Tol Barad Chatter

[Irenke]

7 May 2011 @ 0905 (0905)

Attacker: Horde
Winner: Horde (0910)

Thoughts: Shortest match ever. We won in approximately five minutes. I don't even know how it happened, but it happened anyway.

As usual, I spent most (well, all) of my time in Tol Barad at Iceclad Garrison. I joined the initial push there and watched in amazement at the performance and prevalence of my fellow Horde healers. Of a raid of perhaps twenty, I managed to log the exploits of five healers. And that was only of the ones in range of me; there most likely were more healers fighting at other places on the map.

This is a clear disparity from the Alliance, where -- as I've logged from Tol Barad chatter -- healers are extremely rare. There have been a number of battles in which I have participated where I can truthfully say that I was probably the only healer of the battlefield. However, in this case, at least one-fourth of the raid consisted of healers. One-fourth! It's no surprise that Alliance consistently has so much trouble in Tol Barad. I just wish that I could identify the underlying reason why so few healers are queuing among the Alliance.

General

[Irenke]

7 May 2011 @ 1135 (1135)

Attacker: Alliance
Winner: Alliance (1150)

Thoughts: We won, which was a very pleasant surprise. This may have been my first Alliance victory, both experienced and witnessed, since starting this log.

I was surprised that there were far more Alliance healers present than I typically see. In fact, there may have been more than I have ever seen, which is a very welcome change. Hopefully it's a permanent one. Furthermore, the heals were fairly good, including one Restoration shaman who was exceedingly good. He was, however, the only one I saw making a conscious effort to aid healers when they were under enemy attack; he would knock them all back -- often off of a ledge or platform -- thereby allowing us time to recover and get ready for the next assault. By alternating Psychic Scream with this, we were able to handle most of the attacks on healers at Warden's Vigil.

The same could not be said of my experiences at Iceclad Garrison. It was painful there. There was a rogue that continuously dogged my heels, as well as a Feral druid, a death knight or two, and a handful of hunters. We had one or two of the competent healers present for much of my time there, but there was this one Atonement priest who left me wanting. Having PvPed using the DPS-to-heal model before, I can say that it can get a little difficult at times, but it was as if no heals were happening at all.

I know, I know. I tend to be far more critical of my fellow priests than other healers. It happens!

I did notice that the Alliance weren't consistently fighting on the flag. While I was at Warden's Vigil, most of the defenders there fought in the courtyard or just outside of the node. This allowed a small group of Horde to assault from the rear and snag Warden's Vigil out of the grips of the pittance defending on the flag -- which amounted to the Restoration shaman, me, and one other. I know that this tends to be fairly uncommon among the Horde, but that may be due to repeated reminders (typically in /yell) to fight on the flag. Most of that is due to Jaegerog.

That's right, Alliance players. The text Orcish text you see in /yell isn't usually ridicule; it's a reminder to fellow Horde players to fight on the flag and not in the courtyard!

Communication this match was really good, particularly in light of earlier chatter that I have experienced. There were a handful of slightly conflicting orders, but it didn't lead to arguments and definitely didn't result in name-calling or public derision. There was also a very conscious, very public effort on identifying Horde healers and then kill them. Players (I noted that many of them were Alliance healers) would call out Horde healers by name and specify their locations, thereby encouraging fellow players to kill them. It worked out very well.

General

[Irenke]

7 May 2011 @ 1505 (1515)

Attacker: Alliance
Winner: Horde (1535)

Thoughts: After successfully defending Thunderbluff from an Alliance assault, I joined a number of my guildmates in Tol Barad. I missed a little less than half of the match due to my efforts in Thunderbluff, but managed to snag all of the end.

There was a lot more chatter today than normal, including some less-than-stellar comments regarding strategy and performance. A number of very visible reminders had to go out regarding fighting on the flag; I noted that a lot of people -- including Tol Barad regulars -- had a penchant for fighting in the road. Overall, however, it wasn't too bad, especially when compared with earlier communications caught while playing for the Alliance.

Healers had a very strong presence among the Horde in Tol Barad today. Offhand, there were three priests, a Holy paladin, two Restoration druids, and I believe one shaman -- and that's just what I caught in range of me. There may very well had been more on the battlefield with whom I just didn't cross paths. Most seemed fairly competent and overall I was very pleased with the Horde healers.

Focus fire by the Alliance wasn't too prevalent this match. I didn't have too many issues and I noted that my fellow guild healers hadn't had too much as well. There was a rogue regular named Halfwit who was a persistent thorn in the sides of the healers. Priests in particular appeared to be his favorite prey. Fortunately, he didn't appear to hit too hard. I typically fight in raiding gear rather than survivability gear, due to the fact I tend to run out of mana before I do health; the damage I was receiving wasn't too frightening and our allies were very good at keeping him rooted/CC/unable from attacking me.

General

[Irenke]

11 May 2011 @ 1000 (1000)

Attacker: Horde
Winner: Horde (1010)

Thoughts: I don't usually comment on the performance of non-healers in Tol Barad other than mentioning if they are focusing on killing enemy healers or aiding friendly healers, but I'll make an exception. For, behold, I have found the worst rogue I have ever seen in a fight. This gentleman fought at Iceclad Garrison and spent the vast majority of his time throwing a weapon. And while I recognize that Assassination rogues have Deadly Throw (which is what I assume that he was using), it does not seem conducive to winning to spend an entire match doing that.

It defies reason.

The battle was quick and generally very easy. I do not believe that the Horde even managed to take the tower down; we won before that could even be accomplished. We had a number of healers on the battlefield, including a Holy priests and Restoration shaman dutifully defending Iceclad Garrison with me. As usual, I wasn't too impressed with the performance of my fellow priest, but the Restoration shaman was excellent and did well in supporting her allies in addition to her normal healing duties.

Focus fire on healers from the Alliance was lacking in the first half of the battle. It may have been due to the fact that half of the people at Iceclad Garrison were healers, but the Alliance seemed to focus more on killing non-healers than healers.

That said, the latter half of the match became far more painful. In particular, there was an Enhancement shaman and hunter duo that kept chasing me. I ended up spending the vast majority of my time hiding behind a pillar and fending off the shaman's advances. After a bit, the shaman chose to run off and find easier prey (I just wouldn't die, especially with my Restoration shaman support!) while I continued to heal my allies and play with the hunter.

General

[Irenke]

25 May 2011 @ 0755 (1000)

Attacker: Alliance
Winner: Horde (0825)

Thoughts: It's been a while. I've been far too busy (I start a new job next week!) to play World of Warcraft, much less schedule time to hit Tol Barad each day. Worse, the queues make it difficult to consistently get into a match when I do have the available time to do so!

This morning's match was fairly consistent with prior matches. Since it was an early morning match, the raid consisted of perhaps a dozen people for the vast majority of the battle. Of the Horde raid, I appeared to be the only consistent healer, though we did gain a fairly competent Holy paladin towards the end of Tol Barad.

As soon as I was called to battle, I headed to Warden's Vigil; no one gave any orders, but it appeared that it was the only node under attack and I was feeling a little frisky. I helped the Horde successfully repel the attack and then watched as the node's defense dwindled down to myself, a Protection warrior, and a mage. We three held Warden's Vigil all by our lonesome for almost the entire match, as wave after wave of Alliance players attacked us -- sometimes consisting of at least half-a-dozen Alliance. It was epic.

/salute, Pyrð and Banu. We were amazing.

There was a concious effort by the Alliance to try to kill me, but they just could not seem to complete that objective. At one point I was healing my allies and myself while fending off the unwanted advances of two hunters, a mage, a warlock, and a death knight -- and I just could not die. This was also one of the first times where I've worn my Bloodthirsty Gladiator's pieces, but I really don't think that my survivability could be attributed to that. I think a lot of it was that I stayed out of LoS for the vast majority of the time and I had wonderful support from my fellow Horde companions.

All in all, a thoroughly enjoyable match. I would give quite a bit, however, to learn what they thought about our defense at Warden's Vigil!

General