Some Arathi Basin tips

Now, I usually do my PVP when the Alliance raids Orgrimmar or Thunder Bluff (I love defending Thunder Bluff. Usually it's only a few of the hardcore PVPers who tend to care, but because only a few Alliance can fit on the lifts at a time, we can take them out in waves ... and then when you ride down the lifts later, it looks like it's raining gnomes. It's beautiful) or when I manage to catch the occasional Stormwind or Ironforge raid.

But I have spent a lot of time in all of the battlegrounds except Eye of the Storm (I love this bg, but the queue is always so LONG) nonetheless, especially as I get closer to 70 and the battles get more interesting. Not as much time as some people — I know players who are exalted with all three battleground factions. Whoa. And I haven't played the game all that long, either, so there are casual PVPers who probably have more experience than I do. But I have found a few tricks that have helped me improve my game.

General Hunter Tips
- Have Wing Clip and Concussive Shot keybound (or have an action bar where they are keybound so you can switch easily when PVPing). Get yourself in the practice of using them — while I was grinding levels and most recently Mag'har rep, I would not bother trying to keep aggro on my pet. If I got aggro, I practiced using Wing Clip and Concussive Shot and staying out of range. My PVP has improved immensely because of this.
- Freezing Trap and Feign Death can keep other hunters' pets off of you. Have them keybound or easily accessible as well.
- Hunters make awesome defense. Lay traps at the bottom of the flags in Warsong Gulch or Arathi Basin and you are likely to catch a rogue or feral druid trying to sneak-cap. Know which traps to use, too. Sometimes a Frost Trap is more appropriate than a Snake Trap. I use Snake Trap a lot in Warsong Gulch because it keeps stealthers from restealthing.
- Know your strength: range. If you have a cat with prowl, turn on aggressive, prowl them, park them at the base of a flag, and hide yourself (the roof is a great place to hide in WSG, with Aspect of the Beast so you don't get tracked up there). They will aggro on any enemy players who come in, including stealthed, and then you can shoot them from above. In Alterac Valley, find a couple of plate-wearers and act as their wing-man. They can handle melee and damage a lot better than you, and you can pewpew from afar.

For more general hunter tips, check out this entry at Aspect of the Hare. In my own experience, I seem to get targeted a lot by other hunters (probably for the same reason I tend to target other hunters: seeing who can do damage the fastest is fun). And some of these tricks work on other folks, too. For example, in the 30-39 bracket, most of the experienced PVPers are either in premades or play through very quickly (at least in my battlegroup). While I was in this bracket on Ide, I used Feign Death a LOT. When you're targeting someone who feigns, their health bar reads "Dead" and you lose your focus, and a lot of players in this bracket either don't know or forget that hunters can "fake it." So I would spend entire battles feigning, popping back up, burning down the opposing team until they spotted me again, feigning, and repeat.

The only other classes I've PVPed with are shamans, paladins and rogues, and only in Warsong Gulch, so I don't really feel qualified to give PVP advice for them (Although shamans? Earthbind Totem: Know it, love it, and use it to your advantage on WSG offense or defense. I did a lot of WSG on my first shaman and this was by far the most useful trick up my sleeve, since the battleground is all about speed and you don't have hunters with frost trap yet, so it's up to the mages and shamans to slow everyone down.)

I haven't played any of the other battlegrounds enough to have strategies, but Arathi Basin was my second home from levels 27-49, and I still spend more time there than AV, despite the new, shorter queues.

So, Arathi Basin tips:

First off, take the blacksmith. For the Horde says lumber mill, and I could see that would probably work as well, but the blacksmith always seems to be the key in my battlegroup. When we have it, we win. If we lose it, Alliance does. We could have all four of the other nodes to start, be communicating great, calling out incoming, etc., but if we don't get blacksmith we will still lose. I don't know why, that's just what happens.

It's handy to have anyway, because it's central on the map. You can lose any other node, regroup at the blacksmith, and recap or hit somewhere else with a minimum of fighting on the road.

Two: Work as a team. Before you start, lay out a plan, even if it's just "Take three nodes, one healer and at least two others on defense at each, the rest float to wherever you're needed. If you have to abandon, head to blacksmith, then regroup and recap." If you have the time and inclination to assign groups and get everyone situated, that works too, but at least sketch something out. Make sure everyone (or at least, almost everyone) is clear on the strategy.

Three: Be positive. If everyone in the battleground is complaining about the enemy always winning, noobs, and so on, you're going to lose. It does not encourage people, it just makes them want out faster, and people do not want to try if they are getting harangued. However, if you can suggest strategies, compliment good defense, and throw in a "Nice job!" when there's a successful capture or someone takes out a particularly nasty person from the other team, well, you're just going to work better as a team. I'm serious. Very rarely has my team lost when we were being positive. When we have, it's usually been close and we were satisfied anyway, even if we didn't win. We have lost EVERY SINGLE TIME if the battle was full of whiners, though, and everyone left frustrated and angry.

Four: On that note, COMMUNICATE. This should actually be number one, because it's the most important, but I don't feel like rearranging. If there are six opposing team players attacking the mine and two defending, TELL THE GROUP. The floaters cannot rush to help if they don't know the enemy is there. Hunters, if you stay at the blacksmith and move around with tracking up, you can see most of the enemy's movements on the minimap. Tell people when they are about to get hit. A hunter at the blacksmith (sometimes me, sometimes not) has saved our asses many times in AB with "Big incoming mine" or "They left the lumber mill."

Five: If the other team is zerging, leave a couple of defenders to slow them down and rush somewhere else to cap as fast as possible. As long as you hold three nodes more often than the other team, you'll win — and I've been on teams that were holding four at a time while a couple of good defenders (usually with AOE or 'locks) has slowed the Alliance down considerably at each node. The only thing we bother to hold is the blacksmith, because while the Alliance is all on the farm, folks can rush to the stables through the middle of the map that way.

Six: After you have taken three nodes and defended them, if and only if the other team seems to be struggling, try for a five-cap. If you do manage, you can win the battleground VERY quickly. We managed one the other day where we hit the other team 2000-0, because they did not defend and were not working together enough to take a single node from us. It was all solo suicide runs at the blacksmith and mine. (So remember to communicate so you never know that humiliation.)

I'm sure more experienced players have quite a few other tips, but so far, these have worked for me. Even when we lose, if we're doing the above, we lose with honor and the game is close.

Unfortunately, I very rarely play offense — I like defense and I'm better at it — so most of these tips are geared toward defenders. But hey, the best offense is a good defense, outside of AV, anyway. (Really, what's up with AV and no defense?)

Feel free to take all of this with a grain of salt, though, because I'm still pretty much a noob.