How to keep world bosses away from the pesky Horde (or Alliance)
My server is a PvP server. It's one of the more balanced populations with a relatively healthy amount of players on both the Alliance and the Horde. Even before this expansion, you had to watch your back because you could be jumped at anytime by 3 Horde players (at least, that's how many it took to kill me). With the release of Mists of Pandaria, world bosses have made a return.
Back in the old days, there was generally an unspoken etiquette among competing raids looking to take down a world boss.
But this generation? Not a chance!
Now we have these filthy backstabbing Horde (or Alliance) players looking for every advantage they can get to wipe Alliance players and take over their efforts. Back in my day, they had the courtesy to simply let Ysondre, Emeriss or one of those other Emerald dragons wipe the raid for them!
My friends, if the Horde(or Alliance) want to fight dirty, then we can only respond in kind! Today I'm going to let you in on a few battle tactics to both defend yourselves and crush the Orcs and their allies!
Target the tank -- No tank means the boss is going to start targeting players at random and attempt to blow them up. If your raid is trying to contest a world boss and you don't have the tag, then it's time to take advantage of the situation and have world bosses help you for a change. Watch out for fast battle resurrects from opposing players. Get ready to shut down and slam dunk the tank again so that they stay down for the count. Druids in particular have the ability to bring a player back with full life. Silence them, knock them back, crowd control, and do whatever you need to do in order to disrupt them.
Go after stragglers -- As you move around the staging area of the world boss, you're bound to find isolated players who are doing their own DPS or healing rotations. Cute right? They're trying to stay under the radar by "hiding in plain sight". Punish them for their foolishness. Crush them when they're by themselves and work your way in.
Focus targets on key healers -- If you're out of isolated targets (or, if they smartened up, which is also unlikely), then it's time to get your hands dirty. Call on your death knights (Death Grip) and monks (Clash) to snag people out and pounce on them. Specifically, eliminate their healers.
Don't hold back -- Use your cooldowns as they come up. Your objective is to kill the world boss as fast as possible. Whenever your DPS or healing cooldowns are available, just burn them. The longer you're out there trying to take down the Sha or Galleon, the higher the chance that your raid will lose and wipe to either the boss or the opposite faction.
Try to stay under the boss -- This works especially well against Galleon if your raid managed to successfully tag him. Gather up your raid and have them stay under his belly. Your healers should be dropping a ton of AoE healing directly underneath and your raid can take full advantage of it. Should any foolish Horde players attempt to challenge you, they'll run into the wall that is your raid which should have an easy time picking them apart. If they try to AoE your group, their abilities will hit Galleon and speed up the killing process for your group.
Strength in numbers -- Not much I need to add for this one, right? Bring as many people as you can.
We've covered some defensive and offensive tactics. The most important thing when you're contesting a world boss is not to give up. Too many times I've seen one faction gain control of the situation and then promptly give up when the other side comes in to contest them.
Make them work for it!
The three R's of world PvP:
Release - Don't wait for a res. Chances are, it isn't coming.
Run back - The quicker you get to a safe place for your body, the better.
Regroup - Find an area where you can eat, drink, and buff without fear of getting jumped.
Now go sharpen your blades, polish your staves, and let the rivers of Pandaria run red with the blood of the Horde (or Alliance)!
