Beginners Guide to PK
Lumubella
Posts: 438
11/17/2024, 4:36:26 AM
The Player-Killing or PK in this game is a complicated thing and very situational. I've been playing on and off for decades and still haven't made it to the top. Here's a few tips to get started.
1.) World Knowledge:
My first suggestion is to fully explore and map out the world. I would recommend starting out with a class such as healer, paladin, or shaman to have a lot of utility and survivability to explore the world. You need to know how to get to and from the various areas whether you are trying to track down and kill a foe or more importantly trying to survive being killed. Start in Seringale, learn how to get into it, out of it, and how to avoid it entirely. Your guild guardian there will protect you in the lower levels, but will only buy you a few precious moments in later levels. Then learn the areas immediately around Seringale and branch out as you gain levels. Learn where all the recall points, nexus points and rune combinations
, and cabals are. Learn where doors and their keys are. Learn where no-exit rooms are. Learn where areas that lead you to non-connected areas are. Knowledge is key to avoid and/or setting traps. It is also key in being able to escape pk. Be able to traverse through the areas blindly as if its second nature, because if you are caught unprepared or are just plain unlucky(6 gyvels in a row, really?) you will have do so. The ultimate goal is to even know the room names and where they are.
2.)Consumables:
Always keep a supply of consumables on you. Purple potions for sanctuary, recall potions for word of recall, gyvel potions for cure blind, timian potions for cure poison, misty potions for pass door, and flying potions for fly. There are other consumables that you can use as well such as scrolls, wnads and staves. But these are the most important. Never fight an opponent with sanctuary down. Never fight an opponent that can use blind(necro, dark-knight, shaman, druid, psi) without multiple gyvel potions in your inventory and backups in your sack. Blind is the most debilitating debuff in the game as it makes movement and combat exponentially harder. Timian potions can cure poison and will help you as poison directly impacts strength and dexterity. A reduction in strength can cause you to be over capacity for weight. Being overweight will prevent you from recalling as well as increase movement needed per step. You can also wear additional +strength gear to prevent the poisons effects from debilitating you. Recall potions, flying potions, and misty potions can aid you in a speedy escape.
3.)Skill Proficiency
Training, training training. Nothing is worse than being in a fight and having a skill miss or a spell fail because your proficiency is low. The first key is mastering defenses: i.e. Parry, Shield Block, Dodge, Set Parry, Staff Block, Counterbalance, Dual Parry. Also master any weapon skills you have, as better proficiency in these weapons allows you to better defend against them. Visit the Juggernaut to buy scarecrow kits and training bonuses often. Kill bosses and do tasks given by the Juggernaut and Thrad the trainer to obtain the medals needed. Training defenses is a matter of getting several low level creatures attacking you while you focus on the scarecrow to prevent from killing them. Gnome village is the best place for this, but there are other options if you explore. Focus on class specific skills/spells/songs you need to be successful. Word of recall, cure spells, lag skills, damage skills/spells. The higher your proficiency the higher your chance of success. There are additional factors that can impact skill/spell success situationally, learn these through experience.
4.)Paper, Rock, Scissors:
Learn the combat style and weapon style system of the game. Dual wield beats defensive, defensive beats balanced, balanced beats dual wield. If your class has weapon ward, keep it up at all times to avoid being in a disadvantaged combat style. If you're a shaman, give prayers to your deity for allowing you to shrink a head and be immune to this. Also, carry a spare head. For the rest of you, keep this in mind. Keep at least one set of options for each combat style. For martial classes it is the second most important thing you can do beside being in sanctuary at all times. It impacts the effectiveness of your attacks, how well your defenses work, and various skills such as disarm, for example. Secondarily, understand weapon style. Blade beats shaft, shaft beats segment, segment beats blade. Less important than combat style but can still give you the edge in a fight. Know how different weapon types impact a fight. Weapon advantages can prevent a defense from working or add additional damage to attacks with how they interact with different skills. Spears can prevent an opponent from dodging, Axes can decrease the effectiveness of shield block, staff has the best ability to parry while its very hard to parry with a whip. There are extensive help files for each weapon to explore.
5.)Know your opponent:
Read the help files for each and every skill and spell for every class and know what they do. You want to know what your options are and what your opponent will do. Look through logs on the logboard to see strategies employed. Post your own logs and ask for advice on how to improve. I still don't know what everything does or how certain skills/sets/abilities interact and am still learning things to this day. Knowledge is power.
6.)Gear:
Always seek out the best equipment depending on your class/strategy and your opponents class/strategy. Against casters you'll want to wear save equipment. Malediction to prevent debuffs, mental to prevent summoning and dispelling, affliction to lower the damage of offensive spells. As a martial class against martial classes you'll want to prioritize hitroll and damroll. As a caster class you'll want to prioritize health and spellbreak. Have different equipment on hand for various situations. Be ready to swap into what you need depending on what the threat/target is.
7.)Better part of Valour:
Never stay in a fight you weren't prepared for. Never fight without sanctuary or its equivalent. Never stay in a fight you're losing. Always have several escape routes in your mind and never use the same one twice against an opponent. Ideally you should always initiate your fights and try to catch your opponent unawares. Realistically they will pop out of the shadows and eliminate you swiftly. One of the best players in the game(you know who you are) will refuse to stay in a fight they didn't plan out and execute perfectly or won't stay in a fight under 50% hp against an opponent that has more health than they do. Probably one of the reasons they are one of the elite. Don't wait until you are in the red zone to flee. A really good fight will span the length and width of the realms. Statistically its safer to run east or west of Seringale due to the higher number of areas and paths to evade enemies. Use dense exit-filled areas such as the crossroads, river, and cities to quickly traverse through multiple areas to shake opponents. Use misty potions and areas with doors such as Tyr Unguld to gain ground on tracking opponents. Change your running patterns constantly to avoid being caught out; i.e. run different routes each time. Use water to prevent tracking. Run away from your temple through several areas then use recall to double back. Use nexus points to get from one side of the world to the other. The more distance you can put between you and your opponent when running, the better. Use flight or a mount to maintain the ability to keep moving. Spam where, who pk every five seconds to know what/where the threat is. You are never really safe. Living to fight another day is the best feeling in the world, aside from the rush of ruthlessly killing your opponent.
8.)Be prepared to die.... a lot
Don't get discouraged by death. Its a part of the game. Pick yourself up, regear as needed, and keep trying. A positive attitude goes a long way towards eventually being successful. Don't be afraid to ask for feedback or knowledge on the forums, logboard, or discord. Even in game you can ask within your roleplay appropriately what you should have done. Different people will have different playstyles. Find what works for you. There is a large variety of race/class combos out there for you to try.
1.) World Knowledge:
My first suggestion is to fully explore and map out the world. I would recommend starting out with a class such as healer, paladin, or shaman to have a lot of utility and survivability to explore the world. You need to know how to get to and from the various areas whether you are trying to track down and kill a foe or more importantly trying to survive being killed. Start in Seringale, learn how to get into it, out of it, and how to avoid it entirely. Your guild guardian there will protect you in the lower levels, but will only buy you a few precious moments in later levels. Then learn the areas immediately around Seringale and branch out as you gain levels. Learn where all the recall points, nexus points and rune combinations
, and cabals are. Learn where doors and their keys are. Learn where no-exit rooms are. Learn where areas that lead you to non-connected areas are. Knowledge is key to avoid and/or setting traps. It is also key in being able to escape pk. Be able to traverse through the areas blindly as if its second nature, because if you are caught unprepared or are just plain unlucky(6 gyvels in a row, really?) you will have do so. The ultimate goal is to even know the room names and where they are.
2.)Consumables:
Always keep a supply of consumables on you. Purple potions for sanctuary, recall potions for word of recall, gyvel potions for cure blind, timian potions for cure poison, misty potions for pass door, and flying potions for fly. There are other consumables that you can use as well such as scrolls, wnads and staves. But these are the most important. Never fight an opponent with sanctuary down. Never fight an opponent that can use blind(necro, dark-knight, shaman, druid, psi) without multiple gyvel potions in your inventory and backups in your sack. Blind is the most debilitating debuff in the game as it makes movement and combat exponentially harder. Timian potions can cure poison and will help you as poison directly impacts strength and dexterity. A reduction in strength can cause you to be over capacity for weight. Being overweight will prevent you from recalling as well as increase movement needed per step. You can also wear additional +strength gear to prevent the poisons effects from debilitating you. Recall potions, flying potions, and misty potions can aid you in a speedy escape.
3.)Skill Proficiency
Training, training training. Nothing is worse than being in a fight and having a skill miss or a spell fail because your proficiency is low. The first key is mastering defenses: i.e. Parry, Shield Block, Dodge, Set Parry, Staff Block, Counterbalance, Dual Parry. Also master any weapon skills you have, as better proficiency in these weapons allows you to better defend against them. Visit the Juggernaut to buy scarecrow kits and training bonuses often. Kill bosses and do tasks given by the Juggernaut and Thrad the trainer to obtain the medals needed. Training defenses is a matter of getting several low level creatures attacking you while you focus on the scarecrow to prevent from killing them. Gnome village is the best place for this, but there are other options if you explore. Focus on class specific skills/spells/songs you need to be successful. Word of recall, cure spells, lag skills, damage skills/spells. The higher your proficiency the higher your chance of success. There are additional factors that can impact skill/spell success situationally, learn these through experience.
4.)Paper, Rock, Scissors:
Learn the combat style and weapon style system of the game. Dual wield beats defensive, defensive beats balanced, balanced beats dual wield. If your class has weapon ward, keep it up at all times to avoid being in a disadvantaged combat style. If you're a shaman, give prayers to your deity for allowing you to shrink a head and be immune to this. Also, carry a spare head. For the rest of you, keep this in mind. Keep at least one set of options for each combat style. For martial classes it is the second most important thing you can do beside being in sanctuary at all times. It impacts the effectiveness of your attacks, how well your defenses work, and various skills such as disarm, for example. Secondarily, understand weapon style. Blade beats shaft, shaft beats segment, segment beats blade. Less important than combat style but can still give you the edge in a fight. Know how different weapon types impact a fight. Weapon advantages can prevent a defense from working or add additional damage to attacks with how they interact with different skills. Spears can prevent an opponent from dodging, Axes can decrease the effectiveness of shield block, staff has the best ability to parry while its very hard to parry with a whip. There are extensive help files for each weapon to explore.
5.)Know your opponent:
Read the help files for each and every skill and spell for every class and know what they do. You want to know what your options are and what your opponent will do. Look through logs on the logboard to see strategies employed. Post your own logs and ask for advice on how to improve. I still don't know what everything does or how certain skills/sets/abilities interact and am still learning things to this day. Knowledge is power.
6.)Gear:
Always seek out the best equipment depending on your class/strategy and your opponents class/strategy. Against casters you'll want to wear save equipment. Malediction to prevent debuffs, mental to prevent summoning and dispelling, affliction to lower the damage of offensive spells. As a martial class against martial classes you'll want to prioritize hitroll and damroll. As a caster class you'll want to prioritize health and spellbreak. Have different equipment on hand for various situations. Be ready to swap into what you need depending on what the threat/target is.
7.)Better part of Valour:
Never stay in a fight you weren't prepared for. Never fight without sanctuary or its equivalent. Never stay in a fight you're losing. Always have several escape routes in your mind and never use the same one twice against an opponent. Ideally you should always initiate your fights and try to catch your opponent unawares. Realistically they will pop out of the shadows and eliminate you swiftly. One of the best players in the game(you know who you are) will refuse to stay in a fight they didn't plan out and execute perfectly or won't stay in a fight under 50% hp against an opponent that has more health than they do. Probably one of the reasons they are one of the elite. Don't wait until you are in the red zone to flee. A really good fight will span the length and width of the realms. Statistically its safer to run east or west of Seringale due to the higher number of areas and paths to evade enemies. Use dense exit-filled areas such as the crossroads, river, and cities to quickly traverse through multiple areas to shake opponents. Use misty potions and areas with doors such as Tyr Unguld to gain ground on tracking opponents. Change your running patterns constantly to avoid being caught out; i.e. run different routes each time. Use water to prevent tracking. Run away from your temple through several areas then use recall to double back. Use nexus points to get from one side of the world to the other. The more distance you can put between you and your opponent when running, the better. Use flight or a mount to maintain the ability to keep moving. Spam where, who pk every five seconds to know what/where the threat is. You are never really safe. Living to fight another day is the best feeling in the world, aside from the rush of ruthlessly killing your opponent.
8.)Be prepared to die.... a lot
Don't get discouraged by death. Its a part of the game. Pick yourself up, regear as needed, and keep trying. A positive attitude goes a long way towards eventually being successful. Don't be afraid to ask for feedback or knowledge on the forums, logboard, or discord. Even in game you can ask within your roleplay appropriately what you should have done. Different people will have different playstyles. Find what works for you. There is a large variety of race/class combos out there for you to try.