Free Candy For Everyone

I was playing WoW the other night and running battlegrounds as has been my wont. I’m finding playing on a PvP server isn’t that much of a different experience from playing on a PvE server, but the people are very different. People are just much more aware of how to maximize your gameplay - how to play your class, what stats you should have, what you should do if jumped in a dark corner by the evil Alliance.

This makes for much better battleground experiences as well. However, some things are the same everywhere. To recap for the uninitiated, Warsong Gulch is a game of capture the flag. 10 players on each side try to steal the other side’s flag and run it back to their own base where their own flag must remain. All to often each side grabs the flags and hides forever. Then we spend 45 minutes trying to take it back from each other.

Blizzard has a change live on the PTR for WSG -

• When both flags are held, the flag carriers will receive 50% increased damage done to them after approximately 10 minutes and 100% increased damage after approximately 15 minutes.
• Flag carriers can now be tracked 45 seconds after picking up the flag.

This is trying to address the turtling problem. I’m not sure how it will pan out, but maybe they should try implementing the bug I experienced this weekend as a feature instead.

I was helping guard the flag carrier and sitting inside our base. We were chatting to the raid for progress updates and calling out tips. We got bored of turtling, so the three of us decided to run out midfield and try to draw out the opposition. That’s when we noticed that everyone was dead and no one was respawning. No one answered our chat either. We continued on our way to the enemy base where their flag carrier was hiding with a few remaining guards. We took them down, though I died along the way. I then sat in the graveyard and could read chat but not talk back. The two left alive managed to capture our flag at which point we all respawned.

Sudden death was actually a fascinating mechanic. It really made you value your heals and smart play. Sometimes, in the current WSG, dying is actually a boon. You respawn in a position that can be tactically beneficial sometimes for recapturing a flag that is running out of your base. You respawn with full health and mana. At worst you have to wait 30 seconds to spawn. And in general, this is good. But wow, there was so much more tactical thinking and tension when I realized that if I died that was it. I went down healing our flag carrier and helped make sure we won the game.

Now that’s a solution I’d be curious to see them try.

Most definitely not a love letter, this is best described as a hate letter. I really seriously dislike PvP servers. It would probably be for the best if I just walked away from my newly beloved shaman Yriani and never looked back. But I’m torn.

Here’s the thing. The way PvP works in WoW right now brings out the worst in people. It ensures bullying and vindictive behavior. My story starts in Stranglethorn Vale. It was a silly place to go to quest on a PvP server. But it seemed like a good idea at the time. The problem is that it’s a good place to quest for a huge range of levels. You can start there at level 30 (the level I was when I went there) and continue to quest up through the mid-40s. There’s a level 60 instance there, as well, so raid groups waiting for their party to arrive are hanging around with nothing to do.

My dying spree began in Booty Bay, the neutral city at the southmost point of Stranglethorn. There isn’t supposed to be PvP in the city itself. The are guards all over that will attack anyone that attacks another player inside the city. That didn’t stop a rogue, however. He one-shotted me in the back by the bank and then immediately vanished so the guards wouldn’t attack. That doesn’t seem very sporting. He got no honor for killing me and was just basically being annoying.

Oh well, I thought. I picked up some quests and began the long run north to where my quests were. I’m a shaman, so I can turn into a wolf and run 40% faster. I shifted and started running. I soon passed a level 60 priest on horseback. The jerk dismounted and threw a Shadow Word: Pain on me. I just kept running. It didn’t kill me and I managed to get out of his range since I was running much faster then he could on foot. So he mounted up and followed me. He ended up following me halfway across the zone before he killed me. Again, wtf? He got no honor, it took him very far out of his way, and it was just generally annoying. He then proceeded to stalk me and kill me twice more before I got some 60s to stand guard and protect me for a little while.

I stopped in Grom’gol, a Horde city in the middle of the zone. I got killed again as soon as I walked out the gates. Ok, this was getting old. I went off to kill some tigers. And this time, it was really bad.

This darn gnome rogue decided I made a great toy. He’d wait until I was in combat and at half life, then he’d come and backstab me. He was only 2 levels above me. There’s no way he could have taken me in a fair fight (come on, shammies rock!) But I never got the chance to find out. It got so bad with him doing this over and over that I made a targetting macro. It targetted him - the image above is the button I made for it. Jerk. Seriously. Before entering combat I’d mash the macro button a bunch to make sure he wasn’t nearby. Trouble is, you can’t target a rogue in stealth. So he did manage to get me again.

This was just totally frustrating. I’m sure he was getting some sick twisted joy out of tormenting me, but is that really a good thing? I eventually called for help and got a level 60 to stand nearby. He managed to kill the jerk for me. I then hung out near his corpse (like he’d been doing to me!) and tried to kill him when he spawned. But he got his own 60 to come in and kill me. Not cool. I was just trying to teach him that beating up people gets the same returned to you. But he had better luck calling in allies than I did.

Later on, I was just running by and he started attacking me again. I just kept running. I was so done with this. He got a hunter to Concussive Shot me. Come on! I was just trying to turn in my quest and get out of there. Fortunately, some nearby 60s were running by and killed them both. I turned in my quests and got out of there.

Time and time again, I see this kind of behavior on the PvP server. People hunt down and kill easy marks, just because they can. Then, when those victims get to a higher level, they do the same thing. I get beat, I beat someone else. It’s classic bully behavior, and it really bothers me. I’m not just talking about how annoying it is to get ganked over and over when trying to do the simplest things in game. I’m talking about what it says about people that so many of us find satisfaction in torturing and tormenting other people. They gain pleasure from wreaking havoc and making things difficult for others.

I’m still playing Yriani. I have friends on the server, and I decided to stay out of populus areas and give it another try. But I don’t enjoy the PvP server experience. And I guess I don’t like human nature all that much either.

I’ve been meaning to write a post of my impressions of raising a character on a PvP server. This is not that post. That post will be filled with rage and anger and general malaise as to the nature of a WoW PvP server. This is a post that is happy and joyous. Well. As much so as I ever am.

I was hanging out in Thunder Bluff with my newest toon, Yriani, a few weeks ago. Doing my usual business, running errands, selling and buying, you know the drill. When I read the news that TB was under attack, I didn’t think much of it. Until I ran by and saw the scope of it all. Wow.

They were taking over. They even had some people fishing in our very own fishing hole. That’s just wrong. I ran as quickly as possible to my class trainer so as to make sure I got there before he was killed in the mayhem. I took these pictures and got out of the warzone as quickly as possible. It was cool to see so many people banding together to do something, though. I was quite impressed. And I liked it all even better because they couldn’t kill me in their invasion unless I wanted them to, since I was in Horde territory and not flagged for PvP. And definitely intending to stay that way as long as possible.

I mentioned that I started a new character recently. Again. For the 15th time. This one lives on a PvP server. I long ago abandoned my one other attempt to play on a PvP server, Raelle my level 29 priest on Dark Iron has been sitting lost and along for many months now. I got to a level where I had to venture out into the big bad world of contested territory. You see, on a PvP server, your starting zones are safe. No one can attack you there unless you agree to be attacked, basically. But once you get out of those starting zones, it’s come and get me time! Anyone opposing faction member who wants to can attack you. And as a priest, I was getting attacked way too much for it to be any fun. So she’s abandoned and alone in limbo.

But my co-workers were playing on this PvP server so I thought I’d give it another go. I rolled a shaman and it’s been smooth sailing. But today I got attacked while questing for the first time. Well, ok. Some total jerk level 60 rode me down and one shotted me while I was running through Hillsbrad Foothills to get to Tarren Mill for a shaman quest. But other than that, I’ve kept to quiet zones and stayed out of the way of the big boys. And as a shaman I’m way less prone to instant death when someone looks at me funny. Leather armor is way better than that flimsy cloth stuff.

I was questing in Ashenvale which is a contested territory and where most young night elves go to level. And most young night elves are n00bs, as we all know. I was just roaming through and minding my own business, killing some quest mobs when I spotted a level 23 Night Elf Warrior. I wasn’t too concerned. I wasn’t going to attack her because I’m not a jerk, and if she attacked me I’d smush her into the ground, so I didn’t worry about it. I continued killing mobs. So of course she waits until I’m well into combat with one of them and charges in. Haha. Here’s how that ended:

I easily finished off my mob, threw down a few more totems and killed her in about 3 hits. Did one minor heal on myself and yawned at the ease of it all. Silly n00bling, try again when you’re not quite so many levels behind your target.

This week I created a new character on one of the World of Warcraft test realms which are testing versions of Patch 1.10. Mainly because they’re running a contest to get into the Burning Crusade beta, but not for the reason you’d think. One of the contests (all of them are described on the official site) is to get the most Honor. Honor is acquired through PvP, and mostly by my current favorite gameplay feature - running Warsong Gulch! I figured I’d be able to run WSG whenever I want while the contest is underway, and get a chance to get a heads up look at the upcoming patch.

Let me start by saying that the test realms are there to TEST the patch, so anything I talk about is subject to change.

I rolled an Undead Priest. Priests are the focus of the class revisions for 1.10, and so I thought I’d see what they’ve done. I currently have a priest on another realm, but it’s a PvP server and I’ve sort of left her for dead because I dislike it so much, even though I really like the character. So I figured I’d see if I liked priests enough to go back to her, or even to start another one elsewhere.

So far, I’ve gotten her up to level 12 and done one WSG run, very successfully thanks to a great group. I decided to take up Herbalism and Alchemy as trade skills since I figured they’d be most useful in this limited environment. The honor contest only goes up to level 19, so that’s the cap. I’m not sure if it’s actually CODED as a cap - I don’t know if you stop acquiring experience when you hit level 19, or if you CAN hit level 20 and you’ll just be SOL. I’m hoping it’s actually capped so you can keep killing stuff to get loot while waiting in the WSG queue without fear. That’s probably how it is.

Anyway, taking Herbalism I got to immediately experience the new herb pouches. These are bags that can only hold herbs. This doesn’t sound so great, but right at the start in Brill (the first real town you get to as an undead player) I was able to buy a 12 slot herb bag for the same price as a 6 slot general bag. Pretty cool. And it had a nice leafy-looking icon.

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