First of all, English is not my first, so sorry for mistakes in grammar in punctuation. But I hope you are here not for reading polished text.

Lets begin. I believe first task for a newbie in PK should be learning how to survive and avoid "bad" situations. Why so? Lets say on examples. You may have 10 wins and 20 loses or you may have 5 wins and 2 loses.

In first case you will have much more fights and probably much more emotions. In second case you will have better stuff which you may get from allies/exploration/by a lucky chance/those few PKs.

In first way you will learn more about PK in shorter ways. In second way you will learn how to survive and master it.

Basic tips on how to survive in PK:
1. Spam "where". Always. Make it a reflex move. I spammed it so much, that I found myself typing those three letters - 'whe' - even in other programs.

2. Configure your client to highlight (PK). If you dont know how to do this - visit Script Board on qhcf.net and search. Or ask here or there.

3. Always carry 1 teleport potion (or two) and 1 return (recall) potion in your inventory. Carry some in your sack. You can buy cheap return potions in Hamsah, in apothecary. You can buy teleport potions in Seantryn Modan and in Udgaard.

NB! Keep in mind that you can not recall if you are cursed or damnated.

4. If you walk around sniffing daisies, and suddenly get jumped by someone, the best move is to type "flee" then "q teleport". Good chances you will get lagged, which makes you unable to do this or any other thing except hitting your opponent. Thats why you should spam 'where' all the time.

You may ask "how the hell I learn how to fight if I run from the start".

Here is the answer:
a. If you got jumped this means at least two things: you are unprepared and your opponent probably prepared for a fight. This makes your chance to win much less.

b. Exploring, talking and generally playing you will learn what to expect from other classes, their weak and strong points, how to use your own advantages and so on. But now, you better learn how to survive - the first practical thing to learn in PK at my opinion.

5. Go on qhcf.net (known as Dios as well). There is wiki with a lot of faqs. Read them. Study them.

6. Read logs on both forums and try to learn from them. Try to ask yourself "what would I do be I a loser to avoid the death". "What would I do as a winner?"

7. Covet knowledge. Ask questions like "how to fight with my char" or "what to expect from that one" both IC and OOC. You may try this on forums where you can get variety of opinions, but I personally prefer to speak directly with people for I can ask a lot of (sometimes stupid) questions and get the answers quickly. Do not hesitate to PM or ask for AIM/MSN/ICQ/Skype number from some seasoned vets. Some will ignore but some will help and teach you.

8. Use friends/allies/cabalmates. They can teach you, they can lead you around, they can greatly help you. So gank whenever you can while you are a newbie. Some people whine about this, but I see nothing wrong here.

9. If you play a warrior, ranger, thief or similar classes (not a mage) pick some time to master your defences. Especially parry and dodge. Best time for this are low ranks but there are some exceptions.

10. Avoid "balls to the wall" fights unless you feel its really yours. If you start gushing (about 40%) and your foe is not convulsing - flee. You better lose a chance to get a kill or two but you survive and keep your stuff.

11. Avoid getting permalagged. To do this you have to do two things. First, read the FAQ about lagging on qhcf.net. Second, have neccessary preps (potions/pills/herbs) or keep up necessary spells/communes and a helm with decent AC against bash (it will help you against cranial).

Which preps do you need:
a. Reduce. Diminution flasks are sold in Hamsah apothecary.
b. Enlarge. Blue vials can be taken in Talshidar caves (you have to have about 35+ rank to make it more or less easily) or yellow roots can be bought in Ysigrath
c. Fly. Cheap flying potions can be bough in High Tower of Sorcery or Arial city.

12. Never ever fight unprepared. There will be the times when you see some foe nearby or someones strikes your cabal guardian and you may think "I should rush quickly before he leaves/finishes the guardian". No. Take your time to eat/quaff all preps then go for him.

Now its time to learn more advanced tips.

13. More preps.

As a warrior/thief/assassin/ranger you need stoneskin. There is one unlimited source and several limited once. Unlimited is sold at seafood stand, called "fillet of petite blowfish" and has some negative affects. But its cheap and you can get a lot in your sack. As for the limited ones - ask your friends/allies about them. Second easily accessible prep which you often need is protection vs alignment or "protection". There are also aura, shield, wraithform, watershield, fireshield, resist to metal to mention a few. All of them are limited so again to find them you have to ask friends.

As a mage and to some degree as thief/ranger/bard you have access to scrolls/wands and talismans. Most valuable are aura/shield/barrier (which is called ABS shortly) and haste. Mages have so called sleek rods. Those rods are on some magey mobs or places, you have to search for them personally and you will always (in most cases) find your rod there, where you have found it.

14. If you fight group vs group you have to think about two things.
a. Who will be the first target in your group. Most times it is a healer/bard/thief/offence shifter. Whats common between them? They either have bad defensive abilities and/or good support abilities and/or good damage abilites. If they dont target thief, he will circle or blackjack. If they dont target offensive shifter, he will deal big damage. If thats you - uh oh! - think about second thing.
b. Can you be permalagged? If you dont know much make it simple: you CAN be permalagged if enemy group has 2+ warriors/bard(s)/thief(s)/ranger in the wilds/anti-paladins to mention a few. If the answer is Yes - use preps/inherent abilities! Enlarge/reduce/fly yourself! Use other preps as well. If you are a mage dont even try to fight without aura/barrier/shield/stoneskin on you. Maybe not all of them at one time, but at least two protections.

Now when you are learned how to survive I try to give some basic tips how to kill:
1. First of all, you have to find the answer - will you outmelee your opponent if you lag him? If the answer is "yes" then your best basic move will be lag: bash, trip, pincer, cranial. Whatever. If the answer is "no", it would be better to maledict or damage your foe using your skills/spells. Stab/pincer (yes, it gives nice damage as well)/backhand/throw/piercing dissonance and so on - are good for damage. Boneshatter/hurl/whirl/kotegaeshi/languid carol - are good for maledicts.

As a newbie you probably can't say if you outmelee this foe without using skills/songs or you not. So make a simple split: if you are with friends OR you have lots of levels above him and is prepped well OR he is wounded (bleeding at least) OR he strikes some mob - you LAG. In all other cases you use damage/maledictions. This is important to understand so I will rephrase this - if you have obvious and big advantage - you lag. Otherwise you maledict and damage.

2. If this is not a close fight and your foe is not permalagged he will flee in most cases. Which leads us to a "bring friends" way.

3. Catch him with pants down. Good way to do this is to check the areas where enemies of your rank may rank. For example if you are evil or neutral of 20 rank and see some goodies want to bash down in your range - check Forest of Nowhere in the Past. Dont try to jump on groups of three alone...now.

4. Strike unprepared mages on low and mid ranks. You will be surprised how quickly gnome shifter can get his ass beaten.

Now I write a bit more complicated and advanced tips

5. When to do damage and when to maledict in 1 vs 1 fights. First of all, lets define what to use - damage or maledicts. To keep it simple if you have GOOD maledicting abilities AND your enemy will suffer from them - use maledicts. Otherwise use damage. Yes, this have quite several exclusions, but I dont want to make it too complicated. Examples: use damage against invokers, druids. They dont rely on weapons and melee defence. Use maledicts against warriors, thiefs, assassins, transmuters, offensive shifters. More detailed below

Lets talk more about maledicts. We can divide them on 3 groups:
a. Reduces strength. This is good against warriors/rangers/transmuters. This is bad against shifters in form (they have no weapon)/druids/invokers. Use these types of maledicts if its important to force your enemy to drop his weapon AND if your malediction will be enough for this. Is he strong (giant) or weak (elf)? Does he use heavy weapons (axes/maces) or light ones (daggers)? Is he decked? Can you maledict heavily or just a bit? The answers on these questions will let you know if to use strength maledictions. Dont use whirl on a decked warrior. But use boneshatter + hurl if you can. Its good to use against transmuters, rangers, warriors.
b. Reduces dexterity. This is if your foe relies on dodge - rangers/assassins/dextrous warriors/thiefs.
c. Damnation/curse/druid communes. Read about these ones in FAQs.

6. Learn how to pick your target in group fights. This is tricky - you may fight one target and use your skills against another target. Lets talk about who to fight directly. Target support or offensive classes first. Dont target those who have good defense. So if you fight a warrior with a transmuter - try to fight a transmuter. He may be without ABS/protections and will fall very quickly. If he is experienced and you see you deal little damage - switch to a warrior.
If you fight someone and a healer - in most cases you should target a healer, since he has bad melee defences and good supporting abilities.

Now who to use your skills against. If your enemy group has some support char or someone who has very harmful spells/skills/communes - LAG him first. When he is lagged he cant slow/nova/flurry/fiend you. All your group should lag him while targetting someone according to what I wrote above.

To summarize this, you should fight directly: mages (except defensive shifters), healer, bard, thief, offensive giant warrior. You should lag bard, healer, druid, paladin. This is basically from most important targets to less (but still) important.

This is a first part of my guide. Will be a second one? Not sure. I write it as my OOC goodbye post since I left CF and have no plans to return in foreseeable future. But everything is possible.

Feel free to post your comments and feedback.