Guild Wars: State of the Game: March 12, 2007

This week's State of the Game is entitled "Snatching Victory from the Jaws of Defeat: Basic Ganking. Authored by freelance reporter Harold Chow, he starts things off stating:

Gankers seek to take advantage of an unguarded base to reduce the number of NPCs the opponent will have at the flag stand at VoD and, if possible, to kill the Guild Lord before VoD. With twenty minutes between the start of the game and VoD, gank squads have plenty of opportunities to infiltrate and accomplish these goals.

Note, however, that while experienced players can sometimes take down the opposing Guild Lord on a gank attempt, less-experienced gankers tend to lose focus and charge in without taking out NPCs along the way, leading to the gank squad's untimely demise. However, the dynamic nature of the gank split often requires improvisation. For example, if both teams have invaded each other's bases, then the gank squad may need to ignore outer Archers and risk an early push to the inner chamber in a race to be the first to kill the Guild Lord.

The article goes into further detail about preparation, builds, execution, and dealing with defenders. It's a good read all the way around!