Peacekeepers who don't keep the peace
by Zach Yonzon 
May 18th 2008 at 6:00PM
In my experience, I have found that the Peacekeepers around the Shattered Sun Staging Area have been slacking off. In fact, my wife's toon was ganked right in front of the building and the so-called Peacekeepers did absolutely nothing. Sensing a bug, my wife wrote a ticket and got a somewhat rude e-mail response saying that -- you guessed it -- it was working as intended. An Alliance guild on my server seemed to be aware of the fact and exploited it to full effect, killing solo players who could seek no refuge under the apathetic -- or even hostile -- Peacekeepers.
According to reports, it's a known bug -- one player even made a video to document it -- but so far Blizzard has turned a blind eye to it. I got a more sympathetic response from my GM who at least mentioned he'd look into the situation. An in-game GM even reset the Peacekeepers in order to see if it would change anything (it didn't). I don't mind gankage... it's part of being on a PvP server. But when an area is supposedly a sanctuary, you don't expect to go through the hassle of a fight. Even worse, you shouldn't have the Peacekeepers tossing your butt around when you're being peaceful yourself. If things keep going the way they are, The Shattered Sun Offensive should probably downsize or hire some more useful temps.
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Bugs, Blizzard, PvP, NPCs
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
PimpyMicPimp May 18th 2008 6:17PM
The SSO Peace Keepers arn't the only ones who lose their minds over rezzes'. On my Shaman I ressed a poor soul who fell to his death off the Aldor Elevator. I can't think of a less hostile action, but the Shatari gaurds seemed to take great offence to it and executed me. I don't understand the logic.
Anyways, I hope the hyper-aggressive SSO guards are fixed quickly. The "PVP ON A PVP SERVER LOL" argument doesn't really apply when it's supposed to be a safe zone (and 50% of the gankers are elite mobs).
Pzychotix May 18th 2008 11:11PM
And I should never get ganked in my own Capital City. Yet I do.
PVP on a PVP server happened.
my2cents May 18th 2008 10:37PM
Yeah I was killed by a guard in Shatt for the same thing. It's standard for "peacekeeper" type guards to kill someone who rezzes a person that was killed by the guards, but I never expected to be killed for rezzing someone who accidentally fell off Aldor rise. The best part though was when the guy I rezzed decided to rez me while running back to shatt and got killed all over again lol
Apoc May 18th 2008 6:57PM
I had this same exact thing happen to me. I was killing the demons for the daily quest when a shamans fire elemental started attacking me. Rather than fight back, I figured it might be a good idea to run over to the peacekeepers and let them handle him. Then they killed ME instead.
I opened a ticket, and for once I got a sympathetic GM who gave a damn and spoke to me like a real human being without all the roleplaying crap. What the GM told me was that Blizzard is aware of the BUG, and that it is a weird bug and they're having trouble fixing it due to "sucking at programming".
Honesty is nice I suppose...
Siur May 24th 2011 2:50PM
Those things shown here are not real bugs.
The video is just showing a warlock who is standing out of the attack range of the guard attacking people who stand near the guards. This works very well for casters and hunters and after you kill someone the guards turn green (friendly) after a few seconds making you (the attacker) able to move towards the guards again. Not a bug its just understanding how the guards work.
Also the ressing and healing of other people can make guards attack you if the person did a hostil act. On my mage when i attack people like shown on the video. They attack back in range of the guards making them attack him instead of me. When other people see that they try to heal the one whos attacked by guards making themselves targets for guards.
Also if you are attacked by a enemy as a warlock or hunter most of the times your pet will charge the attacker making you in combat and if you then run towards the guards you will be killed by them. This trick works good for people who are AFK and standing at a location shown in the video, you just attack their pets wait for the pets to attack you and then watch the guards destroy the owner of the pet who most of the times is afk.
And tbh when you got a nice little fight going on with 10 horde anbd alliance trying to run in and out of the guards safety zone it makes for a fun pvp fight.
Also a gm told me aslong as the enemy can attack me back (after themselfs running outside of guards zone) its oke to fight like this. People who keep standing at the guards and try to fight back are jsut stupid.
Zach May 18th 2008 11:04PM
Except that many people DON'T fight back and STILL get killed. It's a BUG. I know what you're referring to, and that's fine. But I've been attacked standing in front of the building. So you're saying that the Peacekeepers have a range shorter than 45 yards? That's just stupid.
Heilig May 19th 2008 4:16AM
Actually, the guards have range of exactly 40 yards, which is why hunters and locks can reach you without getting attacked.
bdew May 18th 2008 7:46PM
Those aren't realy bugs, or atleast not new bugs...
Rezing was always considered agresive by guard-ai mobs vor whatever reson, both in shatrah and pre-bc neutral cities.
And exploiting pathing or range mechanics of guards was also done forever.
If blizard really don't want PVP in whatever place they should just make it sanctuary like shat and avoid all the possible griefing and exploiting.
Heilig May 18th 2008 8:06PM
The biggest problem I have is that I am a prot pally. I have Ret aura on all the time. Whenever someone attacks me, they automatically take damage, which then makes me the aggressor adn the guards kill me. There really should be some appropriate hostility programming built in here, I shouldn;t get ganked for something I really have no control over. I have to remove my shield when in town due to blessing of sanctuary and turn of retribution aura or anyone can attack me and get ME killed for just standing there being a prot pally.
Xonate May 19th 2008 4:48PM
Out of curiosity, why do you use retribution aura?
Anaughtybear May 18th 2008 11:04PM
The guards are absolutely NOT "working as intended" unless Blizzard intended them to completely random. I have been told all manner of ways they are supposedly targeting me, all of which I have disproven easily on my PvP server. It doesn't matter if your pet is on passive/defensive, or if you even have a pet out. The guards murder you most of the time when you are being attacked anyway, and often do nothing to the ganker.
Personally, I think the guards should just turn off when you hit exalted and that would be the end of this mess. Sure, it would be a bit hard on the new people on the island, but at least it would be consistent.
isobelle May 18th 2008 11:19PM
BIG EMPTY RECTANGLE IN THE LOWER AREA OF THE UI LOOKS LIKE A PERFECT PLACE TO TUCK GLIDER RUNNING IN HORIZONTAL DISPLAY MODE.
COINCIDENCE?!
Shalkis May 19th 2008 12:06AM
Working as intended. The Skyguard don't retaliate even if you attack people while standing next to a guard. Why should the Shattered Sun be any different?
Zach May 19th 2008 12:07AM
Because Skettis isn't a sanctuary. Try doing the same thing in Ogri'la.
Shalkis May 19th 2008 7:27AM
Who said anything about Skettis? I was talking about the Skyguard base next to Ogri'la.
MechChef May 19th 2008 9:19AM
So, the simple thing to do would be to increase the range of the guards aggro radius to exceed the maximum casting range of a lock/hunter.
Daimon May 19th 2008 9:30AM
pvp servers sucks, farming is a bitch, questing is a bitch, and finding high end instance guilds is another bitch. Idk why I made my toon in one. Plan to fix it in the next exp.
The bg have even less queue time in my other pve server, and since world pvp is not what it used to be, I honestly don't see the pros of a pvp server anymore.
Unless molesting other players by gank is what makes you happy (i know ppl who like it, /sigh)
iKandiman May 19th 2008 1:22PM
I think once you've been "made" by donating the 1k gold, you should be untouchable...
Doz May 19th 2008 1:34PM
This has been Blizz's response to every new "neutral" area added and the lack of guard response (Gadgetzan, Light's Hope, Area52, Ogri'la, Skettis, etc). There's hundreds of exploits that people find to gank others without alerting the guards and the same response gets spit out of the GM's mouth "Its working as intended". What's sad is that they end up changing the guards eventually, but until that happens they'll never admit they made a mistake. I got fed up with it and moved off my pvp server, it used to be fun but when you can't even get dailies done without getting ganked by some douche on the roof by the flightpath what's the point.
Lexemom May 19th 2008 2:30PM
Okay, I should probably admit that I exploit this as much as possible when I'm in the mood to gank some alliance. There are some perfect spots that will allow you to kill without being killed (well, at least for a long range caster). I find nothing more entertaining than the ignite from my fireball or pyroblast killing them as they run away... Of course, they're too far for me to even get honor from-but that's not exactly the purpose.
Now that being said, if you gank repeatedly in the same spot long enough-peacekeepers will spawn. Usually in multiples. Which then cause durability loss since they ALWAYS spawn while I'm casting!