Shattered Kingdoms

Every class accept barbarian and necromancers get ranged weapons.

When you see a horde of undead, the best thing to do is to quaff detect invis/hidden and start shooting the necromancer full of arrows.

If they are ethereal, then run around making them chase you until it wears off or they get bored and they run away.

The key element in killing a necromancer is to never enter the room with them. That's when they are dangerous.

Come on english professor. "Except"

Yeah Nate! Show that pompous [REDACTED] teacher whats up!

In response to the original problem. I think your first few chars will always get steamrolled. Did with me. It really just takes trial and error. Don't get disheartened with the game. I myself feel I am a bit patient and don't get to frustrated with games. Some others mentioned vets that are helpful. Peso is a great example. He is always friendly to newbies unlike some others. You may want to try something like find someone and coordinate a nemesis situation with someone and pk each other to practice. Good luck and remember, all they really have on you is practice.

Don't assume your really good roleplay of a paladin never fleeing is going to get you anything but heartache. Learn the tactics over the RP is the best way to go.

I disagree with the above statement of placing tactics above RP. If you want to learn the PvP ropes with a character that is afraid of death, don't make it a paladin.

Sun Tzu says:

If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles.

If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat.

If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle.



So true for SK. It includes knowing the skills, the spells, the classes, the areas, having patience, being alert, knowing how strong your character truly is and not how strong you want him to be, etc.

Ok, no philosophical theories about how l33t (lol) pkers became or what. Here's my little piece of advice, at least this is how I learned the stuff I know about PK.

1. Roll a class that you think you can understand and handle, then start dueling as many people as you can of different classes but close to your level. Although a duel is nothing like real PK, it will help you understand and do the timing and all the basics.

2. Start attempting PK with opponents you think you may be able to handle. Am not talking about lowbies, am talking more about classes you think you can handle according to things you have now come to understand. You will still fail many times, but at least your self-confidence will be higher.

Self-confidence plays a HUGE roles when it comes to PK. A shaking hand will certainly not help you type the correct decisions correctly at the correct time.

Basic tips that are useful for every class:

Always have a sturdy pet that can rescue and keep it in your formation: Being able to order while bashed allows you to o all rescue and then recover from prone and get away before your pet dies, if you time it right and don't have abysmal CHA.

Always have a word of recall potion, and also always watch your PE to ensure it never gets below 50%: If it does you're in danger of being unable to use your potion, or being unable to get far enough away from the portal stones after you do recall.

Always have access to whatever buffs you need to make your character PvP-viable and always be mindful of them so that you can utilize them at a moment's notice. For any melee class, for example, you should always have herbs, potions or scripted items that will grant you giant strength, haste, protection, armor, spirit aura (if no religion), sanc (perhaps), shield, ironguard, stone skin, and perhaps frenzy given the situation. Yeah, that's a lot of buffs, and they aren't all necessary for every fight. But you should -always- have giant strength, haste and protection as a warrior class: Otherwise just don't fight, period. Heal potions are also very useful, but if you're stuck being bashed it's hard to quaff heals, while if you're buffed up before being bashed you're still a viable machine. A warrior without buffs is nothing but an annoyance.

Carry around antidotes, -especially- cure blindness. Being blinded lasts for freaking ever, and if you don't have any cure blindness herbs in your inventory or container when you get blinded, then you're typically useless until it wears off. Scouts are amazing in these two areas and you should make friends with as many as you can find.

DON'T STACK MORE THAN ONE COMMAND AT A TIME. I cannot emphasize this enough. Stacking spells, combat skills (dirt, taunt, quaff, etc) or anything else more than one command deep is a recipe to get yourself completely wtfowned, especially with the new prone changes. The only exception to this is spam bashing your target when s/he is alread prone (At which point you need to be sure that you're spam bashing with the target's argument, or else if you get taunted/he gets rescued you'll bash someone else and miss the opportunity to keep them down.)

Lastly, get your stuff enchanted, or learn where you can find willpower/WIS mods. Asking around is perfectly acceptable as well. I'd suggest always having at least "Wise" WIS, with at least 15 or so willpower on your character to prevent OP Sleep staves from owning your face.

Finally, alias your commands. I don't care -what- it is, if it's at all viable in PvP, then make it short (no more than 3 letters, two is good) easy to remember, and learn it well so that you don't accidentally forget what it is or get it mixed up with another skill/spell (I still remember the time when I was with navelic in the northern Wastes, and I not only magma'd Navelic, but I rescued the necrophidious and tore our group to pieces. Worst player ever right here.)

If you want to learn how to PK, you just have to be prepared to die a lot. And if you ever have an idea about something you could try, based on your class, don't be afraid to try it, and see how it works, if you die, oh well.