World PvP

I was never around when world PvP was a big thing.  I am not a vanilla player but that doesn't mean I have not heard the stories about it.  From time to time however I get lucky enough to grab a little taste of world PvP but the times that it happens are so few and far between.

Last week a lone horde was caught by a guild member, that is not a PvPer, trying to get through the back gates swimming.  My guess would be he was trying to enter under the radar so to speak.  He and I had just grouped because we were about the run a dungeon and I told him to kill him, I would heal if he needed it being I was on my shaman.

A few people on vent heard us talking and asked to join the group so we invited them and soon we had about 6 people in a mini raid.  We killed that guy and then noticed that he was just a scout for a group that was meant to come in from the tram.

So we asked in guild if anyone else wanted in on some fun, we were going to go on the tram and try to sniff them out.  Our little raid group went up to eight people and we went into the tram.  There were three horde as soon as we walked in, it was four of us that had entered, an enhancement shaman, a prot pally and a fury warrior along with me on my resto shaman.  Both the DKs (the third was a pally) summoned army and away we went.

We destroyed them.  Of course it was four on three and we had a healer in me so of course we should win a match up like that even if the paladin on our side had never even gotten an honorable kill before he meet the guy outside the gates.

After that point we starting making passes on the trams trying to find more.  There seemed to be roughly 20 horde, all from the same guild, down there.  Our personal guild raid group got up to 14 members itself.

So there is was, 14 vs 20, we were outnumbered but we were on our home turf so to speak.  It was a massive battle here there and everywhere.  Only once did we get the short end, the enhancement shaman, assassination rogue and feral druid were jumped by seven horde, two of which where healers, but while the shaman and druid died, the rogue got away, called on us, and we went there and got our just revenge.

One of the great moment where when me and the paladin that had never PvPed before where on the tram and a DK and a priest jumped on from a side platform.  It was on, two plate wearers with their healers behind them, the difference I think here was I had a hell of a lot of PvP experience as a healer and I am guessing the priest healer on their side did not.

I told the paladin do a bit of AoE to make sure the healer gets hit from time to time and I went on the offensive while healing.  I killed the healer and then the DK went down quickly.   On their side the DK did no AoE, the healer never hit me, I never took damage at all, hence the reason we won that two on two so easily and I think that they did not have a lot of PvP experience.  An experienced priest healer could have MCed me off the tram and not even worry about killing me if he were more on the ball.

This went on for about an hour (and almost two hours if you count the time others started to join in) and it was fantastic, as a guild we had great fun and we declared a decisive victory over the numerically superior opposing forces.  They all decided to wait until the flag wore off and rez and hearth once others started to come in and it was becoming way more alliance then horde but for the time it was just us vs them it was a lot of fun.

It makes me wish I were around for the old time world PvP.  This was just a small taste of it but it was great.  The only world PvP I've been lucky to experience is either those lame objective things we come across from time to time or one sided things where we defend a city or attack a city which will always put you in a numerically superior or lacking department.

The paladin that had never PvPed at all started talking about how he had such a great time and he never knew PvP could be this fun.  He wanted to start doing battleground and arenas and PvPing more.

The sad part was we needed to break the bad news to him.  Battlegrounds and arena are nothing like world PvP.  Wintergrasp and TB are nothing like world PvP.  World PvP is a horse of a different color.  He will still give PvP more of a chance now, which will surely be a plus for our rated battleground group but it makes me wonder, what could be.

What could be done to bring world PvP back into play in the game?  It is a game now where on one needs to leave their home city.  They can queue for PvP or Dungeons while sitting in their home town.  When they do travel they fly by things so fast they would never even notice if an epic battle was being played out under them.  When it is raid time there is usually one person that heads to the raid instance and does have group to get everyone there and when the raid is over you hearth back or if you have a mage they open a port.

How would it be possible for world PvP to make a come back when there is no reason to go out in the world any more?

When it comes to PvP I happen to think world PvP is the most exciting form of PvP.  Maybe it is because I've had so few occurrences of it that it still feels fresh to me or maybe it is because it really does feel nice to just fight for the sake of fighting.  It feels so much more natural, so much more part of the horde vs alliance battle.  No battling over resources, no three vs three in a controlled area, just a free for all, a bring everything you've got and I'll bring everything I've got and lets get down and dirty.  You are killing for the sake of killing.  Nothing more, nothing less.  It is fantastic.

I've had some ideas in the past that could bring back world PvP and they are mostly achievement based.  Oddly enough, achievements, even if the points mean nothing, are a great motivator.

Make a whole slew of new achievements like [Kill 100 "class" in "area"], [Kill 100 "race" in "area"], and do it for 250, 500, 1000, 2500, 5000, etc.  This gives people a motivating factor to PvP in the world, for achievement sake.  Of course there would have to be a few tweaks in this such as only kills of equal or higher level would count, so people do not go in level 20 areas and kill 20s all day long.

I could really see me getting a group of 10 or 12 or more guild mates and saying, lets go get some achievements and heading out to an area we all need kills in and flying around looking for players to start some world PvP with.  Even if it is just a blood bath back and forth basically exchanging kills almost, it would be fun.  It would bring a taste of world PvP back and it has the beauty of extendability.  Just keep making achievements for higher numbers.

Being that will never happen, at least I would not expect Blizzard to do something to get people back in the world, I'll just have to wait it out for another of those rare moment when we just have an all out brawl just for the fun of it.  And oh what fun it is, even for the non-PvPers among us.