I'm a Knight of the Ebon Blade :P

 

“Death. Despite the sun warming my face, a numbing cold chills me to the core. My soul lives, but my desiccated body is a cruel mockery of the hero I once was. I know not love, nor mirth; only hatred of those who did this to me. Stay out of my way, for my revenge knows not friend… just foe.”

Rocking my Knights of the Ebon Blade Tshirt from Jinx. 

PvP as a Blood DK

Well, for the last few weeks I've been taking part in rated battlegrounds with my new guild - and having a great time. My rating is now 1601...and still going up! :)
Generally I'm loving the new guild and now awaiting only two votes before I become an official member. You can find my 'tldr' application here.


My role as a Frost DK has always been to be part of the attack group. My DPS is high and I have some valuable CC in the form of Hungering Cold, Strangulate, Mind Freeze and the very useful ability to stack on enemy flag carriers...Necrotic Strike.


I've also been target caller, mostly because the best target caller is a melee class and I'm one of those people with a clear/loud voice that can be understood pretty clearly. However, I have little RBG experience and this has shown in my target calling - I know pretty much who I would like to see dead first, and who I'd like to see CC'd but there are certain situations and compositions of teams that I've not yet come across and they require the calling of different targets.


The worst of it is, that people keep telling me I'm doing a good job, but I'm lacking so much confidence I'm constantly wondering to myself if I have called the correct target, especially when I see team members attacking a target different to who I've called out. But, I've recently found an addon (thanks to a guildie who discovered the addon first) that I plan on using from now on. It is called Battleground Targets and can be downloaded through Curse. It lists the enemy team and each person's class and role and can be used to target that person. It shows how their health is looking, but perhaps the most important tool for me as a target caller - it shows how many people have a particular player as target.


However, as much as I have been enjoying calling targets, I know there are much more experienced players in the team who would most likely do a better job, but are not suited to the job because of perhaps having a poor microphone, or they play as a ranged damage dealer or healer. I only hope that the team are willing to allow me to learn with them and appreciate that sometimes, it is easy to make a mistake - especially if it is been a long day or things are going on in real life which means the RBG does not have as much of my attention as it should. (There has been some trauma in my personal life recently, that's not appropriate to go into here - but it is my excuse for sometimes failing recently...and I'm sticking to it :P )


However, the team is consistently short of flag carriers - I assume this is a pretty widespread problem as most places are short of tanks for PvE too. At the moment, I know that Blood DK's are the most favoured Flag Carrier, because of their ability to stay alive. I've had in my head, the idea of taking blood as my off spec and so being able to step in as a FC if one is required. (I think that being able to be flexible in which spec I play will give me a better chance of joining the team as a full member.)


So, I finally got round to it. I started farming honor to replace gear so I could gem and enchant for Stamina and Resilience rather than Strength, and I've finally got my Jewel Crafting up to 525 in order to take full advantage of jewelcrafter's gems...101 stamina is luverly! ;)


So I started to scour the internet for a good Blood PVP guide and came up pretty much empty handed. There are excellent guides on places such as Arena Junkies but they only cover Frost and Unholy, and like other places don't mention Blood - or if they do, it's in passing. So I've found that I have had to look at PvE Tanking guides for some tips - so my plan is this...Over the next few weeks/months as I get more experience and play time with my Blood DK in PvP I am going to start compiling a Blood Guide. It's only going to be my opinion, so unlikely to be amazing or ground breaking ideas but it'll give me a chance to collate some research regarding various ideas I have, and see if they work, and see if other players agree.


As I started to play Blood in normal Battlegrounds, I found I was trying to play like Frost - but half way through my fourth Twin Peaks, something clicked into place. I'd already learnt my rotation and some tricks such as using Vampiric Blood just before sacrificing pet with Death Pact, to get a boost to the healing it does, or using Icebound Fortitude when I reach about 40% health or I know I'm about to take a massive blast of damage for example, but I realised I was trying to be too offensive, I was trying to kill the other player like I would in Frost and then I realised. It's not about me killing them...it's about them being unable to kill me.


After that, it clicked into place, single handedly taking on a warrior, paladin and warlock and slowly but surely getting each one of them down and emerging victorious with still half health felt amazing. Yes, I know that they were probably pretty badly geared, and there is no way I'd survive that in an RBG on my own against very well geared players...but the point is, if I'd have been Frost and fighting them - I wouldn't have survived.


So, I'm excited about playing as Blood - part of me wants to get stuck in right away, part of me knows I'll be extremely nervous when the time does come...and what if I die really easily? What if I let down the team, which in turn leads to us losing, and the team losing rating? It's nice to know that whatever character and whatever class or role I play...my insecurities are here to stay.


Afterall, "Each one of us requires the spur of insecurity to force us to do our best."


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Sometimes, the winner is the one who is able to let go and move on. Wise people know when to do so.”

Well, those of you on Twitter have been kept up to date with the goings on in my current guild. I wasn't involved in any of the drama that went on, so I won't be talking about the details. In a nutshell, the guild almost died. The Ex-GM himself wrote that it was dead, and closed down the website.

When we discovered that it happened, it was incredibly sad. I actually feel like for a couple of days I mourned. It was sad that so many people had left, and it was sad that the guild which had worked so hard to get to the top, was taking a massive tumble.

Originally our plans were to stay with the guild. It was taken over by an Officer and I fully expected it to recover after everyone was over the initial shock. However, there were a couple of days that I logged on to see only a few people online and no chat and as is human nature we began to wonder what else was around in the big wide world of Azeroth.

We wondered if we should move to another guild on the server, that way we would still see familiar faces, we wondered if we should even give Alliance a try, we thought about moving to the realm that Sister-in-Law plays on (but she has just got a brand new job so won't be playing much, if at all) We had an offer from a friend on Twitter which seemed like a good possibility until I realised that he is on the American servers. We discussed our options for a few days, but we decided that the major issue, and one of the reasons why the guild was so affected when people left is because Blade's Edge EU - is really really quiet.

So then we decided maybe we should do something really radical, maybe we should move realms and factions! So we created a level one character on a number of possible destinations and headed to the city to check out the feel of the place and the population, and the atmosphere. We had to really ask ourselves why we wanted to move. Is it because we are falling out of interest with the game and we have 'grass is greener' mentality, and we are trying to inject life and interest back into WoW? If that was the reason, moving would certainly have made matters worse. I've seen a few players who have moved realms, but because it was for the wrong reasons, they have gone back after a short stay, or just left WoW completely.

We are moving, because it's time to move on. It is time for me to experience WoW from another aspect. It is good to change things around and the fact that I'll miss players from our guild and realm means its a good time to move. We can look fondly on the time we spent on the realm, and I'll always be appreciative of the fact that <Drama> took me in when I was a complete newbie, and I feel like because of them I've grown into a much better player. I'm fond of everyone in Drama, and want to extend a massive Thank You to everyone.

We had got the feel of a server we liked...a PvP server - Sylvanas EU and we decided to go Alliance aswell. Just as we were finalising when we should transfer, we discovered that the Guild was going to be rebuilt. Old players were coming back and they are currently in the process of putting it back together, to something similar to what it always set out to be - before it lost its way. This made us stop for a moment,what were our plans? Should we stay? Or should we go?

It didn't take us long to come to our decision. We had gotten itchy feet. I wanted to move. The guild I'm sure will get back to it's former glory, especially in the hands of some very experienced and dedicated players - but it doesn't alter the status of the realm. It is not, nor ever was <Drama> that was dead. It's the realm. With that in mind, we emptied our mailboxes, cancelled our auctions and said farewells. (I would just like to point out, we didn't announce in guild chat that we were leaving because we left the same day the guild was taken over by Viene and we didn't want to seem like we left because of that. On the contrary, he knows I think he is an awesome guy who will get the guild on  its feet in no time at all!)

Comparing Orgrimmar on Blade's Edge with Stormwind on Sylvanas:

 (Photos taken just a couple of minutes apart)

The main areas in each city.

The sky above the cities.

The Innkeepers.

Transfer complete, I created my new Draenei Death Knight, called her Nilaa which is a variation of the name 'Nila' which means blue in Indian. Apt I thought for a race that is coloured blue. Husband has also gone Draenei (what a copy cat) and called Tolian. We also took with us my real life friend, who now has a Night Elf called Janya. We have an application for a guild currently pending...fingers crossed!

Whilst it will take a while to get used to the busyness of new realm, the new faction, and the fact that its a PvP realm, I know I have made the right decision. Leaving now means I remember my time on Blade's Edge as a truly awesome experience.

For those of you in Drama who read this: Thank you for everything, you are all brilliant and friendly players and I'll remember you all. I still have Churel around, so I'll pop by now and then to say Hi, and please don't hesitate to keep in touch via here or twitter :)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


So finally, it brings me round to why I've been MIA for the last couple of days. Husband and I went up to my old home town in Scotland for the Wedding of a school friend of mine. We had a great time. The weather was absolutely stunning (don't think we ever saw weather as good as that when we lived there) and the Bride and Groom make an amazing couple...

Couple of photos from our trip across the border!

Testing Out 3v3

Well, the other night, happily hanging around in Orgrimmar before deciding on what to do next, lazily reading Guild Chat, I somehow ended up with a 3v3 team. What I had written as "yeah would like to do some 3v3 at some point" magically turned into a team ready to go at right that moment.

I perhaps should have realised early on that it wouldn't work out too well. The main problem was my newness, and the learning curve I had to undertake and the fact that the guy who joined me and the hubby, had many years experience in Arenas and PvP and WoW in general. Having over 13k Achievement points sums up my point exactly.

The other issue, well, a slight language barrier. The guy is really nice, and his grasp of English as another language is great, but at times he was hard to understand and would make statements and expect us to answer, when there was no answer, because it was a statement, and at times would be searching for a word which meant that sentences were very long and getting a word in edgeways was nigh on impossible. *phew, exhale and take a breath* Then I think he struggled to understand us. I was using my best cut glass English BBC accent but when things were happening in game and my fast Black Country mixed with Scots came out, I think he was sat scratching his head. For example..."ah chunty ah cannae, ar am stunned an am nae trinket" or "sae yowm wan me tae keep th' Warriur aff th' priest?" or "och aye we won, bostin gam troaps."

However, he taught me a lot and spoke sense, but at the end of the day we wanted different things out of a 3v3 team. He wanted high ratings, and I wanted a taster. It didn't help that I was tired and not performing at my best, I'd also tried to take so much of what he said on board that sometimes I forgot what he had said to do previously, but I don't think I was terrible, and I certainly don't think that the times we lost were completely down to me.

I did however, enjoy myself most of the time. I don't think we did too badly considering it was my first attempt at 3v3 and bearing in mind my DK has only been played for a couple of months, hell, I haven't even clocked a year in WoW yet. We got our rating to 1339 and I'm really pleased with that, taking  everything on board.

A couple of days later, the player left our team, and I'm kind of relieved that he did - although it would have been nice if he had contacted us and told us that he was leaving considering he's in the guild, but don't get me wrong,  I'm grateful for the time he did spend with us and I've learnt alot that can be applied to both the game in general and 2v2 arenas, but I'm much much happier to go back to 2v2.

In fact, our 2v2 is going much better this season since we have started off on the same playing field as everyone else. We got our rating up into the 1650's, so hopefully we will continue to learn and get better and  most of all enjoy ourselves. I think playing with Husband gives us a unique advantage. We understand each other and sitting right next to each other, we can talk normally without having to use vent and we can also at a quick glance see what is happening from each other's point of view.

I'll never say never to having a 3v3 team again but maybe someone on our wavelength, on my level of experience of the game, and someone looking for the same sort of results as us.

So what did I learn, well, not to be so quick to jump on a bandwagon, to enjoy what I have and if I'm in Blade's Edge Arena to "use my brain" and DeathGrip off the bridge...

Stepping into the Arena

Well, having finally got Sheorc in full Honor gear we decided it was about time I see what Arena's are like. I still haven't experienced rated battlegrounds, old content raids and Wintergrasp, but hopefully I can experience those at some point soon.

As we joined the queue for my first ever match, I have to say I was a little bit nervous. I cant remember what we faced as I was just full of adrenaline, we didn't win that match mostly because I wasn't thinking clearly and just spamming and not sure who to attack first, but won the next one which gave me the achievement Step Into The Arena which was against a Frost Mage and Shaman.

We then spent the rest of the evening in the arenas, I need a victory in the Ring of Valor, in fact I haven't even had a match in there yet, in order to get the achievement World Wide Winner. Considering it's brand new to me winning 40% of the matches we did, makes me feel pretty happy. My favourite win was against 2 Frost Mages and the funniest loss must have been against a Resto Druid and a Frost Mage. The Frost Mage had about 25% health left and I made a mistake which basically allowed him to be healed and after a long fight I died, they then ganged up to kill husband on his Disc Priest and it took them a further 10 minutes to kill him! He kept running out of line of sight and fearing them, in the end it was the fact he'd run out of mana that allowed them to kill him. Nevertheless, it was funny giving that team the run around and making them work really hard for their victory. My fastest death was to a Warrior and my fastest kill was against a Hunter...in fact in every team we came up against with a hunter we won.

Everytime we lost a match we discussed the tactics for beating it next time, and we are having alot of fun in the process. Even though I've reached the conquest cap for the week, we're going to continue having matches because its good experience and enjoyable - even when we lose.

When I first started playing WoW, I hated all aspects of PvP thinking it was completely "disgusting"' and it took me ages to just do my first battleground. If I had thought then, that in a few months time it would be my favourite aspect of the game I would have just laughed, no way in a million years was I going to PvP.

(nervously awaiting my first arena match)

(stalemate so the other group left the arena)

(winning score against a Warrior and Rogue)

Courage is the discovery that you may not win, and trying when you know you can lose.

Firstly, an apology for a lack of posts recently. I've had a busy couple of weeks with the bank holidays and of course attending Will and Kate's Wedding ;) and also, I have a little confession to make. Me the hater of all things 'Alt' did not only start a Druid as posted about previously (which I have since abandoned sitting in the 50's) I have started a Death Knight, which is now 79. So that's what I have been doing...in between celebrating Royal Weddings and Easter, I've been pwning (yes, I said pwning) in all aspects of Melee DPS both in Dungeons and Battlegrounds and I'm having a superb time. It has also crossed my mind once or twice - that a Death Knight is not an appropriate name for a girl. Girl's are not Knights. They are Dames. Therefore, I have not a DK but a DD. Yes, Sheorc is a Death Dame ;)

What prompted a Death Knight? Well, Children's Week. Husband needed to put rabbit ears on an Orc female and as there is a minimum level the player must be for the achievement. I decided that a female Orc Death Knight would be the perfect solution. What I didn't bank on was actually finding the class interesting. I decided to level a couple of levels and see what playing it would be like. At first, it took me a little while to get used to the abilities and runes. I mean, wtf are runes? runic power? and why do all the abilities sound similar? However, by the time I left Acherus: The Ebon Hold, I had a better grasp and once it clicked into place, I literally went 'aah.'

At the moment, Sheorc (yes, highly original name I know) is just slicing through enemies before I can complete a rotation, she's topping Recount by a long way and making mincemeat of the Alliance players. I have to say, it's an enjoyable position to be in. From being the healer standing at the back, throwing out a few ranged spells if mana or situation allows, to being up close and personal and whilst I glance at my health bar now and then, its not something I really have to worry about.

One example springs to mind. It happened last night. We entered Warsong Gulch. My Husband had got the Alliance flag and an Alliance player had our flag, it was currently 0-0 and we had a stalemate. Husband was hiding on the roof of our base waiting to cap the flag. The alliance mage with 22k health (I had 16k) was doing the same. The Alliance player had a shadow in the name of a Shaman Healer and was protected by a few others. I was determined that I was going to return our flag. I rode a suicide mission, on my own, expecting to be killed by the gang of alliance but willing to give it my best shot. I armed myself with all my cooldowns and my ghoul pet.

A fight broke out on the Alliance roof between the few players guarding the flag carrier and a few players from our side who had the same intention as me. The flag carrying mage, jumped off the roof to escape the fighting and I took my chance. I jumped down, death gripped him and killed him before his shadow had even time to cast a heal. I returned the flag. Husband capped their flag and it was then only a matter of a couple of minutes before we won.

Now, most of you may think..."yeah, yeah, I do that all the time, what's the big deal?". This is how we differ. I was never a massive fan of PvP, especially on my Priestess. Yes, I enjoyed healing, but I was always the first target and although I could survive a while, if someone was really determined to kill me, it would only be a matter of time. I was always standing at the back, trying to hide and became hesitant, and because of that, I didn't find much enjoyment in the PvP side of the game. Even on my Kitty, I would enjoy stealthing and pouncing but there was part of me that always hung back a bit. With the DK its different, yes, I still die - especially when its 3v1 but I feel that much more confident. In fact, it may not be purely because of the new character I'm playing, but just because my experience of the game is improving. Whatever you may think, I'm really proud for riding straight into an Alliance filled room and getting the flag back - and it left a smile on my face for the rest of the night.

Perhaps it was a fluke, perhaps the mage didn't react as quick as he should have done, but the point is - I'll be willing to try again and as the title suggests: courage is the discovery that you may not win, and trying when you know you can lose.