Wow Level 19 Shaman Guide
Despite the devastating disappointment of narrowly missing my first ever AB 5 cap
A few months ago I decided to level up a Monk with intentions of RBGing with some buddies from 29s/39s. Now, as some of you may or may not know, I am perhaps the most efficient, skilled, and awesome leveler this side of the Gulch. With this information in hand, it may come as a surprise that said Monk has yet to reach the fabled MoP level cap. In fact, the bony undead beast of a Mistweaver hasn’t even made it to the less than heralded Cata cap of 85. Realizing my reputation as twinkdoms number one leveler EU/US could find itself in jeopardy I quickly mailed over some BoAs and got my feathery pants clad ass back in the grind.
I quickly equipped the previously mentioned feathery pants, in addition to my abnormally large and perhaps dangerously pointy shoulder piece, creepy head that makes my eyes glow red as if an old Polaroid made out with them, along with other quality raiment. Now came the decision: questing, randoms, or beegeez. I quickly ruled out questing as it would cause me to level entirely too quickly. No need to show off to all those who admire my leveling prowess on the old realID. Randoms seemed an acceptable middle ground and as a healer those things pop at a higher rate than Mrs. Duggar.
Apparently Blizzard has caught on to my incredible ability to blow through levels and slapped an ilvl requirement on the whole process. To this I call shenanigans. While I understand the need to equalize the playing field this is a low blow, even for you Mr. Blizzard. I should not have to spend my hard earned gold to go buy some ilvl226(ish) wristbands to replace the current sweat soaked ilvl43 beauties currently holding it down. Perhaps a caster piece of leather gear dropping sometime this century would help. As a result, my dungeon cap found itself thrown in the corner, resting on its side shamefully. On went my battleground tested, bright red fez cap of doom. I am referring to IRL head wear of course, but I digress… Battlegrounds, here I and my ilvl 43 bracers come! Well, except for you IoC. Seriously, who invited you? Don’t you realize everyone hates you? You are the WoW equivalent of Steve Urkel, but without the snazzy suspenders or uncomfortable charm. Please, go the F home. For your sake and for ours.
The following experiences occurred between levels 80-83. With that douche IoC on the blacklist I get in line for the first available battleground experience. The queue pops and up comes Arathi Basin, one of the OGs in the world of battlegrounds. AB and I go way back. Over the years I thought an understanding had developed in regards to the objectives and how to win. But, life has a funny way of flipping things upside down just when you start feeling comfortable. Before going any further I highly suggest you take a seat. Actually why in the hell wouldn’t you be sitting? What kind of insane person reads while standing or planking or something. Anyway, just prepare to have your mind blown.
About 5 minutes into the game the superbly coordinated horde forces come within seconds of capping all 5 nodes. My eyes grew bright, my smile grew wide. I had never experienced such a feat! My mind raced with how quickly the resources would accumulate and consequently the delicious XP to follow. Those came to a screeching halt, however, as some creative thinker on the alliance side decided to hit the undefended Goldmine. And it was this moment that a wonderfully insightful and helpful level 84 Druid spoke up in chat and exclaimed ‘We were so close to a 5 cap and insta-win!’ Yes folks, you read that correctly. Am I the only one who had no knowledge of this wrinkle in Arathi Basin mechanics? It took a level 84 Druid to explain to my ignorant level 81 Monk self that the fastest way to win AB is to get all 5 bases and then… game over. Resources, who needs stinking freaking resources? Just 5 cap then collect the honor and XP yo. As if this didn’t shatter my preconceptions enough, the very next game Eye of the Storm forever changed.
Despite the devastating disappointment of narrowly missing my first ever AB 5 cap and insta win I queued up for another random battleground, ready to gain additional experience and further inflate my supreme leveler ego. Next up on the BG rolodex, Eye of the Storm. This one has always entertained me in how it mixes in elements of AB with the capture the flag nature of Warsong Gulch. Winning usually results from controlling bases in addition to capping the flag. Well, turns out my friendly teammates had discovered a new, more exciting way to play this one. Fortunately for me they had no problems imparting to me the wisdom gained through their 80+ levels. Apparently I had spent the past years playing Eye of the Storm all wrong. Going for Fel Reaver and capping it does not, in fact, help the team out. Joining your teammates in a mid rush and then spending the next 20 minutes fighting for the flag, that is what helps the team out.
It took quite a while for me to adjust to this new paradigm. For some reason I kept wanting to either defend that silly Fel Reaver or move on to the Tower of the Wizard’s Sleeve or dare I say, the Tower of the Effeminate Elven Brigade. My wonderful teammates made sure to let me know, in the kindest way possible of course, that such actions did not contribute to victory. Oddly enough, despite their best efforts to employ such a well thought out strategy the horde forces lost. The final tally? Somewhere around 1600 – 300. Perhaps the Alliance had developed some sort of counter strategy to the Horde’s supreme tactic. Maybe my inability to grasp the finer points ultimately lead to our demise. Either way I will have to conduct further research and report back with the findings at a future date.
It just goes to show, you are never to old to learn something new. Even a seasoned leveling and battleground vet such as myself learned two very important lessons while simply trying to work out that XP bar. I mean, how many more battlegrounds have I completely misunderstood? Should I pretend to like IoC just to make sure the hate is justified? What if I have been putting his finger in warm water while he sleeps all this time due to a simple misunderstanding? The money I owe him for those laundry bills….