So I was having a conversation with a buddy of mine who had just finally transferred servers and caught up with me about the state of RvR on Badlands. This guy in particular gets a lot of respect from me since he was one of the original members from last year when my guild was started, and he was consistently the first to hit top levels, finish dungeons, get the phat lewt, and just be a badass in general. To have his insight as a fresh pair of eyes to our sad battlefields was refreshing. One thing to keep in mind, he transferred and experienced a pretty weak city push on his first day, but the Lion and Gazelle thing… That rang pretty true to me.

It’s a matter of zerging really. The offensive participators are the Gazelles, roaming in herds from BO to BO to Keep and so on, grazing on renown, and in no real danger of death or fear. Their numbers make them invincible, their pack mentality leads them flawlessly to each grazing point. Occasionally they can get a little tricky, but for the most part it’s easy to lead them around and you know exactly where they’re going to be heading next. They don’t mind trampling you if you’re directly in their path, and will probably leave you alone if it seems like you’re too far off to bother with. Anyone bearing witness to the herd will stay far away and bask in the sheer massive force rolling across the open fields. I hate this, and last night I partook mostly because I was doing some cultivating, and hey, free renown is free renown after all. I was queued for 2 straight hours and didn’t get a pop…

Personally, I much more enjoy the defensive end of the equation. Here be Lions, and no, not the crappy NFL team hailing from my hometown of Detroit. A pack of lions lurking in the fields will track movements of the herd, where there may be 100 or more Gazelles, only a dozen Lions or so needs to be nearby to keep them in line. A perfectly straight line, with the outliers getting picked off one, two, or three at a time. You see, a hoard of Gazelle only tramples what is directly in front of them, not directly behind, or even flanking off the rear sides.

This brings me to the experience my friend had, and his gripe with these tactics in general. First off, there’s no issue whatsoever with the position of the Lions. If you can’t field large enough numbers, than field small enough ones to get kills. Awesome. I would love to be doing that again. However, when he saw a Gazelle being picked off and ran back to assist and eventually rez, the Gazelle bolted back towards the herd leaving him to die at the gnashing jaws of a dozen Lions. What kind of cowardice takes hold of you to abandon your savior with the full knowledge that he is absolutely going to die? Especially in this game, where death is so frequent and common, why would you bother to run? Well, I know why. Mostly out of fear of being killed, but damn does it suck for the guy that just saved your ass. You could at least TRY to kill something.

Just another day on the battlefields of WAR. I sure hope the tables turn on us soon, I hate Gazelles.