A Mixed Beginning

| Saturday, January 18, 2014
As I wrote my post that in part lamented the status of my paladin, I realized that my rogue main wasn't in such a great position either. Her guild isn't very active anymore. So why not play my paladin? I have nothing to lose.

So I hopped on over to level up. Eventually I'll finish the Jade Forest and write about my thoughts on the Alliance side of it. Pet battles meant that I hit 90 long before finishing the zone. Glorious 90.

I set off to the Temple of the White Tiger. I fought a legendary pet along the way, failing a couple times before recognizing that my pet selection needed some improving. The tiger let me into the Vale and in I went. Aha, a rare! I'd fought it before, a dangerous melee enemy. I wasn't geared for this. But paladins are not a melee-only class. I knew that with judgement, exorcism, and a lot of patience I could kill it.

I was interrupted in my kiting by a level 90 Horde paladin. A level 90 Horde paladin attacking the rare. I closed in to my now-safe melee range and killed it. The paladin did not kill me. I thanked him and looted the corpse. And then the third attack from the warlock landed and killed me.

PvP servers breed such paranoia.

Since it's the place to be, I went to the Timeless Isle. The shower of loot that my rogue had received was more like a trickle, but enough of a trickle that I was able to get into scenarios and heroics. Gear will come. Despite the slower pace, I might enjoy it more. Wearing plate rather than leather makes so much trouble so much easier to deal with; except those damn snakes. I'm also developing a healthy level of perpetual, comfortable, paranoia.

The giant groups aren't dangerous; those are the people farming rares or elites. They aren't going to cause trouble. Maybe they know that war is never in the best interests of the farmer. They know that a lone pissed-off enemy can be a major problem when fighting elites. It's the lone person who causes trouble, who sees that your health is barely higher than when you were 85, and who makes the economically rational decision to cause suffering to others.

And then there was the druid. I was fighting tigers near an ore node when he attacked me. I killed the tigers, stunned him, and ran away a bit. I bowed. If I could have said it, I'd have told him to take the ore, that he'd won it. I'd be a hypocrite to criticize him. He killed me anyway. I came back to find the node unmined and figured he was just a jerk. But then he started emoting sorry. Then I was just confused.

But that didn't mean I didn't use my cloaking device to get some distance before mounting up. I run with one on my belt, and if it's not on cooldown, another in my trinket slot. They've both come in handy. Damn it feels good to be an engineer.


Kring said...

He was probably after blood coins.

Electrolux said...

I miss open-world PvP terribly. I was terrible at it. Died like a dog. But the tension was immense, if you saw red you we're on a knife edge, whoever struck first inevitably won but on a PvPRP server most of both sides were carebears or at least busy so the uncertainty was unbearable. The misunderstandings like the one you describe happened all the time. That druid wasn't a jerk, he's been ganked by reds for years what do you expect? People bow to each other before fights. People wave to each other before fights. Every emote has been a precursor to violence by now. He couldn't have known your intent for sure.

I do really miss WoW, shame they tore it all up and there's no going back.

Klepsacovic said...

Maybe the druid thought I was going to attack him over the node and decided to have the benefit of stealth first. I bowed essentially after the fight, at maybe 25% health at most, stun burned, while he was at about 99%. Perhaps the bow made him realize, after the fact, that I wasn't there for a fight.

The difficulty with world PvP, at least these days, is that the gear gap is potentially so vast. I could be a hundred ilevels below other people. It's not uncommon for me to flee at the sight of people with 100k more health, and probably a greater proportional difference in damage.

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