Mariner Bells: Players of the opposing alignment will no longer be able to use the bell system within Freeport and Qeynos. This also includes bells located in the Adventure Yards, the Commonlands and Antonica. Hunting in these areas is an excellent place to get a quick introduction to what PvP is all about; the thrill of invading the opposing city, as well as defending your home grounds from the constant onslaught by Freeportians and Qeynosians. Our intention is not to stop players from hunting in these zones, but merely give citizens an advantage when starting their adventures. You’ll still be able to venture into these areas, it will just require a bit of work and commitment before reaching your final destination.
PvP Range While Grouped: The valid range to determine both who you can attack and who can attack you is now determined by the highest level member of the group or raid. Grouping with lower level players will no longer allow you to attack anyone who is normally in their range. Be warned though; grouping with higher level players will allow anyone who can normally attack them attack you as well. As before, there are no limitations to who you can attack as long as they are higher level or grouped with someone higher of a level.
The following designations are in place to inform players of a target’s difficulty:
- Targets grouped with someone who normally cannot attack you will be represented with a single up arrow over their name. They will appear as non-aggro.
- Targets grouped with someone who you could normally not attack will be represented with a single down arrow over their name.
- Anyone grouped will carry the Heroic designation.
- Raids containing more then 7 players will carry the designation x2, x3, x4 based on the total amount of players.
These visual indicators are in place to inform players of the difficulty of an encounter. They do not provide any additional difficulty or rewards.
Zoning While Aggro: In addition to forgoing immunity, players who zone while actively in combat with another player will not be able to zone again for a short period of time. Additionally, a message will be displayed within the vicinity of the zone line indicating which zone and/or instance the target has fled. We all know the pain of battling someone who constantly zones back and forth attempting to take advantage of immunity when they can’t get that quick kill off. Players who fight around zone lines will now need to think twice before going for that “easy kill.”
Level Difference: Players who are considerably higher level then their target will no longer gain innate bonuses to the amount of damage they deal or ease of landing spells and combat arts. The same holds true for lower level players attempting to take down higher opponents. As you level up, you receive additional spell lines with increased damage, new weapons, and access to armor that provides increased mitigation and resistances. This alone provides higher level players an upper hand when hunting lower players. Lower level players wishing to take on higher level targets should do so while grouped; there is strength in numbers, and this should level the playing field out a bit.
As a result of the change--assuming comparable level gear and spell upgrades--certain abilities such as Harm Touch and Arrow Attacks should no longer be “one shotting” players who are green to the attacker.
End of Beta Changes: We also made some changes to the way PvP works toward the end of Beta and have updated the Overview accordingly. These changes are as follows:
- Respawning or using evac spells in an overland zone on PvP servers will take you to a different location depending on your city alignment.
- Backpedaling on PvP servers now causes you to slow down slightly.
- You may no longer join, leave or kick from a group or raid that is engaged in a PvP encounter.
- Casters are now interrupted slightly less often in PvP.
- You now have 30 seconds of immunity when you zone or respawn. During this period of time, you are free to move or cast non-hostile spells. Any hostile action will cancel this immunity.
- If you zone on a PvP server and are on another player's hate list (i.e. you were engaged in PvP combat when you fled to another zone), you will no longer be immune to PvP when you arrive in the new zone.
Title Rewards
We recently revealed the titles available as rewards for participating and reigning triumphant in PvP combat. Players who are especially successful in PvP combat will receive titles as a reward for their infamy. These titles are as follows (in order from the least to most prestigious title):
- Hunter
- Slayer
- Destroyer
- Champion
- Dreadnaught
- Master
- Overlord
You begin without a title in front of your name, and after such time as you earn a title, it will always remain visible to other players. If you begin to find yourself regularly defeated in PvP combat, you can and will lose an earned title for your shameful display of inadequacy.
PvP Servers
You can experience PvP combat in EverQuest II on one of the following servers:
- Nagafen (US)
- Venekor (US RP)
- Darathar (UK)
- Talendor (DE)
- Gorenaire (FR)
- Vox (Station Exchange)
PvP Leaderboards and Stats
When we launched the PvP servers, we also launched a new PvP ranking and ladder system on EQ2Players. You can see who the most impressive PvP combatants are on the PvP Leaderboard, which shows you their name, title, level, kills, deaths, k/d ratio, death streak, kill streak, race, and class at-a-glance. You can also see how you or other specific characters are doing in PvP by checking out a character's PvP Stats in the Character Profile.
See you on the pointy end of my rapier!
Again, thank you all for participating in the new PvP-ruleset servers. You can see the general ruleset and functionality available on PvP servers in the recently-updated Player-versus-Player Overview. We're happy to see how popular PvP has become in EverQuest II, and hope everyone’s having as much fun as we are playing it. We will continue to make the changes necessary to ensure you have the best Player-versus-Player experience possible.