The art of fleeing (paladin style)

There are battles which you know right from the start that you have no chance of winning but still you engage it just for fun or you have nothing else to do :P. I myself have engaged in such battles and have miraculously lived to boast about it. Do you want to know how I did it? Before I tell you though, I'll list down some memorable battles where such technique owns :P. Enjoy!

1. I was merrily flying over the Hellfire Peninsula searching for mining nodes when I noticed a level 69 rogue Horde player (undead) trying to capture The Stadium (for the pvp daily quest Hellfire Fortifications). Upon seeing that he is a level below me, I immediately maneuvered my gryphon to land near this Horde player. The rogue backed up a bit after seeing the powerful gryphon land in front of him. He then just stood there looking at me, unable to move, unable to flee. "RAWRRRR!", the gryphon rawred (lol), it became restless, I had a hard time unmounting from it. Then at that moment I smelled something fishy (was it coming from the undead rogue? :P)... I closed my eyes and concentrated on what the eye could not normally see. After a second my mind cleared, perception activated. There standing behind me was another Horde rogue (this time a bloodelf), level 70 and is under stealth. It was an ambush! They were waiting for me to strike first and get flagged :O. I then turned around and /slap the stealthed rogue. After he noticed that I saw him, he unstealthed and laughed. Three other Horde players then landed and I was surrounded. 2 mages, 2 rogues, and a druid vs a paladin. One of the mages challenged me to a duel. I laughed, I'm not falling for that one :P. He then performed a chicken dance (/chicken) to taunt me. "KEK", the rest of the Horde players laughed. I stood there helplessly watching the mage do the chicken dance... then... a smile spread across my face, I grinned an evil grin >:). "You want chicken?" I thought to myself, "Then take this!". I grabbed my Gnomish Poultryizer from my bag and aimed it at the dancing mage. "Pewpewpew!" I fired, he turned into a chicken, I laughed, laughed some more, laughed so hard that I didn't notice the other Horde players charging towards me. Want to know what happened next? Read on... :P

2. We were in Karazhan, trying to kill the final boss Nightbane. We wiped out so many times that we gave up trying (also since it's already way past bedtime for some of us, 3AM :P). Anyway, most of the raid members had already hearthed back to their respective inns and only three were left. A crazy, addict warlock named Mayotta (:P), a noisy, addict priest named Sealtiel :P and of course yours truly, a great paladin :P (though I forgot if another member was also there...). These crazy people then had some crazy idea of trying to kill Nightbane with only 3 people. Since I was always craving for great challenges, I agreed (crazy I say :D). The noisy priest then summoned the enormous flying beast. Little did I know that they were planning to run outside right from the start (lol), and little did they know that the doors leading outside will close once the great beast is summoned (double lol, no make that triple, lol :P). The sky darkened as Nightbane, king of the skies, flew overhead. The two crazy people then started running towards the exit leaving me behind. The beast landed and I ran... I sprinted as fast as I can towards the door. After the two crazy people realized that the doors were closed, they stopped and prayed lol. Nightbane flew past me and cleaved the crazy people to death (lol again). I laughed while saying "I see dead people!" lol. Did I survive the encounter? Read on...

3. We were in Gruul's lair, we just killed HKM and decided to have 1 attempt on Gruul just for the experience (after all we were only 18-strong). After we got wiped, we called it a day and some of the members ported back to their respective cities leaving behind the usual addicts, a crazed warrior named Zinghyi, a warfreak, addict rogue named Adik, the usual crazy fellows Mayotta and Sealtiel (see number 2 :P), the innocently addict druid Naerwen (innocent since she had no idea what's about to happen :P) and of course yours truly, the adventurous paladin (see 2 for another great description :P). As usual, we were planning to take on Gruul ourselves. While we were laying out our plans, an imp suddenly dashed towards Gruul (it was the crazy warlock's pet :D). I saw this and slowly backpedaled towards the door knowing that it's going to close once Gruul is disturbed. The imp fired, Gruul lurched forward instantly killing the poor imp. The door closed and luckily I made it outside, "whew" I sighed thinking it was over. It was when I saw an enormous hand reaching out from the door that I realized that we are done for. Gruul CAN get out of the door even when it is closed :O. 3000 hit points gone, 7000, my health was slowly thinning away. Gruul then struck the druid which was just standing by the door minding her own business :P. The warfreak rogue was on the other side of the door, luckily he stealthed just as Gruul was about to get him. Running for their dear lives, the crazy warlock, priest and warrior, raced towards the cave's exit, with Gruul right on their tail wildly bashing anything on his way. Sadly though, the poor crazy fellows didn't make it to the exit, Gruul had decimated their bodies :P. Meanwhile deep inside the lair, the lone rogue happily announced that he was alive and Gruul wasn't able to get him. This however was short-lived for when Gruul returned inside... need I say more? So why did Gruul not finish me off? or did he? Read on...


---

Now here's what happened on each of the three encounters above:
1. When the Horde players started firing at me, Divine Shield fired up (I was immune from all forms of damage for 12 seconds :D) then I hearthed back to my inn :P. Yes I survived and was laughing so hard.

2. When Nightbane was about to strike me, Divine Shield fired up and I hearthed back to my inn leaving the crazy fellows behind, dead :P.

3. When my health was very low, Divine Shield fired up and I hearthed back to my inn making Gruul change target and hit the innocent druid instead :P.

So in all three deadly encounters, I survived :D. The technique I used is widely known as Bubble Hearth. Something that all paladins should learn... and enjoy to the fullest. :P

Warning: Do not do this at home, unless if you're a paladin of course.