PvP: Failures in Teamwork

There are lots of different strategies for the various battlegrounds that we have in World of Warcraft, from the old favorites of Warsong Gulch, Arathi Basin and Alterac Valley, to the newer ones of Eye of the Storm, Strand of the Ancients and Wintergrasp, to the new one on the horizon.

One of the common factors in whether or not your side wins, besides when one runs afoul of a premade, is when a team works together as a cohesive unit, even if you don't win, you do far far better than when everyone is soloing.

This is something that the Horde in the Rampage Battlegroup seem to be able to do, regardless of it is a PuG or not.

Be it because they actually DISCUSS things before hand (blasphemy, I know), or be it that they realize that four rogues working together will own just about anything that comes their way (oh God, that WSG game SUCKED.), or that a disc priest, paladin combination is nearly impossible to beat and therefor they can do whatever the hell they want... be it what it may, the Horde have mad leet communication skills and the Alliance do not. Which always seems backwards to me, given the names involved.

Those few times when you do have a leader attempting to actually lead, it's like trying to herd kittens through a field of butterflies. They either ignore you, or ignore you, or bat at your heels while purring. Or viciously attack in badly written English.

Or if/when the attack plan doesn't go as intended, they start to bitch and moan and complain, rather than help modify the plan to fix what was wrong, or deal with the unexpected. Because this helps everything.

Simple things... "Need healers on FC", "FC coming up West", "EFC going down East", "Don't go Tunnel", "Go Ramp", "Inc. BS", "Inc. TP", "I'm tank, going in on Drek"... can be the difference between success and failure... and often are. Yet people do not do this. They rush in, or solo defend, or solo run the flag, or solo try to get the flag back, and then whey they die, or fail, they blame everyone else for sucking.

PvP: The Beginning

Back in the old days of yore and bygones and in a galaxy far, far away... I swore I'd never PvP.

However, I am a) a woman and 2) a warlock. I can do whatever the hell I want.

So I've started to PvP. As you may (or may not) have read, I started with Kvasira (technically my current "main") the RetLoL way back at level 70.

I can't say I got BORED with PvPing with Kvasira, but I'm a goal-oriented person for the most part. It can be something as simple as: 'beating X boss' for the umpteenth time, but I need an end-goal.

For Kvasira, it was hitting 10k HK's. I did that. And then I said, 'Next one is 25k? Screw that.'. I worked my tush off, got her outfitted with over 800 resilience, she's a walking juggernaut of death! (Okay, not quite, but I do well considering I still don't use keybindings.) But I do NOT have the patience to grind away to 25k HK's.

I realized that my place as a retribution paladin is assist. I run with the fc, I get back the flag from the efc. Sometimes I run the flag. I guard bases or help assault them. I burn towers and laugh. I serve as a bad backup healer but possibly the only thing standing between tank death on Galv and winning. I soak up damage by NPC's so someone else can cap the graveyard.

In short, I make myself as annoying to the Horde as Humanly (or Draenicly) possible.

But I digress! (As I'm allowed to do. My blog, remember?)

So I switched my focus to Karika the Resto Shaman. I sat there all the time with Kvasira and said to myself, 'OMFG, Trees, Resto Shaman, Disc Priest, Holy Paladin... I HATE YOU'. So I decided to go at it from the other side. I'd try to BE the person that those other people hated (even more than my 'screw up their plan' paladin self).

It stunk at first, no resil gear besides the crafted rings and necklace. I'd land in a battleground and announce to my raid: "I'm a resto shaman in PvE gear. Please don't leave me alone and I'll heal you."

It garnered a few laughs, but it worked. For the most part, I was able to live long enough to accomplish something. Heal the flag carrier, whatever.

Of course, once the Horde realized that they had 1) a resto shaman that had b) bad pvp gear, it was open season on Karika.

The Horde are VERY good at focus firing people. I hate it when it happens to me.

However, I'm now at somewhere around 400 resilience with Karika, I can live longer. I do live longer. I can sometimes hear them grinding their teeth as they work at killing me. I'm still working on ways to do stuff besides heal myself over and over again when someone is hitting me. It's still just a waiting game otherwise: I heal myself until help arrives, if help doesn't arrive, it may take three minutes or whatever, but eventually I'll die.

Now... what's the point of this? Just K babbling again, right?

WRONG.

I'm in these battlegrounds, battlegrounds that have been out for YEARS, and watching people do the silliest things.

It seems people have either 9) forgotten the basic strategies for the various BG's or z) are new to the game and thus do not KNOW the strategies that the rest of us take for granted.

There are MANY guides out there, (some of them good! Like The Art of War(craft)). (And if I had any ability with the internet at all, I'd link his articles. As it is, this is the best I can do. The Warlock's Den also has a nice page devoted to beginning PvP.)

And of course, my favorite place is WoWWiki for all my unofficial needs.

However, you guys all know me. I'm never content just linking and letting that be enough. I've got to rant, rave and give my take on the whole PvP/Battleground scenario.

Besides 'The Alliance has the coordination and tactics of a group of kittens in a field of butterflies' that is...

And isn't that a pretty visual. :)