Armaggedon's coming!

Aman’Thul is a PvE server, but I’m “permanently” flagged for PvP.

I didn’t realize at 1st. The first indication was when I got slaughtered outside ICC one night during an instance server restart.

A friend said:

How stupid can you be to afk here while PvP flagged?

I didn’t know, at that point.

A while later I realized whenever I fished I was flagged, then realized it had nothing to do with fishing, I just was.

Rades solved the mystery with the suggestion I might have a PvP quest in my log, which I did and which I now maliciously share every Wintergrasp I enter because I looks like one of the WG quests in the heat of battle.

So yeah, I’m flagged 24/7, I’m kind of noob bait or a free honor kill, assuming someone has a go and depending who they are.

Par for the course on a PvP server, but rare as hen’s teeth on a PvE server a flagged toon is an invitation to every Orc and their pet Troll.

Grinding Tangent

As I had the whole week off, I quickly finished all my raid options early in the week, on both characters, which left me twiddling my thumbs.

I could reroll, but as I rarely have time for two characters, a third would be a nightmare.

So I started grinding. Grinding dailies, grinding reputation and grinding achievements.

Vikingmetal returned to the game recently, so I got him to help me start off the Oracle grind, which of course amounts to 3 quests per day.

So looking for something else, I started killing Ogres in Nagrand. Might as well get that Kurenai rep up.

I’ve never liked AoE grinding (then I never liked fishing either, but desperate times), and the thought of going frost sends shivers down my spine.

Grinding as fire is a whole different story.

Living Bomb
Living Bomb
Living Bomb
Living Bomb
Living Bomb
Living Bomb
Living Bomb

Keep running, grab as many as you can

Living Bomb
Living Bomb
Living Bomb
Living Bomb
Frost Nova (or worst case, Dragon’s Breath)

Watch them explode

Loot
Win

Rinse & Repeat

Kurenai grind complete, I was looking for something different.

Sha’tari Skyguards

I did the dailies late one night, then when I woke the next day, did them again.

That was when I realized the dailies were the long way and I was better off grinding the mobs, the minibosses and the boss.

So I ran up one side of the lake…

Living Bomb
Living Bomb
Living Bomb
etc…

Then I ran down the otherside…

Living Bomb
Living Bomb
Living Bomb
etc…

Grinding and the Ganked

I pretty much had the whole place to myself early on. Occasionally I’d see someone fly in, see my trail of corpses and leave for another day.

Rarely I’d see a Hordie just hovering, just out of range, pondering the wisdom of attacking a PvP flagged Gnome.

Finally someone bit

I’d just cleared a Skettis camp was tossing up whether to health/mana up or loot 1st. It hadn’t mattered so far.

I didn’t get the chance to decide as out of the corner of my eye I see a Hordie descend, a DK, which was obvious by the Army of the Dead rising from their Skettis graves.

It was over about 10 seconds later.

Sheep DK
Frost Nova Army
Flame Strike Army
Destroy DK
Drink
Loot

A couple of minutes later I see the DK fly off.

I’m not a ganker, but I believe that when ganked, it is important that the ganker understands that the action is unwelcome and it is no fluke that they lost.

I followed the DK into the treetops where he had engaged a Skettis while at 1/2 health. A Living Bomb and a couple of scorches later, I was piling up the Skettis corpses on top of the DK’s corpses.

A message from the otherside

I noticed that the DK hadn’t rezzed, but I had serious grinding to do, so I got back to it.

Moments later a level 1 warrior whispered me…

Warrior: Stop killing the Skettis!

Me: Why? I need them too!

Warrior: Well can you stay on just one side please?

Now I have to admit I was feeling kind of evil at that point… but I had also been grinding for a few hours. So instead of allowing my evil side to win I took a break leaving the whole zone to him for a couple of hours.

The Ganker returns

When I returned a couple of hours later, the zone was alive with grinders, so I got back to it.

Vikingmetal was my help for the big boss and when another guy joined us at one point leaving me with 7 summons.

WTF IS THE 10+ MINUTE BOSS RESPAWN???

Yeah, so we spent a fair bit of time just bumming about waiting for the boss to respawn.

That’s when I got a whisper from my level 1 warrior ganker. He needed help and who would you turn to when you need help?

Yeah me, the guy that killed him twice

Ganked Ganker becomes helpful Helper

Up front he asks if I can give him my RealID so I can help him cross faction. What do you think the chance is that I would do that? lol

Googling a hire power: should employers use the net to vet?

He was stuck, couldn’t work out why he couldn’t progress with the questline to kill the boss.

So I did what I do, I helped. We worked through all the options and as is often the case the most obvious option was the solution… the quest item was in his bank.

Over the next hour or so we chatted constantly in between living bombs, about all sorts of stuff.

During that discussion I discovered that he doesn’t PvP. My PvP flag really was noob bait, it drew him in, out of his depth and then I pounced.

Admittedly the PvP didn’t go all my way. At one point a Blood Elf pally flew in just as I was finishing another pile of corpses, blew his cooldowns and spread me across the ground.

About 15 minutes later he was back. I lost again, but only just. I guess I put up enough of a fight to convince him next time he wouldn’t be so lucky because he didn’t strike again.

Whatever the case, these little tastes of PvP in the world added a level of excitement that doesn’t normally exist when grinding.

Winding up with the Ganker

In the end the Ganker came onto his Alliance toon to thank me for the help I had given and to ask what he could do in return.

My answer was my standard one. The thank you was all the reward I need. I gain a lot of pleasure for helping people for no reward beyond the warm fuzzy feeling one gets to see someone progress.

That is why I write the blog (yeah, when I get around to writing) and why it is ad free (well it is now that I have paid WordPress off to keep it ad free).

That said, if you are the ganker and reading this post, drop me a line if you are prepared to do an Argent Tournament pet swap, I really want an Enchanted Broom.

Helped

Help came, but not in the form I was expecting.

Thanks to TwilliK, who dropped me a line immediately after reading this post, then had to wait around while I destroyed some of his own kind (Horde that it) in Eye of the Storm. He is pictured here on his well guilded Alliance alt, with my new broom broom.

Gnomer and Out!

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http://gnomeaggedon.net/2010/09/04/gankee-ganker-helper/