On to Arathi Basin. There are basically 2 ways to win. GO offense or go defense. In either even the key is communication. I’m more of an offensive guy so I’ll go over how to go balls to the wall offense (which might contradict conventional wisdom) but take it from the guy who had a record of 63-2-1(yes you can draw in AB) all going offense. I’ll touch on defense as it is important but the concept is simple if you know how to do it.
First things first I’ll touch on how you communicate in Arathi Basin. Use the following format:
“INC [number of enemies] [GM, ST, BS, LM, FARM] from [GM, ST, BS, LM, FARM] [HELP, Under Control]

Examples:
Inc 4, GM from ST, HELP.
INC 10 GM from FARM Under control (it only took me about 2 seconds to write that BTW)

If you are going offense it is crucial to do this. In addition to calling out incs call out enemy numbers. If you’re attacking stables you should be able to see how many people are there. You don’t have to do it mid-fight but if you can do so, if you die do so at the res point.
Example:
4 at GM, 6 at ST

Now the reasoning....
Much like in real combat the side with the most current information will often win. It’s why most modern militaries have like 4 people behind every 1 soldier gathering information. Think GI JOE...knowing is half the battle.

Ok so you have ALL this information hopefully. If other people aren’t getting with the programs simply ask. A quick, “How many at ST” or MACRO the following.
“/BG Send update on enemy count at flags please” (this works for EOTS too) Then spam it till people get the hint.

Usually it takes like 2-3 minutes before people start actively reporting things then it’s time to analyze.
Your at the farm. There are no attackers. You just got ST 4, LM 3, BS 5, GM 3. Act on it. BS is getting hit hard or is well defended if it’s being defending you know you need 5 or more to take it, however GM and LM are just barely protected go after those first.

One thing you must take note of is that the other side is communicating too. So if you know there are 3 at GM or LM and you see on the map that there are 5 of your friends at GM or LM you can assume that the enemy has asked for help. I would guess some of the 5 at BS are going to peel off to go help...so if you’re at farm what do you do?
If you answered GO LM to help with the cap you answered wrong.

GO BS, even if you have to go solo or with 1 other person. Your objective is not to capture the flag (though you are gonna try) it’s to survive and annoy the hell out of the people at the BS so that they can’t afford to send help to the LM because they are most interested in killing you. You are now a distraction (this is the decoy strategy) while the 5v3 on GM or LM continues successfully. This is an important concept to digest, sometimes you can be more beneficial to a group if you act as a decoy vs assist in a cap.

OK so this is a little side strategy, but it’s important to understand as is the next point, res spots and times. Once you understand these points you can better go on offense because you know where you need defense.

Ok res spots in Arathi basin work real simple...people res at the closest res spot that’s under control. This helps you understand where the 3 people you just killed are going to end up. Using the same example above you, depending on where the people died you can pretty much bet that the 3 your side killed at the LM are going to res at the BS. Now there are 7 people at the BS...a strong ZERG type number that you can bet is going to either go Farm or try to retake LM, what this means is that you(who are probably dead from your “decoy tactic”) need to call that shyt out.

“At least 7 at BS”

This lets everyone know that other spots are soft, it also lets most people know that the BS is going to mount a large offense. So two things need to happen. 1 You need to have the LM go (which should have 5 people at it, possibly 4 depending on deaths) attack BS NOT sit and defend LM.

Here’s where the offensive mindset sets in. YOU KNOW that the LM is going to cap assuming you’re not being ninjad by a rogue or such, usually it should be clear right after a fight as the rogue would have popped up to defend it. It would be wise to send 1 person to scope out ST and make sure ST isn’t mounting an attack, remember there were 4 people there from earlier reports. If you’re at farms you should now be resed and hopefully you have a few people with you. If the LM is rushing the BS like they were told to do even with only 4 of them going in against the 5 it shold leave you with enough people at the farm to have EVERYONE go Gm. Why Everyone? Simple the opposing side is at the BS and is at least 60 -90 seconds away form Zerging anything. BUT as there is a 7v4 situation going on at the BS that means you can have a 5-7 v 3 head towards the Gm to cap. Now while the other side has been focused on protecting their nodes they are on the verge of losing them all.

AB is set up to where defending is difficult because of zergs. A quick “test” of which nodes have what and ANY defending group can be overrun. This is why I’ve never been one to “JUST defend”

The objective of the scenario above was not to show you EXACTLY what to do, it was to relay a very simple, very powerful message. The message being that you need to adapt and outthink the other side based on communication and the simple rule of More V Less.

As for overall objective and how to start Arathi Basin I’ll cover that quickly as well. The blacksmith is by far the most important node to take and keep. From there you can mount an offense to defend and cap anything quickly. In the same situation above chances are while the 5 went to attack the LM some of the attackers from the BS could have peeled off to assist. Hopefully there are more than 3 people at the Farm.

I personally would have preferred the BS over the LM. Once the attack at the LM commenced I would have waited for 1-2 of the people at the BS to go to help and then come in behind and taken the BS. Again knowing how res works this means that the dead would have popped up at the GM most likely. As SOON as the BS was assaulted I would have gone to assist the LM quickly. I say quickly because of two things.
1. the enemies you just sent to the GM res point are most likely going to attack the farm...i mean where else are they going to go?
2. The 5v3 situation you had at the LM is now a 5v5 situation and an extra 2 people could quickly turn that table. If the LM is successfully capped EVERYONE there will res at the ST and essentially you have a 3 point offense to work from. LM can now CONSISTENTLY slam into the ST to force them to hold it, while the remaining people at the farm and the BS can cap the GM. Once the GM goes down You should only have to leave 2 people at the LM and 1 person at the GM.

Again knowing how reses work all your dead will continue to res at the BS. Leaving 2 at the LM and 1 at the GM basically means that they should be able to prevent the opposing side from assaulting the flag long enough for reinforcements to arrive. THOSE at the BS need to assault from the GM side of the BS, NOT the LM side. You do this because then you can still defend the GM with all of your forces as anyone trying to go from the ST to the GM will run right into you. IF the ST leaves to go GM then you quickly dismantle the St and then send whatever force is necessary to control the LM. The group at the LM hopefully has said , “INC 4 LM” which lets you know that you should send about 3 people to the LM. 3+ the 2 already there equals victory. Now you have a 5 cap on your hands and you’re probably doing a little /dance.

Again the idea is to respond to the constant change and constant exposed weak point. And again the ONLY way this works is if you COMMUNICATE. People tend to catch on pretty damn quick when you communicate correctly and will begin to communicate too.

So we’ve gone over a general rule of numbers and how you should capitalize on weaknesses. We’ve gone over the bait method (sending people to attack to peel help off of a spot) and the decoy method (attacking a spot so as to tie up defenders), these are crucial components and you can actually do these by yourself.

We touched on how you should press the assault when your team is attacking to keep the opposing side busy. It’s crucial to know that if you’re going offense you have to decoy attack ALL THE TIME. It prevents your flags from being capped and lets you survive with a smaller force per node.

Once you have the enemy on their toes press the attack. Tell the guy crying “we need to hold 3” to STFU and move forward pressing the attack. Remember this only works if a majority of the team is on the same page. I find that usually 75% is on the same page which works because it means that there are a few saps who’ll stick around and defending willingly.

You should ALWAYS fight on the flag, but if you find that you’re sitting at one spot for to long it means that you’ve taken yourself out of the game. While defending make sure that you scope things out and continue to supply information. If you find that you’re the sucker who got stuck defending take a look at your map and take advantage of the opportunity to help coordinate the attack. If you see 10 guys at one node tell them to split it up or analyze the field of battle and say, “hey they are week at the stables” that way people know that they can go there. In Arathi Basin if you find that you’re JUST sitting then your’re doing something wrong.

Ok now most people will tell you that DEFENSE wins Arathi Basin in fact if you google AB strategy most of the guides tell you to 3 cap and sit. This CAN work but it’s boring as all hell and tends to fall apart quickly if the other team knows how to attack. (which if they read this guide they do).

Even thinking about it logically for a second will tell you defense is destined to lose.
You have 5 nodes with 15 people per side. That means a 3 cap will typically have 5 people per node. Now the OTHER team has 15 players who if they are smart will simply send 6 people at 1 node. And 6 people at the other and instantly the other team loses 2 nodes right...it’s just too hard to defend continually. Even if the other team “sends help” they are still sending people away from their 5-5-5 setup so now they have a 6-4-5 set up...guess where you attack now? That’s right the spot that has 4. IF the other team is content on sitting on a flag then just send their number +1-2 more to cap...it really is that simple to break the defense and this is exactly why I preach offense.

LOGIC simply dictates that if you’re sitting the other side will send more to overwhelm you. This is why it is so important to continually push the attack; you maximize the effectiveness of your forces because you force the other team to spend their resources defending... often from an inferior number.

Remember:
Communication
Continue the attack
Decoy attack constantly
Bait attack

And....FIGHT ON THE FUKIN FLAG.

To many times have I been “coordinating attacks and see 5 people all at a node and yet the node gets capped. This should not happen. ALL classes have some sort of AOE if you fight at the flag it’s damn near impossible to hve something capped because of how long it takes to res. There is a 30 second res counter, which means unless your team ALL die at the same time you should be able to have a continued presence at a node if you’re defending and not being completely over run.

How to beat the zerg team.
It’s real simple actually. If they have 8+ attacking anything you use the decoy method to have 4 people continually attacking the zerg and then you use the other 11 people to walk right behind them and recap things they are leaving from. If you find you’re in a group of 5+ and you’re not attacking a group of at least 6 people you’ve done something wrong you need to peel back and see where you’re overly soft.

On bait attacks (where you attack a node in order to have a few people from a different node leave to help) keep in mind that if you’re going to do this you need to inform other people.
“Hey 3 people go attack LM so that they send help from the BS and then we go in after.” You must always attack with MORE people when using a BAIT attack. Otherwise the defenders don’t panic and call for help.
Last note:
Horde should always seek to cap the BS, the Farm and the LM first and in that order of priority (farm is a given out the gate)
Alliance should always seek to cap the BS, the ST and the GM first and in that order of priority (st is a given out the gate)

So that’s blackthought’s patent pending strategy to Arathi Basin. Lots to digest and it tooks some time. Experience helps but most importantly you need to COMMUNICATE.