Eye of the Storm Strategy - Part Two

This past Eye of the Storm honor weekend was tremendous fun. The latest patch altered my hunter in a way that was, for the most part, a positive direction. The weekend began with the Alliance being completely incompetent, as usual (I have a screen cap of horde winning 2000 to 43). Unless horde was fighting a pre-made, we were almost unbeatable. We did, however, loose quite consistently against full guild or mostly guild groups.

In my previous Eye of the Storm guide I covered the basics of how to play and how to win in Eye of the storm and how to play your class to maximum effect. Now I'm going to present an alternative strategy to the basic 3-node cap which was discussed earlier.

The Stalemate:

On occasion the horde and alliance team will be evenly matched. When that happens it quickly becomes evident that a third node will be impossible to capture. The scores are roughly even and the flag becomes the primary factor in determining the winner. This type of game, unfortunately, almost always results in the Horde loosing because, as we well know from our AV experience... the horde hates to defend for some ridiculous reason.

In order to win a stalemate you have to play smart. You have to have a leader capable of communicating to the group that continuing to pursue a 3-node cap will result in a loss. This is difficult because 90% of the time, a 3-node cap is what you SHOULD be doing. Going against conventional wisdom is an uphill battle... but getting the Horde-side players to actually follow through on what has to happen next is even more difficult.

In a stalemate it is ideal to hold two nodes on one side of the bridges (FR and BE together or MT and DR together) because this makes defending WAY easier. You'll really have one avenue by which you can be attacked at each node if the team is doing what needs to be done. Things get difficult to defend if you hold the two east-side nodes or two west side nodes... or worse, have a node on one side and another node on the opposite side across the bridge (FR and DR for example)

The goal is to HOLD 2 nodes. That means, and this is devil-talk; DEFEND the nodes you have with 4 or 5 people each. The excitement is, unfortunately, all in the middle by the flag. The Alliance will push on your nodes from time to time and the defense has to be strong enough to convince them that, unless the come with a shit-ton of people, it's pointless to try and cap one of your nodes.

While the two nodes are being held a team of 5 to 7 holds the middle. To hold the middle means that they keep the opposing team pushed out while a flag runner easily grabs the flag and then returns it to a captured node. This is easy to do and repeat if the flag runner is running in a direction that is populated by frendlies.

It is incredibly important that the flag runner know when to and when NOT to return a flag. This sometimes requires the flag runner to hang out near a node for a while without capturing the flag.

When do you return the flag? ONLY when your team has control of the center. If YOU have the flag and return it when the center is overrun with red than you've just completely wasted the effort your team put forth in getting the flag cap because the opposing team's just gonna cap the flag themselves... and MAYBE even decide to hold the flag until their team has control of the center again to get another cap... and another... and another. I can't tell you how many times a flag cap at the wrong time by one team has tipped the entire game in favor of the other team.

Control of the center wanes and waxes. That's just the nature of the game. Sometimes your center team will be pushed back into your area, other times they'll be pushed all the way into your opponents area. By holding the flag until your side has control of the center again you ensure that you will be able to compound your points by getting consecutive flag caps while ensuring that the opposing team does not have the opportunity to acquire points themselves.

Now, there are a couple things to keep in mind. First; if your opponents are stupid they will continue to press the middle despite there being no flag available to capture. If 10 Alliance are chilling in the middle and your center team can't regain control of it... so what? The score is relatively even at this point. Don't cap unless you're forced to by a group of attacking alliance. Just wait. Roll a joint, spark it up and relax until your team is in a position for you to cap the flag or you're about to get owned by some alliance.

Also, eventually the Alliance will sometimes figure out that holding the center is pointless. That's when a group of 7 to 10 come gunning for the flag runner. That's fine because that will weaken the Alliance hold on the center and allow your center team to take control again. You'll cap... and immediately get the flag again because your allies are there. In the meantime, the alliance will be running around jerking off trying to react to your proactive strategy... it will be both hilarious and painful to watch.

You shouldn't lose the node because 4-5 defenders SHOULD be enough to hold a node against 7-9 attackers.

And that, my friends, is how you win an Eye of the Storm stalemate. It takes coordination and leadership but I've seen it done in a PUG many times.

Tagged with: Alliance, EotS, Eye of the Storm, Guide, Horde, PvP, Strategy, World of Warcraft