User:BirdFox/sandbox

Located in Arathi Highlands, Arathi Basin is a fast and exciting battleground. The Basin itself is rich with resources and coveted by both the Horde and the Alliance. The Forsaken Defilers and the League of Arathor have arrived at Arathi Basin to wage war over these natural resources and claim them on behalf of their respective sides. It is sort of a 'king of the hill' match, though with multiple 'hills'.

Overview
The goal is to control locations on the map ("Resource Nodes"). While a node is controlled, it generates resources for your side, and the first side to gain 2,000 resources wins the contest.

Arathi Basin was introduced in patch 1.7.

Entering Arathi Basin Battleground

 * The entrances to Arathi Basin are located in the Arathi Highlands zone.
 * For the Alliance, the entrance is located inside Refuge Pointe.
 * For the Horde, the entrance is just outside of Hammerfall on the north side.
 * Either side may also enter the Battleground queue through Battlemasters located in each capital city.

Basic Rules

 * Each side has up to 15 players.
 * There are five Resource Nodes on the map: the Blacksmith, the Farm, the Gold Mine, the Lumber Mill and the Stables.
 * A node only earns resources when it is captured (see below). With the exception of possible strategic value, there is no difference between the nodes.
 * The rate of resource accumulation increases non-linearly as more nodes are captured. That is, if a side owns 2 nodes, it will not accumulate resources 2x as fast as when it only has 1 node. See the Strategy section below for more info.
 * Arathi Basin is banded by level, just like Warsong Gulch. The minimum level to join is 20, and different instances will spawn for players between levels 20-29, 30-39, 40-49, 50-59, 60-69 and 70.

Strategy and Tactics

 * Arathi Basin Strategy and Tactics for more details
 * Proud Aardvark's Arathi Basin Strategy Guide

Accumulating Resources
Resources accumulate at the rates shown in the table below.

So if your team has three nodes, their team has two nodes, and they lead 1800 to 1700, you can still win if no nodes change hands. But if your team is at 1600 you cannot win unless you gain control of four nodes.

Honor Rewards
The game awards bonus honor to everyone on your side of the match for reaching certain goals. Those goals are:
 * Collecting multiples of 330 resources (at 330, 660, 990, ...), rewards 20 honor each (at level 60).
 * Winning the match rewards 20 honor (at level 60).

Honor for lower level matches scales down from the amounts given. Other scored events are not granted honor. These include: killing blows, assaulting a node, capturing a node, and defending a node. Honor is awarded for honorable kills as normal.

Winning a complete match (2000 resources and the win bonus) gives 140 honor (at level 60). It also awards 3 Arathi Basin Mark of Honor. Since Patch 2.0 there is no quest rewarding honor for 3 Arathi Basin Mark of Honor. Instead, they are used in conjunction with honor points to obtain PvP item rewards.

Losing a match gives you less bonus honor depending on how many resources your side managed to collect before the loss. You will still accumulate some honor from honorable kills. You will receive 1 Arathi Basin Mark of Honor at the end of a loss.

On the Battlegrounds Holiday weekend for Arathi Basin, the bonus honor goals are: The total honor for the winning team on the holiday weekend is 200. The losing team only earns honor for resources collected; there is no additional bonus for a loss on the holiday weekend.
 * Collecting multiples of 200 resources (at 200, 400, 600, ...), rewards 20 honor each (at level 60).
 * Winning the match still rewards 20 honor (at level 60).

Quests
There are a number of quests involving fighting in Arathi Basin, some of which need reputation with the battleground faction. You can get them from one of the NPCs near the battleground entrances in Hammerfall or Refuge Pointe.

The first quest will usually be The Battle for Arathi Basin!, for which you need to assault four different bases.

Alliance

 * , available at and awards 1000 reputation. For this quest your team will need to assault and control 4 bases at the same time.
 * , available at . For this quest your team will need to assault and control all 5 bases at the same time. Rewards the.

Horde

 * , available at and awards 1000 reputation. For this quest your team will need to assault and control 4 bases at the same time.
 * , available at . For this quest your team will need to assault and control all 5 bases at the same time. Rewards the.

As of the 2.3 patch, there is a daily quest available requiring a win in one random battleground, which awards experience, honor and coin. The AB version of this quest is.

Reputation
Doing battle in Arathi Basin improves your reputation with The Defilers (Horde) or The League of Arathor (Alliance). On the Battlegrounds Holiday weekend for Arathi Basin, the Reputation rewards are:
 * Collecting multiples of 200 resources (at 200, 400, 600, ...) = 10 rep (total 100 rep if you win)
 * Quests in Arathi Basin give reputation too
 * Collecting multiples of 150 resources (at 150, 300, 450, ...) = 10 rep (total 130 rep if you win)

Rewards
Arathi Basin items are now available by spending honor accumulated and a varying amount of Arathi Basin Mark of Honor. Though some of the Arathor and Defiler factions items have different names and artwork, their bonuses and equip effects are identical. More powerful versions of some items can be purchased as you gain levels, allowing higher level players to receive faction rewards with better equipment bonuses. However, the exalted rewards are only available at level 60.

Old Faction Reward System
Prior to patch 2.01, you had to improve your reputation with the Arathi Basin faction to be eligible for rewards. See Old Arathi Basin Rewards for details.

Useful Terminology
During the course of playing, you may hear the following frequently used acronyms and term(s) used by players to give out directions:
 * LM: Lumber Mill
 * BS: Blacksmith
 * GM: Gold Mine
 * ST: Stables
 * inc: Incoming
 * gy: Graveyard (the area or in the proximity of the area in which players re-spawn after death)

Previews

 * Official Preview at WorldofWarcraft.com
 * Preview at WoW Guru
 * Map on Goblin Workshop

Humor

 * Who's Arathi MP3, a parody by anim5 of International Detective Dragons From Outer Space of Abott and Costello's "Who's on First?" skit.