Reflections on “Echoes of Doom” and PvP

Player versus Player 2 comments.

• Every human paladin had suddenly adopted the Goku/Vegeta hairstyles favored by the sin’dorei males.  What this says about human paladins, I don’t know.
• Unfortunately, this has resulted in a few occasions where enemy has been confused with ally and vice versa — sometimes with hilarious results.
• Warriors seem to be overwhelmingly attached to their Whirlwind buttons.  Can they use any other abilities or did the patch somehow remove them?
• While every Alliance hunter seems to possess one of the new corehound pets, very few of the Horde do.  I don’t know whether I should be pleased or disappointed.
• Speaking of hunters, please make sure to bring your pets onto the battlefield with you.  I saw hunters exclaim that they’d forgotten their animal companions no less than five times this afternoon.

• I can break 300,000 in healing easily in any and every Battleground, but 500,000 seems to escape me.  I don’t think there’s an achievement for it and I really don’t care if there is, but it’s driving me crazy to hit 490,000 over and over yet never break 500,000.
• 100,000 Honorable Kills for 100000 Honorable Kills¹ seems crazy, but I’ve already run into four people who have this, including one on the Feathermoon US roleplaying server.
• I’ve yet to hit 25000 Honorable Kills, but I’m 1,000 Honorable Kills closer after this morning.
• Other than priests, just who didn’t get a knockback this last patch?  Not only do I need to contend with spell interruptions, but now there are knockbacks?  Bah!
• Every Man for Himself has negated the need to carry my Insignia of the Alliance.  This is a welcome change because not only do I have a free trinket slot now, but I also find myself using it more.
• I do, however, miss the previous incarnation of Perception and find my finger spasmodically twitching to use this ability when I hear a stealthed opponent.
• Being unable to join a Battleground because I get the “Transfer Aborted: instance not found” error is irksome, especially when the people in my group manage to get into the same Battleground that suddenly doesn’t exist.

• I still hate the current incarnation of Alterac Valley and wistfully reflect back on the days of yore when it was entirely different — but nowhere else do I get to heal so many people against so many enemies!
• I would be unstoppable in the Batlegrounds if I could somehow get my hands on a Glyph of Spirit of Redemption.  I want that damned glyph!
• Listening to the unwashed masses in Trade, I’ve learned that this patch has singularly destroyed PvP as we know it, revitalized PvP, resulted in creating far too many overpowered classes², and has ruined the game.  As always, I’m tempted to leave the Trade channel, but then I wouldn’t get to enjoy seeing people recommend to jump off of the Aldor Terrace for the Going Down? achievement.³
• As a hint, jumping from the Scyers’ Terrace to the ground below appears to be exactly 65 yards.  You need to fall to the ground and not the ramp or overpass.
• Regardless of the changes made, Alliance still can’t agree on a single battle plan in any Battleground.  The world as we know it is not over.

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1. No Time to Say Hello, Goodbye!
2. Single-Target Priestly Healing in “Echoes of Doom”
3. Pimpin’ the UI: “Echoes of Doom” Edition

Battle Suits Her

Csilla, Player versus Player 5 comments.

It may not be much of an accomplishment in many players’ eyes, but the perky priestess finally managed to hit 10,000 Honor Kills this afternoon after a string of winning matches in Warsong Gulch with friends and guild members.  And, contrary to what I learned in “Holy is for Killing Blows?“, not all of them were acquired by killing my opponents.

Healing on the battlefield: snatching your killing blows at the cusp of victory one by one!

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1. Holy is for Killing Blows?
2. Suffering From ADHDPS
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The Virtual Battlefield

Player versus Player 7 comments.

I’ve been extremely busy lately, what with the Big Move looming overhead and a lot of little details to work out.  In particular, I’d been worried about what to do with my two mischievous ferrets.  I had originally planned to ship them across the United States, but the horror stories that I read while researching the matter about ferrets that suffered from heat exhaustion or even died quickly put me off of the idea.  So that clearly wasn’t the solution that I had hoped.

Did you know that there are only two ferret-friendly airlines in the entirety of the United States?  Two!  Only Alaska Airlines and Delta Airlines would consider allowing me to bring the monsters aboard the plane and stay inside of the cabin — and many airlines wouldn’t let them come aboard at all even as cargo, despite the fact that larger dogs and cats were allowed on those very same flights!  This prejudice against ferrets is very disappointing.¹  So I ended up selecting a flight with Delta that was both cheaper and better suited my schedule.  Plus the young woman on the phone who helped verify each flight detail² was extremely helpful.

And I feel a hell of a lot better knowing that the two monsters will be under the seat right in front of me for the trip.

That said, a lot of my time in-game has been spent doing a lot of Battlegrounds.  And I mean a lot.  For one, my lust for player versus player content has been surprisingly reignited, though the fact that I may be joining some of the Badgers in Arena teams is further incentive to grab as much of the Honor and mark gear as possible.  For another, heading to the Battlegrounds is a ridiculously easy thing that I can do on my own with little preparation; I don’t have to sit around waiting for nine or twenty-four of my buddies to show up, I have fun doing my own thing, and I can even bounce out really quickly if the need arises.  Though I still feel a bit guilty when I do.

Overall, my experiences on the battlefield has been pretty positive.³  I haven’t run into any of the rampant asshattery that I saw earlier last week and many of the matches have been wins for us; those that we didn’t win were often extremely exciting matches in which either side could have won.  I enjoy those sort of fights because I like challenges and a near-win is always more fun than when we overwhelm our opponents and win by a landslide.

I had been doing a lot of Arathi Basin matches, but noticed that I was near to maxing out those tokens and decided to hit Alterac Valley for a bit⁴ and then Warsong Gulch.  I have very fond memories of Warsong Gulch in particular, since it was here that my kal’dorei huntress Eszti really first made her name; she was a terror on the battlefield and exceptionally skilled in flag defense and recovery.  I remember one match in particular where she managed some forty returns within the course of a single game, earning her some infamy on the forums that weekend.

There was one match in particular over the last week that really stuck out.  It was in Warsong Gulch and lasted for some forty-five minutes.  By the end of the game, I had almost half a million effective heal performed and that completely disregards the effects of Prayer of Mending.⁵  The group’s paladin and I spent the vast majority of the game being the flag carriers; with the full extent of the flag debuff applied I made the surprisingly better flag carrier.  I think it had a lot to do with my survivability and instant-cast abilities.  I had at my disposal Power Word: Shield, Renew, Prayer of Mending, Desperate Prayer, and so on.

We ended up losing that match, but it was still a hell of a lot of fun and I think that I surprised a number of people who had claimed that Csilla was far too squishy to be an effective flag carrier.  I may not be Discipline since I tend to raid more than compete, but I am pretty handy to keep around — especially since I know many of the tips and tricks that will keep me alive and ahead of the pack!  I may take the opportunity to write up a short article outlining how to be effective in the Battlegrounds as a healing priest.

Oh, and meet Dendrin of Draenor US, who has become my newest bestest friend in the entire universe.  This gentleman was the best flag carrier that I have ever met in my not-so-illustrious career on the battlefield.  Not shocking, mind you, given the fact that he had almost 90,000 Honor Kills to his name.  While I might approach those numbers when you combine all of my girls over the entire duration of my World of Warcraft experience, the idea of possessing that many with a single character blows my mind away.  I burbled happily to myself when match after match he showed up in the roster and cried a little inside when he didn’t.

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Amani War Bear Spotted!

Player versus Player, Raiding 9 comments.

Yesterday evening, following yet another raid in Serpentshrine Cavern with no progression in my perky priestess’s raid, the Drunken Badgers headed into Zul’Aman for their weekly bear mount run.  I’ve said before that I really enjoy Zul’Aman and the timed event is probably a huge portion of why I enjoy it; the challenge of going into an instance with nine of your buddies to work together as a finely oiled machine is very appealing, especially when we’re successful.

Can you see where this is going?  Yep, the Drunken Badgers managed to snag our second Amani War Bear!

The group consisted of:

• Protection paladin,
• Feral druid,
• Combat rogue,
• Enhancement shaman,
• Beast Mastery hunter,
• Fire mage,
• Destruction warlock,
• Balance druid,
• Holy paladin, and
• Holy priest.

The Balance druid also served as our backup healer.  If a situation arose where we needed a little more healing oomph as opposed to unadulterated fire power, she’d help by healing.  The only time where we even considered this was when we fought Halazzi and that was mainly because we had a good eight minutes before the timer ran out and it was decided that being safe was much better than being sorry should something bad happen.

Things that we could have improved?  Well, when heading for to Nalorak, we somehow ended up pulling the two Amani Bear Mounts standing guard over the entrance which is exceedingly odd because I know that our Balance druid cast Hibernate Soothe Animal on the one closest to the wall.  I slipped by it with no problems¹, but someone that followed behind me must have engaged them somehow.  The only other notable time sink was when blogger and fellow guildie Jezreal of DPS: We Deliver kinda sorta accidentally sent her pet Snaggle into a patrol instead of the group of mobs we were fighting at the moment.  She was suitably horrified, however, so I won’t make fun of her.

At least too much!

Oh, and we really need to work on banging that gong in the beginning.  I think that it took some three attempts with everyone participating to get the event started.  We were laughing so hard because we had just been saying how this looked like a damned good group for a bear mount run² and everyone felt really good about our prospects, and then the gong decided to be contrarian and not open the blasted door no matter how hard we, ah, banged.

Congratulations, Steelshield, on getting your new mount!³

Holy is for Killing Blows!

– or at least a single Killing Blow.

Here’s a follow up on yesterday’s post “Holy is for Killing Blows?” in which I shared the story of an idiot mage who thought that my lack of Killing Blows as a Holy priestess indicated that I wasn’t effectively contributing in Arathi Basin.  Following the Drunken Badgers’ week revelry after snagging our second bear mount, a bunch of us decided to queue up for some fights in the Battlegrounds and we had a blast doing it.  The evening culminated in which our paltry little preform got set up against a number of people from Twisted By Design, considered by most of the Feathermoon US population to be the top Horde raiding guild on the server.  It was painful, oh so very painful.

However, in an earlier match I did manage to get a Killing Blow!

I have learned!  I am a new woman!  No longer shall I enter Battlegrounds with the sole intent of healing my fellow fighters.  I will instead seek to take the Killing Blows from warriors and rogue, druids and shamans, and even my fellow priests.  This is the true, the just, the sole path that I can take.

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Holy is for Killing Blows?

Csilla, Player versus Player 8 comments.

In my quest to acquire the Gold Medallion¹, I participated in a number of Arathi Basin matches this morning.  While it may be Warsong Gulch weekend, I opted to try for the Call to Arms: Arathi Basin daily instead.  I’ve always claimed to be a  bit of a masochist.

It’s probably why I enjoy leveling priests so much.

So, I’m running around Arathi Basin doing my healing thing.  Csilla is a Holy priestess specced for raiding, but that doesn’t mean that I won’t be effective on the battlefield.  In fact, many matches I’m doing double and sometimes triple the amount of the next highest healer, irregardless of what faction he may be.  The whole “mobile healinatin’ unit, ho!”² thing is working pretty well as I rush in to an area where a healer is needed and start slinging heals around like candy.  It amuses me enough that I completely ignore the typical asshattery that you see in the Battlegrounds and enjoy roleplaying the perky priestess that Csilla is — until we get one particular asshat into the game who just won’t shut up.

Now, I’m not one to mention names.  In fact, my policy has been to highlight the people that do well and then turn around and obliquely mention those who who have earned my ire.  Except this one, this one was horrible.  He ranted, screamed, and told everyone to give up when the Horde had a mere 40 points over us.  When this didn’t work, he stated haranguing many of the other participants — including a rogue from Uldum US named Roguekiller.³  This asshat begins mocking him, pointing out that this rogue has zero Killing Blows to his name but some five deaths.  This wasn’t a surprise; Roguekiller had spent the vast majority of the match defending nodes, often by himself.  He was good in helping announce when our opponents were attacking an area.  And when four to five Horde rolled up to grab a node when only he was there, this resulted in his very messy death.

The asshat backs off for a bit after almost the entire raid jumps on him for his idiocy, until the match ends and we lose.  Then he comments on the fact that I have zero Killing Blows, thereby inferring that I was as “useless” as our rogue ally who managed to play an integral role in a number of fights.

Thank you, Dealthhimsel of Draenor, for showing the internet how much of an asshat and idiot that you are.  I hadn’t realized that, despite being the only healer on our team, I should instead be focusing on killing our opponents.  I shall take your words to heart and one day seek to rise up to your greatness.  Clearly, Holy priests are for Killing Blows and not for healing our teammates.

Friend and fellow raider Asuraka put it best this afternoon while we waited to see if we’d have enough people to enter Serpentshrine Cavern:

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1. Battle Suits Her
2. Amani War Bear Spotted!
3. Suffering From ADHDPS