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 1600 points (similar to Arathi Basin). The player maximum is 15 players for each faction.

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 1600 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.

Falling (or jumping) in the void between the land masses kills any player, after a short fall. This doesn't cause any durability penality.

Entrance
Players must be at least level 35 to be eligible to join the Eye of the Storm Battleground. The brackets are 35-39, 40-44, 45-49, etc. up to 80-84 and 85. Unlike the other Battlegrounds there is no physical entrance to Eye of the Storm in Outland. Players must interact with a battlemaster or use the PvP interface (default 'H' key) to join Eye of the Storm. Battlemasters are located in all capitals back in Azeroth and Shattrath City in Outland's Terokkar Forest. Dalaran provides a portal to the Battleground in each faction's area of the city, on the mezzanine above the portals to cities.

As of patch 3.1.0, a player may queue up for the Eye of the Storm anywhere in the world by going to the battlegrounds tab of the Player vs. Player window. They will return to the location they chose to enter the battleground, not the queue, when the game ends.

Basic rules
NB: Based on the opposing faction controlling whichever towers you do not, neutral towers are not included in the calculation for either side
 * 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 1600 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
 * 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.


 * 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, 1600 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.

Flag fighting strategy
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.

Three tower strategy
If one side has three towers, and the other side only has one tower, it is most likely that the side with three towers will win, even if the other side captures all the flags from start to finish. The reason for this style of play is that flag capping gives points depending on the number of towers the same side controls. If you have more towers, flag caps are worth more. If you have fewer they give fewer points. At the current mechanics, no number of flag runs can win the game for the side which only controls one tower from start to finish.

The best strategy is to capture three towers right at the start. Groups 1 and 2 will head to one of the opponent's towers while one person from Group 1 or 2 will cap the same tower on their side. Group 3 will head to the other tower on your side and cap it, staying there to defend. The flag is left alone. No-one should go for the flag, although there is an option to get a druid to head for the flag, in case the opponent is following the same course of action.

If you are Alliance, 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 Horde, it will look something like this
 * 9 to FR
 * 1 to MT
 * 5(4) to DR
 * 1 druid to flag (Optional)

Opinions on flag fighting strategy
Some do not agree with the Flag-Fighting Strategy. Assuming 100% flawless execution of the strategy, all these have to occur.
 * Your side managed 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

This strategy requires you to maintain control of the midfield while ensuring a proper tower defense, as well as flag-running consistently. While this strategy is quite common in PUGs, it is very difficult to utilize properly, as it requires a large amount of teamwork, and there are many counter-strategies an organized team can use. Speculation for the use of this strategy is an attempt to accrue honor via Honorable Kills.

Opinions on tower control
Opinion 1

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.

Opinion 2

Any strategy involving the capture of three towers is extremely risky due to defenses being spread too thin. The only time it should ever be attempted is when you significantly outnumber your opponents, or you're running a premade with flawless coordination.

Capturing two towers, playing defense, and above all, controlling the flag spawn leads to a virtually guaranteed victory as long as everyone is on board.

Patch changes