It’s been a while since I wrote something here, and unfortunately my last 2 posts where a ranting post and one post about those who left WoW. If you thought I left WoW, I didn’t! Well, my hubby cancelled his account last week, so I’m still wondering what I will do about that, but I still loves WoW very much. I progressed in Firelands with Zahia and we’re only left with Ragnaros alive now. Plus, I recently stepped into PVP, and I appreciated so much that I built a lot of projects (unfortunately in standby for now).
Step 1: Sabotage !
After reading Cynwise post about Disposable Heroes, I levelled a few characters up to 10 and geared them with a full enchanted heirloom and Hand-Me-Down set. This was a lot of fun. You find yourself in a battleground with people having 2 to 4 times less hp than you, and you happen to kill about anyone within 2 GCDs, even as a healer !
As Cynwise predicted, this is a great way to begin PVP. It allows for a lot of error and you can actually progress, something that’s hardly possible if you’re the one dying in 2 GCDs.
Step 2: Twinking is easy… and fun
After trying shaman, mage, rogue and priest, I decided to level the priest up to 19 and try non-xp battleground. It was fun too. It feels like rated battleground: most of the group is on vent, and there is an actual strategy. Except that if you have heirlooms and enough gold (I used between 500-1000 gold to buy lqe gear, enchant/tailoring mats and enough ore to level mining up to 225) it is really fast to have a close to optimized gear. The only difficulty is the Arena Grand Master trinket, but being on a PVE realm there wasn’t so much competition for it, and I often was the only one in the Gurubashi Arena (it has of course more chances to happen at 9 a.m on a weekday than 9 p.m during weekend!).
Playing Warsong games in this organized way was a lot of fun, up until the night were I was shout at 3 games in a row by some excessively exited 12 year old (based on his high pitched voice), because I was the only healer and he wasn’t being healed. THAT was not fun. I PVP because I find that relaxing (really, more on that later), and because you know what ? It’s the only way to get better at it (and at my general awareness in the same time), not because I liked to be shouted at. I may go back to my priest later, but I needed a small break. So I began a new project.
Putting a foot in the twink community, I learned there was level 70 guilds out there. Guilds doing BC raids, Battlegrounds and arena. I really begin playing at the beginning of BC (my first character was level 60 just before BC launch), and this is a time I loved a lot. Returning to these raids at the appropriate level appealed to me. Plus, a bit like level 19 twinks, it’s really easy to get more than decent gear. You can have a full S4 gear (including weapons and off-set items) for about 2k honor, something you can have with about 20 battlegrounds, depending on the level you do these. So I began leveling a new resto shaman on a new server where there was level 70 guilds. Unfortunately, she’s stuck at 54 for now, as I’m not in the mood of leveling her while I don’t know if I’ll still be playing (and how much) in a few weeks.
Step 3: Where I finally find out that I can actually appreciate PVP
So, while I’m wondering about my WoW future, I created a new baby rogue (If you didn’t understand why I choose this blog title until now, I hope you do know!). This rogue is on the same server than my baby shaman, so no heirloom or overpowered enchants for her. I entered Warsong as soon as I had a few green items. If you wish to do that, you need to be prepared : you’re going to die A LOT, and it may not be a lot of fun. Most people will have twice as much health as you do, and do much more damage (with standard non enchanted heirloom gear). You’d better choose your class with a lot of attention (I suggest rogue or hunter). As a rogue, I can at least choose to not commits suicide with my partners and instead remains stealthed when needed to focus on more interesting challenges. If you’re (very) well geared in a low level battleground, you can play to win the game and almost bring victory to your faction alone. If you only have what you can get from quests, you’d better not always try to play for the victory, or you may become frustrated within a few minutes. I you just try to focus on what achievable, you can have fun too. Like, I once managed to kill the flag carrier and his geared healer on my own. You can learn to make inventive use of your limited toolbox too. As a blood elf rogue, I learned that if I want to kill a mage, I need to use Arcane Torrent just after Ambush so that they can’t use their nova. I was surprised after my first Warsong to find out I actually appreciated the challenge. I may block her xp at level 20 for a time, as this seems to be an active bracket with F2P accounts, and it should allow me to grind a base gear with quests and dungeons. Unfortunately the leveling curve is so fast now that even without heirloom you don’t have the time for quests AND dungeons AND battlegrounds!
Step 4: Enjoy !
Anyway, PVP used to be a very stressful experience for me. I don’t know if I just changed or if it’s the fact I now entered battlegrounds the easy way (instead of going there with PVE gear, hoping to get appropriate PVP gear in the end), but it’s not the case anymore. I don’t shout about everything anymore while doing battlegrounds. (I only shout about my stupid totems bindings once in a while, because if you want to bind all your stupid totems, you have to use stupid bindings, and you have to remember these too!). I don’t rage because my team partner are obviously not wishing to win the game. If I loose a few games in a row and I’m not in a mood for that ? Ok, maybe I should just log out and try again later, it’s not a big deal after all, I’m not here to grind these stupid honor points but to enjoy myself.
With all this renewed interest for PVP, I did a few BG with Zahia too. It was interesting to notice all the differences between a level 10-14 Warsong where I completely overgear the content, a level 19 twink Warsong and a level 85 Warsong. I learned interesting stuff while researching about it. Did you know that if you have glyph of Stoneclaw totem, the shield is a personal buff, so that you keep it even if you replace another earth totem asap ? I also learned to use Healing Surge, and I now use this spell much more appropriately in raids.
If you’re interested in PVP but find it stressful or are easily frustrated, you should give it a try the easy way. You can learn a lot about your character and improve your gameplay. And it’s a nice change if you’re looking for new WoW projects !