How to PK?

Damewort - Sanctuary

I got a nix for Xmas with a hint from husband that he wants to pk with me. Got it to lvl91 and for fun we both went in pk mode - to try it out and to practice a bit. I got killed by husband (bm) over and over again... Understood that I might be ok in pve, but I fail in pk and I have no clue why or what to change.

1. Gears? Equipment?
Should I improve my gears? More hp? More damage? Should I go for channeling rings or for +mag. attack or +critical hit rings? Which add-ons are better on ornaments for pk?

2. Skills?
I am demon veno, with only demon venom, iron and fox form atm. I have leveled only amp, purge, mist and myriad in fox form as up till now I only used it in instances. Most my caster's skills are maxed (except dots)

3. Strategy?
We fought on ground and nix got stuck time after time... or even worse - resetted aggro for some reason. I first made nix use pounce, then bleed. in mean time I usually casted ironwood, lucky scarab, nox... and around that time I had to run from hellfire. Or even worse... died before even managed to cast ironwood, cause I got mercilessly ganked, stunlocked and killed. Should I better attack from air to prevent nix from getting stuck? Change order of skills? Use Bramble hood (tried with anti-stun and feral concentration, I didn't live too long anyway)? Tried to kite but I seem to be slow at turning around and attacking. Pressing Ctrl to hit gets in the way.

4. Experience?
This is the first game where I try to pk. Maybe I simply should practice and learn from deaths? But it is hard to learn if you die before you can understand what happened... Should I simply die and stand back till I understand? Or bm isn't that easy to kill to start with?

Any tips?
And, please, no "I just send nix in and heal or run..." or "you fail in pk, noob". Some constructive criticism and advice would be nice. Atm I know I am failing without you telling it to me. b:thanks

Sadpuma - Heavens Tear

1. Gears/ Equipment:
Your gear and equipment can always be improved. Refine it, add HP shards, (in pk hp is your friend). However, despite what many may have you believe, skill in pk is more valuable than gear. Of course going up against someone that has uber gear (like from anni packs) you will probably lose unless they dont know how to play (and god knows, there are plenty of people that have the gear but cant play worth ****).

2. Skills
Im Sage, so i cant recommend any specific skills for you. But I would recommend getting your demon skills for ALL skills that you use. In pk that should include Venomous, Ironwood, Lucky Scarabs, Amp, Purge (not a huuge deal for demon) to name a few. I know a few demon venos get crush vigor to build up chi faster.

3. Strategy
Nix will tend to get stuck in the ground, jump in the air and send your nix to attack after the nix is above the ground. For each class there are specific startegies that you can use to kill in pk. BM's, IMO are the hardest class for venos to kill 1v1 bc of stuns (demon summer sprint will help a good deal with this). Bc you dont have a lot of time to kill BM's the best thing to do is stay in fox form (higher pdef) build chi and when you think you are ready try to use stunning blow to immobilize him, go human spark and go for the kill.

There are tons of different strategies that you can use against every class, and im sure you'll get quite a few in this post. Just remember that there is always more than one way to kill someone, and the best way to learn is to do what you are doing and practice.

4.To become good in pk you definitely need experience, not so much in other games, but experience in just knowing when to do certain skills. IE when to soul transfuse, use lucky scarab for your one stun (excluding nix's stun), when to go into fox mode, when to spark, etc.

Tips: My biggest recommendation to ALL venos is to learn how to fight without your nix. All classes, including BM's can die to a nix-less veno if you know what to do and when to do it. You will see soon that if you want a 1v1 challenge that most people will not fight you with your nix bc they think it unfair (and it is, bleed is glitched).

After you become reasonably comfortable without the nix, then having it is just icing on the cake. Additionally, if you do learn how to fight without the nix, you wont be like one of the countless venos that runs away when their nix dies... I wont lie, its hard and it takes time, but if you are patient enough, you will learn.

Szol - Harshlands

get used to ur fox form skills, as they really shine in pvp

as the person above me said , as a veno it is possible to kill every class in the game w/o a nix , simply bc venos have been able to do so when nixes werent ig.
ever tried pking with a sawfly ? ^^ well but thats the same glitch as a nix in some way
ps. lucky scarab is ur friend

if u didnt do it till now , try getting holy path on ur genie - always good for some escape actions if u got no time to switch to hel fox

Isala - Sanctuary

Well, there are several tactics one can use as a Veno, but each person must find their own ways. My personal favorite is a full onslaught in Fox Form. On the ground, I use a Golem ramped up with 4 attack skills, all maxed to level 5. I hit every one of those I can get, popping the highest HP potion I have, and dashing straight into my opponent, where I proceed to slap them with Myriad Rainbow (Fox Form). If it gives me a Magic Break, I use my pets magical skills to rip through my opponent. If Armor Break, I use Bash, and Flesh Ream. Regardless of the end result, I head in myself, firing Befuddling Mist, Fox Wallop, and Leech. I start to take damage, I pop a Purple Pot, for instant healing. My opponent decided to try to spark on me? Instant Purge, followed up by an Amp immediately after. If I've generated enough chi, instead of sparking, I use one of my chi skills, Malefic Crush. If I'm really starting to take a beating, and my HP, and Purple Pots are still in cooldown, I pop an MP pot, followed by an immediate Soul Transfusion.

This is just basic tactics, however, as there is much more advanced tactics I sometimes use, involving my genie. For instance, Extreme Poison. Spamming that while attacking makes your opponent goes down much faster. There's also Feral Concentration, which when used at the same time the genie skill "Fortify" gives you 10 seconds of unpurgable invincibility, as well as the ability to move and fight. You say you're fighting a BM, tried popping off Fortify so he can't stun you?

Then there's air tactics, which involve an air pet with debuff skills, and casting, or water tactics which involves yet another pet, and a whole new realm of strategies...

PK is not an easy thing to just pick up at level 90, I'm afraid. You should turn off your protections, for one thing. Having to hit Ctrl is a waste of time, and effort you could be using to kill, instead of worrying about if you're hitting the right buttons. As you'll need to find your own way to fight, I'd honestly suggest taking the time to really focus on getting your skills up, as the way you're built now, suggests a much more PvE oriented build.

As for gear... How much P-Def do you have, how much HP do you have? Can you increase it with better shards, or refining? There is no such thing as too much. Are you using specific gear as to what you're using? Are you trying to go into Fox with Mag attack rings? Using MP hats, or HP hats? What's your weapon sharded with? Magic Resist Necklaces, or Physical Defense? Is every single one of those things at least +1ed, if not more? What are your bonuses on your gear? What tome are you wearing?

There are over 9000 ways to make yourself harder, better, faster, and stronger. It'll take practice. Lots and lots of practice. Not everyone can just drop into PK mode, and kill people with ease. To be honest, it would have been much easier to learn how to fight before now, when now, everyone is using endgame gear, with the stuff they've put a ton of effort into getting. It might seem cheap, but go find some noobs, and kill them. Duels, while fine and dandy, are not going to teach you PK. If you can't beat someone your level, go find someone strutting their E-Peens, around 10 or so levels lower than you, and fight them. You still might lose, but even so, it'll teach you more about your choice of tactics, and ways to win, as they won't have the higher DPS of those around your level. If nothing else, just aim lower until you can win, and work your way up from there. If they whine about a higher level ganking lowbies, tough. They made the choice to go PK, as did you.

Lenn_ - Sanctuary

i personally like to use a process of kiting to get all my debuffs off as fast as i can, poting if i do manage to take a hit. once thats done, try to keep them stunned/position locked as much as you can, whether it be lucky, genie, pounce, etc. while nuking.

i cant really name any specific strategies for you, i was sage O_o; lol my process was easy to get chi and 3x spark when needed (yeah i was noob and just relied on it to kill super geared HAs)

gear wise, garnet up, get pdef accesories, and probably use a well refined wand or magic sword, something with an even damage range works well for our spells. neon purga, or wraith conqueror are great examples.

do not make the noob mistake of going and citrining your armor unless you have LA.

i like EP, occult ice, holy path, and tree on my genie, its may be wise for you to have an anti stun or something. idk

if youre indoors for pvp for those few instances of SP, get a dark wanderer with a few attack skills and maybe a debuff. :V

Damewort - Sanctuary

Thanks for advices

Removing all protections would make me free from pressing Ctrl? *sighs*facepalm*... thanks, that partly solves the problem of being too slow. There where cases when I was clicking on skills but nothing happened as I wasnt' pressing Ctrl...

I think I will use nix as "safety wheels" first. Learn how to kill with it and then I can experiment to find out how to kill without it. First I need to get the feeling that I actually can kill... then I can "nerf" myself to see absolute minimum at which I can still do it... I know it is going fully against Sadpuma's advice (I tell the same about herc and pve), but atm I need to be sure about myself.

As for gears, I am LA so all my armors have citrines (flawless or imac), refines could be higher - +2 or +3 only atm. Ornaments? Phys.necklace and elemental belt - to balance both defences. I guess my gears really are more for pve not pk... >.>
On genie - Fortify, Holly Path, Extreme poison, Second Wind, Lightening Chaser.

What's better? Second wind or Tree?

p.s. Why dark wanderer and not scorpion?

rinuruc

Damewort - Sanctuary wrote: »

Thanks for advices

Removing all protections would make me free from pressing Ctrl? *sighs*facepalm*... thanks, that partly solves the problem of being too slow. There where cases when I was clicking on skills but nothing happened as I wasnt' pressing Ctrl...

I think I will use nix as "safety wheels" first. Learn how to kill with it and then I can experiment to find out how to kill without it. First I need to get the feeling that I actually can kill... then I can "nerf" myself to see absolute minimum at which I can still do it... I know it is going fully against Sadpuma's advice (I tell the same about herc and pve), but atm I need to be sure about myself.

As for gears, I am LA so all my armors have citrines (flawless or imac), refines could be higher - +2 or +3 only atm. Ornaments? Phys.necklace and elemental belt - to balance both defences. I guess my gears really are more for pve not pk... >.>
On genie - Fortify, Holly Path, Extreme poison, Second Wind, Lightening Chaser.

What's better? Second wind or Tree?

p.s. Why dark wanderer and not scorpion?

when low hp, id prefer second wind since its instantaneous,... when u got a charm and ur getting almost a tick,... (when getting ganged by mobs or so), use TOP, to increase ur hp and get a bigger tick,... coz u know after 3 seconds u ll get a bit of healings from the TOP and after six again,... so if ur getting ganged by mobs and got a nice amount of hp, id prefer top coz thats percentage of ur hp that it heals,... and if ur charmed, u can use the charm to get full health at that higher hp from top,... (if ur sure u can kill the mobs hitting u in eight sec or so,... (if being gankd in group pvp,... than top to let ur charm tick, if u know its gonna tick, make it a bit bigger tick, coz u know u get some heal after 3 n six seconds,... (if ur sure its gonna tick anyway, make the tick count so u pwn them instead of vice versa))