Why Do People Not Cap The Flag?

[Dimness]

I play in a lot of BG's, and I've seen a lot of times where a person will bring the flag back to base and not cap it. In some situations our side is up two zero (Warsong Gulch), or the score is ridiculously high (Eye of the Storm) compared to the other side. I understand this gives some opportunity to farm honor points.

But then there are situations where people for some odd reason just simply refuse to cap the flag, no matter the situation. Today in Warsong Gulch we had somebody bring the flag all the way to base.....and then just sit there. The guy even went so far to yell out orders the rest of the battle. Needless to say we lost the flag, and it got returned to the enemy base. Same thing in Eye of the Storm: somebody got the flag and just stopped short of the little hub where you cap it. It wasn't until four or five guys were trying to kill him until he capped the flag.

Is there some good legitimate reason for just holding on to the flag and not getting points from it? I understand when victory is at hand, and you want to farm for a little more honor, but to do it way at the beginning of the game or when your side is down by some points just seems really stupid.

Edit: Meant to say Warsong Gulch.

[kemikalkadet]

I assume you mean Warsong Gulch instead of Arathi Basin, theres no carryable flag in AB, just nodes to capture. And in Warsong Gulch, so long as your flag is in your base and you have their flag there's no reason not to cap it. Of course if they have yours and you have theirs there's no way you can cap it.

In Eye of the storm the mechanics are a little different, the flag isn't the most important objective. The points you earn per flag cap is related to how many bases your team owns so there are situations where holding the flag for a while can be a good idea.. though it needs good comununication. As a hypothetical situation, say you own one tower and are holding the flag, the alliance has 3 bases that aren't well defended and are camping the flag spawn: Capping the flag would give you a small amount of points and practically guarantee the other team will grab the flag when it respawns and cap it with 3 bases up giving them a large amount of points. Now, if you wait for your attackers to cap one or two of the weak bases before you score the flag, you'll get more points and it's also likely that you'll draw more alliance away to defend their base meaning a higher chance of grabbing the flag again when it respawns. Of course if you're just playing with PuG groups theres a good chance of this plan backfiring, but that's the general strategy for getting most points per flag.

[ebs2002]

The only reason not to cap the flag in WSG (assuming the other faction doesn't also hold the flag), is to farm honor or achievements.

In EotS, there are LOTS of reasons:

- Other faction is camping the flag spawn
If he capped and the other team got a monopoly on the flag cap, they could wind up with 2 or 3 flag caps to your 1. They come out on top.

- You're ahead by a little and holding 2 towers
When you're ahead and holding 2 towers, capping the flag just gives the other team the chance to get the next flag spawn and start capping it. NOT capping the flag will still lead to victory.

- There's a tower in flux that you may be capping soon
Flag caps are better the more towers you have. Capping with 2 is decent, but waiting for that 3rd to turn over and capping is far better. Capping with 4 towers is a huge amount of points

- Farming honor, of course

[Kinetix]

There have been times were both teams have the flag in WSG and the horde loses the Alliance Flag and the Flag Carrier is in battle and does not realize he can cap. Last thing I look at is the text log when i'm trying to stay alive. This happened to me and i got reamed.

[Kazaganthi]

Your answer is simple. Most people aren't too bright. Some may be new to the game, some might play just to annoy people, and some just don't get it. If you want to avoid this make a group of your friends to play with.

[Talani]

here is another thing.......the flag can also be a hat.