Breakfast Topic: World PvP
by J.P. Sullivan 
Apr 8th 2010 at 8:00AM
I remember when my freshly made human rogue first left the friendly confines of Elwynn Forest and ventured across the river into unknown Duskwood. This being the first toon I had played, I was entering this new zone with a mixture of excitement and wonder. As I carefully began to explore the landscape, without warning, a trio of mounted level ?? horde warriors came storming over a hill crest, leapt from their steeds and tore me to pieces before I knew what hit me. Thus was my introduction into the cruel and exciting world of PvP.
After playing WoW for the better part of four years, that experience still stands out as a defining game experience for me. Thinking back now, it was one of the major hooks that kept me logging back in for more. Why? It was unpredictable. It was totally unexpected. It really made me feel that the game world was alive. I had obviously interacted with other toons up to that point, but that moment just seemed to add a sense of realism to the game. For the first time I felt that I was playing in a living, breathing, dangerous world.
Soon after that incident, I switched over to a PvE server so that I could play alongside some real-life friends. The leveling process and end-game raiding progression has been great fun, but the content has always felt scripted. Even arenas and battlegrounds, which by design are mutually agreed-upon encounters, tend to feel very repetitive and predictable. I've always wanted to go back to a PvP server so that I could relive some of those spontaneous experiences.
Recently, I joined a PUG being formed over trade chat with the goal of getting the For the Horde! achievement. We grouped up in Auberdine, 31 of us, and began our decent on the capitals of the Alliance. It was the most fun I've had in a long while. As we rode en masse to each city, the excitement would build as we rounded each turn. Had the Alliance been tipped off to our arrival? Would there be much resistance? Have they set a trap for us? The battles were spectacular. Dynamic, fluid fights with upwards of 70 people engaged at a time. It just felt epic. It was reminiscent of the 40-man raid days of the Temple of Ahn'Qiraj and Molten Core, truly grand in scope and consistent with the lore and feel of the game world.
Tell us, dear readers, have you had any memorable experiences in world PvP? Would you like to see it become a larger part of the gaming experience? How can players be enticed into participating more actively in this style of play?
Filed under: Breakfast Topics, Guest Posts
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 6)
Nextweek Apr 8th 2010 8:10AM
What you want in PvP is a real challenge, take up Gelvons fight and be the underdog on a dead alliance side server:
http://greedygoblin.blogspot.com/2010/03/darkfall-of-maghteridon.html
Tomatketchup Apr 8th 2010 12:21PM
I was on Magtheridon EU too. Horrible horrible.
I really tried but... there were only 2 major raiding guilds and they both sucked.
marino8399x Apr 11th 2010 3:44AM
I remember 1st going to duskwood which was so scary and exciting and always saw darkshire is underattack.I really didn't know what was going on and would see skulls all over the place.This was pre WOLK and awhile back when horde actually raided there.This was so exciting to me and when In SW and when heard horde were attacking darkshire I was there!This evolved into STV,arathi highlands and southshore.Most fun I ever had playing WOW and will never forget those times.
jealouspirate Apr 8th 2010 8:10AM
When world PvP is good, it's the most fun thing in the game for me. By good I mean when both sides are of a similar level, which unfortunately doesn't happen too often.
I'm on a RP-PVP server, which I love. RP-PVP events are usually pretty fun. We've occupied cities/towns, met resistance, all that great stuff. I love, as you said, the unpredictability. Raids are perfectly scripted, and even battlegrounds have the same objectives every round. World PVP can, and is, whatever you make it.
Recently when leveling an alt mage in Tanaris, I suddenly get jumped by three Horde of around the same level. I'm fighting back, but it's clear I can't take them all down. As my HP approaches zero, this Ally priest comes out of nowhere (again, same level as us) and heals me back to full. The two of us then proceed to kill the three Horde. It was a great, exciting moment in the leveling process.
Vanz Apr 8th 2010 8:10AM
Ah I remember when I was leveling my first toon (human priest). A friend had just told me to try out the game and I was rightfully doing so. As i hit level 5 in Northshire, I saw a ?? troll hunter at the starting area. At this point I had no idea what that was. I walk up to him and start trying to communicate with him. When he responds with gibberish (hey I was new, I had no idea alliance couldn't talk to horde) I walk up to him and whack him with my staff, which in turn flagged me. He hits me with an auto attack and I get 1 shotted. I think to myself, "What a jerk, wont even talk to me". I do a quick corpse run and try asking him why he did that. He kept doing that and I ended up waiting for him to leave before accepting my rez. Only later when my friend told me about the mechanics I understood what the hell happened ^_^
Twilit Soul Apr 8th 2010 8:12AM
World PvP was one of the most inspiring reasons for me to level to 80 actually lol. Repeatedly seeing a ??? level Horde run by and trying to hide or just praying they wouldn't want to kill me...I eventually got tired of it. I wanted to be that ??? person running by lol. I feel like it's a rite of passage to go and gank someone when you ding to the level cap on a PvP server. I've torn up towns multiple times to provoke other 80s to come and stop me, so we could have that fight I always used to watch between what seemed like all-powerful titans when I was level 16 or so...
My favorite thing now is to use my Engineering mind control and have them kill the little ones they were trying to save XD
cheezygonzalez11 Apr 8th 2010 4:02PM
I play on a PvE server because that's where my friends are. My only really memorable world pvp was from sneaking into Org at 11 am for my elders of the horde acchievement. I snuck in at midday hoping there wouldn't be too many people. I managed to aggro tons of guards on the way in and get knocked off my mount, but just kept running... I'm a shaman and was in my main spec, resto, so between my icc 10 mail, shield, and earth shield the guards weren't really hitting me. Ran in, got the elder and my acchiev, and just ran back out. There was one single person in the elders area--a tauren warrior. A prot warrior. He chased me down, trying so so hard to kill me.
Prot warrior vs healer is... painful and long and drawn out. I hexed him every once in a while for the lulz. I would run, get trapped by guards and heal myself, run some more, get trapped by guards... earthbind totem on cooldown, and then get dazed... I made it out of org and he and the guards chased me down the road for over five minutes. This poor guy just couldn't get me down for so, so long. I wasn't running out of mana or having any problems keeping myself up, till I slowed down to look behind me like a noob and he stunned me for just long enough. If only I hadn't let earth shield fall off.. /cry
adrian_malseraph Apr 8th 2010 8:13AM
I've been leveling a new toon on an RPPVP server recently, and I've yet run into any sort of extensive World PVP, aside from the random Alliance Tarren Mill raids during my short stay in the Foothills.
I'm not sure whether to count myself lucky, or deprived of a quintessential experience.
Brainded Apr 8th 2010 9:34AM
Count yourself deprived. World PvP declined when BC came out, but it's almost nonexistant since Wrath (at least on Dunemaul). Part of this can be attributed to the fact that the top 20 levels are spent somewhere else (Outland or Northrend) with no incentive to come back to the old world outside of holidays, and part can be attributed to the advent of the Faction Transfer service, which has made the server population more lopsided than it was before.
I sincerely hope Cataclysm will fix this by bringing people back to EK and Kalimdor, and having us no longer concentrated in a single neutral city (Shattrath or Dalaran). Yes, being ganked by a ?? sucks at that moment, but the possibility of that happening is why playing on a PvP server is so much more thrilling to me. I miss that. Leveling my alts right now feels not like I'm on a PvE server but rather on an EMPTY server. I rarely see others of the same faction, let alone the opposite one. Bring on the ganking, if it brings life back to Azeroth!
Dere Apr 8th 2010 10:34AM
I would guess that you haven't made your way to STV yet? On any server i have ever WPVP on this zone is the bane of the leveling world. Does make you wonder though how much LFD tool and the leveling in BG systems have changed the game if people are complaining about not getting ganked enough. :)
Alaskan Apr 8th 2010 8:14AM
I remember the first time I got to level 40 in Vanilla with my Orc Warrior on my PvP server, it was the highest character I ever got. First thing I did was ride from Stranglethorn Vale to Darkshire, I can still remember vividly 10 seconds away from the bridge connecting STV to Darkshire I saw a group of 4 Alliance congregated around a few dead mobs. Back then getting a mount was a great achievement, especially for me and I felt POWERFULL. Immediately I dismounted killed 3 of them and chased the other 1 down into some Worgen mobs only to get the final blow from the mob for the oh so sweet 10% durability loss.
What great memories........ :P
stressball Apr 8th 2010 8:24AM
I've had a similar experience as Sullivan.
I too was levelling my first character. An Undead Warrior on a PvP realm. At the time I played more or less exclusivly with a good friend of mine. He was on a Shaman at the time. We had started to venture into the Arathi Highlands, and was going from Hammerfall down to Stromgarde to do some quests there, when I had my first defining game experience.
Out of nowhere, came this human warrior and his healer friend. They were about our level, but they totally creamed us. We gathered a couple of more horde players, who were also on their way to Stromgarde, but they still handed us out asses.
That was an awesome experience, even though I died and died and died again and again and again. PvP was very new to me and going after the healer, didn't occur to us much.
I can still remember his name... Chaosdragon.
Thanks, mate. :)
Dan Apr 8th 2010 10:38AM
Same. As a questing human warrior is elwynn I was trying to find my warrior quest with the people marshal hagard was after. We went way past them and crossed the river to Duskwood. We were attacked by high level mobs but saved by an alli questing in the area. Then a hordie cat druid came runing at us. The alli that saved me and my new paladin freind shouted RUN! So we did, we ran towads the elwynn/duskwood bridge that was very close to redridge. The horde got us all though but my pally friend almost made it over the border. When we were runnig back to our corpses from darkshire we took an odd route through the mountins and jumped off a waterfall, however my ghost got suck in the logs at the bottom of the water fall. I coulnd't move anyway and was suspended in air so I couldn't jump. I was stuck there for an hour.
At southshore once we were in the inn. 10 70's Started Raiding the town and me and my pally friend hid in the basement, so other allis soon joined us. We could hear the massacre going on up stairs but the horde never check downstairs. I was just waiting for a hordie to come down those stairs, the stairs that was the only exit out.
One more. I was in duskwood being chased by a 70 Tauren warrior. Taurens seem huge back then, especially on their mounts. I ran into the nearest building on raven hill, an old inn. Tried to hide behind the fire place as he walked in like a demi god. I targetted him, charged at him and succesfully manage to hamstring him. Run around the back of hte building but he still managed to mount up and chase me down. Not a bad escape attempt thought for a non mounted level 20.
Kal Apr 8th 2010 8:27AM
I had a college friend that convinced me to join him on a PVP server when I first started WoW so that we could play together once I hit 60. It was the most grueling, aggravating 60 levels I've ever gone through, but I wouldn't change a thing.
Galkuros Apr 8th 2010 8:29AM
Getting the For the Alliance! achievement was probably the most fun I've ever had playing WoW. I was level 62 on my hunter when we did it, shortly after WotLK was released. A level 80 friend and I setup a website and recruited people for about a week beforehand. We gathered up in Rachet and recruited more from our guilds and then went to work. We knocked out all 4 cities in about 3 hours and I think I died less than 5 times.
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Risible Apr 8th 2010 8:34AM
Let's raid Southshore!
Eyhk Apr 8th 2010 12:09PM
Many epic battles there were between Southshore and Tarren Mill.
I remember back in classic (when Hunters had the uberest range) that Horde and Alliance would go back and forth, sometimes the Alliance rallying and gathering reinforcements to push back the Horde to Tarren Mill, where the Horde would get pissed, call guildies, and push the Alliance back to Southshore. In the end, persistence wins but there were no rewards apart from the satisfaction that "We showed them who's uber l33t!"
arnon30 Apr 9th 2010 7:13PM
To be honest World PvP should be the staple diet of all pvp, however without enough objectives it can become dull. I say their should be things you can take from the enemy faction or fight over like towers and fortresses all over the game world, Each having their own rewards: money, exp, honor even the odd epic.
But instead arena is the height of pvp with Bg's following steadily behind....because everyone loves predictable honor grinding.
Komaru Apr 8th 2010 8:41AM
Epic battles at XR in vanilla wow > all bgs for me.
When I was leveling my first toon I spent most of my time there and the best part was leading ali's to that elite orc chick and watching her pwn them. Such fun!
...Hopefully in Cata we'll get a bit of the old school world pvp back like in the old days, altho id hate to be lvling on a pvp realm with all those 85's flying around, lol.