I knew they were there, the enemy rogues. They glided all around me, the "whoosh" of their fading back into the shadows betraying their presence. All around me too were the elite troops of the Scarlet Crusade.

I had no quarrel with the Crusade at this point, though doubtless in the future I would have some dealings with them. No, today my mission was to interrupt the supply chain of gold being filched from the Scarlet Crusade by Alliance rogues and then funneled to vast, shadowy organizations in the Far East, laundered, and then used to resupply the Alliance efforts against my Horde.

We're talking gold farmers working the plough nonstop in Tyr's Hand, turning around selling the gold for real cash on any one of several world markets -- eBay, IGE, etc. On my server, Frostwolf, it was just nuts at Tyr's Hand. I could go there with my Horde rogue and see 15-25 Alliance players, most of them rogues, killing Scarlet Elite mobs non-stop. These were the killing fields.
This was also a target-rich PvP environment for my rogue. I had a grand time ambushing and backstabbing and killing these Alliance rogues and then disappearing before the legion of Alliance could descend on me. Well, usually I disappeared. They'd get me sometimes and lay the iron on me like I was giant redwood and they were each Paul Bunyan at a tree felling contest.

The way a fight would usually go was like this: I'd catch one fighting a mob -- hey, call me coward if you want but I was a rogue and I was outnumbered by about 25 to 1 -- and stealth up and open with an ambush. I might land a critical hit for 1500. I'd then wait a beat and follow with a backstab. This one-two combo was often enough to kill a wounded rogue in just a few seconds.

Once the target was dead I'd move away and wait for my stealth timer to refresh so I could disappear. I actually respecced my rogue to specifically fight in Tyr's Hand, putting points into Rapid Concealment so I could restealth in five seconds instead of ten.

And what a great time I had. I racked up 250 indivdual kills in one long evening of play. These weren't battleground kills that accumulate like zits on a teen during prom week. These were one on one kills. I earned everyone of them.

I'm not really into roleplaying, but when I go to Tyr's Hand I become some kind of monster, an invisible killer, and I can't help but roleplay a bit. I even have a quest I refuse to complete because I can get a quest item again and again from the NPC that allows me to disguise myself as a Scarlet Crusader. I get this, run into Tyr's Hand, and suddenly I have tons of NPC allies protecting my back. You don't know PvP fun until you get the other side so intent on killing you they chase you into a room of hostile mobs that turn on them, muhahaha.

So what are your favorite PvP experiences in WoW? Some great times at Tarren Mill? Some exciting victories pulled from defeat in the battlegrounds? An ongoing battle with a nemesis from the other side you always fight whenever you see?

Filed under: Analysis / Opinion