Greetings and salutations. I am Aikona, self proclaimed random battleground enthusiast hero. Combined across my characters I have far to many honourable kills and time spent waddling inside battlegrounds, more than I care to even admit to myself. The following will simply be a manual or a guide if you will but I wouldn't go that far.

It will simply shed some light to new players and hopefully people who have never given random battlegrounds a try a new outlook on it and why to do them.

I am just an average player with too much free time on his hands, even if they're not originally mine.

PS: English is my native language so if I do have grammar mistakes or spelling errors, feel free to shout at me.

CONTENTS

Chapter 1 - Purpose of this "Guide"
Chapter 2 - Classes and their usual / unusual roles
Chapter 3 - Specs
Chapter 4 - Battlegrounds
Chapter 5 - Atmosphere
Chapter 6 - Awareness
Chapter 7 - Addons
Chapter 8 - Macros
Chapter 9 - A few tips and tricks
Chapter 10 - Myths and Legends you may have heard

Chapter 1 - Purpose of this "Guide"
The purpose of this guide or just simply, a battleground manual if you will is to give some more in depth insight into random battlegrounds. This is viewed as mostly a casual part of the game but it simply being labeled and listed in the casual section on the pvp tab does not mean it will be easy or fun, at least not all the time. Hopefully if you've read through or will read through all this text, you may come out with a better understanding of how they work and how you, as a single player can change the entire battleground.

I will go over things such as some tactics which work in a random bg, do not apply them to rated. I will also mentions classes and what they are good at, this may change later into BFA but somehow I highly doubt it.

I will also go over a few addons which will make it easier to see what is happening around you and CC on enemy players. This will all help in the grand scheme of things.

Chapter 2 - Classes and their usual / unusual roles

Warrior - FC/Anti-tap/DPS
Warriors are quite meaty and can soak up a lot of damage, especially with a healer behind them. They are okay at doing single target damage and quite alright at cleave. Depending on their spec as dps they can either bring burst damage or bring a mortal strike, which is quite important as this debuff makes their target harder to heal. As a protection warrior, sad to say they may not be the best choice of a flag carrier but they are pretty good at staying alive and helping to stop a flag cap such as in the middle of Eye of the Storm. (This however can be done on the other two specs quite easily also.)

Paladin - Healer/DPS
Let me start this off with crushing dreams, protection paladin is not ideal. Holy and ret on the other hand are. Holy packs some power single target heals and sometimes AoE. Paladins bring with them multiple blessings or hands such as hand of sacrifice, blessing of protection and hand of freedom. They are quite nice to have but rely on casting. They are also quite tanky for a healer being in plate gear. Ret brings good single target and nice cleave, having some of the hands as a holy does. They also bring with them a dispel for disease and poison.

Hunter - Base & Flag defense/DPS
Hunters are a fun class in random bg. They have good damage, good control and they are able to have a pet out, which is great for defending but more on that later. They also bring roar of sacrifice possibly and freedoms.

Rogue - Base & Flag Defense/Anti-tap/Ninja
The sneaky little devils, the ones who see who cannot be seen. There are different ways a rogue can be useful in a random bg and simply having a rogue in your battleground group on your side can be a huge blessing. On the other hand having none and the enemy team having rogues, can be a curse.

Priest - Healer/DPS
Priest, what can I say? They bring a powerful dispel and a purge to the table. They have nice utility as a paladin with leap of faith and void shift as a shadow. They can dispel diseases also!

Death Knight - Anti-tap/DPS
Pretty useful to have as a melee with a ranged kick and a grip to pull in vulnerable targets. One of their specs has a pet so they are able to defend, not the best use of them though. They have powerful auras which can be a pain to the enemy team.

Shaman - DPS/Healer
Woah boy, shamans bring a lot of utility to the group in a random such as lust and tremor. Bonus utility such as grounding, wind shear being an interrupt on a short cd which has a long range and powerful spells and heals. Has a dispel which is able to remove curses and they have an offensive dispel.

Mage - Base & Flag Defense/DPS
Mages are fun. Good control, good CC and good burst depending on spec. They have a kick on a longish cooldown with a strong lockout. Frost has a pet and is capable of defending bases.

Warlock - Base & Flag Defense/DPS
Warlocks, well. Three ways to deal damage and one of your specs will always be decent. Never a bad choice. They can choose to play with a pet or sacrifice it gaining the ability. Healthstones, everyone loves them.

Monk - FC/DPS/Healer
Very nimble and agile. Monks can do some fancy things with port and an AoE stun. Able to dispel poisons as a dps.

Druid - Base & Flag Defense/Healer/DPS/FC
Very versatile with many roles and utility that it can offer. Very potent AoE healing, AoE damage or single target even in some scenarios.

Demon Hunters - Base & Flag defense/DPS/FC
Nimble, quick and the newest class released in the previous expansion of legion. They make good flag carriers due to their mobility and have some useful spells.

Chapter 3 - Specs

Warrior

Arms - Arms brings with it a strong execute and a mortal strike. Makes multiple people attacking the target the warrior is hitting make it so much more deadly.

Fury - Fury has a good burst but lacks a mortal strike, insanely fun to play and very deadly with a healer.

Prot - Can FC if no better choices are available, really good at stopping / interrupting flag caps at bases such as in Deepwind or Arathi.

In general, warrior is a pretty solid choice. Be sure to try stay near healers or get some heals premade with you before joining. Execute the low targets and profit from it.

Paladin

Holy - Holy is really good to have but try to keep an eye on their bubble. Keeping an eye on your holy paladin and helping him if he is under attack will help both of you. Hand of Sacrifice is quite a strong cooldown, very good on flag carriers and can save them from certain death. This may buy you enough time to control the situation and score a win from it. They also have an "Oh Shi..." button in the form of lay on hands which will top you.

Prot - Prot has some niche abilities and spells which can be useful but they do not always work the best in a random battleground.

Ret - Ret has good damage, nice offhealing and can also give blessings such as freedom and protection. Now that autobubble is no longer a thing currently, they are quite a nice target to attack.

In general, paladins are nice to have for the utility they offer so be sure to use them. As a ret if you see your healer is being trained to the floor by melee, use blessing of protection on him. He will thank you for it and it will help also. Freedom is often underused in a random bg but it is very powerful.

Hunter

MM - Marksmanship hunter brings insane damage, single target or cleave to the party. They have the ability to kite or deal damage from far away. Not that tanky or meaty so you'll have to not charge head first into battle.

BM - Beast mastery is a nice spec to hop into random battlegrounds with. Doesn't really offer any INSANE advantages nor disadvantages. Solid pick.

Survival - I cannot really speak to much on this spec as it is one of the few I have not tried, they seem to do good damage and be very fun from what I see and hear.

Hunter is a solid choice. They are also good on base defense. Simply stand far away from a flag, say about 12 or 15 yards, get out a pet with stealth and place it near the flag. This way a rogue cannot simply sap and cap from under your nose or simply blind pet / sap you and cap. Make him run for it.

Rogue

Assa - Good damage, good AoE able to spread poisons to all via fan of knifes. Brings poisons with a mortal strike, similar to warrior but is able to spread it much more easily.

Outlaw - Good damage, okay cleave with bladeflurry. Brings with a "ranged" kidney shot.

Sub - Decent spec, nothing bad to say here. Able to sap out of blinds without vanishing is always a bonus.

There is not much to write about the individual specs of rogue as they are all decent in their own way. Rogues are good to steal or ninja bases away. If you see a defender standing on the flag, you should be smiling already. Rogues are pretty good at sitting on enemy FC's, healers and generally doing rogue things.

Priest

Holy - Holy is a good healing spec and a solid choice. Has quite a few utility spells and a nice set of cooldowns. Able to dish out some nice damage also if needed.

Discipline - Ahh, discipline has gone through many changes but has a found an okay niche in a random bg. Being offensive and pushing in. Very good healer to blanket the group with shields and if talented, give them a speedboost which most melee will love you for. Especially combined with a paladins freedom.

Shadow - The only dps spec for a priest. Often trained down and seen as a weak and easy target but stick with it and you will soon become immortal, well pretty close at least. Good single target, good cleave. All round good pick. Solid.

Priest is a very fun if what somewhat frustrating to play sometimes. Brings a mass dispel to the party which allows you to remove bubble and ice block. Very strong vs say, multiple dot classes which use magic. Using it basically on cooldown or whenever you want, as long as you use it will lift a lot of pressure of your team. Who knows? Maybe you get lucky and mass dispel a block the same second it goes off without even noticing it.

Death Knight

Blood - Good self healing, very frustrating to try and kill. Can carry flags okay with some good defensives.

Frost - Frost has wicked sick burst every minute and is very nice when paired with a warrior. Good damage, not so much in the way of defensive cooldowns and can be gimped on mobility. Hand of Freedoms will be one of your best friends.This is probably the "easier" dps spec to start with as a death knight.

Unholy - Very good spread pressure and good single target. Has a pet with some special abilities which change when you transform it. Possibly to really be annoying to healers. Not as "easy" as frost but not hard either. Solid choice.

Death Knights are pretty handy to have with there antimagic zones and deathgrips. If the opposing team only has one healer who you couldn't care to CC, then grip him into you. Nice on flag maps and can be the difference between the enemy FC dying or him scoring.

Shaman

Resto - Strong heals, good utility. A nice target to attack.

Enhance - Enhance is the melee spec of shaman. They have good damage, good offhealing and good utility.

Elemental - Elemental is a good choice, real fun especially when you get back to back lava burst procs due to applying flame shock. Good utility.

Shaman is a pretty good class in general with a good utility toolkit. Never a bad choice to pick.

Mage

Frost - The spec with possibly a pet. Decent at damage and kiting. A bit on the casty side of things. If you see a base being defended and have a pet out, sit about 12 to 15 yards away from flag and place the pet halfway between.

Fire - The big balls of fire spec. Fun, very RNG so you might do little damage, you might do a lot. Your ice block is on a different tree so you can almost always block if you have to unlike frost.

Arcane - Arcane is also a good choice. Very mobile and slippery with proper usage. You can also always ice block if you have to but you may not always be able to counterspell or blink.

Mage is a solid pick, always good in some form or another.

Warlock

Affliction - The master of... afflictions? Good at rotting down multiple foes at once and doing decent damage.

Destruction - Master of chaos and... destruction. Has insane burst potential if done properly.

Demo - Master of pets. Kind of like a demonic beast mastery hunter.

Lock is a good pick, three dps specs so one will always be good. Engaging pet mechanics to add to that. Everyone loves healthstones also.

Monk

Windwalker - good mobility, okayish damage. Has some nice utility. Can be mobile and cap flags fast.

Brewmaster - Better than a protection paladin but still not as ideal. Not much to say.

Mistweaver - Mistweavers bring very good healing and a strong potent AoE heal + dispel on a long cooldown. Very nimble even after the nerfs it has recieved. Hard to catch.

Monks are a weird class but that is a good thing. They have fun uses such as setting a port atop in WSG with the flag, porting up with it. I assume they can still do that and will adjust if they cannot. Solid pick, fun but frustrating.

Druid