to your flag room three times. There's a catch, though; your flag has to be at home before you can score.
  
• Hitting 'M' at any time will bring up a map of the battleground, pinpointing your team members so you can see where the action is.
• For better co-ordination and easier killing, most teams will form up into a raid. This doesn't happen automatically, so if you join halfway through a battle, ask in General for an invite.
• There are several different strategies, but most of them agree that the centre of the field is key. Try to remember to keep track of both flags, though -- I've seen several players just let the enemy flag carrier run straight past them, without realising that we did not have their flag. That's an instant win for the enemy.

The official site has more details, and this wiki page gives a rundown of some strategy points too. PvP is great fun but it can be very confusing at times, and it's frustrating for the other members of your team if you haven't read up on the battleground beforehand.

Also, you might find it helps to read your class-specific forums for advice, or do a bit of thinking about your abilities. For example, do you have a stun ability that you can bind to a particular key to stop a flag carrier getting away? Can you slow, polymorph or paralyse the enemy? How about a faster travel ability that might help you get the flag away quickly? Even healers who cannot deal much damage are vital to a good PvP team, as time spent in the graveyard and running around the battlefield is time wasted. Stay close to those doing the damage and you will be credited with nearby kills.

Tags: battlegrounds, BGs, capture the flag, CaptureTheFlag, combat, contest, pvp, pvp contest, PvpContest, warsong gulch, WarsongGulch

Filed under: Tips, Tricks, Walkthroughs, PvP