As someone that has played many many MMORPG’s over the years, I’ve never been a (PK) Player Killer or played any kind of PVP so everytime i’d read about the BattleGrounds I would wonder if it was something I would like and could I get past the fact that I was killing another player. But I’m at level 48, a good level for the BG, I have very good armor and weapons (some may call me a twink but I’ve played the AH from day one and have plenty of G to play with) So why not try the BG once.

   I’m not sure why but I was afraid that first time I clicked join and the BattleGround splash screen showed up, would I suck, would I die right away, would people be yelling at me.. I hope not on all of these. When the BG begins, everyone is behind a gate, at this point everyone starts throwing out buffs (I think they are free at this moment and so many seconds after you revive at a graveyard). When the gates open the game has begun, everyone runs out and at least on Arathi Basin you have to capture the different nodes on the map. A good team communicates well and helps each other, my first play this wasn’t the type of team I had, everyone just ran around on their own, not even helping each other. This probably made me feel better, because if I was going to majorly messup, I might as well do it with a buch of messups anyway.

   The game went quick, we lost big time and the score board came up, I hadn’t done bad at all 7 kills and only 5 deaths, I’m thinking if I can keep my deaths lower than my kills, I’m doing well. During the night I played 3 times, with 2 loses and 1 win, but the one win was so close my nerves were shot and it was time to head to bed (and dream about fighting all night long). When the night was over I had over 30 kills and something like 400+ honor points to use toward buying extra equipment and potions.

   The game is pretty simple, but you do end up having to completely change how you play compared to PVE. I had read alot on the BG’s and most helped when I had finally got into the game, but one thing I hadn’t read anywhere was about the buffs that show up every once in a while, I would see these buff icons in the BG but didn’t hit them because I wasn’t sure what they did. After some searching this morning I found an answer from TenTon Hammer

There are a few special icon buffs a la Unreal Tournament on the map as well. A speed buff pops every thirty seconds or so in a small alcove to the side of the long center tunnel in each base. Additionally, healing and berserking (a buff that allows you to do +30% damage, but increases damage taken by 10%) icons occasionally spawn in each of the small outbuildings in the mid-field. When you’ve killed a player, right click their corpse to remove their insignia so that they can only revive at their graveyard (you can also loot a small amount of coin on occasion - but this coin doesn’t come out of their personal account). If you die and press the “Revive” button, you’ll take the ghost form at your faction’s graveyard, where a special NPC will cast an area-effect resurrection spell every thirty seconds. If you’re within the area as a ghost, you’ll revive with full health, full mana (if applicable), and (if you’re a warlock) a pet.

   More info can also be found at WoW’s offical page on battlegrounds and their Generial BG info page and for deeper info with many of the abbreviations used in BG chat check out Battlegrounds for Dummies. Read through these pages, don’t worry about pvp if you’ve never done it, don’t worry about sucking (there were some bad players in there) and don’t worry about having to win, it’s all about the game and I have to say it was fun and I’ll be going back.. (ok, so what Alt do I want to roll to just play BG’s )