Breakfast Topic: Favorite type of PvP
by Dan O'Halloran 
Oct 8th 2007 at 8:00AM
My first and only taste of PvP was the outdoor variety. The old Tarren Mills/Southshore dance. It was chaotic and horribly unbalanced and immensely fun. I haven't progressed to more formal forms of PvP, but it got me thinking lately about the different ways players enjoy combat against each other.That leads me to ask: what is your favorite form of PvP and why? Old school outdoor PvP for chaotic tag and run? Arenas for the emphasis on skill? Battlegrounds for the variety and challenge? Outlands outdoor PvP for occasional PvP fun during while soloing? Or just straight up PvP servers where you never know when your next ganking is going to materialize from behind or come blazing toward you from afar?
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, PvP, Breakfast Topics
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
mcclary Oct 8th 2007 8:10AM
Winning an arena match is a lot of fun and really rewarding, but losing them can be really frustrating. Same goes for battle grounds. Some of my favorite PVP is the battle for halaa though.
Chriasas Oct 8th 2007 8:19AM
AV, AV, AV...And the occasional Horde raiding on Goldshire for no particular reason at all...
Lykaon Oct 8th 2007 8:27AM
I hate them all. But I participate in them all because I feel that it is necessary for me to keep up with my guildmates and make the most out of my characters.
I think Blizz is pretty bad at PvP and they're always trying to balance it using class concepts intended for PvE. It doesn't work, and it never will.
No matter how much health I have, there is always a case in which I will lose complete control of my character for more time than fair, and will watch myself die.
Gear is far too important and game-altering to make PvP fair. The good PvPers just get gear faster, and in turn kill me faster.
I've almost never participated in Arenas or BGs where I didn't end up more frustrated than when I walked in.
But I have no choice, because whether I hate it or not, it's still the best/easiest way to obtain good gear.
Jp Oct 8th 2007 8:41AM
Old-school AV. Large, epic-scale battles that lasted for days. The kind of battles that put the WAR back into WARcraft.
Hollywood Ron Oct 8th 2007 8:48AM
I second the cheerleading for AV!
Braz Oct 8th 2007 8:55AM
I play on a PvP server, which is enjoyable most of the time. Knowing that at any moment you could be attacked adds an extra level of tension to keep the level grind interesting, especially when doing quests that require travel into zones/areas dominated by the opposing faction.
I have to admit that I haven't yet tried arena PvP, but I plan to try it once I get a character to 70. So far the battlegrounds are my favorite PvP format. I appreciate the fact that the battlegrounds bring out the strengths of each class while still allowing for a dynamic and exciting experience. Also, playing the battlegrounds with a good, coordinated guild greatly increases the fun (and chances of winning).
Quiz Oct 9th 2007 10:04AM
Winning Arena is the best feeling. But my favorit is still Battlegrounds since you can do that whenever you want to with no regard for others.
Ixjuvin Oct 8th 2007 9:03AM
I used to like BGing but now hate it, due to the fact that I spent an absurd amount of time grinding honor in AVs and EOTS's that were populated almost entirely with AFKers, Snowfall-cappers, People What Can't Follow Orders, and Individuals Without the Slightest Grasp of Tactics. Apparently the new AFK-reporting system sort of works. I wouldn't know; I haven't BG'd for months.
Arena annoys me as well. Although I'm not bad, I am not a -spectacular- PvPer by any stretch, and it's quite disheartening to come out of the gate and die within five seconds to a team decked in full S2. I don't have the reflexes or memorty for it, so don't bother.
For me, World PvP is where it's at. I love seeing someone at the HF towers, dropping off my mount, hitting my parachute cloak and descending from the sky to rain death upon my enemies. As a warlock, it's comparatively slow death, but still. Epic assaults on Halaa, when there's actually significant resistance, or defending it against an implacable Alliance horde (as it were) are really fun for me and get me much more 'into' PvP than does repetitively killing the same series of NPC's over and over and over.
Just my take.
Oh, and 3? I've killed plenty of people who are better-geared than me. Sure, I'm a warlock, but still.
- Ixjuvin, Terokkar US
Erika Oct 8th 2007 9:08AM
Halaa
Attorama Oct 8th 2007 9:26AM
I absolutely *loved* AV. I could spend entire weekends there. Until I hit exalted with the Frostwolf. After that I couldn't be bothered with it anymore. I haven't played a BG since.
James Oct 8th 2007 9:33AM
"Arenas for the emphasis on skill?"
Haha..
FireStar Oct 8th 2007 9:33AM
My favorite would be when 70s gank your lvl64, so you gank them enough to make them go about 2 hours without being able to kill that rare elite mob they've been after forever :).
Greeneyed Oct 8th 2007 9:46AM
If you wanna experience the best pvp then get on the -pvp- PTR when premade characters are availiable. There's just anarchy and choas everywhere and I love it.You try to visit champions hall in stromwind and there's 6 undead rogues waiting to gank you on a bridge. Even in the BG room with the npcs you que for battlegrounds at there will be rogues waiting to gank you lol. Or when you're dueling out front of ironforge horde players are waiting to gank you when you lose. You go to the military ward and there's 20 horde players running around killing guards and flagged players. Everywhere you go there's someone waiting around to kill you. Every single alliance and horde city is being raided ALL the time. It's just a blast. There's always something going on. Even for pve there's always a pug doing black temple, Onyxia, MC, karazhan, you name it. And there's no rule enforcement so people can chat normally without being banned. I wish they made servers like this permantly. I'd pay $40 a month to play on them.
arb Oct 8th 2007 10:12AM
@3 The only thing that really frustrates me about BGs is those idiots and half-wits that just want to fight at Stables in AB or in the midfield in WSG. There's nothing more demoralising than trying to defend Blacksmith against Ally inc from LM and GM while watching Horde lunatics on the minimap heading toward the Alliance GY. Or running 3/4 of the way across the field with the WSG flag only to see the EFC strolling unmolested up the west side whilst my stupid "team mates" run after easy targets in the midfield. That's what spoils BGs - there's not enough incentive to try to WIN. Blizz should SIGNIFICANTLY reduce the honor gained for being on the losing team - only that would encourage people to focus on the job at hand.
Doluca Oct 8th 2007 10:40AM
Getting 10/15 guildies together and on vent for guild Ab's/Wsg's during the 'pvp epic' rush before the expansion was probably the most fun I ever had pvping. It's just infinitely better when you are having a ball talking to your guildies/friends at the same time imo :)
Diaz Oct 8th 2007 10:53AM
AV pure and simple. I love the battlegrounds. The arena is for show ponies not pvp skill. Large scale pvp where everyone has access to their full range of abilites is where the fun is in my opinion.
Ortai Oct 8th 2007 11:23AM
I generally like the PvP situation today. Perhaps I will go out on a limb but say, of the BGs, I love WSG the most, allways have. I like the pace of the games, that there is a role for people that just want to kill the opposition as well as the the more tatically minded.
One thing I do miss compared to the way it was before battle group BGs was that you got to know the PvPers on your server very well. I really enjoyed that kind of comradere that is really lacking in the current system.
Arenas and Halaa are fun too.
@3 Don't do something you don't like. I hate raiding so I do not do it. It's a game, so enjoy yourself.
Skill + decent gear > little skill and better gear. Back in the day, as a mage I could put the whop down, in my blues and purples, on people two tiers ahead of me. Why? Because I had skill and was specced spcifically for what I was doing.
Heraclea Oct 8th 2007 12:33PM
World PvP is about the only kind that really interests me.
Amateurism is the draw. The participants in world PvP, at least at the beginning, are ordinary players girt in quest blues and rep-reward purples, not Arena gear. They have not specced for PvP. This means I have a chance.
Halaa is usually fun. My favourite - not shared by many, it seems - is the tower combats in the Bone Waste. A call for any player of either faction to flag up and try and take them. At level 70, with your flying mount, you can at last force the other side to fight fair by perching on top. No stealth approach, no ranged attacks, no kiting, just two players trading blows in a 5x5 square. I think Blizzard should slow the cooldown on them to 2h increments.
kuett Oct 8th 2007 12:38PM
random pvp when ure killing a mob and 2 allies are attacking u from behind spontaneously ... and i kill them both (haha, done that several times), now this is awesome and fun ... real pvp gameplay
also like AV and AB meanwhile i dislike a little bit WSG and EOTS , but i play sometimes over there
i also like halaa but i had few occasions to attack halaa with a decent party/raid group
also i play each sunday/saturday my arena battles
2x2 and 3x3.. prefer more 3x3 where we are 3 DPS and teamplay depends on whether we are winning the current battle or not)
SKILL + BETTER GEAR = godlike
Delta Oct 8th 2007 12:54PM
I also have to cast a vote for World PvP, even though I do get toasted a lot by 70's in better gear than me (being 62 with some outlands greens and a couple pre-BC blues) and I'm on a PvE server, it's shameless fun to gather 20-30 people in Org to slaughter the hell out of an incoming Ally raid, and then slaughter them again at Razor Hill cause they thought they'd try again, then /bye to them as they hearth out. It's also very stupid but very fun to charge into 10 of them trying to fortify the RH Barracks, I died, but it confused them long enough for the 10 others to charge in, and for me to rez inside the barracks and stealth drop them from behind.
It was a good way to wrap up a day spent level grinding I'd say.