… a well geared AFK/Bot.
Yeah, this is kind of another post where I link back to an old post like I don’t care about the color of your clothes, shake my head lolwut heirlooms in your Battleground? and wonder when people will ever learn.
I had a few experiences over the weekend that have brought my philosophy of gear being less relevant than attitude to the fore.
Like Raiding in Blues
There was a time, BG – Before Gevlon, where the concept of raiding, seriously, in less than the top of the line purples was scoffed at. “We all knew”, despite protestations to the contrary that you had to have the best of the best to even be eligible to apply for a bench seat on a raiding guild, let alone raid.
You WILL leave your fun on hold until you have suffered on the sidelines for an appropriate amount of time. No you may not play with your friends until you match their ever escalating gear score!
40% down
Yet in BGs, people just shrug at AFKs and Bots in BGs… Yeah the report them AFK, but we have gotten to the point were we expect 10-20% of a PuG BG team to be AFK.
We were in a Twin Peaks recently where 4/10 “players” on our side were AFK or bots.
Yes we reported them.
Yes they were booted.
Yes they were replaced
But by then the game was lost.
Those Rogues
Don’t get me started again on those stealthy sneaky rogues from that recent Arathi Basin.
Prime ninja capping class, healer lockdown class, ninja AFK class.
Did they hurt us… I told you not to get me started.
That 80k Hunter
Over the weekend while playing with those Americans, we had one AB with an inappropriately geared Hunter.
Now admittedly 80k is pretty damn low compared to my 140k-ish cloth gear, but there was one fundamental and vitally important difference.
He was conscious and playing better than many in the BG. A living, breathing, observant undergeared player is a help in ways that a Bot or AFK can never be.
We were losing, there is no question about that, and losing brings on the rage.
Way too late in the game one player started calling for the Hunter’s head, or at the very least that we AFK the hunter out of the BG.
What was interesting was the vocal response from several players in the BG, including myself of course.
I started with
Better a 80k Hunter that is playing than an AFK or Bot!
The reager wasn’t satisfied with this, he would have preferred an AFK or Bot to the hunter… Not sure wtf the rager was on.
Another player then managed to beat me to my next point.
We had a lot more to worry about than an 80k hunter. We were being beaten miserably and we didn’t have any AFKs or Bots – we were 100% active players, but we were playing like bots.
We could have replaced that hunter with the most geared player in the whole game, and assuming they didn’t just AFK out in disgust, we wouldn’t have turned that game around.
My Melodicdream and Pugnacious Priest.
Pugnacious Priest joined my guildies for a few randoms last week. One of my guildies was on her Warlock, finally raised to 85 after years languishing at level 70. She only had her old level 70 pvp gear and the bits and pieces she had picked up over those last 15 levels.
1st words out of PP’s mouth were
Carried!
She was right, but also so wrong. Our fresh lock was played by our Raid & RBG Pally heals. Playing a toon she used to PvP with. Playing with people she had PvP’d with tons of times before.
She knows how to play, she knows the BGs and while the her gear would have some impact on her damage output and damage mitigation, she was well aware of this and making adjustments to her playstyle to ensure she was of value.
Carried
Gnomeadeaden, Getafixsnow (both mine), Rawwrbear, Naysa, Dariaste, 80% of the guild…
We have all been carried, we have taken the fastest, most efficient route to BG entry… we walked in.
When you have less gear, you have to play smarter, play to the objectives rather than the killing blows, you learn your classes strengths and weaknesses, your get out of jail free abilities.
You need to – its all you’ve got!
BigPvPButt
Bear joined us on the weekend with little more than his smarts.
His smarts amounted to wise non-pvp gear selection, non-pvp spec choice, asking questions, picking the right targets, knowing when to engage and when to run away.
He played beyond gear and spec, he played smart.
Theoretically anyone with an ounce of H.I. can do this.
Knowledge
You don’t have to ever enter a BG to be equipped with this weapon. I’ve always found it strange that people will spend a lot of time getting to know instances and raids, yet never think of researching BG prior to entry.
There may not be the quanity of guides about, but I know a few people that will give you pointers.
Knowledge & Attitude
Attitude, interesting that it follows up on knowledge, but there is more to it. If you know you aren’t up for soloing a node, how will you play?
Getafixsnow spent a lot of time stealthing and ninjaing, while running from fights that couldn’t be won. Yet he could and would off-heal or blow the odd horde off the LM.
Knowledge, Attitude & Spec
Having an appropriate PvP spec and keyboard layout will make the world of difference.
The unthinkable PvE talents, the skills that never made it of of the spell book. The CCs, the escapes.
It’s not about the gear as much as how you play the game.
Knowledge, Attitude, Spec & Gear
Then of course, add gear to the mix and you can now stand toe to toe, fight on the road… or remember all those other things that got you the gear, the things that were much more valuable…
The knowledge, attitude and spec that make you much more valuable to a BG team.
Of course there are ways of getting some gear before you enter the BGs, and it never hurts to have something…
Crafted
You can make or buy the crafted gear. Some people will tell you not to even enter a BG until you have at least done this, but really, they can go screw themselves. They have no idea of your personal circumstance. Maybe this is your 1st toon, maybe you don’t know any of the required crafters (or they don’t have the patterns or mats if you do know some), maybe you have just scraped the last 15 copper together to buy your mount… I don’t know, and quick frankly it’s none of my business.
You could just be like me, some may call me a lazy arse, I prefer to think of myself as overwhelmingly ready to get into BGs… I’m not going to spend an hour trying to get the gear together that will be completely replace in a weeks time doing what I enjoy.
Crafted and JP trade for Honor
Of course, you may have piles of Justice Points just sitting about, well up to a max of 4k (unless the season has just turned and you have a few more). That will get you a piece or two if you convert it and you could augment it with some crafted gear.
Or you could just play smart and earn your honor, nicking out every 3 odd BGs to pick up a new piece of gear (cause you are going to win OK!).
Have PvE gear, will Battle
You may well have a nice set of PvE gear, you may just want to fill 30 minute gaps in your day… don’t ask permission, just get in the BGs.. yes, yes you will die faster than the guy with resilience, but just quietly, he will probably die faster at your hands with your DPS-optimised gear focused on him
Just do it!
Just do it.. it really doesn’t matter what gear you have, there is always going to be someone telling you you have the wrong gear, the wrong enchant, the wrong spec, the wrong transmog… fuck’em!
Just don’t do it in Rated Battlegrounds!
Ohhh.. just don’t go into Rated Battlegrounds in your frilly dragonslayers… you make have thought those bosses hurt, wait until you have a psychopathic Rated BGer bearing down on your… you will run screaming like a Blood Elf.
Mr Squiggle
Finally, don’t ask me why I am finishing on this one… I guess it is the trap of YouTube… and childhood… Mr. Squiggle and essential part of my childhood.
Maybe it’s just about perspective, not taking things at 1st glance… go on, turn the dynamic around, play your own game, have fun… because that’s what you pay for subs for, you aren’t spoiling the ragers fun… they are, they don’t appreciate you are 500% better than an AFK or Bot!
PS: bear you better have at least watched the 1st video… it was for you!
Gnomer and Out!
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License.
http://gnomeaggedon.net/2012/03/30/better-an-intelligent-undergeared-player-than/
I do agree with the principle of your post, but I admit to feeling mean thoughts towards those who join with low health/lack of gear. Those thoughts don’t translate into words though and I tend to stick up for anyone is who verbally attacked by our own team.
My rogue hit 85 on Saturday morning with the usual 98k health (blue quest/the odd dungeon reward type stuff). 30 minutes later, I had 130k unbuffed and 2200 resilience. I didn’t have 4000 justice/points saved up, in fact I had a measly 1200 honor when I dinged. I did however raid the AH, get a few friends to craft me some bits and picked up a few epics items. When I did enter my first 85 battleground, I was one of the better geared players.
I try my hardest in every battleground regardless of character and to me, gear is part of that. Yes, I don’t do as much damage as full pvp set rogues but I can stay alive longer causing mayhem with that gear than I could have if I’d entered at the 98k health mark.
But I’d rather have a rogue in a wedding dress who is actually playing than a bot.
I wish more rogues wore wedding dresses… I’d give them a 1st night to remember
well, those of us who don’t PvP much in battlegrounds need to start SOMEwhere… i may not have the best gear, but i’m working on it (slowly). the noob of today might be the leet PvPer of tomorrow, if all the nerd ragers would have some patience and help us learn instead of yelling at us all the time.
I am at the point now where ragers bring me perverse joy.
We were in a TB last night where the outcome was obvious from the 1st minute. We didn’t give up, but we’re definitely weren’t going to win.
We were mice to a playful cat.
One guy was screaming his guts out in caps and all I could think was he was the one causing himself so much pain.
You win some, you lose some. This was a loss, but I wasn’t going to work myself up about it, I was going to play, try different things, hopefully learn, then put it behind me.
I had a good nights sleep last night, cuddled up with my son and cat.
I doubt he did in the state he was in, and all over a regular random battleground.
1st world problem.
A proper response now, although I still like the idea of rogues in dresses.
To me it about not assuming the worst or invalidating a players fun.
I have friends with only one character in a guild with an irregular heartbeat. Crafters are in very short supply. As there is no sugar daddy character gold is in short supply.
Someone asked me the other day how I afford gems and enchants etc… well that’s coming out of my TBC fund, I haven’t had the time to grind, gather, craft or AH in ages. You don’t get paid to BG, and I don’t instance if I can help it, so the most efficient way for me to “buy” PvP gear is in BGs by earning honor & I am not going to gem or enchant any lesser gear.
My characters are now all in the fortunate position of having current or relatively current gear, so upgrading is easy and at a quick glance I appear on top of my game.
However if you looked at those toons when they 1st started there were only bits an pieces and I was a target for ragers… Ragers who more often than not got less caps, destroyed demos and gates or whatever the BG objective were. Yes they had more killing blows and less deaths, but often they weren’t “playing the BG”, they were playing the “HK game”.
There have been times over the last… what is it, 7 years, where I wouldn’t step foot into an instance or raid until I was confident that my gear was on par with those that had already been doing it for ages… now days, with limited time and much higher priorities than wow, I’m heading straight for the fun, using my knowledge to bring me up to the level of someone with shiny purples and no idea.
Great post as usual. You kicked me in the butt to finish the post I’ve been writing for umm almost two months – on the barrier to entry for pvp… well ok you helped because you basically cut the length of it in half because you said it so well here.
So consider this my traceback: http://gameldar.posterous.com/pvp-gear-and-the-barrier-to-entry
Oh.. and playschool isn’t about my childhood anymore… it is on our tv most days now… but I’m guessing that’ll pass all too quickly.
Excellent, I love encouraging the completion of posts!
Play school theme is well established at my place too… although with Odin starting school this year, that is starting to fade.
Odin heard me humming the Seasame Street song the other day and asked “Dad, how do you know that song?”.
I reminded his that apart from the previous 4 years of Seasame Street on rotation, it had been around as long as me.
Usually when I try to get back into PvPing after a long hiatus, I would try to get at the minimum, crafted resilience gear. They’re normally pretty cheap. Also if I know I’m really undergeared, I usually volunteer for less battle prone points until I gather enough gear.
Calling out incomings while guarding farm/stables for example. Water elemental, images, and ice blocks are usually good enough to keep a player or two from capping while reinforcements come.
Also, grabbing a friend and queuing for 2’s is a good way slowly get gear, without the guilt of losing battlegrounds due to your gear. It’s also a great way to learn how to play against certain classes.
OMG! It’s the Tunaggedon!
Long time no see!
Oh, I’m not opposed to people entering the BGs with whatever they can get their hands on, and yes there are routes to gearing, but I also encourage anyone to just step right in.
The downside of stepping in without more appropriate gear is it will be frustrating, but it can be that way when geared.
🙂 Yea long time no see!
Yea I understand. It’s just that I’ve run into too many undergeared players myself, during my PvP days, that I try not to do the same for others. It’s just that there are many players who really don’t know where to start when the first get into PvPing.
Oh wells, they have to start somewhere! Better a newbie, than an afker.
When I start my girls off on their pvp adventures I just accept that I’m going to die … frequently and then aim to gain revenge later as their gear improves.
My dk does gain odd looks however when going the other way and wearing her pvp gear in dungeons as it out stats most her pve gear at the moment …