How to run the flag in Warsong GulchFollow

Are you one of the few people having trouble winning Warsong more than 80% of the time? Maybe you win that much already, but want to beat even the premades and the twinks? Listen up, and I will tell you what little I know about running the flag from over 1000 games of Warsong!

First, get equipped. There are three kinds of equipment you need to collect:

1. Speed boosting
(if your class has a travel form, you are off to a great start)
nifty stopwatch
Figurine-Golden Hare (jewelcrafting)
swift boots
gnomish rocket boots (or goblin which are even faster but self-destruct)
swiftness potions
(and make sure you have speed enchant/enhancement on your boots--8% bonus speed)

2. Counter movement impairment
(Willof the forsaken, shape shifting and gnome escape artist abilities)
Spider belt
Free-action potion
Living action potion
Insignia of the Horde

3. Survival
Gnomish harm-prevention belt
Defiler's talisman
Arena Grandmaster Trinket
Other instant healing/shielding items
Healing potions
Limited invulnerability potion
Rejuvenation potions
(A good priest casting shield and renew)

Once you are on the battlefield, you need to know all your options. The flag running process can be broken down into four phases.
1. Getting the flag
2. Leaving the base
3. Crossing the field
4. What to do in your base

Getting the flag

There are three ways to enter the enemy flag room. The tunnel, the ledge above the tunnel, and the entrance on the other side of the room from the tunnel. I usually go on the ledge if I am sneaking in, otherwise I go the route my team is taking into the room (which is often the tunnel). A second story approach when sneaking in is often good because defenders don't like to be on the second story in case someone uses the speed boost in the tunnel and rushes the flag. Of course, using the speed boost to rush the flag is a very good strategy...

Grabbing the flag is often pretty easy. The trick is getting out of the room. Everyone knows to try to impair your movement so they can nuke you to oblivion. This is where the counter movement equipment comes in handy. First, if you have crowd control available, use it. That would be mage freeze or fear. Next, if you are being hit with movement impairing effects, use one of your counters. The spider belt is free, potions are expensive, and breaking fear or charm depends on your racial or the insignia. The key is to get out of the room and away from the defenders. Try not to use a potion so that you still have that option available.

Leaving the base

So now you are running for the exit...which exit? There are three paths to take across the field. The most popular is out the tunnel and across the middle. If you are lucky, the speed boost will be there and you can race down the tunnel for free. Going across the middle has the advantage of the shortest distance between two points being as the crow flies. It has the disadvantage of being in front of the enemy graveyard and also being the shortest distance from every place on the field that your enemies may be. Choose this route if your team is already spread across the middle and can block and tackle for you.

The next most popular path is to run out the alliance ramp side and through the fence. This has the advantage of being able to hide to a degree until you are halfway across the field. You are also as far from their graveyard as possible. The disadvantage is your are also as far from the entrances to your base as possible. It is a good choice if you are running it alone or everyone is chasing the alliance flag carrier somewhere near their own tunnel entrance.

The last path is to run behind the alliance graveyard. Not in front of it (I would count that as an up the middle choice really). Not many people try this, but I do it all the time with devastating effects. The risk is that you are running right by all those rezzing alliance. The great thing is that they tend to face out into the battlefield, drumming their fingers impatiently for the rez. It is unbelieveable how many times I have run behind four or five alliance as they rezzed and ran away to midfield. Another advantage is that your are running to your own ramp, which gives more options for getting into your base--particularly if the alliance is trying to run the flag down your tunnel.

Crossing the field

The key to crossing the field, especially if you are above level 39 and have mounts chasing you, is to move fast. So this is where the speed boost needs to be used. Ideally you would like to get into your tunnel where people have to dismount, but just covering ground as fast as possible helps. Using a trinket or boots is the best choice, but you may need to add the swiftness potion, particularly if you get slowed down and need to break away from the pack.

Since you are going to take a huge amount of damage most times, it would be handy to either be a healer or have a healer running with you. Use those survivability items to cut down on the damage and keep moving. Don't use a potion for healing if you can avoid it because your last resort potion should be swiftness. If you can break free and the alliance doesn't have the flag, then it is a horse race to cap before they can grab the flag. There have been many times when an alliance player was ahead of me running for the flag and I beat him by quaffing a swiftness potion and running ahead of him.

What to do in your base

If the alliance doesn't have your flag, you know what to do. If they have the flag, then you need to survive while your team gets the flag back. If an alliance player has just grabbed the flag ahead of you, my advice is to chase him and do any movement impairing or damage over time attacks you can do to weaken him. But don't follow him too far.

Otherwise, you need to "hide" somewhere. When your team kills their flag carrier, it takes about five seconds for the flag to respawn before you can cap or that stealthed alliance player can grab it before you cap. So the five second rule is that ideally you want to be close enough to get on the pedestal before the flag respawns.

A popular place to do that is on the roof. You can stand at the top of the ramp to the roof and watch for alliance coming. You can stand at the corner above the tunnel to cap quickly. You can stand on the far edge of the roof as a compromise between being able to cap quickly and see the alliance coming.

I don't recommend hiding on the second level because if they don't find you on the roof, they will go there next, so you haven't bought anything. Hiding in the little room next to the flag can be a good place to mount a defence while staying close for capping. Make sure someone goes and gets the speed boost in the tunnel to avoid having it used against you.

I strongly advise not hiding way outside the base (like under the saw). I have seen too many opportunities lost because the flag carrier could not get back to cap fast enough and the alliance grabbed the flag and ran. The only exception is that if the alliance are attacking your base, you might want to stay in the graveyard so that defenders rez right with you to clear alliance before they run off.

What if a bunch of alliance come into the base and you don't have enough defenders? Run! Run out to the graveyard, jump down, run in your tunnel, up to your roof, jump off and repeat the process. I have run all the way across the field to the alliance base several times when the whole alliance team was after me and my team was all in their base--and then run the flag back again for the cap once we killed their flag carrier. (This generally only works below level 40; the fall back strategy is to go to the graveyard and hope some people rez to help you.)

And what do you do if the alliance carrier is in an inaccessible place? So long as your team clearly controls the situation and it is just a matter of luring the flag carrier out, have someone ready to grab the flag again and drop the flag. Once it returns, the flag carrier has to try to cap eventually and when he comes out in the open, grab the flag again and get after him. I wouldn't do this tactic until the game has been stalemated for quite a while, but it has worked.

The major point is that to be a good flag runner, you need to have the right equipment. You gain a huge advantage if you have the methods to move fast and escape your enemies. Often, just one trick is enough to leave them in the dust wondering why the horde always wins.


Edited, Dec 13th 2006 4:08pm by AddictedFanatic

Edited, Dec 13th 2006 4:15pm by AddictedFanatic

Edited, Dec 13th 2006 4:38pm by AddictedFanatic

You're seriously not going to run every single word of this through you're mind when on the field... But thanks for helping anyway. It's pretty good.

Wow very good guide man i will certainly use it

"Not run every single word through your mind..." ???
"a very good guide and you're gonna use it" ... ???

OMFSG WHERE HAVE YOU GUYS BEEN DURING WARSONG, HIDING UNDER A ROCK ???

I mean, seriously, what AddictedFanatic has written is just common sense, with the experience of playing the Bg added, as it should be.
Whoever could not think up such simple strategies by himself must've done close to naught in Wsg or just farmed for HK's and hoped their team somehow managed to win, that is pathetic, no wonder the alliance usually loses... if you can't fit THAT simple sh*t into your head, why I'd be surprised if you got to win at all.

Well, anyways I don't mean to disregard your guide Addicted, & good job at listing equipment which seriously improves your running performance. And what you last explained... very few people would've had the wit and the er... balls to make that run through the enemy like that, real nice going ;)

As it is I. a warlock, am not usually a runner, maybe just a provisional one, till I find a druid, shammy, priest or competent rogue/mage to give the flag to so he can run it to base. What I usually will be doing tho is fearing people off the runners back like a friggin madman or sending the enemy runner back into my friends with a good fear.
Also, the not-so-popular talents "Aftermath" and "Pyroclasm" really do help save or doom many a runner (horde/alliance runner respectively), time comes to mind in 30ish Wsg when I was running down the tunnel besides a priest carrier and a mage with half the alliance team at our heels, I told the mage to "frost nova out at entrance", he (somehow) understood and froze most of our chasers. Then I dropped rain of fire, with 2/2 pyroclasm I had respecced to try... not one of the 7 Allies who where following were able to get out and through to the battered priest who reached mid-field and friendly cover easily. Died in short but the cap was ours alright.

I will also say that helpful rogues and druids who will listen to directions are the best asset you may EVER have for a flag run. I won't say no more, it might enhance Alliance's performance from what I'm guessing here.

Edited, Dec 15th 2006 2:39pm by Azatodeth

A very popular strategy for druids and shamans is to run out the top and jump off in front of the alliance graveyard (or go over the rock at the other end of the fence by the ramp). Yes, this is good for going as fast as possible in travel form. It works very well right up to level 60 because they run almost as fast as mounts.

A good strategy is to have a pair of druid/shaman runners. If the runner gets in trouble, the escort can stop and drop heals. The main problem with fast runners is outrunning your escort and getting picked off. Of course, I am advocating using speed boosts to race across the field, and shaman/druids have that ability built in.

Another tactic that I have seen is for a hunter to turn on aspect of the pack to boost the runner/healer while they are in the open (obviously if you are being attacked this is deadly). Aspect of the pack works indoors, so it can give that critical lead to stay ahead in the tunnel.

Edited, Dec 26th 2006 11:53am by AddictedFanatic