Invasions, Achievements and Pyrrhic Defeats.

With the new Live Patch finally properly installed I decided to take Jana out for a stroll around the Scourge Invasion, Halloween Event and (of course) some Ret PvP.



One of the Achievements that I regret never being able to accomplish on my original Human Paladin is obtaining the Tabard of the Argent Dawn. I'm not exactly sure why I didn't get it, I may have been taking one of my many breaks or switched mains to my Rogue. The latter would also explain why said Rogue has a Tabard of the Protector and the Pally doesn't. So I'm pretty happy to have now got it on my Belf Paladin, and I may see if I can scrape 18 Runes on my original Paladin before the Event ends.

I finally got around to raising my Horde Reputation high enough to gain the Ambassador title. It wasn't nearly as tough as it used to be, clearing out the starter zone quests and Runecloth turn-ins did the trick. Argent Dawn rep was also raised to Exalted, though that was mainly a by-product of my many Strathholme runs in search of Lightforge and the Barons Mount (the latter of which was unsuccessful thus far).

I obtained the 'Jenkins' Title too before Shield-hearthing and leaving my hapless friends to deal with hundreds of additional whelps. I'm a bad person, really I am. So Jana is now known as 'Jana Jenkins': mild-mannered Ambassador by day, by night whirling dervish of destruction as she takes on the identity 'Madame Hammer'. (No relation to Captain Hammer).

Which brings me to PvP. God, how much more hectic is it now than in 2.4.3? Arcane Mages are nasty as heck, Boomkins really make things go boom and Ret Paladins are Juggernauts confident in taking out any class 1v1 so long as they have DS off cooldown. But... the old truisms still apply: you have to be very careful of Warlocks as they can fear-lock you from 100%-0% pretty easily; Good Hunters still know how to kite; Rogues are pesky annoying things who can eat clothies for breakfast, etc. It's very much got the flavour of 1.12 PvP all over again, when Burst Damage ruled and when Resilience was announced everyone thought it was a dump stat.

I've topped the odd AB and WSG in KB's before the patch, so doing well post-patch didn't really surprise me. Picking your battles is a major part of fighting for success on the scoreboard, communication the other part of the formula for actual Battleground victory. And in a PuG communication isn't exactly forthcoming, no matter how many times I spam 'Inc. LM' in chat. But, defeat in any battleground is the very definition of a Pyrrhic Defeat: long, bloody and essentially meaningless in outcome because it has no lasting impact. You've lost simply in the act of playing, so you may as well enjoy it. And when enjoying it you can rack up some pretty hilarious results:



Of course any class can top tables like this given a little luck, and it's no indication of skill, but it's damn fun. And, it should be noted, Horde lost. Badly. Perhaps even whitewashed. But we didn't half go down fighting.

I'll be trying some Arena PvP over the weekend and seeing just how well a Ret/Mage team can do. As a benchmark I reached ~1575 in Season 4 doing the regulation 10 games a week, partly due to meeting a lot of Warrior/Druid S3 resets and partly because I'm not particularly good at PvP.

Finally, gosh Heroic Magister's Terrace has been nerfed. And even nerfed, it still won't cough up a Shard of Contempt for me :/.