I understand that this is a pk intensive mud, and I'm fine with that. But it seems like every warrior in my pk range (who also usually outrank me) feels the need to kill me. Okay, I can deal with that. Excecpt they also do enough damage to kill me in two rounds. And then they feel the need to come back and kill me again. I've tried asking them why, and the only responses I get is that I'm a witch, I defile the land, yadda yadda yadda. Now I believe that this is because they are all "battleragers" or whathave you. How is any player supposed to survive against this? I can't even run they kill me so fast. I don't mean to whine, or flame, but it seems every time I try to gain levels, I get killed. Can anyone give me some advice other than "suck it up"? :p

I have found that using a class that can hide/camo/sneak and quiet movement can help alot. If I was you I'd choose something like an assassin or a ranger. This cuts down on the number of enemies that can see you and hence attack you.

Choose something easy to play straight off the bat. HUMANS are a good choice and will cut your range down compared with other races. Well as far as I am aware.

Where and who pk are your friend. It hasn't saved me as such but I've had more of a chance to run and hide. Of course you won't be able to see everyone coming as I found out last night... invisible orcs are dangerous.

Spend a crap load of time exploring places before making it to level 11. It helps to be able to make your way from Galadon to Hamsah without having to spend terribly much time on the eastern road.

If do encounter someone and do manage to flee, stay on the move till you can find somewhere to hide.

Hang in there, cos for every turd that just wants to kill you there is a least someone who is willing to help you out and to role-play with you.

Thanks for all the responses. I've been playing MUD's since '98 so I figured I was safe with a mage class, since I don't know the lands well enough to find decent equipment for the more eq dependant melee classes. But getting hit with 3 to 4 EVISERACTE - DISMEMBERS a round is just a little insane imho. My last MUD had a cap on the effects of HR/DR below level 20 so I just am not used to low level melees cranking out that much damage. I at least have a form now, I'm just going to start being more liberal with my teleport spell I guess.

There is a reason that there are certain classes that are advertised as being for newer players, and those include the melee intensive classes, ones that are a bit more straightforward for getting your bearings before being steamrolled left and right. You might want to think about rolling up a melee-based char and learning more about how to survive and equip yourself for survival or killing. Once you have that knowledge base, then you might have a bit more success playing a mage. Without a lot of base hp or defense, and due to the fact that there will be a lot of low level mage-killers, your mage will have loads of trouble with pk if you don't have the requisite skill to outmaneuver or overpower them.

Battleragers are a major pain as a mage, especially somebody new to the game. The best solution is being able to kill them, but until you reach that point, you have to be able to escape.

The first thing you have to do is see them coming. Any time you're in an area where you're likely to be attacked (like ranking), you need to type "where" constantly.

Basically, every other command should be "where":

c magicmissile
where
c magicmissile
where
lash
where

This seems excessive, but then you will always see when a potential enemy is approaching. That means you'll be able to get away. If you are surpised by somebody bashing you, you're going to die.

Second part of this is to carry teleport and word of recall potions, especially if you don't have the spells yet. Set them up on an alias so you won't fumble around trying to type it out in an emergency. Some cities sell them much cheaper than others. Shop around for a good bargain so you can always be stocked.

Try not to die. Help tips has some advice. To take the really really simplistic approach, a warrior can't attack you if they can't get in the same room with you. Keep alert and run like hell if someone you know wants to kill you is coming for you.

The more complicated and variant strategies depend a bit on who you are. Obviously you're a mage, but each of the mage classes are going to have to go at that in different ways.

Don't get too hung up on levels; they don't mean very much in PK. If someone's in your PK range, you've got a shot at beating them.

>Don't get too hung up on levels; they don't mean very much in
>PK. If someone's in your PK range, you've got a shot at
>beating them.

If you're a level 11 mage and your range includes a level 15 warrior, there is no shot of beating them -alone- unless you come across them writhing or convulsing and your attack spell is at 100%. Or else they flee due to your losing your concentration. The pre-20 range leaves most mage players at a disadvantage.

That level not meaning much in PK is absolute bull.

Level means saves. Saves means survival. Especially when spells are involved. An elf warrior can very easily get CREAMED by a human mage, just by levels and spells alone. A human necro will very easily chill touch anything lower level into oblivion.

Just wanted to throw that out there. Human's PK range is the roxor.

Level means saves. Saves means survival. Especially when spells are involved.

The impact of level on saving throws may not be as large as you're claiming.

A human necro will very easily chill touch anything lower level into oblivion.

The reason we made the recent changes to Spellcraft was more or less that this scenario only occurred when there was a vast knowledge difference between players. Few human necros were chill touching much of anything into oblivion, and the ones that were could have cleaned house just as easily with a melee class.

You're giving a view of the game that isn't supported by the facts 'on the ground'.

valguarnera@carrionfields.com

Level also isn't the only thing that matters in saves.

For example, int and wis matter.

Does an elf warrior have those stats an assload higher than a similar-PK-range human warrior? Sure does! Does this mean that, even given the level difference, the elf warrior makes saves better? Sure does!

A lowbie elf warrior has a number of problems. Relative ability to make saves isn't one of them.

That may be true if you are the level 11 mage with a level 15 warrior in range. It's not true for me.

Yes, probably. We all can't be as good as you are. Because as far as I know, most mage players are not going to be able to kill a warrior with 4 ranks on them, the ability to lag with trip or bash, and with higher damage output with magic missile and low-level wands by themselves except in a situation similar to my previous post. Not getting into tactics like whittling them down, quaffing a recall potion, healing, and running back. Including the original poster. So saying that they have a shot at killing a warrior isn't really all that accurate. Unless they're a necromancer or invoker. Those are two mage classes I can see having a shot at the warrior.

>That may be true if you are the level 11 mage with a
>level 15 warrior in range. It's not true for me.

I would love to hear even a hint of how you're going to beat a half-decent level 15 warrior with a level 11 invoker, conjurer, transmuter or shapeshifter. To me, it seems pretty much impossible without getting absurdly lucky. From both sides of that matchup, the lowbie mage has seemed like an absolute joke. I'm pretty sure I've never been killed by a lowbie mage as a warrior.

Would ever be killed by a level 11 mage as a level 15 warrior under reasonable circumstances? By reasonable I mean that the warrior isn't starting out near-dead, blind, fighting another mob and without a recall potion.

Fire giant warrior betrayed the group and killed the necro we were with in one hit. Then I killed him. Basically hit him with spells, then recalled, healed, ran back and finished him off.

Being a svirf (and flying at the time) meant that he couldn't lag me. Being outdamaged didn't matter because I could flee when I had to.

> hit him with spells, then recalled, healed, ran back and finished him
>off.

That just sounds like the fire giant was incompetant. If you're going to assume that the other guy is an idiot, then every matchup is a breeze. I mean heck, if the warrior doesn't doesn't practice any skills then mage is sure to win.

Why didn't the warrior chase you and finish you the first time? Why didn't he reduce? Why didn't he recall/teleport? Why didn't he dual wield maces? Why didn't he run away? I'm not saying that under no circumstances could a lowbie mage manage to kill a warrior. But in your example you had to burn a bunch of gold and rely on the warrior being stupid to win. That's pretty telling. And yours was probably the best of lowbie mage vs warrior scenarios. Vuln-hitting against a guy that can't lag you. Pretty rare in the grand scheme of lowbie mage vs warrior matchups.