PvP Guide for Beginners

There comes a time in every players life when you start wondering if there is
more. Is there, perhaps beyond those safe walls of your PvE server, more
excitement, more danger, more reward? There is! You may find it on the Player
vs. Player servers, if you are brave enough.

While waiting on Rise of Kunark, rather than jump ship to another game as
many have, some of us have decided to play on one of the PvP servers for
something new and different to do. While I stumble and find my way around a
place that is still fairly unfamiliar, I hope that there are those out there
that may benefit from the pitfalls and blunders that I have made. I hope that
this guide of tips and tricks will aid you in getting started and ease the
sometimes painful transition into something new. Remember, there is always great
risk in gaining that great reward. While PvP is not for everyone, if you give it
a chance, you might find that it can be a whole heckuva lot of fun!

Your experiences may vary, and yes, I'm a noob.

Getting Started

Now I've played PvP servers before. I've quickly level'ed to my 20s and ran
around with others while randomly killing whatever we could find. This is not
the way I'd suggest for anyone to start out a career on the PvP server,
especially if you plan on taking it at all seriously. Being good at PvP takes
time and effort, and if you focus just on gaining in adventure level, you'll
find yourself very often on the losing end of more skilled and better equipped
players.

So my first bit of advice; take your time!

Along with the adventuring levels, which sometimes are a trick to gain on PvP
servers, there are also achievement points to be had and crafting to get done.
Starting out in any of the four newbie zones, you really need to do the quests.
These will not only aid in early leveling, but also give you a boost with AP
gain. Achievements can give some very nice boosts to stats and abilities that
can be truly invaluable in combat, and can make or break a player on player
battle. The more abilities you are able to boost early on, the better off you
will be.

Class choice is a difficult one, and you'll get advice on that one from
EVERYONE, but I think my friend Tallika had the best advice; play a class you
know. Yes, tracking, stealth, and invis can all help quite a bit in PvP, but
those will do you no good if you are just fumbling to get to know your scout
class when you usually play a priest. If you are new to EQ2 and PvP,
then sticking with the lower level content longer, is even more important! If
you aren't sure of what all of your spells and combat arts do, then I suggest
taking the time to learn. Spamming buttons isn't going to cut here against
(sometimes) intelligent players.

PvP starts at level 10. This is when you become fair game to any opposing
player within the zone PvP level range (which varies depending on zone). This
means that if you are in Oakmyst Forest at level 10, a level 14 player can waltz
on in and hurt you in ways that makes you squeeze your knees together for a
couple of weeks.

This leads me to tip #2:

Stay in newbie zones that don't connect easily to outside zones, or are
somewhat guarded. Anywhere where you have guards, it makes life harder on the
opposing players to get to you. If you want to level, stick to these areas and
you'll see a bit less in the way of scary noob ganking. If the zone you are in
connects to the open areas via bell or gate (such as Oakmyst Forest or the
Graveyard) they tend to get quite a bit of traffic from lower level players
looking to slay you and your friends.

The Outside World

Once you are at the point where PvP is a reality, you'll want to stay
connected, so make sure you have your channels up! These can be a great help in
the early days. If you end up in a position of having more opposing faction
players around than what you can take, a quick note to the main channel will
bring help. Just give a zone, general area, and levels of the players to the
channel and those that are more willing and able to help, usually will. Or if
you are hunting for people to slaughter with yourself, keep an eye out for
others alerting players to invaders. This is great practice for early PvP,
before you are ready to head out and find PvP action.

Now that you are ready to hunt for blood, grab a few friends and make your
way towards the opposite faction's areas. Solo PvP is totally doable, but being
the lone guy running around a zone and ganking lower level players who are
harvesting is really lame and it will quickly catch the attention of every hero
who will be quick to put you in your place. When that happens, your fun is over,
you'll never be able to go up against all the people who now want you very dead.
If you take friends, in the least, the numbers will give you a chance against
the enemy.

While out playing, there will be many tricks of the trade that you will pick
up on and you will learn from painful experience what not to do. One of my
lowest PvP moments was the one I am about to share. My ass is still sore from
this beating..

Welcome to the "Bait and unstealth" trick! Place a lower level member of your
group in the middle of the opposing faction's low level zone. Hide other players
around the area, nicely stealthed. Watch and wait as the vultures start
circling, and just as you get a few sniffing around, POUNCE and kill them all!
Bwhaha!! Yeah, that was a hard lesson that I learned there. Never trust a lone
player just standing around out in the open. Not many players are quite that
stupid.

This brings us to our next lesson, totems. These aren't something you can use
under level 20, but once you get there, have these on hand and in-use at all
times! You'll need the Butterfly totem for seeing through Stealth and the Owl
totem for seeing through Invisible.

Beyond PvP

In my various tries on the PvP servers, the biggest difference was thanks to
the crafting. Getting started on a server that I don't have high level friends
or my own characters already in place, means no twinking! I have to earn
everything I put on my character with nothing more than my wit and charm. While
you can get very lucky with good drops off of other players (my first PvP payout
was at level 12 with 43g), the best way to get what you need is to pick a
tradeskill and advance that skill along with your adventuring levels. I found
that crafted items seem to sell better on the PvP servers, so to earn coin, its
a very viable option, plus you'll be able to make some of your own items
depending on what craft you decide to pick up.

My last bit of advice is this:

Bank, bank, bank, bank. No really. BANK! You would learn that one anyway
after the first couple of times you lose a large amount of coin because you
forgot to stop by the bank before going out to play. Make it a habit, and always
do it. Coin is hard enough to come by without just handing it to the enemy!!

With my beginner spells and combat arts sufficiently upgraded, handcrafted
gear protecting my delicate rear, I feel more prepared for the many deaths that
I am certain to suffer. Watch out world, for I am Savanja and I will pwn you
all!

I'm not prepared at this time to write up a more complex guide, but you
can be sure that one is coming! If you happen to be an avid PvP player and would
like to share some of your wisdom, let me
know! The EQ2 world can use your knowledge, and we would love to publish it.