Eye of the Storm
From WoWWiki
 Eye of the Storm
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| Level 61-69, 70 | |
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| Race |   Draenei  Blood elf
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| Location | Netherstorm |
- Were you looking for the shaman talent called Eye of the Storm?
The Eye of the Storm is a battleground located within the Netherstorm. This battleground consists of 4 capture points and a flag in the center. The overall goal is to be the first team to score 2000 points (similar to Arathi Basin). The player maximum is 15 players for each faction.
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Overview
Eye of the Storm is a battleground which combines World PVP like that in the Eastern Plaguelands and traditional battlegrounds PVP as in Warsong Gulch (Capture the Flag), with the "resource" requirements (points) of Arathi Basin.
The main objective for each team is to hold as many towers as possible, much like in Arathi Basin, and then to score points by bringing the flag from the center of the map to one of the those towers. The towers work much like those in the Eastern Plaguelands or Hellfire Peninsula: players stand in them to capture them and the more people standing in them the faster the capture goes. More towers held increases the potential to score points. Each flag return to a friendly tower rewards points depending on the number of towers controlled by the team. The game ends when one side reaches 2000 points. If the flag carrier dies (similar to Warsong Gulch) then the flag is dropped and can be picked up by any player. Thus it is possible, and sometimes tactically advantageous, for one team to allow the opposing team to pick up the flag initially, then kill the flag carrier and seize the flag, returning it to one of its towers and scoring a flag capture. If the flag is not promptly picked up after being dropped, it will return to its spawn point (much like Warsong Gulch). Again, a player may return the flag to any tower owned by their team, so holding many towers is helpful not only in scoring points, but also in creating more options in retrieving the flag.
Flying mounts are not allowed in the battleground. This prevents people from using certain floating areas to their advantage.
Entrance
Players must be at least level 61 to be eligible to join the Eye of the Storm Battleground. The bracket is 61-70. Players must interact with a battlemaster to join Eye of the Storm. Battlemasters are located in all capitals back in Azeroth and Shattrath City in Outland's Terokkar Forest. Unlike the other Battlegrounds there is no physical entrance to Eye of the Storm in Outland.
Basic Rules
- Players start in a bubble for the first minute, isolated from the rest of the battleground (similar to other battlegrounds).
- Horde and Alliance teams of up to 15 players compete to control the four towers spread throughout Eye of the Storm and capture flags.
- First faction to collect 2000 points wins.
- Unlike Arathi Basin, points are always generated every second, no matter how many towers are controlled by both teams.
- Each claimed tower generates victory points for the controlling team. The more towers your team owns, the faster your team gains points
- 1 tower controlled = 1 point/second
- 2 towers controlled = 2 points/second
- 3 towers controlled = 5 points/second
- 4 towers controlled = 10 points/second
NB: Based on the opposing faction controlling whichever towers you do not, neutral towers are not included in the calculation for either side
- Grab flag in center and run it to one of the towers owned by your faction.
- Points are earned per flag capture when flag is brought to a tower controlled by the player's faction.
- Patch 2.2.0 (9/25/07): The points received for capturing the flag depends on the number of towers controlled by your faction.
- Previously, each flag capture awarded 75 points regardless.
- Previously, each flag capture awarded 75 points regardless.
- Points from flag captures
- 1 towers controlled = 75 points
- 2 towers controlled = 85 points
- 3 towers controlled = 100 points
- 4 towers controlled = 500 points
- Outside of holiday weekend, 2000 points earns 167 bonus honor
- Outside of holiday weekend, capping the flag with 4 nodes held while at 1810 points or more earns 188 bonus honor.
Strategy
If your side controls only one tower, regaining control of a second tower should be the highest priority. If the other side controls three towers it is virtually impossible to win no matter how many times you capture the flag. To see this, consider the case where your faction controls one tower and the other faction controls three. The other faction is gaining four points more per second than your faction (5 vs 1). Each flag capture for your faction is worth 75 points (in this scenario). You would have to capture the flag every 18.75 seconds to negate the 4 point per second difference. Even if you manage to cap every 18.75 secs you are only keeping pace with the opposing faction. A faction which controls only one tower for most of the battle cannot win.
Capturing the flag in a 1 versus 3 situation still gives you points. However, holding the flag will prevent the opposing faction from earning an even greater point advantage. So it is reasonable to have a few people trying to capture flags--after all, if you have the flag then they can't get 100 points for it.
While a team holding three towers is in a better position to four-cap (take control of all the bases), they may find trouble with the opposing faction pushing in force on their third tower with only one or two people from that faction running the flag. This can ultimately make or break the game depending on how strong the defense of that tower is.
One often used strategy is to have one or two people capture each tower on the starting side of the battleground at the beginning of the match, with the rest of the team quickly pushing to the flag and gaining control of the middle. However, this strategy only works when the other team uses the same strategy. If the other team goes for towers while your forces are in the middle, you will lose the game in mere minutes as the other team racks up 10 points per second and your team is standing there with a useless flag.
Fights should take place near a tower, on the hill! Fighting outside the cap radius of a tower does not advance the control meter and does not stop the graveyard from spawning enemies.
Second Opinion:
I however do not agree with the strategy stated above. Fighting for the flag is never a good idea. Assuming 100% flawless execution of the strategy, all these have to occur.
Your side mananged to capture both your towers with minimal force You managed to get the other 13 members to the midfield No one attacks your towers And you win the fight mid field to run the flag
Moverover, you have to keep this up for the entire fight to control the midfield while hoping your towers are defended, and you have to run the flag consistently. Any slight mistake will make this strategy fail. Like the opponent could just hold the flag and not CAP if they have a slight point advantage over you. Or, they happen to throw just as much forces to the mid field and you win only 50% of the fights.
All in all, this is a terrible strategy but seems to be the most common one you see in unorganised PUGS. Everyone just wants to have fun thus they will rush midfield and have a happy time killing ignoring the towers. And most games of EOTS lost will often be similar to this strategy.
Second Strategy
I think this Strategy is much better. And can deliver a higher winning percentage when executed. It is easier to follow and you only need to worry about the start. Once the start is established, you just wait for the time and win. Before I start, I want to emphasize one more time on the importance of towers. If you have 3 towers, and the opponent only have 1, they will never win. Even if they CAP all the flags from start til end. The rationale for this is that flag capping gives points depending on the number of towers the capping side controls. If you have more towers, flag caps are worth more. If you have less, well... they give less points. At the current mechanics, no amount of flag runs can win the game for the side which only controls 1 tower from start to end.
So the strategy is to capture 3 towers right at the start. Group 1 and 2 will head to one of the opponent's towers while 1 guy from Group 1 or 2 will cap the same tower on their side. Group 3 will head towers the other tower on your side and Cap it, staying there to defend. The flag is left alone. None will go for the flag. Of course if you want, there is the option to get 1 druid to head for the flag, in case the opponent leaves it alone as well.
So if you are Horde, the forces will look something like this
9 to DR
1 to BE
5(4) to FR
1 druid to flag (Optional)
If you are Alliance, it will look something like this
9 to FR
1 to MT
5(4) to DR
1 druid to flag (Optional)
I am assuming we are playing PUG games. Most PUGs are highly disorganised and tend to have players who like to hang around doing nothing but randomly engaging fights to get their HKs. They will usually start with a few common strats.
1) Cap their own towers and head midfield for flag
This strat is like the one mentioned above. (The one that I disagreed, but I left it alone because it might have been effective for some, but I find it terribly ineffective) If you meet this strat, it is almost an instant win. You will definitely get one the 3 towers at the start. Even though you lose the flag, you will still win. About a quarter of the time through the fight, the opponent will usually give up and start fighting in the middle and you just wait for the time to pass and grab your 3 marks.
2) The exact same Strat
There are some factions on some battlegroups where this strat is common knowledge. And it is no surprise I win my EOTS like 95% of the time there, once in a while we do lose when we get like 5 afkers. If the opposing side uses the same strat then it comes down to which side they are rushing. If they happen to rush the same side, then it is PVP chaos. Your lone druid running the flag will be the key. And the 9v9 fight will be important.
If they use the mirror strat but are rushing the tower in which your Group 3 is defending, most likely it will end up with 2 towers on each side after the start. The key here is to move fast, the 9 Man group will then leave 1 or 2 guy to cap the new tower while they move to cap one. The side which gets the 3rd tower first will win since EOTS is a lot easier to defend than to attack.
Why this Strat works?
Battlegounds are more about tactics than gear. Even though gear do play a huge role, (fighting a rogue in S4 and glaives isn't fun), BGs are more about tactics. This strat allows you to commit close to 60% of your forces to hit 1 of their towers at the start while grabbing your own 2 towers with almost no sacrifice on defence. The solo guy capping the 1 tower at the start seems risky but it will almost never be attacked since it is the furthest tower out of the 3. The 9 man group usually draws enough attention to keep it safe. Furthermore, EOTS is designed with an open battlefield in mind in which you can easily see the movement of forces. Enemies can be spotted far away and help will often reach in time.
The early rush will also surprise PUGs who assumed and take for granted that they will CAP the 2 towers on their side. If the opponent tries to make up for the lost points with flag caps, you can be sure you will be winning that EOTS game.
Wrong
The strat to cap 3 towers is a failed plan due to the simple fact of defence, while the game WOULD be over quickly, the other team still has more than enough time to easily take back a tower 15 vs 5. The best strat in EOTS is to take two towers and keep 3 players at each prepared to call out inc. 3 more players will go to another tower, not to cap it but to keep the enemies busy, while the remaining 6 assault mid-field, with a fast FC, druids are best. the 6 in the center must be ready to send the needed amount of help to another tower if needed, but the rapid capping of the flag will quickly get your team ahead. Attempting to cap 3 towers will almost always led to a tower trade where you gain contral of a tower at the same time as you lose contral of one you already had. this plan will lead to a sure win unless you are massively out numberd or geard. The key to this plan is to D you towers and contral the mid, doing so will ensure fast accumulation of honor and marks.
Honor Reward System
Eye of the Storm items are available by spending honor accumulated and a varying amount of 
Eye of the Storm Mark of Honor. Each victory in Eye of the Storm awards three marks, and a loss awards one mark. Ties award two marks to each side. There are no other ways to gain marks.
There are no factions associated with the two sides so there is no reputation to be gained.
Official Previews
Eye of the Storm Battleground Preview
See also
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