Alterac Valley

Alterac Valley was the last battleground I needed marks of honor from to buy myself a PvP mount. Knowing that there is a certain PvE element involved, I stayed in Protection spec for the seven battlegrounds necessary to get the marks required.

For those who don't know, Alterac Valley has the distinction of being the only battleground with a highest bracket of 71-80. What this means is that in addition to fighting level 80 opponents, there are also opponents below level 80 to fight. And, with the addition of XP gains in battlegrounds, there seemed to be a LOT of under-80 characters on both sides.

As a Paladin tank with 35k health self-buffed, fighting against under-80 opponents is not fun. At least not when they're alone. They do minimal damage, and I crit with Judgement for about 1.5k, crit with Hammer of the Righteous for just over 4k, crit with Shield of Righteousness for just over 6k, and mid-70 opponents don't have all that much health.

However, fighting teams of under-80 opponents is ridiculous amounts of fun. While one person stands no chance of killing me before I kill them, a group of three, four or five of them do. And, in the midst of a swarm of mid-70 Horde trying to kill me, there was the occasional surprise of a level 80 opponent as well.

I was hacking and slashing with my axe, slamming with my shield, and throwing out holy judgement in all directions. But I wasn't dying until I ended up against a mid-70 mage, rogue, death knight and an 80 Warlock without a healer present (I had killed this same group earlier when I had a 73 druid healing me).