SotA Guide: A common sense look at a 'difficult' Battleground

[marscgm]

SotA guide:

Goal: Smash through the gates as fast as you can and touch the titan relic hidden inside the vault.

Bombs: Bombs were stealth buffed with a hotfix a while ago. I keep being told it was sometime around Firelands so I'll stick with that. These suckers are in massive amount. Everyone can run them. They are located next to the ship, workshops, and to the west side of the Courtyard of the Ancients.

Cannons: Cannons can deal acceptable damage to sieges and mild damage to players. The cannoneer will be safe inside the cannon and be able to provide sustained damage free from any crowd control effects. It is highly recommended only those that can aim with their mouse or are undergeared jump inside a cannon.

Graveyards: Graveyards can be taken by the assaulting team to grant a new spawn location and other benefits. The North graveyards are worth fighting tooth and nail for as their benefits include a new spawn location, granting the assaulting team a two siege engines, and a mass of bombs near the next gates. The South graveyard is non-recommended to fight over as it will move the assaulting team to a new spawn location further from their sieges and the defending team closer to the titan relic. The only upside to this is that it'll be easier to run bombs which the majority of the population find difficult to do.



Defending: Slows. Slows. Roots. And Slows.

I don't care if it's an offspec ability, if it means switching seals, if it doesn't do any damage or if there's an enemy healer dispelling everything you do right next to the siege. Silence the healer and spam it. Ignore everything else. It's really not that hard.

You want to know what this does? Since this is a guide; I'll tell you. It slows the siege down so it cannot ram into your gates. It slows the siege down so not only you, but your teammates have more time to deal damage to it before it gets to your gates. It makes the siege useless.

Want to get a head start? Before sieges are jumped into by someone reduce the siege's health by 95%. That way, even right off the starting gate the siege is only a few shots from death. It is, again, useless.

Cannons are mildly useful. Cannons deal acceptable amounts of damage to sieges and place the cannoneer out of harms way. Make sure the Cannoneer is a mouse turner and can aim the cannon properly while estimating where the siege will be when the rocket lands.

When any one of the first gates goes down get to the north graveyards and defend it with your life. Unless no one else is getting the remaining siege and they have a healer dispelling them; this is your number one priority. Nothing comes above this. Each graveyard allows your opponents two additional siege and a mass of bombs.
Step on any steathies or otherwise running bombs. Bombs were stealth buffed in a hotfix sometime around 4.2. They are worth running and will rip the shit out of your walls. CC, kill, or otherwise anyone that drops a bomb near your gate and defuse it as soon as possible.

If they have a healer; find it. and step on it's neck. Do not allow it to cast. Do not allow it to cleanse. Do not allow it to even move. If you see a healer it should either be dead or straight out crying for death.



Assaulting: Healers, spam dispels. Eligible dps, spam dispels. Run bombs. Mass peelers such as Mages or Hunters, peel (In addition to running bombs and decursing!).

Before the game starts your team should pick a gate to hit. All sieges, bombs, and team mates should rush to that gate to bring it down! If you're a Goblin Engineer, try throwing a few home-made bombs on the gates and watch them fall.

First thing you do when you get off that ship; you grab a bomb. Every single person should grab a bomb. Once again bombs were stealth buffed near 4.2 and are once again quite powerful, especially in numbers. Now head to your pre-determined gate.

If you're healing; I hope you didn't expect your job to be actually healing, because here, your number one job is going to be dispelling(!). Your primary job is to grab a bomb, find a siege, and dispel the hell out of it until it gets to a gate, drop the bomb, and look for another siege and/or bomb - while healing others.

If you're a dps, you have a dispel and it's the right type to dispel an opponent's debuff - Stop the aggressor in anyway such as a stun, snare, or silence and get the debuff off your siege right away. Now deal with the aggressor. Tie this in with running bombs and you're doing your job right.

If you're a class that excels at mass CC, peeling, and causing a large amount of frustration and anger for the other team - that's your job here! Cause chaos for anyone that tries to slow down your siege. Now I know probably just went and shouted 'Yessss!' as this is one of the most fun roles anyone can have here, but you *still* should run bombs. Yes. Still.

If you are *not* a healer, you do *not* have a dispel and you cannot mass peel... Your whole experience of assaulting in this battleground should be either in a siege, running bombs, killing cannons, assaulting the north graveyards or stopping those who are slowing down your siege. At no point should you be aimlessly fighting on the beach when the fight is by red and purple or heaven forbid yellow...