Defending Arathi Basin

I had a little bit of time on last night, and didn’t feel much like levelling (tbh that was a mistake because I’m a nats nut away from 63).

Instead, I got my fishing up to 100 and cooking somewhere around 50 - the reason being I want them high enough to cook up my own special pet food buffs. W00t.

Anyway! I had time for a couple of runs in AB, and I was really satisfied with the performance.
In a post somewhere on our guild forum I mentioned that normally I leap from base to base killing as I see fit. Its great fun, keeps the action high, and there’s extreme satifisfaction involved in headhunting.

However. As my GL pointed out, it is a selfish self-gratification, and so I decided that I would ONLY DEFEND during my next AB encounters.

… it was brilliant! I got two games in. (warning, EPIC post!!)

(1) Seeing people head off to Stables and Lumber I made my way to mines. Not the best strategy to be honest, it would have been worth seeing where the zerg was heading and bolstering those defenses (in this case, Lumber Mill). I was greeted at the mine by a wave of horde and was unable to hold on. At the same time Lumber got contested and the weekness of the “hit all the nodes!!!” strategy was obvious. For a few minutes I resumed my usual preference of finding people and mixing it up, I grabbed a few kills and died a few times. Normal.

I respawned and took a moment to review the map. The horde were buzzing around pretty much as one at the time, so I took the most direct route to Farm which was open - assisting in any melees on route. I didn’t move from farm for a large portion of the match. I was dropping Frost traps on the flag, scanning for hidden, popping flares up, and set my Cat to Agressive. It was a bad day for Rogues! I was stood on my Trap for the most part, so even if I was suprise sapped the trap would spring and give me some time to get range - hit intimidation - fire up Bestial Wrath - Concussive shot - and kite them until they were dead. I’m not saying these were all one on one, but I was definately doing my share.

Alliance were actually spread across the map in a suprisingly organised way - manning all the nodes we had (3). And this is how it remained for the whole match… we held all those bases and the resources ticked away. I had a little wonder up to the Lumber Mill to see from up there if a one man assault was possible on stables but decided against. I moved on to contested Blacksmiths and got some great fights and kills in - but once the area was cleared I left it in someone elses hands and got back to defending Farm.

My first taste of holding nodes has been satisfying. Alliance were overwhelming at the defended nodes and still had a three man unit pushing their bases and getting kills. It was beautiful. We won by a fair margain, and I had come mid table on kills and nearer the top on HK’s. Paricularly pleasing considering the amount of 69’s in the mix. Team work people, it works!!

(2) Match 2 - I held stables… and didn’t move for the entire match. This was the most personally satisfying game of AB I can remember.

I headed straight there from the opening, and I dared anyone to try and claim it! What fun. I did the usual, popping traps on the flag, putting flares up, and pet on agressive for those pesky rogues. There were three other people with me, a couple of Rogues and a Priest - and we did a fine job in my opinion.

There was little of no action for a few minutes, but I was patient (for once) which was hard considering we went down 4 nodes almost straight away. But I knew we’d get incoming soon….
First wave was mainly warriors and Shaman. I was throwing in concussive shot and backed off the flag to draw them in. Once they were popped in the trap the rogues got to work and I rained arrows from range with my pet running down the fleeing. Nothing is more fun that watching your big red cat chasing down a shaman, as he’s running in cirlces trying to get away or get a hit in - pop intimidation and stun them for 4 seconds - more chasing… and dead. HK!

Back to defending, reset the trap, and throw up flare on the flag. On this occasion I can see a Rogue on the map holding 30 yards off the flag. No problem mate… I see ya. I send a flare in the wrong direction to give him room to move and to lure him in, and I back off the flag (where the trap is). He takes the bate and makes his way for flag glory and springs the trap. The Alli at stable pound him.

The rest of the match isn’t going so well, we are holding stables and lumber but not making much of a move for anything else. We are ticking resources just fine but so are horde, and they’ve nudged ahead. It appears to sit like this for some time, with the Horde mainly throwing Rogues around.

A couple more assualt of stables occur, with dual stealthed druids. I’m incapacitated by one, while the other springs my frost trap on the flag (tut tut). I get my cat on the one who attacked me - hit inimidation and pop bestial wrath. He attacks my pet, and I simply move around him concussing when we runs and I drag him down with Arcane shot. The other Druid is now free from the trap and engaging the Priest. Another engagement is happening around us, with Tauren warriors and shaman involved. I quickly step in to help the Priest and we drop the cat formed druid in no time. I get a heal! ;-)

As soon as I’m done with the Druid I drop a frost trap where I stand and turn to let it rain on the warriors and shaman engaged in melee. More concussive shot to slow them up and I’m running arcane shot all over the place. I get a friend and am charged and stunned. My cat engages and again “intimi-Wrath!”. We both fall out of stun and I make him chase me back to my previuosly laid trap with my pet nipping at his heels. In he goes and he’s frozen. I get range, send my cat, some of the other melee are free, and we rinse him in seconds.

Back to defending.

And this is how it went until we lost. Not by much, but a loss all the same. I was second in Alliance for HK’s and I hadn’t budged an inch.

It is definately a great role for a hunter. We have some fine tools to stopping incoming and enough offensive to…. be offensive!!

Perhaps next time I take the opportunity of defending downtimes to review the map and make some calls becaues I am still rubbish at communicating. However on these occasions I’m not sure much needed to be said. For once, Alliance seemed to be quite organised and defending bases in numbers - which ultimately was an unspoken rule.

… or perhaps I never notice that because I’m usually running around the map like a headless chicken chasing down any hordies I encounter.

*Jerrard, how can you read that and not want to WoW PvP :-)*