World of Warcraft®

After engaging another player or group of players in open-world combat:

Which of these things would you respect and appreciate more?

A player that approaches you and then emotes, “/salute” – (or perhaps in the martial arts theme of Pandaria, “/bow”)... or a player that emotes “/spit”?

A player that “T-bags” another player… or a player that stands back and allows an opponent to rez, eat and drink, and re-buff before engaging them again?

While it is difficult to communicate cross-faction, there are certain indicators that players can convey in regards to combat. A sitting player is not a combatant, for example. A newly rezzed player that is obviously eating and re-buffing is not yet returned to combat. Once the buffs are applied, of course they are fair-game.

Flagged players that are observers can indicate that they are not engaging by sitting on a nearby fence or object, by grouping together in a neutral area near the fighting and not making any offensive moves. In this way, players can take turns engaging and have a break without concern for coming back from getting a cup of coffee to find their toon dead. Players jumping around and actively getting near the fighting should be considered active combatants; observers can easily avoid doing this.

If we work out some universal practices in these regards, it is entirely possible to create an environment more conducive to fair-play and a better experience for all.

While I cannot guarantee the actions of every Zen member, I can assure you that our officers do indeed strive to promote fair-play and good times in the aspect of open-world PvP.

Being a poor sport in the guild Zen can result in a demotion, a reprimand, or even removal from our guild. Players caught T-bagging opponents, or /spit emoting any other players runs a risk of removal. This is standard guild policy.

I hope these posts have been helpful and a positive influence on our realm’s play experience for all.

Thank you,
- Penelopae, Zen Leader

I find the rules of engagement by Zen interesting. Doing my dailies tab targetting (bad idea and totally my fault) I dot a dk from Zen. Now, I don't pve , and shadow is a spec I keep now since I can easily change tallents for pve/pvp (used to only have 2 disc specs). Ok to make a short storey longer, anyways, I dot the dk in shadow spec and pve gear, ... ....

Hiya Pigeonprayer,

…and, Welcome to SoE.

Sorry about your misfortune with some of my players. As earlier stated, I cannot guarantee all actions by all players in the guild all of the time… but I do encourage fair-play and good sportsmanship, perhaps to the chagrin of some players, but I do nonetheless. And after all, I’m the boss and last word on our policies… so good sportsmanship is promoted in our guild, griefers can find somewhere else to play.

Being new to the realm, I would like to share some perception from my perspective that may be helpful to you. The Horde has historically always been dominant on this realm in the area of Raid, PvP, and pretty much any aspect. Horde population is higher than Alliance here. Recruiting for a guild on Alliance-side is recruiting on a low-pop realm, while recruiting on Horde-side is recruiting on a medium-pop realm.

Considering this, I recruit more actively than most; my recruiting efforts are pro-active and heavy. I recruit on both sides, and I recruit heavily in order to gain a fair market share of the limited available players for an Alliance guild. Our guild is not large, but it is very active. Many players perceive us as a large “mega-guild”, while in truth we are merely very active and get a lot of stuff done per-capita.

As a smaller guild, we must play harder, and fight more aggressively in order to get stuff done. We managed to gain a realm-first for being the first guild to level 25, and have gained some nice achievements in raid and PvP. For example, we were the first Alliance guild to down Heroic Deathwing.

Being a low-to-mid pop realm… only a handful of guilds even finished Heroic Deathwing in the last expansion. This may convey just how difficult things can be here on this realm (especially for an Alliance guild).

Another example can be found in realm-first achievements for players reaching level 90 in the current expansion. ALL classes on this realm that earned a realm-first level 90 achievement were Horde players except for one. One lone Alliance player gained the realm-first class (Priest) achievement. Raynebodash of Zen is that player. ALL others were Horde, if that gives you an indication of how Horde is generally dominant in most any aspect of the game on this realm.

So, the point of my babbling here is that, sometimes our players get a little rambunctious. Sometimes our players try a little harder, work harder, and are naturally a little more aggressive than some of the other Alliance players. That does not excuse poor sportsmanship in any way… but I hope it conveys what you may find in many of our players… an aggressive and defensive stance on this realm. We get griefed a lot, I mean we get griefed a LOT… and we get a lot of stuff done. (I think there is a direct correlation between being active and getting a lot done, and the degree of griefing we endure). So… our players are generally expecting the griefing and may play a little more aggressively because of, or in spite of, that.

There is a fine line between being motivated and actively engaging… and being overly aggressive. I recruit active and aggressively driven players, at the risk of having to rein them in occasionally. I’d rather have to pull on the reigns than to dig in the spurs. If that makes sense?

Welcome to SoE,
- Pen

@Anonymous had the other 2 left it one on one I'd have smoked him. Simply because he had %30 health. And the first killing was on me tab targeting is a bad habit. The 4 camp kills after that, after reading this initial post was what I find comical. Please I am in no way trying to start a small war out of spite. From the posts I've read of /by pen and others in Zen they seem like good people. I had great respect for the alliance on my former server before the WotLK exodus. We'd go at it for hours at the entrance to gruuls lair and then jump in each others vent and have good fun. I will probably quest flagged from now on just because I miss those long nights of full guild wars just trying to raid. Just slow down my questing because shadow pvp is something I never really had a taste for so I'd have to quest disc.

10/22/2012 09:14 AMPosted by Penelopae

Now, about numbers… Usually, even-numbered teams opposing each other would be most fair, but not necessarily. Five seasoned veteran players with communications and high arena ratings (along with the gear that goes with it) are going to be much deadlier than even a dozen casual players in crap gear.

Pen while I do agree about this statement there is one thing that makes this statement flase when put into play with our situation. This is server lacks five or any other number of seasoned, veteran, high arena rating players. So I agree 100% with your statement, but you got to remember we lack that part of the equation.

I go by the red you're dead and honestly I don't mean to sound like the best but if I'm not moving and you try and gank me I will come back and make you pay for it.... That is the rules by which I PvP. I enjoy a challenge so I welcome you guys to 1v1 and I will attack up to 3v1 so bring it on! :)

@Pigeonprayer: Oh man, we used to have battle royale at the Ulduar Meeting Stone.

I recall having to holler and raise hell in Vent at the players to get their tails into the raid instance so we could begin the evening Raid event. They'd be out there PvPing their butts off and holding up my Raids...

We had this crazy Warrior in the guild at the time, Bluephoenix (he has long since transfered to get more RP in his game), and he would start this on-follow parade around the grounds there at Ulduar Stone... often Hordies would fall-in and join the procession as well. Round and round they would go, in a long chain of parading toons on mounts... until... someone summoned in from a BG or for whatever other reason, arrived flagged...

...and then.. it was ON.

Good funs, but dammit man I remember having to threaten the wrath of doom to get the raid started every evening because of it!

I recall having to holler and raise hell in Vent at the players to get their tails into the raid instance so we could begin the evening Raid event. They'd be out there PvPing their butts off and holding up my Raids...

We had this crazy Warrior in the guild at the time, Bluephoenix (he has long since transfered to get more RP in his game), and he would start this on-follow parade around the grounds there at Ulduar Stone... often Hordies would fall-in and join the procession as well. Round and round they would go, in a long chain of parading toons on mounts... until... someone summoned in from a BG or for whatever other reason, arrived flagged...

...and then.. it was ON.

Good funs, but dammit man I remember having to threaten the wrath of doom to get the raid started every evening because of it!

heck yea! That stuff was aweeeeeeesome!!!! I am glad to say I am was there and watched this stuff happened.:) I belivie this is what actually got me into PvP back in wrath. I remember some warlock emoting me, and saying I had bad mounts:( So I wanted to learn to PvP and stab is face. (I am a mount collector now also.... yea that warlock was a big influence.)

I knew that would waken some fond memories in you.

Good Times.

Sunday morning in The valley of the four winds.....thank you horde. You may have gotten Galleon but at least we made it much more difficult. Grats.

10/30/2012 12:33 PMPosted by Macbride

Sunday morning in The valley of the four winds.....thank you horde. You may have gotten Galleon but at least we made it much more difficult. Grats.

That was a fairly interesting raid. It was a pain because people kept dying, but I do admit it was pretty fun.

World PvP is being brought back by Zen by popular demand! Enjoy your main city being attacked?

Salute to all that participated in the very fun fight in the Vale. Expect more of that in the near future.

Its to have fun people and I hope all who were there had fun.

It really was fun- thanks for coming in and tanking for a bit, Biggestbear- I didn't die (EDIT- During the sha fight. During the PVP part, I did, like 3-5 times), because I was paying enough attention to not flag (I was scared that MC'd me -would- flag up, but eh), so we kept our tag, was pretty awesome.

Azinoz, when they change gag order you're going to be a sad warrior. :P

Hi Martahn,
Oh that was big fun, glad you enjoyed it too!

The Sha of Anger is an entry-level world boss, now that we’re into the gear a bit; the encounter isn’t as challenging as it was at first-launch. By adding in some PvP aspect, we bring new life to the encounter. This is good planning on Blizz’s part, and good fun for the players.

Our first-responders (about a dozen players total) arrived at the Sha for our pre-scheduled event there, and found your team already engaged. We almost wiped your group, but you recovered just fine and got your boss-kill. And then we stayed and fought until you mopped us up. Good fun. I died... so what right? There is no penalty for dying in WoW, or minimal anyway. So what you must run the short trip back to rez? And if you aren’t giggling the entire way back, then shame on ya!

So then we got a full group together on Darkmoon Island and got our Bunny Kill and returned to do our Sha of Anger after he re-spawned. The Hordies tried ganking our group. We got our boss kill and when we turned to mow them down… they all ran away, every last one, ran away from the fight. It was sort of disappointing.

The encounter that Biggestbear is referencing, I believe… was from a few days ago at the Shrine of Two Moons. Or that’s where it started anyway. We managed to get 10 of us inside the Horde Shrine, on a ledge in the main room above the door there. We were sniping at any Horde player that happened along until they finally figured out how to manage us a bit better. Then we went out in front of the shrine, killed city guards and battled with players there. The encounter spread across the vale, fighting all along the countryside between the Shrine and the Quest Pagoda under the huge statues.

Pretty good fun that lasted for a few hours total. I died a few times, Horde died, Ally died, we ALL got a chance to run back from the graveyard a few times. There were no “losers”... we were ALL winners that day because we all had a really good time.

Thanks to everyone that has been participating in the Open-World PvP encounters!

It takes both sides to get a good fight going on, so both sides need to participate or we don’t have an event. Good times and here’s to many more!

Cheers!

Azinoz, when they change gag order you're going to be a sad warrior. :P

I would beg to differ but everyone is entitled to their opinion. I was at 120k when you were chasing me down and landed waiting for you and the you attacked and you died just saying. Good Day! :)