To get things started off, perhaps I should say that those of you doing Cleric as a first class number among the few, the proud, the dependent! If you are a single class cleric mudding in Medievia, your life is interesting, yet not quite as varied as the other starting classes. However, you should find solace in the fact that you form the core of any reasonable form, (even if those snooty mages say otherwise) an invaluable tool for taking care of others, and you get to lay those glowin fingers all over everybody else (yeah baby!), not to mention the pure joy one can get seeing that sparking hammer squash wussy single class thieves.
Near and dear to everyone’s heart (or lack thereof) is PlayerKilling. Now, I know you just read the words “cleric” and “playerkilling” in the same paragraph, and if you’re a relatively experienced player, you might have gotten a good chuckle out of it. And yet, the cleric is an excellent playerkiller should they so choose. In fact, a mid-range cleric with the proper spells can take just about any other single class in a pk duel. How you say? Well... perhaps the most important spells in the game are learned in cleric; Sanctuary: 1/2 damage done to you from any means, Protection from Good/Evil: 1/2 damage done from opposite alignment, Heal: a true blessing for clerics, with the retweaked healing rate. But to get to basics, there are several techniques that I’ve seen clerics use with regards to playerkilling. 1) Get truly disgusting amounts of hp and fireshield yourself. Accept and Heal the damage that your opponent does until such time as you can turn aggressive and beat them to a bloody smear on the floor. A cleric with clan-eq resources should be able to get ABOUT 800 hp at level 26, which is the level you can start to seriously defend yourself or go after others. I caution people with this tactic, because it tends to backfire somewhat. If you get healing, and your opponent suddenly flees and decides to take a nice jog and heal themselves, then you’re left with very little mana to combat them after you finish healing and re-fireshielding yourself. The key to this technique is mana-management, because you DO sacrifice quite a chunk of it in order to obtain that high hp, and you had better HOPE you can get those 2-heals a round. I would say that this is the all-or-nothing sort of pk style. If a thief misses one or both of their bses, and they don’t have sanc, they can kiss their stealthy butt good-bye in this mode, but if they land 2, or get those gut-wrenching twists, then you’re on the losing end from the start. DO NOT use this method with anyone remotely hero-like. Generally being 4 classes up there means they know how to deal with it, and will either constantly bs you, or have enough mana on manashield to negate it.
I should digress for a moment to insert a notation about PlayerKilling Vs. Heros, or high multi-class persons. For this, I quote the immortal words found in Monty Python, “RUN AWAY! RUN AWAY!” You do not gain anything from retaliation to their pk attempts. You GET blood, and that’s not a “good” thing, because people hunt you down and pk you over and over if you defend yourself. Besides, a good run out of the Warrens of Motasha is good for you. (panicked flight from people with sharp objects builds zone knowledge!)
The second method is somewhat more traditional (and predictable) for Playerkilling. Basically, it entails getting rather large amounts of hp and mana, and then attempting to harm/hammer/demonfire the opponent to death. This is the one I particularly enjoy, simply because it’s relatively easy if you know what you’re doing, and even people who are positively horrid at pk can make a pass at it. The best technique I’ve found with this after rounds in the arena etc., is that speed is the key. Speed. Not stats. Not luck. Speed. If you can run in and get 4 harms on an opponent, flee out, heal yourself back up, run back in, and repeat, any cleric can wear down the opposition. This is the unique talent that clerics have, in that they are able to replenish themselves faster than any other class. Even if you’re fighting a current class mage with a cleric background, the cleric still holds the advantage simply because he or she is able to bring themselves up to full stats rather quickly. I should note that the “bringing” of these stats requires speed too. If in the wilderness, even with lots of hp and sanc, a cleric resting and waiting for mana to regen might as well paint a target on themselves.
Now that you’re aware of the two basic theories behind cleric pking, I should no doubt discuss the tactics used against other single classes. In my opinion, a cleric can kill any other single class, provided it’s not a high-high-high level mage with truly terrifying amounts of damage and donation gifts up the you know what. How?
Thieves: (snorts with laughter) Backstab is good and fine, but I’m sorry guys, you’re breakfast. Blinding the poor sneaksters is the first step. Once blind, a thief is bait for other handy spells which wear them down. A poison for strength (dropping that 7d7 melee sword is always a frustrating sight). As for what to do with bs? Not a whole lot, I find that most single class thieves don’t carry around 80 flasks of holy water, so harm does quite a bit of damage, not to mention demonfire or hammer if you’re of opposing alignments (ouch). Generally if you harm them enough, they kinda croak. To deal with the backstab if you can’t blind requires a measure of luck in 2 parts, a) you better hope they don’t hit huge bses b) you better hope you can catch up with them when they run to regen. Here is the technique: Say that you’re bsed by a thief, it does a considerable amount of damage, but you’re still rearin to go, the best policy is this; c heal me (melee will hit you some, and you don’t want to be crippled for the next bs) c blind thief, (2x) just in case, then a harm or two, depending on how many heals/blinds you were able to fit in. A cleric has 3 rounds, so after the second -*this is the important part*- the key is to know the exits. When the thief flees to try bs again, you have to follow them before they even have time to sneak after their flee. You barge into the room, picking a random direction, and press c harm thief. Now, you wont always pick the RIGHT room, but the point is that you can generally get on their nerves if it’s a 3 exit room, picking the right one often enough to send them fleeing. (*note: if you have images, be sure to regen them before you follow, just cause it’s funny to see em swear after doubling 2 of your 6.) If it’s the incorrect room, take 2 or three steps in that direction, because you’ll be a lighted exit when the thief runs back into the initial room for a bs. From there, c heal me again, and make 2 passes past the inital room, checking for them. Thieves have a bs lag that is just long enough that you can pick them off. From there, it’s just pestering them until they die. Bon appitete.
Warrior: These are tougher. You have to be sure that the blind will work in order to give you proper time to flee. Warrior melee HURTS with huge weapons, and you can’t stand toe to toe and duke it out. Make it tough for them with blind and poison, then rip into that massive hp of theirs. They either kick or bash, either does some damage, but do NOT spam your spells, because bash lays you out for a round, and if you get backed up on spells, you may not be able to get out and regen if you need to. This is where you need more pk savvy to win. You better hope you have the hps, but once you start really working them, doing 200 hp a round with spells, they’ll know they’re overmatched.
Mage: Tough. Very tough. Mages cause devastating amounts of damage with their spells, and if you have fireshield, forget about it. Once again, try blind. Mages are absolutely helpless if blind, but they’ll make a dash if you succeed, so put on your running um... boots. (note for the newbies: boots of speed do not help with this =P ) Basically a duel with a mage is a test in your balancing abilities. Try to maintain about 50% of your hp with healing, but you have to destroy that manashield, so make sure your weapons are potent. Try not to let them get that malediction spell in, because it generally ruins any chance you have. Be fast, and walk several rooms at a time, avoid spamming the room, but if there’s a likely corner, walk press n;n;n;c harm mage (even if it does cost you a few mana). I can’t tell you how thankful you will be should they be stuck at corners. Many players are like that in pk, running massive straight distances and then getting the “you cannot go that way” message and being stalled for several seconds. Take advantage of everything you can, and this weakness is a big one.
One of the best things about killing single classes is the knowledge they will not have protection from good/evil. Dispel evil is a wonderful spell for the mana cost, and hammering/demonfiring the opponent can’t be beat. So only one question remains... Good or Evil? I personally chose the evil route, because it allows me to xp in areas like Mystical and to squash nerieds, but for pk, a single class thief should lean towards good. If you have 1/4 of the damage they cause actually AFFECT you, then I would say you’re on the right track. It’s tough to find good hp eq, but if you want to pk, then I’m sure your clannies should help out, and if they aren’t able to, never fear, auction is still up and running.
Good Luck, and Happy Mudding.