Breaking news: In Eye of the Storm, towers > flag
by Zach Yonzon 
Apr 5th 2008 at 7:30PM
I wrote about Eye of the Storm and the basics of how it's played. In Patch 2.3, the Battleground was modified so that flag captures will scale with the number of towers your side controls. I can't stress the importance of capturing towers enough. In EotS, unlike Arathi Basin, points are awarded constantly every 2 seconds, regardless of how many towers you control. However, these points scale with each tower you control, as shown by the table on the right. Capturing the flag with only one tower (I mean, why?) will award your team 75 points. If your team controls two towers, it's worth 85 points; three, it's worth 100; and controlling all four towers means a swift and painless (ok, maybe not painless) death for your opponents as each flag cap is worth a whopping 500 points.It scales, people. And here's the one, brutal truth about the whole thing: it is mathematically impossible to win the game if you control only one tower. Go ahead, make some calculations.
Done? The only way it can be done is if you can capture the flag every 37.5 seconds, which honestly is barely enough time and necessitates complete unmolested passage. Good luck with that. If your side controls only one tower, just don't bother with mid. Get another tower asap. If your team is down one tower to your opponents' three, and you still go after the flag, you are
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, PvP, Battlegrounds
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
MENNONH Apr 5th 2008 7:48PM
You know, I was shouting this in EOTS matches since about 2.3. Everyone break off, take the first two towers, and a small group of 3-4 go take one of the back towers. Then someone grabs the flag and sits on it until we have control of the field. You know what,? we won a majority of the time doing that. The problem is that it was late at night when usually the better alliance members tended to play(or so it seemed). After about two days everyone stopped listening and just started camping the flag again, which as you stated does NOT work without tower support.
MENNONH Apr 5th 2008 7:56PM
Let me correct myself, not better alliance members, but more maybe just more attentive or open to suggestions.
Alexisonfire Apr 5th 2008 7:54PM
There is only one reason to get the flag when you have only one tower: Hold it so your opponent doesn't get 100 points everytime they cap it, giving your team more time to get another tower.
But the only time you should even think about doing that is if your team is in the process of getting another tower and seem to have enough people to do so AND there is no one of the opposing faction in the middle.
Narlic Apr 5th 2008 7:57PM
This article should be required reading before going into an EoTS
Kittenlicker Apr 5th 2008 8:05PM
I agree with the above statement.
lazarhat Apr 6th 2008 9:10AM
They have that already. It's called 'arena'. Point the death match people that way.
-Laz
zombie_bomb Apr 5th 2008 8:04PM
I play Horde on Dunemaul, and our BG group is absolutely riddled with players who have confused EotS with WSG. I'll see the majority of our players run for mid even before we cap our 2 towers, and now I just leave the battleground. It's not worth it. After arguing with players who do this, it seems the OVERWHELMING majority of them are young teens who treat BGs as deathmatches, which is the best way to lose. I agree with Narlic, this (and the Wowwiki article on EotS) should be required reading. If not to keep me from stroking out and dying, then at least to get everyone more marks.
Slayblaze Apr 6th 2008 12:25AM
"..majority of them are young teens who treat BGs as deathmatches.."
It just occured to me that many BG problems could be solved simply by Blizzard adding a new Battleground which actually *is* Deathmatch-only! Since the 4 we currently have are rather ruined when everyone just treats them as a big deathmatch as Zombie points out regarding EotS, having a new one that is intentionally pure Deathmatch would give the kids something to keep them occupied while we stick with our tried-and-true strats in the original 4 BG's.
It would be easy for Blizz to create a Deathmatch Battleground, they could even base it off Gurabashi arena or the Diremaul arean since no one really uses those much anymore anyway. First person to get 100 kills wins some bonus honor on top of their kills. Easy. Plus it would actually be a nice diversion once in a while for those who like the occasional carnage-filled slaughterfest.
Sean Riley Apr 6th 2008 8:27PM
@6
Isn't that basically Arena? Or are you after something more?
Svenn Apr 5th 2008 8:17PM
Actually, it is mathematically possible to win the game if you control only one tower, as long as one-two towers remain neutral through the whole game.
Zach Apr 6th 2008 12:51AM
I stand corrected, Sven. The statement should probably be revised to note that the other three towers are controlled by the opponent.
Zeplar Apr 5th 2008 8:29PM
Wowinsider... as one of the "top 50 wow blogs", PLEASE POST THIS EVERY DAY!
I'm so tired of alliance losing every game like clockwork.
Zerubabble Apr 5th 2008 8:31PM
I agree it's dumb to go for the flag when you have one tower, but I still stay it's way better to take two towers and hold the middle so you can continually cap the flag rather than trying to take a third tower especially since in my battlegroup, Horde can't coordinate and go after the same tower so we end up with 3-4 people at each tower and we loose all of them. Trying to take and hold three towers is much harder because it spreads your team further out across the battlefield as opposed to having them on one half of it which means that you have to run further if you need to help out another tower. Plus, if you take the two towers on your side and hold the middle, it's an easy run to cap the flag every minute or so.
my2cents Apr 6th 2008 12:05AM
I agree 100%. Trying to hold 3 towers with a pug nearly always backfires in my experience..Get 2 towers, hold them and run flags.
Another side note though: It's not always worth holding the particular two towers you already have in EOTS. Sometimes, your opposing team will zerg one of your towers and, as a general rule, if it takes more than half your team to defend it, it's not worth defending. Go pick up the other tower that your opponents have undoubtedly left vulnerable. As alliance I can't tell you how incredibly annoying it is to see 14 team members at MT or DR for an entire game! Meanwhile, the horde manage to hang on to their two towers while capping the flag repeatedly...and all the while, alliance bg chat is spammed with "HELP MT!!!!!!"
The horde hold up a hoop, and the alliance jump through it...over and over.
Marcus Apr 5th 2008 8:52PM
You know what's funny? In the Whirlwind bg the Alliance always seem to think that controlling 1 tower and capping the flag will get them a win. It never fails. The game starts, 8 people goto flag, we get zerged at our towers, then either get 4 capped or have to turtle around 1 tower. People don't listen when others are telling them what this article does: TOWERS > FLAG, period.
szimm Apr 6th 2008 5:58PM
hmmm... i feel sry for ur battlegroup - ppl in mine are rarely that stupid... but generally ppl need to look at their maps more to find out where they are needed.
imo, if ure not on a tower, the flag spot, or defending an fc, ure in the WRONG spot.
Vidi Apr 5th 2008 8:58PM
and now I'm gonna tell you why you SHOULD grab the flag if you have only one tower:
To keep the other team from scoring while they have three towers.
Ok, seriously though. If you have only one tower, your team should split into three. Take the flag but DO NOT CAP IT!!!! Hold it until you have two towers again. Other team should take another tower while a third defends the only one you have.
If the other teams is capping flags while you are trying to take a second tower, they CAN get so far ahead it would require your side caps a third tower.
Ive been in EOTS's where we got three capped and then while we were trying to cap the second back the enemy got three flag caps!!!
The flag isn't the end all be all of the match but it cannot under ANY circumstances be ignored.
Zach Apr 6th 2008 12:54AM
Hence the statement "The one and only time it becomes acceptable is with the intention of keeping the flag until your team secures another tower. That way it actually becomes more strategic and less moronic."
It's when players go after the mid/flag to the exclusion of tower protection and capture that the game starts to go downhill.
Green Armadillo Apr 5th 2008 9:21PM
This is why the "honorable kill" in battlegrounds should be scrapped.
Quick thought experiment: Imagine that you've got 1 AFK, 5 holding your one tower, 1 guy doing the Rambo thing and kamikaze charging enemy held towers (there's alway one guy who thinks he can take towers solo), and 7 people fighting in the middle with no interest in listening to orders to go do anything else. Your choices are:
1. Sit at your lone tower and obtain minimal honor for the next 5-10 minutes while your crappy pug loses.
2. Go follow Rambo to his repeated death and obtain minimal honor for the next 5-10 minutes while your crappy pug loses.
3. Go fight in the middle, earning all the (limited) bonus honor that you'd get with options one or two, PLUS a share of the HK honor (which can be non-trivial if your opponents are happy to oblige you with a fight in the middle since they own three towers and are going to win the match).
When the incentive structure rewards bad behavior, people will behave badly.
Londelen Apr 6th 2008 1:52PM
There IS a class that can take everyone solo. It's called boomkin druids that know how and when to switch forms to heal.