Having recently dinged 71 (woot!) I was dying to run the new PvP Battleground with my Balance Druid. I’d heard some about it from friends and read up a bit on here – Strand of the Ancients. Sure I checked out the maps and read some of the basic strategies. Tanks? Cannons? We get to play with tanks and cannons? Fantastic! That’s all I needed to know. But did I understand it before going in? Not even close.
Here’s the very basic idea as it stands now. It’s basically a storm the castle or storm the beach style of game play that is broken into to “half’s.” For the first half the Alliance is on offense and the Horde on defense – at half time the sides switch. These half’s are timed and have several goals on each side basically having to do with either taking or defending strategic points on the field.
From the Alliance point of view you start out on one of two boats coming into a beach head – very “Saving Private Ryan” with tiger mounts and magic swords. Once you hit the beach there are several tanks that players can literally get in (right click to get in), drive around and shoot. The first objective is to approach and attack one of two large gates that are deafened by the Horde. At each gate there are two cannons (run by the Horde) that fire down onto the area in front of the gate and cause a good amount of damage (to a level 71 at least!).
As the Alliance knocks down the first gate they progress to the next gate and the next and ultimately to the central goal. Remember the time restriction! This Battleground can get pretty darn intense. The closer you get to the final gate the tighter the playing area and the more intense the fighting.
Once the timer hits zero the instance resets and side sides switch places. For me at least, the first few times through this Battleground was wildly confusing. Luckily the whole “follow the guy in front of you” strategy will get you at least into the right area until you figure out whats going on.
A few things I’ve learned in the first few runs…
- You can attack and destroy enemy tanks and cannons.
- It is also possible to hitch a ride on a friendly tank, which is kind of fun.
- Death Knights really like to stand out of sight to the left and right of gates you’ve just broken down and do their “Come Here!’ trick which can be pretty disorienting.
- Enemy cannons hit very hard so try and stay away from the area right in front of the gates. This area is in a perfect cross fire between the cannons.
- On your map all the important points are color coded which makes it easier to navigate around and figure out what the hell everyone else is talking about.
I’ve only run a few of these so far so I’m sure I’ll get a better idea in the weeks ahead. My first impression? Fun. Really fun. Confusing as hell at first but really fun stuff. If you’re a newly minted 71 who a PvP lover get in there and check it out. Thanks!
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