Those battleground people
I actually spent some time in battlegrounds yesterday, which I don’t believe I’ve done in well more than a year now. We had a large enough group of friends that it didn’t suck too badly, but we still had some of Those People included in our few randoms. If you’ve ever played a battleground, you know who Those People are. In fact, you might be one of Those People yourself.
• The Duelist: This is the kind of guy whose PvP experience is composed mostly of standing in front of Ironforge in the duel party, trying to duel every nearby person while waiting for a boat, and getting ganked in STV. In a battleground, he is always totally fixated on a single opponent no matter what’s going on around him; he is very easy to draw away from a flag he’s trying to capture or defend, since his single-minded focus on killing his opponent prevents him from paying attention to the game. This is the kind of guy who also probably fails to use any AOE or CC abilities, opting to focus on single-target damage and snares instead.
• The Meter Maid: You’ve probably been in a dungeon with this guy at some point, too. In PvE, all that matters to him is his position on the dodgy damage meter of his choice; if he’s on top, all’s well with the world, and if he isn’t, he’s willing to endanger the success of the run in any way he thinks he needs to if it’ll help him move up. In PvP, killing blows are what he cares about – this guy lives to see his name on the top of the chart at the match’s end, even if it means losing the match. This is the warrior who saves all his rage for Execute instead of “wasting” it on Hamstring or Piercing Howl or Intimidating Shout. This is the rogue who only pops out of stealth to Ambush a low-health target. This is the hunter who camps near the graveyard to pick off raising mages once they get their buffs up and start drinking.
• The General on the Hill: This guy is good. He is, in fact, really good. So good that the group will benefit more from him hanging back and barking orders in /bg than it would if he actually went out into the field with the grunts. This is the guy who starts whining and berating the rest of the team if the other team ever captures an objective, because he knows perfectly well that if all you idiots would just listen to him that would never happen. This is the guy who tells other people they need to go help a location that’s under attack or poorly defended, but is far too busy with his managerial duties to do it himself. But don’t worry, he won’t take it too hard if you lose; he’ll make it perfectly clear in /bg after the match that this was all because you weren’t doing what he told you to do, and that it’s not his fault at all. He is rarely seen without his companion:
• The Antagonist: If your group doesn’t contain a General on the Hill, it has no need for an Antagonist. This guy’s purpose for being is to argue with, insult, and belittle the General. When the General starts insulting the rest of the team, the Antagonist is the guy you see in /bg insulting the General right back. A good Antagonist / General rivalry is a great way to bring down a battleground team, since they’ll probably get caught up in their repartee and end up not actually playing. Not to mention /bg will become so full of spam that the rest of the team can’t use it for actual communication.
• The Short-Attention-Span Cavalry: These guys are young, impatient, and full of THE FURY. Any second spent not actively attacking the other team is a waste of time, and defense is for losers; this unit won’t wait for a capture to complete before riding off in search of more combat, much less actually stick around to try to defend it. They are very easy to draw off of a flag, because they don’t care about objectives. They’re only here for the killin’!
• The Calculator: This guy is only here to get the rewards, and he wants them as soon as possible, with as little effort on his part as is strictly necessary. Are you wasting time on stupid things like fighting the other team instead of zerging bases and hoping it works? That’s dragging the match out and wasting time he could use to earn more bonus honour. Does the other team have a large advantage? This guy is the one telling you in /bg to lose as quickly as possible instead of trying to rally. His native habitat is sitting in the Relief Hut in AV.
