So I’m kinda getting back into the World of Warcraft PVP game. My rogue did the PVP grind under the old (heh, a week ago old) system and scored the black horse. Then they changed the mount system, and since I had deleveled from Commander of the Alliance, I had to do a mini-PVP grind to buy the black cat and dark gray ram. Anyways, been there, done that (twice).

As the new PVP system has had some reasonably priced rewards (nerf senses tingling), I figured I’d work on PVP with my priest alt. Holy priest, thankyouverymuch. (oh look, I was right!)

When I was rogue-PVPing, there was one thing in the battlegrounds more exciting than seeing a warlock pet … and that was seeing a KillMe stick. I’d be stealthing around wherever, looking for trouble, and out of the corner of my eye I’d see the bright yellow twinkles of a Benediction and woooo boy, I’m having priest for dinner tonight! If there was a warrior hanging out, I’d wait maybe 30 seconds for the warrior to get distracted by … I don’t know, an ice cream truck, an XBox commercial, it really doesn’t take much to distract a warrior … and then it was just the priest and me and an honor kill on the horizon.

That was my leet rogue strat for dealing with warriors … don’t mess with them if I didn’t have to. Here was my leet rogue strat for Thunderfury warriors … never leave stealth. Seriously. Too many bad experiences with that damn Thunderfury — I developed something of a phobia.

Anyways, as a priest, I know my KillMe stick will be a big draw for the rogues, so before hanging out in Alterac Valley last night, I swapped the Benny over to the Anathema. (For you Warcraft noobs, that’s the typical form of the Benediction for the badder ass priests, The Shadow Priests.) Meh, who knows, maybe I’ll scare off some of the new PVPers, and since just about EVERYONE is PVPing nowadays, that’s like a 70 percent noob ratio.

I queue. Alterac Valley, first available. I’m still early in my priest PVP learning curve, the kindergarten playground seemed a safer choice.

As luck would have it, I land in an AV that’s halfway gone — the non-AFKing Alliance are already pounding on Frostwolf’s doors and the non-AFKing Horde are pouring into Dun Baldur. Yay.

I mount up to ride into the Valley of Death, got about 20 feet and what have we here? An Alliance mage having a few issues with a Horde warlock right outside the cave. (I’m like Onyxia, how fortuitous.) I help out the mage and ride her coattails all the way down to Frostwolf, through one shaman, two druids and one troll hunter who had a lot of hope, stragglers all.

I arrive in Frostwolf, safe and sound, just in time for the Drek’Thar kill (noobs: the Horde PVP boss). Heal, heal, heal Warrior #1, ignore Warrior #2 (Foton doesn’t heal players with the annoying “Player calls out for healing!” mod — fucking duh, I can see you need healing, you dolt, I’m making some executive heal decisions here), and an easy AV win for me.

Lessons I learned: Riding someone’s coattails is good. And, ignoring players with the “calls out for healing!” mod is fun.

Second Alterac Valley. Oh wait, I had to stop queueing because of some guild drama and the officers just HAD to haul me into the officer vent channel to hear the story. Briefly, The Emo Tank has been wigging out on everyone, y’know, more so than usual, and the officers have had enough. My opinion? Burn him. Cut him loose. Hell, I’ll even be a reference for his guild app. “Emo? No! Guy’s solid. Helluva tank. You should tag him before it’s too late. DO IT NOW!”

Second AV, a fresh one. I charge straight through to Frostwolf graveyard with this hunter, who trains away the guarding NPCs while I cap the flag and back off in a hurry. Hunter returns with the NPCs hot on his trail. Hunter feigns death, and now the NPCs are interested in me. I’ll just confess right now that as a rogue, I used to vanish irresponsibly at times too, so, payback, it can sting.

Ran off like the pansy dress-wearer I am, the NPCs lost interest … Frostwolf ho!

And here’s the part where I learn that today’s Alterac Valley isn’t much like the Alterac Valley I was intimately familiar with only a month ago … more often than not, the Horde won’t bother with anyone or anything besides Vann, and it’s all over within minutes ‘cept for the crying. In another two months, either the *cough* pull will be adjusted or the Alliance might formulate leet strats like … a defense? I’m not counting on either.

Third AV, fresh one. Vann splo … err, pull. Fourth, same. Pause to let the AV team I was with get into another AV, i.e. away from me. Fifth, same.

That AFK Cave of Shame is looking mighty appealing.

Here’s a fun WoW Forum thread explaining the easy way to defeat a warlock in PVP, written by a warlock: Bring a friend. “Truth that QQers don’t want you to know”

I highly endorse that strategy. Two versus one is always the way to go.

Archive:
WoW Forum: Honor gain reduction 12/12/06, page 1
WoW Forum: Truth that the QQers don’t want you to know, page 1