The Histories are a series of articles that recounts past periods of World of Warcraft, experienced from my point of view on Saurfang playing my mage Nastre.
With the end of Season 9 the ABC (Ajantis Battleground Crew) was extremely well placed. Starting from nothing, the team had enjoyed a pretty respectable first season with a large number of 2000 rated players with many going onto further honours at 2200 and above. Players who had at first been skeptical of the concept were now very interested (after the hard work had been done in laying the foundations, it's natural to have people suddenly wanting a piece of the pie). The team swelled in size and in the first few weeks of Season 10, we had over three full 10 man rated battleground teams in operation. To think of that number, it's quite incredible. While 25 man raids were dying and recruitment seemed a near impossible task, the ABC had enough members for a full raid with plenty to spare.
In hindsight, the success of the team was it's own worst enemy. It had two consequences, both of which I take the blame for. Firstly, it got to big for me to control without burning me out. Leading a group of 30+ is difficult but not impossible. Doing it with three separate teams, constantly mixed, when I can only be in one team at a time... very difficult, maybe impossible. I also was disappointed at a lack of maturity from some members, who refused to play with others or made it extremely uncomfortable when they did so. Perhaps my expectations were too altruistic. Regardless, in hindsight I should have capped numbers and learned to say 'no' more often.
The second consequence was burn out. I've suffered from it in the past (a story for another time) but with my retirement from raiding, Rated Battlegrounds were intended to be a one night commitment from me in which I could still contribute to <Ajantis> in some format. It rapidly became a victim of its own success and I failed to control my own commitment. In the end I felt exhausted and lost my enjoyment for the game. It resulted in my second break from WoW and it would last until just a few weeks ago.
The ABC continued on, albeit in a largely diminished form. Here is a report on the ABC post-Nastre era from Infarct, who took over leadership of the group (and did a great job, all things considered).
Toward the end of Season 10 and the start of Season 11 started tumultuous with leadership changing 3 times with it finally resting on Infarcts shoulders. The reluctant leader with a few diehard devotees established a team with some new faces.
As with all new teams and new roles namely for myself stepping into the healer role and Uthred and Swirly taking the offensive lead we faced a new challenge in establishing ourselves as a successful team. Challenges we faced was cohesiveness and often had to call upon non regular players to fill our ranks on occasion.
With content exhaustion and struggle to maintain a regular team I was proud of the fact that most of the regular team was able to achieve on average 1800 rating with some individuals breaking into the higher brackets as well. With Brute as our toughest Flag carrier to ever grace the battlefield we dominated Warsong Gulch and Twin Peaks, however with the reintroduction of Eye of the Storm and the multitude of strategies and one small victory on a node would result in a one sided event, this was considered our toughest Battleground to be successful.
Over the course of Season 11 we saw the rise of the dreaded, brutal and unrelenting “Dot Cleave” teams which was made possible with Legendary armed DOT Casters (Laser Chickens, Affliction Locks, Fire Mages and Shadow Priests) with Heroic Cunning of the Cruel combined with the on demand burst from the Death Knight and Legendary armed Rogue. Towards the latter half of the season majority of the teams consisted of this makeup and would often dominate the matches with overwhelming damage to the whole team which would inevitability overburden the healing team with blanket silences.
However, it is time for the ABC to rise again! I have begun setting up the team to return to the fields of Warsong and the lightning struck rock faces of Eye of the Storm in an attempt to see Saurfang represented again in the Rated Battleground format. This time I am limiting the team to a roster of 12. Interest has been massive from within the guild and I'm going to have to say 'sorry' to at least 15 people. It is a decision that will hurt, but it must be done to avoid the problems of last time. With a smaller team I also hope we can push for ratings of a much higher nature.
With this nasty trend of DOT Cleave teams and content exhaustion we decided to call it a day for Rated Battlegrounds for Cataclysm.
Expect to see more of us in the future and I promise to report on matches and developments of interesting nature on this blog from time to time.
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