An Open Love Letter to Warsong Gulch
Frolicking through your fields
Dearest Warsong Gulch,
We’ve had a tumultuous history, haven’t we?
I’ve known you for 4 years now, and for 3 years and 6 months we were bitter enemies. You, and you alone, were the thing that kept so many of my low level characters away from PvP. You were their only option before Cataclysm, and you were their fastest queue option after Cataclysm. You had me stuck between a rock and a hard place, and I hated you for it.
Your simple layout was so unforgiving. If I was caught alone on my way to try to help a teammate, it usually spelled certain death. I would try to help our flag carrier as he hurried back to our base, but inevitably get stuck somewhere at midfield, pounced by half the opposing team. I would try to carry the flag and die before I left the Horde flagroom. I would die, and die, and die.
But slowly, oh so very slowly, you started to win me over.
The first realization was a crucial one: don’t kill the people coming after my flag carrier, control them. Stopping midfield to kill opponents takes too much time, time which gives the other team a chance to rez, mount up, and get to my flag carrier. Instead, don’t stop running. Use crowd control spells to get your opponents away from your flag carrier long enough that you get out of range of them. Dispell your flag carrier so that he won’t have any slows on him. And just keep going. It was a brilliant design, WSG (if I can call you that). You know we’ll be tempted by the HKs, and by the thought that killing opponents will help our flag carrier in the end. So coy.
Then I started to look at you differently. When we first met, I hated the simplicity of your design. You were nothing more than a straight shot with two buildings at either end, or so I thought. But over time, you grew on me. As I learned more about you, I began to love that you had both wide open, outdoor areas, and close, cramped indoor areas. I had to change my strategy for facing opponents dependent upon where I was. Inside the buildings I had all sorts of options for breaking line of sight from my enemies. Outside in your fields, I had only your buggy tree stumps to (maybe) shield me. Suddenly, even your unpredictability was attractive.
I understand you now, my lovely WSG. Your strategy is deceptive because it is so simple. Don’t kill; control. Either help your team’s flag carrier, or kill your opponent’s flag carrier. Learn to fight inside, learn to fight outside. If your healer is with you, just keep running.
Thank you for the wins last night, and over the last 6 months. You’ve made me feel like maybe, just maybe, I’m decent at PvP again. And I love you for that.
Yours,
Tzufit
P.S. Consider yourself on notice, Alterac Valley.
Tree Heals Go Woosh 
/happytear
You forgot to talk about your deep passion for being bottled up inside your graveyard by a hunter and two frost mages and farmed there for respawn cycle after respawn cycle.
Sounds like WSG owes you a dozen long-stem roses. 😦
So many people detest it, yet WSG is still my favorite battleground. The objectives and design are both simple and fun, and as a shaman I find so many ways to contribute to my team. Least favorites: AV, Tol Barad, Isle of Conquest all = zergfests. Boring.
I despise AV, particularly in the lower brackets (my priest is level 55 at the moment). It’s extremely frustrating to be a healer there because I’d like to be hanging back to defend our towers but the majority of the group is screaming “all in for Drek” 30 seconds into the fight. Sure, go all in for Drek – have fun as 5 of you get one shot at a time. Problem is, it’s pretty impossible to single-handedly defend a tower as a healer. I have no problem with 1v1 matches in most BGs, but I can’t do much against a team of Horde who come in to take a tower when none of my teammates have stayed behind with me.
I’m really glad my priest can’t get Isle of Conquest yet. I’ve heard that it’s a bit of a nightmare at lower levels because the vehicles are just too difficult to kill.
I absolutely detest WSG but your article has opened my eyes to new possibilities. I thank thee for the information and inspiration. I am Lilli…hear me ROAR!
Heh, glad to hear it. Incidentally, the gnome in the picture isn’t my Lilli – it’s my level 55 priest on my home server (whose oddball hairstyle may helped to inspire the Gnome Clones’ appearance).
I used to dread seeing the WSG loading screen come up when I hit the random battleground button, but now I consider it the best case scenario. I feel like I have more control over whether my team wins or loses in WSG than I do in a lot of other BGs, and that’s a nice thing to feel.