PVP Strategy: Strand of the Ancients (Defensive)
After playing some much needed battle grounds lately I realize that there are a lot of players out there who are totally devoid of strategy especially in Strand of the Ancients. Ive decided to start a special series of periodic posts about different BG strategies. For the first post ive decided on Strand of the Ancients, and since Strand is broken into rounds of offensive and defensive I will create two separate posts and then link them together. So lets kick this off.
If you are looking for the Offensive Strategy check here:
Strand of the Ancients Offensive Strategy!
Overview of Strand of the Ancients
Strand of the ancients is a “storm the beach” type of invasion in which one team will try to land on the beach and then penetrate the defending forces layers of security which are walls or barricades using “Demolishers” or World of Warcrafts version of battle tanks. The goal is either to defend or to reach the Titan Relic at the top of the island located inside Chamber of Ancient Relics, which is defended by 3 rows of walls, as well as the door to the relic chamber. Defensive players must preserve the integrity of the walls in order by preventing the offensive team from destroying the walls using Battleground Destroyers.(see diagram below)
Map showing points of interest in Strand of the Ancients
Defensive Strategy
Let me start off by being clear of one thing in Strand of the Ancients Defense,”YOUR BIGGEST THREAT IS THE DEMOLISHER”. The offense can not win without using the demolisher, well theoretically they could plant seaforium charges, but the chances on winning primarily with seaforium is slim. No matter what you are doing, once you see a demolisher on the move you must quickly refocus your attention to destroying the Demolisher.
Your number one priority
So lets talk about the first phase or as I like to call it, “the Normandy Phase” in which the vesels land on the beach and the offense mount their attack. Now while it seems that the best defense is just to kill as many players as possible and to keep them away from the gates the truth is all your focus should be on how to stop the Demolisher.
There will be a waiting period before the round starts in which players are given the opportunity to buff and get prepared. While I have noticed Strand isn’t a BG where people think about buffing before the encounter much try to take note or call out for buffs, as the offense is grouped together and buffing while aboard the ships so try to match them the best you can and put out those buffs to help your teammates.
The Ships Landing (The Beach)
You should first head to the beach and choose either to defend the Gate of the Blue Sapphire (right), or the Gate of the Green Emerald (left). Try to always be conscience fo balancing both sides, I lie to always make sure I hit Shift+M to bring up the small transparent mini map on the lower right of my screen and see which side looks thinnest, and go to support the side with less people and hopefully balance it out..
You will see two Demolishers located on each side one on the dock where the ship approaches, and one at the base of the ramp on the dock. These Demolisher’s will become target-able shortly before the ship arrives and you will be able to to deal damage to them before the offense get a chance to arrive. My advice is not to completely destroy the Demolisher, but instead to take the damage down as far as you can without destroying it until a member of the offense decides to jump inside. By doing this you are delaying the respawn timer and denying the offense the ability to get a new demolisher for a linger time thus eating up more of their opportunity to fire catapults at the wall.
Turrets
You are given two turrets mounted on each side of every gate. While manning the turrets wont yield the most honor, losing wont yield as much as winning so it is important to take charge of these turrets unless you are doing enough DPS to justify being on the ground. If you are just starting out in PvP then I suggest you place yourself in a turret as you will live longer probably acquire more HKs and all in all be a more valuable member of the Defense. The turrets have a limited range but are effective in taking chunks of damage out of the Demolisher while keeping you safely out of range of melee classes.
Purple and Red Gates
Inevitably unless you are just face rolling your opponent they will break through either the Green or Blue Gate, and you will be forced to fall back to the second layer of walls which are the Gate of the Purple Amethyst and The Gate of the Red Sun. It is very important that you dont waste any time on the beach and immediately move up to the next level so you don’t give them a clear run to the Purple and Red Gates. Even if you are on the Green gate and the Blue gate goes down move up to the next level in case the other side in in need of help or is just being rolled through. You don’t want to let the offense gain to much momentum because if you hesitate they will roll right through to the end before you know it. Dont spread the defense to far apart allow yourself to be flexible in case you need to assist the other side.
This new level will open up the opportunity for the Offense to gain two additional Demolishers located on the far edges of both sides of the map in the form of Siege Factories as well as give them access to cap the Southern Graveyard located in the middle of the map. I never concern myself to much with defending the graveyard as it doesn’t give them to much of an advantage and its only a short trot from the Eastern and Western Graveyards to the Siege Factories or back to the boat. Instead I like to plant myself somewhere in between a siege factory and one of either the Purple or Red Gates, and what for a demolisher to appear in motion. If there are no Demolishers in sight I use my time to thin out the players and hopefully kill anyone carrying a seaforium charge. If you kill enough people carrying the seaforium if will earn you the Achievement “Drop That”. Basically in this phase continue what you are doing, and try to delay them as long as possible from breaking through these walls and moving on to the Yellow Gate.
Gate of the Yellow Moon
RAWR! PvP
This is where your team is the strongest once either the Red or Purple gates is down “IMMEDIATELY” and I mean as fast as you can, get to the yellow gate. While you are at your strongest in addition the offense is at their strongest as well, but its my belief that if everyone is on it then there is no way the offense should break through the yellow gate. The Seaforium is to far away for most offense to want to run since they are all worried about their HK’s Just plant yourself down below the gate or up in a turret. As soon as you see a demolisher come around the corner either on the left or right make your way to it in order to destroy it before it can get in reach of the Yellow Gate.
If there are no Demolishers in sight then stay in the middle and weed out anyone who may be coming to plant a seaforium charge. Never allow yourself to be drawn or kited to far out of the center by an individual player as you need to be ready to pounce any Demolishers heading your way. Don’t get me wrong it sounds easy and simple but this is the most critical position of the fight. You need to stop the defense in their tracks right here and not allow them through. In my opinion this is the best and most intense part of the fight as well.
Chamber of Ancient Relics
If for some reason you are talking to Joe and licking a lollipop while the offense blows through the yellow gate then you are in trouble. This is where you strategy of defending the walls changes slightly. In the case they are trying to penetrate the chamber of Ancient Relics “DO NOT FALL BACK TO THE CHAMBER INSTEAD STAY AT THE GATE OF THE YELLOW MOON“. The Gate of the Yellow moon is the only path up to the Chamber of Relics, so stay down at the gate of the yellow moon and continue to do what you were doing. I often see people fall back to the Chamber of Relics and this is the wrong answer. By staying at the Yellow gate you are allowing yourself to see the offens e advance the Demolishers way ahead of time and allowing yourself plenty of time distance and opportunity to destroy the Demolishers. Just continue to fight at yellow and you will surely win.
The Relic is Exposed
Basically if their is any significant amount of time on the clock you are going to lose. If there isn’t much time left on the clock you may have a chance, but now you have to change your thinking. Immediately change focus and get to the relic chamber where you will need to kill any enemy player who gets near the Titan Relic. Your only chance is to kill offf all of the offensive players before they get a chance to reach the Relic, but in short you have probably lost so go throw yourself off a bridge.
Shortcomings of Defensive Teams
Since Ive been playing Strand I have noticed that many players are seemingly just running around trying to kill the opposing faction. While this is the strategy in most Battlegrounds Strand needs to have a different approach. I would like to make note that the individual players in no way can win Strand without the use of the Demolisher therefore killing other players is a necessity to thin out the offensive forces who are trying to keep demolisher alive, but once someone spots a demolisher on the move all focus should turn to destroying the vehicle before it gets within reach of damaging any gates.
Another thing I have noticed in strand is players inability to understand the best strategy for the map. While you are forced to split up your team on the first two rows of walls to defend both the left and right side of the map it is imperative that everyone moves back to each receding level of walls together. Once one wall is down on a level the ability for that level to remain secure is gone and by remaining on the beach while the second row (red and purple gates) are under attack you are spreading the defense out to far should the opposite side need help or become over whelmed. in most instances the offensive team will drop what they are doing and all zerg to the open side anyways so it is best to beef up the defenses along with them.
Understanding the choke point at Yellow gate is also a very important factor, especially if the offense manages to get a quick run up to this point. It is my belief that if everyone understands the importance of killing the Demolishers you will dramatically slow the offenses advance at this point. Once the Gate of the Yellow Moon is exposed all players should immediately move to defend it, and since there is only one wall at this level the defense if the Gate of the Yellow Moon will be at its strongest.
Once the Gate of the Yellow Moon is destroyed players tend to fall back, this is not what you need to do. Stay at yellow and continue to defend the path leading up to the chamber.
Hope you guys find this strategy helpful.
[...] of the Ancients (Offensive)By BlessPosted in: Guides, NewsA few weeks ago I wrote a post detailing The Strand of the Ancients defensive strategy, and left with a promise to write an offensive strategy as well as an ongoing list of PvP [...]