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C+P
Lesson 1: Individual Skills


Individual skills is one of the most important things that your players have, it is basically having your team doing the right things at the right times without being told to do so, whether it be "killing this guy first", or using "this spell at this time". When explaining this, you can get down to specific abilities and kill order priority
in certain situations. These need to become habits that your players automatically know to do. In a group vs group fight for example, the side with the best cohesion and individual skills will always come out alive. This is mainly done by practice, these skills can sometimes be picked up from PvE dungeon experiences.


( A ). Duty and Attitude
As a player on a PvP team you should always do your best at all times with no exceptions. Only through serious effort can your team progressively improve. Always listen to your leader no matter what you think you see, understand, or think. This is assuming you have an educated and decent leader. In order for a PvP team to work effectively there are requirements, rules, and duties to allow maximum efficiency.

Requirements:
-Voice communication
-Decent pvp gear (PvP blues will do)
-Consistent roster

Rules:
-No drama or whining
-Keep voice chat focused during every match
-No lame excuses for losing (auto pickup accusations, etc.)

Duties:
-100% effort at all times
-Always listen to your leader
-Always be ready for change in strategy
-Always know your current role
-Always idle at your current job until you get a new order or update
-Follow positioning orders effectively and immediately
-Always try to improve on your role



( B ). Spells and Abilities
Here are a few obvious and not so obvious abilities and spells which should be used consistently in general group combat situations. These are spells and abilities that should be additions to how your team members normally play their class in WSG. You want your team doing these things on their own automatically without being told to do so, but always be watching and reminding. All of these small-scale actions serve a larger purpose (tactical), except if you have orders to do something else due to the current strategy. Specific class roles in specific situations will later be explained in lesson 2. Most of the obvious class spells and abilities have been left out of this section.


General:
-Back off to avoid AOE fear, anticipate when it's coming (keep distance intervals from AOE fear classes)
-Eat & drink after every little fight if there is time, always replenish stats whenever possible (cautiously)
-Always spam click when a flag drops. (always everyones duty)
-Saving your flag carrier is always first priority (over getting yours back or killing people).

Mage:
-Keep everything that isn't crowd controlled rank 1 frostbolt chilled (make things kitable for others)
-Polymorph people off their mounts to slow an advance
-Save nova for clustered enemies (unless it's 1v1)

Rogue:
-Sap whenever safely possible
-Stay close to enemy flag carriers while stealthed to snatch during a possible hand off
-Target healers during the confusion of battle (stunlock and try to bait a fear)

Warrior:
-Mortal strike flag runners (if you have it)
-Fear immediately when a flag drops (either yours or theirs)
-Save fear for clustered enemies

Priest:
-Don't heal people that are 90% out of mana
-Fear immediately when a flag drops (either yours or theirs)
-Save fear for clustered enemies
-Shadow word pain any stealth classes that aren't crowd controlled
-Mind vision incoming or turtling enemies while on "flag cap team" or "flag return team"

Druid:
-Bear form right before being nuked
-Entangle and healing takes #1 priority until you run flag
-Know your west / east / middle running paths in the field

Hunter:
-Aspect of the pack always whenever out of combat (right before / after combat)
-Frost trap about 5 yards into tunnel from entrance whenever a flag is passing or about to pass through (yours and theirs)
-Alternate vital tracking often (beast, stealth, and humanoid)
-Viper sting healers

Warlock:
-Curse of tongues on healers (unless its 1vs1)
-Howl of terror immediately when flag is about to drop (either yours or theirs)
-Soulstone a priest on offense as soon as game officially starts

Paladin:
-Bless freedom on flag runners consistently (combat / impending combat)
-Stun fearing and healing classes first
-Alternate auras often (depending on what incoming attacks are)
-Bless sacrifice on your flag runner before being sheeped (nearby enemy mages)

Shaman:
-Time grounding totem for incoming nukes to flag runner (time it)
-Earthbind totem about 5 to 8 yards ahead of your flag runner if possible
-Save nature's swiftness heal for flag runner only (if you have it)
-Earthshock enemy heals #1 priority over enemy DPS spells



( C ). Crowd Control and Kill Order
In order to kill a group that is larger, well geared, or outheals yours, having a kill order and crowd control is crucial in small scale combat. These 2 things are very important for the combat groups (in this case, defense team). This lesson will cover some basic combos and rules to putting these 2 things into play. First starting out with each classes CC ability. Some classes only have a "pvp CC" ability and not a "direct" one, which basically means they have a snare, total cc, or fear.

Mage: Polymorph (total)
Rogue: Sap (total)
Hunter: Freezing Trap (total)
Paladin: Repentance (total)
Warlock: Fear (fear)
Warrior: Intimidating shout (fear)
Priest: Psychic Scream (fear)
Druid: Entangling Roots (snare)
Shaman: Earthbind (slowing)

There are a few general class rules about crowd control in WSG. Learning how to identify your target out of a group in "real time" can be like learning a second language, but eventually with lots of practice, it becomes second nature.
Think of these rules kind of how you think of "loot rules" in the PvE aspect of the game. Also don't forget to re-crowd control. Always be ready for something to fail and redo it. Keep in mind that if you have 3 players attacking 1 enemy at the same time, they should get the job done in about 4 seconds or less. This is called "focus fire" and is always used when putting your kill order into play. The main reason for cc and ff is dealing with the greatest threat first. The first threat will usually be the healer because they can heal thousands of damage away in seconds literally. Second would be any class or player that would pose the most threat on your cohesion (mainly direct cc classes and skilled players). To keep things simple, have an answer for healers and sub-healers first, then cut off their DPS. One of the terms used in cc/ff fights is called "ignoring", not literally though. Ignoring basically means you have a temporary solution for an enemy and they are lowered on the threat majority list (like kiting a melee class while killing someone higher on the threat list). Keep in mind that you should expect everyone to know "how to burst damage".

To get more specific on this, defense team for example which generally consist of 4 people. Lets say Mage, Hunter, Warlock, and Priest. Now for the incoming groups and individual jobs about what to do. Don't expect to pull these all off instantly or clean, there will always be confusion in group fights. In most cases your general outline of killing order will varry slightly depending on different combinations of incoming classes and slightly different play styles, this is where your commander's improvisation and individualism skills come into play. There will later be a discussion on these in Lesson 3. Have at least a few of them with some heals and you should survive. A few of the common ones that are most distinctive from each other will be listed in order, numbered with what class should be dead first. Remember if something wrong happens in your order list, always drop down to the next step, never waste time. An analogy to "iceblock" for example is taking a test. Lets say you get iceblocked on before you can sheep or kill a mage. "If you don't have the immediate answer to this problem, move onto the next to save time then come back to it"

Cohesive enemy group: (Teamwork threat)
Mage = curse of tongues, viper sting, silence (kill #1)(FF)
Rogue = dot, snare, kite (kill #2)(ignore)
Shaman = seduce or fear (kill #3)
Priest = sheep (kill #4)(CC)
Warrior = trap or snare kite, curse of weakness (kill #5)(CC)

Healing enemy group: (Long living threat)
Priest = curse of tongues, viper sting, dps ASAP (kill #1)(FF)
Paladin = curse of tongues, viper sting, silence (kill #2)
Druid = silence, counterspell healing touch, viper sting, dot (kill #3)
Mage = sheep, fear if trinkets/block out (kill #4)(CC)
Warrior = snare or trap, sheep when healers die (kill #5)(ignore)

Damage enemy group: (Focus fire threat)
Shaman = silence, fear, dps ASAP (kill #1)(FF)
Warlock = curse of tongues, banish pet, viper sting, fear (kill #2)
Hunter = seduce, scare beast (kill #3)
Priest = sheep, resheep (kill #4)
Warrior = trap or snare kite, curse of weakness, sheep when priest dies (kill #5)




Lesson 2: Tactics and Strategy

Tactics and Strategy separate pugs from teams. It is essential to use them vs other teams, and against pugs if you want to assure your win. In this lesson we will go over a lot of these. They are basically setups, positioning, and lots of small scale actions that serve a larger purpose and eventually come together as a whole. This is the tactical part of it. The other part is about timing, executing plans, and communication. This is the strategic part of it.


( A ). Teams
WSG raids are divided into teams that have their own specific jobs. The names of these teams and their specific jobs will be listed below. Keep in mind that on this subject, only the teams general descriptions will be listed. Strategy execution depends on external actions and will be discussed in the next chapter. The following information will list the purpose, classes, details, and emphasis(goals) for each of these teams. These should be memorized by all leaders.

Offense Team - group 1
Purpose: The offense team's only job is to transport the enemy flag to your base. The offense team, depending on the situation, varies who actually carries the flag.
Classes: Warrior, Priest, Druid, Paladin/Shaman
Details:
-Warrior always runs the flag from "pole to field", druid and priest support till you escape base (then hand off to druid)
-Once druid starts flag run (field), other 3 mount up and ride slightly ahead (watching for incoming behind and ready to dismount)
-If druid dies, Warrior runs flag. If warrior runs flag, priest and paladin/shaman do not mount, they walk with warrior
-General running direction is toward your teams "leaf hut" and up your teams tunnel, unless it's not clear
-Immediately report that you are going to die, before you die when carrying flag
-Regroup spot: your leaf hut
Emphasis:
-Stick together at all times, do not straggle. Always regroup if there is less than 3 (wait for your full team)
-Keep moving while crossing field (move in straight lines whenever possible to minimize crossing time)
-Keep communication updated on nearby encroaching enemies (report their class)
-Be highly independent (do not rely on defense teams help until you reach mid field)
-Warrior, Paladin, or Shaman engineers with rocket boots
-Epic mounts

Defense Team - group 2
Purpose: The Defense team's primary job is to not let anything up your ramp or tunnel. Defense team also deals with "zerg rushes", assisting offense team, pressure/interceptions, and flag returns at mid field, or coming out of your base.
Classes: Mage, Warlock, Hunter, Priest
Details:
-Always use your individual skills and kill orders (explained in lesson 1)
-Never get far away from your teams ramp and tunnel entrance (don't be kited away, broken up, or tricked)
-Always be ready and watching all enemies on the field
-Report anything that gets by immediately. How many, what class, and what level (tunnel or 2nd level)
-Report the safest exit or run path to the offense team exiting the enemy base
-Regroup spot: between your ramp and tunnel
Emphasis:
-Stay alive as long as possible (the longer you live, the less enemies get by)
-Regroup as fast as possible after rezzing, assisting, etc.
-Grab berserking buff often

Flag Team - group 3
Purpose: The flag team stays in your flag room. Their job is to basically to finish off any enemies that get by the defense team, work together to synchronize stuns, speed killing, and killing rogues and druids.
Classes: Rogue, Rogue
Details:
-Take down healers first
-Report what classes get into your flag room if you can't handle them
-If anything gets by you, report immediately which way they are exiting (tunnel, ramp, grave)
-Better of the 2 rogues remains stationary in flag room (non deployable)
Emphasis:
-Engineers with net
-Keep your reagents up
-Learn to master killing rogues and druids with ease
-Know how to decide early on in a fight if you can take someone or not


Pressure Team - group 4
Purpose: Pressure teams serve one immediate purpose, keep the enemy where you want them and keep going to your pressure point. The pressure team is a variant of the defense team, meaning pressure team only forms under the commanders request.
An example of a situation where a pressure team is needed is a deception strategy. These can also be called "distraction teams".
Classes: Warrior, Priest
Details:
-It's ok to die a lot, just keep heading to where you need to be (focus on keeping your targets distracted in a target area)
-Although you are engaging a lot, try to prolong your death as long as possible
-Draw the people you are pressuring to a secluded area away from your main operation (when your about to die)
-Protect your priest
-Regroup spot: meet half way there if you have to (just keep moving to your assigned spot after rezzing)
-Always be ready to revert to regular positions immediately (priest=back to defense team, warrior=back to offense team)
Emphasis:
-Epic mounts
-Great gear helps out a lot, although it is not required to act in a pressure team

Interception Team - group 5
Purpose: The interception teams main job is to stop vital enemy movement fast and effectively. The interception team is a variant of the defense team, meaning interception team only forms under the commanders request.
Classes: Mage
Details:
-You should be able to intercept at least 4 people meaning either directly stopping, slowing, or snarring
-Be fast at multi-targeting
-Report the ones you couldn't slow, snare, poly, or kill (the ones that got by at normal speed)
-Don't worry about killing them, your main goal is to dismount, snare, or chill them.
-Always be ready to revert to regular position immediately (back to defense team)
Emphasis:
-Epic mount
-Frost specialization highly preferred
-Great gear helps out a lot, although it is not required to act in an interception team



( B ). Basic Formation
Now to get started on specifics. Basic formation and situation response will be explained in this section. It will basically explain your "outline strategy". This will be the formation you will use at the start of every game. This initial formation will change automatically slightly in a few situations. Any other changes to formation have to be ordered by your commander. You will learn how to deal with basic situations in this lesson, basically flag returning and zerg warding. This section alone teaches you the basic formula for defeating most pugs with ease as a team, every team action is innertwined. For organizations sake, these will be explained from an alliance teams point of view.

Offense: Warrior, Paladin, Druid, Priest
Defense: Warlock, Hunter, Priest, Mage
Flag: Rogue, Rogue

Offense Team
Destination:
-Exit out second level, and drop down from the graveyard mounted. Keep as far west as possible
-If you spot more than 3 enemies ahead ready to intercept you, ride to defense team and report this to the commander
-Request safest flag run path (east/center/west), then once you reach mid field head to defense team for support
-Once flag carrier gets to your tunnel entrance, the rest of offense team DO NOT follow him all the way in, wait outside mounted and ready to head to enemy base again
-Regroup and repeat after scoring or wiping
Escaped flag on your way back:
-Warrior and Priest joins defense team temporarily until flag is returned.
-Paladin and druid proceed to your flag room and get ready to cap.
-If it is a successful enemy zerg that took your flag, request safest entrance to your base, do not engage, and stick together

Defense Team
Destination:
-Exit out tunnel, head to the area between your ramp and tunnel and wait, do not mount
-The first reason you take this position is obviously to create an effective blockade of all entrances to your base. Second reason is, by being out in the field a bit and not in the flag room, it gives you time to die/rez if you are killed to finish them off before they get to your flag room, or in your flag room. Third reason is to assist offense team in direct assistance and field intelligence
Zerg Warding:
-If you spot more than 5 incoming enemies this is a "Zerg rush". As soon a you spot a zerg, do not engage. Everyone immediately head to your roof and wait for them.
hunter, warlock, and mage attack from roof, priest keep on healing
-When zerg warding, you can take up to about 8-9 enemies most of the time (before rezzing and finishing them off). The reason why zerg warding works so well is part psychological and strategic. The strategic reason is, you are attacking from the high ground where you gain a natural subtlety and range away from melee. The psychological reason is that their main focus is getting in, grabbing the flag and leaving as fast as possible, A lot less on you and highly unlikely cc/ff. Kill order/focus fire rules are put into play here
-As soon as flag room is clear, immediately get back to regular defensive position (between ramp and tunnel).
-You will be zerg warding often, it is the most common and simple WSG strategy
Assisting Offense:
-Report the safest flag run path to group 1 (east/center/west)
-Send your mage to assist offense when they reach mid field. The rest stay in regular position
-If offense is in serious trouble, mage and priest assist your flag carrier (greater heal ASAP when carrier is in range)
Escaped Flag:
-If flag team reports your flag has left flag room, fan out and watch all 3 exits (ramp,tunnel,graveyard). Stay mounted. Report where you spot them and engage.
-If enemy hides in your base with flag, Mage heads to enemy graveyard to intercept any reinforcements. Hunter temporarily joins flag team until it is returned (seek and destroy).
-If flag gets past mid field to high enemy support, stop your pursuit, regroup and wait for orders. (unless you don't have their flag)

Flag Team
Destination:
-Both rogues idle around flag pole, wait for reports of incoming enemies
-Always be ready for a suprise (coordinated saps/blind, free action potting runners, etc)
Escaped Flag:
-Immediately report which way their flag carrier is exiting or trying to exit your base
-Seek and destroy if flag escapes(rez /hunt /repeat). Return to position when flag is returned.
-If flag gets past mid field to high enemy support, stop your pursuit (unless you don't have their flag). Regroup and wait for orders



( C ). Advanced Strategy
Advanced strategy will be explained in this section. Using advanced strategy requires 3 things, speed, synchronization, and communication. It basically spells out deception. Advanced strategy is one of the things 90% of average PvP groups never use. Most so called "good" PvP group commander's will only go as far as positioning strategy, meaning they only tell their team where to go the whole game, and expect them to know "the rest". I am not saying that type of limited leadership isn't effective, you can usually "get by" and win using that due to fighting so many teams that do not use advanced strategy (Or are simply not good). However, they will not win a team that is smarter, faster and more cohesive, plain and simple. In this section, we will take it to the next level. Complicated situations call for complicated solutions. In this unique way of leading, every aspect is covered. These operations for specific situations all require an order from your commander to form. They are the common enemy strategies you will be up against in WSG. Listed below will be the group setups, purpose, order(sequence), and reason for each of them. Also they will be called "Operations" and given nicknames for organizations sake.


Operation: Flag vs Flag
Purpose: Flag vs flag is the standard strategy used for getting your flag back, once everyone in your team knows what they are doing, you can usually let your team execute this one on their own. A "flag vs flag" situation is when you have the enemy flag in your base, and they have your flag in their base. This is the "basic outline" strategy for the flag vs flag situation, meaning this is the one you always start out with until you get more intellegence on what your enemy is doing offense and defense wise.
Reason: They have your flag, and you have their flag in both of your bases. They have medium or unknown defense.
Teams:
-group1 = Paladin, Hunter, Druid, Priest, Priest (flag cap team)
-group2 = Mage, Rogue, Rogue, Warlock, Warrior (flag return team)
Sequence order:
-Group1 regroups at your roof, buffs and hides. group2 regroups at your leaf hut and buffs.
-Group2 rides across field staying to the west and enters enemy base via ramp
-Group2 enters through second level and evaluates targets and kill order, engage if they are on lower level.
-Head to roof if they are up there, 1 rogue stay lower level incase carrier drops, engage on roof. (carrier will most likely drop)
Group1 Facts:
-Use your environment to kite incoming enemies and buy group2 as much time as
possible. Focus on kiting enemies more so than killing them (minimize them rezzing)
-Hunter needs to stay sharp on his tracking (humanoid, hidden, beast)
-Trick your enemies by constant displacement and hiding
-Warn group2 immediately if your carrier drops around 30% or if you know you are about to lose the flag
Group2 Facts:
-Kill healers first, fear their flag carrier while doing so.
-If enemies are rezzing soon, send your mage to enemy graveyard to intercept reinforcements and buy more time
-Tell group1 immediately to cap when enemy flag carrier is around 30%
-Pick up their flag immediately if they return theirs before you can kill their flag carrier.
Enemy offense team succeeds:
-Group2 immediatly get their flag out of their base and meet up with group 1 mid field to force the game back into FvF.
-If you have enough dps alive on the field, and their offense lacks healers or dps, capitalize on the situation. Send mage to intercept their reinforcements, send the rest of your dps classes to focus fire their flag carrier down on the way back.

Operation: Roof Breaker
Purpose: This strategy is one with a large sequence, and is used against skilled enemy defense teams. It gets it's name from the "roof" where most turtling occurs. It is a variant of the flag vs flag strategy.
Reason: They have your flag on their roof, you have their flag on your roof. Their defense is very high.
Teams:
-group1 = Paladin, Hunter, Druid, Priest, Warrior (flag cap team)
-group2 = Mage, Rogue, Rogue, Warlock, Priest (flag return team)
Sequence order:
-Group1 regroups at your roof, buffs and hides. group2 regroups at your leaf hut and buffs.
-Warlock summons voidwalker during buffing
-Group 2 rides to the west and enters their base via their tunnel
-Both rogues idle at lower flag room level and wait for carrier to drop
-Mage, Warlock, Priest start heading to their roof
-Mage run in shielded and get their attention, head around the corner distracting them (run / nova / iceblock /etc.)
-Priest keep heals up
-Warlock, sacrifice voidwalker for shield. curse shadow on their flag carrier and howl of terror them, protect priest after
-Priest fears them again, shields himself and mind controls their flag carrier off the roof to your rogues waiting below
-Rogues engage flag carrier
-Mage be on the return, and nova the rest on roof gaurds snaring them in place
-Everyone drop to lower level and finish them off using standard kill order
Group1 Facts:
-Use your environment to kite incoming enemies and buy group2 as much time as possible
-Trick your enemies by constant displacement and hiding
-Warn group2 immediately if your carrier drops around 30% or if you know you are about to lose the flag
Group2 Facts:
-Tell group1 immediately to cap when enemy flag carrier is around 30%
-Pick up their flag immediately if they return theirs before you can kill their flag carrier

Operation: Tunnel Sprint
Purpose: This strategy is a very fast way to get their flag out of their base. This is usually used when the enemy team has 8 to 10 players on defense.
Reason: They are protecting their flag with extreme defense (turtling)
Teams:
-group1 = Mage, Rogue, Priest, Druid (offense team)
-group2 = Warrior, Priest, Paladin, Warlock (pressure team)
-group3 = Rogue, Hunter, (flag team)
Sequence order:
-Group1 and 2 regroup at your leaf hut and buff. Group3 regroup at your flag room.
-Group1 head to their tunnel base, priest and druid position yourselves to the side of the tunnel base (graveyard side)
-Group2 pressure base of enemy graveyard
-Mage and Rogue proceed up tunnel
-Mage run in and grab flag, blink toward their graveyard. get their attention and drop flag/die
-Rogue be waiting at flag pole with sprint up, grab flag and sprint down tunnel
-Priest from group 1 head up tunnel to meet up with rogue, fear any followers
-Rogue hand off flag to druid waiting at base of tunnel
-Druid run flag up center field toward your base
-Paladin get out of combat and mount up, assist druid
Group1 Facts:
-make sure rogue is ready to grab flag before mage drops it
-sprint in a straight line and don't bother turning slightly to get speed boots
-rogue tells druid and priest when half way through tunnel
Group2 Facts:
-keep an eye on their ramp for anything sneaking by, stay mounted if things are very quiet
-be ready to heal rogue or druid around enemy tunnels base as they exit (wait for them)
Variant:
If the mage has a clear path and has escaped harm long enough to reach the enemy graveyard with flag while distracting, just drop down to pressure team. Tell druid to meet you at pressure team for the hand off. Then druid runs flag staying to the east.

Operation: Grave Runner
Purpose: This is another distraction strategy used when they have a defense that is effective enough to take down your offense team. It basically draws them to the west, opening a run path to the east.
Reason: Their defense is crushing your offense team
Teams:
-group1 = Paladin, Warrior, Priest, Druid (offense team)
-group2 = Mage, Warlock, Hunter, Priest (defense team)
-group3 = Rogue, Rogue, (flag team)
Sequence order:
-Group1 head to enemy base sticking to the west, enter via ramp
-Paladin, Warrior, Priest drop down, Warrior picks up flag
-Druid wait at second level. Shadowmeld or prowl, stay within visual range of flag pole
-Warrior, Priest, and Paladin move to their roof ramp entrance, keep them following you and stay alive as long as possible
-Warrior drop the flag (tell druid when you are going to do this)
-Druid pick up flag and exit out their graveyard, run flag to the east
-Druid tell group 2 when you reach their graveyard where you are
-Mage and Priest meet up with druid to assist, warlock and hunter hold their positions
Group1 Facts:
-Make sure you kite them far enough from their flag pole before you drop their flag
-Druid immediately jump down to flag pole as soon as your warrior says hes dropping it

Operation: Silent Flag
Purpose: This is a counter for an enemy team taking the defensive position (between their ramp and tunnel). It also involves deception.
Reason: They have formed a blockade in front of their tunnel, ramp, and graveyard. Either you need to get by it, or your flag carrier is stuck in their base and needs a way out.
Teams:
-group1 = Druid, Rogue (offense team)
-group2 = Priest, Mage (defense team)
-group3 = Rogue, (flag team)
-group4 = Warlock, Hunter, Paladin, Warrior, Priest (pressure team)
Sequence order:
-Group1 sneak into enemy flag room from ramp (if you aren't inside already)
-Group2 regroup at defensive spot. Group3 regroup at your flag room. Group 4 regroup at middle map.
-Druid or Rogue waits stealthed by enemy flag waiting to grab
-Group4 moves to enemy ramp, getting the enemy defense teams attention and engaging (bring them west)
-Group4 tell druid when a run path opens up to the east
-Druid take the enemy flag and run out their graveyard side, tell group 2 when you are dropping down
-Group2 immediately get to druid and assist
Group4 Facts:
-Make sure you stick together and stay alive (don't be broken up and picked off)
-Make the enemy defense team think that you are meeting with your flag carrier at their ramp
Group2 Facts:
-Stay mounted


It takes quite a bit of things to be a good leader, but mainly constant practice and experience. In this final section you will learn a lot of things that usually aren't spoken out loud that will take you to the final levels of leading warsong gulch. A little psychology, how to organize, improvisation capability and basically how to give the right commands at the right times.



( A ). Organization
The first aspect of leadership is knowing how to organize. This section will mainly be made up of little tips and rules to keeping a team consistent. It will cover the core facts to keeping a team organized. Also in this section will be facts and points listed to actually help explain them to your team. The focus of these points will be on communication and perception. These will be under "Presentation". Remember part of being a good leader is your ability to get people to listen, improve, and learn from your presentation in any situation.

Chain of Command
Since you are only human, and most likely aren't always playing WoW 24/7, you will need a little help in leadership. By this I mean appointing assistant leaders (A). Assistant leaders usually deal with organization task, forming the group if you're not
on, explaining rules, reserved list concept, and answering questions. Only promote 2 people at most for organizations sake. The reason behind this is to prevent "invitation chaos". Assistant leaders run the group when you are not online and do their best to carry out strategic command. Once you (leader) come online or resume leadership, an assistant leader passes (L) and goes back to (A).
Presentation:
-Make sure your assistant leaders are calm, fair, and realistic people
-Make sure the team approves of your choice of assistant leaders

Reserved List
One of the big reasons elite PvP groups are even "elite", is because they are teams with consistent rosters. They improve easier and build a strong sense of cohesion, It is kind of like how big guilds get raid dungeons on "farm status", they are used to working together. The way to keep a consistent roster while still allowing multiple "space filler" PvPers to play with your group is using a reserved list.
What this basically means is, you have main players picked out and balanced. People on the reserved list (10) will have priority in the group at all times. For example, lets say that you start your group, and everyone is online except your mage, but you have a replacement mage that wants to play with your group. The space filler is replaced once your main mage comes back online. Explain the reserved list concept to space fillers before they join your group or right when they join. Besides recruiting a team that meets the outline of the Basic Formation, there are 3 common reserved list requirements. They are listed below.
-They have a high rank goal
-They listen and learn
-they have voice com
Presentation:
-Make sure anyone that is grouped with you understands this concept, and how things work with your group
-Be polite about removing people to avoid resentment. Most of the time people understand, however this isn't always the case
-Make sure your team understands why this is important, and agrees to it

Class Balance
Your number one organization goal as a leader is trying to keep your raid class balanced. By this i mean, keeping it right at or very close to your Basic Formation setup. The reason for this is versatility, you want your raid to be able to
take on the widest possible range of enemy strategies in WSG, and to do this you need balance. Never just invite random classes, unless no one else is available. Make a "wait list" of people waiting to get into the group, and gradually fill in slots with the appropriate classes that you need.
Presentation:
-Make a wait list every time you are full and "space fillers" want in the group
-Make sure space fillers have a fun time PvPing with your group, they will come back
-Make space fillers know that they have an eventual capability of getting on the reserved list once people rank up and move on
-Make sure anyone who wants in the group knows that you keep a balanced raid

Getting Started
Starting your own PvP group from scratch without a plan can be one of the most stressful and difficult things about it. However, it can be a lot easier if you follow a simple checklist. The following checklist is a basic list of things you will need to take care of in order. You can use this as your leadership syllabus on training your team. Remember it only gets easier as your team gets more educated and organized. Trying to move onto the next step before the previous step is fully taken care of will only result in later error. This list will basically tell you the order of subjects to train your team using sections in this guide. Always have patience.

1. Establish a reserved list (start consistent roster)
2. Teach them the Rules (present guidelines)(lesson 1:A)
3. Train them on "Basic Formation" (start basic teamwork)(lesson 2:A&B)
4. Train them on WSG specific Individual skills (refine tactics)(lesson 1:B&C)
5. Train them on "Advanced Strategies" (strategic improvement)(lesson 2:C)



( B ). Strategy Execution
Executing the right strategy at the right time requires an accurate evaluation of the situation and the appropriate order to follow. This is very important to real leaders. This subject will basically go over your tools, variants, and situation list with available options. Memorize these situations with their appropriate answer and make sure you know how the strategies work.

First to start out with a lecture. When executing strategy, forming variant teams or doing anything different from your basic formation, it is always from an external reason. Every strategy you command depends on what your enemy does, this
is why your team is so effective, you are constantly countering their strategy and exploiting weak points. Improvise when you need to using the strategic tools explained in this guide. In every game your main goal is to get the enemy on defense or to get most of them "turtling". Once you cripple an enemy teams ability to have an adequate offense, it is only a matter of time before you win. Make sure you have every strategy and everyones role memorized so you can correct people effectively when you need to. When reorganizing a raid depending on what strategy is in play, it needs to be fast and accurate to prevent confusion. Basically, make sure the right people are in the right groups at all times. Always stay updated on what is going on over the entire map (offense, defense, flag room). For example, teams that you aren't a part of are a blind spot for you. Make sure your teams are reporting the appropriate information to you at all times. It is ideal to lead from the defense position since you are between the other 2 teams(when in basic formation). Leading from the defense teams idle position gives you the best possible sense of what is going on all over the map. However this is not required because you don't need to be a "defense team class" to lead a warsong team. When a game starts or as it progresses, you need to be thinking ahead and determining what the logical next move for the enemy team would be. You can do this from various information, patterns in how they play, rumors about their team, and their positioning strategy. If you can do this, you can prevent something early on, or capitalize on a weak point in their strategy. Remember to always start out every game with the basic formation setup explained in lesson 2. Be sure your main team knows every operation. They don't need to know when to do it, but they need to know what to do immediately when the command is given. You and your main team should have all of them memorized.

Next will be a command and response list. Think of this as your tool box, use the appropriate tool for the current situation or problem. Your various teams and operation capabilities are your tools, and the various enemy strategies are the problem. The possible enemy strategies and your viable responses will be listed below. To research on these strategies more, see lesson 2. In other words, this is a list of common situations with your available responses as a commander. Choosing "which one" depends on the situation.

High enemy offense or "zerg rush"
-Defense team zerg wards

High enemy defense
-Operation: Grave Runner
-Operation: Tunnel Sprint
-Form pressure team

Enemy blockade or "mid field team"
-Operation: Silent Flag
-Form interception team

Flag vs flag
-Operation: Flag vs Flag
-Operation: Roof Breaker

Enemy team appears to be giving up
-Send Mage and Priest to offense
-Pressure team hit their graveyard
-Defense team move to mid field

Minor enemy defense
-Send Mage to offense team
-Defense team move to mid field (center map)



( C ). Expectations and Encouragement
In the section, you will learn the mental aspects of what it takes to be a good leader. Once again, most of these skills are unique and rarely said out loud. This will basically explain the things that help out keeping a team solid and long lasting.

Peace keeping
With all the "caps" and "farmers", and other drama people get mad over, it is easy for them to shift their focus on those negative things. It is always a good idea to keep your teams main focus on winning and improvement, and not on the negative externalities of rank leveling. Another thing is being a mediator during a
dispute. Lets face it, there will always be some form of drama within the pvp community (until expansion at least). You can keep the general attitude more on the "fun" part of it, and keep things casual if you be sure to always put winning first.
Remember to remind them that it is still just a game, and should never be taken too seriously. Also a good thing to usually do is, try to keep a respectable identity. When you are on top, there is automatically a percentage of people that will dislike you unfortunately, excessive bragging only increases that percentage.

Moral
When playing for hours and hours, your teams performance can begin to drop from them getting burned out. To fix this, basically every few hours decide a good time to take a 30 min to 1hr break. This gives your team members time to eat, nap, etc. Basically this is to keep their moral high and performance up.

Monitoring
Realistically, no matter how good your team gets. There will always be a few people forgetting things in certain strategies or times, whether it be kill order, positioning, etc. It is your job to keep them in place Constantly watch them and remind them
where they are slipping. Remember after losing a game, always explain to your team the exact reasons that contributed to your defeat. Never be defeated without an answer as to why. Number one thing about monitoring is to always watch for things to go wrong, because they can and do.

Importance
Remember to let them all know that each and every one of them are important to the success of the team. Every little action serves a purpose to complete the main goal (winning). So give them a "nice job!" every once in a while to keep them enthusiastic about winning and playing consistently. Be sincere.

Confidence
Let your team know that they are capable of beating any other team that comes to them, despite how some people think or are mentally bound by rumors of "invincible teams", no team is unbeatable. You just need to outsmart and outmaneuver them. It
takes speed to do this, in thinking and acting. Always be pressing your team to be faster and smarter. Always try to have clean wins and strive for perfection.

Mentality
There are also general ways to thinking that will greatly improve your team. If you can get everyones attitude on the same page, this is a great thing that will build your team up as a cohesive unit. In the PvP community there are many ineffective ways of thinking and attitudes. In this section, we will discuss a few of them.

Zerg Attitude: Explain to your team that the "zerg strat" will not be, or no longer be used in your team. Despite it's vulnerableness, this is the single most used strategy in WSG. It is most popular for 1 reason, it is easy to execute. This strategy can work, but it will not work against teams that can easily crush it with either counter strategy or individual skills (cc/ff). Yes, most of the time for now most teams can get by using it effectively. The thing is, it's a "50 50 chance" strategy that puts all your hopes into one execution rather than slower/controlled strategy. If you want to assure your win, go for control over chance. However, if a zerg rush order is given by your commander for whatever reason, and he knows what he is doing, listen to his improvisation and follow.

Pride Attitude: "Playing for pride" is a must sometimes. An example of this is staying in a "team vs team game", rather than leaving to AB or AFKing out. It isn't always about the honor or time it takes to win, sometimes it's about the winning. You want to keep your teams pride and moral up to maintain their performance quality. If you can't win other teams or if you avoid them, all this does is give your players a feeling of "we are just a farm team that isn't skilled". Winning boost confidence and enjoyment. It lets your players know they are on a real and skilled team. Your ability to outsmart other teams that use mainstream or mediocre strategy sets you apart from them.

Gear Attitude: Although having great pvp gear does help, it is not required to take down excellent geared teams. This is a common myth that is kept alive with a misconception of "gear quality = skill/teamwork". There is basically a point in gear level that once you get to, you are "good to go", meaning you are adequately equipped to take down any player. The reason for this is scaling, average players (until BC at least) hitpoints and damage output are measured in increments of 1000+ on average median being 4000(epic/blue). Blizzard has designed each class to have multiple spell and ability capability to either hit or crit around 1000+ average to make PvP scale/fair. Basically, until players HP are around 8k average, there is a point that you can get to in gear that you are "good to go" with use of combos, and the blue/epic gear it takes to get to that point can be acquired through pvp and non raid dungeons.

Expectations Attitude: Lastly, it is a very good idea to get everyone in your team expecting high expectations, not just you. Always go for clean and controlled wins. For example if you lose a game, and everyone on your team was playing exactly how they were commanded to do so, do not blame the win on "they are just better than us". Even if this may be the true case, you want your team knowing that they can win any other team if they do it right (which is true). The leader always takes responsibility for a loss when your whole team was following the right orders at the right times the whole game. If everyone is expecting excellent results and trying their best, this will make your commanding job easier. Remember, never forget to present to your team, the exact reasons that contributed to your defeat after losing a game.

written by Galinth.