Deykari's Survival Tips

[Wathok]

The following was written by Deykari and does not necessarily reflect the Forsaken Lands' administration's own opinions.

Constantly hounded by Qrace Apps? Pinns bothering you whilst you're ranking? Outdamaged in combat? I'm not the one you want to talk to about fighting back, but I can sure let you in on a few tricks on getting away.

First steps

First of all, you want to be preparing for attacks early. Being low-ranked doesn't stop people wanting to lash out at the earlier ranks. By the time you start getting near rank twenty, you should already have a few methods of poisoning yourself in your sack, as well as a couple out for quick usage. You don't want to get blackjacked or strangled do you? Depending on your race/class you can have that happen to you in your late teens-ranks, so prepare early. The same goes for the rest of your essentials - gyvels/flight/red potions/vials/detect-invis/recall. Those should be your bare minimum at the lower PK ranks, detect-invis being optional depending if you have it castable or not. Carry recall potions regardless - nothing worse than finding yourself blashpemied/silenced and in need of a quick escape.

Pre-pinn cases

Now this is all pretty common-sensical, but it seems not many people do it. You're ranking, and of course, because you -are- checking your where every few seconds, you notice:

<PK> Xyuvol the Cardinal of the Heavens.

A quick whois shows they are human, and thus, you're unaware if they're friend or foe. We'll asume this cleric is evil (everybody knows that all successful evils have names that start with any of the last three letters of the alphabet). Oh, this applies to anyone entering who is in your PK range who you don't know, by the way.

So, what do you do? Don't carry on the hunt, for one. If you can finish your current mob VERY QUICKLY then do so and inform the party, else flee (if it is safe to do so). Get yourself spelled up (by party members if need be) and make sure you're prepared. One of the main mistakes I have seen through ranking is that either people don't tell the group and so get attacked whilst fighting a mob, or they do not take the time and effort using their utilities such as potions and the like, "because it's a waste if they are not hostile". Until their intent is proven, they are hostile. And more often than not, many of those potions will just evaporate anyway if you leave them long enough. You've gained them, use them.

So lets assume you're a few levels below them, not too well-equipped and not insane. From you noticing them (assuming you are CONSTANTLY 'where'ing, which you should be) to them reaching you, you would usually have enough time to cast/quaff a recall, or at the very least quaff a vial and get running. Don't sit about waiting for them to come to you. If you think you can take them (and discretion is advised here as in a few cases, they must just happen to be friendly), then make sure you are prepared EXACTLY the same as you would be if you were seeking your opponent, even if that means running off for a little bit and returning. A little thing I 'sometimes' do is run about, even run past them, and just do a few quick checks to see if they follow. Then make a decision of running away/recalling or sticking it out, the latter again being only if you are confident enough in your skill to be able to hold your own. Unless said opponent is a thief/ninja/ranger/bard (classes that can hide/camo), then generally speaking there is little reason why you shouldn't be able to eject yourself safely from the situation as you will more often than not, see them coming. Knowing the classes and their respective titles as well can also be useful as you can know what skills and spells they don't yet have access to, information that may give you an advantage in someway depending on the situation.

If you are attacked and wanting to get away, flee and recall/run like the wind. Don't make the mistake of kicking dirt in their eyes then running, or anything similar, because that gives them time to apply similar ailments to you and damage you, or worse, laglock.

Pinns

So what if they're a pinn? Pinns don't have to rank and more often than not, do not spend all their time training. It is fair to deduce then, that most pinns that are actively seeking PK will be dressed at least moderately well due to the most of their time spent PKing/questing/EQ gathering unless they're looking for a quick easy kill for EQ. If you're ranking in an area, and you notice that nasty Nexus about getting closer and closer, the same applies as it did earlier. Get yourself out of there. Don't fall into the "Well there's three of us at rank 44, they'd be stupid to attack us" trap because I can almost guarantee that even if you do manage to scare off or kill the attacker, it will be more than likely at the expense of one of your group-mates, ie. you. Even moreso with classes like the invoker, who can take out under-prepared groups of rankers pretty easy if the rankers don't know what they are doing.

A few general tips you can use to your advantage...

Ambiguous room names:

You're cursed/blasphemied/silenced/enfeebled with no method of escaping and you DESPERATLY need to rest because you can do very little else. Try rooms that make players search. Any knowledgeable player will come straight to you if you are resting in "The third house along the western side of Main street, the one with the pretty pink fence" but especially if the area is full of winding pathways, it will give you valuable extra seconds that might just make the tick if you are in "The dusty forest path", a room name that is repeated almost everywhere in that area. Don't rely on this though, because it is not guaranteed to work with a good player.

Area hopping:

When running, try to clear as many areas as possible. What I mean by that is, try to get as many seperate areas between you and your foe as possible, for this means you won't be on their where. As the runner, you have the advantage - rather than taking long paths through a couple of areas, take quick short routes that pass through many areas - if the area has forked paths to two different areas, you have a good chance of losing your opponent if theres a couple of areas between you and you're not showing on the 'where'. A runner has to their movement commands to get running. A chaser has to be scanning/whering all the time. Technically speaking, two equally-knowledgeable/skilled players with the same ping, the runner has the advantage. Another trick is to run through a large area, so that your opponent would clearly see your movement pattern through where. As soon as you leave that area, recall, and head in a completely different direction. Most players if they have been checking their where, will see you leave the area and simply assume you carried on running when they can't see you.

Unorthadox running patterns:

Don't run in predictable patterns. EXAMPLE: If you're getting chased through Rheydin, and you run from the west gate to the east, why continue heading east? Count your steps, and as you reach the east gate, try heading north/south quickly around the outside path of Rheydin, and around back to the west, effictively running back to where you came from. Things like this are often unexpected, and combined with Area Hopping, chasers will 'assume' you've naturally carried on going east when infact, you're going in the complete opposite direction.

Knowledge: Knowledge is power. If you have the knowledge of the exact steps required to get from one place to another, you have power - Power to escape. Basically, try to get into the habit of counting your steps in directions from place to place, so next time you run about, you're not always seeing "Hey, you can't go this way!". Stacking commands is not a good idea, but knowing the exact steps in each direction to places will greatly improve your running and chasing. Not only will you be able to run better, you will be able to run whilst blind. You're almost dead and blinded at Marak. Wouldn't it be good if you could run with EXACTLY the same skill and accuracy from Marak to as if you weren't blind at all, or be able to continue running in the right direction (to some degree of accuracy) when summoned?

Mobs:

More useful at lower ranks (well, that is disputable depending on the mob) but if you desperately need to rest for moves, try resting near a mob if your opponent is one who relies on, or would use to great effect, area-affecting skills/spells. This will mean they will either a: cast the area spell and get attacked, or b: won't use that spell. Simple and effective. There are some 'special' mobs that if you stand by and get attacked, will attack your attacker automatically, but I'm not going to reveal which mobs do that . Even some shop-bought mobs can be useful at lower levels sometimes.

Resting: So, where are you resting when you hunt, waiting for mobs to return? The first room in the adjacent area? No! Find close by areas that are a little more obscure, if you have casters have them invis you if possible, and rest there, making sure in between ticks you are whereing and scanning. This is especially important in popular hunting places, ie. Emerald Forest or the Tombs.

Catching Ticks: Discretion is advised here, depending on how far away you are from your opponent. But assuming you're running, keep your moves topped up by keeping an eye on the time (you DO have the IG time in your prompt, hmm?) and catching the hour. Most people who are chasing an almost dead foe, will not stop to catch the tick unless they are starting to run low on moves, meaning you could eventually out-run them when they're gasping for breath.

'Nof': Hunting with a group? Recently blackjacked/strangled/slept? Make sure you use 'nof' (short for 'nofollow') until you are told that you won't have any more followers. It's a pretty common trick for people to follower their victims who are in groups (obviously they'll have NOF turned off in that case) or for say, a ninja to blind their strangled victim, murder & caltraps and then follow.

And of course, the golden rule that everyone should know:

Regardless of your rank/title (after level 10 of course), NEVER mope about the towns unless you have good reason. You should only ever need to go to towns for supplies or healers or other little errands similar to that (and even then there are a few more out-of-the-way towns). If you meet someone, agree to meet somewhere else that wont leave you as vulnerable as moping about a town aimlessly. Never ever do that unless you have masochistic tendacies.

Again, most of this is common-sense stuff, but things that are often overlooked. I am by no means saying that following this guide will keep you alive, as you will often fall foul to gifted PKers, or 'THE WORST LUCK EVER' . Take them in your stride, and don't rage delete.

Like many say, and I agree, whether you survive or not is almost always down to you, your planning and preparation, or at at least a large part of it anyway. Remember that. And if you truly want to avoid combat, survival is almost fully in your hands apart from those odd occasions. Nobody is saying you HAVE to stay and get slamlocked to death.

Deykari