PVP Tip #549

Be aware of your surroundings.

This includes two things:

- Environment. Are there cliffs around that you might fall off of — or trick/mind control the enemy off of? Are there walls to LOS around? Are you going to get stuck on anything?

Bad PVPers use their environment as an excuse for their failures. "I'd have won, but I fell off that ledge." Good PVPers use the environment to their advantage, to gain an edge.

- People. Are there enemies in the area other than the one you're targetting? Will they give you any trouble? Are there people from your faction around, and will they help you? Don't just assume; ask.

E. and I were in the Searing Gorge about an hour ago, trying to get my druid some quick XP while giving her something to do quest-wise. We were doing some quests for a tailoring pattern for her, and I had ridden on ahead, when I saw her health start to drop.

"What's up with your health?"

"Something's on me."

So I rode back to see a rogue two levels above her poking her in the back with a very sharp knife. I heal heal heal, because that's what I do, and she quite neatly takes him out. Did he know there was a druid around? Probably not - he might have just assumed I wouldn't care because we hadn't been obviously acting like we were questing together. But when it became clear we were together and I was healing, he got overconfident. He blinded me instead of hitting vanish or destroying me, and it wore off and we took him out. (Or maybe he did vanish, but all the dots he was covered in pulled him back out.)

Lesson? Be careful that the person you're ganking doesn't have a pocket healer stashed somewhere — or, if you know they're there, take them out first.