But it’s kind of unavoidable, so prepare for it.
At least we seems to outnumber those smelly Alliance on my home realm, so I’m not getting the worst of it. I wouldn’t have chosen a PvP server on my own, but my leveling buddy is there, and well… You go where your friends are. At least I do.
It taught me alot, too, even if I’d prefered to not learn in this way.
- Keep mana and health always topped off.
People jump you when you’re the weakest. On that note – those stacks of water and food? You’ll need alot of them. - Don’t sit down!
If you’re sitting on your arse and someone attacks you, the attacks will autocrit. Pay attention when you eat/drink. - Avoid going AFK in plain view.
Hide in a cranny or nook if you can, or better yet, log out or hearth when possible. Or find a place where the NPC guards are strong enough to keep those griefing level 80s away. - If the area allows flight, look up regulary!
Swooping down and just smashing you is a beloved tactic by all kinds of people out for a fight. I’ve done it too. - Pay attention to the world around you!
You can move the camera without moving your character and thus give the impression of being harmless prey while actually watching your surrounding. 1 - Keep a buddy close to you.
Doesn’t keep those the giggling 80s from laying waste to you, but there’s something to be said for safety in numbers. First, four eyes see more than two and second you can aid each other against same-level enemies. Bonus points if your buddy can rez you. And a cookie if you have two rez-capable toons. - World PvP can be fun.
ROFLstomping the guy who overestimated himself and attacked me? That makes me giggle. And the thrill of finally killing an enemy player after he attacked me and delivered a long hard fight? It’s exhilerating. And hunting down the ideot who dared to kill your buddy is… Satisfying. Even if I lose, having put up a fight feels good. 2 - For THE HORDE!
Funny how that goes. I always thought faction loyality was pretty stupid, but that changed quickly – I just got burned too often when I ignored an enemy player, went on with my own goals and got attacked from behind. There’s no communication behind horde and alliance and banking on the goodwill of other players is stupid.
On a plus side, I now finally understand why people get so riled up over sports teams or operation systems. - If it’s red it’s dead.
My “aw, don’t hurt them! They’re people too!” approach to players of the other faction withstood three (3) incidents of ganking and corpse camping.
The result is that I, too, go after alliance players while giggling like a madwoman3. I still don’t like picking off enemy players of a much lower level than me, there’s no honour in it (literally); but if I want that mining node s/he is going after? Tough luck. It’s MINE. - Corpse Camping is evil.
Speaking of which, don’t do it, please. But if you get corpse camped, that’s what alts are for. My auction house mule always has stuff to do, so I just go and do something else for a bit. Or call in friends if I can. Still, it PISSES ME OFF, and that’s most likely the intent behind this behavior. - Shaman reincarnation? FTW.
- Pally-bubble? FTW. I love bubble hearth!
- Avenger’s shield? FTW! WHACK!
- I suck at hunter pvp.
To summarize:
There’s not much you or me can do against skull-level gankers besides transfering to a pve realm or keeping a level 80 bodyguard around. But still, it’s worth to pay attention and learn how to do some basic pvp just to be able put up a fight against an equal or even superior foe.
And sometimes? Sometimes putting up a fight instead of dying while helpless flailing around can cause wanna-be gankers to commit suicide by stupidity. My baby-pally and her pocket healer got their first honor kill on a Dumb Drenai Deathknight when they were a little bit over level 40. Hilarity ensued.
On that note: City Guards are great.
Footnotes:
- Seriously, I’ve been playing 5 months before I learned that. How sad is this? ↩
- Wrath os a pretty good motivator: We once hunted a druid over a whole zone after he downed my questlog reading buddy. (Please see point 2 and 3 about being inattentive) ↩
- Or find somewhere else to quest if it’s a group *cough* ↩
Comments (8)
As a hunter, there is NOTHING more satisfying than baiting a skull-level opposition player into thinking you’re easy prey, only to stumble into your freeze trap and be forced to sit there helpless while you finish mining or whatever, look at them, /chuckle and then calmly ride away.
I imagine it’s embarrassing and infuriating too. ;)
I both love it and hate it. I used to be the same and leave people be in the hopes they would too. However once you’ve pulled a mob and someone attacks you its kinda frustrating. The cat and mouse games I’ve played around hellfire have been awesome at times and yet when there is a bored looking level 80 killing your quest givers and standing on that damn rock in the middle of honor hold ganking (yes im alliance) it sucks.
Theres also nothing like the righteous anger and joy you feel when someone trys to gank you and you win.
Oh and having an 80 hunter logged out at the nearest inn is useful. So far I’ve dealt with about 6 or 7 badly geared horde, whilst levelling my prot pally, boosting their epeens by ganking lowbies from that damn rock. I’ve even got the shatari skyguard cape equipped so I can pursue people into the air and finish them off. The really sweet thing? Sorting out the gankers then leaving 3-4 level 62s to corpse camp them :D
Oh yes, it would be! And I applaud you for pulling that off! /envy My traps just usually end up missing and I face down hugging the ground.
I guess the basic issue is that I fail at huntering. ;)
I’m doing okay in PvE, but there’s so much stuff to watch out in PvP that I indeed die while flailing around helplessly. At least the pally PvP concept can be summarized relativly simple: “Whack it!”
Love it and hate it at the same time summarizes the experience quite well. :) Corpse-Runs are frustrating, but the sheer Schadenfreude when the other one goes down gives quite a high.
Oh my, they’re doing it to Honor Hold too? Thrallmar is regulary getting steamrolled by Deathknights, too.
…
Why is it always Deathknights?
I love it when its dks. Its a free HK because they can’t leave the stone. Like shooting evil fish in a barrel.
Typically surprise is the main ingredient for a successful counter gank. Hit hard, blow CDs. Often they’ll be so surprised their health has dropped they won’t react in time anyway. Which makes it easier for my hunter because I cant be arsed to put on pvp gear or swap to a pvp spec.
My favourite ever gank? Level 72 on my shaman, I see an 80 lock hovering over the murloc quests in borean tundra. I cheekily decide to chuck a lightning bolt at him. He lands and starts attacking and I blow every CD that enhancement shaman had. He dies and I continue questing cackling to myself.
Oh, thanks for the tip, Echo – I'll keep it in mind. :)
Yes, locks must die. Fire mages casting living bomb are a close second. ;)
Turning on shadows can help in zones where flight is allowed if your computer can take it. Although for the first month or so, you'll jump every time a bird flies over head even in zones where players can't currently fly.
Oh and level first aid, regardless of class/spec and make sure you always have a stack of the largest possible bandages with you.
I'm a semi-ganker, mainly because every time I try to be a carebear, a bunch of horde leap out of the bushes and put paid to laid back love every one attitude. At the moment, I'm leveling a druid with a friend and since he's feral and I'm balance several horde have already fallen for the lone alliance looking lost trick. They attack me only to find an angry cat biting their face off.
Which leads me to my most important rule in PvP. If you are planning an attack, watch from the bushes for a bit, make sure the numbers you can see are all that is there. Nothing makes you feel more stupid than pouncing someone only to discover they had a full party just around the corner.
Ooh, I'll try the shadow thing – so far I've been playing with shadows off, simply because they don't do so much for WoW's cartoony look and well, higher FPS is higher FPS.
My buddy and I are currently running a tankadin/enhancement shaman combo, so we can't stealth – but rogues and kittys sure are something to keep in mind. I haven't thought about that before. Thank you!
So many people who used to be nice to the other faction, at least until the niceness got taken advantage off… Seems to be a common theme.