Kicking, Stabbing, and Biting (in Plazlo’s case)

Since my last post, I’ve shifted gears a bit.  Revwyn got her Ambassador title pretty quickly and, well, that’s about all I’ve done with her since.  I got kind of a hankerin’ to play Plazlo a bit and have some fun with sub spec in battlegrounds.  That has pretty much been ALL that has been going on since.

Sure, he’s run a few dungeons, trying for some specific pieces (I curse you Bands of Serra’kis), but for the most part, he’s been battlegrounding.  In the past, I’ve done some battlegrounds on my warlock Srotacilpud, but didn’t really get serious about learning the intricacies and strategies of each class and game. Not that I’m serious about it now, but I am giving it a lot of focus because it is a fun change of pace.  In doing this, I’ve learned a lot, specifically about the rogue class. Of course there is much more I need to learn, but there has been progress.

Things I’ve Learned

In going into BGs (WSG specifically) with Plaz, I was under the impression that rogues were excellent flag carriers. Well, that’s sort of true, but not completely.  Keep in mind anything I share here is based on the level 20 – 24 xp off BG bracket as a F2P twink. Anyway, sure rogues are speedy and can sneak in and grab the flag, but there are far better options for flag carriers if you are going up against a halfway decent team. I would say that pallies, druids, and possibly warriors make far better FCs. Pallies can have high health pools, lots of armor, heals, and several emergency button options. Druids have bear form and can also be speedy buggers as kitties.  Warriors have high health pools and good armor, though really they lack a bit of utility. All of these three really need a healer and couple of companions to make a hard to take down FC. Sub rogues, well…. we’re speedy and have interrupts and shadowstep, which are good, but without self heals or large health pools, we’re just not the best choice.

Learning about FCing and when not to take a screenshot

Another thing I’ve learned is that sub rogues are excellent at killing enemy flag carriers. We may not be able to dish out sustained damage at this level, but with high burst damage and stealth and a number of other tricks, we were made for this sort of thing. We can sap healers, burst on the EFC, and if that EFC has self heals, we can interrupt a couple of those pretty readily.  Granted, good is good. If a pally is EFC, is geared, hasn’t used LoH or HoP, and doesn’t freak out, they can get through it or at least last out the 8 second sap you’ve thrown on their healer, that is unless said healer trinkets. So, solo EFC hunting isn’t always a slam dunk, but teaming up with another rogue makes things even better. One of you on the healer interrupting and causing panic, the other working on the EFC. Or sap heals and both of you work on EFC. This last weekend in WSG a team I was on went up against a horde team that was an ok team, but what brought them a victory, was their rogue defense that caught us off guard. They had 3 Aerie Peak rogues that stuck to each other like glue and would simultaneously burst down our FCs before they knew what hit them. Sure, once they’d left stealth they had a short life with our FC having a posse with them, but they’re mission was generally a success. Their burst was just too fast, even for our healers and pally trying for those emergency buttons. They even had a fourth rogue join up with them near the end of the game. Now in retrospect, this is not an unstoppable defense, we just had no preparation to deal with it. It was an excellent strategy though.

In general, I think what makes rogues so fun to play, is that they have so much utility. They are not the god class at this level, far from it. They can do well against most classes 1 on 1, but they can’t dominate the field. Their strength lies in the odd little tidbits they can do to make a difference in the outcome of a game. Even if they can’t take out an EFC if they have a whole mess of people with them, they can sure as hell slow them down. Sapping the healer in that group or the EFC will slow things down in a hurry, giving your team time to get to the group when you can then join in on the EFC or better yet, harass, interrupt, and/or kill the healer while your group works on the EFC. Even sapping and picking off members at the back of the EFC party works well to slow down an EFC group when you are alone, giving your team better odds when they eventually get to the EFC group. I used to be a little trigger happy at jumping into fights in BGs, even against terrible odds. Now, as I’m going, I’ve learned it’s far better to assess what I could do to help our team overall. Killing is not always the best choice. Sometimes slowing up the EFC is. Sometimes going for their flag to avoid an EFC cap is. Sometimes protecting our FC by slowing up some of the incoming horde of horde is. Anyway, I’m learning.

Last Weekend

So with all that, this past weekend was Call to Arms: Warsong Gulch and in short, I’m tired of WSG.  I’m ready to focus my attention on Arathi Basin and learn some new strats for it. Plaz was able to pick up a couple of BoA pieces this weekend though, which is nice. His nemesis now though is still, as some of you are well aware from my whining, getting the Bands of Serra’kis. The bands are considered pretty much BiS for Plaz at this point and can be and have been a pain to get. They are dropped from Serra’kis in BFD, which is not bad. The bad comes in the form of getting a group to kill him. He’s off the beaten path and most groups either ignore him or forget about him. To go kill him takes in total about 5 to 10 minutes, so if I’d like the group to kill him, I’ve got to ask for it. Asking for it isn’t too bad, but I just feel so slimy, largely due to the fact that BFD bosses are 5 levels higher than Plaz and even twinked out he doesn’t contribute very well as DPS. My favorite run so far is a toss up. It’s either the run where I asked at the beginning if we could kill him, no answer. Then as we approached I asked again, no answer. Then we got there and I asked a good 3 more times jumping up and down where we would go underwater and, you guessed it…… no answer. I learned then if I didn’t get a response at the beginning of the run, to bail and do something else instead. The other contender for my favorite was when I asked the tank at the beginning if he minded doing Serra’kis, which to my great joy, he said yes. When we finally get to where we go get him, which is about 20 – 30 minutes into the run, our tank has to go and leaves. I was stunned. Not upset with the tank at all, just stunned. Foiled again. Luckily the replacement tank was game to go get him, but of course the bands didn’t drop. Good times. In the end getting the bands, which will happen, will feel much more rewarding than probably any other thing Plaz has gotten. He will wear them proudly…. someday.

Well there we are. ‘Swat I’ve been doing. Still tryin to learn all the things. If anybody has any strategies to share, or any resources for BGs or twinking at this point, I’d love to hear em. Best to all.