Warsong Gulch

Yesterday I entered Warsong Gulch (commonly truncated to WSG) for the first time in years. It's not a popular Battleground by any means and personally not my favorite. I would have gone to Alterac Valley had it been the Daily Quest that day. If you aren't familiar with WSG, basically each team has flag at either side of the map. The goal of the game is to retrieve the enemies flag and return to your base three times before the opposing team. In this particular round, the Alliance were already up two flag returns and then something within me changed.

Suddenly I was determined not to lose, and when I saw their flag carrier barreling toward the Alliance tunnel...well I couldn't help myself! With our flag safely back in our base, I set my sights on the enemy flag and boy was it guarded. Now I had begun to understand the malaise that had fallen on my team. Not only that, but the only player (Me) even attempting to take their flag was a Mage, probably the least ideal class for the job, and I'm not even Frost spec!

Understandably, I died several times in the process of taking their flag. Most of the time I had not even escaped the room where the flag was kept. Then a miracle happened. Apparently someone took the fight to the flag room because all hell broke loose. In the confusion I was able to snatch the flag with nary a arrow or magic spell traced on my back. On the way out, I even met a hunter who was kind enough to use Aspect of the Pack to increase my running speed.

Now we were two-to-one.

Even though the score was changed, i hadn't noticed any extra effort coming from my team. The tactic of "take the flag and get the hell out of town" wasn't working anymore. Another failed attempt and I grumbled while I waited to resurrected so I could try again. Amazingly though, a Horde Hunter (the one who helped me earlier) happened to be nearby (who I didn't even see before) managed to pickup the flag I dropped (which happens automatically when you die, it's at this point a flag can be returned to your base) and run it out of their base. While this was going on, one of the Alliance had grabbed our flag. Now we had to retrieve our flag, while simultaneously keeping our flag carrier safe.

I told our team I would track down and assassinate the Alliance flag carrier, and suddenly players who had been deriding me for trying to win a "lost" WSG suddenly rallied to my cause. Not only were we able to kill the flag carrier, but we also escorted our Hunter safely to our Flag room.

Now we were tied!

Retrieving a flag causes both teams' flags to reset to their original position. Because I had just run to the opposite side of the base, I wasn't around to see what happened, but a Druid managed to take the flag. While I consider Mages to be the worst flag carriers, I consider Druids to be the best. At any time they can increase their armor, run 40% than other players, and heal themselves. Though that Druid had little support (most our team was on our side of the battleground) he had managed to both take the flag and escape the flag room on his own, which isn't to say he had no resistance. Riding up to our the druid I saw several Alliance members attacking him. My comrades and I dismounted and began assisting him by slowing down the attack squad and healing the Druid.

That wasn't all though, as the alliance quickly called for reinforcements, while we had done the same. It seemed like our flag carrier was constantly under attack through the full run back to our base. Then, of course, an Alliance member took our flag again! Luckily our team managed to retrieve just when we started making our final run towards the tunnel. When we reached the tunnel, I was keep them frozen in place by using Frost Nova. A player broke through my frozen blockade (as they inevitably do) however I had a polymorph spell with his name on it. With the druid in tow, I ran with him in order to make sure we didn't run into anymore trouble. He capped the flag, winning the game I fought so hard for.

And all because Warsong Gulch happened to be that day's Daily Quest.

The victory screenshot