Strength and Honor

Anyone who knows me and WoW probably know of my PvP addiction. Back on Malygos, I had very little interest in raiding (much to the chagrin of some of my guildies) and put most of my efforts into PvP. Before we had to leave the server, I hit Rank 12, which was a lot of work because Malygos was a PvE server, and Battleground games were somewhat in short supply. I was happy to find that ranking up is much is easier on Stormscale than it was back on Malygos... the CP output of an entire faction is very high, so there's relatively good rank progression at lower levels even with little combat. I remember playing hours every day for a week just trying to hit Sergeant (Rank 3) before I hit level 50. In comparison, in Stormscale, hitting Sergeant is a breeze. A few hours in a week would do it.

Of course, it gets progressively harder at higher ranks, and solo or PUG can be real painful. This is where groups can help. Playing Battlegrounds with a pre-set group is probably the most efficient way to grind for honor if you're chasing rank. The twist is, some players take the grind so seriously that most have lost sight of what we're after: honor. Back on Malygos, I crossed paths with someone "in line" to become High Warlord when he removed my brother from a pre-set to make room for someone else who was higher ranked (and, according to his reasoning, needed the group more). It wasn't even a polite removal from group. The person just kicked my brother without warning. Even in war, I've always thought, there are manners. That same person would AFK out (before the deserter debuff was implemented) out of games that lasted more than 20 minutes, citing that it was "inefficient honor". The unfortunate thing is, there are many people like him, even in Stormscale. I thought I got lucky once, getting into a group with the "Warlord Group". They would ask for your class and rank, rarely allowing lower-ranked players to run with them. It was somewhat of a shock to me (no, not really) that, when faced with an Alliance pre-set (the "Marshal Group"), they would communicate with the opponents through Vent or IM and decide the outcome of a game. In games where the Alliance would win, the Horde would farm HKs and vice versa. It was cheap, unsportsmanlike, and was anything but honorable. I have to confess that I took advantage of it and just rolled with the games as they came. I had lost my perspective on things that time. Of course, as soon as one of their crew came on, I had to take the boot, which was perfectly fine by me and I pugged it the rest of that week.

It was an incredible thrill, then, that I found a group of people who actually believed in playing the decent game. People who didn't care what your rank was -- only that you play your best, and that you listen (and sometimes talk) on Vent. People who refused to fix matches and afk out of Battlegrounds. There was also a covenant which one could enter, which was to wear Herod's Shoulder until it was replaced by Rank 13 gear (clothies would wear Whitemane's Chapeau). The idea brought the fun back into PvP for me. It felt good. Crush Alliance, not cavort with them. I think, when the servers come back on after maintenance, I might pay Herod a little visit. If you play on Stormscale and would like to have some fun with PvP, join the 'hordepvp' channel. Good times.