WoW fun

[jameydee]

I don't go looking for Player vs. Player (PvP) action, which is why I don't have any a rank yet (though ichicolco and Dave do).  However, when I do get into a scuffle, it's always great fun.  I enjoy these impromptu exchanges with other players much more than the idea of scripted exchanges in the official Battlefields on World of Warcraft.

I was en route to turn in a quest in the Western Plaguelands, but the route took me through Southshore, an Alliance border town.  When I zoned in, the chat channels were full of squawking, "Where are the high levels?!  We're under attack!"  I had sworn as a newbie player that one day I would ride to the rescue when our Alliance towns were under attack.

I landed in town just in time to catch the humorous sight of a level 50-something Horde player being buried beneath the onslaught of a crowd of level 20-somethings.  Heh, it takes a lot of nerve for a 20-something, relative noob to take on a 50 (or a lack of sense).  But enough of those brave and silly players can, indeed, take down a single, higher level player.  Oh, he took a lot of them with him as he died, but not bad for a bunch of "kids."  :)

Dave's hunter, Krantor, joined me in Southshore, and we caught sight of a fleeing Horde.  We rode him down on our mounts and I took him out with a quick fireblast spell.  Then we did a little reconnaisance at Tarren Mill, a Horde town up the road, and a popular PvP spot.  I had just dismounted when three stealthed, high level rogues:  Privaricate, Duplitious, and Divaricate stunned me and gutted me where I stood.  I hardly had time to blink.  On one hand, I was annoyed, on the other, I had to admire their tactics.

Oh, yeah, baby, it was war after that.  :)  The rest of them slowly revealed themselves:  Widowmaker, Menhio, and more.

They killed me numerous times and I killed them numerous times.  The Horde was out in force, which is rare--unfortunately, in Alleria, the Alliance outnumber the Horde at least 3 to 1.  This made it more fun!  They were well organized.  They had unflagged players out in fields to spy.  They used their low levels as bait to draw us into their traps.  All we had were sheer numbers.  Gawd, Alliance is stupid in Alleria!  :)  Krantor and I finally found some smarter players to hang out with.  We stood with our backs towards each other to keep watch for sneaky attacks.  Krantor and the other hunter used their flares and traps to keep watch for stealthed rogues.  You really have to work as a unit in order to be successful!

After one death, I was trying to keep a low profile while I bandaged up and got all my spell buffs into place.  I had just resurrected--at half life and half mana, when a level 42 Horde mage decided, "Let's take advantage of the half dead Alliance mage and get an easy kill."  BZZT!  WRONG!  Even at half stats and unbuffed, a level 60 mage in high-end, damage-enhancing gear has more mana than a level 40-something can even dream of, and can blow a level 42 mage's little butt into next year.  And I did.  Presumptious little bugger!  I'll take that from a rogue, but not from another mage!

Anyway, we had great fun and PvP'ed until the wee hours of the morning.  When I finally called it quits, I had earned more honorable kills that night than I had my entire WoW life.  :)

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This weekend, I ran numerous raids.  Two Stratholme/Scarlet runs, one Stratholme/Baron run, and two UBRS runs.  I got a nice set of bracers to add to my equipment, not part of the mage's Magister set, but instead part of the warlock's Dreadmist set.  Dreadmist, Magisters...it's all good.  :)  It was better than what I was wearing; I'm happy.

One of the raids utilized Teamspeak, a voice chat utility.  That was interesting.  Certainly, it makes it easier to coordinate a large number of people (15) when the raid leader can direct the action vocally.  So that was pretty cool.  On the other hand, it's really jarring and takes you out of the role playing aspect of the game when the pretty little gnome with pink hair has a deep, male smoker's voice and the tall, willowy night elf priestess sounds like a nasally, pencil-necked geek.