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All of the latest Mists of Pandaria newsBreakfast topic: The international sign for peace
by Elizabeth Wachowski 
Apr 13th 2007 at 8:08AM
My level 32 blood elf paladin has just taken her first tentative steps into Stranglethorn Vale, which means it's time once again to spend hours of my life running back to my corpse at Nessingwary's camp. STV is one of the toughest places for world PVP, even though the Horde usually outnumbers the Alliance there. So I try to make things a little easier for everyone by acting as non-threatening as possible to any and all Allies. Unfortunately, there's no /peace emote in the game, so I'm left trying to get my point across in various ways.
If there's an Alli questing in the same area I am, I usually /wave to both keep from surprising them and to communicate that I'm not going to attack them. I've noticed a lot of higher levels feel guilty about killing someone who just waved or nodded at them. If I run around a corner and suddenly come face to face with an Alli, I'll either run for it or start to /dance. Either on my rogue (didn't get the first move) or my paladin (not really PVP specced), I'm going to get my behind kicked, so I might as well just try to get them to go away.
It's amazing what you can communicate through simple emotes. You can even get effective quest groups going with the opposite faction, if you're so inclined. What emotes do you use to communicate with "the other side", or is it as simple as red = dead?
Filed under: PvP, Breakfast Topics, Quests
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Larawen Apr 13th 2007 8:16AM
I usually do a /wave. I remember one time when I was trying to get my LW skill up and a horde was killing boars so I helped him kill the boars and he would loot and let me skin, it was great! BTW I'm from a pvp server.
Twinny Apr 13th 2007 8:22AM
/hug /dance or /wave does it.
/hug kept me alive most times.
Rick Apr 13th 2007 9:25AM
Usually I let all lower levels go. Except for one night. I was bored, and saw a low level hordie. I waved to him, but he ignored me. So I rode back in front of him and waved again. Again, he ignored me. This repeated itself for about 5 times, and then I decided to gank him for being rude :-)
Brim Apr 13th 2007 8:27AM
tbh taking a Blood Elf Paladin into STV is asking for a gank.
God know's I once chased one from BB way past the Arena just to make sure he died horribly
Moonfox Apr 13th 2007 8:32AM
When I was on a PVP server, I would usually /bow, /salute, or just sit down. If someone corpse-camped me, I would /cry and sit down. It usually worked unless the other person was just a prick.
Deewee Apr 13th 2007 8:48AM
Level 10 or 70, doesnt matter, Red = dead :)
and AFK = A Free Kill.. harhar :)
KitKatDruid Apr 13th 2007 8:49AM
My guild has a rule (sorry!): All BElves must die.
Otherwise, this is what we generally do (if our priest is along):
Wave at the horde.
Does the horde respond?
If the horde does not respond, we kill him or her.
If the horde does respond...well...
Did you know that if a priest mind controls the opposite faction you can buff them? Well, that's what we do. The priest mind controls the horde (if he's able to) and then I and whoever's with us give him buffs. Generally, he's pretty happy about it.
Which leads to a certain story of when my team was waiting outside Sunken Temple. A level 51 Tauren Shaman ran up. He hesitated, I waved, he waved back. So we pulled the same trick. He thanked us and started to wait with us, and we had a bit of fun together. Then a rogue (our faction, not our group) showed up, and began to hang out behind the Tauren. We managed to convince the rogue not to kill the Tauren and we all hung out for a bit. Then the rogue's party showed up.
Well, we managed to keep them from attacking the Tauren for a bit, but apparantly they got bored. The Shaman with them attacked the Tauren. He didn't fight back. Guess what we did?
That's right: mind-controlled him and healed him.
Sometimes the best part of PvP is screwing with your own faction and making friends with the opposite.
Dibbes Apr 13th 2007 2:48PM
I've done guite alot of quests with some players of 'The other side' by just waving and pointing to the right mob.
Afterward I /bow or /salute......
grazwa Apr 13th 2007 8:54AM
I always use /work which then emotes
You work with
Lucas Apr 13th 2007 9:07AM
I've got a policy mostly to wave off bots and rude people who are just plain boring I call it the "wave or die"-test (or WorD-Test).
If I see someone in teh same area as me, opposite fraction, I'll make the /wave at long range, and then move closer and do the /wave again, I then count to 10 if I dont get a wave back I must assume that the person is hostile, and I kill it/him/her
I'll more than gladly repeat my wave the next time I see the person, but If I dont see a /wave back at me it's just plain silly, If the person wave back, I'll do a /hug & /smile on the person.
Feel free to adapt this rule, just remember you heard it here first The Official-"wave or die"-Test (WorD-test)
Steps for test.
1. /wave - await reply (ready spells)
2. /wave - await reply if no reply. goto 3. else 4.
3. /charge and kill/gank/die repeat 1 through 3, until a yes.
4. /hug & /smile it's a nice world after all, go on your own buisness.
of'cus this mostly work on equal or lower levels, but if a Gnome enters my forrest area in STV, he better be polite, just as I'd be polite when entering where ever they come form.
Higher level gankers/killers actually get the WorD-Test, but I usally end up dead when they dont wave back. - lot of fun.
About the subject of a /peace emote, I'm indifferent, one more emote won't make my day but it might be cool to have him do a little V-sign and stuff, just to be'cool! ;)
//Tallens'out
Jenet Apr 13th 2007 9:08AM
I was in the arena with my level 70 warlock evening things up. there was a high level horde, so I killed him before the event, so the people of appropriate level could do their thing. These lowbie alliance invited me, and wanted my help killing the lone hordie, and I didn't assist. so the 35 warrior, and 32 mage jump in, and the 29 troll hunter BEATS THE TAR OUT OF THEM! IT was awesome to watch, and he saw me, so he grabed the treasure and ran. I chased after him, waving waving waving, and finally he stopped. I /congrated, /clapped, and /goodbyed him.
He logged an alliance toon, and I told him what was up, and he said he almost /logged in his pants when he saw me.
Nails Apr 13th 2007 9:20AM
my main is a 47 rogue, so sneaking up on allies is just way to much fun. red = dead, no exception!
killing most of the NPCs in southshore is also a good time. i love being able to be a fly on the wall when allies run around the inn looking for a trainer/vendor who is just lying on the floor :)
Falgorn Apr 13th 2007 9:18AM
Meh.. emotes.
If I need something from the area, or am going to spend time there killing mobs, I select the Horde player so that he presumably knows I See him, and am aware of him (plenty of mods let u know when a Horde targets you) and once I'm satisfied I have his attention I go about killing my mob. This tells the Horde
1. I'm not interested in you
2. I'm here to grind
Ofc I now have to stay above 75% hp/mp at all times incase he gets fiesty, but I find simply going about your business is enough to let the other faction know what you are up to.
It's annoying when you leave a Horde do his thing and he returns the favour by trying to gank you, but as a play Destro lock it usually turns into a face melting for them so no big deal!
Joe Apr 13th 2007 9:29AM
I find that (as a druid at least) sneaking up to them and then helping kill the mob they're fighting instead of ganking them goes a long way towards promoting friendship. And /wave of course.
Seper Apr 13th 2007 9:34AM
My buddy and I used to /wave and /bow if we saw a horde. (we could kick there butts but it was a waste of time)
Anyways... One day we /wave and /bow and they left for a bit (2 of them) then they came back with a 3rd and attacked us while we were killing npcs.
So now.. red = dead. If your flagged you will be taking a dirt nap.
Viet Apr 13th 2007 9:36AM
I actually had a weird "peace" experience yesterday in Nagrand. I(66 War)was killing animals for that stupid safari when I saw a rich adamantite vein nearby. I ran for it and then saw a 67 Human Pally run up to it at the same time. We kind of just stood there looking at each other for like 15 seconds, without one emote. I decided to try my luck and started mining the node. He let me mine it without an attack. I then backed away and he mined it once. We took turns, but I decided to let him have the rest after I mined it 3 times. I said thanks and left.
So not all alliance are d bags!
kunisaki Apr 13th 2007 4:11PM
I usually try and leave questing horde alone.. sometimes ill even save them when they are low hp and running from a full hp beast... ill snag the shot and kill it. Normally causes them to be neutral and not gank since i saved them which means we can both quest in peace with an understanding. I hung out with a Tauren Shaman in the outland doing a quest where we both did not realize the respawns were so quick... didnt really want to loot the npcs.. just to gather the items in each room and get out.. at first when i saw him and he was a higher lvl then me i was like "f$%K! but he didn't attack me.. or emote.. he just stood there. He started to tank an npc.. and i help him out with dps (being a hunter) and was careful not to use multi. We eventually cleared the place got what we needed and cleared our way out. I think i even accidently froze him laying one of my traps down in case somthing came up behind me but i emoted sorry several times lol. FD breaks the trap anyway so i did it as soon as it happened.
I think the only time ive not left horde alone is in Ashenville. Fun place to be when youre a higher lvl but shitty when youre lower... lots of ppl like to raid astra and hordies are running thro to get to BFD. I recently turned lvl 68 and wanted to try out my snake trap... so i layed it down in the road and stealthed... two unsuspecting lowbies ran by activated it and ran in circles not knowing what happened to them. lol.. priceless.. they were BElfs too!
Siedre Apr 13th 2007 9:52AM
If I'm questing in a popular quest area, a /wave pretty much answers all questions about whether people will share or not. If I'm farming lower level leather from mobs I know are quest mobs, I'm always happy to do a /wave, /smile and /point between allys and the mobs I want to skin. So far they've always accomodated me.
That being said, red = dead everywhere else except in one case. I'm a druid who was brought up with the Moonglade ethic. If I see an ally druid anywhere I'll never attack him. Many times I've actually popped down and helped him do whatever quest/farm he's working on. A long time ago I spent over 20 minutes with an ally druid in Un'Goro doing the gorilla and mechanical chicken quests.
Shawn Apr 13th 2007 10:17AM
I've not figured out the magic "I come in peace" emote. But I do have /pity /golfclap and /yawn on macros so I can one button if a ?? ganks me. That way I can try to show how unimpressed I am that he (do you notice that most gankers play male characters) can kill someone many levels below him.
Baranokc Apr 13th 2007 10:40AM
That's odd. When I'm running around in cat form, I'll usually ignore a low-level alli. UNLESS they wave at me. If they wave at me -- it's an automatic "stealth" and slash/slash.