WoW Classic Arathi Basin Guide - Strategy Guide

Introduction

Welcome to our Arathi Basin Battleground Guide for a current Classic WoW version. It's a database of some basic yet important tactics and intel. With the recent release of Blizzard's WoW Classic this is the perfect time to cover some Battleground Instances available in the game and learn about them. With this guide we will try to help you grasp some basic things, like map presence, roles, teamcomps, tactics, and more about arathi Basin. Read through this guide and try out this instance for yourself. And who knows, maybe this will become your favorite part of Classic WoW? Alterac Valley will become a little bit more familiar.

There are some differences in playstyles and gameplay at different levels of play. Playing against PUGs, or Organized Premades will always play out differently. We will try our best to cover both scenarios. We will spend more time on premade vs premade scenarios, but almost every piece of intel found in this guide should be applicable to both scenarios. In the end, you will be able to implement everything nicely, allowing for a fun, thrilling, and successful Arathi Basin experience, with lots of honorable kills on your account. Doesn't matter if you are playing as a paladin, priest, rogue, shaman, warlock, warrior, or if you are planning to go for something else if expansions come out.  You are going to have a great time with this game mode. 

This instance is very similar to Warsong Gulch. However - where Warsong Gulch depends heavily on skills of every player, with gameplay focused hugely on singular plays, Arathi Basin relies on teamplay even more, as there are more teamfights happening all over the map. In this mode teamplay means everything. With so many fights scattered across the playing field there's a lot of potential to mix the skills of everyone and unleash on the enemy with a planned and predetermined outcome that will be most effective in the situation. And of course there's an enemy team with a very similar plan. So it will be all about teamplay and communication. Which team has a better plan, and which team will execute it better. So - let's get you and your fellow players winning some games in your epic Arathi basin quest. You will also find links to our other guides, with lots of content. Everything is up to date when it comes to current patch (reputation and pvp guides are on the way). 

What is Arathi Basin?

Arathi Basin is an instanced battleground where two 15-men teams will fight on a medium-sized map over the control points (Resource Nodes with no npcs). It's a classic Control Points PvP Gamemode found in a lot of popular online games. Two teams fight each other around the map, capturing the points with their presence, fighting off attackers, and watching over other control points to make sure that enemies have less points under control. While a Node is controlled resources will slowly pile up. More control points equals more resources. As soon as one team reaches 2000 resources the match is over.

And if you want some lore - the place itself is located in Arathi Highlands. It's an eternal fight between Forsaken Defilers and League of Arathor over natural resources to claim them for themselves. You will get to know some of the story through quests related to this location.

Map Layout

As you can see on the previous map, there's not much room to play with. It's definitely not as big as Warsong Gulch, it's more condensed. There are five control points, one control point in the middle, and four others around it. And you should know about these points. Let's take a look:

Blacksmith (BS) - Arguably the most important point where the battle will decide the pace of the game, as every point is somewhat connected in some way. Whether by bridge or water. It's just closest to every other point. Control of this point will be mandatory to keep control over 2 points that will be connected to it. But the main reason for taking this point is that it allows you to handle three points without much hassle, allowing you at the same time to expand further. This is the place on which almost every team should spend most of their human resources in the beginning of the match, and through the course of the game. This Control Point alone allows you to have your controlled nodes close to each other, allowing for a reliable field of play, and a stable line of defense. Mount this zone asap. Hell, use some pins to mark this point this location on your corkboard

Lumber Mill (ML) - Your main priority after claiming Blacksmith Resource Node for yourself. It's a great vantage point that will allow you to keep track of three other control points, if your communication is somehow failing, which frankly should not happen when you are premade, but it can happen with PUGs. Of course - there are points like Farm and Stables that are very close to both teams will have to be capped and defended at all costs to ensure having 3 Control Points under control, but Lumber Mill + Blacksmith should be your main focus. The main reason for this, is that they become the foundation for further points to be controlled by your team, to avoid spreading out control too far from your reach.

Goldmine (GM) - Considered by everyone as the worst base in this entire gamemode. And for a good reasons. This control point is somewhat locked away. More than other points. This location is bad for fights due to its poor visibility, and location, as it's far away from the main and most important control points. Sometimes teams will send there a Rogue, or a small independent team of two or four to grab and defend this control point.

Stables (ST) - The closest base to the Alliance. It's not as important as Blacksmith and Lumber Mill, but since this is the hardest point to take for the enemy team due to the pure distance difference, it's the true foundation. Every faction will want to secure the closest objective. Don't let your enemies take this with other points, as you will enter a chokehold, and that's not a great scenario to be in.

Farm (FM) - Similar to Stables but placed on Horde's side. On the first glance- it's absolutely the same. The closest node to one of the bases. Good to control. Very good place to have, as you can guard it behind BS and LM. However, despite having similar properties - there's one difference, that makes this location way more valuable than its Alliance counterpart. It's very close to Blacksmith and Lumber Mill, it's connected with a bridge, and there's an easy access to all of these locations, allowing defense to create an unbreakable defense tactic. It's close, and it's easier to hold than any other possible 3 CP setups. And the reason for that is the Golden Triangle.

The Golden Triangle (G) - The entrance to an easier game. The bonuses that come with controlling these three points Golden Triangle is hands down the best setup that any team can have in Premade vs Premade arathi Basin match. It's a scenario in which one team controls three specific points - Blacksmith, Lumber Mill, and Farm. It's a very hard formation to break, just because of the location and accessibility. Every member of the team will be able to hold one post, and in a matter of a few moments, rotate to a whole different location to aid teammates in any scenario. The layout of this zone is very convenient for defending, and it will be hard to retake it without amazing team play and communication skills.

Roles and Top Meta Teamcomp

As we mentioned above - Warsong Gulch requires teamplay, and outplays that each role can do to hugely impact the game for 19 other people. In arathi Basin - everything will be more chaotic, and teamfights are way more frequent. 15 men have to work together as one. Tactics and teamplay mean everything here, this ain't no place for lone wolves. You should involve all kinds of people in your group, to negate counterplay in some way, some who can cast pure utility spells and buffs, some who deal damage, and some who will look after their allies in terms of health and battle prowess. And we can't talk about tactics and playstyles without mentioning the classes that each team should have to be effective on the battlefield.

Top 4 Roles

Warriors - Must have, at least two, would be best to have three or even four. Stacking these guys or gals on the frontlines is never a bad idea as long as you have competent Cloth-using Healers and Mages and leather-using other dudes. They will lead fights, deal most of the damage, and secure Control Points after a fight. You can't go wrong with a bunch of Plate-wearing Warriors stacked together, and going for high priority targets. 

Mages - Very mandatory, but not for their damage. They are absolute beasts when it comes to Crowd Control. CC is needed both for offense and defense. For defense - it keeps attackers frozen in place. And for offense - it allows your Warriors to pummel locked down enemies into the ground. Utility that this class provides is truly invaluable, as they will work wonders in offensive and defensive plays. These guys will slow down opponents and shut down engage attempts, they will easily spin flags from afar (interrupting the cap with damage and presence), spam Crowd Control, and peel for their allies who can't afford to get hit.

Hunters - One of the strongest if not the strongest defenders when it comes to choke points and defending bases. They will deal lots of damage, while kiting you into oblivion. Playing against a skilled and persistent Hunter is truly heartbreaking. They will not only make it hard to attack a certain objective, they can completely dictate how the fight will go. Every member of the team will have to look out for enemy hunters to not get absolutely trashed.

Healers - We will not go into details about which healers are most useful. What is useful is siiply - healing. Generally there should be four healers, spread evenly with Priests + Shamans/Paladins. Priests will provide massive heals, and dispels. Shamans will heal and keep Wind Fury totems up at all times to increase the damage dealt by their allies. Paladins have amazing buffs and powerful mana-efficient heals. They should focus their heals on the most important members of the team. Keeping Warriors, Mages, and other healers alive will be mandatory. Paladins and Shamans should stick to Warriors, Priests are a little more versatile, therefore they can switch their heals to another target when needed.

Defense & Interchangeable Roles

Rogue - One per game most of the time, especially when they are playing against a competent premade enemy team. Rogues are masters of ninja capping. They can just sneak over to one Control Point, and make an attempt on taking it for their team. Some teams will even go for two Rogues to have two ninja cappers in the team, but it doesn't work if enemy team knows what they are doing. Avoid ninja capping when you see that the enemy team is quick when it comes to game sense and rotation, and just defend a point or sap important targets.

Warlocks - Provide damage, curses, fears, and sometimes finish people off with Death Coil. Outside of that - play like a Hunter. Join chokepoints and Defend as hard as you can.

Druids - Having a Druid is not mandatory in Arathi Basin. Their heals are weak, their damage falls off in comparison to other classes, and they will work only as a distraction or as a part of a defense team. There's not much to gain here for druids, even fi they are good. 

Main Defense Guide

Having people designated to one position might be a smart move, but we know what happens in the actual game. Some won't listen, some won't know what they are doing, and even if everyone on your team is perfect, and they agree to the strategy - other team might be in the same exact situation. Everything sooner or later will turn into a series of accidental successes and failures.

Your main static Node Defense should consist of One Rogue, one Druid, and one Warlock. These guys should just focus on pure defense playing, sometimes not even joining teamfights happening on the other side of the map. They might focus on a few initial teamfights, but as soon as their team controls three points - they should focus on protecting points that are under their team's control.

When it comes to Hunters and Mages - which are very powerful in terms of defense, disruption, and flag flipping - they could be experts at defending the points, but they will truly shine if you allow them to roam around the map, to work as a portable danger zone. They can have a huge impact if you let them go crazy on the enemy team, delaying incomings, and harassing enemies before the actual fights happens. Of course - in the beginning they will join the early fights happening over control of the Lumber Mill and Blacksmith. And then everything will change based on the outcome - when your team caps two of these points, when you cap one, or when enemy team gets everything. There are multiple complicated scenarios, and ways of getting through them, and coming out victorious will come with pure experience.

Of course you will find some of these ways in our guide. But techniques mentioned in this guide are rather general than specific. It's very hard to list every possible scenario as there are lots of variables that will decide the pace and finally - the outcome of the game. There's your team - every single member of your team that works like a gear in the machine - can be faulty, or their playstyle won't fit your sense of teamplaying at all. There are enemies which could have the exact same situation as your team. There are various points that can be under your control in any situation, and your team should rotate accordingly, again, deciding on the spot depending on too many factors that have to be taken into account. 

Main Offense

Rest of the classes will work on either killing enemies and capping points, or focus on surviving depending on the situation. Warriors shall wreak havoc, healers will keep them alive, Mages will disrupt, dispel, and flip flags keeping everyone busy. Simple as that.

First Teamfights

The most important thing in the game is arguably the early game (and winning). The beginning can decide team priority, which team controls the pace of the game, and which team has to change from defense to pure offense when they don't get anything during the first push. So let's try to focus in this part of the guide on creating a perfect setup in the current meta. 

Early tactics will depend greatly on your side. Alliance will focus on survival at one point, and Horde shall go for a full offensive relentless force. This is how it presents itself.

Both Alliance and Horde will take their first closest Nodes and split teams into a few parts. Rogue and Druid should focus on protecting the first point, and delaying the cap in the Gold Mine.  Team Warlock should rotate to whichever offensive team to aid them in a hard teamfight, so they should stand somewhere between Lumber Mill and Blacksmith zone.

There are two very important early fights that will decide the beginning. First teamfight at Lumber Mill which will be taken first, and Blacksmith, which will be taken second. Of course you have to split your offense, so enemy team won't take Blacksmith for free when you unleash yourself full force at the Lumber Mill. And how you split your teams to get the best effect will depend on your association, when it comes to Alliance and Horde.

Horde

Since these guys have early access to a third best Node on the map, being The Farm, they have some kind of priority in their Arathi Basin quest. But they can dominate early on not only due to that. Having one third of a Golden Triangle means nothing if you can't force through enemies to take the entire zone. Horde should most likely split their teams almost evenly, putting up a good fight at both fronts.

This means that each teamfight in the early game should have one Hunter, one Priest, and one Shaman. When it comes to Warriors and Mages - two Warriors will go with one Mage to the Blacksmith (due to the power of Shaman's Windfury Totem), and one Warrior + two Mages should head towards Lumber Mill. Those Mage + Warrior groups can switch, shifting more power towards one fight or the other. However - Blacksmith is closest to the Farm, and is arguably the most important point on the map. This is why bringing more Warriors is a great strategy. They will lead the charge and do the most damage with the help of Healers and Shamans. They should head towards a Blacksmith fight, that should be the first major objective in the game. Having Farm and Blacksmith grants you a decent opening to claim the Lumber Mill.

Alliance

Enemy of the previous faction. This faction doesn't have access to Shamans, which will greatly increase the battle prowess of literally everyone on their team. However - Ally has Paladins with powerful blessings, single-target heals. Some even say that these guys can be stronger than Priests when it comes to keeping their Warrior alive and buffed up to murder their enemies for some honorable kills. Early setup will be very similar to Horde's. With two big exceptions. Alliance will want to take control of the Lumber Mill, as it's closer to their base, making the fight over Blacksmith and a transition to taking Both BS and Farm a little bit smoother.

Alliance could go with the same setup as Horde, but there's one tactic that will work wonders against some teams. The main idea is to send a Hunter, two Warriors, two Mages, and two Priests on the Lumber Mill, while a small group plays a survival game on the Blacksmith point. This strategy allows your team to steamroll on the enemies on Lumber Mill, and they head straight towards BS to aid their team. Survival will be hard for the BS team, but having two Paladins on that point during the first phase should make surviving a little bit easier. 

Early Game Variables

There are multiple strategies that work, and even more strategies that will work only as counters to other strategies. Sometimes you won't even see the enemy team on the Lumber Mill, as the entire offense of the enemy team steamrolled on your team in the BS zone, or for some reason they went for the Gold Mines. Every team has a plan. And the thing about plans and strategies, is that they are relevant only before the game. At least for some teams. In the end it's all about leading your own strategy after you control the pace of the game, or reacting to enemy's tactics.

Sometimes teamcomps will change, especially when playing against PUGs who can't organize teams properly. Gameplay against them will be either one-sided, or so surprising that you don't know how to react against it. Because who would know what enemy is doing, if enemies themselves don't have any idea what they are doing? Sometimes it's a 100% win for your team if you are organized, and sometimes - chaotic tactics and things happening all over the place can be surprisingly effective and hard to deal with even as an organized team. arathi Basin is never black and white. There's just too much going on.

Don't stick to one tactic forthe entire game. Set the pace and react accordingly to any situation. The ability to change your playstyle to turn around the game at a dire hour will be invaluable. Don't be static and react. Being flexible might be the most important thing out there.

Comeback Tactics - You lost Initial Fights?

This section will be all about creating situations in which your team can either turnover the game, break a three-cap, or regain control over the major points.  For sometimes it's all about teamplay combined with a proper deception and trickery.

Creating those windows can depend on a single team member, who does something incredible, but the team has to react accordingly to have a chance at attempting to make something our of the new opportunity. For example - sending a Rogue or Druid to try and ninja cap an outer Control Point might force some enemies to go there. Even if ninja cap is not successful - your team will have a short numbers advantage on other points. If everyone plays correctly you could get a cap or two.

Some windows of opportunity will be opened when your team plays dirty. It's a good idea to watch respawn timers, and set your Mages + Hunters to roam the map around the Graveyard. This will keep the enemies back for a longer time, allowing you to freely take some control points after the match. It will be important that they don't die during this roam, as losing Control Points immediately after taking control of them.

Baiting is also a viable strategy. Since Blacksmith zone is placed on an island that has a bridge connecting BS with LM, what very often will happen is that a team will rush towards BS. And as soon as enemy team reacts by jumping down from LM by slowfall to reach BS ASAP - they will change direction to Lumber Mill. It's a very common tactic and it can be countered by smart teams who can read through such bluffs

The most important individual plays a player can do in this instance is flag spinning, as it will be done mainly to protect Control Points when your teammates are down. Mages and Paladins are experts in this field. Mages with their Iceblock and various Crowd Control, and Paladins with their Bubble + Healing. But any class can do this if they equip grenades. Flag Spinning is crucial if things go wrong, as you and your teammates will be able to prevent enemies from capping a point, by just stalling the enemy team until the respawn timer releases your team.

Tips & Tricks

Don't panic. Only one scenario is troublesome enough, when you are left as the only man standing from your team, and your responsibility is flipping the flag. This might be stressful. In any other situation - your team has got you covered. Communicate with them, warn them of any unexpected occurrences, and if you have a feeling that you know what you are doing and how to win - take a role of a leader and take your team to victory!

Don't overreact to enemy team trying to ninja cap your point. Don't break your own formation and discuss on the go who should go and stop the ninja cap, so you don't lose other objectives while splitting up to guard too many sides.

When you fight - give everything you've got. When you don't fight - look around. Constantly. Se tour graphics high enough, that you can see far away enemies. If some Druid or Rogue is sneaking to ninja cap one of the Control Points - it will make a huge difference if your team knows about that before you are alerted that your point is being taken.

Everything is happening quickly. Don't let that stop you from taking your time in planning ahead. Lots of plays are meant to be deceptive, breaking your formations, and exposing weakpoints in your team. Especially when it comes to premade vs premade games. Don't make rash decisions with your team. Stop for a second, take a deep breath and think what can come out of your reactions and commands. Try to think one step ahead, see through the bait, don't let enemies deceive you, and you will come out on top in most situations.

Recognize who you are playing with and who you are playing against. This is not the most friendly space. PUG will be dominated by premades and players that know each other most of the time, as premades are more coordinated, they have a certain gameplan, and it's possible that they've practiced various scenarios multiple times. While you can win if you are in a PUG team, it will be incredibly hard to do so. Your team will be the underdog, but that's a huge opportunity for individual improvement. If you manage to form up a stable team, you will be a very valuable asset. You could gain more wins with a stable team. 

You can also gain some reputaion and Honor through playing this gamemode at a quite great level of speed. But more on that you will be able to view in our WoW Classic Neutral Reputation Guide.

Prepare. Purchase some Engineering stuff to make your time in Arathi Basin. It might be also a good idea to get some ads (addons, or adds if you will). Fighting against players that have played WoW for a long time - filling their boots will be hard, especailly when you are placed against them. You will need every chance that you can get to defeat them. Use everything that you can get to make your 

Bonus Tip

While this guide isn't very specific it might be a good idea to visit our guide on your mobile device while in-game to reinforce certain tactics. This way you could get a better win rate, games of better quality, or just more kills. And sometimes tactics will mean as much as having that extra Arms Warrior, or just some luck, so work on your mechanics as well. How else are you going to get those Arathi acheievements if not by luck complemented with tactics? Tactics will upgrade your gameplay, and nothing else. Don't put your focus entirely on it. 

Summary

This is the end of our Arathi Basin Guide for the current patch. After reading this you should just hop on any role that is more interesting to you, and just apply the theory that you've just acquired. Leave some marks behind you, give us some reports and feedback, report back to us after trying out this guide. After we receive positive a review - you can expect more guides similar to this one, we may reply as well, just like on our forums.

Feel free to share if you have the stamina to capture some good players into your team, so you can get focus on starting to get serious. Maybe you would like to see an extension to one of the sections? Maybe you would like to know something about item rewards, how to reach exalted, or specific Factions that are a part of this conflict?  Or maybe you would love to find something better than Wowhead? Let us know here, or on our Facebook and Twitter. You could follow us on these sites to keep yourself updated. If you include a piece of honest feedback - quality of our guides will surely improve. Also - check deals from our players. Each vendor can put out something completely unique. Content for Heroes of the Storm, League of Legends, DotA 2, Everquest, and more. 

Don't make this WoW Classic Arathi Basin guide your only source of knowledge. Watch a video (or a stream) with lots of data collected, start your game up, log, queue in and experience the game yourself for a few days, hide in one of the zones and observe how other people play.  

Please take your time and continue to our links with content for Warsong Gulch and Alterac Valley guides (both have some helpful screenshots). Pick one gamemode and master it. We can't guarantee that you will always have an answer for any scenario, as these are simply too long to fully describe, so you might still fail in your quests. It's impossible to grasp them without experiencing them yourself. So go out there, and experience. We believe in you. Wreak complete havoc, Stranger! To the Arena, to the battlegrounds, right now!