Arathi Basin is a Battlegrounds instance dungeon in the MMORPG World of Warcraft. The dungeon was included in the version 1.7 patch to the game.

Gameplay

Arathi Basin is a capture-and-hold game, where the more buildings controlled results in the faster generation of team resources. The first team to get 2,000 resources wins. It is a 30 player Instance, 15 v 15. There are 5 resource buildings: the Stables, the Gold Mine, the Lumber Mill, the Blacksmith, and the Farm.

AB (as it's commonly known) has grown, on many servers, to be the premier battleground due to the brevity of its games. It is currently the only battleground with any sort of "timer." Where Alterac Valley can literally last days, and Warsong Gulch can stalemate for hours, once a resource has been captured it's only a matter of time until one team hits 2000. Arathi Basin games typically last about a half hour but some attrition-style matches can push the hour mark, while "shock-and-awe" games can be over within five or six minutes.

Arathi Basin is one of the best ways to improve your ranking in the honor system. Each winning game awards at least 1000 bonus honor. Even losing games can reward very high amounts of honor if it was a close match. A team must collect at least 2000 resources before bonus honor is awarded, however, and many organized teams have become proficient at rushing the opposing force and capturing all five resource nodes very quickly (referred to as a "5-cap"). Having all five nodes captured is a 99% assured win as the collected resources accumulate at a startling rate. Depending on which server you play, Arathi Basin is often overshadowed by Alterac Valley once players reach level 51. Players may experience long wait times between games or uneven sided matches.

There are several pickups in Arathi Basin that spawn at the various resource nodes including Berserking, Regeneration, and Speed. Improving your reputation with your respective faction opens up various rewards including armor sets and epic-quality weapons at the highest Exalted tier.

Once a month, Arathi Basin goes on "holiday" starting on a Thursday and lasting for three days. Players will receive bonus honor for games won during this time. During the "holiday," envoys for both Horde and Alliance sides can be found in the major cities allowing players to enter the Battleground directly rather then through a Battlemaster.

Strategy

Arathi Basin has level ranges of 20-29, 30-39, 40-49, 50-59 and 60. Because of the 15-player nature of Arathi Basin, raid groups are generally broken down into "squads." A popular strategy at the beginning of a game is to have one person capture the node nearest your base (farm / stables), send one full group of five players to the Mine or Mill, and send the remaining two groups to the Blacksmith.

Once a resource node is captured, it is a common practice to leave one or two players to guard it while the rest of the raid fights elsewhere. The selection of players usually includes some form of DPS (Damage Per Second) a rogue, or a mage for area effect damage, and a healer. On the Horde side, a Shaman can be useful due to his periodic damage totems will interrupt flag captures. Rogues are also an excellent choice for both sides as they can easily sap and stunlock solo players who try to capture the node. Hunters also make good flag protectors due to their range and pets can interrupt those attempting to capture a flag not to mention the various traps at their disposal. A single Paladin can generally guard a node against a small Horde group for a good amount of time while backup is called through the use of plain weapon hits, immunity shields, and the Hammer of Justice stun.

The most common way to win Arathi Basin matches short of a rush tactic is to control three nodes, preferably your "home" node (farm / stables), the Blacksmith, and one of the satellite nodes (mine / mill). Many players consider the Blacksmith to be the most important node due to its central location in the map. From the Blacksmith players can monitor most of the surrounding area and dispatch reinforcements to flags that come under attack fairly rapidly. Others feel the Blacksmith is too wide open and concentrate on other nodes. It is mostly a matter of preference.

Warriors are of great importance in AB due to their large health pools, high armor ratings, and brutal attacks. Warriors are most often employed to "tank" a flag. Savvy players will know to ignore the warrior and focus on healers instead. "Fear" is of paramount importance in AB as it can quickly turn the tide of a node capture by sending the opposing force scattering in all directions. Liberal use of crowd control tactics (Sap, Polymorph, Frost Trap, Fear, etc.) is a mainstay of Arathi Basin matches. Area of Effect attacks are also crucial during node-capture attempts as they will interrupt all players at the flag from capturing it.

The keys to winning Arathi Basin are communication and speed. Forming a raid group and keeping in contact with other players, is virtually the only way to win against organized opponents. When a node comes under attack, players need to respond immediately. As such, epic mounts are almost a necessity in level 60 matches.

Exploits

Up until patch 1.10 it was possible for Horde players to leave the starting compound before the game officially began. Although most players refrained from using this terrain exploit on the grounds of fair gamesmanship, it did give an unfair advantage to those players willing to take advantage of the glitch. This exploit was supposed to be fixed in 1.10, but it is still possible to abuse this.

References

Arathi Basin preview