Adventures in Killing Peoples

Player vs Player in EverQuest 2

By: Tony "RadarX" Jones

"LOLZ n00b!" The words send a shiver down my spine as I walk down the dock in the neighborhood of Big Bend.  Ok, level 1-10 channel off?  Check.  I'm not going to let a little obnoxious chatter ruin my experience. I have just finished my time on the Isle of Refuge which I have to admit was fairly painless. The new line of quests and scores of people looking to group made my time there seem short. There was even a friendly ratonga who gave me an Adept 1. I can't remember your name, but that spell was a huge bonus for me to have later.

Now, I've played a little Player vs Player (PvP) with WoW, UO, SWG, etc... but its been a very long time so of course I'm wired like a crack addict, jumping at every player I see walk by, even in the middle of Freeport. Not to be intimidated I boldly step up to the Racial Tradition quest NPC and begin my journey. After completing a few mundane tasks, I made my way to the Graveyard to gain a few levels. Of course too terrified to even peak out into the Commonlands, I had yet to see an enemy player, and was wrapping up a lengthy dialogue with a quest NPC. All of a sudden, time slowed down and my spider sense begin to warn me of impending danger. I leapt into action ready to unleash my skill....bah who am I kidding? I never even saw the guy coming. I was down on the ground in about a half second and didn't even have the heart to look at my parser. Ganked already by level 10!

At this point, I was brought into the reality that this really was a Player vs Player server and that things were different. What exactly is different from the Player vs Environment(PvE) servers? Are things balanced here? Most importantly, how was I going to get revenge for being ganked? I saw essentially two major differences between the PvP and the PvE servers: Environment, and Combat.

It's a Dangerous World Out There 

It would benefit the reader for me to take a quick moment, and define what I mean by environment. In this case, I'm referring specificaly to everything in the game not related to actual combat. This could be zones, quests, and anything else not involving interaction with other players.

The environment on a Player vs Player server has a few similarities. The zones are the same, the NPC's are all in the same place, and you can do pretty much whatever you could do on a PvE server but the differences that do exsist are night and day. The first thing I noticed was the necessity of grouping. On a norrmal server, its always nice to have company, people you can help and joke with. On a PvP server it's necessary to have company so you aren't picked on like the kid at the playground nobody liked.

Another aspect of grouping that has changed, is it is harder to find groups. Having allegiance to a certain city now has its penalties, in that you can't speak to anyone of the opposing city much less group with them. Need to pull a raid together to finish your Ghoulbane? Good luck my friend. I'm lucky to survive the FedEx quests in town.

Another huge change that plagued me personally was, that money is more difficult to come by. Quests are more dangerous to do but more importantly any money on your body when you are killed by a player is looted. There can be no cross city cooperation with crafters so items are also more expensive (no frilly carpets for my inn room). Now of course, this is a fresh server, so there will be a time of adjustment, but in the end things will never be just like the PvE servers.

Finally, travel will be vastly different on a PvP server. The roads are dangerous, the routes well watched, and a bunch of jerks are camping the griffin tower I'm soaring into. I'll jump to my death to give them no satisfaction, but it still sucks. The Kingdom of Sky spires are frequently used to move from zone to zone but they are also "sitting duck" spots where you can be easily grabbed.

Looking For the Kill

So everything around you takes a new meaning on a PvP server but what do you do there? Ready for a visit from Captain Obvious again? Yes, duh, you spend a large portion of your time killing other players but how do this effect what you would normally do? One frequent method of entertainment, much to most peoples annoyance is the "gank." A large group or a single player of a much higher level beats the living piss out of someone and its called "fun." I'd like to find many of these people in real life when they are in the shower or sleeping and hit them with a taser. What? Peeing your pants is funny, right?

Most PvP I have experienced so far, has been in small group engagements. A team would utilize the portals to Kingdom of Sky, drop down in Antonica and roam around guerilla style picking off other groups. This works wonders, until the opposing force decides to pull together multiple groups (a raid group) and proceeds to steam roll you. In areas like Antonica, Commonlands, and even to an extent Thundering Steppes. I'm curious to see how this will work out in the higher level areas such as Lavastorm and Everfrost with their rather obvious choke points.

Another interesting development in combat, has been dungeon
encounters. Close quarters, with usually one maybe two exits at most,
these areas provide a dangerous and exciting area. Throw in the
residents of these dungeons, and you've got a battle royale worthy of
the USA Network.  The few encounters I had in Blackburrow mainly
cosisted of "OMG too high!  too high!  Take the tank! 
I'm too pretty to die!"

One thing I'm hoping to see, is some battleground type maps (no it's
not a WoW term it was actually an idea in SWG as well).  I've
noticed some maps have been added to the arenas but I'd like to see
them a little more detalied and possibly goal oriented.  This
would give players an even-grounded battlefield and would reduce
griefing  For now, it's pretty much finding your own fun .

Overall, I've got to say I'm fairly impressed with how SOE handled
the PvP servers.  I'm not going to lie and say I wasn't really
worried, because I was.  This is a whole new ball game for
EverQuest 2, but it seems to have worked out pretty well.  
There are, like in every game, bugs and exploits that need to be worked
out,  but most people seem to actually be having fun (even
me).   What else can I say?  Stop procrastinating, head
over to Nagafen and try it out. 


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Last Updated: Mar 13, 2016

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