Hoover's Guide to Surviving/Avoiding PK

There comes a point in every character?€™s life when they are introduced to PK. Some are thrown into it kicking and screaming, while others jump into it like a swimming pool in July. There will always be the PK?€™ers, and the PK?€™d. This guide is designed for those who find themselves being PK?€™d while trying to go about their business, and to give those a fighting chance of survival.

Most players are thrown into the world of PK within the Tower of Art, Maldra?€™s Keep, or the lower levels of the Proving Grounds. Tower of Art (ToA) and Maldra?€™s Keep (the Keep) are places where many younger players quest, and the Proving Grounds (PG) is the only place for mid to upper level players to gather black tourmalines and maleficarum roots. For those of us who aren?€™t level 240+, we would often like to simply go about our business, and avoid the PK?€™ers to the best of our ability. There are several strategies available to us, and several things to be learned simply to stay alive.

It?€™s always a good idea to learn the area you?€™re in. This is not always possible for changing areas such as PG, but is rather easy for places like the Keep, Deceit, and other PK areas. The first thing to learn are the Safe areas, and non-PK rooms. These are the places where you can remain safe, and don?€™t have to worry about PK?€™ers. You should locate and learn them all, as the experienced PK?€™er will often roomshield the obvious and convenient rooms. If you?€™re in an area that is mostly NPK, you should also find the CPK areas. It is usually a good idea to avoid these when possible, and if you are forced to cross them, you should store your gear away in a no-uncurse container, locker, or a generous friend. Finally, learn the geography. Wide open spaces are good fleeing. Closed narrow hallways are easily roomshielded, and anything with a door can be magically locked. Use the geography to your advantage.

Once you?€™ve learned the area, learn how it can be changed, and you can change it to your advantage. Roomshield and magic lock are commonly used to trap characters in, so they can?€™t run away, but they can be used just as effectively on your side. If you?€™re entering a hallway, cave or something else that has only one entrance, and you?€™re sure you are the only one in it, close it off. If it?€™s got a door, lock it; roomshield the entrance; or better yet, use both. Any experienced PK?€™er can get around these obstacles, but they buy you time, which is all you need. It often requires several magic unlocks or dispel areas to get rid of one magic lock or roomshield. This should give you opportunity to get a head start on your plans. Snare is another possibility. Snare, a terribly under rated skill, can cause a 6 minute web on anyone who sets it off. Note the snare only works against players in NPK or CPK; it is useless in LPK. From my experiences, I (being an upper level 3rd classer) can snare another 3rd classer 1/3 tries. That?€™s a 33% chance. I haven?€™t tried it against 4th classers yet. You must be careful, though, using snare without it practiced can often backfire, and remember where you set snares; you can set them off later by accident.

Now that you are completely familiar with the area, and how it can be manipulated, it?€™s time to actually venture into the red-squared mayhem. First things first...sneak if possible. Sneak is one of the most useful skills in the game. By sneaking, another character will not notice you walk in. This can save your butt at least 50% of the time. It?€™s also a good idea to be levitated in some manor, in case you run into water or another un-passable obstacle. It?€™s always a good idea to check ?€?where?€™ to see what your up against, if it?€™s shifting hours, compare that with a shout, and see how many shifties are out there. The shout will alert PK?€™ers that you?€™re coming in, but most PK?€™er would already be aware of your presence anyway. When you?€™re running through PK, keep moving. Don?€™t stand still too long. This gives PK?€™ers a chance to locate you via the ?€?where?€™ command. If you need to stop for a few, find a safe room. Scanning while running can help, but I personally avoid it, as it takes time, and won?€™t show shifted people.

Even after following all of these guidelines, you will be intercepted by a PK?€™er every now and then. Once combat has been initiated, you have two choices: You can stay and fight, or you can run. If they?€™re similar in level, go ahead and fight them; you might learn something, and you might even win, but most likely, they?€™re a class or two higher than you. PK?€™ers like to pick on people 60 levels lower, so they don?€™t have to worry about losing. If this is the situation, your best bet is to try and escape. The most common method is simply fleeing. Fleeing, while sometimes effective, usually isn?€™t the most practical. A fast PK?€™er, or a little bit of lag on your side, and they?€™ll follow right behind you and attack again. Assuming they are higher level than you, it would be hard to land a blind or web, but both could prevent then from chasing you. Calm is a practical approach. Most PK?€™ers don?€™t anticipate calm, as they expect fleeing. Calm comes in 3 forms: a pale yellow herbal mixture (calm mix), the spell ?€?calm?€™, and the bard song ?€?calm?€™. My personal favorite is the mixture. The mixture is instant, and you can have it prepared ahead of time. It creates no lag for the user, as the spell and song do. After calming, you can run, recall, gohall, whatever, just keep going, cause it?€™s likely the PK?€™er will follow you. Another way to escape combat is by using smoke bombs. Smoke bombs are wonderful little devices that when thrown, cast momentary darkness, which ends combat instantly, and makes the room dark. The only way for them to attack you again is to dispel the darkness, or use an area spell, like flame wind or telekinetic explosion. These spells are all slow, so you should have several seconds, which gives you more than enough time to escape. You should note that smoke bombs only work if you have the ?€?throwing?€™ skill practiced, which is only available to monks, rangers, and rogues. The spell momentary darkness has the same effect, but can be surged or countered, doesn?€™t have the surprise effect, and it uses an astral. Smoke bombs are usually preferred. They come from the bag of tricks, and Dark?€™s Emporium in Rune.

Blind can keep you from escaping, but is easily defended against. Cure blind potions are rather abundant, and the spell ?€?cure blindness?€™ works quite nicely. Web can be a problem, as it stops you from fleeing, and also from throwing smoke bombs. Once you?€™re webbed, you can usually kiss your arse goodbye. You can try removing all eq, and using dispel magic on yourself, to dispel the web, but that?€™s a risky manuever. Paralyze is the worst, but this is rarly used by PK?€™ers. They only way you?€™ll get paralyzed by a PK?€™er is by a fey feeding.

Shifted PK?€™ers are the hardest to protect against, because they are hard to detect. They don?€™t show up on ?€?where?€™, and they don?€™t come up on scans. The shout trick described above is advised, but some shifties might have the shout channel turned off for that very reason. You can always compare a ?€?who?€™ with your area, for example, if you?€™re in the Keep, do a ?€?who?€™, and see who has a Keep next to them. They could be in another keep, such as FGK, but it?€™s always good to be prepared. The same goes for characters using mimic, but they lose the illusion when they move, so they aren?€™t as big of a threat.

These are just some of the basic ideas for staying alive in PK. Obviously, you can?€™t refer to this guide in the middle of a PK scenario, so take what you like and imbed it in your mind. The biggest trick to surviving is being alert, and be ready for whatever happens. The prepared adventurer will prevail.