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Questing: Holding Your Own In Battle

The Eighth Wonder Of The World!

You know those discussions you have with friends or guildmates about PvP.  The conversations were you tell a story about how you, and possibly some buddies, took on X amount of the opposing faction with only Y amount of help?  You know the stories I am talking about.  It's the speech type, the ones you stop listening to instantly just so you can gather your thoughts to tell your own awesome story.  Everyone has them, heck, everyone has dozens of them.  They are the experiences in video games that we won't forget until they are replaced by something that much cooler.  That's what today is.  Just be kind enough to read my version of the battle before you jump into yours.  Thanks.

Solidsagart has seen most of my playtime recently thanks to a little predicament.  Even though I have slowly been leveling her since my rogue hit level 80, the amount of time spent on her is limited to minutes at a time.  Therefore, I have never truly got the hang of, well, pretty much anything.  With rookie Shadow spec skills activated I began to light up Coldarra's army of quest mobs.  Thanks largely to my inexperience I pulled a couple of mobs in a row.  Not to worry, with Power Word: Shield, Inner Fire and the occasion healing spell, I was able to handle the one or two guys who came at me like I dissed their mother.  Then another pair pathed in my direction unseen to me.  Now I was just minding my own business, collecting XP with four guys wailing on me.

It became obvious that the replacement rate of Vampiric Embrace's healing was less than the incoming damage.  In my further ineptitude I decided to Fear the mobs after a round of DOTs so I could heal in peace.  Any knowledgeable priest knows how bad an idea that can be in crowded areas.  I was left in solitude with only a pair of mobs hoping to spread my brains across the snowy landscape.  Upon his (one mob died from the DOTs) return he brought a few buddies along with them.  Five fresh mobs to be exact. Gulp.

It took five and a half incoming mobs before I knew I had botched it.  I would be popping into Spirit Form and need a repair any second now.  But I wasn't going down without a fight.  I fired off my Shadowfiend, drank a pot, clinched my belt, through out another round of DOTs and feared once again.  After a few volleys of Mind Blast, Mind Flay, shield refreshes and yet another personal heal I had it down to three guys.  Then two.  And finally only one lowly Mage Slayer remained to have its face melted and skin later flayed.

The great battle of casters, eight died without Sagart leaving combat, was one of those rare occurrences in WoW where you actually fear for your life outside of an instance.  Rarely do we feel that our demise is immediately at hand when PvEing for quests, or just grinding for loot, but I certainly thought I was going to bite the dust during the excursion.  Sure, it would have been easier to accomplish with some familiarity to my second spec, but I thoroughly enjoyed the heart racing, fear-filled, learning experience and wish that it would occur more often.  Only next time I hope it is not due to my own ineptitude, but as part of the punishing world we take part in.

Ok, now that I have recanted my none cyclical battle story, no 2-3-4-5-6-7-wand this time, and you politely sat through it, cheering me on of course, you can hit me with yours.  What was your greatest moment of survival in the environment?  How about some unbalancedPvP destruction on the level of OrangeMarmalade?

The sad fact, I would have Vanished on my rogue so fast as to make your head spin.

Reader Comments (42)

this reminds me that I need to work on my rogues PVP :P

July 3, 2009 | Unregistered Commenteramanda

sadly i have never experienced this due to that fact im an OP ret pally that never looses mana and when i need some more health i pop an instant Flash of Light from the soon to be nerfed Art of War talent.

July 3, 2009 | Unregistered CommenterJustin

The amount of times i've gone through 5-6 mobs on my ret pally, with another one appearing from nowhere right after I kill the last one...

Its just as well they're madly OP, or i'd have a much larger death count

July 3, 2009 | Unregistered CommenterZumo

My only story was on KT in Naxx 10 man. I was the better geared tank (almost all T7.5), but was OT to give another tank more experience.

I was just dps'ing KT waiting to pickup the adds at 40% when the MT goes down. I pickup KT for a bit while a pally throws on some tank gear to take KT while I go back to the adds when they spawn. Not long after the pally goes down (which isn't exactly surprising considering he didn't have full tank gear on).

So I'm back on KT. Then the adds come out, so now I'm tanking KT and both adds. At this point most of the DPS was down. I think there was 1 hunter, no melee and 2 or 3 healers left. Couldn't really tell how much range was left considering I have KT and 2 gigantic guardians blocking my view. I'm throwing out every survival ability a warrior has while still being a significant portion of the dps.

We were able to take KT down just as the healers go oom. Quite a nail biting win, and kudos to the healers as well.

July 3, 2009 | Unregistered CommenterSam

Great story and post iTZKooPA,
Though I can't think of any particularly impressive one's at this very moment, I tend to enjoy getting myself into situations where I push myself (and if all else fails Feign Death FTW =P ).
One that I can think of at the moment though is once in leveling in borean tundra I was on a quest where you have to go up to a floating place (kinda like a min naxx) to deal with some elite mob. I was trying to solo it as a group quest because I was only in Borean Tundra for the quest achieves and gold etc. after being to howling Fjord before-hand. Any way not realizing after teleporting up to the mini-naxx that I had to teleport to a higher section to get the quest guy, I saw a mob who looked pretty tough and thought it must be him. I pounced and after a fairly long shoot out I eventually had to feign death. But that was not the end! After ressing my pet and a quick food based recuperation I went again. This time knowing to keep kiting and using my cooldowns sparingly etc. The only problem with this kiting is the extra mobs I run into backwards. They weren't gonna stop me though, a quick cc on my main target, get the adds, then back to him. I saw he was nearing his death and kept kiting proud of my soon to be accomplishment, only to fall into another problem with my kiting... another tough guy. luckily I had just finished off number one and of course I was able to turn round to take my add-less route back. I was fairly low on health though at this point, but I had to do it! Several frost traps, serpent stings and concussive shots later I emerged victorious, but also without having completed the quest, leaving the completion with a slightly bitter taste, but still very happy.
I did realize my mistake and found the actual guy to kill. After wiping a few times, I got a lvl 80 guild mate to help. (The quest guy I stood no chance on)
I just checked now, guy 1 was Vanthryn the merciless and guy 2 was Luthion the vile.
Little shiny boxes don't have to make you get a great feeling of acomplisment.
But they do help =P

July 3, 2009 | Unregistered CommenterPhanttas

Nice comment , i had one of those back when i was grinding for reputation in Zul'drak(Argent Crusader left over quest's ) . I was on my shaman when this happend , i was taking two troll mobs fighting them off , no self respecting shaman will put his guard down even with mobs , but i got tired and it was late so i didnt bother to put on my shield's or any totems on the ground (enchancement). But suddenly when i was just about to eat/drink a rouge 78 and a hunter 75 jumped at me in lightning speed. Normaly i would /spell ghost wolf but i wont go down that easy. I quickly /drink some potion's for mana and a battle elixir (forgot it ) and Started on the rouge , lucky for me the hunter didnt unleash his pet . I was starting to "PWN" the rouge and healing my self on the time , ofcourse my macros worked for the mana part (Shamanistic Rage ftw) And then at the peack 2% health i was almost dead , instant healing wave made me even better ^^. I jumped at the hunter and at the same moment my CD for the spirit wolfs has been ended . Now it's time to get serious i putted heroism / spirit wolfs up and i started to fight that hunter . Mostly being slowed and ice frozen. But i finished her of with my fast healing/self (Heroism ftw). When i left out of the battle area i marked this moment with a screenshot and how the two were dead before me , even SSed the combat log ^^.

July 3, 2009 | Unregistered CommenterDeathguard

I've got two PvE and one PvP experiences that I particularly remember.

PvE #1: This was a few months back when I was still doing 5-man heroics on a regular basis. So anyway, heroic Oculus was the daily and I joined up with a pug. I can't remember what classes the dps were, but the tank was a prot pally. We didn't have any problems with the bosses until we got to Mage-Lord Urom. All the dps died while the boss still had about two-thirds (or so) of his hp remaining, which left me and the tank having to pick up that role in addition to our own. Thanks to the pro tank and my large mana pool, we managed to down the boss despite the prolonged fight (I was quit oom by the time we were finished).

PvE #2: This took place in Naxxramas 10. I was quite overgeared for this, but my brother needed a healer for his pug and I figured it was a good opportunity to get drops for my offspec. So we go in, down a quarter or two... We get to Anub'rekhan and start up the boss fight. It goes off well at first, but then -- and I don't recall how -- the other two healers besides myself ended up getting killed while the boss still had around 50% health left, as well as a good chunk of our dps. Thankfully, my brother was a prot pally and so threw up as many cooldowns as possible and healed himself while I was going all-out healing him and what dps we had remaining. It was quite a frantic fight, but we did not wipe.

PvP: This occurred when patch 2.4 was still the most recent content patch and I was a full-time enhancement shaman. I was in a group with my brother and one of his friends. We were in an AV battleground and really the only ones who were defending the Horde hut. So when you have one wave of enemy players after the other coming at you, it's typically not a good sign. Fortunate for us, my bro's friend was an experienced resto druid. So while my brother and I fought off the Alliance, he kept healing us... and the Alliance just couldn't get to him before they'd end up dead. It was the best PvP experience I'd ever had, because I was deeply drawn into the fight and relished all those waves coming at us. We were eventually going to lose due to it being a long endurance fight against superior numbers, but we managed to hold on long enough for reinforcements to arrive.

July 3, 2009 | Unregistered CommenterAlayea

Well my new craze now is making dungeons with a friend. I mean only one. Two people dungeons is the best challenge ever.

Ok my friend is level 80 and im 72 but doing outland dungeons like this really presents a challenge since one of us is not a healer. One dk and a hunter that's how we roll...

Well the dk is the healer in this case hehe. I just stand back and DPS.
But many memorable moments especially in bad pulls...
I got to try it in Northrend dungeons but only when i am a little "bigger"...I just love the run and fire thing hehe...and being a alchemist/herbalist brings that extra healing you need...

Any more two dungeons guys or gals out there?
Really it's much more fun than 5 people dungeons....try it...

See ya

July 3, 2009 | Unregistered CommenterKeltoroq

Ahh yes and i remember a memorable Arathi Basin in that we were winning by a large margin and from nowhere some new adittions to the horde faction turns thing around...

But we regroup, talk, and make our way to again winning....i almost got that AB achviment when you win 2000-1990.......dam they had like 1900.....and it took like almost two hours....
That was amazing and that's when AB became my favorite battleground....
I just love being in the mine hehe

See ya guys

July 3, 2009 | Unregistered CommenterKeltoroq

Sadly I have no stories of "uber pwnage" on the same scale as most of the comments above me. Closest I can come is one PvE and one PvP story, neither of which are all that epic.

PvE: Level 70 holy paladin vs Abdul the insane.

Level 72 elite mob with some nasty immunities. Immune to stun, fear, etc.

So I'm on the quest where you have to steal his staff from down in the hold. Being nooby the way I am, I thought I had to kill him to get said staff. So I engage. He's pounding away on my shield and my health is dropping rapidly. I heal myself using holy shock and then an instant flash of light from the Infusion of Light proc. Using mostly white damage and keeping consecration up the whole time (seal/blessing of wisdom ftw) he takes forever to go down. I didn't think to time it, but I imagine the fight took about 5 minutes.

Now for the PvP aspect of the game. I'm level 80 and a retribution spec paladin. I had just finished a run of the Stormwind Stockades (Blood Elf pally ftw), and decided that instead of burning my hearthstone to get out, I would fight my way out of the stockades and back to the harbor. With no pvp gear on at all, I fought off an 80 spriest, an 80 DK and another 80 pally, plus several npcs (mostly guards). I kill the DK and nearly kill the spriest when the pally shows up. I bubble and heal myself then go after that priest again. After about a minute or two, I get killed. I laugh at the fact that it took 3 80s and several npcs to bring me down. That made my day and lessened the sting from being killed.

July 3, 2009 | Unregistered CommenterXian

I was running H DKT on my ret pally, and we got to the last boss. At about 50%, it's just me and the tank left because the healer didn't understand the fight. The tank essentially doing all dps while I healed with the wrong spec and gear, we downed him =D

I was soloing a group quest on my DK, something involving waves of mobs, and for some reason the waves started pulling nearby random mobs with them. About 10 minutes of solid combat with 4+ mobs at a time, all around my level with the occasional elite thrown in for good measure. I love this game.

July 3, 2009 | Unregistered CommenterRaethos

My most memorable experience with this was sapphiron.

Just your average day.
I was dpsing on my DK.
Thanks to the layout of the raid, i'd been given enough health buffs to pass as a tank xD

So we're going through saph.
as usual, then the Ranged starts getting rather idiotic, and moved round the back of saph.

Fair enough, saph was looking pretty sorry for himself around about now.
he was on about 3%
and popped his ice block thing.

Only for it to hit the two range that were behind him..

First thought was...oh...great...
No one made it to them in time...

But i had another idea...
You know that drink that has the same effect?
Through no fault of my own i had one on me.

accidentally opened my backpack, saw it, poped it. Survived the frost attack.
immediately into frost presence, saph 1 shotted both the ranged.
So its just me. and saph at 1%

I poped EVERYTHING

I killed him with 500 health to spare.
And the vent went wild ;)

July 3, 2009 | Unregistered Commenteradam

I'm a weenie, and even as a lvl 73 fury warrior, I tend to stay away from things that might kill me. that's always my question to my guildies when going into a new area/instance..."what's going to kill me a lot?". I tend to finish up with one mob of baddies just as I'm healing/drinking a pot when they respawn right where I am! Once they are down, I mount up and get the hell out of there!

July 3, 2009 | Unregistered CommenterDulica

Turtle boat that connects Howling/Dragonsblight/Borean... I'm elemental shaman, I knocked 5 horde players off the boat in the middle of the ride! Enjoy the swim back!

July 3, 2009 | Unregistered CommenterBrokenwing

5? 8 mobs? *patpat* Try 30 and an Elite. Back in TBC I ran as a Prot Pally. When it time to grind rep for Aldor I paid my first visit to the Demon Slayer training grounds. There were about 30-ish Demon Slayers sparring each other and their Elite Swordmaster pacing about. The whole lot went down to Holy Shields, Retribution Aura and Consecration. Good times.

July 3, 2009 | Unregistered CommenterOjimaru

"Turtle boat that connects Howling/Dragonsblight/Borean… I’m elemental shaman, I knocked 5 horde players off the boat in the middle of the ride! Enjoy the swim back!"

That's the THING! Entrance of Naxx + 5 opp.faction players + elemental shaman = profit!

July 3, 2009 | Unregistered CommenterWittgenstein

June 3rd: doing Thaddius25 with a slight PuG, i've grp'd with some of these ppl b4, mainly the guild i do 25OS on tuesdays with them...anyways after a wipe we regroup yea thats right regroupd not gather more ppl, we all stayd..anyways(again) we fight him and are doing very well, at 25% ppl stat dieing, now i play a mage so when the charges change i just Blink to the other side, he had 15 sec on Enrage timer with 1%, he Enraged and we wiped at 9k, had he foucusd on another person one of my Fireballs could've killd him, i Crit 5-8.5k with tons of DoTs......

this is a achievement story: Ulduar 10: Hodir we did really well, we all stayd up (this was our 3rd try) now as he died i got the Achi "Cheese Freeze" but as i got it i got Flash Frozen which if u dont know not gettin it is the achi

last story i remember: Maly25: I rejoind a Naxx25 grp for cleanup, but not alot of ppl showd up so the leader decides to switch us to Maly25, as im a loot junckie i was okay.....we were mostly PuG'd and guess what, one-shot, no deaths, a minute away from the time'd kill....so awesome....

July 3, 2009 | Unregistered CommenterNnohhbody

We on Steamwheedle EU have a little RP guild called the Mountaineers.

Now, three of us like to PvP so occasionally we group up and go to some BGs.

One day we went to Warsong Gulch and tried out usualy tactic of defense and got swarms of Hordies attacking. With only two Hunters and a Paladin, we completely decimated waves and waves of people with full PvP gear, even up to 6 of them at a time. We were rather happy.

Also, one time I was fighting Noth (10man) and he was on about 3%-ish health, everyone died but me and I decided to go all heroic-y. I popped all my cooldowns and managed to kite him around for about 30 seconds using all my skill and abilities and I killed him.
For that show, I was automatically given the boots.

July 4, 2009 | Unregistered CommenterThurin

My last moment like that was actually yesterday when i was lvling my DK i was grinding threw 6 mobs and just as i finished the last one i was at 456hp and sat down and started eating but just as i was starting to eat i was jumped by a druid 2 lvls higher and i was ant 523hp so i thaught well to bad corpes run and repair. BUT i was at 197hp and he was about to finish me off when all the suddenly i was shielded.

heald to full and at full power i started to knocking that druid down from 4000 to 900 in just few seconds.

but now he heald well i just tried to death strike him to get some exrta hp.

what do u know a crit and a kill.

the battle that started by me almost dead ended in a victory for me!

FOR THE HORDE!!!!!!

July 4, 2009 | Unregistered CommenterHjálmar

A long time ago on a realm far far away ....

Arathi
Basin!

An AOE Stike

It is Pre TBC, Dementedone The Mage, and his Deceased
wife Dementshea The Priest take position at the mine. With
no back up forces they keep a close watch on the horizon.
Intel chatter picks up a warning 'INC MINE! INC MINE LOTS!'

The first wave strikes from the south, Dementedone sniping
off invaders from afar, Dementshea negating incoming damage.
Assailants then spotted coming from the north. Back to back
on top of the flag, The Mage and Priest watch in horror as
an entire army descend upon them from every direction, a full
twelve invaders coming in for the kill.

'Prowler Claw tactic?' offers Dementedone, a quiet prayer
escapes Dementshea's decayed lips, 'Was a long time ago
dearest... ' she mummbled then commanded the words of power
to shield them from the imminent threat.

Calling upon all the powers bestowed upon them, draining every
last mote of magic within them, poised on the brink, prepared
to unleash a torrent of arcane and barrage of holy death to
all living creatures within ten yards, they hold their
breath.....

'Wait... Wait... wait... NOW!' Dementedone initiates the
AOE strike just as the enemy fall into range. Explosion
after explosion fill the air, the stuggle lasts just seconds
yet the two undeads, perhaps blessed by the Old Gods, or
maybe just with a lucky roll of the dice, are left standing,
the center of a ring of death.

The two glance at each other in disbelief... not knowing
how to respond to the Battleground chatter..
'OMG! how are you two still alive?!....'

Dementshea reports 'Mine Safe...'

July 4, 2009 | Unregistered CommenterUnholyone

So many stories.... here comes mine :D

This was soon after the launch of TBC, i had yet to reach 60 even with my ret(or was i holy?) paly, let alone buy the expansion, anyway i was out mining in Alterac Mountains for Iron/Mithiril for my BS when a warr just under skull level jums tanking 50% of my life b4 i even know whats going on i bubled and seing his level and my still standing hp i did the only logical thing and ran for the hills hoping he only wanted the nodes for himself but he wouldnt give so i said what the heck im dead on buble fail anyway at least im gona go down fighting so i trough a holy light( just in time as buble failed halfway trough and the warr started chopping my ass) turned around JoL,SoC HoJ JoC HL..LoH.. etc next thing thing i know i was 20% he was 5% hp =)) excute is a bumber dough... :P almost had him XD

July 4, 2009 | Unregistered CommenterDraikking

this was shortly after i hit 70 back in BC i was rideing around lvling my herbalism on my warlock. I just happened 2 be in tarren mill when i see a group of hordies rez, being an undead i stop and notice that they are all pvp flagged. at this point i didnt have a whole lot of pvp gear just some of the easy stuff to get and the frozen shadowweave gear back before the nerf. i figured i would hang out for a bit and see if my new little buddies needed any help they all mana up and heal and after a few mins i run off to go pick some flowers. i come back to my little crew just as the alliance group that hit them before comes around the corner. the allys that come around the corner and lvl 45 and up and the horde group is around lvl 25 or so. well the allys see me and stop, and to tell the truth i think its in bad taste to attack players that are way lower than you in world pvp, so i was going to leave them alone. but then one of the allys attack one of the lowbie horde guys, i promptly blow him up and his group i get a bunch of tells from the lowbie horde guys saying thanks apparently that group had be camping them for a while. i hung with my new group of lowbies and slaughtered the other group one more time before heading off into the sunset.

July 4, 2009 | Unregistered Commenternaihcul

I've had too many of these to even sort out, but the pile of bodies always makes me think that the mobs should notice and act different when they see a pile of corpses at your feet.

The trolls in Eastern Plaguelands are about the mobs that run for help first. This should be a more common behavior, especially when they can see you've already got a headcount.

My favorite story is my brother's though, back in Un'goro Crater in classic WoW days. He can milk the story, but it basically involves a chain of 7 mobs with no rest on his holy pally. He defeats them all and sits, only to be devoured by the Devilsaur.

Hate them Devilsaurs.

July 5, 2009 | Unregistered CommenterKazark

i renember my first AB ever it was really intence horde and alliance trading of bases and blows alll leading up to the one final battle in the farm alliance had 2 bases and horde had 2 bases horde ere in the lead allliance charged farm but horde refused to go down without a fight allmost intantly the battle bgan the battel normal just a 1 on one and then backup arrived the battle quickly escalated neither side wanted to give in allliance and horde pured in from all sides untill it was 15vs15 battle frost bolts fire bolts wrats bolts shodow bolts curses bullets arrows flying at and by me pats running arround looking to take the bite out of teh competition both 2 handers and one hander swords axes hemmers all kind of maces and plolearns swinging every whear death every whear and i was getting into the toon my gun ang like musical instrument the battle went on non stop for 10 minets just when i thought the battle was over and we lost reinforcements came in allliaance finnaly took farm and battle started to sattle down and shortly afterte battle was over and alliance had won this was the summer of 2006 never since was their a batle like that these days when allliance enters AB they get completly raped or completly rape thier is no middle ground like thier was on that sunny summer day but ot os sure is fun reminising about it

July 5, 2009 | Unregistered Commentercocopuff

PVE:

57/3/11 Arcane Mage, At UP fighting Skadi the Ruthless. So everythings okay untill the Healer gets in the way of Skadis Bladestorm and promptly dies. Another DPS goes down, I believe it was a Lock.

While watching my comrades valiently die I finished my Evocation and popped Mana Gem and my Trinket/Buff/Procs Macro and went all out with full mana. The Tank died soon after hitting Last Stand and shortly after the Fury Warrior fell too. Skadi was on 9% and I shat my pants. Icy Veins and Arcane Power was up and I gave it my all, spamming Arcane Blast and Missile procs, I slowed him, flipped and blinked and repeated. He went down literally 5yards from me. It was epic. Really!

PVP: Quite recently I went Deep Fire for PVP just to have fun blowing things up. In AB we were losing and the end game was nearing. A large group of about 6 Allies made their way to Farm and started tearing up Hordies on the way. As I aproached the bridge near Blacksmith their was one legendary Frost Mage kiting the 6 or so Allies at a very near death stage, he Ice blocked and saw me coming, I Frost Novad for him, he unIceblocked and Blinked and Evocated his health and mana back up.

I desperately tried to cause as much chaos as possible while Blastwaving a few into the river, instant flamestrike Dragons Breathing and another instant flamestrike followed, I neared death with a bubbled Pally on me, Iceblocked and my fellow Frosty came into play. Long story short we switched aggro every now and then like they were mobs. Epic. One survived, I think it was a Vanish Rogue that Cloak of Shadowed my Living Bomb. It was so surreal, I know how it happened, they were cocky in numbers, and Ive been there, it can happen!

Castocato - Troll Mage/ Steamwheedle Cartel EU.

July 5, 2009 | Unregistered CommenterCastorcato

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