Nine Muses

Last night, I went into Alterac Valley for the first time.  I know it’s been around for a while, but I really haven’t done much PvP at all in the last couple of years.  The last time I did, Kynsera wasn’t high enough to enter AV yet.

I’m still feeling semi-clueless about my own class in PvP, which was never a problem before.  I’m still not remembering to use my Dismantle, Shadowstep, and Cloak of Shadows abilities, but it didn’t seem to matter last night.

AV is very different from the other battlegrounds I’ve played in.  Alterac Valley is huge!  Expansive!  It makes Warsong Gulch feel claustrophobic.  At the same time, it plays totally different.  Instead of a lot of little skirmishes, it seemed as if there was a huge wave of players rushing along toward the goal (the enemy general).  It felt more like being on a raid with a few PvP skirmishes thrown in than like a battleground.  Most of our opponents were NPCs!

I know so little of this battleground, that when the leader said that he needed three more people from TP to come his way, I had to look up at my minimap to see if my location matched that acronym.  (It did – Tower Point.)  I’m hoping that, since I’ve seen it now, I can re-read the information on it and it’ll make more sense.  I’d like to contribute intelligently, instead of just going along with the … well, I was going to say horde, but that’s not particularly appropriate given Sera’s affiliation.

And I remembered to step out of the damaging auras (unlike in WSG the night before).  I did die once, from accidentally pulling some NPCs that were out of sight around a corner.

I’m guessing this rush is just one possible strategy for this battleground, as it didn’t match some of the reports I’ve heard, though it did seem that the other team was doing the same.  As we were rushing by everything, I was wishing I had more time to look around.  And not knowing what to do, I had to rush by everything along with everyone else.  I figured, going in, that the best strategy would just be to follow the pack, and it seemed to work.  I was there when we took out the captain and the general.  I had no idea what was going on in the fights, but I was contributing my DPS, which is what a rogue is usually supposed to do.

Also, I totally forgot to pick up the quests before going in!  I don’t know if any would have completed or not.  I’ll have to go pick up the quests and try again this weekend.  I gained almost a full bubble of XP (as one friend advised might happen).  Leveling from PvP seems not only viable, but potentially faster than leveling from PvE play.

Most importantly, we won!  (I can count the wins I’ve been in for AB and WSG each on one hand.)  I’m guessing from some of the chatter going on that it may have been a close thing.  I know I saw a shout when we were in mid-fight with the general that our general or captain was under attack.  It was my first time in and we won!  And so I received the achievement for that.

Yay!