Melsheena's Guide to Levelling on a PvP Realm.

Notes:
I decided to write these guidelines to elaborate on Blizzard's guide to leveling on a PvP Realm, and to be a “catch-all” for the numerous PvP Realm question threads we get here on the Newcomers forum which can be found here - http://wow-europe.com/en/info/basics/racewar.html and for other people to gather in this thread and share their PvP Realm experiences with new players or players that wish to roll a character on a PvP realm. It’s more of a “Insider” outlook on leveling on a PvP realm (For both Horde and Alliance!) and to help out on specific problems. I’m afraid it doesn’t cover RP-PvP realms (Roleplaying Player versus Player realms.) because I don’t have any experience myself in Roleplaying on a PvP Realm. If others wish to contribute their experiences of a Roleplaying PvP Realm, then that would be fantastic.

The Official looking PvP Policy is here, which covers “Harassment” - http://wow-europe.com/en/policy/pvp.html


The Appeal of playing on a PvP-Realm.
In my eyes, playing on a PvP-Realm is how I feel the game should be played. You have total freedom over who and what you wish to kill and it provides a level of excitement when you’re out in contested zones, knowing that you could be attacked by one or numerous other players. It gives the feeling of true enemy hostility, and that’s what opposing factions should be for right? Killing each other! Of course, once you kill someone, you can always rub it in their face and prepare for the counterattack. If you are killed in combat, you can spend the time corpserunning planning your revenge and organizing yourself and/or your party to overcome your enemy. It’s all in the name of fun and honour.

Sadly, you can’t level 1-70 sat in the comfort of non-contested zones. Well you can, it’s called playing on a PvE Realm. But if you’re intent on leveling on a PvP Realm, you’re going to have to get your hands dirty. When you hit Level 20, you’ll have to go out into the contested zones to progress and from that point on the game becomes a little more exciting, a little more interesting and a lot more dangerous.

The “Basics”
When you start on a PvP realm, you basically need to know what you’re getting yourself into. You need some patience, perseverance and most of all – The ability to keep your cool.

If you are killed in combat, don't get worked up. Just release your spirit and run back. Keep your cool, don't vent your rage in chat, just keep it to yourself.

Player Versus Player - Welcome to the big time.
A lot of other players on your PvP realm abide by the PvP realm motto. “If it’s red, It’s dead!” Anything is game. Regardless of class, level, whether you’re handling mobs, being outnumbered or even in your town. It doesn’t matter on a PvP realm. If you’re in a contested zone, you are pvp flagged, you are game.
Of course, not all opposing members of your faction will attack you on sight, this also means you’re not obligated to attack on sight too. I’ll elaborate further on.

Being aware of your surroundings
Common sense comes into play a lot of the time whilst you’re playing on a PvP realm. Before you engage a mob/npc, take a look around you. Did you spot any players on the way to your destination? How close where they? What level where they? How many where there? You do need to give it some thought at times, whether to trust the player not to attack/interfere with you, since there is a chance that the player you passed before could be making their way to you now to give you a rough time.

A lot of the time, in my experience, members of the opposing faction will just leave you alone if they’re on their own, same level as you, same class etc etc. If you’re in the same area as a player, or you approach a player close to where you want to quest/farm, exchanging a few emotes usually smoothes things over. It reassures the player that you don’t wish to engage in combat and most of the time they will respect that. This of course doesn’t mean they won’t attack you and it also means you don’t have to refrain from attacking them.

Getting Ganked
Apologies for stating the obvious, but you’ll find that most of your fights on a PvP realm come from players who know/think they can win, players who are higher level than you or outnumber you. Other players will sit and wait for you to engage a mob or have low Health/Mana until they start attacking you. Whilst this is a cowardly thing to do, it only reinforces the fact that you are fair game in the eyes of your enemy. These are things you just have to live with on a PvP realm, just release your spirit, run back and survey your corpse. Resurrect in a safe spot and continue your business. If you are attacked again, repeat the process, but instead of continuing with your business, just start on a different quest or area for an hour or so to let the conflict cool down.

There are instances where you have been by numerous players or a player of a higher level than you, only to find that when you come back they’re sitting on top or in the area of your corpse. This ingame is known as “Corpse-camping.” Whilst corpse-camping is generally frowned upon, it doesn’t mean it can’t/won’t happen. The best thing to do when you’re being corpse-camped is to either resurrect at a spirit healer, try your luck at escaping or to just sit on your corpse in ghost form and go and do something else for ten to fifteen minutes. The player camping you will probably get bored and leave you alone.

Fair Fights
It’s rare you will come across a “Fair fight” on a pvp realm, although if a player wishes to engage in an equal fight, then you should relish the opportunity and accept the defeat if you are vanquished. Alternatively, if you are victorious, it’s not an excuse to attack the player because you know you can win again. Though this is up to you, but you’ll realize that fair fights don’t happen often.

Harassment
Harassment is a controversial topic on PvP Realms. Theres no real definition to harassment when everyone is fair game, but in my experience, the only real form of harassment comes with the term “Griefing.” Griefing was usually a member of the opposing faction interfering with a world boss event. Such as Lord Kazzak and Azuregos. These were the only times when GM’s got involved or there were huge flame wars on the Realm Forums shortly afterwards. Also a lesser version of griefing is camping instance entrances, Whilst this is pretty much redundant now (Karazhan gank fests are all too frequent yet deliciously fun), some players used to be able to completely lock a raid out from Blackwing Lair by sitting on the orb which wastes everyone’s time and nothing is gained. The only real form of Harassment on a PvP Server is if someone starts to offend you. Either by logging another account and directly offending you, or over the forums. Whilst banter like this should be taken with a pinch of salt, there are some instances where it’s gone too far and a GM needs to step in.

Using Contested Environments to your Advantage.
Sometimes, players just don’t learn at all. For example, if you are on a quest which requires you to collect a lot of items with a low drop rate, you probably want to be left alone. When you get there, there is another player of the opposing faction doing the same quest/grinding the mobs you need. Now, there are a few options here. You can ignore the player and attempt your quest, knowing that the player could attack you at any time. You can attempt to communicate with the player, showing your intention for a peaceful resolution where you and them can get your work done, you can choose to attack the player and deter them from returning to the area, or you can attack them and perhaps make life a little harder on yourself. Personally, my policy on this is if someone attacks you whilst in the middle of a quest or grinding on mobs, you go back and give them a hard time. Hopefully, they’ll learn their lesson and you can go back to completing your task. Otherwise, you can spend a good hour or so exchanging blows and corpseruns (Which is all good fun, right?) The best phrase to sum this up would be here, “Do one to others as you would want done to you.” This ofcourse, is entirely discretional. You can be a little angel or a complete utter devil.

Attacking a player
This section is where morals dip a bit.

When you come to attack a player, you know you can win. You are the predator, they are the prey. Every player who is PvP-Tagged is fair game to you as you are to them. The player you are attacking could potentially be the person who attacks you if you chose to ignore them before. So you’re getting the first shot in while you can. There are a number of underhanded tactics you can use, but usually the most common way of engaging the enemy is as you pass them by. When you feel the time is right, unleash the fury on them. This could mean dismounting and engaging whilst they are mounted or waiting for some distance.

Other ways of engaging the enemy include waiting for them to engage in combat with another target (Otherwise known as “attacking whilst handling targets.”), waiting for them to be hindered in some way (Low health, mana, debuffed. etc), outnumbering the target (If theres someone already engaged in combat with your target, helping out doesn’t hurt.) or severely outgearing or outlevelling the player still makes them fair game.

While it’s considered “lame” to attack players in this manner, unfortunately it’s a dog-eat-dog world on a PvP Realm and you will be the prey if you don’t take the initiative. Besides, the player you gank today could be the one ganking you on your alt tomorrow!

[ Post edited by Melsheena ]

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Scryer boy, Scryer boy, does whatever a Scryer does,
Can he go, to Aldor Rise? No he can't, he will die.
Look out! There goes the Scryer boy.

It was a very good idea to but together a guide like this Melsheena. I know there's alot of things in here that most of us had to learn the hard way.

I have added this to the Newcomer reading sticky thread.