pvp happund!

This past week as the furore that is horde levelling on my server died down I dusted off my druid and braved Vash'jir. This fellah is ICC 10 and 25 geared and at 80 is quite competitive for deeps although unlike my mage he’s done little pvp and wears no resilience gear. I respecced, put on my deeps gear, reviewed my deeps rotation (I’ve been tanking on this guy for a very long time), glyphed, remembered where ‘stealth’ was and headed out.

First things first, Vash’jir is beautiful, hats off to Blizz for creating a lovely zone. Not that I saw too much of this as I was looking over my shoulder the whole time. Although we’re a while after Cata dropped the start zone was still awash with horde. As mentioned I love a bit of pvp but because of the sheer mass of horde toons around no sooner have you engaged with that rogue who jumped out of stealth and begun making him regret his decision but three more horde jump in on the fight and that’s it. Luckily ocean-going druids are built for speed with angry-sea-lion form properly glyphed being very fast. Regardless of this I would still not class the 80-85 zones as ‘fun’ yet.

So again I find myself considering the levelling experience on an unbalanced PVP server.

Blizz has placed many of the quests for horde and alli from the same quest givers. This is not a new trend but it seems to be more prevalent in this expansion; more prevalent also in the reworked areas below 80. On servers such as mine this bottlenecks a minority in with a majority – merciless ganking of said minority follows. Soon after that follows a litany of claims as to what should be done to fix the problem.

There’s no answer for this although the forums present many amusing views:

Blizz should open free transfers for X (minority) faction from other servers.
Why would they do that? You’re playing on a PVP server because you like a fight – now you’ve got one. Also, when you eventuially get tired of being ganked you’ll transfer off = more money for Blizz.

People should not pvp when levelling!
I love this one – it seems rational, world PVP is often unequal and as a result can be unfair. Either levels are not aligned or you get others joining in to gank; doesn’t it make more sense to simply live and let live until we’re all 85? Why yes, yes it does but many folks who play our grand game like dishing out regular gankings to those of lower levels, many are so skilled they can stroke their epeen at the same time. So good luck with that one. I’m reminded of the classic MiB quote:

Edwards: People are smart. They can handle it. Kay: A person is smart. People are dumb, panicky dangerous animals and you know it.

Get a bunch of your faction together and gank em back – it’s what world PVP is about!
Coooeee! Anyone out there? …. anyone? There’s no one there, certainly not on my server where in the aforementioned crowded start zone I was the “only” alli around, but in general as well. People are enjoying levelling their toons and dropping everything to traverse a zone to come to your aid when often the assailants have flown, does not usually doesn’t happen.

So if you’re PVPing on an unbalanced server then you’re doing it on your own. So how do you enjoy the process?

Well, PVP seems most enjoyable when the odds are even. So if you have to be on your own then make sure that those you’re PVPing against are on their own as well. And at this stage of a new expansion that means you need to be in the lower levelling zones. 20 to 75 is where all the fun is at. : )

Since my lock broke free of his dwarven nursery I’ve been having compound fun on him. He’s geared in BoAs and I know how to play him + horde on my server, if you’ll pardon me for saying, can’t PVP for shit! It’s not their fault directly, they get no practice on what is largely a PVE server for them and have not for some years now. The few roaming Alli who are brave enough to venture out on the other hand get a bunch of practice. Of my recent encounters I have to say 80% have gone my way, sometimes with a serious level imbalance not in my favour. I’ll stop there ere I stray into the epeen stroking myself. My point here though is that the game is not just enjoyed at cap, in fact in some instances the simpler world of levelling is where the most joy is.

So enjoy yourselves out there guys and remember, 80-85 will still be there when you want it. In the mean time roc those lower levels and get yourself into some trouble.

; )

M