RATED BATTLEGROUND BEGINNERS COURSE

TEMPLE OF KOTMOGU OVERVIEW

Hey guys! With how overwhelmingly complicated World of Warcraft is, we figured we'd make a guide to get the newer players started with Raided Battlegrounds.

It can honestly be a very daunting experience playing them for the first time, and there are often things expected from you, which is exactly why we're making this guide. We'll be covering the basic fundamentals of each map, talking about compositions, your roles, and more.

Before you even think about entering RBGs, what you should do first is familiarize yourself with what maps are in the pool and know the general strategies of each map. Starting off, we have Temple of Khatmogu.

On this map, we have four orbs in total, each of which has its own specific color. One of the biggest mistakes you can make here is picking up the orbs instantly.

First, you should look to teamfight. Picking an orb will cause a quick death and set you behind as you take more damage while holding one.

After the first teamfight, if you're winning, or even losing, run and pick up the orb. If you're winning, or even losing, run and pick up the orb.

If you're winning, or even losing, run and pick up the orb. Orbs are the most important part of this map.

You want to pick up an orb and hold it for as long as possible, as do the enemy. So if you don't have an orb, try to kill the enemies holding them, try to ignore everybody else.

When you're either about to die with an orb or kill an orb holder, you should announce the color. People should also be doing this in your team, so if you hear a color called, try to be at that spot ready to pick it up.

Now, not everybody picks up orbs, and if you're a healer, you shouldn't ever pick, as your life is way too important. Optimal pickers are classes with a lot of mobility and ways to survive, so classes like balanced druid, warlocks, and demon hunters.

Whereas rogues are the best at killing orbs, and should ideally never pick so they can utilize stealth. Remember, don't get too separated.

Try to loosely have an offense and a defense.

SIVLERSHARD MINES OVERVIEW

Silver Shard Mines is without a doubt the most complicated battleground. You have three different carts that spawn in the center here, and then follow the track to one of three destinations.

These are referred to as Lava, Middle, and Top. To gain control of a cart, you must be the majority of players inside the cart.

Your team should be divided into two teams, a Lava team and an Off-Cart team. If you're going Lava, then take the fastest route there, and make sure you stay inside of the cart while teamfighting your enemies.

If you're doing Off-Carts, you should go to the closest Off-Cart near your spawn. So Horde, go to Middle, and Alliance to Top.

Generally, you should have two inside of Off-Carts, and the rest in Lava, having classes like Demon Hunter and ideally Rogues doing Off-Carts. As this is a numbers game, you're expected to always keep track of your enemies.

If you notice somebody leave Lava, call it out or follow them. If you're in Off-Carts, make sure you're aware of where the opposing Off-Cart team is, and always remain at the very back of your cart to avoid being crowd-controlled out.

If the enemy Off-Cart team leave their cart, either follow them to Lava, or take their cart instead. Also, beware of Shadowy Duel.

This takes a player out of the cart altogether, and if there is no player inside of a cart, it ticks over to the majority holder very quick, which is why we have two players playing the role of Off-Cart.

ARATHI BASIN OVERVIEW

Arathi Basin is your standard resource base map, having 5 different bases, farm, stables, blacksmith, lumber mill, and gold mine. Familiarize yourself with these bases and their names.

You're also going to need 2 designated base defending classes for this map. Now your team will be split up into 4.

You'll have 1 defender take the nearest base from where you spawn, so either farm or stables. Then you'll want either a rogue or guardian tank to go gold mine.

This is your second defender, and this player's job is to delay the enemy team getting the base for as long as possible. Divide the rest of your team up, having 3 dps and a healer, lumber mill, and 2 dps and a healer, blacksmith, and then the third healer doubling up on the base with the highest kill pressure.

Once you get lumber mill, you'll end up having a team fight on blacksmith. If you're one of the 2 defenders, you'll want to be defending the base.

The rest of the team will be fighting at blacksmith. If you're defending, make sure to call incoming, and if you're team fighting, make sure to watch for people leaving and help your defenders if they need help.

The goal is to make sure that you're defending the base, and if you're defending, make sure to get at least 3 bases and then hold them for as long as possible. Never leave bases unattended, and especially not without telling your team.

Oh, and always make sure to keep an eye on the flag at any base you're fighting on.

BATTLE FOR GILNEAS OVERVIEW

Battle for Gilneas is the simplest of the maps. You'll need one defender to sit at the base closest to where you spawn, so either Lighthouse or Mines.

The rest of your team will run to Waterworks and have a 9v9 teamfight. As always, be vigilant for enemies leaving teamfight and running to your base.

If your team wipes, group up and attack Waterworks again. This is the pure teamfight map, and the strongest team usually prevails.

DEEPWIND GORGE OVERVIEW

Deepwind Gorge. This map is another very simple one, but you'll need two defenders.

Like Arathi Basin, there are five bases. These are Ruins, Quarry, Farm, and Shrine, with the middle base being Market.

Again, familiarize yourself with their locations and names. You may need to call this during the game.

Your defenders will go to one of the two bases closest to the side you spawn on. The remaining eight players will all head to Market and teamfight.

WARSONG GULCH & TWIN PEAKS OVERVIEW

Warsong Gulch and Twin Peaks are both your standard capture the flag maps. For these, one of your teammates will have to go tank and be the designated flag carrier.

Ideally you'll want to split your team up into two, having an offense team and a defense team. This doesn't come into play though until later in the game.

But classes with good slows should be in defense along with a paladin healer, classes with good burst, mobility, and lockdown should be in offense. The start of flag maps are very awkward and essentially revolves around a fight for control of middle.

During which you'll want your flag carrier to pick up the flag, and once they get to midfield you can split your team up into their offense slash defense positions. Defense goes with your flag carrier to your base and uses it to kite.

Offense moves up and tries to prevent the enemy flag carrier, firstly getting to the base, but then also tries to maintain uptime and score a kill, returning the flag so your own FC can cap. If you're in defense, focus purely on slowing and peeling for your flag carrier.

So, if you're in defense, focus purely on slowing and peeling for your flag carrier. So, if you're in defense, focus purely on slowing and peeling for your flag carrier.

Minor tips. If you're in offense, try not to run as a group.

Go from different ways and try to pincer the enemy flag carrier. If you're in defense, pay attention to where their offense players are and make sure they're slowed and peeled.

If you're in defense, pay attention to where their offense players are and make sure they're slowed and peeled.

EYE OF THE STORM OVERVIEW

Final map is Eye of the Storm. There are four bases, two on each side of the map, identified by the landmark on the base.

You've got Mage Tower and Draenei Ruins on the Alliance side, and Fel Reaver and Blood Elf on the Horde side. You'll need two defenders, one at each base on the side of your map.

If you're playing either a Demon Hunter or Balanced Druid, you'll be expected to speed cap the base. This can be done by using your mobility coupled with Glide or Flap.

This is important to do as it gets you a point lead quick. The rest of your team will go to middle and fight for the flag.

Points are gained two ways. Controlling bases will give you a constant income.

Returning the flag to a base you control will give you points, based on how many bases you currently hold. Unlike in random battlegrounds, you'll need to click the node on the base in order to cap it for your team.

Also, middle is slightly different. Try to go all the way into the center where the flag spawns or hang back and hug a rock.

This way you can prevent being knocked off by specs like Healing Priests or Elemental Shamans. If your team manages to get the flag, you have to walk onto the node and get the flag.

If you don't, you'll be forced to walk to the center of the flag. If you don't, you'll be forced to walk to the center of the flag.

If you don't, you'll be forced to walk onto the center of the flag. But don't do so until you're ready to fight mid again.

For the most part this just ends up in an 8v8 team fight at the flag in middle, but still pay attention to people leaving the team fight and be vigilant for your bases.

COMPOSITION BUILDING

So now that we have a basic understanding and know what to expect on each map, let's talk about composition. Each team is made up of 10 players.

For this, you'll always want 3 healers. The meta right now, as of making this, is 2 Disciplined Priest and 1 Holy Paladin.

You will also need 2 classes capable of defending on certain maps. Rogues, Guardian Druids, Hunters, and Mages are all able to do this to varying levels of success.

And you'll also want somebody capable of playing tank. This can overlap as one of your defenders in the case of Guardian Druid.

Something important to know is that this player shouldn't only be able to play tank. They should be able to DPS on maps where a defender or a tank is not required.

After that, you can fill your team whichever DPS classes you deem fit. Some specs are obviously better than others, but to keep this video timeless, we won't go in-depth here.

Instead, we recommend checking out our most up-to-date rated battleground tier list.

DEFENDERS IN RBGS

So, you've been picked up for a raided battleground and you've got your role, but what does that entail? What's expected of you?

Let's start with the defender. Obviously you're going to be defending your assigned base or node.

This doesn't mean you should just stand there and use the time to take a little break. You need to be constantly cycling through the enemy players using your battleground enemies addon.

Click a player, check where they are, and then move on to the next. You should also know which of your enemies are defending and what base they're on.

Paying special attention to those specs which are more likely to attack your base, so classes like rogues and druids. If one of your enemies is in team fight but then goes into stealth, you should be instantly communicating to your team that you'll need somebody to assist you.

You should never be caught off guard unless it's the enemy defenders that have been in stealth the whole game who've now appeared at your base, at which you can tell your team to attack theirs.

You're also expected to have some knowledge on how to defend as your spec, but the basics are that bases take 6 seconds to cap on every map. And as long as you're an adequate distance away from the flag, you shouldn't ever lose it 1v1.

So keep your distance and weave in and out of range, using your range attack to interrupt the cap until you get help. But rogues can sap, guardians can incarnation, there are lots of tools to help you keep your base so become familiar with them.

TANKS IN RBGS

Tank is our next role. This player is expected to be able to play both tank and dps specs, as you'll only need to play tank on twin peaks and warsong gulch, unless you're defending that is.

This player is expected to pick up the flag on warsong gulch and twin peaks and then cap it. Sounds simple enough right?

Well there's obviously a little bit more to it. You need to have both good awareness, but also certain levels of foresight.

As the flag carrier, you'll be required to kite your enemies. This obviously requires you to have knowledge of where they are and what routes they're taking.

Pay special attention to classes who can lock you down, so the enemy rogue is always the most important target to keep track of.

Much like the defender, you should constantly be cycling through the high priority targets on battleground enemies and using their nameplate to determine their location, and then picking a route to prevent them connecting.

You'll also need to know when you're about to take large amounts of damage, as using your defensives correctly is just as important as kiting, so pay attention to important offensive cooldowns and trade accordingly. But as the tank, you're not. just a one man army.

You'll more than likely have a defense team with you, and it's your job to use these the best you can. Run with your healers, and don't kite your own team too much.

TEAM FIGHTERS IN RBGS

Then we've got the team fighter. Granted this is the easiest role of them all, but there are still certain things expected from you.

Having one designated target caller is such an old-fashioned and bad way of approaching things. Every player should be giving input and communicating when they have impactful damage.

Also don't focus single targets mindlessly until they die. Look out and pay attention for swaps, save damage, and call it.

You should also be very aware of enemy healers, secure crowd control, or even swap to them and pay special attention to if they're drinking. It's not just healers though.

You should always know who of the enemy is in the team fight and pay attention to if they leave and where they're going. Oh, and just because it's some huge team fight doesn't excuse poor play.

Remember your interrupts and use defensives if you drop low. It's not all about damage.

And lastly it's everybody in the team fight's job to watch the node you're fighting at. Don't let the enemy simply click the node and get the base because you were sleeping.

So, that's it. If you enjoyed this video, please subscribe and hit that like button.

I'll see you in the next one. Bye!

Be aware and pay attention.

HEALERS IN RBGS

Our last role is the healer, one of the harder roles to take. This is because there is often more than one fight happening at any one time on the map.

It's your job as a healer unit to discuss between yourselves, loosely assign who's healing offense, who's healing defense for example. Talk about who's going to what base, and who's going to float.

Yes, you can for the most part follow your team fighters and heal them, but one of the biggest tips is to always think about if you're needed or not. If you're two healers healing two dps, you're doing something wrong.

Instead, one of you leave and either sit between bases or help the other healer. Communicate with your other healers about defensive cooldowns.

Are you going to use something on the person who drops low next, or should they? And lastly, something which is very important is understanding that your mana is the most important resource in the game.

Team fights are often decided off the back of mana. Looking for opportunities to pick up leafs or go for drinks can put you greatly ahead.

Just again, communicate with your other healers.

RBG TERMINOLOGY

So by this point you should have a basic understanding of what's expected from you. One last thing we're going to cover are some phrases that you'll likely hear inside of RPG games and what they mean.

Sure these may be obvious but you never know. First is ink.

This is just short for incoming and means somebody is on their way to the base or node. When nodes or bases are involved you'll likely hear the term spin.

This just means make sure to watch the flag or hit the person who's capping that node. Another common phrase is ghosting or ghosted.

This is just when a base has no player defending it. FC and EFC are abbreviations you'll hear on flag maps and just stand for flag carrier or enemy flag carrier.

If you hear somebody tell you to cap this just means to capture that certain point or node. Peel is a common phrase you'll hear often and this can have two meanings either to peel off from a team fight to avoid dying or to peel a certain player which will just involve helping your ally get that player off them.

Lastly we've got floating and what this means is that you're in between bases or you're out of team fight and ready to come and help somebody when they need it.