The Video Game Revue

"OMG teh heals!!!"

I just had the most awesome experience in Warsong Gulch. Let me prefix this by saying that I don't play a whole lot of battlegrounds because right now I'm mostly into questing and levelling, although I'll gladly take some time out to help somebody out, especially a guildie. I found myself in the battle for Warsong Gulch because that's what the Hellfire Assassins--the guild that I'm in (on Kargath, primarily undead levels 30 to 45--found themselves doing tonight.

I also have to acknowledge here that the BGs for levels 30-39 are, I'm pretty sure, generally not as competitive as what you find at level 60; maybe not even by a long shot. But I thought it was general knowledge that you should always take out clothies first. It's not just that they're so squishy and crumple to the ground so quickly--it makes tactical sense too.

It may be satisfying, but sometimes it sucks bashing an Undead Priest in the face with a mace or sword or whatever. You never know what kind of nasty diseases that walking corpse has brought from the Undercity. You may get Touch of Weakness on you and/or Shadow Word: Pain, you may get feared, and the annoying bastard will certainly shield himself before the end. But whatever that cursed Priest throws at you, it'll be better than bashing on a Shaman or a Warrior who just won't die because of those damned heals!

The scene: Warsong Gulch. I'm at the Alliance flag with three other Horde after scuffle in which two defenders have already been dispatched. We're taking the direct route out of there when suddenly everthing goes sideways; at least four or five Alliance charge in from all directions and within seconds it's just me and the flag carrier--that is, one 36 Priest and one 39 Shaman, respectively. It's a good thing that Shamans no longer take damage, because we would have been fucked otherwise.

Actually, what really saved our asses is the fact that all of the Alliance defenders keep bashing on the flag carrier and--incredibly--didn't bother to take me out as I kept running just ahead of him. Any one of them would have been able to dispatch me or at least drive me away almost immediately, but instead I'm allowed to keep dishing out shields and Flash Heals on the flag carrier while scrambling for other options such Psychic Scream. In spite of being slowed and moving at a snail's pace, with absolutely no backup showing up until we've made it out of the Alliance base and into the middle ground, we did make it. The flag carrier had basically nothing left for health and my mana was totally tapped out, but we did make it.

So you can imagine my feelings as the Battlegrounds Group channel errupts into messages like "OMG DID YOU SEE THAT?!!?" "dat was awseome" etc. It was a big deal: this was, after all, the third cap for the Horde--the goal that won the game. I did a lot of healing and dished out a lot of Fortitude buffs and SWPs that round, but that one play really made me felt like I'd made a difference. Wow.

For people living in the US, Friday morning was the big line-up day to pre-order your Wii at the local EB Games or Gamestop. For me, a Canadian, the pre-order day is tomorrow. I phoned the closest EB Games on Friday afternoon and they told me that they will be accepting exactly 15 pre-orders on a first-come, first-served basis. I haven't entirely made up my mind to go, but there's a pretty damned good chance that I'll find the willpower to drag myself out of bed early and line up at least an hour before the store opens. And if there are already 15 people there waiting in line, well, I'll be early for work.

And on another arbitrary and much more random note, I want one of these DVD sets:

http://www.evo2k.com/2005/dvd/

Drooooool... (watch the trailer, but my wife thinks I'm crazy)

posted by Parappa @ 10:30 PM