A Trip to Arathi Basin

Run to the gate. Watch the other Allies come in. Buff up everyone with Mark of the Wild. Start to drink. Notice that I forgot to buff myself. Also put on Omen of Clarity. Stand, buff, and drink again.

30 seconds.

Watch /bg channel for a plan. See no plan. "/bg strategy?" Wait. Finally see a message: "G1 to mine, G2 stable, G3 LM, HOLD YOUR POSITION, STAY WITH YOUR GROUP and we can win this thing!!!" (Yeah, that'll happen.) Type "g1 mine, check".

Horn sounds and gate opens. Pop into cheetah form and run for mine. Take wrong turn and start heading for blacksmith. Cut across and rejoin group, which is amazingly five at this point. Watch three people trying to take flag, decide to scout up the road a bit. Get to top of hill and see several Horde massing. Try to type "inc mine from farm" at the same time as switching to normal form. Struggle through it at the same time as a hunter's pet shows up. Select hunter and hit Moonfire, then try for Wrath. Watch my cast bar jiggle back and forth as I take shots from two hunters.

Realize that scouting was a bad idea. Die.

Rez at mine graveyard. See fighting around mine and jump in with a couple quick buffs. See a Tauren warrior running amok. Hit with Entangling Roots and smile as he gets double-teamed and killed. Try to find next Horde. Get backstabbed by rogue and stunlocked. Fortunately teammate tackles rogue and I break free. Hit him with Moonfire and then Roots. Realize I'm getting fire from hunter again, duck around building. Select other hunter and start Starfire cast. Finish the cast unmolested and watch a nice crit on the spell. Now taking fire again, try to run but see hunter die just before me.

See two allies leave battleground.

Rez again at mine. Battle seems to be over with two allies left at mine. Heal both up quickly. Quick glance at map, see fighting at both stables and lumber mill. (Thanks, Cartographer!) Mill is contested, farm and blacksmith are Horde, mine and stable are Alliance. Switch off map to see Horde waiting at top of hill again. Remember to cast Nature's Grasp. Wait in line with two other Allies. Select warrior in distance. Watch him get close, drop Moonfire and then try for Roots again. Warrior charges and stuns me. I'm dead, no wait, Nature's Grasp fires and I back away, heal myself, run across to attack hunter. Pet attacks but gets sleeped by my Green Whelp Armor. Heh, love that! Send Wrath on hunter but see an ally go down and free up the warrior, coming my way. Desperately spam Moonfire, burning as much mana as possible before my inevitable death.

Rez at stables. Realize mine is now contested. Check map and don't see any allies at mine. Fighting at lumber mill and stables. Decide to help at stables until more of the mine group rez. See battle, select an ally paladin and drop a heal on him. Select another druid and prepare a heal, but get hit with a warlock's Fear and run around aimlessly. Pop out of that when I'm hit with arrows again, get stunlocked by a warrior, and die once more.

Get message in BG channel: "stay with your groups! FFS!" Thanks for the advice...

Rez at stables again. Now the map shows that Horde controls mine, blacksmith, and farm, with Stables contested and lumber mill Alliance. Also see group of allies heading for mine. Pop into cheetah and skirt left to avoid stables battle, and try to join with group attacking mine. Get close in time to see three allies fighting two Horde; pop into elf form and hit one with Moonfire in time to see them die, then attack the other with Wrath. He goes down too. Mine moves back to contested.

See another ally leave battleground. See score is now about 1000 Horde to 450 Alliance. Heal up the group at the mines, just in time to see a rez-wave of Horde coming back in. Root the lead warrior and then get hit with Moonfire, locate the druid and tap him back (just saying hi, you know). Circle around and reselect the warrior, who's now battling with a hunter, and hit him with a Moonfire and a Wrath. Satisfied to see him go down but now taking fire again from the druid. Mana is starting to run low -- uh-oh. Drop a Moonfire and then change into Cat, and try to take the druid along with a paladin in the area. Druid is pretty healthy and takes me out quickly.

Rez at stables again. Check the map: now the Horde have three nodes, and are contesting both lumber mill and stables. Score stands at 1500 Horde to 600 Alliance.

Two more allies leave the battleground.

I'm sure that the Horde nodes are lightly defended, but they're able to camp the stables graveyard and it's a struggle to get out. We need to mount an attack somewhere, anywhere to take back nodes but it's impossible to get organized enough to make that happen. The horn sounds, and the match is over.

Return to Stormwind. Speak to battlemaster. Join queue. Repeat.