Picture C/o Wikipedia
“The rules are, there are no rules” –
Grease, Leo, Scorpians Member
My somewhat Gank free status seems to have been revoked. I have been getting a little cocky. Not wandering the world in my Pvp gear Doing stuff in the same place for a long time. Standing on the shore **and not levitating in the middle of the water while fishing. Not being as aware of my surroundings, and I have been dying because of it.
Sometimes they wait for me to finish doing what ever I am doing, and then attack. Sometimes they attack me anyway – hunt me down when I rez and do it all over again. If they look like they are going to hang around – it’s easier to log.
There was a rogue in southshore when I was fishing for Oily Blackmouths to see if making Free action pots for Pvp was going to be easy to do. I killed him. He wasn’t a very good rogue, cause they normally kidney jab me to death quite easily in Bgs. He didn’t come back which surprised me, because the DK another time that got the drop on me, and killed me while I doing a daily came back after he had done his, and tried to kill me again. He failed twice. I was in Pvp gear then, and more cautious.
The most – “I’m a gonna tear my hair out” experience was a Pally in my eternal fire cave, mostly the pallys that go there are bots. They run around in circles, if they happen to attack you, it’s because you got in their way. I meld, and they skip right over me, I thought he was a bot untill he made a beeline for me, killed me, and again, and again. I managed to kill him once. Then he just camped me – because I was counting on him getting bored and giving, up I kept rezing. Nope.
I know it’s a Pvp server, but surely why can’t everyone be like the three horde I found in a nother cave in various intervals. They didn’t attack me, I didn’t attack them – and we all went about our business. Sure I had more health, and was in pvp gear, but one of them was even nice enough to wave at me.
Even though it hasn’t been too bad, I just don’t have the urge to gank. ( though a flight master killer spree in the Barrens one time when we were bored was fun. ) I do not attack first – but I will defend and try and outlive you by any means necessary. I will run, meld, disperse, fear you into other mobs. Pot – heal what ever it takes to not die.
Please though if you do want to try and gank me.
1. Let me change into my Pvp gear. I have 1000 resilience and will be able to put up much more of a fight
2. Let me finish what ever I was doing – Eg killing my mob
3. Wait untill I’m full health and mana – so the fight is fair.
4. Then we must bow to each other, as respectful opponents –
and then only then shall the World Pvp commence .
Because I implore you – surely a victory tastes sweeter if you are against a worthy opponent. Ganking people when you have an unfair advantage is not honorable conduct outside a battleground. ( Said with tounge in cheek.. )
Silverwing Update.
I’m getting there! – slowly.. Surely..
** Kudus to Empire Of the Sun for Winning Album of the Year for their debut Walking on a Dream and Single of the Year for the song of the same name at the Arias – Couldn’t help but link their song Standing on the shore, because I adore it,
Provided by 
Pugnacious Priest's Warcraft Blog 
First of all, excellent illustration for this post.
Secondly, I tagged you in the year in review meme I just wrote and posted. Hope to see your replies. cheers!
Ah…remember when pvp gear was on par or sometimes even a little better than pve gear? I’m talking about the vanilla days of course, but at least you could do pretty much anything in the game wearing the same gear…unless of course you wanted to get really radical and switch specs : )
Sadly, you in PvE gear gives the same honor as PvP gear.
My feeling has been: Bother me and I bother you. Gank me once, shame on you. Gank me twice, get a life. Gank me three times and seriously, wtf is wrong with you? Seriously, you’re camping someone who can barely fight back?
Then my level 80 friend comes by and tears them to pieces.
Hey,
I live on a pvp server and I am an etiquette ganker.
My rules:
1) Never kill lowbies (people who kill lowbies are sexually frustrated, true story). I just dont see the point of it. That of course if the said lowbie wasnt griefing one of my alts or something.
2) If it’s red (and in the level range), its dead.
3) Never camp an unworthy oponent. That keyboard-turning level 80 in pve gear is simply too boring to camp.
4) If ganking on a lower level alt, I never bring my main to help out in fair fights. (unless being endlessly griefed by a level 80 or so)
5) I usually let people finish what they are doing, as in killing mobs and such. Once I have helped one guy kill the 5-6 mobs he had pulled only to kill him just after.
Exception to this rule: paladins and dks MUST DIE!!!!!!!!!!!!
6) I never gank non-shadow priests (i.e. who are not in shadowform)
(because of the sheer pain of leveling/questing with one)
7) All the rules above dont apply to 1v2 situations, which I love to get into, but I will use all the dirty tricks available to win such a fight.
Anyway, this is what makes a victory fun. Killing a helpless target will give no pleasure imo. But there are people who live to backstab.
And a few advices regarding your article.
1) ALWAYS quest/level in PVP gear/spec. With your pvp trinket on. I do it on all my alts, who got their trinket in the hellfire peninsula quest.
Simple enough, mobs and such can be easily taken down in this gear, whereas a gank might be hard to fend otherwize.
2) The best way to stop being ganked/camped/griefed, is to start ganking on sight. Unless the said enemy sees you and starts waving/cheering/saluting, your best guess is that he is a possible ganker and its a good idea to take him out first before doing your quest.
Don’t do it and you shall regret.
3) Learn to enjoy outdoor pvp. It can be really rewarding to pull some nice kills (like my most recent one: killing 2 paladins levels 70 and 66 with my level 67 lock)
I’ve just recently leveled a Warrior on a PvP server into Northrend, and have been happily surprised by the amount of open world PvP I’ve found.
My views on open world PvP ganking are quite a bit looser than yours. When I first run across someone who is anywhere between green and lower red level range, they’re getting attacked. Unless they’re almost dead already (subjective, I know).
If I win that first encounter, I stop being the aggressor. I have no desire to see if I can kill someone repeatedly, so I won’t start the fight. If I lose that first encounter, I’ll go another time or two (or more if the odds are stacked against me) trying to change the outcome before going back to questing.
I agree that corpse camping, killing greys, swooping in to cause another player to die from NPC’s, etc… are dirty tactics used by people with issues reaching outside the game world. But in my opinion, getting the drop on someone or having someone get the drop on you is just part of the excitement of playing on a PvP server.
If all fights were to begin at full health, with proper gear, etc… it would be no different than playing on a PvE server and requesting a duel with each Alliance member I run across. And what’s the fun in that?
If he kills you twice, log to an alt and do some AH work or herbalism or whatever. Camping an offline player can be pretty frustrating.
Even better: log to your alt, go there, attack him, run and die away, log back. He can camp your alt for some time
One thing I noticed was that I tend to get into more open PvP situations when I have a PvE title on. Having Utada, Hand of A’dal just invites players to come fight me, which I don’t mind.
When I don’t feel like being bothered, I’ll throw up my Knight-Champion title on, or Justicar. Then I mostly get /waves from Hordes I come across.
I always would travel in my PvP gear, with my PvP spec on. Being a Human frees up a trinket slot for when I’m farming/questing. Plus when you see a Mage that has Ice Barrier up with 22k HP, you normally think twice before attacking.
Sorry, but there are no rules on a PvP server. If you’re doing something that distracts you, you’re a free HK, you’re not taking the care needed, you’re a free HK. If I try to gank you and fail, you should camp me.
That said, running around in your PvP gear gets rid of most of the scrub gankers. priest with 24k health? No scrub’s going near you, and most of the non-scrubs are just as busy as you are.
I am not sure if it counts as ganking if they let you swap into your PvP gear… 🙂
I run on a PvP server and generally speaking I let people go about their business and only attack when provoked. Whenever I am grouped up with one of my more malicious friends, however, his aggressiveness tends to rub off on me.
If I could create one golden rule for world PvP, it would be this:
Do not interfere with players on escort quests
There is nothing more frustrating than having your lowbie toon watch an NPC mosey all the way across a zone only to be blown up by a stealthed level 80. Makes my blood boil!