As soon as Battlegrounds began rewarding XP I found myself spending more time in PvP Battlegrounds while leveling. I've been leveling a Rogue, on the Alliance side, and set about making Arathi Basin my home away from home. Unfortunately though, when it comes to Arathi Basin, the Alliance seems to be all about the fail.

After a zero and ten losing streak I decided it was time I had a look at my win/loss statistics across all my characters, both Alliance and Horde. Here's what I found.

Arathi Basin Win/Loss Record

Alliance

Number of battles: 186
Number of wins: 56
Number of losses: 130
Win percentage: 30%

Horde

Number of battles: 46
Number of wins: 30
Number of losses: 16
Win percentage: 65%

* I should point out that my experience, playing on both the Alliance and the Horde is confined to the Bloodlust Battlegroup.

On my Rogue I've ventured into Arathi Basin 78 times and only managed 19 victories for a very ordinary win percentage of 24%. That's terrible in anybody's language. What is even worse though is that I'd suggest that a majority of the losses could not be described as competitive. More recently I've noticed that I'll zone into the Basin only to find that the Horde have already capped four flags and have marched there way up to the Alliance starting area to camp the graveyard.

If I were to really analyze the losses they could all be characterized by one or more of the following:

Lack of numbers

This has become a bigger issue as I inch closer to level 80. The amount of battles that start with seven to eight people on the alliance side versus a full compliment of 15 horde seems to be more commonplace. Commonsense tells you that if the opposition out number you by two to one then the odds of a win are not in your favor. My theory is that the numbers thing is actually skewing my win/loss record to make it look worse than it actually should - although by how much I can't really say. Over the next couple of weeks I plan to run Arathi Basin a couple of times a day and record the number of players on each side at the beginning of the battle to see if I'm on the mark with this one.

Failure to fight at the flags

Let's get it straight, if you aren't fighting at a node, you're wasting everyone's time. The key to winning Arathi Basin is to secure 1,600 resources before the opposition do. If you aren't attacking a node or defending the node from the opposition you are doing nothing to help secure the 1,600 resources needed for the win.

Sometimes I get the impression that defense isn't 'glamorous' enough for a lot of people. A while back Blizzard introduced a buff for Arathi Basin, Eye of the Storm and Isle of Conquest called "Honorable Defender".

Honorable Defender
When standing at a capture point that you control, you will gain a buff called Honorable Defender. This buff grants +50% honor gained from kills. This currently affects Arathi Basin, Eye of the Storm and Isle of Conquest.

It's remarkable that, even with that incentive, people still choose to run off on their own to fight on the road.

Failing to stick together

This is one of the big ones, and something that the horde seem to do a lot better than the alliance. Have you ever been defending a node and noticed that when the horde attack, they usually do so in groups of three or more? Riding off on your own to attack a node that is held by two or more opponents is not smart. Maybe you'll get lucky, but chances are you'll eventually be overpowered and will end cooling your heals at a respawn point for 30 seconds. By the time you rebuff and get back to battle you may well have been out of action for up to a minute, a that's a minute you did absolutely nothing to help your team win. Stick together in groups and you'll even up the odds.

Fail breeds fail

How many times have you zoned in to a battleground to see someone already whining, "Alliance suck at PvP, just let them win". I've seen this sort of thing even before the gates open and the battle starts. If you set yourself up to fail, then chances are you will fail.

The Zerg

In my experience, the zerg seems to be successful in around 25% of cases at best, and then only if the numbers are even or stacked in your favor. If the opposition already have a few man advantage, then the zerg is ultimately going to end in failure.

To summarise, Arathi Basin need not be a source of fail. The strategy to win it is simple. Cap three flags and hold them until your side hits 1,600 resources. You do this by fighting as a group, fighting at the flags and defending what you take.