Battlemaster Guide - Willbender of Kil'Jaeden

Battlemaster

Hi there!

Willbender here! Among the 12K+ achievements out there, I must say the one I had invested the most amount of time into getting would be the Battlemaster achievement. There are 5 battlegrounds with multiple achievements in each are required to grant you the title of Battlemaster. Upon completion of this achievement, I stumbled on a lot of short cuts and helpful tips I could pass on to other people. Whether it be by pug or premade, I’ll share my secrets and strategies so that you can join the ranks of the Battlemasters of Azeroth ^_^.

Eye of the Storm

Hi there!

Willbender here! Let’s kick off the Battlemaster guide with (in my opinion) the easiest of the 5 battleground to get all the achievements for, Eye of the Storm. EOTS does not have many, “Luck Based,” achievements (such as Arathi Basins We Had it all Along *Cough*). So without further ado, let’s get into it ^_^.

Let’s start this off with a brief description of the BG. Eye of the storm is basically a clever combo of Arathi Basin and Warsong Gulch. With 15 players on both sides, the object of this BG is to gather 1600 resources before the opposing team does. There are 4 towers to guard (which are similar to the towers in East Plauge Lands and Zangarmarsh) and a flag to run to towers under your control to gain these resources much quicker. Towers alone give you a small number of resources (the more towers you own, the higher amount of resources you will yield). The big points come from the flag captures (once again, the more towers you own, the higher amount of resources you will yield per capture).

- Eye of the Storm Victory/Veteran: Ultimately, you have to gather 100 victories in EOTS to gain this achievement. So for this guide I thought I’d give my best strategies for winning an EOTS. There are 2 strategies that I have found be effective more times than not.
Strat 1 – Hold 2 bases and run flag constantly: Depending on the overall strength of your factions win percentage, you would normally hold the two bases on your starting side, with heavy defense (at least 5 at each base). Then send a party of 5 or so to run the flag. 1 of those 5 takes the flag to a tower under your control while the rest of the flag group camps the flag spawn area and waits for the next. The only down side to this strategy is there is no pressure on the opposing team so they can attack or zerg any base of their choosing. So communication is key to this for fortifying attacked areas.
Strat 2 – Hold 3 bases while putting pressure on the forth and try to run the flag as often as possible: I favor this strategy way more than strat 1 simply because you’re giving your enemy less options. Start by splitting your forces up evenly going east and west. Take your first 2 bases by leaving 1-2 of your guys at them for cap and reports. Then send both of your remaining forces to the two enemy towers and see which gets capped (who knows you might get lucky and control them both). By this time (considering your enemy does not have a similar strat and it’s a draw) you should have 3 bases. This alone will give you victory even if the enemy can manage to run the flag. If you are able to, try and apply pressure to the 4th tower by sending troops from your two closest towers (the one across from it and the one connected by the bridge). The only flaw in the plan is that if you do this your forces will be fully spread out. And if you enemy can gain momentum they will attack a weak base.
As always with these wins, premades are recommended. Ventrilo/Skype communication and the overall attitude of victory make things much easier. Also, these strats are always tentative based on your enemy and their plans. So watch them and make appropriate calls.

- Flurry: To win in under 6 minutes. A premade for this is recommended (unless your enemy starts off with way fewer members). This strat will go hand in hand with the The Perfect Storm and Eye of the Storm Domination Achievements. You will need to evenly distribute your forces going east and west (NO FLAG UNTIL ALL 4 BASES ARE CAPPED). Before the start, assign 2 people (1 on each side) to stay back from the zerg teams and cap your side towers (you can have 2 but I prefer 1 for maximum offense). And also assign 2 people on the zerg team to run flags AFTER the 4 towers are capped. With the exception of those 2 people taking your sides bases, the rest stay mounted and cross your respective bridges to face the enemy at their towers. Your numbers should be so overwhelming that taking their bases should be cake. Once you have the 4 towers, your other 2 members assigned to flag running will go to the flag and take turns running the flag (1 runs the other stays back and waits for spawn for maximum speed in caps). Why not have the guys at your sides towers run it? Well what if a stealthy enemy makes it past and caps the tower? Your entire plan has a wrench in it and delayed. The rest of the 11 camp them at their starting stone (or as I have come to call it “The Rock of Shame” ^_^). By now, your enemy is demoralized and raging at each other that the rest of you 11 can stop any optimistic and suicidal enemies.

- Storm Capper: Not much to make a strat for. But use anything or anyone that can make you go faster or remove movement impairments. I’ll go over individual ones in the Bound for Glory Achievement.

- Storm Glory: Safe to say that getting 4 bases is a semi difficult feet (at least if you are a pug). Mostly, if it’s looking like your team is close to a 4 cap (capped 3 and the enemy just lost control of their last one) move into position of the flag and start your pro clicking. For a strategy to get to a 4 cap, refer to my strategy on The Perfect Storm and Eye of the Storm Domination.

- Take a Chill Pill: One of the very few “Luck Based” achievements in the EOTS meta. More or less you just have to catch an enemy with the buff. The buff lasts for a minute so you have that in your favor at least. Some people will be after the Bloodthirsty Berserker Achievement so it’s not like the buff is completely ignored. Otherwise, if you want to try and force them into the buff, fears and mind controls work humorously well. Either way, moving in a group is always recommended to aid in killing your enemy faster. You will need the killing blow for this so try and communicate that to your killing party.

- Bloodthirsty Berserker: Quite simply, find the buff shaped like a giant screaming skull that’s red and coming out of a chest located in one of the 4 towers at random, walk over it, gain the effects and get a killing blow. Any questions? No? OK MOVIONG ON! Lol.

- Bound for Glory: A partial premade is recommended for this achievement. 4-5 should be just fine. A healer in this is very much recommended as well. The key to this is obviously not dying until you have completed the achievement. Otherwise your waiting for the next game. The one thing working in your favor is that the caps don’t have to be one after the other. So just play it conservative. Use any at all of your own classes ways to up speed (Sprint, Blink, Demonic Teleport, ECT). Also, using your healers speed abilities are nice (Hand of Freedom, Body and Soul, ECT). And if you really want to use all possible resources, buy a few Swiftness Potions from the AH or a local Alchemist. And of course, Engineers are rather OP for this ><.

- The Perfect Storm: A premade for this is recommended (unless your enemy starts off with way fewer members). This strat will go hand in hand with the Flurry and Eye of the Storm Domination Achievements. You will need to evenly distribute your forces going east and west (NO FLAG UNTIL ALL 4 BASES ARE CAPPED). Before the start, assign 2 people (1 on each side) to stay back from the zerg teams and cap your side towers (you can have 2 but I prefer 1 for maximum offense). And also assign 2 people on the zerg team to run flags AFTER the 4 towers are capped. With the exception of those 2 people taking your sides bases, the rest stay mounted and cross your respective bridges to face the enemy at their towers. Your numbers should be so overwhelming that taking their bases should be cake. Once you have the 4 towers, your other 2 member assigned to flag running will go to the flag and take turns running the flag (1 runs the other stays back and waits for spawn for maximum speed in caps). Why not have the guys at your sides towers run it? Well what if a stealthy enemy makes it past and caps the tower? Your entire plan has a wrench in it and delayed. The rest of the 11 camp them at their starting stone (or as I have come to call it “The Rock of Shame” ^_^). By now, your enemy is demoralized and raging at each other that the rest of you 11 can stop any optimistic and suicidal enemies.

- Eye of the storm Domination: For continuous wins to gain this achievement, a premade for this is recommended (unless your enemy starts off with way fewer members). This strat will go hand in hand with the Flurry and The Perfect Storm Achievements. You will need to evenly distribute your forces going east and west (NO FLAG UNTIL ALL 4 BASES ARE CAPPED). Before the start, assign 2 people (1 on each side) to stay back from the zerg teams and cap your side towers (you can have 2 but I prefer 1 for maximum offense). And also assign 2 people on the zerg team to run flags AFTER the 4 towers are capped. With the exception of those 2 people taking your sides bases, the rest stay mounted and cross your respective bridges to face the enemy at their towers. Your numbers should be so overwhelming that taking their bases should be cake. Once you have the 4 towers, your other 2 member assigned to flag running will go to the flag and take turns running the flag (1 runs the other stays back and waits for spawn for maximum speed in caps). Why not have the guys at your sides towers run it? Well what if a stealthy enemy makes it past and caps the tower? Your entire plan has a wrench in it and delayed. The rest of the 11 camp them at their starting stone (or as I have come to call it “The Rock of Shame” ^_^). By now, your enemy is demoralized and raging at each other that the rest of you 11 can stop any optimistic and suicidal enemies.

- Stormtrooper: A partial premade is recommended for this achievement. 3-4 should be just fine. This is also one of the very few “Luck Based” achievements in the EOTS meta. You can either wait on the sides on the middle and wait for a horde to start taking the flag. Than once he’s about 75% done taking it, your group storms in just in time for him to have grabbed it and kill him there. Repeat that 4 more times. This, however, has proven ineffective more times than not. What I recommend is either you or a team mate informed of this strat pick up the flag. Than head towards an enemy controlled tower (just wait I’m not leading you into the pits of hell unprepared ><). Halfway between their base and the middle ground wait for the enemy to come near you. Drop the flag right in front of them. They will probably think you’re an idiot that popped a CD that makes you drop it. Once the poor sap picks up the flag destroy him and wait for another horde to pick it up and repeat until 4 more kills. Of course if no enemies are nearby, just pick it up and jester for them to come forward. This is by far one of the most fun achievements to do in any of the 5 needed for Battlemaster. So enjoy ^_^

Warsong Gulch

Hi there!

Willbender here! The next installment in my Battlemaster guide is my personal favorite Battle Ground, Warsong Gulch. WSG does not have many, “Luck Based,” achievements (such as Arathi Basins We Had it all Along *Cough*). So let’s get into the basic idea of this Battle Ground.
Warsong Gulch, in short, is the games true capture the flag BG. With 10 people on both sides, the object of the game is to take the enemies flag and return it to your base with your flag still in your possession 3 times. The first one to get 3 caps, or the most caps in 25 minutes in declared the winner. Simple explanation, must be a cake BG right Mr. Will? HA! Let’s just see some of these achievements than start talking.

- Warsong Gulch Victory/Veteran: Ultimately, you have to gather 100 victories in WSG to gain this achievement. So for this guide I thought I’d give my best strategies for winning a WSG. There are 3 strategies that I have found be effective more times than not. I’ve ranked these from least effect to most effective (Strat 1 being least effective and Strat 3 being most).
- Strat 1 - Keep a portion of your group in your flag room while a flag team gets enemy flag: The intent of this strategy is to slow your enemy from auto taking the flag and giving your flag group the upper hand by reaching your base way faster than the enemy can have time to get out of your base. The flaw in this is that the defense group almost always gets wiped out. It is key that as soon as they die they either meet up with their flag carrier or make another attack on the enemy group making away with your flag. This strat, if not properly communicated on, can lead to division in your team. But if this is a premade with ventrilo, than this is a very viable option. Just make sure to evenly separate heals and dps in each group.
- Strat 2 – Group moves in 2 groups. Group 1 gets the flag and group 2 intercepts the enemy team in mid field. This is a slightly more effective strat that #1. This strat insures that your defense group lives way longer. WAY more time than not, if you can trap 2 or 3 of the enemies team, the rest will just move on without them. So you just reduced their forces by a decent amount and their initial group up is gone. That group can now either camp there grave or rejoin with your teams flag carrier group. The only flaws with this plan is if your defense group stays over at the graveyard, they will more than likely stay glued there and if the enemy catches on it won’t be hard for the enemy to kill off your flag group. Also, unless you’re facing another premade, after the initial gates rise, they are never in a fully grouped up formation any longer. So a new strat will need to be deployed.
- Strat 3 – Move as one group always and intercept the enemy flag carrier when they reach mid: This strat has proven most effective in my opinion. Your 10 man unit moves as one to the enemy flag room, follow your carrier out to the middle, and locate the enemy with your flag. All 10 of you (even the flag carrier) move in to kill the enemy flag carrier and proceed to capping. Rinse and repeat. If you die, relocate the cluster of moving yellow dots. There really is no flaw in this plan outside of facing another premade who’s gear and skill far exceed you all.

- Capture the Flag: ...do what the pretty achievement tells you to do! Naw let’s see. This achievement will go hand and hand with Iron Man. However, unlike with Iron Man this achievement will not require a premade (unless you so choose). There’s always a few tricks to making this go faster. I, being a Warlock, like you put my portal on the ledge just above the flag room, in case there is a defense group. Click the flag in instantly port back up (that tends to get some people laughing or angry real fast ). If your any other class, the tunnel is usually a popular spot to run out of due to the speed boost chest ½ way through the tunnel. If avoiding the enemy in the middle is more your style, than escapes to one of the sides and try to go behind huts and bushes to avoid being seen instantly. Use any at all of your own classes ways to up speed (Sprint, Blink, Demonic Teleport, ECT). Also, using your healers speed abilities are nice (Hand of Freedom, Body and Soul, ECT). And if you really want to use all possible resources, buy a few Swiftness Potions from the AH or a local Alchemist. And of course, Engineers are rather OP for this ><.

- Warsong Gulch Perfection: A premade is recommended for this achievement; although I have seen many pugs pull it off without one. This strat will go hand in hand with the Warsong Expedience achievement start. The one thing that’s nice about this perfection achievement that sets it apart from the other one is the fact that it there is some wiggle room to work with, provided that your enemy never caps a flag. You have all 25 minutes to play with and everything. I will give my best strat for winning fast and effectively. Your 10 man unit moves as one to the enemy flag room, follow your carrier out to the middle, and locate the enemy with your flag. All 10 of you (even the flag carrier) move in to kill the enemy flag carrier and proceed to capping. Rinse and repeat. If you die, relocate the cluster of moving yellow dots. There really is no flaw in this plan outside of facing another premade whose gear and skill far exceed you all.

- Warsong Expedience: A premade is recommended for this achievement; although I have seen many pugs pull it off without one. This strat will go hand in hand with the Warsong Gulch Perfection achievement start. I will give my best strat for winning fast and effectively. Your 10 man unit moves as one to the enemy flag room, follow your carrier out to the middle, and locate the enemy with your flag. All 10 of you (even the flag carrier) move in to kill the enemy flag carrier and proceed to capping. Rinse and repeat. If you die, relocate the cluster of moving yellow dots. There really is no flaw in this plan outside of facing another premade whose gear and skill far exceed you all.

- Not So Fast: A partial premade is recommended for this achievement. This is also one of the very few “Luck Based” achievements in the WSG meta. You have to kill someone with the speed buff that is only available in the tunnel of either teams tunnel. More than likely, the buff is gotten when the enemy is trying to make a fast break with your flag. One option is to pursue the enemy with the flag as soon as he gets it and runs for the tunnel. You just have to make sure you don’t kill him before he can get the buff. And if you’re in a pug that makes it even harder. What I suggest is grabbing your partial premade and hiding across from the buff, near the ramp going to the top of your base, and ambushing the enemy as he gets close enough to where he won’t turn back. In your premade, there should be a hunter/DK/ anything of that sort than can slow the enemy so you can kill him in place when he gets the buff. Even having a rogue stealthed just in front of the buff can help a lot. With this strat, getting this achievement should be easier than expected.

- Frenzied Defender: Depending on the strengths of both sides, this achievement could be very easy or very hard. For this achievement, you will want to stay loose in the BG, watching your minimap at all times to see just where the flag is heading. If you can hold your own, I suggest hanging around in the middle. The best way to get flag captures is to do w/e you do (DPS or heals) until the enemy is just below 25% health. At this time you’re going to want to start spam clicking above the enemies head. This will almost insure a capture for you (unless you latency is through the roof). Rinse and repeat 4 more times.

- Not in my House: A partial premade is recommended for this achievement. More than likely, unless your premade is very strong, the very first flag attack won’t happen, since the entire enemy force (or just about all of them) will be in the flag room. Either way, you’re going to want to camp your group in the flag room, blocking both exits. Hunter traps, DK chains and any other slowing/stunning methods you can muster will need to be in here. You only need 2 so with a group on the same page, you’ll grab them up fast.

- Persistent Defender: This one will just take some time and quite a few BG’s depending on how well your faction does in WSG. For this achievement, you will want to stay loose in the BG, watching your minimap at all times to see just where the flag is heading. If you can hold your own, I suggest hanging around in the middle. The best way to get flag captures is to do w/e you do (DPS or heals) until the enemy is just below 25% health. At this time you’re going to want to start spam clicking above the enemies head. This will almost insure a capture for you. Rinse and repeat 49 more times.

- Supreme Defender: This one will just take some time and quite a few BG’s depending on how well your faction does in WSG. Just be overly offensive when pursuing your enemy. I’d suggest, as long as you can hold your own, hang loose in mid field. Even though your prime objective is to kill the flag carrier, if he has heals on him, he won’t budge (unless you outnumber his team greatly). Do your best to at least get CC’s up on the heals than go after the flag carrier.

- Ironman: A premade is recommended for this achievement for a couple of reasons. 1 because if you are in a pug, chances are they won’t listen to you when you ask them not to grab the flag and you don’t want to run that risk if you’re close. 2 because this will just make surviving easier on you. Your main goal is to live and cap. If you die it’s over. So don’t do anything hasty. Stay with your group and you will get it. For this one, I wouldn’t recommend using any speed boosts. Simply because you NEED to stay with your party. To insure the enemy doesn’t make away with your flag and separating, refer to the guide on Warsong Gulch Victory/Veteran. And if they should get away with it, than you will want to have 2 groups. Group 1 will have the flag carrier. This group should have 2 heals and 2 DPS. The rest get the flag back. Once the flag is back, group one head along the east side on the map and up the ramp to meet up with group 2, which will be staying put guarding/killing off the enemy in the enemy flag room.

- Quick Cap: A partial premade is recommended for this achievement. RUN RUN RUN! But besides the obvious you will want to use all your classes speed boosts at good times. First off, buy some Swiftness Potions. At least 10 just in case you mess up. Now, as for the actual BG, your only option (for almost all classes) is to go down the enemies tunnel and grab the speed boost. But as soon as you grab the flag pop your first Swiftness Potion (this way the CD will be ready again close to the end. Now the boost in the tunnel will last through the rest of the tunnel, and about 35 yards into the field. It will be now that you will want to use your speed CD’s. By now your Swiftness Potion should be close to ready. Watch for it and hit it as soon as you can. Head up your tunnel and grab the speed boost in the tunnel is it is available. Now, aside from your own abilities, you can use others as well. In your premade, it would be nice to have a pally for Hand of Freedom, a priest with the glyph for Body and Soul, a hunter for his aspect when no one is on your tail and any others I have failed to mention.

- Save the Day: A partial premade is recommended for this achievement. To put it simply, you must kill the enemy flag carrier in his flag room when they also have their own flag (meaning he is 3 seconds from capping it). For your group, a DK is very handy to have. Your group will basically be chilling in there room waiting for the enemy flag carrier to come. Once he steps foot in his room the achievement becomes available (obviously you can DPS him low before then. Just don’t kill him). Stuns and slows are vital to your success here. If he should get to close to capping, than just have your DK Death Grip him back to a safe location. In this, unless your fears or CC’s are instant, don’t bother with his healers. You need to zerg him down ASAP!

Strand of the Ancients

Hi there!
Willbender here! Now I must go over my least favorite of all BG’s, Strand of the Ancients. Strand has some pretty difficult achievements for its meta. The only redeeming factor is that there are a few that have some short cuts and back doors to get to them. But let’s see if I can break the seal on some of these. Let’s start with a brief explanation on the BG’s nature.

Strand of the Ancients is like a mini version of Wintergrasp, minus the fun. So if you like Wintergrasp, be prepared to be sorely disappointed in this attempt at a younger sister. In this 15 man BG, your object is to break through walls to capture your enemy’s relic (some giant orangey sphere thing) faster than your enemy. At the start of the BG, your team is split up into two groups and they land on the shore by two separate boats on opposite sides of the shore. Both sides have 2 demolishers to pilot and bombs called seaforium. The demo’s health stack with your gear level. Both sides have 2 gates to destroy before converging on the middle yellow gate than the final relic door. Now that’s when you are on offense. You could start on defense (it’s random on what you start the BG out on). On defense you need to destroy all incoming demolishers and either kill people with the seaforium or disarm it when it is planted. Unlike Wintergrasp, defense can’t have vehicles. Now let’s get into the achievements.

- Strand of the Ancients Victory/Veteran: Ultimately, you have to gather 100 victories in Strand to gain this achievement. So for this guide I thought I’d give my best strategies for winning a Strand. Normally I would go into multiple strategies for victory. But honestly, there really is only 1 good strategy for this BG. If you start on offense you need to grab all 4 staring vehicles (2 from each side) and pick a gate to zerg. Why do we do this? Because the enemy always spreads there forces evenly so if you only face half of their team early, you can easily break through a lot of gates uncontested. Now, in case they do regroup and make a counter on you, here’s how you set up your team. Melee classes should be driving the demos while casters ride shotguns in them. This way the casters can watch the demos and CC or attack any attackers to your demo. The rest are ground troops protective the demos when the casters have their hands full, as well as grabbing bombs. Defense is pretty self explanatory. Kill the demos, defuse bombs, and always call out where they might be zerging and which direction a new demo is coming from.

- Storm the Beach: The only way to effectively get this achievement is with the zerg strategy. You need to grab all 4 staring vehicles (2 from each side) and pick a gate to zerg. Why do we do this? Because the enemy always spreads there forces evenly so if you only face half of their team early, you can easily break through a lot of gates uncontested. Now, in case they do regroup and make a counter on you, here’s how you set up your team. Melee classes should be driving the demos while casters ride shotguns in them. This way the casters can watch the demos and CC or attack any attackers to your demo. The rest are ground troops protective the demos when the casters have their hands full, as well as grabbing bombs.

- Artillery Expert: There are turrets guarding each gate, much like the ones in Wintergrasp. Put some damage on incoming demos a rack up the kills. Now here’s a fun little glitch I came upon when I was completing this achievement (mind you I did this over a year ago and things might be different). If I stayed parked in the turret, and a demo got killed, I still got credit for it even if I didn’t fire a single shot.

- Explosives Expert: At first glance this achievement might seem easy. But it is a bit harder than it looks. Though not as hard as its polar opposite achievement Steady Hands. First off you have to live long enough to plant it near a wall that’s still up. Then you need to stay alive to make sure it can explode before someone defuses it. The one thing you have on your side is any melee swing or burst damage from casters will interrupt the time it takes for the enemy to defuse the bomb. And unlike the achievement The Dapper Sapper you actually have to hit a wall that’s still up.

- Ancient Protector: This achievement just depends on the number of enemies coming in for the final kill and how much help you have from your side. Usually this is never a problem. Just chill near the relic door and fire away!

- Ancient Courtyard Protector: Basically the bigger version of Ancient Protector. This achievement just depends on the number of enemies coming in for the final kill and how much help you have from your side. Usually this is never a problem. Just chill near the relic door and fire away

- The Dapper Sapper: Basically the bigger version of Explosives Expert. Over time you just have to plant 100 bombs to damage a wall. This would be quite a challenge to do, even over time. First off you have to live long enough to plant it near a wall that’s still up. Then you need to stay alive to make sure it can explode before someone defuses it. The one thing you have on your side is any melee swing or burst damage from casters will interrupt the time it takes for the enemy to defuse the bomb. Now, here is a fun glitch to this achievement(mind you I did this over a year ago and things might be different). I found that even if you plant a bomb on or next to a broken wall, you still get credit for this achievement. Oddly enough it does not count for Explosives Expert.

- Artillery Veteran: This is the larger version of Artillery Expert. There are turrets guarding each gate, much like the ones in Wintergrasp. Put some damage on incoming demos a rack up the kills. Now here’s a fun little glitch I came upon when I was completing this achievement (mind you I did this over a year ago and things might be different). If I stayed parked in the turret, and a demo got killed, I still got credit for it even if I didn’t fire a single shot.

- Drop it now!: This achievement is relatively easy. You can always know who has the bomb in their possession due to a buff showing on their buff bar with a bomb on it. Either kill them or be in the general area of a team mate killing them 5 times and the achievement is yours. If you don’t want to wait for random kills, you can always try camping the areas the enemy can pick up the bombs (near workshops and graveyards).

- Not even a Scratch: A premade is recommended for this achievement. For your team to have a chance at this you must go with the zerg strategy and move as one unit. You need to grab all 4 staring vehicles (2 from each side) and pick a gate to zerg. Why do we do this? Because the enemy always spreads there forces evenly so if you only face half of their team early, you can easily break through a lot of gates uncontested. Now, in case they do regroup and make a counter on you, here’s how you set up your team. Melee classes should be driving the demos while casters ride shotguns in them. This way the casters can watch the demos and CC or attack any attackers to your demo. The rest are ground troops protective the demos when the casters have their hands full, as well as grabbing bombs. Protecting your demos takes priority over bombs obviously. If all goes well than you have gained one of the hardest achievements in the Battlemaster meta.

- Drop it!: This achievement is the larger version Drop it now!. Aside from the multiple games needed to farm this achievement, it’s relatively easy. You can always know who has the bomb in their possession due to a buff showing on their buff bar with a bomb on it. Either kill them or be in the general area of a team mate killing them 5 times and the achievement is yours. If you don’t want to wait for random kills, you can always try camping the areas the enemy can pick up the bombs (near workshops and graveyards).

- Steady Hands: Arguably one of the most underestimated achievements within the Battlemaster meta. Unless your enemy is dumb enough to walk away from the planted bomb seeing someone running to it, you will have a semi difficult time working this one. It takes about 2-3 seconds to disarm the bomb. Direct damage done to you will stop the defusing process, forcing you to start over. So AoE stuns and fears are highly needed here. Of course, if you wanted to get this cheaply, you could have a friend on the opposite team work with you to place a bomb at random and you disarm it with no retaliation. Just depends if you want to earn it or just get it and be done. The choice is yours.

- Defense of the Ancients: A premade is recommended for this achievement. This particular achievement is kind of dependent on which side you start on first. For this you would like to start on offense. This way you can get to the relic fast and cut the enemies time but a lot (usually they will only have 2 minutes if you have no troubles getting to their relic). Once the enemy lands you will want to start your assault on their demos. However, DO NOT destroy the demos until the enemy has gotten in them and is in semi pursuit of your gates. Why? Because the demos have a spawn timer when they get destroyed. And you want to give them as little time to grab a new one as possible. Once you have the first 4 dead, kill the players. Now, the key now will be camping there only graveyard in the middle of the beach. Maybe keep 2 players at each demo spawn area (near the boats) to kill those just in case a few slippery ones get away. Do this and your victory and achievement is assured.

Arathi Basin

Hi there!

Willbender here! Now let’s move on to the very first BG I ever attended as a noobie, Arathi Basin. Within the meta for Battlemaster AB has some of the hardest achievements to gather. And a lot of these are recommended to have partial or full premades to help go faster. But fear not! As a sheppard watching over his flock, I shall guide you in the right steps to gain victory and another BG to bite the dust. Let’s start with the basic idea of this BG.

Arathi Basin is the games true King of the Hill type BG. In this 15 player BG, the object is to gain 1600 resources before your enemy can do the same thing. You gain these resources by holding on to strategically located bases all around the map. There are 5 bases in all, high, low and middle grounded. The more you control the more resources you gather at a time. Now let’s see the “fun” achievements in the meta.

- Arathi Basin Victory/Veteran: Ultimately, you have to gather 100 victories in AB to gain this achievement. Now most strategies will depend on how the beginning of the match goes. Normally at the start you want to secure at least 3 bases. Call me crazy, but I have always preferred your closest node and Mines/LM. They are the easiest to guard due to their only being 2 ways to get to them. And LM has a superior view of all the bases (minus Mines). From there you would leave 2 people to guard both of those nods and hit your enemy’s home base (Stables or Farm depending on your faction). So you now have 3 secure bases and pressure on a forth. But as I stated in the beginning, this all depends on how well your staring push goes. You might end up with only 2 bases. In that situation I still suggest assembling a group to go to the enemies closest base to gain a 3 base lead. The rest is up to you and information you can gather through communication.

- Arathi Basin Assassin: A partial premade is recommended for this achievement. It can be done without one but it does make it go by a lot faster. There really isn’t much of a strategy to this. Just track it to see when you have collected your 5 so you can move on. Now, although I personally have not tested this glitch, I have heard from many sources that it at least use to work. If you stand near the flag at Blacksmith, any kills at the other nods become yours.

- Disgracin’ the Basin: A partial premade is recommended for this premade. It can be done without one but at least this way the people you’re helping to kill around you know to let you cap it. Otherwise you’re going on chance. This is surprisingly easier than its counterpart Overly Defensive or at least it seemed to so to me. So just take your team over to a base under enemy control and you have to be the one to assault it. Just make sure your way is clear since any direct damage will cancel your cap on the flag. With a pug, just try to ninja the flag as much as possible while letting your team do most of the dirty work. Now, if you want to be cheap, and know a kind opposing faction member on your server willing to aid you, you can try and queue up for the same BG and alternate in caps for each other.

- Let’s Get This Done: A premade is recommended for this achievement. Arguably the easiest speed achievement in the Battlemaster meta. Highly due to the fact that once you 5 cap the game ends in less than 1 minute. So here’s a strategy for how we are going to, “Get This Done.” First assign someone to cap your closest nod and stay at it to notify of enemy attack. Next, split up your group into 3 teams of 5 (1 group will have to have 4 since 1 is guarding stables). Now every Battlegroup is different so use your digression on where you send your smaller group of 4. For my Battlegroup, it’s usually the mines that are seldom gone after. So send your groups to Mines/LM/BS. Now, the key to this strategy is how fast 1 of those 3 teams can begin capping and move on to your enemy’s closest node. As always, communication is key. The team that has little to no resistance needs to keep most of its members still mounted and auto heading for the enemies closest node. However, if your particular node has a lot of enemies, than the whole group stays until they are all gone. But eventually all 3 groups (leaving back at least 1 guy at each capped base to guard and call out incomings) will converge on your enemies closest node. From there you can either camp them at their starting area or send back up troops to an effected area, whichever is best needed.

- Arathi Basin All-Star: A partial premade is recommended for this achievement. A combo of Disgracin’ the Basin and Overly Defensive, though the amount of each is reduced for obvious reasons. For this your team needs to both be on the offensive and watch out for calls on incomings and caps. Now, if you want to be cheap, and know a kind opposing faction on your server willing to aid you, you can try and queue up for the same BG and alternate in caps for each other.

- Me and the Cappin’ Making in Happen: The larger version of Disgracin’ the Basin. This will just take some time to grind out. If you want to gather a partial premade for this feel free to. With a pug, just try to ninja the flag as much as possible while letting your team do most of the dirty work.


- We Had it All Along *cough*: Arguably the most frustrating and hardest achievement there is in the Battlemaster meta. I personally have been in 3 matches (twice in 1990-2000 and oncein 1590-1600). Most of it is just how the bases and resources falls. One add-on I will suggest is DBM. This will tell you that if the bases stay as they are what score will happen. Also it gives a timer on caps for bases which can be very handy. If you want to try and premade this you merely need to watch your resources and alternate from a 2-3 3-2 cap. If you like your reflexes you can always try and let them get high than take over drastically. Though my suggestion is the 3-2 2-3 swap. It will just require good precision. If you ask me, I’d save this as a last achievement to seriously go after until all other hard ones are out of the way. This way, you might get put in a pug BG (like I did 3 times) and get it without so much effort.
Now, here is an alternative strategy that I have used and can be effective if an ABSOLUTE FULL PREMADE WHERE LOTS OF COMMUNICATION IS USED! What we did was capped our closest node and BS and allowed the opposite faction to cap their closest node and mines. This gave each team 2 nodes, and caped within seconds of each other (our node than theres, our node than theres). Now you may be asking what we did with LM. We had a team go there as well but never capped it. We just left it uncontested, thereby only allowing 4 bases to grant resources so it was evenly distributed. As far as the team grouping was concerned, we kept 3 at our closest node, and 6 at BS and LM. However, we kept a DK at BS in case our closest node was attacked, we sent him with 2 others to help defend that node by crossing the water fast. As always, watch DBM to see if the resources match up. Happy hunting on that one ><.

- Arathi Basin Perfection: A premade is recommended for this achievement. So here’s my strategy for this achievement. First assign someone to cap your closest node and stay at it to notify enemy attacks. Next split up your group into 3 teams of 5 (1 group will have to have 4 since 1 is guarding stables). Now every Battlegroup is different so use your digression on where you send your smaller group of 4. For my Battlegroup, it’s usually the mines that are seldom gone after. So send your groups to Mines/LM/BS. Now, the key to this strategy is how fast 1 of those 3 teams can begin capping and move on to your enemy’s closest node. As always, communication is key. The node that has little to no resistance needs to keep most of its members still mounted and head for the enemies closest node. However, if your particular node has a lot of enemies, than the whole group stays until they are all gone. But eventually all 3 groups (leaving back at least 1 guy at each capped base to guard and call out incomings) will converge on your enemies closest node. From there you can either camp them at their starting area or send back up troops to an effected area, whichever is best needed.

- Territorial Dominance: Another grind to get. For this one I will just lay out my best strategy for gaining all 5 bases fast holding them. First assign someone to cap your closest node and stay at it to notify enemy attacks. Next split up your group into 3 teams of 5 (1 group will have to have 4 since 1 is guarding stables). Now every Battlegroup is different so use your digression on where you send your smaller group of 4. For my Battlegroup, it’s usually the mines that are seldom gone after. So send your groups to Mines/LM/BS. Now, the key to this strategy is how fast 1 of those 3 teams can begin capping and move on to your enemy’s closest node. As always, communication is key. The team that has little to no resistance needs to keep most of its members still mounted and auto heading for the enemies closest node. However, if your particular node has a lot of enemies, than the whole group stays until they are all gone. But eventually all 3 groups (leaving back at least 1 guy at each capped base to guard and call out incomings) will converge on your enemies closest node. From there you can either camp them at their starting area or send back up troops to an effected area, whichever is best needed. Rinse and repeat 9 more times.

- To The Rescue! : Another grind to get. For this you just want to stay loose on the roads and watch your text (or ventrilo if you are in a premade) and go to where attacked bases you control are being contested. As in the Disgracin’ the Basin achievement, for a pug anyways, you want to try and ninja the flag while the rest of your team does all the dirty work.

- Resilient Victory: A premade is recommended for this achievement. This strategy worked well for the group I led for this specific achievement. What we did was capped our closest base and stayed in the roads of LM and Mines. 5 at the base and 5 to each side of it on their respective roads. This gave the enemy a 4 cap and a quick lead. Then, once they were 450 resources ahead we began our assault. Those on the roads pushed for LM and Mines while the team mates at our base pushed for BS after clearing the enemy. This gave us the 4 cap and a halt to the enemies resource gain. We kept pressure on the 5th base while calling incoming on the 4 we controlled. It was literally as simple as that.

- Overly Defensive: A partial premade is recommended for this achievement. This is the harder counterpart to Disgracin’ the Basin in my experience. For this you just want to stay loose on the roads and watch your text (or ventrilo if you are in a premade) and go to where attacked bases you control are being contested. As in the Disgracin’ the Basin achievement, for a pug anyways, you want to try and ninja the flag while the rest of your team does all the dirty work.

Alterac Valley

Hi there!

Willbender here. Let’s end this guide with the BG I consider to be the hardest to get the meta for, Alterac Valley. You will need quite a bit of patients and guts to get all of these done. So let’s dive into the fire with a brief explanation of the BG shall we?

Alterac Valley was the first 40 man BG to be made. It combines it’s PVP nature with a PVE twist. The object of the game is to either kill the enemy’s General or reduce the enemy’s resources to 0 by killing enemy players and knocking down enemy towers. The map is rather big in comparison with other BG maps. A lot of twists and turns. And if you go to fast you might just miss a tower or Captain. Now into the achievement adventure!

- Alterac Valley Victory/Veteran: Ultimately, you have to gather 100 victories in AV to gain this achievement. As previously stated, there really are only 2 ways to win. To kill off the General or depleting your enemy’s resources. Since I despise the turtle/farm honor kills for depleting resources, I’m only going to give the general strategy to kill the General. Your unit charges for the enemy’s Captain. You may choose to split off and some capture towers. That’s perfectly fine since you really don’t need all 4 guards in the Captains room. Once the Captain is dead, you must proceed to cap all 4 enemy towers. This not only reduces their resources, but erases one of the Generals body guards. Each one of these guys boosts the Generals power and health, not to mention they hit hard themselves. So keep at least 5 people in each tower in case the enemy wants to back cap them. Once at least 3 towers have fallen you may begin your assault on the General at the opposite end of the map. I’m being very vague here for a reason. Premades seldom happen on this BG and it’s usually just a smart idea to go with what the whole group is doing unless you’re after specific achievements.

- The Sickly Gazelle: I got this achievement back when non 80’s were in the same AV as 80’s (oh that was easy…Chaos Bolt to da face?). But really, the name gives you the clue. You just need to sneak up on an under geared opponent and nuke him down. For the Horde, you can hide behind the Alliances Captains building and Alliance can hide under that small hill right after the IWB graveyard. Or just zerg someone with a group. It sound a lot harder than it really is.

- Everything Counts: We don’t seem to be getting to the hard ones yet. Odd. Well yet another achievement. I personally have never really worked towards getting a mine. Though they do gradually give you spare resources. So you just got to win with both in your control. Next?

- Stormpike Charger/Frostwolf Howler: Get some honor points and buy the thing at the vender in SW/ORG….NEXT!

- Alterac Graverobber: Alright now here’s a decent one. Accumulating 50 graves assaulted is not as easy as it may seem. The easiest way I found was to just try and lead the pack at the beginning of each match and cap the first graveyard you came across. After that if you want to stay loose around the map and cap graves that are in the control of the enemy that’s a plus. Just make sure you keep the NPC’s around the grave busy/dead while you cap. And if you want to be cheap, you can try to coordinate it with a friend from the opposite faction on your server to queue up for the same AV as you and just have them recap a grave after you cap it for multiple scores for your achievement.

- Stormpike Perfection: A premade is recommended for this achievement (GL w/that). This one is no joke. In all honesty I got this achievement when there were literally 15 enemy players on the opposite team for like ½ of the game. So if you don’t want to wait for such a glitch, than your going to need a great team who can multi-task. By that I mean capping enemy towers and back capping your own. Not to mention protecting your General. I suppose for this task you will need to split the team into 2 teams of 20. Team 1 protecting the General and back capping towers, and the other 20 splitting into sub groups and capping enemy towers keeping 5 in each. That’s about the best advice I can give. If you would like to premade this than you will need to have your members get an add-on called Preform AV Enabler(if that even still exists and works).

- Loyal Defender: This was one of the most fun achievements I got to do for the Battlemaster meta. If you can grab a DK for this run it will make it easier and way more funny to watch. Just chill out in your factions General’s room. When your enemy makes there move on your General, you kill them in the building. Having a DK means you can Death Grip them in and let the General slap him around a bit. It can be real exciting with a big group in there (I got about 25 kills with a small 8-9 man cell). Some warning before you jump into this. You must at least put some damage on the enemy before Van/Galv kills him. Why? If you don’t at least tag him, much like if you pet solos a mob, you will not get credit for the kill.

- Alterac Valley All-Star: A partial premade is recommended for this. For this, let’s just take it smooth and go in order of things you will see first. Let’s start by assaulting a graveyard. 99 times out of 100 you will give a graveyard way before you find a player or anything else for sure. Once you cap that, head towards the nearest uncontrolled tower and assault that. Now, make a U turn and head back to your side through the Field of Strife. Let’s kill someone here. Then keep heading in that same direction you were going in and get your defensive ones (whichever one is closest for you). What makes this hard is that if there are any troubles on any of these (minus your last one) it will throw off your timing and add more time between each. So just move as fast as you can and try to go towards the places with minimal resistance. Moving with a paladin for crusader aura can make a world of difference (not to mention a holy one who can keep your butt alive).

- To the Looter Go the Spoils: A pure RNG achievement. Off of NPC corpses and enemy body’s looted there is a chance you will loot the autographed picture. Loot it and it’s yours. And no. You can’t just buy it off the AH and have it work. Sorry cheaters! Though I suppose you could try and sell it to some sucKe…..nvm..forget I said anything!!

- The Alterac Blitz: A premade is recommended for this achievement (GL w/that). It is not a simple task to win this BG in under 6 minutes. In all honesty, you have no time to try and cap even 1 tower. You need to rush your men to the Generals room ASAP! You will need a good 3 tanks for this. One for the General, and 2 for the 4 guards. Some good heals and some fast DPS will be required as well. The only thing you have going in your favor is that you will not have many enemy players on you. But your group has to move fast and kill the General. My advice is to tank the general on one side and tank the body guards on the other, thereby reducing some whirlwind damage put out by the NPC’s. Don’t even touch the body guards. Just zerg the general.

- Tower Defense: For this one you must become adept at back capping. I tried getting random ones but failed a lot. So what I did was camp 1 tower and hid behind a hill waiting for the enemy to cap. Once they did, I waited for 5 seconds to see if they would leave. If they didn’t, depending on your group, I’d either charge or wait for back up to arrive. And if you want to be cheap, you can try to coordinate it with a friend from the opposite faction on your server to queue up for the same AV as you and just have them recap a tower after you cap it for multiple scores for your achievement.