Arathi Basin for Cockheads

I've just spent a few days grinding AB and WSG for tokens and PVP gear. This resulted in a) my first ever epic item (which I can't yet use) and b) the opinion that approximately half the people in AB are cockheads.

I'm normally a pretty easygoing sort. I go along with the BG commander's plan, even though it might be flawed. I report recon. I don't fight off the flags. Yada yada. So when it was my turn to be BG commander, I greeted my PUG with something approximating the following:
"Hi folks. Let's try grp 1 GM, grp 2 BS and grp 3 LM then see what happens. Please report what you see, call out any zergs and don't fight off the flags. Good luck."
Pretty reasonable I thought. The response, of course was something similar to:
"stfu n00b"
"hahahhahha"
"wtf thay always send mroe thn 5 to bs"

The last guy has a point, but as I pointed out to him: "if you can organise 7/7 and the fat kid with a PUG, be my guest". Response: "n00b". Same response when I reported the numbers at the LM, when I advised LM was safe, when I called out numbers at BS from my recon at LM... and so on. As almost everyone else fought off the flags. He eventually went on /ignore, so the FSM only knows what he said after that.

This guy is quite clearly a cockhead.
AB is full of them.

The cockhead matches invariably ended the same way: one token. The non-cockhead matches ended more often in an Alliance victory than not. Given that I needed 50 AB tokens for my PVP gear, I must have run it around 30 times. So I think I'm somewhat qualified to comment on what makes a successful AB run. And that is: a) A DESIRE TO WIN, b) BRAINS and c) COMMUNICATION.

The desire to win is almost invariably absent in cockhead matches. They mindlessly bash each other for honour kills, ignoring the flags. I really don't get it - what use is honour at 40-49 without tokens? Does anyone really want to spend 3 times as much as is necessary to get their PVP gear? I have never fallen short on honour for rewards, tokens are always the limiting factor. What are you cockheads thinking? Please, if you're an honour-kill cockhead post a comment and tell me what the attraction is. Is it just to baffle people like me?

Now it's possible to want to win but still fail to use one's brains. Here are some classic AB goofs:

• treating the stables like it's something special. Stables are just another flag - if you can't cap it because of numbers, leave it. They are weak somewhere else as a result.
  
• Trying to defend a zerg. If you're heavily outclassed, they are going to cap that flag. They will not trip over your corpse and impale themselves - your death will serve no purpose. Again, if they are zerging they are weak somewhere (almost everywhere) else. Go there. Don't call for reinforcements. Say this: "/bg zerg at gm, lost it".
• NOT re-tapping flags when the opportunity presents. I have lost count of the number of times I've re-capped one of our flags that has been contested by simply looking around, seeing that no horde were watching the flag during the fight, and going to tap it. A lot of people get caught up in the whacking and don't realise that the clock is ticking. If someone gets a 10-second tap on your flag, you just lost a) a resource node and b) a graveyard. Anyone who dies (horde or alliance) will spawn away from the flag you're defending. It is VITALLY important that you tap it back. 10 seconds is all it takes and the flag goes straight back to blue, restoring resources and graveyard instantly. Defence is much easier than offence because when your defenders die on a held flag they rez right there at the battle. That is why you usually need greater numbers on offence than on D.
• Not understanding the mechanics of the BG. The example above is the best one, but I had a conversation like this the other day: "Folks, I'd prefer 3 AB tokens than 1 this time, can we try to win?" " you mean we get 3 if we win? I never knew that" "Really? Yes we do get 3 tokens if we win." "Oh, I've never won, so I didn't know". Read wowwiki.

Now here are some of the things I like to do as a sneaky rogue:

• Stealth to undefended flags and tap them. This is surprisingly easy, especially at the farm, GM and LM which are often under-defended as the horde focuses on the BS. If you time it right with a sap you can contest the flag before the (single) guard wakes up. Then it's 1v1 and up to your PVP skills to hold it. I have held flags for a couple of minutes by myself after a solo cap - people just get distracted. Ninja-ing flags is a great occupation for under-levelled rogues (i.e. 40-47 in a 40-49 bracket).
• Use stealth to make them nervous. I once lost a flag to a mini-zerg (I was the only one who stayed behind to D after a cap) but managed to rez at the local graveyard before they tapped the flag. Now if I had stealthed in and cut up a couple of them I might have delayed their cap by 10 secs or so, but I would have died and rezzed elsewhere. So, I let them see me coming from the graveyard, then I stealthed. I kid you not, 5 horde started running around looking for me - one lone rogue tied up 5 assorted badasses at one flag. I just avoided them while they pissed themselves waiting for the cheapshot. Meanwhile, the rest of the team capped the other 4 flags with a 14-10 advantage. Let them see you disappear, it makes them very nervous.
  
• Stealth is also good for misdirection. Whenever I think the farm might be undefended and I'm coming from stabs or LM down the right hand side, I do this: I ride fully visible to the bridge up to BS and then stealth. To the casual observer (e.g. from farm or LM) it looks like I'm going to ninja the BS. Once cloaked in shadows, I turn around and go for the farm. Misdirection and cunning, both roguely tools. It works in a lot of other cases too - a highly visible run from stabs down towards GM, stealth then go for BS. Horde at GM are typing "oh crap, Catheryna's coming" and pissing themselves looking for me (well, maybe) while I ninja the BS. It's gold.

So brains is really just keeping that situational awareness and thinking "where should I be, and what should I do, to bring my measly skills to the most effect?". The answer almost never is "bashing big group in the middle of nowhere". Like it or not, in a PUG you will almost always be a loner. Maybe a loner in a group of people who all had the same idea at once, but essentially a loner. You have to use your brains and, as a tidy segue, your mouth.

Bad communication kills more AB campaigns than anything else. If I had one rule for BGs it would be this: when you are waiting at a graveyard to rez, type intel. That's it - just tell everyone else what you know about the tactical situation. You got something better to do? You're a ghost. There's nothing else you CAN do, unless you're a cockhead. In that case, instead of disseminating useful information, you should abuse everyone on your team and/or complain about Alliance always losing BGs.