Re-activating your WoW account, or interested in "Trying Before You Buy"?Ways To Be Sneaky In PvP Battlegrounds
As someone with largely non-sneaking toons on World of Warcraft, my experiences in the PvP Battlegrounds vying for a few "easy epics" have included a lot of seeking and searching out ways to be sneaky without any sneakin' skills.
Sneakily Dealing Ranged Damage
The first thing I'd like to say about this whole thing is that the World of Warcraft is a magical, mystical place where some physical structures that appear to be in place really aren't there, in a way.
What way?
Well, in the way that sometimes there are hills and trees and even parts of buildings that obscure vision for a player but do not effect line of sight for someone mounting an attack on the player who cannot see them.
These are the greatest spots in the world, to me, when I PvP. I love to seek those spots out and get myself to them (especially in confusing times) and then see how long it takes for someone to figure out I'm there and do something about me.
And of course, if one can Range DPS from that spot and be successful, one can Heal from that spot as well and be equally successful!
Where I've Found Great Spots
If you read my blog very often, you see that I cover a wide variety of angles of the game of World of Warcraft. I get into a whole bunch of different things during my play time, because I'm curious and I enjoy the variety of entertainment that Blizzard offers.
So, it won't be a surprise to you to know that when I do battlegrounds, I do 'em all. To the point of queuing myself for 3 battlegrounds at once, and leaving one battleground for another's start-up call if the first one is going too painfully badly (like a WSG where everyone is fighting mid and nobody is running the flag...).
So, I've found some great spots in pretty much all of the Battleground instances, possibly save Warsong Gulch itself since I put myself on Flag-runner support duty most times and that involves a large degree of "out in the open" practice of self-defense.
Favorite Battleground For Sneaky Ranged Action
My favorite Battleground on my Mage and Priest who have a slow-fall ability of some sort, is Arathi Basin, because part of my sneak attacks and sneak heals can come in the form of jumping down from the Lumber Mill to the Blacksmith, or from the road down to the Gold Mine flag, which is an assault type that I don't see being used commonly when I play.
But Eye of the Storm has some great spots too - near the flag and near all of the tower bases. Although it's EOTS where I've had fine success standing out in the open healing, and the Alliance folk didn't do a single thing about me!
Should I Make How To Be Sneaky PvP Videos?
I have taken footage of my Priest and my Mage doing battlegrounds while I did some Honor Grinding for gear, but haven't done much with it. Anyone interested in me turning some of the footage into videos similar to the rest of the Raid-type videos I've posted?
Would you share your sneaky heal and range spots with me in your own video clips? :)
If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!Related posts:
- Horde -vs- Alliance, races at war, Battlegrounds (BGS)
- Mage Tables In Battlegrounds – Ritual of Refreshment
- The Casual Mage: PvP In My 70-Gear-Up Strategy
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Big "oh yesss!" to the sneaky videos.
- heh my job as hunter is ferreting out ranged damage (or healing) toons, especially (like you noted) in AB and EotS. AB has a tendency to develop little gnomes with great balls of fire in hard to reach places, and the eye is all about crafty ninjas poking around the back of various horde towers attempting quiet caps.
I'd love to see your mage/priest sneak attack videos. One of my favourite attacks is jumping from the road into the goldmine too (on the mage) but i've never tried from the lumbermill to the blacksmith.
I have a lot of sneaky tricks I use with various characters. The hiding-without-losing-LOS trick applies in a lot of places, I love that one as well. Back before TBC, I used to take a mage into AV and hide behind trees and scorch/fire blast the heck out of people who had no idea where I was. Fireballs, frostbolts, or arcane missiles were no-nos because they shoot out from you and reveal your position, but there are a lot of ways to hurt someone without an animation giving you away.
On my shaman in AB, I'll go into ghost wolf and take off any buffs that get attention (water/earth shield, etc.), then take a long approach to a node flag. If there's a lone defender, I'll put the flag between myself and them, and approach. Ghost wolf may not be stealth, but it's surprising how often people just don't notice me. I've capped many a flag from right underneath an inattentive defender. I always smile imagining the insults that guy is getting in his BG channel.
One of my favorite old tricks, although less sneaky and more direct, was with my paladin in WSG. He's an engineer. I'd jump down into the flag room and activate my shield, and watch defenders move into my range, waiting to kill the dumb paladin who doesn't realize you can't pick up the flag when you're shielded. But before the shield was due to expire, I'd drop a Big One engineering bomb, stunning everyone. Then I clicked the shield off prematurely, drank a swiftness pot, and hightailed it out of there with the flag. I'd be past the graveyard before they even knew what happened.
Only ever been sneaky back in the older days of AV on my mage...trying my best to grab 100 kb without dying :D
My warlock has been hiding in ditches, standing in bushes, trees, crevices or just plain on higher ground blasing dozens of seed of corruptions into the masses since he set foot in his first AV as a little baby warlock.
I've even had an entire AV where I didn't die a single time whilst throwing out AoE damage and DoTs.
Ideally you identify 3 or 4 hiding places in your immediate area and shift between them, that way you don't draw as much attention.
It's definitely lots of fun though and I can heartily recommend it.
BG's = "Find the healer"
Some games I get off over 300K heals. Others less than 50K.
I love Aranthi too, my favorite place to be sneaky. There are so many ways to sneaky. The last time I was in battleground I hid behind a big boulder and lobbed fireballs, by the time they figured out where the attack was coming from they were almost dead. I did catch a mage using the slow fall ability. He jumped but didn't make it in time.
Good times!