For all I know this still goes on, may have just occured last week.

If it has, let me know.

If it hasn’t, well play along with me a little.

The basic premise is easy…

• Go into your image folder
• Open the sixth sub-folder and choose the sixth image.
• Publish the image! (and a few words wouldn’t hurt, though I dare say I couln’t stop a blogger from adding a few words of their own).
• Challenge six new bloggers.
• Link to them.

Back then the 6 bloggers I chose were: Leafy, Fikkle from For the Horde, Fimlys (who didn’t repond.. will take that up with him later), Pugnacious Priest, Euripedes from Critical QQ, and finally Matticus (who I knew wouldn’t respond, but hey I never stop trying).

So I guess to get the ball rolling, I will pick my 6th screenshot folder…

Mmmm…

not sure how that folder got there…

OK, maybe a little creative sorting, and now I have a sixth folder I can use.

6th sceenshot is...

Mmmm, don’t like this one much, but them’s the luck of the sixes

Horde Wins

Not just wins, but achieves.

Kinda ties back to yesterday’s post.

There were many We Had It All Along *cough* , that went the wrong way, or went to an Alt, along the way to Battlemaster.

Everyone of them heart wrenchingly disappointing, yet every one making me more determined to make the 10 point difference next time.

Achievements like that happen either completely unwittingly, or with you fighting tooth and nail.

I fought tooth and nail.

I loved every minute of it and to be that close, I doubt I was idle for a moment, even if I was guarding a lonely node (guarding the Bees as Dingo, my guildy would say), I’d be active scanning the map, calling enemy movements.

Guild chat generally erupted after such a loss.. I’d be the only one talking, but I wouldn’t be bitching (so much), rather encouraging others to join me, to feel the thrill of the close loss, or better yet, the close win.

I shared my joy surrounding this screenshot back in June last year.

Next Six

Anyway, my bit is coming to an end, time to pick someone to share the pain love with.

You probably wont want to, but it’s one of those opportunities to stop and look at what was. It may have been the worst screenshot you ever accidentally took, but then it might also be the screenshot you took while slamming the Prt Scr button at a special moment in your WoW past.

Anyone that chooses to continue with this meme may link back to this post, assuming there is a track back (otherwise leave a comment, or drop me a line), people will get the opportunity to find the source, then follow the branches. if I can be arsed, I will compile a list of those trackbacks, which is as much as I will promise).

Also if you are a blogless reader, feel free to link to a screenshot of your own, or drop me a line via the contacts page and I will post it in the comments for you.

Finally, if you are a blogger and interested and not yet invited to join in… screw ‘em.. just join in!

So, to my victims of the meme and the rules one more time.

• Bear, cause I love him and I know he has screenshot folders of his special moments strewn around his harddisk.
• Pugnacious Priest, because I miss her (yeah OK, I could read even if I wasn’t writing). I have bumped into her in a couple of BGs, but I can’t wait for BattleTags so I can make that a regular event… Ohh yeah, watch out Bear, I’m coming for you!)
• AppleCiderMage, because I haven’t given Mage blogs of any description any attention lately, but I understand this is one I should.
• Arioch, because Arioch has screenshots.
• Cynwise, because I keep rolling on his servers and never come back.
• Windsoar, because she’s always one of the 1st to turn up here if I make the slightest murmur. (Here it is: Meme the Sixth)

So that’s my SIX.

In reality I have known all but 1 for a long time, which is why I chose them… I haven’t been reading in a while.  Hopefully they will join in and lead us all to bloggers that we otherwise wouldn’t be exposed to, that will touch our lives and WoW experiences in some new way… well I hope that’s what they do to me.

The Rules.

• Go into your image folder
• Open the sixth sub-folder and choose the sixth image.
• Publish the image! (and a few words wouldn’t hurt, though I dare say I couldn’t stop a blogger from adding a few words of their own).
• Challenge six new bloggers.
• Link to them.

Can’t be arsed

Well I can’t forever, but until the day comes I really can’t be arsed, here are some responses.

• Windsoar with Meme the Sixth
• Navimie from The Daily Frostwolf with Meme the Sixth – Gnomeageddon’s challenge

Gnomer and Out!

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License.

http://gnomeaggedon.net/2012/02/15/sixth/

Finally, finally, with a lot of help from my friends and awesome support from the PuGs, I got Resilient Victory,

the last achievement I needed for Master of Arathi Basin,

and more importantly the last achievement I needed for Battlemaster.

So yes, I am now officially Battlemaster Gnomeaggedon, Justicar of Gnomeregan. Well I would be if you could chain titles… Guess I will stick with Gnomeaggedon of Gnomeregan.

Of course, with what comes next, you will probably re-title me Gnomeaggedon, Master Whinger of Gnomeregan.

Meh whatever…

The Hard Slog

Not all the achievements for any of the Master achievements are easy. For some people winning 100 of any BG is hard enough. Some of the achievements are even contrary to the goals of the BG, or the winning of the BG at least.

Still “the achievement” exists, the combination of 5 Master achievements, comprising 54 achievements in total (AV: 10, WSG: 11, SotA: 13, AB: 12, EotS: 8).

For that you get a title… A title… nothing more (and thankfully nothing less), unless you want to include 50, yes a whole 50 extra achievement points.

So what’s my gripe?

Well for one, What a long strange trip it’s been…

Remember the bitching about this achievement, it takes 12 months (brew of the month), included achievements that required some dedication, or at least being online at the right time.

• What A Long, Strange Trip It’s Been: 8 master achievements
• To Honor One’s Elders: 12
• Noble Gardener: 8
• The Flame Warden: 6
• Hallowed Be Thy Name: 11
• Fool For Love: 12
• For The Children: 6
• Brewmaster: 6
• Merrymaker: 11
• Total: 72

Sure quantitatively there are a more achievements to earn, but many of them are givens. Ultimately this isn’t a hard meta achievement, although its reliance on RNG at times is frustrating, at the end of the day it’s a join the dots achievement and a full 12 month cycle of playing.

People wanted the big purple drake and were prepared to bitch about it, because it was too hard… god forbid you have to spend years waiting on the Spirit Healer, or accepting that to get the wins you will have to go through the loses… lots of loses… for a title… a title… No bonus gear, pets or mounts along the way… just a title.

... and my stats aren't *that* bad...

Elite skills and a bit of gear

What about the Instance and Raiding achievements. I’m not going to say they are easy, I know people dedicate themselves to the perfect moves for some of them. Still, at the end of the day, 5, 10, 25 people can walk away with titles and mounts, all within a single patch period.

Know the right people and you can piss fart around an entire expansion then get your high reward achievement once your over-gear the situation… in fact, why do that, why not just wait until your are and expansion or two down the track and solo the instances and raids for the achievements.

Try soloing a few BGs a couple of expansions down the track and see how far it get you.

Looking for the Justice in Justicar

Don’t get me wrong, I don’t resent the other meta achievements coming with more tangible rewards, bloody hell, would you even bother with What A Long, Strange Trip It’s Been if not for the Purple Drake waiting at the end? The little bonuses along the way encourage your to chase the ultimate goal, but in the end, it’s the drake that you ignore your real life lover for during Love is in the Air.

I do think that at some point someone at Blizzard needs to have a look at something that while not broken per se, just doesn’t seem to add up.  Hell, Blizzard have proven in the past they are more than happy to fix things that aren’t broken, so why not fix Battlemaster, and while they are at it, why not spice up Justicar?

If For the Alliance can reward you with a mount…

If you can get the Stormpike Battle Charger for a handful of honor – without even needing to be exalted any longer…

Not to mention the other honor mounts, like the Black Battlestrider,  for more handfuls of honor…

Why don’t you get a battle mount for achieving Battlemaster, in fact why not get a mount for each of the factions represented by the sub-achievements as you progress?

Hardest of hardcore PvP

Of course if you are in the top 0.5% of players in the arena each seaon you will receive one of the Gladiator’s Twilight Drakes…

… and if you win 75, 150 and 300 Rated Battlegrounds, then you can get your hands on a Vicious War Steed, but don’t expect a different model for knocking yourself out… no you just get a better title!

Once again, not trying to detract from the achievements in Arena or Rated Battlegrounds (something I am extremely unlikely to ever achieve at this point in time), but I have to ask, what, beyond a title which I will most likely never display (I am Gnomeaggedon of Gnomeregan!) was the point of chasing Justicar and Battlemaster.

Yeah, yeah… I know personal satisfaction… pffft!

I’m just left wondering whether Blizzard understand the term Achievement and the concept of being rewarded appropriately.

Anyway, on a final note, I’d like to thank all the people, guildies and PuGs alike that assisted me in achieving Battlemaster. Apologies for not getting a screenshot of all the Alliance that stuck through against the odds to pull off the Resilient Victory.  I know you doubted the strategy, like so many before you, but you unlike the others kept the faith till the end and for that I am very grateful.

In particular that thanks goes to the PuG Sylthren from Muradin.  It was your confirmation of the strategy that steadied the other PuGs.

As for my guildies (Arivina, Daraiste, Daror, Deady, Dingo, Doamy, Fando, Giggitty, Informer, Magok, Maiyen, Meli, Oromic, Plaguezilla, Salex, Tickk, Xero), who so mercilessly taunted me after gaining Resilient Victory in a Rated Battleground while I was on Squidly. Who for another 2 months laughed at the suggestion that we attempt Resilient Victory (OK, you were scared that once I had it I would delete Gnomeaggedon, then delete WoW)…

I thank you for being at my side, even though for many of your Battlegrounds and PvP in general was the last thing you wanted to do.

Although, I’m sure you will admit… we had fun taunting and crushing the Horde!

Gnomer and Out!

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License.

http://gnomeaggedon.net/2012/02/14/and-all-i-got-was-this-lousy-title/

lol… some things never change.

Gnomer and Out!

In the latest scandal to rock the Horde since Garrosh Hellscream’s rise to power, Drek’Thar has been implicated in a win trading scandal and sentenced to execution.

Sources close to the investigation inform us that questions were raised about the unusual number of wins by the Alliance in the Alterac Valley.

While Drek’Thar denies all wrong doing several irregularities point to a conspiracy to deprive the Horde of vital war resources.

• The design of fortifications in Alterac Valley have for a long time been considered imbalanced giving a clear advantage to the Alliance. Yet Drek’Thar refuses to make modifications.
• Even when towers and graveyards, clearly in sight of the Horde General are attacked, Drek’Thar refuses to leave the safety of his stronghold or send his Warmasters to recap these critical strategic nodes.
• When taunted from his stronghold, Drek’Thar rarely attacks beyond his doorstep, not even to eliminate the threat forming on “Noob Hill”
• Drek’Thar and Vanndar Stormpike have exchanged RealIDs and frequently discuss the progress of their forces.
• The Warmasters have been placing wagers on the outcome of the battles to acute the future of their loved ones.

Garrosh Hellscream is quoted as saying:

Yet another example of soft Alliance-loving leaders put in their positions by that traitor Thrall. If he wasn’t off saving the world, I would have his head on a pike as well… KILL THEM ALL!

Investigations into the other battlegrounds have stalled with the realization that with the exception of Isle of Cobquest, no leaders have been placed to coordinate the battles.

Drek’Thar has refused to stand down from his position, or relieve his Warmasters of their roles in the battle for Alterac Valley.

When pressed he responded:

Garrosh who?

Let him come and throw his body on our pikes. We won’t be so easy on the pretender to the Horde leadership as we are to Vanndar’s forces.

In the Alliance stronghold of Stormwind, King Varian has given his full support to his leader Vanndar and Drek’Thar.

This is war, any weapon whether made of steel or deceit that wins the field for the Alliance is supported by me. Anyway, I am funding the Alliance war effort on my Alerac Valley winnings.

Vanndar Stormpike had only one short statement regarding the issue…

lol L2P noobs…

Gnomer and Out!

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License.

http://gnomeaggedon.net/2011/07/18/drekthar-to-be-executed-for-win-trading/

So we have a new guildy, a pvp loving guildy. I’ve been in WSG with him all weekend… school holidays.

A demotivational player

Yeah, he’s a young guy. His parents are younger than me.

I don’t care about that either. He plays his rogue well. Peeling is his favorite word. He’s a team player, setting up opportunities for the win. I like that, it’s the way I, and my mates play. Personal glory 2nd, win for the team 1st.

He has one annoying habit, one I haven’t had much personal experience with in a while and when I did it was related to PvE and Gearscore.

No good reason to have these screen shots

He idolizes gear, titles and arena ratings.

When we enter a BG, he is immediately inspecting the team.

Wow, she’s got a 2800 arena rating from last season.

That guy is a Battlemaster!

That warrior is sooo geared.

Look at that noob in greens/heirlooms/last season’s/PvE gear.

To me all of that is irrelevant. Sure it indicates that a player has won some battles, but ratings can be forged, titles can indicate a selfish player, gear indicates nothing more than a grind.

except I wonder why the need to demotivate prior to game start

What matters is the player’s motivation to be in the BG and usually that motivation isn’t obvious until the game is underway.

Why are the 2800 rating, the Battlemaster, the well geared players in WSG?

Probably not to capture the flag.

They are most likely there to get HKs. I have no problem with this. If they get the right HK it is assisting me in my goals. If they are taking random kills and ignoring the enemy flag carrier (efc), we are at crossed purposes.

My goal at the moment is two fold.

1. Honor
2. Flags cap for the win

It was 3 fold, but I now have Master of Warsong Gulch, so my primary goal in WSG now is just to reach Exalted with Silverwing Sentinals. To do that I need the flag to be capped as many times as possible in the BG.

I’m also, for just a little bit longer, after honor, so the win is important to me.

Soon I will be maxed out on honor gear, so the wins will be less relevant, but the flag caps still important for another 13000 reputation.

Then… whatever… for the joy of playing, for the honor kills, just to piss the Horde off.

I expect my motivations will be guided by that of my team mates then.

Why bitch and moan when the game is going so good

The Plate assumption

Whenever I enter a WSG with my mate Plaguezilla, the geared and competent DK, people automatically nominate him as our flag carrier (fc).

He just points at me.

He doesn’t want to carry flags, he wants to kill the Horde. He knows I want more flags for our team than less, so he will facilitate that, but given the choice, he would rather stop the efc than be the fc.

Our goals are different, but luckily complimentary.

Luckily for me at least.

Most WSG you will find 8/10 people brawling in mid-field. It would be a mistake to call them noobs. They probably know exactly what they are doing, it just doesn’t reflect your desires.

and people are having so much fun

Coming back to our green/heirloom/last season/PvE geared team mates.

Whatever…

Seriously, it comes down to their skill, attitude and desires.

Can you carry a flag in greens?

Yes!

Can you carry a flag in PvE gear?

Yes!

Can you PvP in PvE gear?

Yes!

It might not be easy. You may be putting more pressure on the rest of the team, but you can do it.

There were two examples of this over the weekend. Both 3 capped. The only issue of note was their attitudes.

There was the tank warrior in PvE gear. Admittedly he was provoked by my new guildy, but he made the silly statement that

Plate is for flag carrying

To which I call bullshit.

The 2nd was in greens. My new guildy also provoked him (I’m working on the kid ok…).

Gear might not matter... just don't take the credit

His only mistake was declaring that he won the BG for us.

I also call bullshit.

My 5 year old son could have 3 capped that game. We were a good team against a bad one. He had myself and a Mage mate peeling anything and everything off him before he even knew it was there.

The gear didn’t matter, the motivations of his team mates did. We covered his arse and returned our flag.

Just a shame he thought he was an individual hero in a team game. If my motivations were different, if flag caps didn’t matter, I would have let the Horde fill him full of holes.

Luckily for him, out paths coincided that game.

Don’t call people out for bad gear, there could be an awesome player behind that avatar.

Don’t idolize titles/rankings/gear, they promise nothing but the the fact the player has done whatever they needed to do to get them.

They may mislead you to believe you can rely on them for something they aren’t prepared to give.

Aweful gear FTW!

Play your game, play to win.

Judge people on their actions not their looks

and everyone should come out on top.

Note: The only text in those screenshots involving the guildy in question, is the text showing him helping us to a quick win.

Gnomer and Out!

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License.

http://gnomeaggedon.net/2011/07/12/i-dont-care-about-the-color-of-you-clothes/

To which I respond…

No we’re not.

Kill them before they hurt you.

Focus their healers, send them to the graveyard 1st, make them wish they hadn’t joined the BG too.

A long time ago Gnomeaggedon joined the circle of healers meme. People thought it was novel, a joke, but I was DEADLY serious.

You don’t need healers to win a BG, you just need to make sure the enemy has none.

This was highlighted on the weekend and began with comments just like the title of this post.

...with 18 minutes still on the clock!

A short time later, I had capped for the 3rd time and the enemy team never got out of the graveyard I was slowfalling over each time with the flag.

Healers are overrated.

Sure they help, but if you aren’t playing PvP as if healers didn’t exist, you probably deserve to die.

Don’t get me wrong, I love my BG healers.

As I said on twitter:..

3 things I have learned in WSG:

1. Healers love Mage food
2. Healers love Flag Carriers
3. Healers love Mage food providing Flag Carriers.

But I don’t rely on their existence. I play knowing the only thing between me and death is me… then grin an evil grin when I discover I am getting heals.

Protect ‘em if you got ‘em!

Ohhh and speaking of healers.

Healers Have to Die!

I’ve mentioned this add-on before and Cynwise has an excellent post on the ethics of it.

Keep this one alive and they made do the same for you!

What you need to know is, not only will it show you enemy healers, but it will also show you friendly healers as well.

There are two things you need to do:

Turn the options on.

Turn on enemy AND friendly name plates

Gnomer and Out!

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License.

http://gnomeaggedon.net/2011/07/12/omfg-no-healers-were-screwed/

Of course due to the insanity of world time, I probably wont be there to watch live, but you can be.

Why don’t you drop by and see how it turns out?

Gnomer and Out!

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License.

http://gnomeaggedon.net/2011/07/08/sketch-a-gnome/

My last post was about peeling FTW, and many of the contents of this post are peels of one sort of another.

I was inspired by another use of Leap of Faith over the weekend which got me considering all those utility tools we have and their use in the WSG and Twin Peaks Battlegrounds

Catching the Carrier: Gripping FTW!

Lot’s of classes have snares, stuns and CCs (which I will get to), but just like snakes and ladders you want the Enemy Flag Carrier (efc) closer to your base – further from theirs.

Whether you pull back or blow back, they are precious yards that the efc has to regain. At times this is will just slow their forward momentum, at others snatch victory from a certain flag cap defeat.

The one thing to consider (as I was made acutely aware in TP the other day… In ALL CAPS), is you need to pick your time. Death Gripping or blowing an efc from your death dealing team mates may give the efc the break they need (Like cycloning an enemy on 10% health when everyone’s cooldowns are blown and the kill window is lost – not cool!).

Death Gripping FTW!

One step forward, two steps back. A Death Grip can do this to an efc, especially if properly timed with a follow up Chains of Ice or other snares, stuns and CC. The efc will blow his trinket early and be left at the mercy of your flag chasers.

You could also pull the efc sideways across the field into the waiting arms of your flag running group – away from the support of his group. Of course if his support group has a priest it could become a game of flag-carrier-tennis.

Gripping the last chance

You can smell the sense of frustration in a flag carrier as they reach the podium for a cap, only to be yanked back to the doorway.

That last second tackle is worth 1000 midfield.

Blowback FTW!

A Druid’s Typhoon or an Elemental Shaman’s Thunderstorm are the reverse of Death Grip. Instead of pulling the opponent to you for the kill, they push back.

Midfield you can use this to push them back down the field, or back to your teammates that the efc is in the process of escaping from.

Blowing off a capping attempt

For the ultimate in flag carrier shock, inducing a near heart attack, have your Druid or shaman waiting on the flag capping spot to blow the efc away from a certain flag cap, buying previous moments, especially if waiting for a recently dropped enemy flag.

Blowing is good, stopping is better!

Remember Grip & Lock, Blow and Lock.

Once you have moved that efc into a more advantageous position, you don’t want them racing off.

That’s where more standard CC comes in to play. Stuns, sheep, frogs, ice traps, freezing traps, chains of ice, roots.

You got ‘em, Use ‘em!

I’m not where you think I am!

I’ve shown you how to hinder, so now here’s a bit about helping, yourself (if you are a Mage or Warrior flag carrier) or others (if you are a Priest).

Don’t blink or you’ll miss me.

Blink is a bread and butter Mage ability. Telling a Mage to blink while carrying the flag is tantamount to telling them how to suck eggs.

Still, lest it be forgotten, Blink will get you across the BG and sometimes the best direction is not forward.

No I’m not suggesting you blink backwards, that’s a recipe for a home goal. However the advantage of blink is that you disappear and reappear. The average flag carrier is expected to go in one direction – to the home base.

So sometimes, it’s worth going sideways. You will get “behind” a chasing midfield pack, confusing those focused chasers who will either carry on, or turn in the expected direction initially.

Likewise if you are blinking sideways into the loving, supportive group of your midfield pack, you become harder to target, closer to potential heals and worst case, closer to someone else that can pick up the flag if you fall.

You may even find yourself shooting out the other end of your team’s pack, leaving them to crash headlong into the chasing pack, allowing them to utilize the full force of their stuns, CC and snares to give you a precious lead on the opposition.

Leaping to Victory!

Warriors have two awesome tools at their disposal: Intervene and Heroic Leap.

Intervene is a reverse Leap of Faith. Rather than being pulled to a Priest, you launch yourself at a team mate. It’s a great way to leap frog the midfield and all it takes is for a team mate to be offside, between you and the capping point.

Heroic Leap will launch you across the battleground

Leap of Faith does a similar thing to intervene, of course you do need a priest in the correct position.

Some of the best play I have seen by priests is with them staying ahead of the play, ahead of the friendly flag carrier.

This has a couple of advantages.

1. most likely the chasing pack is behind the FC, so if the priest is in front they aren’t within reach of the smart healer-targeting players and they are always in range of the racing FC, that may break away from the enemy pack.
2. if the FC is struggling to break away from the hungry wolf pack snapping on their heels, the Priest can Leap of Faith them clear of the ravenous pack.

Fast Forward FTW!

Those final agonizing seconds, as the FC enters their flag room, probably with wolves still on their heels, possibly with a potential efc moments away from frustrating a cap by holding your flag.

Best case, a fight will ensue that will extend that flag cap by seconds, worst case the efc will get away and you are an entire health bar (more if he is receiving heals) from the next cap opportunity, while both the clock and possibly your FC’s health bar tick down lost opportunities.

So what if you could fast forward those last excruciating seconds, reducing the likelihood of FC death or Flag theft. Would you take it?

Yeah of course you would.

Once again, Mages, Warriors and Priests are in the best position to facilitate this.

Just Blink and they will miss it!

Uneven ground is the bane of any blinking Mage, thankfully flagrooms have nice flat paving stones.

Blink when you see the color of your flag and you are heading for a quick cap. Blinking then will cause LoS issue for your chasers and blink can be a wonderful thing for dragging snares. Sure you have chains of ice around your ankles, but your ankles are no longer at the flag room door, they are at the flag podium!

(Strange aside. Gnomeadeaden, the DK, has been getting some mixed results with Death Grip. Sometimes when I DG a Blinking Mage, they successfully Blink, but they drag me with them. They are still distant and I find myself standing in the place they just left. Same thing happened with a Boomkin. Sure I ended up nose to beak, but I was pulled to them…)

Warriors, intervene to a team mate on the winners podium, or Heroic Leap themselves to victory.

Priests, be the one on the victory podium! That way flag runner class is irrelevant. If they have the flag, Leap of Faith them to the win.

This is what a Priest did to me the other day. There was a moment of panic I had just rounded the corner of our flag room in Twin Peaks. I saw someone standing one our podium. My heart sank, then burst through my throat as I was gripped towards this podium sitter.

As my flag carrying life flashed before my eyes, I recounted the previous moments.

1. There was a friendly Priest.
2. He went ahead of me to scout out the flag room.
3. The guy on the podium had a green target bar.
4. There were no red bars in the room.
5. CAPPING!

I was still momentarily dazed (IRL) after the cap. It was completely unexpected, yet incredibly good use of Leap of Faith… thus I write about it now.

Intervenes, Heroic Leaps and Leap of Faith all have enough range to ensure a quick cap the second the podium comes in sight.

If seconds are precious, then these are the jewels of the utility spells in WSG and Twin Peaks.

Gnomer and Out!

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License.

http://gnomeaggedon.net/2011/06/28/gripping-and-leaping-to-a-bg-win/

In both PvE and PvP winning usually involves defeating an opponent and/or gaining an objective.

Sometimes to kill one opponent, we have to deal with several.

In PvE, we deal with this in one of two ways:

• AoE FTW!
  AoE becomes the norm after a certain gear level has been reached – normally where tank and healer are both up to the job.
• CC and focus.
  CC is often used haphazardly until this iLevel point, or because the party prefers control and is used to control.

In PvP, whether BGs, Arenas or World PvP, AoE doesn’t work so well.  Some of us are intelligent enough to know when we are standing in the bad, and without the computer generated concept of threat, we can move away.  Of course some people will play by human generated threat, and just stand and slug it out, ignoring the negligible incoming damage.

CC and snares, even with their reduced duration and diminishing returns in PVP, are still the best way to deal with masses of opponents.

Decisions… decisions….

Your 1st reactions when entering mass combat should be:

1. Who is the focus target?, and
   You want to know the focus target 1st… no point in CC’ing a target that is about to be destroyed – especially with cyclone which just makes that target immune to it’s imminent death (giving their healers time to top off their health).
2. Who do I CC?, and
   Next you want to identify and CC – repeatedly if possible – additional targets. Healers are often the 1st choice, although sometimes you may be better off CC’ing another target (say the flag carrier) and destroying the healer that is keeping your opponents alive.  Whatever the case, pick one – CC them, make sure they stay that way. Worst case is they blow their trinket to get out of your CC… now they wont be doing that for a couple more minutes, so CC them again!
3. Is this the fight I need to win?

• Do you need to win this fight?
  Are you fighting for the survival of your flag carrier, or to return your flag to the base to enable a cap?  If so, this is a noble cause worth fighting for, now is the time to use all the tricks in your spellbook, CC and snares included.
• Is this a distraction from the primary goal?
  Does the player you are fighting bear no relationship to the state and position of your flag carriers (or team mates in need)? If so, you are wasting, or maybe they are wasting, your time, energy and health bar.  You are better served putting your resources where they are needed.Yes there are times where it is a worthwhile cause to fight without any objectives in play.
  - Maintaining a clean midfield – when no flag carriers are at risk, or running right by you.
  - Holding 5 players away from a node so it can tick over.
  Of course, once again these are tactical fights.  They are performing a service to the team, not just putting the team a player down.

Picking your fights and peeling FTW!

So let’s talk about peeling, probably only a term known, in context, by PvPers even though it has fundamentally the same intent as CC’ing or kiting adds in PvE.

The objective is to peel additional opponents off your primary target.  Your primary target may be the enemy flag carrier, the friendly flag carrier, your focus kill target, your healers or just a team mate in need.

When the primary target is the enemy.

Just as in PvE, when you want to kill one of many targets – fast, with little health loss. Your objective is to shutdown any other enemies that may heal or inflict damage, with healers always the priority.

I can’t tell you how many arena battles have our opponents doing double the damage we have done – twice the work for less results, purely because we have the heals and therefore the time, to finish on top. if we didn’t have the heals (say, maybe they focused, or CC’d our healer 1st), then the fight would have gone their way.

When you are fighting in PvP, you want the numerical advantage just as you do in PvE.  You don’t have the luxury of a threat table to ensure that everyone is focused on one strong target, so you need to employ CC, snares, stuns etc to reach the numeric advantage. You want to peel the opponents off, so there are less in the fight and you can concentrate on the one high value target.

Imagine 5 players streaming downfield in WSG, one of these is the enemy flag carrier (efc), two of them are healers and 2 are dps/peel support).

You can’t kill the flag carrier with 2 healers keeping him up, so they need to be stopped (err… yeah euphemism).

However, stopping to kill them will allow the flag carrier to get away.

The answer is to not stop chasing the efc, but to ensure that the efc and their supporters are separated.

Isolate the EFC!

CC the support team, stun them, snare them.  Every second they are CC’d, is a second that the efc is further from support.

Assuming you continue moving with the efc while peeling their support team, very soon it will be them solo, against you (and hopefully your team mates).

If they stand and fight… awesome, continue to peel/CC and take them down one by one, leave no survivors, especially the flag carrier.

The primary target doesn’t have to be the flag carrier.  If they stand and fight, kill the healer while peeling the others.

Maybe it’s a dps/support player (someone like me) that is just constantly keeping you away from the efc and they need to be stopped… so stop them, but don’t forget the efc.

A perfect example of not forgetting the efc occurred today.

I was chasing the efc, but one of his support, a Warlock no less, stopped to take care of me.  It was a golden opportunity to take down that Warlock one-on-one, and for a moment my instinct was for dps rather than CC… but I saw the efc disappear past our graveyard, the Warlock was doing his job well, peeling me from my target.

A moment later the Warlock was CC’d, I had caught the efc and with a little bit more CC, the flag was once again safe at the base.

I peeled off the efc, then chased down the unsupported, isolated, spellstolen, Paladin efc FTW!

When the primary target is an ally

It’s a similar situation when you are peeling to help a team mate, just, well kind of reversed.

Rather than trying to maximise the focus on an enemy, you are trying to reduce the focus on an ally.

Many BGs can be won this way, without piles of stress and bloodshed.

Your flag carrier may not have a clear path up midfield, but a few CC’s and snares can cause your enemy to lose interest in your flag carrier (they may turn it on you, or they may realise they don’t have a hope in hell and head the other direction), ultimately providing the clear path where one didn’t previously exist.

When the primary target is a friendly healer

Your healers have a simple priority when it comes to healing (I know, because I have been a BG healer).

1. Heal themselves
2. Heal others if necessary

When the healer is being attacked, they will fall back to 1) Heal themselves. Which of course means, you are going to have to help yourself and the best, long term, method for that is to help them.

You probably have a common objective and your current focus target is possibly the correct one, but you still need to peel off your healer to give them space to heal you. Until you peel for them, they probably wont heal for you.

Remember to choose.. stay and fight or flight and kite.

One of the biggest decisions is whether you stay or go.

The simple rule is:

Follow your primary target, peeling as you go.

Born to peel

Mages are excellent for mobile peeling… look at what we have at our disposal.

Applying the peel:

• 1 -3 frost novas (Frost mages take this to 3 with their pet and Cone of Cold (CoC) and can double this with a Cold Snap).
• CoC/Frostbolt snare
• Deep Freeze
• Polymorph
• Ring of Frost
• Dragon’s Breath (Fire FTW!)
• Blast Wave (Fire FTW!)

Removing the peel:

• Trinket
• Blink
• Blazing Speed (if spec’d that way)
• Escape Artist (what, you aren’t a Gnome? Shame…)

Depending on how much support an efc has, we can apply all of that to them, or share it out to peel them like a ripe mandarin, leaving only the soft fleshy bits for you to consume.

Likewise, you can shadow your flag carrier all the way back to base, escaping the peels applied to you and always being in a position to peel off your flag carrier.

Polymorph as a peel

You may be in the habit of applying a polymorph and leaving it till it’s duration.

When you are using polymorph to peel, duration is less important and with diminishing returns it will become short lived anyway.

You are better off rapidly casting it on multiple targets.. peel one… your primary target gets a bit further away, cast in on another – now peels a second opponent and your primary target gets a bit further away.  Rinse and Repeat. You are also allowing the diminishing return to count down on the 1st target.

Use it to interrupt casts.. just use it in new and inventive and preferably peeling ways.  Use it anyway you want, as long as it’s smart.

The final peel.

There is one more peel of note, although to be honest I don’t think I have heard anyone refer to this as a peel… it is ultimately the same concept.

I consider this to be the equivalent of peel definition 6…

I bet you thought I left that one there because I was being silly…

Let’s assume you have peeled all the efc’s support, it’s just you and them.

In my mind, the odds are still way too balanced, so you need to tip them to your advantage.

Where previously the efc’s outer skin was their support crew, now it’s their buffs.

If you can (dispel, purge, spellsteal etc.), peel the final layer from your opponent before bursting them down.

If you are a Mage, you have the added bonus of not just peeling layers of buffs from your opponent, but adding them to you… and let’s face it, every Mage loves a set of wings and a blessing of freedom to go with it… go on, stun me now you mongrel!

Where’s my peeler?

We all have them, you probably know what they are already.

Next post I will cover some of them, although with a slightly different focus, the reality is they are all peels, it’s just how and when you use them

Gnomer and Out!

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License.

http://gnomeaggedon.net/2011/06/25/that-winning-peeling/

I don’t play to give up.

At a time when more often than not people are lamenting the lack of difficult PvE encounters, I have chosen to spend my time playing against people, unpredictable people, in PvP encounters.

Katherine commented on my last post that people probably just want to collect their honor for the loss and start again.

I’m sure she’s right, after all 3 quick losses will give you the same honor as one long win and significantly more than one drawn our loss.

Still I don’t play for honor points, I play for battleground honor.

The honor of knowing I never gave up, I gave as good as I can for as long as the battle lasted.

Really, we are lucky to get honor for a loss.

Imagine a boss kill attempt, where you are given gold and epics for taking the boss to 30%. You only get rewards in PvE for successfully completing a task.

When I enter a BG, it is to win it.

If I can’t win it, then I am going to do everything in my power to make the Horde earn their win.

I won’t let the Horde 5 cap, or 3 cap in WSG, or any other feat if I can help it.

They don’t deserve that win while I breath unless they completely dominate me.

Imagine once again a PvE encounter, where at 30% health the Boss lays down his flaming axe, submits and hands you an achievement.

You didn’t earn it, you don’t deserve it. You want the hard fight and the achievement is the acknowledgement that you had what it takes.

If that same boss used to be hard, but got hit by the Blizzard Nerf Stick, you would be pretty pissed off if every man and their Gnome got the achievement.

When I get an achievement in a BG, I want to earn it and I can assure you I am not going to hand them out to the Horde like party poppers at a kids birthday party.

If they want the achievement, they better bloody earn it. My team mates better make them earn it, else they are nothing better than the Alliance Deserters the Horde keep in pig pens in Borean Tundra.

Quitters make me sick in the stomach. The amount of energy they expend harassing other players, bemoaning a lost game is crazy. Generally they suck the energy out of everyone else, occasionally they drive people on to new heights by realizing what a tosser they are playing with.

Often at the time they are proclaiming at the top of their CAPS KEY that we are all noobs that need to L2P, we the noobs are taking control of the BG once again.

I’ve mentioned how I love the close WSG battles, but they come in the other BGs as well, including Arathi Basin.

In AB, there is even more pressure to NOT give up. There is an achievement on the line. I want it, they want it. They don’t want me to have it and I will bust a gut, capping the last node of the game with seconds to spare.

Those games. They are the ones that force you from your chair in jubilation or frustration. They make the game worth playing.

I was in an AB with some Frostmorne heroes with their “I’m the top of the leader board, which proves how crap you are.”

Yet if they, the organised ones, guarded nodes instead of racing about like the rest of the pugs, the game can easily be won.

That’s how I play with my mates.

If there are 3 of us, we can protect 2 nodes, and we will, while the pugs hunt for more nodes.

Occasionally an opportunity will arise for us to take advantage of and we will, but usually the best use of our superior communications is calling support over the two nodes we are protecting.

No heroics… just game winning sense.

I wont give up, because sometimes you lose some, sometimes you win some, and sometimes those games are decided by tens of points at the end, when at the beginning it seemed impossible.

When those achievements come, whether 1st game, or 262nd game.. they are worth it, because you tried and wiped, but never gave up.

Gnomer and Out!

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License.

http://gnomeaggedon.net/2011/06/20/i-wont-give-up-because/