Medievia Mudslinger
January 7, 1999

PLAYER KILLING SKILLS--BY: Genjuro

Player killing skills are not in the most abundant supply in Medievia. There are plenty of players out there who have no idea how to PK effectively or even how to defend themselves. Players have different opinions on what makes a good PKer. In my estimation, being good at PK is determined by 40% EQ, 50% skill and 10% link. I'll touch on each.

EQ

Building a good PK mode is a goal of many players. A good mode consists of a decent amount of hitpoints, damroll in at least the low 60s and hitroll in the high 40s or low 50s, and appropriate

SS. I find the best hitroll to be around 52 or 53, any more than that seems to be redundant and you could use that to get better other stats. Regarding SS: as you probably know, warriors need -8ss and thieves need -6ss to be for the most part undispellable. Unfortunately, current eq doesn't really support having a max SS mode. Evil wars should probably go for -7 with drow/mask or drow/df belt, good wars -7 with creator sash/cecilia cloak, evil thieves -4 with df belt and/or servant apparition, good thieves with creator sash or df belt. Just so you can have some examples, current max stats for all four is (hp mana hr dam ss):

Keep in mind these are all max hr/dam/ss and +5hp/mana tweaks, and also the hardest eq to get in the game.

SWITCHING

Switching is when a player who is hurt swaps hp eq for damroll eq. Switching is an important part of PK. The most effective switch is pure hp for damroll, although you can get pretty creative. The worst switch is taking off -ss eq, unless its the all or nothing last bs. The standard switch for evil is the bloodstone wand of orcus, although thieves can do a bit more. The switch for good is tougher, as there is no good align orcus equivalent. Probably the best switch is tyche - pink orb and ki-rin mane- toronfyr helm, but you'll need higher hitroll to support losing the hitroll from the tyche. The most effective way to switch is to do it immediately after fleeing from getting bsed, as if you heal first you'll lose more hps from the switch.

SKILLS

Here is some general stuff so that you understand the PK system. When someone backstabs you, you have enough time to cast two spells, flee, switch, orient yourself to which way you fled, and come back and bs. Keep in mind that when someone backstabs you while you're not in lag, you have a 2 spell advantage. What that means is that you can flee, heal once and return bs, and your advantage will be reduced to one as now if your opponent immediately return bses, you could flee and get only one spell before he gets out of lag.

There's really only 3 spells you should use in a one on one pk fight: shockwave/hammer, dispel magic, and heal. PK is kind of like playing blackjack, you have to assume every bs is going to be a double. As good align, I tend to rarely use offensive spells as hammer only does around 40 hps to an evil player. I personally try to stay offensive with backstabs by not using my full spell advantage until I really need it and return bs immediately if I am above 500 hps. A good PKer can use whatever style they want in an eliminator-style fight where no one runs. The important part is the end. That is where you realize you cannot take another 2x, and you have to use offensive spells to get your opponent down to 2xable and then ice him. Dispel magic: generally I don't use it in one on one PK, as its kind of a waste of a spell if you don't get it. If you're especially klever you can tell if a person switchs off -ss eq by looking at them, and seeing what kind of switch eq they have in their inventory.

FLEE ORIENTATION

Knowing how to return to the room you were backstabbed in is crucial to being a good PKer. Obviously its very simple to return to a one exit room where you were bsed. But lets say you were in a "corner" of a zone with exits N and E. The room N does not have an exit W and the room E does not have an exit S. So lets say you get bsed in this corner room. You'd return to it by going: flee, S, W. You will bump into one of the walls and then go the right way and be back where you were bsed. You can get pretty complex. Here's an interesting example: level three of the ladder quest. It is 3x3, with a one exit room in the middle of each side. So say you were bsed in the corner, where you have exits N and W. N and W of you is a 4 exit room. W from the W room and N from the N room is a 3 exit with the wall on the S and E sides respectively. When you flee you don't want to get trapped in the 1 exit rooms. So what you do to return to the corner room where you were bsed is: W S E E or N E S S. This way you will return to the room you were bsed no matter if you flee W or N. The other part of flee orientation is the part where you don't have a guaranteed way to return to your room. You'll just have to flee and check the room name and exits and go the appropriate direction. Of course the problem with doing that is that people will be able to follow you and bs you before you can orient yourself. The best thing to do in that sort of situation is to just go flee, n, e, n or something so that you won't get cherry picked. Experiment.

SUMMARY

Hopefully this will have given you at least a decent idea of how to playerkill effectively. The best advice I can give is to experiment and review. Log a NPK battle or quest and go back and examine what happened. Determine why everything happened like it did, what mistakes you made, and then decide what you need to do to correct those mistakes. But remember that when it really comes down to it, the main things that seperate a decent PKer from a good PKer is experience, quick thinking, and eq.


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