RP PvP Woes

[JustAGuy]

Here's the low-down. When I started playing WoW, it was with the intention of re-creating and finishing my beta Paladin. I did so, and enjoyed most every moment (some were frustrating...). Before joining a server, I did some initial research (that is, join a server, check out the chat, guilds, and general feel of the server) and found that an RP server was my best choice for rebuilding my "betadin." I stand by my decision, and I had a great time in a great environment, mostly free from... well... "regular" server goings-on.

Fast forward a couple of months, and at level 60, I found myself wondering, "what do I do now?" As soon as I hit 60, doing quests became irrelevant. I practically cleared my log of everything that wasn't a blackrock depths or greater instance quest. Finding a raid group was quite the challenge for this server (as I was not in a real guild) and I wasn't really into running the instances. So, I tried Battlegrounds, and oh did I rejoice. PvP became THE thing to do with my 60 Paladin (aside from farm up reputation to get my Ram -- which was VERY useful in BGs. Not spending mana to cast a horse is great). Before long, my talent at playing my class was recognized and I joined the premier PvP guild on the server, "The Assault".

Now, the Assault was a good group of people, good at PvE, better at PvP. It was a small wonder that I was able to find a group of PvP centered players on an RP server. These people were quite dedicated, the lowest ranked in the guild being me (Sergeant-Major), highest being a few Field Marshals. They did so much PvP that the one Paladin gained 120k in contribution points in one week and his honour bar DID NOT MOVE. He should have been Grand Marshall that week, but his play partners were doing just as much PvP as him, cancelling out his accomplishments. These guys were good, VERY good.

Now, The Assault lost their share of matches, a good number of them too, to a Horde guild called "Mischief". These Mischief guys were good, damn good, the only real competition that the Assault had. As a matter of fact, the Assault was created to compete directly with the Mischief guild. Funny thing, two of the bug fixes in the 1.7 patch notes come directly from Assault vs. Mischief games.

I was in only a couple of games where one "exploit" in particular was used. It's the mind-control/blessing of protection trick. You have a Paladin with the mind control helm on, MC the flag carrier, then cast BoP on him. He then drops the flag and you are free to return in. Needless to say, whenever this "exploit" was used, Mischief went crazy. They just lost it. I've never seen so much whining on a forum in my life. They just kept going on and on and on, about how cheap the Assault was, and how they're cheaters and should be banned because they violated the ToS. BoP makes you drop the flag, simple fix is to make it so you can't BoP a mind controlled unit. Clearly an over-sight by Blizzard, but it's in the game, and no one else to my knowledge was creative enough to come up with this idea. There was also the "Judge's Gavel" "exploit" as well (NOT an exploit); when Judge's Gavel proc's, the flag carrier is banished, leaving him stuck so the alliance can converge on his position and decimate him. That's also fixed in 1.7 patch (it doesn't banish, instead it stuns).

So, once Mischief, and to a lesser extend the entire Horde, became aware of this reputation for "cheap" play they basically boycotted Battlegrounds. If they see an Assault guild player, they immediately /AFK out of the game. The Assault only used the MC/BoP trick a few times (and it didn't necessarily sway the outcome of games, either), but the damage was already done. It's been weeks since we had an Alterac Valley game, and it takes hours to get into a WSG, only to have the hordies /AFK right away. You get easy honour, but for a 4 hour wait... It's not worth it.

The competition is gone, they've all packed up and left. They went to the Ursin server and rolled Alliance. Funny thing, I went to Ursin and rolled Horde, unknowingly destined to face Mischief again.

So, my poor Paladin is back to square one. I'm not long to stay with the Assault since they are all about PvP and there's no PvP to had. Quite sad, actually. I spent so much time playing my Paladin, slowly gearing him toward PvP, and then this happens. The Horde gave up. They got fed up with losing and blamed it on an "exploit". They dominated BG games, easily, for a long time, until the Assault showed up. When it all changed, they got increasingly angry, and once the Assault got coordinated on Team Speak, it was no-contest for a while there. Now, there's nothing for my poor Pally to do, except feed his Ram some carrots.

So... I've moved on, as I previously mentioned, to Ursin, a new PvP server. I rolled a Shaman, to see how the other half lives. I have to say, I really, really enjoy it. Shamans are horribly over-powered in the early game, and it's a nice change from my Paladin, who's always been gimpy.

The thing I've realized is that PvP is what I want to do. Instance running and Questing is fun, sure, but PvP is the end goal. I want to become High Warlord. It's a goal that I might one day attain, but I'd be satisfied just being near the top. Now that there's no more PvP on my old server, my poor Paladin won't even be able to get Knight (I was so close too)...