The art of flag defense in Warsong Gulch
Welcome to chapter 3 of the SpellDamage.com PvP guide for 29 twink mages. In chapter 2 I showed you how to master the art of flag assist. In this chapter I’ll be going over another important role in Warsong Gulch (WSG)… Flag Defender!
This is a role that the 29 twink mage is somewhat good at. There will be times when you totally lock down the enemy flag carrier, or times when you get totally destroyed by their entourage. I’ll teach you how to handle some common scenarios you will face when defending the flag.
For the first time, you’ll be called on to actually do some damage to your enemies. This chapter does not go into detail about the best ways to destroy your opponents. That will come in a later chapter.
Positioning, Speed Boots, and Rule Numero Uno!
Before I get into the meat of the chapter, I want to talk a bit about positioning. Particularly when you’re just standing around waiting for a wanna-be flag capper to show up.
So, you’re inside the flag room, where do you stand? Back up a second, before you stand poised, ready to defend, you need to make sure the speed boots are not up. You might be inclined to leave them up just in case your flag carrier is trying to get up the tunnel. However, there’s a much higher chance that an enemy will use the boots to grab the flag and escape.
Ok, so you made sure the boots are not up. Now you position yourself on the second floor, overlooking the flag room. There is a catch; you need to make sure you are standing very close to the entrance side of the ledge, so you’re not exposed to hunters or casters blasting you from the roof. Here’s a screenshot of the location:
Click to see bigger image
Rule number one, do not forget this, is communication. You must communicate, later in the chapter I’ll describe the times you need to communicate with your team.
Solo Defender, Solo Enemy
Mages can do very well on flag defense. For the same reasons they are exceptional as flag assists, snares. When on flag defense, more often than not the enemy will reach the flag. You must do your best to ensure he doesn’t get away with it. We’ve got a couple situations to deal with here:
- The capper is a rogue that popped sprint, or you let the enemy get the damn speed boots! This situation requires you to be very quick on your feet, no slouching here buddy. If you hesitate you’ll get left in the dust. This is also the reason you make sure the boots aren’t up; if a paladin got the speed boots you may as well kiss the flag goodbye.
You’ll more than likely not have time to poly or even rank 1 frostbolt the enemy. You will need to jump down and frost nova them, you may even need to blink once to get close enough to frost nova. Once they’re frozen, immediately begin polymorph. There’s a chance your opponent has the tools to break frost nova (trinket, escape artist, shape shifting, etc…).
The polymorph will set them up for you to start your damage rotations. However, remember that you need to hit him with a frostbolt, or cone of cold, to keep him snared. Use rank 1 frostbolts between your damage spells. You must keep the enemy flag carrier snared while you pick him apart. It is more important to keep the enemy flag carrier snared than to attempt a full rotation of damage spells… odds are they’ll get out of range before you can do enough damage to kill them. Then it becomes a mid-field foot race, things get ugly.
- The capper is coming up behind you from the second floor. Here’s some more secret sauce… you must be panning your camera around a lot, and spamming the Tab key to target any enemies that get close. A good flag defender will see the enemy coming before the enemy knows there is any flag defense.
You notice the enemy is coming from the second floor. Here’s what you do. Wait around the corner, and just as they are coming through the doorway poly him. Then wind up your damage rotation. If it’s a melee class that could kill you at close range, jump of the ledge into the flag room. Your job is to ensure he doesn’t get out of your base with the flag, not to kill him.
While you are kiting your enemy, keep a close eye on him. At some point he may make a run for the flag instead of chasing you. Depending on how badly you hurt him while up on the 2nd floor, you need to make a choice. If he’s hurt pretty bad, don’t poly him; use rank 1 frostbolts to keep the would-be flag capper snared. If he’s mostly full, poly him and proceed to do your damage rotation mixed with some snares.
If at any time the enemy flag capper looks like he’s going to make it out of the base, you must communicate to your team! Let them know which exit he’s taking and if he’s got an entourage or not.
Solo Defender, Mob of Enemies
Of course, this situation is difficult for all classes. Here we got a couple of things to decide between.
- Does your team generally do a good job of killing the enemy flag carrier when they exit the tunnel alone?
Luck you! So here’s what you want to do. Knowing that your team will handle the flag carrier, you take out the entourage. With the enemy flag carrier’s support missing, he’ll be hard pressed to get back to base with your flag.
So how do you take out an entourage? Well, for some reason when the enemy is bundled up in a mob, they always seem to run up the tunnel to grab the flag. That’s good; because from our perch on the second floor we’re poised perfectly ready to stop them cold.
First thing you want to do is let one of the enemies grab your flag. Then you jump down and polymorph a priest or paladin if there aren’t any priests. Priests can dispel and paladins have blessing of freedom, which basically stops you from tying up the entourage.
Once you’ve let the mob know you exist, and even poly’d their priest (or pally) odds are pretty good you’ll get mobbed; which is exactly what you want. Now you can frost nova the entourage and more than likely the flag carrier is simply hauling ass out the tunnel all alone.
You’re probably going to die, but their flag carrier has a real low chance of getting back to base. Once you’ve pissed off your enemies, run for the graveyard (which is generally the opposite direction the flag carrier is going).
- Does your team not really pay attention to the enemy flag carrier and instead engage in meaningless mid-field combat?
Then you will need to try your damndest to kill, or nearly kill, the enemy flag carrier. This will not be easy, to say the least. You will need to follow the above guidance (one step above this step). But instead of only tying up the entourage, you will need to catch up to the flag carrier. It’s very likely you will have to wait until you’re outside your base before you can blink, thanks to that tricky blink bug.
Multiple Defenders
In the event you’re lucky enough to have another defender or two with you, your role is to make sure the enemy flag carrier is snared from the time he enters your flag room to the time he dies. Obviously, rank 1 frostbolts, frost nova, and cone of cone are going to be your key spells here. Oh, and make sure you polymorph his priest/paladin support.
Obviously, if the enemy entourage shows up, you’ll want to use frost nova in a manner that freezes as many as possible. Then rely on the frostbolts and cone of cold to snare the enemy flag carrier.
And that is the end of chapter 3. If case you haven’t read chapter 1, or chapter 2, now’s your chance. Up next in chapter 4, I’ll discuss the tricky role of mid-field distraction; a role that is not really discussed often.
