The most frustrating thing for any Battleground leader in Corsair’s Stronghold, is having a team that is unresponsive and uncoordinated. There isn’t really much you can do about that unless you plan to queue as a group (But even then, you are restricted to having a maximum of 4 other people with you).
Through personal experience, I do believe that one of the best ways to overcome this problem is to ensure that your team’s strategy is Simple, Easy to Understand, Hard to Screw up, and Easy to recover from. If the BG leader starts saying “5 to each Airship, Wait for 40 seconds before start, Teams of 3 climb each ladders, Tanks focus fire at ladders”, there is a very good chance 50% of the team will wander off. However, if he says “All on Left Outer”, that isn’t really something that is hard to miss. So the idea here is to give out as much information as needed at that point of time. I often see leaders make the mistake of announcing the full battle strategy right at the start. Nobody wants to know where to go after the door is down, till the door is actually down.
That being said, these are the strategies I have fine tuned and tested in numerous battles, and I have been able to consistently maintain a win rate of at least 80%. Today I will be talking about my favorite strategy. (This is not a basic guide to Corsair’s Stronghold, This guide assumes you have basic knowledge of the Battleground already. If you are new to this Battleground, I recommend you Click Here )
Strategy : Mid Pyre Rush
This is hands down my favorite strategy to use. It relies solely on the teamwork of 5 people (Including yourself, hopefully). This strategy is ideal if you queued as a group, and if your group mates can all make it to the airship in time.
Step 1 : Get a team of 4 dps and 1 healer (3 dps and 2 healer works even better!) into the Right Airship.
Step 2 : Start the airship as SOON as it fills up. Do not waste any time, and DO NOT WAIT FOR CANNONS TO BE DESTROYED. (At this point you will encounter a lot of “Omg who started” and “Noob leader”. Just put up with it for the next 1 minute). As soon as you near the mid pyre, expect to face cannon fire. (IMPORTANT NOTE : There is a small chance you can get shot down if the enemy team has an experienced cannon shooter, but there is nothing you can do about this. Just hope for the best and go. The sooner you start the airship, the less chance you have of getting shot down).
Step 3 : As soon as you are over the wall, have your entire airship team drop down at Mid. (If you do this fast enough and if the enemy team is slow, there is a good chance you will get there before they even capture the pyre themselves!)
Step 4 : Position your team at the other side of the pyre, AWAY from the wall cannons. Meanwhile the rest of your team would have reached the walls by now. Have them start climbing asap (Since the cannons and enemy players are focused on the people at the pyre), and have them take tanks and fire blindly at the pyre.
Step 5 : This is the MOST important step, and the one that most people mess up. DO NOT PVP! Stand at the pyre and SPAM THE “F” KEY. (It helps to repeat this in chat during waiting time!) Healer(s) should be spamming heal to deal with dual cannon fire, while the remaining 3/4 spam the F key (or if there is not much damage coming your way and you have 2 healers, have one healer also spam F).
If you follow these steps, and if your teammates follow your instructions correctly, you would have captured mid pyre by now (Unless you are EXTREMELY unlucky at the start). Start clearing out enemies, and take the cannons. From here on it is a very easy battle, break down inner gate and rush the anchorstone.
A few helpful hints:
- Lancers and Warriors can block tank/cannon fire and save your entire team from getting wiped out by them. If your team is responsive, it helps to position them ahead and have them block as your team advances.
- Sorcerors can prevent the enemy team from re-capturing the pyre if they cast Frostbite at the pyre.
- Priests are very useful when trying to cap Mid, because of Kaia’s Shield and low cool down Area of Effect (AOE) heals.
- One mounted player can often distract his enemies and cause them to chase him, leaving their areas undefended and letting your teammates secure them.
- Throw in a Greater Mirror Charm at the start. Tanks take a heavy beating from this, As long as your team has healers to keep you up.
I’ll put in some pictures and link some instructional videos at a later time.
Good luck, and SPAM F!
Godlike Gaming 