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. :)

Resto Shaman PvP... I suck.

Kvasira hit 10,000 honor kills, has the full set of purchasable level 80 epic PvP gear, including trinket and cloak. The only thing I could work towards now is upgrading one of my rings and necklace to the epic form rather than the rare crafted ones. I'm also working towards getting one of the PvP mounts. 30 badges of each of the original three types. I'd have had it a long time ago, except I did a lot of concerted efforts instead to raise my honor faster to buy stuff.

So... I'm bored with that for the moment.

And I decide, given how much I bitch about resto/healers in PvP (opponents, love 'em when they're on our side), I'd take my shaman in and see how I can do with PvP there.

I have a LOT to learn. It doesn't help that I don't have ANY PvP gear with her (gonna craft myself the necklace/rings today). Once the Horde figure out that 1: I'm a healer and 2: I die like a baby mouse against a lion, I'm their preferred target to kill.

Granted, there were a few times where I sat there and said, 'Yeah, just keep hitting on me. While you're trying to kill me, my companions are killing you/capping the flag/assaulting the base.' If I don't get stunned, stunlocked or silenced, I can keep myself alive pretty easily.

I also have new respect for the healers I used to work with. Never again while I am running the flag will I leave them behind unwittingly. There's nothing nothing more annoying than having the flag runner get away from you because you're trying to stay alive, and then watch them die just out of your healing range.

Yeah.

So, resto pvp for me. Any suggestions?

Totems: Tremor (where appropriate) or Earthbind, Wrath, Cleansing and Magma?
Earthshield on myself (or flag runner with Watershield on myself).
And then just heal my tush off.

I'm having issues where I'll try to hit Nature's Swiftness and then a Healing Wave or Chain Heal and I can't get it off in time.

Part of my PvP problems arise from the fact that I don't use keybindings. I've tried in the past, and I just get confused. Now, some of that will go away if I just practice/practice/practice. And I may need to switch to that, and using the mouse to move instead of the awsd keys.

Yeah, I can hear you... yes, I use the awsd keys. And the qe keys. I'm a terribad player, I know.

For the Alliance

Got my bear last night. Yup indeed.

Got into this raid around 4ish or so. Then left the raid because no one was in it and it was being run by what seemed to be a 12 year old with ADD.

Then got into another raid... with the same 12 year old, several HOURS later, during which time we had fun with things like PvPing and Arena'ing.

So we head out to Ratchet. Someone pulls the guards on the 'secret entrance', so we have to rush in before we're really ready. Nevertheless, Thrall dies. We go on our way to TB. We go in a poorly organized group of string cheese, and most of us die on our way to Bloodhoof. (I didn't. Rawr.) And then when we regroup, no one waits for buffs, and no one actually tanks the boss and he's going everywhere and we had tons of adds and it's just a MESS.

A bunch of people leave.

Boon steps up to the plate and says, "LISTEN UP PUKES, IF YOU WANT YOUR BEAR, YOU WILL LISTEN TO ME OR DIE."

And surprisingly, that works. We regroup. We buff. We kick Bloodhoofs (or would that be Bloodhooves?) posterior.

Then we head up to UC. We regroup. We buff. We go through the sewers. We get lost and amusingly dead as a bunch of us run off a cliff in the city and think we're going to land in a nice pool of sludge and instead hit the floor. Sneaky.

We get to Sylvanas. We kick her posterior. Little tip? The best way to figure out where she's going to be next is to watch the pets of the hunters. They'll go over to where she's about to spawn before she actually appears. They're smart little minions that way.

We then ride up to Silvermoon. We ride straight up to the group of three people who are in the big shiny area. (Can you tell I know little of Blood Elves?) I don't even know which one is the leader and which ones are just his underlings!

But we get to him. We kick his posterior.

I get my BEAR!

Of course, a few people didn't get the Org achievement, due to releasing or somesuch, so we head on back. Naturally, since most of the people just did all four and got their bear, why would they do it again? (If only for fun, right?) So we get a bunch of people deserting. Including our one tank. So I log in Keiji, we grab a few more puggers (making sure to let them know we're just doing Org) and we charge in for the second time in a night!

I tank the hexing dude. A druid we picked up tanked Thrall. I kept death gripping those few Horde that showed up to stop us into the mix. That was fun. :)

(We 25 Manned Thrall. Yes. We had only 4-5 groups of people, not all of whom were 80.)

And then we run back on out. I'm in combat so I'm running, not riding. Boon stays with me because he's the best. And all the guards are on me... and they don't stop (probably has something to do with unholy blight + DnD (they were hitting Boon! What else could I do but pull them off of him with a DnD... let him die? ... Well, okay, I could do that I suppose...), so we're running and running and this level 80 horde shaman keeps trying to stop us.

I mean, talk about PERSISTENT. He followed us all the way from Thrall's room out. I kept chains of ice on him (and hello, the only cooldown on that is global and frost runes? Seriously? No wonder it seems you can't cross the field in WSG without having to constantly cleanse chains of ice from the flag runner.) and then we were out, jumped into the river, and finally evaded most of the rest of the guards except for two persistent fellows... and that dang shaman!

So the unholy tank and the holy paladin (and how is that for a duo? Unholy and holy together? Human sacrifice, dogs and cats living together... mass hysteria!) went into this epic battle with an elemental shaman! But strangulate, mind freeze, death grip and Boon hammering him got him down. And then he came back up. So we killed him. Again.

I mean, really! Bravo on a good attempt! :)

The highlight was this level 1 orc had followed us out the whole way with the shaman, unflagged naturally, and watched the whole fight. When it was over, I bowed to the level 1...

And then the level 1 logged into their Alliance alt and told Boon that it was the most epic fight he'd ever seen! (I doubt that, but the sentiment is appreciated)

It was, I will admit, very fun.

They're gunning for me!

With the PvP bug again in my ear, I've been running around with Kvasira in the various battlegrounds, rediscovering the joys and ... okay, rediscovering the headaches that being Alliance in the Rampage Battlegroup means.

However, I think I've noticed something! People don't LIKE me! ... well, the Hordies. The Alliance don't seem to mind me.

But dang, if it isn't every time I'm in a battleground, I seem to have one or two hordies that seem to have it out for me. They see me and veer off from what they're doing or where they're going to try (sometimes succeed!) to kill me.

It probably has something to do with the fact that I like to mess up plans wherever and whenever possible. :D

Oh, are you running the flag? HAMMER OF JUSTICE!

Okay, this seems to mostly be a Warsong Gulch thing. I haven't noticed it much in the other battlegrounds, except Strand of the Ancients... and I think that's because in Strand I like to do the bomb defusing thing, and bombing thing, and killing the tanks thing, and taking the graveyards thing.

Anyway, so in between running the flag (cleanse, cleanse, cleanse, cleanse, cleanse) and returning the flag (hammer of justice, hammer of wrath, take THAT!), I seem to, in every WSG, develop a following of two or three hordies that take time out of their busy day to see how I'm doing.

It makes me feel loved. In a very warm, bodily fluids gushing out, way.

PvP Martyr vs. Command?

Yes, my paladin is PvPing again. Namely because Boon wishes to arena. And what the Boon wishes, the K provides. So I need PvP gear.... so it was off to the battlegrounds for me!

It's a new game out there. There are times when, yes... it's an 'even match' and we win. By even match I mean not a horde premade and equal amounts of people on both sides. Of course, we still lose a fair number of those even matches.

And then there are those matches where we go into EotS (I see this most often there) and it's 15 to 7, Alliance to Horde.

Those are so sweet and clean. Feel a little bad for the poor Hordlings.... until the next match where I sit there and curse them all back to the bowels of Hell.

Anyway... I had been noticing that some paladins in PvP are still using the damage to self Martyr. Presumably because of the higher overall damage, despite the 'always crit on stunned targets' of Command.

I slapped it on to try it... and surprisingly, I didn't do as poorly with it as I expected -- didn't die from it, at any rate.

So for PvP, I've rediscovered the rawr. Yes. The rawr. The feel of running the flag and nyah'ing at the Horde's attempt to stop me. The feel of rushing FRR and whomping people. The feel of running up and planting a seaforium charge at a gate and defending it and seeing the gate blow open with no tanks nearby. The serene joy I get sitting at the top of IBT and watching it burn. And of course... Arathi Basin and the... yeah, still hate the terrain advantage in AB.

Back to Martyr and Command in PvP. From what I had read, people still preferred Command over Martyr in PvP. But it isn't matching up with what I'm seeing in actual battlegrounds. I'll have to evaluate if I notice it on arena opponents, as well.

You'd think that without the constant whackitywhack on something with judgement of light inflicted upon it, that the damage you take from Martyr would swiftly outstrip your Divine Storm/Art of War healing, and if you didn't have a healer nearby, it would be a big negative. But again, it isn't something I noticed as a big downside. I think because most fights are over before the health loss becomes an issue. You're either going to die or not.

Granted, there are a few times where it comes down to the ittybitty little last bit of life for you and the other dude, where Martyr could seriously make you have a baaad day, but that doesn't happen too often.

If any other paladins read this blog, chime in with your impressions of Command vs. Martyr in PvP and Arena.

Keiji goes to Wintergrasp

I have been doing well in my hiatus.

The first week, I logged in only to do Wintergrasp with Kikidas, angling for the Titan-Forged Hood of Dominance.

Finally, I did get it. One of my companions in game, an individual known as Brem, would give me tells teasing me about my online appearance. It was like clockwork, said he! Naturally I blamed Boon entirely.

I have rediscovered walking my dogs and what idiots they are. (Ooh Squirrel! ... Ooh Leaf! ... Ooh Car! ... Ooh Poop!)

I have taken naps with my kitties and discovered that the bunny gets jealous when I have naps with the kitties. (He then proceeds to jump up on me, and then jump on them growling until they leave. I had to protect my 10 pound cats from the 2.5 pound minibunny. Pathetic.)

I have started to watch Buffy again and marvel all over again at how silly the vampires look. (Really, I get all bloodlusty so my face does this wierd evil-Klingon impression? Riiight.)

I have done load of laundry after laundry, and actually put them away instead of just stacking it downstairs in a messy pile that winds up needing to be washed again because 1: wrinkles and 2: cat hair (apparently laundry piles make wonderful cat beds).

I have cleaned my kitchen and my living room. (Fantastik > Cinch imnsho. Fantastik has OXYPOWER)

I organized the office (specifically the pet storage area that was looking like a miniature supernova went off, who knew hay could be so messy?).

I took down the bird feeder, cleaned it out and put fresh bird seed inside of it, then hung it back up. (Apparently, leaving seed in a bird feeder over the winter makes it go moldy. Who knew?)

Boon, concerned that I was going tooooooooooooooooo much into 'Not playing WoW!', was worried I'd have a psychotic break and has been urging me to play 'just a little bit'. I've limited that to playing just with him for the most part. We've done our lowbies a little bit. He wanted to do some quests in Icecrown, so I did that with him. I stay on for about an hour and then I log out to do something else. I did get roped into bringing Kikidas to 25-KT the other night. Rawr. With my new epic hat, I was stylin'.

And yesterday I sat down, looked over at Boon who was giving Age of Conan another try with his new computer that won't blow up trying to play a game, looked at the clock which told me I had three hours before we were leaving for TableTop, looked at the room I had cleaned and said, "I'm taking a break."

So I logged in Keiji, got a group for 10-OS. Then got a group for 25-OS. Then helped take Wintergrasp (for once, the Horde had control). Then got a group for 25-VoA. Then got a group for 10-VoA. All one after another. And it still ate up a ton of time. It was almost time to leave for TableTop. Oy.

So I played PuzzleQuest Galatrix, which is odd, but interesting, even if I don't like the fact that there isn't as much 'choice' so far in it as Puzzle Quest, Challenge of the Warlords. Where you had a choice if you'd give the goblet back to the man who had you go look for it, or if you'd keep it, etc.

On a side note, I realize this differs undoubtedly between servers, but I feel really sad for the Horde on Alleria in regards to Wintergrasp. They always have about 10 stacks of Tenacity on, but we simply maul them with numbers. It's like a level-1 raid on Hogger. The individual dies, but that's okay, because while he was killing me, fourteen other people killed him. I'll take the corpse run.

So I feel bad. Because they can never get Stonekeeper Shards unless they're doing the WG dailies. I always see the same few people (Horde... and Alliance, come to think about it) doing WG. Hordies can't get shards by doing instances, so if they want a piece of shard-gear for their alts, or even themselves, they have to do WG dailies over and over again. (Wowolf, if you're out there. Hi! And sorry. Really, I like you Blood Elves, but you just can't take my Fortress.)

It makes me wonder if when the Horde DO have Wintergrasp, if suddenly the entire Horde population goes into instances? ZOMG! We have WG! QUICK QUICK, GET THEE TO AN INSTANCE!

People stay home from work, call in and explain, "Sorry Boss, but I play Horde on Alleria... and we have Wintergrasp. I just can't make it in today, at least not for another 2 hours and 30 minutes."

Their boss, understandingly, "Oh I know how THAT goes. I'll see you online then!" as he runs to his work laptop and logs in, while yelling at his Alliance minions to work, giving his Horde allies two and a half hours off.

Maybe Alleria can host a 'Be Kind to Horde' day, and we start a petition to LET them win Wintergrasp for a whole day? From midnight to midnight.... let it be Tuesday. Tuesday 12am until Wednesday 12am.

(What? Maintenance? And your point is? Hello. I'm not completely altruistic. I am, part time, a warlock.)

(Hrm. Blog name? Part Time Warlock? ... Nah, too much like Part Time Druid.)

Rogue vs. Retadin

I don't have anything interesting to post today, not really, because yesterday I was tabletopping.

So I will instead relate something that happened a few days ago. I took my rogue into AV, to try to nab a few achievements, hoping to loot a bunch of storm crystals and stuff, wind up dying as I surely would, and get sent back to defense where I could turn it in for reputation.

Instead, I somehow found myself solo-defending IBT.

Naturally, I'm nervous. Kava has no PvP gear other than the Brutal Gladiator's Gloves, and I've never been particularly skilled at PvPing, despite my Retadin's success at it.

Now, I am going to assume that the person who came running up the tower was a retadin. It was a BElf Paladin. He had a big two hander on his back.

He came running around the doorway and *sap*.

*cheap shot*
-- 110 energy --
*shiv* *mutilate* *mutilate*
*kidney shot*
*mutilate* *mutilate*
*cold blood* *eviscerate*
Honor Kill

I was stunned.. as he was, undoubtedly!

Now, I didn't notice, was he level 70 or not? No idea. I'm guessing not, because I really can't imagine that I took down a level 70 retadin THAT fast.

But I chortled to myself as IBT burned.

And I've always HATED rogues that stunlocked me. You know... cheap shot, kidney shot - vanish - cheap shot, kidney shot and dead.

Was it cool? Yes. Was it efficient? Sure! Was it all that fun? Not if I did it all the time. Wouldn't that get to the point where it feels like shooting fish in a barrel? Where's the thrill? Where's the excitement? Where's the MUAHAHAHAHA! moment?

Either way... I am the party star!

Terrain Advantages

WSG seems pretty even in terms of terrain advantages.

Arathi Basin sucks in terms of terrain advantages for the Alliance. The trio of nodes that is the easiest to defend is the Farm, Blacksmith and the Lumber Mill. A defending group can sit at the crossroads by those three and get to the flag of any one of their nodes within seconds.

If the Alliance get the 'same' trio - Stable, Lumber Mill and Blacksmith, we don't get the same crossroad effect, since there isn't a road on the LM/ST side of the blacksmith. If we do get the trio with the road, ST GM and BS... the flag to the BS is way across the way from the road, rather than 'right there'. And the flag to the ST isn't anywhere as close to the crossroads by the GM/BS as the flag to the farm is by the crossroads to the LM/BS.

Advantage: Horde.

In Eye of the Storm, things seem pretty even in terms of distances and locations. Towers and Ruins. Albeit, I think it's easier to defend BET than it is to defend MT.

In Alterac Valley, advantage is split. There are some things that seem Alliance-friendly and others that seem Horde-friendly.

Towers ... oh god do the Horde have it easy? We have to defend the flag in this cramped little room where we don't have LOS on the people coming up until they're IN THE DOORWAY AND SPAMMING HOWL OF TERROR (or psychic scream), where we then go hoofing it all the way down the ramp without LOS to the people capping the flag to hit them without having to be two feet away from them.

The Bunkers are made to be taken! This wide open space, where you can hit a recapper from one floor down. Where you can do the ring around the rosy dance around the open windows to hit a capper, get out of LOS, hit a capper, get out of LOS.

Our RH is a bit easier to defend, in my opinion and it's closer to Van's bunker. Nice wide open area. The horde RH is a bit harder to defend and it's further from Drek's room. There's a bridge and a valley near it, so you can easily get LOS issues. The flip side is that a Horde could easily ninja their RH back from us if people are preparing for Drek because it is out of los of Drek's room. It's harder for us to ninja our RH back because it's RIGHT THERE by Van's room.

The way to the RH is also easier for Alliance to defend. You can easily see people coming across that one little bridge and a line of people across it can hold it. The Horde have the stupid little bunker you have to run through, which makes it great for them to ambush us, but I think easier for us to funnel through and have people sneak by while most of them are busy with the vast majority of people rushing the RH.

It is also easier for us to cap Snowfall Graveyard. Is this because our battlegroup traditionally has the Alliance riding down the western side of the map and the Horde riding up the eastern side? Do other battlegroups find that the Horde ride up the western side and the Alliance down the eastern side?

I was just thinking this as I was in a (yet another losing) Arathi Basin and the Horde had us three capped with the Farm, Blacksmith and Lumber Mill, and someone said 'How are they at every node no matter what node we hit?'. That's how. The magical trio and crossroads. Keep three defenders at each node and the rest can respond instantly. Three should be enough to keep the flag safe until the rest can reach it.

If only the Horde were prettier! Blood Elves... you don't count because both your genders are pretty and that's just wrong!

PvP Honor NOT Being Reset

Yes, or so says WoW Insider.

So all the PvP guilds that stopped PvPing... get back at it.

For all the people who took the last few weeks since the news was announced that it WOULD be reset to PvP like the end of the world was coming... or at least the end of the honor points you had saved up... you can stop now.

I'm at a loss myself. But PvPing is something I can do to better my character without having to group up and invest a ton of time in at any given time. If I have to do something else, and often I do since I tend to PvP while I'm at work... I can idle out, or afk out, or just take two minutes and not have to have a group of people waiting specifically on me.

The question is... should I continue to PvP with Kvasira? Kiya is feeling no love. And of my 70's, she's the least geared. Kava has some Karazhan epics. Kiljara, Kikidas and Kathe... you three just shut up.

Keyami... sorry girl, you're still on the back burner, at least for now. Maybe I'll dust you off and play with you... some day. But my tanking desires are taken care of with Kathe right now... it isn't that I don't love you, baby... I just need something else right now. It isn't you. It's me.

PvP Quotes, Insights and Rants

Boon: I can respec holy. You can't respec stupid. I feel for you.

Kvasira: I'm kind of hoping someone kills me, because I need mana.

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For the most part, I can handle a warlock. Cleanse helps a lot. Cleansing if they're UA however... not so good an idea. They also don't like it when you make their pet go running away.

When there's 20 seconds left before the tower is destroyed and you're the only one guarding it, and a single person comes running in, you're good.

Unless your bubble is down. And it's a hunter. Or a warlock. Or a priest. Or a rogue. Or a warrior. Or...

Nothing pisses off a warlock faster than when they come running in thinking to themselves, "Oh, just one alliance! I can fear them and recap while they go hoofing it down the ramp. Because our towers are designed to recap easily, whereas alliance towers are designed to be really hard to recap. I love being Horde. Blizz loves me too."... and then they get Hammer of Justiced. And then repentenced. And then they finally get that fear cast off... except that I just bubbled. The Alliance have destroyed Tower Point. HAH.

Nothing pisses off people faster than when the Horde have turtled and you refuse to stop retaking towers. I'm sorry. It's my game too and I can retake towers if I want to. It's fun. And in my opinion, if the Horde force a turtle, you're just rewarding the behavior for them if you give in and let them win. It'll make them force a turtle more often. If you make it unrewarding for them, maybe they'll stop doing it.

It's inevitable that when you need just 200 more honor and you pop into an AV, it will turn into a 45 minute resource-turtle.

Battlegrounds are team play. The warrior who runs off and grabs the flag without telling anyone or waiting for backup, then tells everyone they're f*ing nubs because he didn't get any healz ... we're not the nubs, fellow. You are.

Battlegrounds are team play. If you see that IBT and TP have only two people in it, and the RH is already taken... stop and stand around by the flag and be just as bored for the two minutes it'll take to burn the tower... it's far better than having to retake the damn thing because two people can't stop a backcap team of eight.

Don't call people idiots for not being able to two-man defend a tower against a backcap team of eight, especially when you're standing on a hill by the capped RH, spamming, "All in, all in! OMG! FAIL! We're going to lose thanks nubs" when the Horde haven't even hit SPGY yet.

Inevitably, no matter how many times you say it, someone will retake SHGY and cap FWGY before FWRH.

Inevitably, someone will demand that we need to run the flag in EOTS when we only have two towers, instead of trying to take three towers and just hold the flag.

Inevitably, someone will cap the flag in EOTS when the Horde hold midfield, the flag carrier asks 'Should I cap?' and the answer is 'No.'.

The flag carrier will always take the speed boost in the tunnel in WSG and out run their support, then bitch about dying and having no support.

Horde like to do naked suicide runs when they're losing a reinforcement turtle in AV.

The Alliance like to run in one at a time and die one at a time. The Horde like to wait in packs for the Alliance to run by one at a time.

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What is with people's beef with retribution paladins?

1. It's my 15 bucks a month. If I want to play a melee hunter, I can do so. I realize that this may negatively effect your game play, in which case, don't group with me, but other than that, stfu. If I'm in your battleground, roll your eyes, groan mentally, but other than that... do you have a point? Is there a reason you're telling me something that I've undoubtedly heard one million times before? I get I'm not mainstream. Believe it or not, I actually thought about my decision to go retribution before I did it, and I researched it and I pull it off. So get off my back and go do your job and try to show me up. Just try it. You may out DPS me, but I bet I contribute more than you do.

1a. There are a lot of Horde Retribution Paladins. So obviously it isn't just an Alliance-Idiot option.

2. 1/3 of the Paladin talent trees is devoted to damage. Hence, Blizzard must assume that a portion of people who have paladins would want to do damage with them. Granted, some people do not play them well and just like there are Huntards out there, there are Retardins out there too. But do not just assume that because I'm a Retribution Paladin means: 'lolz, i dont heal im ret'. I toss bubbles when some poor caster (or even melee at times) is having their ass handed to them by melee. If I have the opportunity or feel that my pitiful 3k healing from Holy Light will help, I cast it. Otherwise, I don't bitch when a shadow priest doesn't heal me. I don't bitch when a feral druid doesn't heal me. So don't bitch when a retribution paladin doesn't heal you.

3. If you feel that retribution paladins are taking up the space a tank or healer should occupy in your battleground, then log off of your rogue or mage and roll a tank or healer, or respec your warrior or druid to do so.

4. I have two tanks, two healers, and two 'high-end' DPS. I can run a retribution paladin if I want to do so. I've earned that right by doing six mainstream characters that fit into well defined and required rolls. (which, my ret pally currently is competing with my combat rogue in terms of how much DPS they can put out in an instance. Granted, my ret pally is becoming quite well geared compared to my rogue, but it just goes to show you that retribution paladins can actually compete with DPS.. and when the class hopefully gets boosted so we don't need to be geared to the gills to compete with an average 'mainstream' DPS... I can't wait.)

5. Retribution paladins CAN DPS. Just because a vast majority of them don't do it, or do it well, doesn't mean we all are like that. Retribution paladins can also heal and bubble and play the joat game. Hybrid classes are cool that way.

6. Don't assume that my current played character is my main. Assuming that, especially in the environement of WoW, not only is stupid, but it's very stupid. Your average gamer has at least 2 level 70's. At least. Most people I know have a slightly lesser degree of altisms than I do. So assuming that the season 1 warlock is his main and calling him a noob because of it... really really stupid.

/rant /insight /quote

The Hour-Long AV

I was finally less than 500 honor away from upgrading my belt so I decide to get it the fastest way possible -- running an AV or two.

So I pop into an AV and we win, but we have to do it fast since it was going to be a tie, so we only got 200 honor or so from it. Okay, sure, fine.

The next AV has a massive HORDE of ... well, horde, backcapping towers. We lose. 68 honor.

The NEXT AV has the same massive horde of horde backcapping. It was a premade group from Spinebreaker. If you guys are reading this.. I hate you! (No, not really hate, just want to kick you off the top of the Aldor Rise.. over and over and over again.) Another loss, another 68 or so honor.

I pop into the next AV, I need something like a little over 100 honor. Surely, surely... *whimper*

It turns into a massive turtle. The Horde defend the RH like mad demons. Our people push and push and we can't get past the ... horde of horde all sitting in the RH and FWGY.

So it becomes a reinforcement game. We burn all but the two Frostwolf Towers, keep backcapping the few times they try to cap one of our bunkers.

And after an HOUR... we finally win it. I was 10th on DPS, I had in the neighborhood of 90 HKs.

Towards the end, the Horde were doing suicide runs into the massive Alliance encampment stationed right by FWGY. Gargle, Glargle, whatever your name is - Orc Warlock... I know you were doing your best to help your side lose. You constantly ran out into the middle of people and let us whack you down with all of our fury at the HOUR LONG AV. About 20 times... I'm sure it wasn't fun for you either.

But in the end... we did win. And I got my belt.

PvP: Do or Do Not, there is no Try

My last post on PvPing had... a lot of comments! And not just from my sphere of guildmates that read my blog religiously (and by religiously, I mean if they don't, I will bug them mercilessly until they read it, so they pray that they get a chance to read it before I actually spot them and can needle them), but from strangers! Friendly strangers. I think one offered me candy...

The comments I recieved were ... well, similar to what I posted, which is to be expected. Quitters, naked parties... sounds like college, actually.

Now, people can take the famous quote: "Do or Do Not, there is no Try" to mean several different things.

If you can't succeed, don't bother trying. That's Do Not, right?
If you can succeed, that's when you try. That's Do, right?

Wrong.

Success isn't what you're doing or not doing. You do your best. Or you do not do your best. You don't try to do your best.

It's something I see a little bit in myself, in friends, and in ... everyone. We all have this trait.

If we aren't good at a game, we stop playing it. I don't play chess or Monopoly for just that reason (unless the chess is 'Eat Me' and I'm just being the banker in Monopoly, I like to forclose on houses! Muahahaha!), because I'm just plain not very good at those games. And honestly, it isn't that much fun to keep losing.

More than merely stop playing it, you tell everyone, 'Oh, I'm terrible at chess!'... and then you don't even try to do well, which results in a swift victory for your opponent, which validates your opinion! 'See, I'm horrible!'.

It's a natural thing to do. We stop playing the things we're good at, or only do it if we're dragged into it, kicking and screaming and not doing our best, and we only willingly do the things we are good at.

This is natural. This is why we have professional baseball players and board certified surgeons in specialized fields. They were good at it, they kept doing what they were good at, and they got better.

Unfortunately, the game is not like real life. Even more unfortunately, BG's are more like baseball than the surgeon. I could be the best PvPer in the galaxy... but I'm partnered up with 9 scrubs who want to dance naked in Trollbane Hall... gonna lose.

Now, this isn't true for everyone. Some people willingly go ahead and realize that if they don't keep trying at something, they will never get to be good at it. They do their best, even if their best isn't very good, and they keep doing their best. Sometimes they learn, sometimes, they'll laughingly admit that they just don't have what it takes... but they'll do it anyway, because they enjoy the game that they play and the people they are with.

PvP unfortunately, boils down our personality traits and leaves us with the bare minimums.

Take me, for example! I have two modes when I PvP. I turn into Tourette Girl in the privacy of my own home and stay silent on the BG chat or I turn into the class clown, making funny remarks, lightening the mood and keeping everyone happy, even if we're losing.

The reason I keep PvPing, was because I needed some gear and because there's an addictive quality to some BG aspects, more pointedly when I was resto/balance. How many HK's CAN I rack up, doing nothing but tossing HoT's on people? Holy hell. That's a lot.

Being feral in WSG... yeah, just TRY to stop me from running the flag across to our base. Maybe we can't cap it because most of my teammates can't find their asses if you gave them a guided tour, but damnit, I'm getting it to our base.

My point... I'm not the best PvPer. I admittedly state that I do not have the mindset for individual one on one combat, when the person doesn't follow a set rule that I can understand. I can't build threat on him. I can't keep the healer CC'd reliably. I can't... PvE it. It's PvP. If it wasn't for Kathe needing BG gear, I'd still be sitting here vehemently stating that PvP is a nightmare (still is... but... eh.) and that I'd never do it! NEVER EVER EVER! NOooooooOOO! I WILL NOT GO! *nail marks being dragged into the cement*.

However. I do my best. I do not expect to succeed. But I do my best. I do my best because anything else is a failure on my part. I give my best because that is my nature to do. I do not quit. I do not give up. Even if everyone around me is dancing nekkid... I do my best. Because I am not a quitter. Because I am not an Alliance Loser. Because I am K. And K is great.

Er.

The attitude of Alliance players makes SENSE, even if I don't agree with them. It isn't any fun to LOSE all the time, even if they TRY (evil evil trying! nooo!), or rather, especially if they try!

.

So, since some of them are in it for the long (or short) haul of a goal in mind (I need just 10 more badges! Just lose real quick so I can go to my next BG...), they turn it around. Losing despite trying sucks. Losing because you admit that *tittertitter* I'm so terrible at this game! *gigglegiggle*, isn't so bad. Losing because you CHOOSE to lose, even better! It's a loss on your terms. It isn't because you SUCK, it's because you lost on purpose! Huge difference, even if you aren't thinking of it in those terms.

.

Now, you and I, and everyone else who is probably a bit more mature than your average PvPer... realizes that ... what I wrote just above ... is a load of crap.

.

You make of your life, of your game, of your Battleground, what you put into it. If you put crap into it, guess what you get out of it?

.

If you put your best into it, even if you LOSE, you get the best out of it. You really do win.

PvP: Attempt to Win, or Attempt to Lose

Back in highschool, there was a version of chess called 'Eat Me' that the chess club had it's stupid members play. I excelled at Eat Me.

Basically, it was a game to see who could lose the fastest. By this, the goal was that any piece of mine that I put in a position for one of your pieces to take, you had to take it. That was your move. The winner was the person who lost at chess.

Lately, in PvP, I've been seeing people who, not even with us losing the battleground, state: "Let's just lose".

W. T. F?

No wonder Alliance is horrible, half of the people in any given battleground probably aren't really trying, they're just doing token crap to avoid being reported /afk. Because it's a given that the Alliance will lose, right?

If that's your thought... why are you there?

Some people are farming battleground marks and to them, a fast lose is better than a slow lose or even a slow hard fought win. (nevermind that you get more marks if you do a fast win... that's just too hard to do though, it requires an ATTEMPT. We can't do that! Geez.)

Some people are there to farm honor and HK's. Ookay. I do BG's to farm honor, but you get more honor by winning. Heck, you get more bonus honor by TRYING in a losing BG than by merely letting the other side win. A close run will have the losing team still getting almost 200 bonus honor from the BG. As for HK's... go to AV and play defense.

But some people are PvPing for marks, honor and because it's what they like to do. And you, Mr. Quitter, are taking that away from them by not doing your best, the way they are doing their best.

Sure, sure, it's everyone for themselves! (We all have to be the hero! No team play ever. Focus fire on their healer? Why, I almost got this rogue dead! ... crap, how'd he survive? Why am I dead?)

We're going to lose anyway! (And I wonder how the Alliance got the rep for PvP that we do... geez.)

My thought on it, even in the face of obvious defeat... keep trying. Why? For a variety of reasons.

Practice makes perfect. Practice like you play. Both espouse the same thought. If you 'practice' poorly, and don't try, and don't give a damn because this isn't a real game or whatever you are thinking, you won't get better. You don't push yourself, guess what? You stay where you are. An Alliance Loser.

Learning Curve. Some people have a higher learning curve than others. Sure, you can be sitting there going, "OMG. Don't they know 'Fight at the node, not on the road!'", but it could very well be someone who is new to PvP or battlegrounds or that battleground. They may NOT know the rules. So take a chill pill and just say it with a smile. Watch them die up the road from the flag. Comment in battlegrounds, "If you come to the node, we'll help you kill him." or "If you come to the node, I'll heal you.". They'll learn. And you don't continue the cycle of stupid BG remarks like, 'omfg u nubs. l2pvp. lolz. f*ing moron.'

Strategy. The more often I do various BG's, the more often I see a variety of different strategies. Group 1 here, Group 2 there, Group 3 there. Group 1 Defense, Group 2 Offensive. Groups 1-4 Galv, Groups 5-8 RH.

I see which ones work better, I see which ones work worst. I see which ones have no chance of working when your group is made up of 5 warriors, 5 hunters, 2 feral druids, 2 rogues and 1 paladin. (that was a very bad AB for the Alliance. We got hosed. They had 4 paladins, 3 priests and 3 shaman.)

And I learn. And in some battlegrounds, where everyone is trying, and a strategy that has a hope of working is laid out -- like the bg leader actually arranging the groups so there's a healer in each group -- we stand a chance to win.

One thing the Horde have... is strategy. And frakin paladins. Dear lord, every base and node has a freaking holy paladin sitting there just screwing up your attempts to cap. What a good idea to have! Too bad we don't ever learn from our mistakes. We're so busy giving the victory to the other side to bother to see what they're doing or learn from it.

They have roving defenses in AB. So even though the node only appears to have 2 people at it, in about three seconds, it's going to have 8. (Which would be a perfect time to hit something ELSE, but nooo, let's just keep bashing our head against the wall.)

It's frustrating to be Alliance when trying to PvP. It really is. But when it works... we're just players who actually are trying.

If you walk into a battleground expecting to lose... you will.

Kvasira in the End Game

No, I'm not there yet. But I will be shortly.

I've persevered and though I'm not the top of the DPS charts in the runs I'm in, I'm not that far behind... and I serve group utility. I off-heal. I buff. I protect (blessing of protection on the priest is very handy!). I sometimes taunt. And I do damage. Decent damage.

At level 67 (I'm 68 now), I was pushing 270-300ish DPS in Durnhold, Crypts, Mana Tombs and Sethekk Halls (the lower the level of the mobs, the higher my DPS, as is typical).

In one instance, I outDPSed the rogue we were running with. In another, I was keeping pace (lower than, but pacing) a level 70.

My next step is to figure out where I fit into end game raiding and playing. I have no illusions about my abilities, but I also have no illusions about my chances of getting into the PuG heroics I'd like to run. Will my group run with me? Yes, they will. And I will run heroics as often as that group decides to run them.

But the downside to a retribution paladin is that we are gear dependent, much like a rogue and other melee classes. Every level, I go to the auction house and I upgrade whatever gear I can. In the past, with other characters, I'd let two or three levels pass before I visited the auction house. But my DPS goes down the tubes if I don't stay on top of the gear that I need.

One thing I've discovered, by just looking at PvP weapons (which I've read are probably the best a RetPally could probably have), that a lot of the PvP level 70 gear ... looks like what I look for on the auction house.

Strength and Intellect. (Stamina)
Crit Rating
Variety of things like increased damage from Judgement of Crusader and cooldown on Hammer of Justice.

I was looking at the Merciless Gladiator's Vindication set, the Gladiator's Greatsword, Vindicator's Scaled Belt, Vindicator's Scaled Bracers and Vindicator's Scaled Greaves.

Now.. this is a LOT of PvP.. and for someone who reportedly hates PvP. I calculated it... 133222 Honor, 90 AV, 90 AB, 50 WSG and 40 EOTS.

Now, as I'm rereading what I typed, some of the gear is showing up on WoWHead as Arena gear, some of it is showing up as tier tokens. And maybe they are, but then I can't figure out why I saw them in Stormwind?

Now.. here's the real shocker. I'm finding that I don't mind PvP all THAT much. I still don't have the mindset for it. I can't kill anything to save my life (get it, can't kill to ... nevermind). But I'm good at screwing up other people's goals! Oh, are you trying to heal... FERAL CHARGE or BASH! Rawr. Or when I was resto/balance... Entangling Roots, Cyclone and LifebloomLifebloomLifebloom!

So, just maybe... maybe... it won't be so bad.

Now, obviously, this gear has nothing on it for Hit Rating, for which I figure what I didn't have in other gear (cloak, neck piece, etc), I'd make up for with gems.

Now, this is a pipedream.. I know this, you know this. But at least it gives me a goal to work towards on gearing Kvasira up outside of heroics with my friends.

Still working on Badge Gear and a few more PvP pieces for Kathe.

But ... there it is. Kvasira is viable in PvE. Once I get Kings (it's my level 70 talent point), I'm set.

Merciless Ahune of the Festival!

I was originally going to title this 'Ahune the Frost Lord, Merciless Gladiator and Fire Festival', then realized that was long and boring, though precise.

This at least makes you go.. 'huh?'

As everyone knows, Arena Season 4 hit yesterday. This means that Arena Season 2 gear is available for honor and BG marks. This means the PvP that I was doing as Kathe finally paid off in the form of the Merciless Gladiator Dragonhide Shoulders and Gloves to replace what I was wearing... namely the Shoulderpads of Assassination and the Verdant Gloves.

I am considering getting a few more PvP pieces... since Druid Tanks can use Resilience in place of pure Defense here and there, unlike warriors and paladins who need Defense for parry and block. My question is... how much resilience is too much resilience? How much defense do I want? It's easier for me to PvP than it is for me to get the insane number of badges I'd need to upgrade my gear.

I have the nifty little code that you can use to find out if you're still uncrittable... but since not every beginner bear is running around in PvP gear tanking... there's a drawback. What is it? Does anyone know? That wasn't rhetorical. Answer me. Please.

(Incidentally, I haven't checked on my uncrittableness, since I'm not specced for tanking right now, and that will make a difference... it also explains my armory at the moment. I'm ashamed. I logged out in my pitiful PvP gear. *cry*)

The festival boss, Lord Ahune, is a daily killable quest in regular Slave Pens. And you can also do him on Heroic for the chance at better loot, which is only reasonable. Maybe it's just us, but that fight is a giant pain in the ass. We tried it once on Heroic with a great tank, a great healer and great DPS. And didn't make it through the first Phase 1. But even on regular, we're averaging 3/5 kills. The healer dies. The tank dies. A DPS dies. Usually we start to lose control during the third Phase 1. The healer is OOM so the tank dies. The elite then goes to eat the healer OR the DPS. A few times, we've survived without a tank or healer in that third phase (<3 warlocks) but ... yowza.

I'm going to keep trying, at least on regular. Kikidas already has the Frostscythe but what we're really after is Deathfrost. Rumor has it that it's a guaranteed drop on heroic. I shall keep trying as long as he's alive!

And for the last... the Fire Festival Burning Blossoms of hate and agony... er, heh. Boon is on vacation for the week. Which is unfortunate because he really wants a few things from the Fire Festival that you can only get by turning in massive quantities of Burning Blossoms. His #1 desire: Brazier of Dancing Flame, followed by the Vestment of Summer and the Sandals of Summer.

I'm pretty sure that I can get those for him. I spent about two and a half hours last night honoring and desecrating flames all across Azeroth and Outlands. This, by the way, is a good way to spend some quality time reading a book while on auto-run. It is also a good way to get some fast easy cash. Fast and easy if there isn't someone guarding said flame that you are trying to desecrate. That would suck. Luckily, no one was a) around or b) interested in messing with a level 70 holy paladin. And that would have taken 20% longer... if I didn't have Crusader Aura. So, travel with a paladin if you can!

If you are interested in doing this insanity, please print off or otherwise have handy the list found at Kaliope's blog. It made it a ton easier to know what towns, where, had a flame for me to visit. Incidentally, the list is in ALMOST 'follow exactly' order (keeping in mind you have to bounce from horde list to alliance list in that follow order.). A little pre-planning before you head out to know where you're going to ride to and fly to will save you a ton of avoidable 'backtracking' time.

Incidentally... I feel bad for the poor Horde. As I was running through the vast emptiness of the Barrens... I realized it would suck to have to have leveled through the Barrens. I also realized that three of the fires the Horde would have to desecrate can only be reached by traveling on an Alliance boat - Dolanaar in Teldrassil and Blood Watch and Azure Watch over by the Exodar.

This is balanced by the hell ride without close flight paths that was Razor Hill in Durotar, Sun's Retreat in Stonetalon, Crossroads in the Barrens, TheTownInTheMiddleOfNowhere in 1k Needles and BloodyHoofSomething in Mulgor.

Since you can't visit the fires a second time, I have to find another way to make blossoms for Boon. The daily quest 'Striking Back' (this is a chain quest, by the way, I recommend starting said chain in Darnassus (or Shattrath). Makes getting to the Zoram Strand much easier.) He's already done the Fire Throwing quests. We shall see. If anyone has any other suggestions on how to get the hell blossoms.. er, Burning Blossoms, lemme know please.

Casual Raiding: Zul'Aman

Yet more in my 'casual raiding' line of posts.

To rehash: Knights of Utopia -- small casual raiding guild.
Raiding highlights to date: Almost full Kara clear in 3.5 hours (minus the dragons.)
Individual raiding highlights: A good portion of our active raiders have participated in some way or another in Magtheridon and Gruuls and a small portion of our active raiders have been in SSC, TK and ZA.

The plan: Start progression in Zul'Aman this last Sunday.
The people: Posolutely the warrior tank, Owaru the paladin tank, Boon the paladin healer, Orzag and Kiljara the priest healers, Neshura and Wolfinme the hunters, Ravensfire the rogue, Harikin the mage and try to find one more DPS (preferably a warlock.)

And... we know what happens to the best made plans, right? Posolutely went into ZA, thinking that the reset timer would allow him to go with us on Sunday. Not...

So, Posolutely the warrior tank came as Absitively the warlock. Kiljara the priest came as Kathe the bear tank. And we pulled in a friend of Abs, another paladin healer.

Our plan: 2 hours. 2 bosses.

We almost did it!

We had a few trash pull mishaps, namely on the stairway up to the bear boss, Nalorakk. But we were able to one-shot Nalorakk. (The fact that he's considered the 'easiest' boss of ZA nonwithstanding... we one shotted Nalorakk.)

Kathe tanked the troll phase and Owaru tanked the bear phase. We had one hairy moment (get it, hairy?) when the troll resisted my taunt, but Owaru was able to do something (I dunno what, he's a paladin... it's a mystery to me) and I was able to eke ahead and get its attention.

I had to pop out of bear form and heal a time or two. I had to innervate one of our priests. But when all was said and done, we had a dead Bear Lord. Not a dead bear tank.

The Akil'zon gauntlet had us wipe I think three times before we got the maneuver down pat. (And by this time, the pug healer disconnected (before the gauntlet, but after the Bear Lord)without warning... and yes, the person knew this was a progression raid and wipes were inevitable, and yes, the person knew that regardless of how well we did, it would end at 9pm or after Akil'zon, whichever came first.... so we had Harikin the mage step out and come in as Yorkshire the priest healer, and we grabbed another rogue from our guild to come DPS for us, Gobblez. (Timmay! Gobblez! TIMMAY!))

Alas, we did not get Akil'zon down. Kathe slapped on healing gear and helped keep the raid alive. We were debating whether this dropped us too low on DPS. We were going to swap her out and bring in Kikidas (rawr! Kikidas eat Eagle Lord. *nomnom*.) but we wound up running out of time and had the gauntlet respawn.

On Azil'zon our biggest problem was coordination of the Electrical Storm collapse. Too early and we were getting eaten by Static Disruption. Once we called it too late and someone didn't collapse in time... and guess who the storm was centered over? We also had a bit of a difficult time with the birds. We had our warlock try to dot them up as they flew by. We didn't (and we thought of this afterwards) have the hunters also hit the birds a time or two. Next time...

We got him to about 50% though, and for a small guild that on the WHOLE hasn't ever fought him before... not too shabby, IMNSHO. I think if we hadn't had the gauntlet respawn right around 9pm, we'd have done it. Our best attempt at him was our last attempt at him and it was also the attempt where the collapse didn't happen quite right and the raid got wiped.

By the way -- when you're tossed up in the air, druids can catform once released from the storm and avoid taking any fall damage (even if you're a healer and not a feral druid pretending to be a healer, you get reduced fall damage, so still worth it to shift.)

Now, here's the problem with being a small guild trying this out. I'm going to name our top DPSers (by top DPS, I mean people who consistently come in the top 4 and 700+ DPS average) in the guild, and I want you to pick who you've discovered, by my posts, is actually one of our tank or healer alts!

Ravensfire, Dhark, Neshura, Tasogare, Absitively, Kikidas

That's right! Of those FIVE DPSers, only TWO of them are not usually otherwise occupied in a tank or healing role! Ravensfire and Neshura are the only two of KoU's top DPSers who isn't usually required to fill a healing or tanking role. What this means is that even though if you put all five of us in a run together, put in two tanks, two healers and one other decent DPS, we'd slaughter your world... what it really means is we have two 700+, and a bevy of up and comers who average 400-500.

So likely, we're going to be in Karazhan yet more, getting them the gear and experience. We also need to do Netherspite and Nightbane, since those are coordination-listen to the raid leader call instruction fights, and we need more of that experience for ZA and beyond. This isn't necessarily a bad thing for Kathe, since just about all of her upgrades will come from badges (or PvP)... but it can be frustrating! Especially since we ate the Bear Lord. He's nothing more than a juicy bear burger to us now. (And yes, I had to put a wowhead link in here. Because I can, damnit.)

Off to more fun Alliance PvP with Kathe the Resto/Balance druid! WOoooo... *cry*

Change is scary...

But sometimes necessary. I'm going to be hounding Absitively to help me make my blog look pretty.

*stupid computer people. hate. loathe. abhor.*

In other news... played my restoration shaman a little bit last night. It's nice to be able to DPS and heal.

See, my altisms is bad enough that if you look at the sidebar, you can see how many alts I have. If you can count (and given the age of the internet, that is not an assumption one can make anymore, unfortunately) you can see that I have 9 alts. There are 10 character spots available. With my level of altisms, I hear you wonder... where is that 10th alt?

It's being saved, damnit. I have enough self-control to leave that spot as a name-holder for my death knight when the expansion comes out.

What I don't have is the self-control to NOT level my existing characters. However, I made a promise to my husband. I'm running out of things to play with him! By a lot. So... I can't level any of my characters without his, since all three of my lowbies are paired with one of his characters.

*whine*

So instead.. what I will be doing is trying to PvP my way to a set of shoulders with Kathe. I have been informed reliably that the best way for someone who sucks at PvP combat to go... is to go in as a healer. And unless I get the T4 shoulders, that would be my best upgrade possible. Right now, I'm using these and I don't like the fact that I can't find better purples in a heroic or badge vendor.

(And for those interested, I went ahead and bought the badge belt. It's better than the heroic and feh, I was tired of Hellfire Ramparts anyway.)

So yesterday I slapped on my set of patch-work healer gear, did NOT respec since I have to research some of that before I go spend lots of gold, and went into an AB. We lost (We're Alliance... we always lose), but I was 5th on healing (4th Alliance), got 11 honor kills (though I killed no one directly) and didn't have too bad of a time. Healing is so much less stressful than trying to kill people who are better at PvP than I am.

PvP + Kikidas = Dead 'Lock

I was contemplating naming this blog 'PvP and Me and Why We Don't Agree', but I decided it was far too rhymy. (Yes, rhymy, if it wasn't a word before, is now. Deal with it. :)

The only time I have ever PvP'd was to get the war ram for my night elf warrior. Because I wanted a ram and I had just spent oodles of runecloth getting my night elf rogue her horse, I said to myself, "All I have to do is PvP a little bit, and I can get the ram. Free mount? I can handle that."

O. M. G. I about hated every PvP I did with the exception of Alterac Valley. Part of it is that the Horde PvPers seem to work together better than Alliance PvPers. Part of it was that I'd get into a Horde Song Gulch and look at the opposing team and they'd all be from the same server (which typically means the same guild!) and we'd die in two seconds flat and lose in five seconds flat. Part of it is that I'd get into a Arathi Basin and look at the opposing team and they'd all be from the same server (which again, same guild.) and before you knew it, they were camping us at the BG entry point graveyard, 5 capping us. The last part of it is that I seem to have the mental mindframe of PvE, and I cannot seem to make the mental twitch to get to PvP thinking.

It wasn't so bad in Alterac Valley, because I wouldn't PvP there, I'd do the PvE parts of it. I'd capture towers and help with graveyards, pretty much go offensive. That was kind of fun, unless a turtle was happening. :P

Well, yesterday a friend of mine asked Boon (holy pally) and myself (affliction/hybrid lock) to go PvPing with his ice specced mage. I went, because I was asked. I went, kicking and screaming and crying and weeping and generally being a pain in the ass (one of the many things that people love about me is my ability to complain about PvP, yet be resistant to the suggestion of 'if you don't like it, don't come!', to which I say 'Noooo, I'll goooo.' in a long suffering voice). One of the things about PvP that stuns me (and others!) is that it turns me into a potty mouth so quickly that people who normally group with me are left sitting, saying, "K? Did you just... curse? I don't believe it! Oh dear lord, my ears are bleeding!"

So, there I go, into Arathi Basin first! I can't tell you how many times a Horde 'lock would RUN and HOWL at the same time. Or a priest would run and scream. Or a warrior would run and intimidating shout. I don't have excellent stamina gear, I'm at just over 10k health with both fort and imp buffs, and my armor is laughable. So I go down like a wet tissue over sandpaper.

Aaaand we lost. Yay. :)

So, we try an Alterac Valley. That one was a bit more fun, because I did what I always do in AV, and ignored the enemy players and went after the NPC's. Dots, dots, dots, yay! I just had to live long enough since there aren't such things as tanks or healers wandering around healing me and keeping aggro off of me. But that wasn't so bad. There were usually enough other things hitting the mob that it was slow to reach me and quick enough to die.

I think a big problem is that I'm something of a competetive person. I don't like to LOSE. Losing/dieing in PvE is one thing. It's a matter of me doing my job better in some way. Still frustrating, but handleable. Losing in PvP isn't any fun at all! It isn't me doing my job WRONG, it's someone else doing their job BETTER than ME! (Hard to believe, yet, the evidence is overwhelming.) My job is to do dots. Dots dots dots!

So, I have reinforced my first impression of PvP as something I will avoid like the plague (which is still endemic in Colorodo. Just saying.) unless I make a hearty effort to switch my spec to something along the lines of demonology or destruction (or I suppose full affliction for unstable affliction, which has that nifty 'remove me and you'll take damage and silence yourself! Nyah!' aspect to it), make a heartier effort to get stamina and PvP gear, and somehow lose half of my brain.

On a side note... did you guys notice this little thing in the patch notes?

Primal Fury: This talent will now be learned correctly even if purchased while the Druid is dead.