Musings on PvP

I figure it's about time for one of those "real" posts, so here one is.  PvP.  Some people love it, some people hate it, some just deal with it.  Me, I'm of the love variety.  It probably has to do with my first character (poor Kellhus, he's still lvl 62) who, I rolled on a PvP server to play with some rl friends.  After questing in the undead starting area and then Silverpine, I followed the quest that guided me to the next logical questing spot: Hillsbrad. 

Yes, I admit freely, I was a noob.  My friends had warned me about "if you see a character with a red name: run."  I didn't think much of it. 

So into Hillsbrad I run.  Suddenly as I enter the zone I think "the title's not in green.  What's a contested area?" But give it no more thought.  Then as I'm nearing the Horde town, I see a character.  This was my thought process, in real time:  "hey. he's on a ram."  "hey, he's not on a ram anymore."  "wow, I'm dead." 

Within my first five minutes in Hillsbrad, I had already stumbled upon the ongoing war between Tarren Mill and Southshore.  I proceeded to get ganked at various times during my 10 or so levels there. 

And of course, still being a noob, at later levels, I did not know to avoid Stranglethorn Vale either.

Well those ganks changed me, and in a good way.  For one, when another lock ganked me, I learned (yes, yes, still a noob then) that you could use fear on players.  But I also learned something more: PvP can be incredibly fun.  And the experience of a PvP server, in my experience, is unparalleled.  I've tried several times to roll various toons on PvE servers, but I always end up bored.  I don't like leveling.  It can be fun, but if it's just "quest, quest, quest, instance, repeat" then it does get old.  But what if you're constantly looking over your back?  What if during your leveling you stumble upon that great bit of world PvP that exists: i.e. you and another player your lvl decide to duke it out, either over a piece or ore, an herb, or a quest loot/mob?  Well then, boys and girls, the excitement begins.

And yes, I know the frustrations of getting camped by higher levels when all you wanna do is finish your quest so you can ding.  I know it all too well.  And it IS frustrating.  Especially if you don't have a level-capped character of your own. 

But overall, the experience is worth it, at least for me.  Obviously this is a personal preference.

But what PvP boils down to is something I love about the game.  Raiding is fun, and trying to get 10 or 25 people in sync for boss fights can be quite a challenge.  But for me, the most fun is knowing that when I PvP and win, there is someone, somewhere who is actually frustrated by it.  You can kill all the bosses you want and they'll just respawn and try to kill you again, but they feel nothing from their death.  If you kill a player, they're going to end up frustrated.

And yes, a bit chunk of PvP comes down to gear, but there's also skill and a little bit of luck.  Case in point, during 2s arena, my partner (a holy pally) and I ran across another team of... a death knight and a holy pally.  As it began I thought "well this should be interesting." And my god was it.  For the longest time, we just went back and forth damaging and healing.  I'd target the DK, I'd target the pally (for the most part, their DK spent his time on my partner).  In the end, we won.  I can't tell you how.  Some of it was me getting the right spell off at the right time (probably a spell interrupt on the healer), but I know a little was luck too.  And while I'm not much of a gambler, I definitely like that chance aspect. 

But of course if you ask, I'll tell you that it was all skill.