Fear Response

My wife was running Glitz around Hellfire Peninsula yesterday evening doing the Hellfire Fortification quest. She's never really found herself in a world PvP situation, so she really didn't know what to expect and took it very lightly. After capturing the first two targets without a problem, she headed to the Stadium where she found a Lvl 62 Gnome Warlock, flagged, and sitting on his Dreadstead. Seeing her screen, I jump out of my seat and dart across the room to the computer. "Go go go. Don't let him get a fear off!"

She froze. Her hands hovered above the keyboard motionless, as if the 'lock wouldn't see her if she didn't move. Her eyes grew large as if she had seen a ghost, and her pupils dilated, turning blue into black. Psychologists call this the "fear response," a natural reaction to threatening stimuli. How appropriate.

The 'lock dropped off of his mount and began chain-fearing Glitz. The wife started waving her hands over the keyboard as if someone had just lit them on fire. "What do I do?!" she screamed. "I can't do anything!" The Warlock cast Fear again, before his first had even broken. Glitz took Resurrection Sickness shortly after... /sigh

Fear. Probably the most frustrating and annoying spell in the entire game of WoW. It can be chained, you take damage while affected, and you really have no idea when it is going to break, assuming that it will before your toon meets the Spirit Guide. You run around, helplessly losing life, and can do nothing about it. Well, at least that's what the QQ'ing majority would have you believe.

As we waited for Glitz's Res Sickness to wear off, we talked about what she could have done differently. We talked about PvP trinkets that break Fear, catching the Warlock with DoTS and damage before and between his Fear casts, bubbling and healing through DoTS, making the Warlock Lifetap himself to death, using Silence, Arcane Torrent, and all the other things most people don't apply properly, leading to death by DoT'd Fear. "Show me how to do it." she says. Gotta love her attitude.

I took Glitz back to the scene of the crime. A different Warlock (Lvl 64, Demonology spec) was running around outside of The Outlook, flagged, and ready to go. I flagged up again, bubbled, Silenced the 'lock, and preceded to kick his ass. A SW:Pain here, a Mind Blast there, then an Arcane Torrent and Psychic Scream into a chain of Mind Flays that was topped off by a SW:D. The Warlock didn't get to cast a single Fear. I dropped out of Shadow and healed through what DoTS I couldn't remove. The wife was floored.

"So, you just keep them Silenced and beat them to casting Fear?"

"Well, in a Shadow Priest's case, yeah, I guess."

"And others have different ways to do it?"

"Yup. Pretty much."

"So anyone can beat a Warlock..."

Congrats babe, you just figured out what 90% of the WoW population has yet to realize. All you have to do is respond to Fear, the right way. ;)

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