To Gank or Not to Gank, That is the Question!

(with apologies to Shakespeare)

I 5 box Pally and 4xShaman Alliance on a PvP server. I often find myself getting ganked, generally for no apparent reason other than that I am on a PvP server and am the "enemy"! This is sometimes very frustrating but I am not complaining as it is part of playing on a PVP server.

Now I often find myself with the shoe on the other foot. I come across Horde players at my level or lower that are questing in the same area and obviously as a Pally with 4 Shaman strapped to my back I am in a position to destroy almost anyone of my level or below. I tend not to, but this can back fire when I leave Horde players alone and they get a mate or two and come gank me in the middle of a big fight - this is REALLY frustrating and often this tempts me to go gank every Horde player I can!

So what do you do as a general rule on a PvP server (as a multi-boxer) Gank, or No Gank and why?

Gank ofc, what else are you doing on a pvp server, red = dead

Rip'em a new one I say. I play on a PvE server, but if people are in Wintergrasp when there's no battle or when they're PvP flagged then they get to see the wrong end of a Hammer of Justice with 4x Flame shock and 4x Lava burst.

This applies more while levelling:

Personally speaking I don't think it is realistic to take the approach red=dead (as much as I would like to at times). You have to think of the practicalities. If you kill EVERYONE you see just because you can and they the enemy you end up with a problem - a whole bunch of people in your area just waiting to add to your fight if you get a bad pull and maybe killing one of your chars. If you had just let them be they generally let you be.

Also if you take red=dead approach you have to try to kill any ?? level enemy in your area - or are you a coward? :P

When I boxed on a PvP server, I took the same approach as I do on my regular home server - leave them alone unless I see them doing something I disapprove of, like ganking lowbies or killing quest NPCs :)

What goes around comes around!

I use VanasKoS (links to Curse) to keep track of people I have a problem with and unless they're on that list I leave them be.

I moved recently to a PvE server from a very hardcore PvP one. The reson was that I wanted to play with other friends that are on the PvE server.

While on the PvP server I had the basic rule that more than one player grouped and with red name = dead.
Single players, I didn't touch them unless they attacked first.
Two players together with red name, and none of them targeting my toons usually got ignored. At the same moment some of them targeted my toons he gets a warning hammer of justice or flame shock, whatever applies to his proximity. If they dont run away, they are dead.
For a single player, if they come too near my toons, a single thunderstorm is enough to disuade. If they dont run away, I kill them.

I have had the rare ocasions when horde players (I play alliance) come and gather around me just out of curiosity. Some even have made similar groups to make improvisated duels for fun and profit :)

Usually I found that several guilds were just trying to gank me, so anyone with that guild name became a dead corpse as soon as he reached my lightnings range. I have had the opportunity to speak with sveral of these guild people in game using my horde AH account, so they were split in two different modes.
Ones were just a bunch of idiot kids with "OMG, me pew pew you!" replies. The battles with these were not funny at all because being zerged by 5 - 10 non skilled players was not a challege at all but just a waste of time.
The others were mostly mature players that found my pala + 4 shamans group to be the most similar to a rare outdoors boss, so they just considered it as part of the fun... and most important, made me enjoy the battles with them. The battles with these were funny most of the times because they were skilled players and usually offered good battle and fair fight... like 5 vs 5 or 4 vs 5

Quote:

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Originally Posted by 'Otlecs',index.php?page=Thread&postID=204992#post2 04992

When I boxed on a PvP server, I took the same approach as I do on my regular home server - leave them alone unless I see them doing something I disapprove of, like ganking lowbies or killing quest NPCs :)

What goes around comes around!

I use VanasKoS (links to Curse) to keep track of people I have a problem with and unless they're on that list I leave them be.

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Thanks for that add-on - will definitely give it a go!

I usually don't gank anyone who is more than 3 levels lower than me. But most of the time during leveling some smart ass 12 year old alliance will try to gank me, at that point I make him dead. Usually the same moron will come back and try at least 2 more times before giving up lol. But for the most part I don't travel around looking to gank, it usually happens by accident.. ie. I don't like it when ally players within my level range target me while im working on something, i get paranoid and pew pew lol.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by AlienChild',index.php?page=Thread&postID=204996#po st204996]
[quote='Otlecs',index.php?page=Thread&postID=204992 #post204992]When I boxed on a PvP server, I took the same approach as I do on my regular home server - leave them alone unless I see them doing something I disapprove of, like ganking lowbies or killing quest NPCs :)

What goes around comes around!

I use [url='http://wow.curse.com/downloads/wow-addons/details/vanas-kos.aspx

VanasKoS[/url] (links to Curse) to keep track of people I have a problem with and unless they're on that list I leave them be.

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Thanks for that add-on - will definitely give it a go![/quote]Same here. I leave everyone alone, unless they attack first or they managed to make it to my VanasKOS list.

The guild sharing feature is great, it lets me know if someone made trouble to any of the other (two) members of my guild.

Noob Alert Question:

How do you know if they are targeting you or one of your alts?
(I presume you use target of target - but to do that you have to target them, or is there a passive or another way?)