In this week's State of the Game, Guild Wars player Mark Yu takes a look at Guild vs Guild matches.

In GvG matches, games are most often won through teamwork. While coordination spanning all eight members of a team is important, high-end play actually places greater emphasis on compartmentalization. A typical balanced build of two Warriors, Ranger, Mesmer, Elementalist, two Monks, and a flagger can be divided into smaller teams. These teams commonly work in pairs, such as Monk pairs, Warrior pairs, midline pairs, and so on. Each pair needs excellent synergy to coordinate maneuvers and play at the maximum effective level. And, if the players themselves lack synchronization, they may have difficulty playing with one another. There may be discomfort, silence, or too much clutter over voice chat.

This discussion focuses on the offensive unit. This is typically composed of a pair of Warriors, so we will use the two-Warrior frontline as the standard template for explanations. For GvG battles, Warriors usually provide most of the offense because they are the most efficient killing power in the game. However, without proper synergy between two Warriors, much of this efficiency can get lost.

For up to date info on Guild Rankings, see the Guild Ladder!