There are three different strategies I will talk about here. The Hard 3-Cap is the most conservative, to be used against strong opposition. The next is the Soft 3-Cap which is a standard opening if you feel like your team has a slight advantage. Lastly, the 5-Cap is my standard opening when you have a fully organized group against a PUG, or poorly balanced opponent.

When describing the basics to these strategies, I will be referring to the 5 different classes of units below:

Main Assist – This unit is ideally an Arms Warrior, or a Hunter. The idea is that the DPS can /assist whoever is the main assist in their combat group, allowing for focused fire. The mortal strike debuff will make targeted enemies more difficult to keep alive.

Healer – These are classes that will do very little besides healing. If you are going to put 2 healers in a combat group, try to distribute them to create some synergy. Spread out paladins for initial crusader buffs, and match healers who have HOTs, and those who do not together.

Off Healer – This is a class that could heal if the fight begins to go poorly, such as non-resto shaman, shadow priests, etc. An off healers responsibility is to make sure the healer stays alive. Thus, if a battlegroups holy priest is under attack, an elemental shammy should try to keep him alive.

DPS – A DPS class kills things, and it would be advisable to have an assist macro for their battlegroups main assist. Like healing, creating group synergy when possible.

Ninja – Classes that can stealth can be group together to strategically attack or cap locations. A ninja team would ideally be able to quickly surprise and kill/cap a location if it is under guarded. Feral druids and rogues are ideal, but mages can be used as well thanks to invisibility. If there are extra healers, a resto druid could be used in this position to provide some crowd control.

In this strategy, three nodes are held, and little to no offense is played the entire game. Alliance will hold the Stables/Blacksmith/Mine, where horde will hold Farm/Blacksmith/Mine. The general idea is 3-4-3 defense at stables/smith/mine, with 5 roaming defenders stationed between all three locations.

The Set Up

Teams should be divided something like the following.

With Group 1 and Group 3 going to the BS, there should be sufficient DPS and healing to cap this location. In a hard 3 cap, it is crucial to win the BS on the first attempt, as the game can drag out if it is lost.

Group 2 should be able to put up a fight at the mine. Try to make sure there is a class that has a ‘bubble’ type button (paladin, mage, etc) that will gives them a few extra seconds at the end of a losing battle to keep opponents off the flag.

Group 4 should be a class and player who can survive. Classes that have bubble abilities are ideal. That way, if there is a surprise assault on the farm, the defender will have to survive while backup is dispatched.

The **Mobile** tags on the 6 players will be explained in the mid game strategy.

The initial battle should look something like this:

Early Game

With well balanced groups, and a numbers advantage at both combat nodes, all three flags should be capped. If this is true, go ahead and skip to Mid Game Strategy, as the early game has gone well. Here are some possible scenarios that could happen if things go poorly early game:

Mid Game

Here, the players tagged with **Mobile** become the roaming defense. Players should be made aware from the start gate if they will be on static or mobile defense. If a player is on mobile defense they should sit at the crossroad between BS, Mine/LM, and Stables/Farm. This allows the mobile group to be quickly dispersed to groups nodes about to receive an incoming attack. If all 5 react to an attacked location, there will be 8-9 defenders at the location. If a second node is attacked during the main attack, there will still be 3 defenders at the location, including a healer. It is crucial to not over-commit your mobile forces, don’t send all 6 if only 1-2 are needed.

End Game

If the other team is not as powerful as anticipated (of if there is a substantial lead in your favor), the hard 3-cap can be changed in to a soft 3-cap. However, I do not recommend changing. By 4 capping half way through a the 20 minute game, you’ll run off roughly 3-4 minutes of time, and risk turning a 3-cap in to a 2-cap (which will add substantial time, or may result in a loss). While three capping can be a bit dull, it is successful, and very formidable against both zerging teams, and teams that try to ninja.

This game will end exactly how the mid-game works, with three nodes capped. The game will take approximately 20 minutes to complete.

In this strategy, three nodes are held, with 1 defender. Alliance will hold the Stables/Blacksmith/Mine, where horde will hold Farm/Blacksmith/Mine. The general idea is 1-1-1 defense at stables/smith/mine, with 2 roaming defenders and 9 offense units able to break assault additional nodes.

Set-up / Early Game

Teams should be divided the same way as they were above.

In this strategy, the opening will be identical to the hard 3-cap. Groups 1 and 3 will ride to BS, Group 2 will assault the mine/LM, and group 4 will guard stables/farm. Responses to issues should be delt with the same way as the hard 3-cap strategy.

Once all three nodes are secured, proceed to Mid Game Strategy.

Mid Game Strategy

Defense, Offense, Offense! Your three main defenders should be on voice chat constantly, able to call incomings as needed. The four roaming defenders should station themselves at the crossroads between the three nodes. They will be able to quickly reinforce nodes as needed. However, the offense should also be mindful to incoming zergs, and position themselves as needed.

Offense generally will attack as a unit, bringing up to 8 units on a node. However, attacking could also be easily coordinates by using Group 1, and Group 2 commands. For example, “G1 hit LM north side, G2 hit LM south side.” Group 3 should contain any members that may be used as a ninja group. A basic strategy would be to have Groups 1 and 2 pull defenders away from a node, and having the ninjas strike/cap flag right after a res group runs by. In the below picture, ninja are represented by yellow dots.

End Game Strategy

It is vital to have 3 nodes. If you lose a node, consider converting back to a standard hard 3-cap, until your lead is sufficient to try a soft 3-cap again. If you cap a 4^th node, assign a defender, spread your roaming defense to two separate cross roads, and go for the 5^th cap. Having 1 roamer between stables/mine/BS and Stables/LM/BS still allows for some initial backup to arrive if a defender is caught off guard. If you’re able to 4 cap relatively quickly, the win time should be approximately 15 minutes or so.

In this strategy four nodes are assaulted simultaneously, minimal defense is played. The goal is to win as quickly as possible, and acquire as much honor as possible. It can be very effective when a fully organized unit plays against an unorganized PUG.

Set-up / Early Game

Teams should be divided something like the following.

Groups 1 and 4 will attack the Smith (with the exception of the stables Defender), Group 2 will attack the LM, and Group 3 will hit the mine. Ideally, all 4 locations will be captured. If a node is un-contested, it is not necessary for more than the designated defender to dismount and cap the flag. Units available should ride through to the farm. The goal is to get enough units at the farm to contest the node before the opposition is able to cap it, thus causing all respawns to happen back in the starting location. If a location is being over-run, it will be vital to call out the issue as soon as possible. Depending on the situation, farm/stable assaulters could be re-routed to the territory being lost.