Medievia Mudslinger

October 30, 2000

Defensive Pking - By Thrallanx

Before I start, I'd like to say that this is mainly directed to lower level players and single/double classers, although higher level multies could still possibly learn something.

Defensive pking is basically how to avoid being pked and how to be prepared just in case you get attacked. The art of Defensive Pking is not an easy thing to master. Defensive pking requires a lot of preparation, thinking, and some knowledge of the zone you're in. It takes some skill and practice to get the hang of defensive pking, but in the end, it can pay off really well. So if you want to take a bit of time off exping to ensure that you don't get pked, then read on.

Basic Defensive Pking tips:

When you're in a NPK zone, and you're in for exp, always do the WHO -Z and the WHERE commands before entering the pk part of the zone. If you find a hero or high level player inside the zone, they'll most likely be there for pking, but not always. If they are there for pking, then you'd probably want to prepare for it. If the zone you plan to exp in has a lot of high level players or heroes with a high pk count (who -z shows all the information you need to know) then you should probably move to another zone. Also the WHO -B command shows you the players that have blood (Players receive blood if they attack another player in a pk zone), if players in the zone have high amounts of blood (usually 20+ ticks) then that's a clear sign that they're there for pking.

One of the best strategies I've learned as a single cleric in npk was that exiting the room as soon as the mob is dead helps a lot. Often pkers will "cherry pick" others by waiting 1 room from your room and as soon as they see "You hear a pitiful wail..." they'll move into your room and backstab or malediction you. By moving to another room as soon as you can, you eliminate the chance of them getting a backstab or malediction on you. How you would do this is when you find your mob at "Pales visibly as death nears." Or "Barely Clings to life." Then quickly type "exit" to see your available exits, then spam one of the directions, your melee should finish off the mob and you should quickly move 1 or 2 rooms in the direction you spammed away from your room. If your hitroll and damroll are in the negatives, then you should type "exit" for your available exits, then quickly finish the mob off - then in your spell lag spam a possible direction. Note: turn kill triggers off when attempting to do this, it minimizes your chance of lagging up and not moving fast enough.

Another tactic I found was really good is typing "look" a few times when your mob is paling or clinging, this allows you to see what is in the room with you. If you see a player in the same room as you, then you should quickly spam an available direction when your mob is about dead. This helps a lot because some pkers tend to sit in your room and just wait for you to kill the mob - then cherry pick you from there.

The last thing I learned about defensive pking before I multiclassed to a thief (primary pking class) was that carrying a "Crown of Proximation" on you is a really good thing. The Crown of Proximation allows you to use the skill SCAN during a battle. This is really effective against pkers because if they're waiting in the room next to you, you can be prepared to spam an exit so they can't cherry pick you. Using this combined with the strategies I mentioned above can make you a great defensive pker.

Basic Defensive pking equipment:

Some basic essentials of defensive pking are invisibility wands or shadow cloaks if you can't cast invisibility already. Most of the mobs in a pk zone will be aggressive unless you can cast invisibility or sneak. Since there is no equipment that grants sneak, invisibility is the next best thing. Being invisible allows you to travel around in the pk zone without having to deal with mobs every other room. Here is a small list of items that will allow you to become invisible:

There are a lot more but these are the easiest ones to find. Shadow cloaks can be bought for a cheap price on auction and are often found in the donation room, Wands of Invisibility are found in the Mage's Workshop in Castle Medievia, clear glass wands are found in Riverton, potions can be bought in City of Medievia and the castle and Trellor. Amethyst bands are rings that cast invisibility once and are found near City of Medievia.

It is also wise to drag along some Misty potions or potions that cast "detect invisibility" on you. Being invisible but not being able to see invisible is a big hassle.

As I mentioned above, a Crown of Proximation would greatly help your defensive pking although it's not necessary. Even for thieves and multiclassed thieves it's a great item because you cannot use "scan" during a battle and the Crown of Proximation lets you do that. And what's great about the "crown of proximation" is that it has two eq slots you can put it in, "head" and "hold". The good thing about being able to hold the crown is that you can change it with your normal held item in battle. So that means you can switch from your normal held item, scan the area, and then switch back! Although this is a great tool, it comes in at the hefty price of about two million gold on auctions. Not many single classers can afford that but if you take a trade run or two, then you might be able to get one. It is recommended that you get a crown as soon as you reach level 24 (minimum level requirement) but it is not necessary. There are no alignment restrictions or class restrictions on the crown so basically anyone can use it.

Defensive pking for the four classes:

Warrior:
Warriors have the hardest time avoiding pk, since they cannot heal, sneak, or cast invisibility, but if you're reading this section then you've probably already become a warrior. But no worries, because warriors can defensive pk too! Warriors need a lot of SAVING_SPELL (-ss) to be effectively protected from harmful spells. A lot of pkers that are triple class or higher like to tease single class warriors by disarming them then blinding them so they cannot wield their weapon again. Although this seems funny, it isn't all that fun when you're the warrior. I recommend getting a "Fetal Dragon's Skull" which is a hold item that gives you -4 SAVING_SPELL on a max tweak. They load in Thanos/Den which is a high level zone so your best bet is to buy one off auction, they usually sell for 50-200k. These will help greatly because you really don't need to hold them all the time; when someone attacks you with spells, quickly grab your dragon skull and your saving spell will be greatly improved. Also getting a few items that cast the spell "Bless" on you will greatly help your progress through the warrior class, Potions of godlike protection and lucky rabbit's feet will cast "bless" on you. Bless is a spell that increases your HITROLL by 5 and your SAVING_SPELL by -1. Since warriors need the highest saving spell compared to the other classes, I suggest you scrounge up some -ss eq before you head into the pk zones. If you are confused about how SAVING_SPELL works, then type HELP SAVING_SPELL when you're on Medievia.

Thief:
Thieves, the primary pking class in the game, also have to defensively pk. Sure you might think that thieves don't need to defensive pk because they have sneak, but in fact they do. Just like the other classes, thieves at low levels can't take the immense damage of a backstab or malediction by a high level pker. This is why thieves need to use their stealth to defensively pk. I suggest you practice sneak and hide to very good or superb as soon as you can. Sneaking allows you to move from room to room undetected, which is a big bonus as pkers can't see you walk by them. Hiding is really fun because you can stay put in a room, slowly regaining hit points and most people with SENSE LIFE will think you're just a mob, be sure to use this in a room with a thief mob (hidden life form) already or else it won't work as effectively. Hiding also removes you from the WHO -Z and WHERE screens, which is great because if someone is hunting you, they'll think you've recalled or left the zone. The bad thing about hiding though, is that you need to remove your light source - removing your light source makes you vulnerable to pkers because you cannot see who's in the room. If you have a piece of eq or wand/staff/food that casts INFRAVISION, use it before you hide. INFRAVISION lets you see without a light source. Thieves, like warriors need saving spell or else they'll fall prey to the old "blind and disarm" trick. The useful aspect of thieves is that they have a lower -ss requirement than warriors which is a lot easier to get. Thieves generally have an easier time defensive pking than the other classes.

Mage:
Mages have a relatively easy time defensive pking, since they have the spell INVISIBILITY that makes you invisible to most aggressive mobs in most zones. Avoiding mobs when trying to make an escape in a pk zone will help you lots. An added bonus to the mage class is that they have 2 great pking spells, FIRESHIELD and MANASHIELD. Since mages have relatively low hit points compared to the other classes, they need their protective and offensive spells to help them stay alive. MANASHIELD greatly extends the life as your MANA takes damage instead of your HIT POINTS. Be warned, however, you should not use MANASHIELD if you have really low mana, it will end up fading away and you wont have enough mana to cast your attacking spells. An alternative to having high mana is to have high hitpoints and relatively low mana (500 or so), since mana regenerates a LOT faster then hit points do, you could flee and regenerate and come back. MANASHIELD is a double edged sword, it can protect you, or it can kill you. MANASHIELD will drain you of mana very quickly and that can lead to death as you don't have the mana to cast spells at the mob or player. Now FIRESHIELD is the offensive shield of the mage, when something attacks you it rebounds 50% of the damage taken back to the attacker. Combined with MANASHIELD, it can make a mage very powerful. Later on in your life as a mage, you'll learn a spell named PHANTASMAL IMAGES, which is the best defensive pking spell there is. IMAGES allows you to conjure up to 8 images (mage only, clerics get 6 images) that act as a 1 hit target which makes pkers who want to backstab or maledict you have to cast MAGIC MISSILE first to eliminate your images before unleashing their attack. Note: PHANTASMAL IMAGES costs a whopping 75 mana to cast and there is a 1 to 2 round lag after you cast it. Only cast this after you put some distance between yourself and the attacker! I find that it's a good tactic to set up phantasmal images before you tick, as many people like to attack a mage with little to no mana. The really good thing about mages is that they have the lowest natural saving spell in the game. Although mages are powerful, they are likely to be hit with the BLINDNESS or COLOR SPRAY spell, which renders them useless as they cannot cast. Even a mage should prepare and have some -ss ready.

Cleric:
Ah, clerics, the best defensive pking class in my opinion. Clerics have the ability to HEAL and remove any harmful spells that affect you such as remove poison, remove curse, cure blind, etc. But the best thing about clerics is the spell SANCTUARY, when sanctuary is cast on a player; all the damage taken is halved. Although clerics have both SANCTUARY and FIRESHIELD, only one may be cast at a time. Like mages, clerics have the spell PHANTASMAL IMAGES, but unlike the mage's ability to conjure up to 8 images, the cleric can only conjure 6 (which is ample enough in my opinion). Clerics should strive for high hit points and mana, but do not overdo the mana part. I'd consider a 800hp/600mana cleric to be a lot better then a 600hp/800mana cleric.

One last note to all classes: Even though the objective is to stay alive and avoid pk, carrying some offensive wands on you is a good thing too. Take prism wands for example, you can use them to blind your attacker which will give you enough time to flee and run away safely. Paint brushes and other wands will do the same, but the point is not to provoke the attacker, it is to distract them which will give you enough time to run away - so please don't point your fireball wands or other attacking wands at them.

Ticking Tips:

A while ago I learned something called "Ticking on the Fly" which means you can tick and move around so that you're less likely to be attacked. It works best when you're low on hit points and/or mana and you're fleeing from the attacker. Ticking on the Fly works like this: You rest while spamming look a few times, wait for your mana to move up by 2 ticks, stand, move around in random directions, rest, spam look again, etc. What I mean by "wait for your mana to move up by 2 ticks" is that say you have 500hp/200m, your mana moves up one tick when its at 500hp/240m. Some people have faster regeneration rates than others by having an Elemental Focus (donation item) or regeneration rings (silvery = mana regen, crimson = movement and hit point). I recommend having 2 silvery and 1 crimson for casting classes and 2 crimson for melee (warrior and thief) classes.

Summary:

Defensive pking comes in all shapes and sizes. Everyone can do it. If you're always being harassed by pkers in the zone, then I hope some of this has helped. If none of this helps you can always call in some clannies to deal with it, I'm sure in every clan there's at least one willing hero or high level player that sits in medlink :).

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