Section 1: The Build, the Skills, the Team, and the Plan – How things work.

Section 2: Killing the Guild Lord Wins the Game – Priority number one.

Section 3: Roles, What They Mean, and How to Play Them – Know your role!

Section 4: Common Mistakes and How to Avoid Them – Admit it we all make them.

Section 5: A Well Balanced Guild vs Guild Team build – Good skills, good tactics.

1.      Shock Axe Warrior / Elementalist

2.      Magehunter Warrior / Ritualist

3.      Distracting Shot Ranger / Monk

4.      Power Block Mesmer / Ritualist

5.      Fast Cast Water Mesmer / Elementalist

6.      Word of Healing Monk / Elementalist

7.      Restore Condition Monk / Elementalist

8.      Caretaker’s Charge Flag Runner Ritualist / Assassin

Section 1: The Build, the Skills, the Team, and the Plan – How things work.

The Basics

You have eight players and sixty four skills. The other team has eight players and sixty four skills.

You have a base with a guild lord and a handful of non playable characters (NPCs) and so does the other team.

You have a flag, they have a flag.

You have a thief; they have a thief (sometimes).

These are the resources you are given, and how you decide to use them is entirely up to you.

While it is true that there is no one build that can dominate the metagame (sarcastic jokes about hexes on jade aside), it does not mean that any random build you slap together is going to get you the same distance. A Guild vs Guild build is different from, say, a Heroes' Ascent build in that Guild vs Guild battles tend to last quite a bit longer, and versatility and endurance should be your two highest priorities. While it is true brute force and gimmick builds will still work with the right players, these builds still need to be adapted to the Guild vs Guild environment.

The best way to build a team of eight is to make the build around the team, instead of the team around the build. What I mean is just simply going into an observer's mode and take down the number one guild's build. When you do not have a player who is used to playing the class for a key position and putting someone completely new to the position in that position is not going to end well. Understand the limits of the strengths and weaknesses of your roster of players before you decide what build to run. Put players in positions they feel most comfortable and have the most experience playing.

If you do not have a player in your roster that is experienced with playing the ranger class, then you should realize that you do not want roll a build with a ranger. Remember that your team's performance is rated at the level of your weakest player, so making sure that everyone is comfortable with the position he or she is playing goes a long way to forming a solid build.

There are extensive resources out there with recommended Guild vs Guild builds, check some of the earlier posts that I have made here on Skryer for some very highly recommended builds, and I will throw in a good solid example build at the end of this guide. Just remember that any build your team feels comfortable playing has the potential to be a strong build. Likewise, any build your team feels uncomfortable playing is going to be a weak build, even if the number one guild on the ladder is running it.

It is very important that your entire team knows the build inside and out before entering a match. By this, I mean at the very least, every member of your team should know what build the other seven players are running. This knowledge becomes vital when the players need to be dependent on each other for specific tactics or rendered aid. A monk, for example, can call for a blackout on an opposing warrior that is two whacks away from full adrenaline, but he can't do that unless he knows the mesmer has blackout to begin with.

It sounds stupid and elementary, but I have played with teams that behaved otherwise, and paid for it.

Always plan ahead on the responses your build will take in reaction to enemy tactics before you enter the match. Establish how you plan on dealing with splits, who to send back, in what order, and how to coordinate the maneuver. Do not wait until you're in game with a base under attack message to argue about who should go back and how it should be dealt with.

Understand the majority of your damage source and how to break through common defenses that could potentially stall your offense. For example, if you are running two warriors and a paragon, do not wait until seven minutes in to the battle of doing no damage before discussing how to react to chain aegis and constant blinds. Likewise, if the only hex removals in your build are a veil and a purge, it is time to talk about what to do if you run into a hex heavy team. Talk it out. Have some discussion. Your build does not need to have a GOOD response to a certain tactic, but a crappy tactic like “well, if they pull x on us, then we're pretty much boned. Just run around for 25 minutes and hope our lord head shot critical cyclone axes their entire team" is still better than not talking about it at all.

Preparation is half the battle, and if you still lose, at least you will know why so you can improve your game. This is not to say you have to account for everything that could possibly happen, as improvisation is still a very large part of the game, but at least make sure you have planned well against the more common tactics.

Section 2: Killing the Guild Lord Wins the Game – Priority number one

There are a lot of ways to play the game, but there is only one way to win it: kill their guild lord. This is not to say you should gun directly for the lord at two minutes in to the game. That is called a full team wipe. Think of the game as a round of Chess. To force the opponent king into a checkmate, you first have to work your way to him, through position, material, and time. In Guild Wars, these goals can be analogously translated to playing for position, playing for morale, and playing for Victory or Death! (VoD). These goals are not mutually exclusive and good play means keeping all three in mind through the entire span of the game. There are certainly trade offs and prioritizing involved, where one goal is pursued at the expense of another, but none can be fully ignored.

Playing for position means a lot of things. It mean pushing into the enemy side of the flag stand when your flag runner is running towards your stand, it means falling towards your NPCs when your monks are low on energy and need some pressure relieved, it means putting down a ward vs. foes at a strategic location, it means you need to be in position to access their catapult when Victory or Death rolls near, and a host of other things. Knowing when to push, when to fall, when to collapse, when to split, and when to hold is vital to playing well.

Snares, wards, spirits, and teleportation are some examples of tools to help you play for position. The most important thing to recognize is that a team, without exception, plays at the pace of its slowest member. The best way to control where the opposing team is playing is to control the movement of a vital role. For example, if you want to stop a team from falling towards their NPCs when you have the pressure up, maintain a snare or knockdown on one of their monks. Where are they going to go? They are going nowhere fast, unless they are willing to sacrifice the monk. Likewise, if you want to push the opposing team off you, begin by pushing their vital roles, such as the monks. If you push the monks back, then their extended frontline will be vulnerable, and will be forced to pull back or take unmitigated damage.

A common tactic to force initiative on position is splitting. Splitting is the act of dividing up your forces into two groups to achieve two different goals simultaneously. One group could hold the stand for morale, for example, while the other knocks out vital NPCs in the enemy base. Some builds are specialized to split proactively, but all builds should be built to deal effectively against splits or have the option of splitting themselves. Splitting can pull off some of the pressure or defense or weaken the opponent team significantly at Victory or Death if they choose to ignore it. However, your team also faces many of the same problems - with one difference: you have the initiative. The general rule of thumb regarding splits is never split if you don't need to and never refrain from splitting when the alternative is put your Guild Lord under threat.

Position also translates to team cohesion. Casters can't cast outside their radius, rangers and paragons can't hit beyond a certain range, and that translates into bad news for melee classes if they over extend beyond the radius of support offered by their midline and backline. It is vital that all of the team members are always in position to support each other. Everyone needs to know where the wards are, where the traps are, and where everyone else is so they can respond well to pressure. This is not to say over extension is always unacceptable. Sometimes, melee needs to over extend to push a kill, push a position, or collapse on a target of opportunity. It is acceptable to over extend as long as the entire team is aware he is over extending, including the one that is over extending. Communication is vital. Let your team know you are about to push a kill or push for a flag carrier.

The occasional over extension aside, it's vital that the team moves as unity. If a push needs to be made, the entire team needs to do it, not just the warriors or the midlines. Everyone needs to push as one and fall back as one. Out of position players are easily picked on and taken out.

Another important goal to play for is morale. Everyone starts at zero percent death penalty (DP), but as you take deaths, you start accruing a death penalty. You can reduce your death penalty by scoring kills and capturing the flag, the latter can even net you a hefty +10% morale bonus. Successfully playing for morale involves three things: push kills, stay alive, and hold the flag. The first two will boil down to a whole nest of factors that anyone not new to Guild Wars PvP should be familiar with, while the third is something that's unique to the way GvG battles work. On every map is a flag stand, usually located in the middle of the map. Sticking your flag in it and holding it there for two minutes will net you a "Morale Boost", reducing your death penalty. If your death penalty is 0, then you'll get a one time 10% morale boost.

Suffice to say, this is vital to winning the game. Successful Guild vs Guild builds will incorporate some form of flag running, and the skill exhibited by the flag runner can easily determine the outcome of the game. If the opposing team holds the flag and is getting constant morale boosts, then it means none of your kills will matter, and the battle will rapidly turn uphill. Controlling the flag successfully is intimately related to controlling the position of both your team and the opposing team. Putting the opposing team in a position where running the flag becomes difficult will put your flag running ahead in pace. Failing to do so will cause undue pressure on your flag running and give you a liability that your support may not need, in addition to all the other stuff that's going on.

Of course, another way to gain morale is to kill the opposing team. There are generally factors outside of the few that you have direct control over for that, but putting the death penalty on the right targets is something you DO have control over. Spot the vital roles to the opposing build. If it is a spike team, then it is a no brainer - take down the caller. Start putting a hefty death penalty on him over and over again until little effort is required to knock him out. For other, more balanced and versatile builds, the vital targets are slightly more difficult to spot, and will depend on communication from the rest of your team to identify. For example, if the opposing team has a particularly good mesmer power blocker shutting down your backline, then trying to put a good amount of death penalty on him should be the first order of business. Likewise, if that particular snare elementalist with blinding surge is the main element preventing your melee damage from pushing through, then that is your vital target right there. Monks are, of course, always vital targets, but they are usually harder to push kills on, due to their position and auxiliary skills.

The same applies to your team. Identify the vital player in your build and call opposing pressure off him and keep his death penalty clean at all costs. If you are facing a hex dominated pressure team, then make sure to watch your hex eater mesmer - both his position and his death penalty. It is much better to have heavy death penalty on one important target than slight death penalties on three auxiliary targets.

The last general goal to play for is Victory or Death! (VoD). Victory or Death happens at twenty minutes after the clock starts, and a different set of rules are put into play. For one thing, you do more damage but have less max life. For another, the NPCs in your base will begin to push towards the middle, where they will engage the enemy NPCs. All gates that require thieves or locks will open, and remain open. At twenty five minutes, the Guild Lords themselves will start walking to the middle, forcing the match to be decided. Understanding the inevitability of this and playing to give your team the maximum advantage when it occurs will make or break the game.

The easiest way to prepare for Victory or Death  is to add elements into your build that work exceptionally well at Victory or Death. Anything that does area of effect damage is a good bet, and usually helps with offsetting an NPC disadvantage.

But this guide is going to focus more on how to play for Victory or Death during the match itself. One way to swing the favor to your end is to target the enemy's NPCs before Victory or Ddeat occurs. This can be done by a hard push, or with a split. Unless the enemy wants a reenactment of “Seven Against Thebes”, then they will have to respond to such a move. The three most important NPC targets should be the knights and the bodyguard, but archers should not be ignored as they do add a good amount of damage if gathered up. Sometimes it's necessary to sacrifice position at the stand or concede a morale boost in order to put pressure on the enemy base through a split, while other times it is necessary to sacrifice NPCs to relieve pressure on your stand.

NPCs have roles outside of Victory or Death. Making the other team pull your footmen or your knights before they have put sufficient pressure on you can quickly turn the tables. The extra pressure from the NPCs could be enough for you to make a counter push or at the very least relieve some of the pressure on your monks' energy pool, allowing them time to recuperate. Likewise, when you are on the offensive, do not aggro the opponent's NPC's until you feel sufficient pressure has been applied. If sufficient pressure has been applied, then sometimes aggroing a few footmen or a knight is a good way to burn the opposing team's monks' energy by forcing them to watch an extra target and knock out a few vital NPCs before Victory or Death.

At Victory or Death, all the hard work you have done in playing for the previous two goals - position and morale - will bear fruit. Good position will allow you to catapult their NPCs (the time to fire is at twenty minutes and nineteen seconds to have the best chance at catching everything) or allow you to snare them in the path of your NPCs before they reach the stand, if they pushed too far without watching the clock. Death penalties are compounded by the decrease in life at Victory or Death, and a target with death penalty on him will get taken out even more easily. At Victory or Death, the best targets to focus on are their offense. Identify targets using area of effect skills and take them out right away. Move down the offense priority list by targeting their melee, knights, bodyguard, support, archers, shut down, and last, monks - unless when an opportunity presents itself. There will be a lot of targets at Victory or Death and it could get hectic, but that's what separates a good guild from a mediocre guild. A key thing to note is to relentlessly chew up their damage. Sit on their warriors, harass their midline, and force their monks to go deep set before yours do.

Be careful of last minute splits at Victory or Death. With no NPCs and all gates open, your Guild Lord is vulnerable. Understand and evaluate the possibility of a split (or even a full team gank) and respond accordingly. Watch out for body blocks and make sure your monks are in position to fall to the Guild Lord if a threat is validated.

Play it safe, play it smart, and play it well.

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