Love / Hate Relationship

PVP. I have something of a Love/Hate relationship with it.

I never really understood it until last night.

Here's the story:

Our Kara group was a bust. Whatever server hosts the Karazhan instance was being very fluky. High latency and random disconnects were more common than Bosses dying.

So we called off the Raid. My good friend, and sometimes Ret Paladin, Sevenn invited me to a Premade Arathi Basin. It was a mix of people from various guilds on our server. I even saw some old friends like Jagdelf and DarkDescent.

Normally, I avoid PVP like the plague. While I have some PVP gear, my spec has 0 points in Holy. It's very hard to be a PVP Healer without the Talent Spiritual Focus. What motavated me was Battlemaster's Audicity. It costs 30,000 honor, and the only place to get that Honor is PVP. I realize I could purchase it for 75 Badges, but I still need the Belt, Bracers, and Gloves from Badges. That will cost over 150 Badges, so I'm going the PVP route for the Trinket.

I joined the Raid. This 15 man Arathi Basin was run with all the precision you'd expect from a 25 man Raiding Guild. Tasks were assigned, vent was cleared. The leaders expected you to do yoru job and do it well.

I knew these guys were serious when one of the Mages ran to the wrong point and he was out of the Raid after that BG.

We were doing very well, but I think the moment where my love / hate relationship clicked was during one of the matches where we had lost the mines.

We left defenders at each node that we had. Then half our assault team gathered near the mines on the eastern road, while the other half gathered on the western road. Being a defender, I had the luxury of watching the minimap and was amazed as the new groups gathered up. When the command to attack was given each group moved in unision towards the Horde. While the two assault teams engaged the Horde defenders, one Feral Druid stealthed to the flag and began to cap it.

It was strategy, and synergy and team work. It was everything I love about 25 man Raiding executed to perfection in a PVP setting.

If this had been one of my normal PuG ABs, we would have trickled in one by one and been picked off one by one and probably lost a couple of points for our trouble.

Normal PVP is the pits. You are 1 of 15 random people running around trying to inflict some damage or throw a heal where you can. Organiziation is nonexistant. The BG chat is likely filled with banter and arguement.

In Organized PVP, you are part of a team. Each action you take is part of a larger action, a grander strategy. You are part of something bigger than yourself.

For that kind of experience, I'd do it again. That was fun. Shoot, I might even spec Holy or Ret for a night (once I buy my Epic Copter).