PKing Tips and Tricks

[Boa1891]

Since one of my favorite activities used to be PKing, let me give you a rundown of members PKing. NOTE that a majority of these numbers will be based on level 99s, but should apply in a smaller scale to all levels.

"Safing" and Food Use
It is perfectly acceptable to 'safe' to over 70% HP in members world. Any higher and people get annoyed and will most likely stop fighting you. In contrast, you shouldn't safe to more than 35 in F2P EXCEPT in multicombat. Be aware of what the max hit with an R2H at your combat level is. Max is 33 in F2P, at 99, potted, and ultimate strength prayer.
On the topic of food, bring Tuna Potatoes and at least 2 Sara Brews- If your HP is dangerously low, there is no lag from eating a potato to drinking your brew, thus giving you 38HP quite instantly.
Keep in mind you then have to pot back up.

Prayer
Protection:
If the foe is ranging or maging, it is perfectly acceptable to use Protect from Melee to avoid a cheap AGS KO. Otherwise, protection prayers should only be used if the foe uses them first. This is part of PKing's "code of honor", which really does serve to make everyone happier. If you pray, they pray, and then neither of you can get the kill and you both just waste your supplies.
Other Overheads:
Smite - Good. If someone asks you to take it off, put on a protection prayer. Nothing is wrong with Smite.
Redemption - Is very rarely useful. Just sits there draining your prayer. The bigger problem is that upon healing you, it drops your prayers, including protect item.
Retribution - Pointless. Avoid this unless your foe is Dharoking and you think you can get back to loot his Death site quickly. Even then, keep it a surprise switch-on, not a constant thing.
Boosters, etc:
Protect Item - If you make a deal with your foe to leave protect item off, do so. Otherwise, keep it on at all times. Yes, your foe may also break the arrangement and use protect item, but it should usually not be a big deal on PvP worlds. From what I can tell, you won't be able to know for sure whether they saved that top item or not.
Protect Item Part 2 - If your foe has a godsword and you have a godsword and he declares "no prot item", ignore his ass, leave it on, and say "kk". I don't care if it's a lie, honestly, because he DOES have protect item on.
Rapid Heal - Has saved me at 1hp in 3 years of PKing a total of one time. May possibly be more helpful if combined with a regen bracelet. Not worth relying on, but the drain rate is so low it's worth using.
Boosting Prayers - Worthless. Never use them.
JK! Boosting prayers are the most important prayers in PKing. You should always use the best available to you. If you are a regular player, I would advise unlocking piety. Piety/Eagle Eye/Whateverthemagiconeis should be used at almost all times. Remember that you can only have prayers from a single combat class at once, and only one prayer per skill. Pures usually avoid piety and chivalry as the quest requires 60 (?) defence.

Strategy
Now, you can't just throw all of the above together and wish yourself good luck. You don't even have equipment yet.
Honestly, the strategy is the most important part, but no one can help you with that. You have to develop that on your own.
This video's got a little bit of all the best "maxed" PKing methods. Whip+AGS, MSB+AGS, Dharok's+AGS, etc. The AGS can always be replaced by a different KO method, like the DDS, but remember that you'll have to wait for significantly lower HP to start your KO Swing- And most players don't let their HP down that far, anymore.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6lA3ZUpqCsI
If you look around, I'm sure you can find a video for almost every method/levels/tactics possible.

This topic will be expanded based on further suggestions. I will also expand it significantly once I've had time to acclimate myself to the mechanics of the as of yet unreleased PK worlds.

[Doomedrusher]

FIRST PØST!

One-item methods:

One-handed weapons: (Combine with rune defender if you have a stash of 20 or so in your bank, like me XD)
-DDS
-Whip
-D long
-D mace (not recommended)
-D Baxe (not recommended)

-Rune crossbow

-Void mace w/ claw runes and Guthix cape
-Saradomin staff w/ sara strike runes
-Slayer staff + slayer dart runes (not recommended)
-Ancient staff + barrage runes (Anything lower is ineffectual)

Two-handed weapons:
-Godsword (Recommended: SGS > BGS > AGS > ZGS)
-Saradomin sword
-Zamorak spear (MAKE SURE TO USE STAB!)
-Anchor (Special attack may be useful, but is SLOW)
-Dharok's axe
-D2H (Useful in multicombat; somewhat)

-Dark bow with 8 dragon arrows
-MSB (LOL!)

-Obsidian staff (Toktz-Mej-Tal)

Weapon and shield:
-DDS + Elysian shield/Divine shield
-DDS + DFS
-DDS + Obby shield
-Whip + Obby shield (NOT RECOMMENDED SINCE YOU LOSE 200K)

-Rune c'bow + DFS + 50 ish bolts
-Rune c'bow + Spectral shield + 50 ish bolts

-Ancient staff + Arcane shield

Disposable equipment for one-iteming:
-Black dhide set
-Full mystic (Quite expensive really)
-Full enchanted (Cheaper than mystic...lmao)

-Rune gloves from RFD

-Coif/Fremmenik helm/Penance hat

-Glory/power/strength
-[Un]holy symbol
-Gnome amulet (high melee def)

-Climbing boots

-Explorer's ring/Beacon ring/etc.

-Mage Arena capes
-Legends cape
-Ava's accumulator

[Boa1891]

Lol, a very good second post. In fact, since it's the second post, I don't even have to put it into my first post, just endorse it.

[wkw427]

Bolded what is IMO

Since one of my favorite activities used to be PKing, let me give you a rundown of members PKing. NOTE that a majority of these numbers will be based on level 99s, but should apply in a smaller scale to all levels.

"Safing" and Food Use
It is perfectly acceptable to 'safe' to over 70% HP in members world. Any higher and people get annoyed and will most likely stop fighting you. In contrast, you shouldn't safe to more than 35 in F2P EXCEPT in multicombat. Be aware of what the max hit with an R2H at your combat level is. Max is 33 in F2P, at 99, potted, and ultimate strength prayer.
On the topic of food, bring Tuna Potatoes and at least 2 Sara Brews- If your HP is dangerously low, there is no lag from eating a potato to drinking your brew, thus giving you 38HP quite instantly.
Keep in mind you then have to pot back up.Safe, always. Why? Because do you want to die? No.
I always safe at under half hp, always. If you want to die, go ahade and safe at a low hp. So what if your enemy whines, they die and you don't, and that is what matters

Prayer
Protection:
If the foe is ranging or maging, it is perfectly acceptable to use Protect from Melee to avoid a cheap AGS KO. Otherwise, protection prayers should only be used if the foe uses them first. This is part of PKing's "code of honor", which really does serve to make everyone happier. If you pray, they pray, and then neither of you can get the kill and you both just waste your supplies.
I agree, but if you don't use protect prayer you are at fault if you die. You spent money on the skill, so use the damn prayer. That is like saying you got 70 def, but you sholdn't wear barrows. It makes no sense at all, use them. Every advantage counts

Other Overheads:
Smite - Good. If someone asks you to take it off, put on a protection prayer. Nothing is wrong with Smite.
I don't really like smite. Sure you might knock them down a few prayer points, but they will probally be useing super restores and sara brew making those less points meaningless. I'd rather use a protection prayer.

Redemption - Is very rarely useful. Just sits there draining your prayer. The bigger problem is that upon healing you, it drops your prayers, including protect item.Pointless, because you would better be off useing retrubition. If you don't have any food, just die and keep 1 extra item..


Retribution - Pointless. Avoid this unless your foe is Dharoking and you think you can get back to loot his Death site quickly. Even then, keep it a surprise switch-on, not a constant thing.
Yes, useless again.

Boosters, etc:
Protect Item - If you make a deal with your foe to leave protect item off, do so. Otherwise, keep it on at all times. Yes, your foe may also break the arrangement and use protect item, but it should usually not be a big deal on PvP worlds. From what I can tell, you won't be able to know for sure whether they saved that top item or not.
Protect Item Part 2 - If your foe has a godsword and you have a godsword and he declares "no prot item", ignore his ass, leave it on, and say "kk". I don't care if it's a lie, honestly, because he DOES have protect item on.
This is total BS. Keep it on, an item is more valuable to you then "honor". Unless you are a ninja, then go for the super duper honor. You are killing for profit, not respect. If they say "no pro item m8" say "ok" and keep the damn prayer on


Rapid Heal - Has saved me at 1hp in 3 years of PKing a total of one time. May possibly be more helpful if combined with a regen bracelet. Not worth relying on, but the drain rate is so low it's worth using.
You got this right on the dot. It drains so little you can have it on before you start the fight


Boosting Prayers - Worthless. Never use them.
JK! Boosting prayers are the most important prayers in PKing. You should always use the best available to you. If you are a regular player, I would advise unlocking piety. Piety/Eagle Eye/Whateverthemagiconeis should be used at almost all times. Remember that you can only have prayers from a single combat class at once, and only one prayer per skill. Pures usually avoid piety and chivalry as the quest requires 60 (?) defence.
Use piety. Always. Why? You did the quest, you can, and you want to kill them. You would be stupid not to.

Strategy
Now, you can't just throw all of the above together and wish yourself good luck. You don't even have equipment yet.
Honestly, the strategy is the most important part, but no one can help you with that. You have to develop that on your own.
This video's got a little bit of all the best "maxed" PKing methods. Whip+AGS, MSB+AGS, Dharok's+AGS, etc. The AGS can always be replaced by a different KO method, like the DDS, but remember that you'll have to wait for significantly lower HP to start your KO Swing- And most players don't let their HP down that far, anymore.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6lA3ZUpqCsI
If you look around, I'm sure you can find a video for almost every method/levels/tactics possible.

This topic will be expanded based on further suggestions. I will also expand it significantly once I've had time to acclimate myself to the mechanics of the as of yet unreleased PK worlds.

[Boa1891]

"Safe, always. Why? Because do you want to die? No.
I always safe at under half hp, always. If you want to die, go ahade and safe at a low hp. So what if your enemy whines, they die and you don't, and that is what matters"
In PvP, safing works. As I said, safe to around 70% of your HP. In F2P, however, it is IMPOSSIBLE to kill someone who safes above 45HP as long as they can run away. Thus, if you safe in F2P you simply end the fight and waste supplies, because the other person won't even stick around for you to kill.

"I agree, but if you don't use protect prayer you are at fault if you die. You spent money on the skill, so use the damn prayer. That is like saying you got 70 def, but you sholdn't wear barrows. It makes no sense at all, use them. Every advantage counts"
The problem with protection prayers is that they're extremely cheap. They offer nearly no disadvantage and reduce the foe's power by 40%. It's the same as safing in F2P: If neither player can KO the other, they waste their time and supplies and then one or the other just leaves.
Prayer is NOT an advantage. You're not risking anything, your foe uses the SAME advantage at no risk, and then you're both at a disadvantage because neither of you will win.

"I don't really like smite. Sure you might knock them down a few prayer points, but they will probally be useing super restores and sara brew making those less points meaningless. I'd rather use a protection prayer."
If you're hitting someone hard, they'll be very busy eating. With piety and Smite on both sides, it's very easy to force your opponent to die or drop prayer. As soon as they drop prayer, you go for the KO, no exceptions.
Smite has a better expected result than protection prayers for the reasons I stated as a rebuttal for your protection prayers argument. Smite > No overhead > Protection prayers

"This is total BS. Keep it on, an item is more valuable to you then "honor". Unless you are a ninja, then go for the super duper honor. You are killing for profit, not respect. If they say "no pro item m8" say "ok" and keep the damn prayer on"
I meant that to only be true if you're in F2P or using cheap gear in P2P. Agreeing to no pro item in those cases, then being stingy over 40K says more about you as a person than a PKer.
It's essentially scamming: Deceiving others for a personal profit at their expense.

"Use piety. Always. Why? You did the quest, you can, and you want to kill them. You would be stupid not to."
I said this. Why did you have to say anything? Lol. In fact, mine was better: Use piety if meleeing, appropriate prayers for other classes, and 15% prayers if you're a pure (meaning you CAN'T do the quest, as it requires 60 defence).

[dandonio]

Note that safing isn't always in your own interest.
If you're fighting in an area where you can easily escape from, nearly all fights in which both parties 'safe' will end up in a 'draw'. The losing party will have all the time in the world to telly off or run away. This to such extent that it's quite likely that the few kills you'll get will be insuficient to finance your potions,...
Experience tells me that if you 'act' careless concerning your hp, your opponent will do the same. (Mostly they start adopting your low hp playing style once they notice that, while you heal once in while from 30-90, they have to 'heal' several times more from 50-90 in the same timespan, obviously losing precious fighting time)

Then you'll be in the advantage since these people are not used to fighting at 'lower' hp, their former playstyle never involved them worrying about specs,... so it's easier to surprise them.

Obviously there are those who are adamant in their safing, but I encounter those rarely. Or they fall under peer pressure (people around you start mocking your opponent) or they just adopt your playing style and in worst case scenario they just keep safing and telly away in the end (or watch angrily as you telly away).
People who 'safe' might be 'smart' players, but not neccessarely 'winners'. People who have pk'ed for a long time tend to be a bit more loose about when to heal etc. since they've noticed that - if everyone is really just thinking about staying alive - no one actually ever dies (think 'new players' trying out old edge pk'ing) (These are the people who shout 'Pk'ing isn't profitable, it isn't fun,...')

So seriously, maybe this goes against general assumption, but you really won't profit from constant safing. It's better to die once and to kill your opponent three times, then to just draw game after game. Obviously it takes some common sence as well, against dharok it might be best to full eat once, then just watch them hit a string of zeroes, and when they're finally exuberant over their 50-60 hit, you just full eat again, watch them get cranky and wait 'till they mess up. When you fight an opponent who has a dds, dark bow or any other spec weapon, it just takes a bit of feeling to know when they can use their spec and when not (or just provoke them into using their spec, making sure they can't surprise you). Many times I watched myself go to 20 hp and thought to myself (well, there's a spec coming in two sec) start full eating, watch them pull out their spec weapon, and watch them cringe when they notice I'm back at 80 hp.

[Boa1891]

Thanks, Dan.

A good way to trick the foe into speccing, in order to KO them, is to fake a prayer drop. Shut off your own Smite, then switch to your spec weapon as they switch to theirs and blow them out of the water. It's best to do this when they're at around half HP- They usually won't eat, as they believe they'll very likely steal a KO as you sip your prayer pot and can't eat, taking 2 rounds of damage. Instead, you KO them as they focus on futilely KOing you.

[Dragonlordjl]

If you watch PKing videos on YT, most of the good PKers don't safe.

Here's why: when you safe, you lose one or more turns of fighting; however, if you don't safe, your opponent will get reckless and try to KO you, resulting in them being KOed. Safing drastically reduces DPM.

[Boa1891]

If you watch PKing videos on YT, most of the good PKers don't safe.

Here's why: when you safe, you lose one or more turns of fighting; however, if you don't safe, your opponent will get reckless and try to KO you, resulting in them being KOed. Safing drastically reduces DPM.

Thank you for another good backing up of my point.

Put simply,
Not safing has a better expected return than safing, as long as you're any good whatsoever.

[Lord Klotski]

That's why one must *heal with karambwan *. 18 HP without losing the attack turn. Deadly

[Boa1891]

That's why one must *heal with karambwan *. 18 HP without losing the attack turn. Deadly

With pot-lag, preventing it from stacking with pots and making you take double-hits, while having far less healing efficiency per inventory slot.

[Lord Klotski]

Let's have a DM then.

[Withered Laurels]

So karambwan are pretty much useless?

And also, what do you think of kebabs as healing in f2p? I bought 1k of them 40k, nice cheap healing. They heal up to 30 too I usually get 9 or 18 hp. For now they're just bank and funning food.

[Boa1891]

Not reliable enough, IMO. "The kebab heals nothing and hurts your stats!" KO

[JMB]

This thread sounds good for toe to toe pking, but a different feature of the new pvp worlds will be the pking where one party is an unwilling combatant trying to stay alive long enough to collect a resource/complete a task and the other party is not really being attacked but wants a quick KO.

Taking each side of the coin into consideration, do you have any tips for either getting a quick kill or surviving an attack in this situation?

[nineninja9]

This thread sounds good for toe to toe pking, but a different feature of the new pvp worlds will be the pking where one party is an unwilling combatant trying to stay alive long enough to collect a resource/complete a task and the other party is not really being attacked but wants a quick KO.

Taking each side of the coin into consideration, do you have any tips for either getting a quick kill or surviving an attack in this situation?

Using Ice Blitz followed by a melee attack, generally a dds spec, will allow all 3 "hits" to show up at once, possibly killing the enemy in one hit. The max hit of Dark bow with range void is 96-98, which one hits a large portion of the Runescape population.

If you want to escape, you'll probably have to bring a brew or two while skilling, wear dragonhide, and learn how to "hug," which is just another word for using the terrain to your advantage. If you see a tree, try to run around it and get your opponent stuck behind it, giving you enough time to run further away and log out to safety.


For the using protection prayers discussion, there are a few situations where protection prayers are acceptable. If you are in a multicombat zone, or tanking a teleblock at mage bank, feel free to use a protection prayer. If you are fighting in a place such as edgeville (or single green drags), protection prayers are a waste of both people's time, and frankly, I probably just wouldn't agree to fight you. My time and supplies are too precious to waste spending 5 minutes just to have you keep your hp above 50 while my max hit is reduced to 25. Then again, the typical person that pks in 1v1 combat with protection prayer is quite inexperienced, and I find that more often than not I ended up smiting off their prayer at least once. Overall though, it is still a waste of time, for both parties.

[Noxrid]

That's why one must *heal with karambwan *. 18 HP without losing the attack turn. Deadly

With pot-lag, preventing it from stacking with pots and making you take double-hits, while having far less healing efficiency per inventory slot.

Healing 40hp in one food turn is more important imo. Makes me much harder to ko.

[Craven Range]

Safing isnt a way of keeping yourself alive. Its a way of managing to ko the opponent.

Some of the best pkers take big risks, alot of the best ones keep attacking on very low hp (10-20) because once your opponent stats eating they are in big trouble.

If you eat every time you get low hp you will never ko your opponent because you will be too busy eating to hit

[Doomedrusher]

Safing isnt a way of keeping yourself alive. Its a way of managing to ko the opponent.

Some of the best pkers take big risks, alot of the best ones keep attacking on very low hp (10-20) because once your opponent stats eating they are in big trouble.

If you eat every time you get low hp you will never ko your opponent because you will be too busy eating to hit

Karambwans

[Boa1891]

For the using protection prayers discussion, there are a few situations where protection prayers are acceptable. If you are in a multicombat zone, or tanking a teleblock at mage bank, feel free to use a protection prayer. If you are fighting in a place such as edgeville (or single green drags), protection prayers are a waste of both people's time, and frankly, I probably just wouldn't agree to fight you. My time and supplies are too precious to waste spending 5 minutes just to have you keep your hp above 50 while my max hit is reduced to 25. Then again, the typical person that pks in 1v1 combat with protection prayer is quite inexperienced, and I find that more often than not I ended up smiting off their prayer at least once. Overall though, it is still a waste of time, for both parties.

This is really a thread more about 1v1 standardized PKing, edge style and/or BH style. You're not PKing if you're being ganged in multi or tanking a TB at MB, you're being PKed. It's more important to live than to KO your opponent in your circumstances.

This thread sounds good for toe to toe pking, but a different feature of the new pvp worlds will be the pking where one party is an unwilling combatant trying to stay alive long enough to collect a resource/complete a task and the other party is not really being attacked but wants a quick KO.

Taking each side of the coin into consideration, do you have any tips for either getting a quick kill or surviving an attack in this situation?

There are no unwilling combatants on PvP-elective worlds.

Surviving an attack- Food, Brews, a lot of run energy, lots of prayer. Things that generally you don't have while resource collecting.

Getting a fast KO - Ice Blitz (Barrage is NOT preferred), plus:
Granite Maul (best for melee)
DDS
AGS
Dark Bow (not as effective but safer)

This practice is known as rushing. You could barrage until they're lower HP, but they usually begin to pray quickly, thus killing your effectiveness. You need to Kick their ass before they know you exist, basically.

Though, honestly... If someone's on a PvP world mining, I bet they're mining with a pack yak, a bunch of scrolls, and some major PKing gear. Just HOPING someone tries to rush them, so they can Veng-double AGS for fr3 st0f.

@Doomed: I just explained why Karambwan fail for PKing. I don't like repeating myself.