You know, I still wonder.

[Kaseius]

How some people are so much better at PKing than others. Say, equally matched at skills and such. Stats, everything, equipment, equal. Is it just because one would have more experience, and so they know everything to do? Boy, I remember someone breaking into the Heralds guild to kill me. Yeah, and he was applying for Justice, too. Shortly after PKing me, he helped a fell by killing the red dragon and leaving all the stuff there. It's just.. blah. I just recently came back to this, and I don't want to end up getting killed again, and having my shit ruined. How do people do this? Are there any tips to avoid it? And also, things like, someone attacks you, and you run like hell way out of like, four other areas, and they don't have locate object, but they still hunt you down. How?

[Enskel]

We have a top-secret place called "Training Grounds" where we keep information about how to avoid being killed, including how to evade. For a fee I'll tell you where it is. Make an offer.

[Stephen2]

All things being equal, skills %'s etc...

To be a better PKer in my opinion comes down to two things:

1) Decision Making - which skill to use when.
2) Tracking/Fleeing - if you can chase down/escape from the other party, you can finish someone off, and get away yourself.

Personally, I've got a good feel for decision making I think, but my tracking is like... Yeah... Like watching the Phrow try to fight.

[Xonovik]

[Burzuk]

Tracking and fleeing are the easier skills to learn. Speed comes through practice, plain and simple. Area knowledge helps out quite a bit, but then again learning areas comes through practice as well, so no dodging the bullet there.

Decision making is the hard part. There are lots of tactical tradeoffs in AR: do you go for dispel magic or keep spamming damage spells? Do you bash or trip? Even aside from the myriad class-specific skills, there are other issues like: do I stand there like a dummy, try to keep moving to throw off the other guy's timing, try to switch targets during a gangbang, try to stall and catch the other guy with his purple down, flee to catch tick and re-engage, etc?

Ultimately, the biggest "decision" is how risk-phillic vs risk-phobic one plays. Often, the most successful players are the ones who simply know when to toss caution into the wind. I've fought without sanc on many occasions if the opponent also has his sanc down, or walked head-first into a gangbang if it allows me a chance for a first attack, and other similar risky behaviors--and more often than not, it pays to take that calculated risk. Unforunately people are so afraid of dying and the stigma attached to it that taking "intelligent" risks has become a bit of a lost art these days. IMO this is a simple mindset that anyone can adopt to become better at PKing.

There's no shame in dying. There is shame in dying without learning something, because that's just a useless and wasted death.

[Louis]

yeah i agree, and if you can take someone out or the other person takes you out, its not that one is better than the other all the time. it just means that person's intelligent decisions bested yours or the other way around, this time around. for example, alot of people think they are good although they get in a huge xp gap and forget about ranking past 42. others think they suck if they die just once, and delete. both are wrong in my opinion. me, i'm very risk-philic. i don't like dying, but i like pk'ing alot more than my dislike for dying.

anyhow, tracking gets really easy because after a while you figure out where people have most likely run to, and also you can calculate whether the prey had enough time to go this way, and if not, you go that other way. for fighting tactics, a 75percent dirt is most of the time just as effective as a 100percent dirt, unless the two are equally matched in pk skills.

[Kaseius]

Okay, I understand that. But how do you go on so easily after losing all your rare items that you worked so hard for? I mean.. I just couldn't keep going after losing so much stuff. I just got tired of it and gave up, and am just now coming back, hopefully for a better experience.

[Clifton]

Umm... rare don't make skill. You can do pretty damn well in just a generic suit of armor (worn/chieftain if you're healer). But, primary eq is a necessity, rares aren't.

[Brains]

Err, don't discount rares. I'm not sure which level we're talking about, but at L50, rares/uniques offer a serious advantage. There are times when my fanatically-trained-to-100% characters can't touch someone close to their rank because I have "crap", otherwise known as non-rares, and they have full set of rares.

I know rares need to be desirable in order to get people to fight over them, but I wish there was more bias towards character and player skills.

[Weirdo]

I must dissagree. Player skill is fine, but I'd rather have less emphasis on character skill. If I spend another five minutes blackjacking guards my brain will melt...

I'm far more impressed by a full suit of rares then I am by a well trained character.

[Matthais]

equipment makes up 85% of the battle. You can be the best player in the world, but if Im decked out in rares and nondisarms and your in red dragon or mithril, your ass is most likely going down. Ther're exceptions to this like always but rares shoot up your strong points and level out your weaknesses.

warlords are a good example of this point.

My opininion. You want to learn how to pk be a dk, they have a little bit of everything. Especially at the mid 30's.

[Sebryn]

If equipment makes all the difference, then tell me why people are still able to PK (quite effectively, too) while they're naked and have NO equipment?

[Seryie]

Equipment makes a deal, but class / race make THE differance to the battle, if you die once you mightve played against your classes weakness.

Good players know how to exploit your weaknesses, even if you have the class advantage.

Rares.. a wise man once told me, hehe if he checks the forums he'll know.... don't get the rares unless you CAN keep them. Rares attract attention, lots of it too... if you cant kill everyone / fend them off the people will come.. simply avoid having rares... unless your at 50 where you'll be killed reagrdless of your eq... i know all about being shitkicked when ive got a rare. annoying as it is... its my own fault.

You say people can beat others naked, this is HEAVILLY dependant on the class... a naked invoker can deal huge ammount of damage with hell-stream whereas a warrior etc.. doesnt have much if he doesnt have a weapon.

I used to suck really bad, now i only suck a little... basically i used to be paniced in / before a fight.. but it just becomes natural... you learn the lands as your ranking, and you learn them better with the fighting....

imo : if you wanna learn to basic fight, chose a monk.. if your not a total newb theyre not too difficult and they deal a hell of a lot of damage. while being good on defence... you dont have to know where all the great eq is.. because half of it you cant wear without being encumbered. your weapon is made from your mana so its a good place to start if you dont know where all the eq is.. with some beads + worn steel you can kick ass.

this is what i believe might be wrong, but bleh.

[Gygh]

Okay Kasey, here's is the laydown, I've had my ranger scince last summer, and I've died almost thirty times, how have I played him so long and not deleted him yet? I don't know, I just play a diffrent charecter until that one looses interest and then play Gygh again. And about getting your shit ruined, just gangbang them condeath, piss them off. Alot of Ar doesn't have to do with skills or your armor; it's luck as Voroth says. Doing a skill at the right time is luck, suceeding at a skill is luck, not getting your shit ruined is luck. My advice, learn to run and track WHILE blind. It helps trust me, instead of having to take your time navagating through an area you just type in a sequence of west and north or whatever and BAM!!! Your where you want to be. If you have flight or your fast at healing while running, then run until your healed or until they can't run anymore. Also learn areas really well, learn about mobs that will attack someone that attacks you first; learn about mobs that are agressive to a certain race or alignment. Know what a players class and level is, if they're a dark-knight then use an axe, paladin dagger, mage sword. And if you know they're level then you know what skills they do or don't have ex. Dk vs. Shaman, what level do they get cure blindness? Or say you know that this certain dk hasn't practiced blind, summon him to a river and blind him there. Know what races are weak to what, fire giant ice, dwarf/duegar water, storm wood, stone magic, elf iron, drow mithril, avian plague/sickness. Also it doesn't hurt to make a few friends, although this may lead to a lack of pk'ing on your part it can still save you. It also doesn't hurt to flee right away and initiat combat the way you want to (unless they have counter, then be careful about this). Just remember that this is only a game and not to kill yourself over this or something... Oh wait thats everquest nevermind.

[Mendek]

Yeah, needs really vary by class. Warriors, berserkers and rangers really need the damage to gain even footing with mages at the top ranks. A shaman in red dragon with a huge club is going to deal out massive melee damage still, while the warrior with the same won't hit him enough for it to matter.

[Davairus]

[Avendin]

owned

[Spalino]

Ya pking is an art form plain and simple. I've been playing for 5 years now and I'm just starting to get good at it. Like everyone said its all about timing and decision making. Eq is very important yes but a decked out fire warrior is still going to get shit kicked by a voker using ice shield an icicle dagger and ice storm whether or not he's decked. And you made a comment about how can we go on after loosing rares? Well I'm still a little bad about that lol not near as bad as I used to be though. I used to kick scream and hit shit if I got full looted no joke but after you killed enough you just learn to keep on trucking. Eq comes and goes thats part of the fun.

[Avendin]

The last time I got pissed off about losing eq was on my half-elf bard Garsin @ level 50. Totally rared out. Lost a warlord duel to Yogyakarta and while I was stunned, Qhyterxac walked in and dirt kicked me and full looted.

I've learned that equipment comes and goes, so I'm largely ambivalent to it. Having good equipment is a plus, but it isn't always a must for PKing though it makes it more of a challenge (more fun too.. you'll risk more and actually have a better chance of winning if you aren't worried about losing all those shiny rares).

[Rezakhan]

The way I see, the key to equipment now is having pieces that you can change in and out of. A warrior in red dragon with a hell blade is going to get owned by a shaman 35+, but a warrior with a hell blade, some red dragon, some gold rings, and some tantalum can smack a shaman around if he knows how to track.
In terms of pk'ing in general, the two big keys are timing and moving around. Timing is important in so many ways--catching a tick to sleep, dirting just after a tick, disarming after a missed dirt, etc. Its also important in terms of counting spells--figure if a shaman/healer etc. attacks you, he likely has several hours with protective shield still up--count those hours, and try to be in combat for a few ticks then--hopefully his shield will fall and you can bash him into the ground.
Moving around goes beyond just tracking and fleeing--those two are important definitely, but any half-decent player can learn to flee well, and no matter how good you are at tracking, there are some people you just wont catch if you dont get lucky. Moving is knowing when to flee if dirted, knowing to dirt, flee, and rest if you are hurt, being able to flee and return so that your charmy takes the blows, etc.