Shot Through the Heart, and I'm to Blame

Yeah, I give PvP...


a bad name...

This takes placeon Argent Dawn, US. This is my 3rd Balthazario Pally and he's a member of "Single Abstract Noun" (aka SAN), the blog-people guild. This is the guild envisioned by Tamarind (and started in the EU HERE) and expanded to the US by Miss Medicina (HERE) The SAN Guild Forums are HERE. As an FYI, the US chapter has ~275 players, and we just broke 400 toons last night. WOW!!

AAAAnyhow... back on topic.


To be honest, there's a small amount of ironic humour here. Earlier on the night in question, Cynwise was on, and I was bemoaning my sad PvP abilities, which I whined about yesterday in my blog. Ans, as befitting a PvPer and blogger of her caliber, she chatted with me and gave some input and good ideas. (thanks, btw!)

Later in the night, after Cyn had logged off, I trundled my level 16 Pally into Elwynn Forest, and through the oddity that is Goldshire.

There are a couple duels going, and a bunch of folks milling about. I'm looking around for anythig untoward (I had been hearing a lot of "ugh, Goldshire is nasty!" but honestly had no clue -at the time - what the problem was) There was no RP going on (which I have barely seen ANY of) and so I'm getting ready to go about my business.

And in comes the Duel Challenge.

The name pops up, and I scroll around trying to see who & what is challenging me. As usual in a crowded area, I can't find them (is there a hint to finding them, by the way?)

I take a slow deep breath and click "accept".

The countdown starts... 4... 3... 2... 1...

A couple seconds go by and I'm sitting there waiting for an attack so I know who I'm supposed to be dueling.

FINALLY a fireball plasters me. AHA! A Mage!

Crap.

I then get locked in ice, and a moment after that get some meteor shower or something (sorry, I don't know my mage spells) This is the time I realize that I am fighting a level 20 mage. At level 16.

Oh boy...

As I wait for the ice to wear off, I hit Holy Light to heal a bit and charge after the mage.

Sssslllllooooowwwwllly. Friggin Ice bolts.

I run towards him, Judge, melee hammer of Justice to stun/ interrupt him melee him a bit and I drop him to nearly half in 2-3 seconds.

He starts to run and -WTF?!?!?

Oh yeah, friggin blink. Le-sigh.

Repeat the previous steps, except I started totake a LOT of damage. So I pop Divine Protection (my shield wall) My health is ~10%, I hit Gift of Naaru.

By the time I'm out of the ice, I'm back to full health, and the mage is actually pretty close.
>
I charge after him - Ice Bolt - Blink - He casts, I charge in, beat him up.

Repeat. Well, mostly, this time I used holy light.

And he's now healed once (potion?) and is back below 1/2 health.

I attack, stun, hit, run, blink, ice bolt... yada yada.

After 3-4 repetitions of this, he's dead.

Wait! I Just won an honest-to-god duel! Against an "equivalent" player! (actually, 4 levels higher- I'm only a 16!)

I heal him and bow to him and we go our separate ways.

I didn't think to armory the guy, so I have zero clue about his gear, spec or anything.

Anyhow, the guy is probably new to PvP, and doesn't really understand the advantages he had, because, even level aside, in a wide open area, a Mage *should* wipe the floor with a Pally.

The guy did a number of things "less than ideally". Well, 2 things that really stand out:

- He stayed too close.
- He seemed to only use long cast spells.

Many of his other tactics were good ideas, but not used optimally. If I were to fight a Pally (if I were a Mage) I would do the following:

- Ice block
- Blink to maximum ranged DPS range.
- if still iced, maybe hit one "fast" cast spell
- as soon as ice wears off - Ice bolt to slow down
- INSTANT CAST/WAND LIKE A MOFO!!! put some damage on that Pally and keep it coming- as soon as the pally starts to get a *little* close, I run away until Blink & ice block are available.
- repeat the above steps until pally is dead.
- A Pally will heal when trapped, so remember that his heals can be slowed/interrupted.

Yes, use big DPS, long cast spells on occasion, but they leave you vulnerable. Most of your damage (IMHO) should be instant cast (or wand if there aren't any) If you are standing there for 3 seconds while casting, if he isn't locked in a trap, he will be running after you.

As a ranged caster, with some AWESOME traps/etc, never EVER let a Paladin get within 30 yards. You can simply kite the poor bastard around, without taking any damage at all. Yes, Pallies can bubble then heal, BUT, we can only bubble once every 2 minutes. And yes, while self healing is a bugger, a Ret or Prot shouldn't be able to heal faster than a caster can DPS.

Also, a (lower level) Pally can only heal when stationary, so if he's running after you, he isn't healing. KITE HIM!!!!

Later.