I found this. You should read this, because I &quot;think&quot; it might tell some things about Arathi Basin to help. If everyone read and understood this they would be twice as good at the Arathi Basin battleground as they were before reading this. Some of the content may be drowning in opinion, but for the most part it's a good run down.



intro: arathi basin is imo, the most intense battleground. It is a BG where you must constantly adapt to change. There arent any rules in stone i've really found, just guidlines. AB can be very chaotic, but there are measures to ensure your team doesnt run like chickens with their heads chopped off.

ORGANIZATION

fighting on the flag: in AB, the node flag is everything, your life is nothing. You must do all you can to prevent captures from the enemy, even if it means putting yourself in harm's way. thus, defenders should always be near the flag, do not get tricked and lured out by ranged enemies, there could be a stealthed enemy nearby waiting for you to leave, and ninja the flag. 

call all incomings: defenders should always call out every incoming followd by an estimation of numbers. Its as easy as &quot;Inc LM 3-4&quot; Even if the defender must stop to type and risk getting killed, he should still call out. Recon is key to winning AB, the better recon, the easier it is to respond on defense.

all nodes should be defended: never leave a node unguarded. The best node defenders are pet classes: warlock and hunter. Other classes can be crowd controlled, (feared, seduced, polymorphed, sapped, mind controlled), ignored, and have the flag ninjaed right in front of them. Hunters are the ideal defenders for nodes because warlocks are needed on offense. If you're a hunter, please just volunteer to guard the node.

someone has to make some calls: even in PUGs someone has to call the shots. The bare minimum is telling which person to stay and defend a node after it's capped. Some people use 'you cap it your guard it ' policies. This is not a good policy imo, as often the wrong class will be defending. Rather, if you're a high ranked pvper, or the highest ranked person in the area, do your duty: take charge and say 'you, hunter, stay and defend this node. if you refuse to defend this node, speak up, and i will find another.'

co-leaders, party leaders: AB is very hectic, sometimes too chaotic for one person alone to make sense out of. A leader would be wise to delegate co-leaders within each team, people he knows he can trust to make wise local decisions. A co-leader should try to alleviate the leader of obvious decision making, like assigning node guards.

hiding spots at each node: each node has decorative landscape and architecture which can be used to a defender's advantage. Defenders should keep their backs against an object or water so they dont get snuck up on by rogues. my personal favorite hiding spots are inside the mine, inside the lumber mill by the saws, behind the small ruts at the blacksmith out of view from the enemy, and near the waters at stables. Pet defender classes can also hide in their pet. Turn the pet on 'stay,' and sit inside it. This can often confuse targeting of an incoming enemy. My pet has saved me from various attackcs before.

THE NODES: arathi basin has 5 nodes: stables, mine, blacksmith, lumber mill, and farm. 

the stables/farm: these are the closest nodes to alliance/horde starting places respectively. One person should definitely be assigned right at the beginning to cap and guard the closeby node. It's basically your team's 'free' node, and should be taken immediately, and not have too many stop to dismount to cap it. this 'free node' is also usually the least bothered by the enemy because its so far away. Because of this, it is a rather quiet node, allowing one to think and strategize in peace. Thus i dubbed it the 'commander's node.' The peace and quiet allows a commander to freely type/talk to his teammates and give orders on where to go. If you're the team leader, consider that; your orders and fast decisions are weighty on winning. Also the stables is a great place to fish. 

the blacksmith: the blacksmith is the 'prized possession.' It is arguably the best node, because it is in the middle, thus it is a good median to defend all your other nodes. If you can hold blacksmith, you can get to any node faster than the enemy team, making defense easier. If your team has the blacksmith, centralize around it when you're not attacking, and guard it zealously. 

the lumber mill: the lumber mill is a great node to have also. It is the best node for recon, on top of the LM you can see for miles. The LM guard should be like a weather chopper, constantly updating his team of enemy movement. beware though the LM's guard is vulnerable as he cannot see enemy's sneaking up the hills beside him. Thus other nodes should give early warning to the LM guards.

the mine: the mine is the worst node. It is a pathetic pithole just waiting to get ambushed. You cannot see anything at the mine, but enemies can sneak on you. From the mine guards' perspectives, a large enemy invading team can materialize out of thin air. If you want to hold the mine, you'll need earlier warning of incoming enemies than other nodes. Placing a patrol north of blacksmith, a patrol who watches the stables, farm, and blacksmith, can make up for bad visibility at the mine. I often placed a rogue here, just quietly stealthed watching everything

WHEN THE GAME STARTS:

the initial phase of AB is crucial. the game can be decided from the first wave of lives. thus how your team divides and conquers is very important.

party setup: the leader will have to organize who will be going to what node. He/she will want to form groups for each node that are compatible with each other. Making a group of rogues and one delicate teammate is probably not a good idea. The enemy will see only see that one poor fellow, and he will die before he can be of much use. Your knowledge of party dynamics will be more keen with experience. It may be as simple as putting a healer in each group, or as complicated as knowing that warlock loves to have a mage around, because a mage's snares complement a warlock's inabilty to escape. 

stacking the nodes: most simple minded groups will simply divide their team into three equal groups and have one attack the mine, blacksmith, and lumber mill. A smarter group will 'stack' the nodes. Stacking means putting more people on one or two nodes than another. i liked to stack the BS and LM, while taking away from mine. This means that we have a numerical advantage at two nodes, increasing our chances of getting two, while the enemy only gets one. Its also good to stack the important nodes, the BS and LM.

gambling: when you stack, you gamble. If the other team stacks also, it's going to be one helluva gamble. if you know the other team likes to stack a node, it may be tactical to not send any there, and doubly stack the other nodes. For instance if someone knew i was going to stack BS and LM, he could doubly stack BS, stack the mine, and send none to LM. Then he'll probably win the mine and BS, and all i'll get is the LM.

stacking is one of the most basic and most important principles in AB. always stack, unless you think you can plow and roll over the enemy no contest.

MID-GAME and OFFENSIVE MANUEVERS

the 3-2 hold: many times the conservative team will hold 3 nodes, and simply wait for the resources to pile up. This is the slowest kind of game, a war of attrition. 

breaking the 3-2: you're not going to break a 3-2 against a good team with a simple zergfest. They will just as easily reinforce the node your team zerged. What you'll need to do is shake the enemy, confuse him, forcing him to send too many or too little. You can confuse him by two methods: feint, or double attack. What you must first do though, is tell your team to ressurect first, discuss plans and not move. It is important your team takes a breather, and make sure they move coordinated. Just tell your team, 'freeze, no one do anything, i got a plan and listen up.' 

feinting: feint means to pull a fake move. In boxing, it'd be a half executed punch, making the enemy think its a real punch. In AB, it means riding out near a node, and making the enemy say 'incoming x node y enemies.' Feinting will confuse the enemy, making the caller callout wrong incomings, too many incoming, or garble. You can tell when they called an incoming when reinforcements start showing up. After you've lured your enemies to where you want, you can ride off to another node, or do a double attack.

double attack: in a double attack, you'll need to scout out two nodes at least and figure out how many defenders are at each. then you'll have to send out two teams, and attack those nodes simultaneously. Timing is critical. If one team arrives too early and gets slaughtered, the other team will probably not be able to hold their node for long. Double attack is usually best followed by a feint, using one team as fodder, and the other to cap a remote node. A 'team' can even be one person. For instance i've soloed nodes guarded by 3 people in AB many times before. If you know a teammate is capable of defeating many enemies by himself, use that to your advantage.