Psychological combat (in my personal definition) is "using the mental weakness of your opponent to your advantage". I never even thought of this, until some recent events came up in AB, and they literally slapped me in the face.
Horde was up 3 bases to the Alliance 2. I was solo (as is dictated by most Pug's) and went after the stables. There were 2 defenders, I was playing my 60 Hunter, and I knew there was no way to kill both the Alliance members, and fully cap the flag before they would respawn at their main base. (Where you spawn when you enter AB) So I thought I would try to force them to "call for help", thereby diverting players on their team away from taking a base. I popped a freeze trap at the lower start point of the bridge.(I was coming from the lumber mill) Waited for them to leave the flag and attack me, that did not happen, this told me that they were not noobs and they know to defend "at the flag". I sent my pet in to try to coax them out, at about half health, I pulled him back. The 2 Alliance peeps were good players and would not be fooled by my actions. However another Alliance member had died and spawned at the stable GY, when he saw my pet he instantly came after me. The Alliance still only controlled 2 bases, and the points where ticking in the Horde favor. So I played "cat and mouse", using my pets "2 second stun", and freeze traps to try to kite him towards the mill. I killed him, I then noticed another player had respawned at the stables GY and he came after me.
Now let's stop a second, think about this, I am one Horde player out of 15, I was "holding up", the 2 defenders at the flag, as well as the player I killed and the player that was attacking me. So alone, I was keeping 4 Alliance players "out of the equation". Yeah, we won easily, and now I try to do this as often as possible. There are other methods to use, that can be more effective at actually winning AB, then killing the other players. As a Priest I did nothing more then constantly MC players and jump them off the cliff, (by lumber mill) no they did not die, but it took them "out of the equation". I will not say all of the things I did, but at one point I had 12 Allies specifically trying to kill me, ignoring other players and the flag. This actually upset me a little, because I do not want to anger players so much, that they lose the enjoyment of the game. But I have a voracious thirst for victory that is not quenched by second place...
If you are going to try to play with this a little try to follow these rules:
1) Never listen to anything that is said about a particular player. You will hear people whine about how overpowered someone is because of all the epics they have or other nonsense. If people listen to this and believe it, this actually works against you.
2) Never become fixed on one player while attacking, always go for the flag, not the player, your goal is to win, and flags are what give you points.
3 When you do not have 3 bases, run with the zerg until you have 3 capped.
4 When you have 3 capped flags, solo harass a flag that is not yours, forcing them to keep more people at their flag they are defending.
This can be used in any PVP battle. Not only AB.
