The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly

One of the achievements that I've been working towards, off and on, has been Gurubashi Arena Grand Master. When the time is right, I hit Stranglethorn Vale, pop up to the arena, and see if I have a snowball's chance of getting my hands on a trinket. So far, Aeth's managed to loot four, so she's 1/3 of the way to getting her trinket and achievement.

Last night, just before logging off, I noticed it was nearly 12:00 server time... just in time for a trip to the arena! A quick /who in STV told me there were only a couple of level 80 folks Alliance side, which looked promising... then I got to the arena, only to see a Tauren Shaman waiting at the edge of the pit.

Well, OK. This isn't going to be a freebie. Let's take a look at him and see what spec he is...

Oh.

Yeah. He was rocking about a 5500k gear score... in his PvP gear. Almost 25k honorable kills to his credit. More PvP achievements than I ever even knew existed. And that was before his pally buddy showed up.

I figured that if they were going to take the trinket, well then - I'd make 'em work for it. It would probably be, you know, more like taking out the trash than building a skyscraper, but it's the principle of the thing. So I gave them a /nod, sat down, and we waited for Short John Mithril to do his thing.

A minute or so later, John yelled out his challenge, and headed for the arena floor. I figured I might as well get things over with, and jumped into the arena pit and waited for him. Mr. Cthülhu and his friend jumped in after me, I braced for impact, waiting to see how they would open, and...

... we all just stood there, each of us at the point of a triangle, while Short John wandered down to drop his chest. I put up Presence of Mind, the two Hordies buffed, and we watched each other for a good 15-20 seconds until the chest finally spawned.

Then the gloves came off.

It really was no contest, even with another level 80 Alliance pally showing up. I harried the shaman, interrupted the pally a couple of times, did some damage and took a couple of tries at looting the chest. Died twice, and really, I had the feeling that I wasn't being much more than a nuisance... but I didn't die instantly, so for about 2 minutes I had a wonderful time bouncing around, spell stealing, interrupting, polymorphing and tossing off whatever damage spells I could find time to slip in.

No, I didn't get the trinket - don't know who did. Got some nice PvP practice, though, and honestly, the whole thing would have been a non-event if it wasn't for the prelude to the battle. The fact that we were there to fight for the chest, and that we all waited for the chest before starting to scramble, was... cool. Going into the fight, knowing that my opponents weren't there to gank, that they were there to compete (even if the competition was a sissy mage in pieced together resilience gear), made a huge difference in the fight, and I had an absolute blast.

So for that, Cthülhu of Kirin Tor and your pally friend (who's name I sadly failed to note) - I salute you. Unlike the rogue who tried to gank me (and failed!) when I was leaving the area, you were not only competent, but honorable as well. I'm not going to thank you for beating my sissy mage face in - that would just be wrong - but I appreciate how you managed to do it with style.