Tips to avoid being PK'd by Bone Spear

[Taem]

My friend is constantly getting PK'd. I have NEVER been PK'd. I tell him the difference between him and myself is perception; I tend to notice not only the monsters but the players also and when I see something I determine to be suspicious, I remove myself from the situation before I end up regretting it. My friend tends to be so focused on the events at hand, that he doesn’t see the danger until its too late.

So here are some tips to avoid being PK'd by Bone Spear (or Blessed Hammers).

1.) If you see a Necromancer in the party, continuously note his location on your map.

2.) If said necromancer is using Bone Spear or spirit, watch its trajectory. If it is headed anywhere near your direction, move to a different area. NEVER be in a bone spear/spirit's line of fire!

3.) If you see a TP go up in the middle of a frenzied battle where everyone is concentrating on the monsters, distance yourself from the TP before the hostile goes off! Chances are it's just someone who got hurt badly and needs to return to town for pots, but he could be using TPPK. No need to take chances when this simple step might save your life.

4.) This goes for all classes: don't party with a level 60+ character when your below level 35 just because he asks you too, especially if your right next to a WP. The 10-second timer, as some of you who have been PK'd probably know, is client side thus can easily be avoided with the right packets. This being said, your safest course of action is just to avoid parting with drastically higher leveled characters, and if you must, try and stay away from WP's while said character is in town.

[Wyrm]

Then there's the easiest way to avoid pks: don't play public games. I haven't played a public game for at least a couple years. Besides the constant "hackers" (term used lightly because they're not actually hacking anything) and the general lack of anyone with an IQ that registers on the IQ exam, the general population of battle.net has no concept of what teams are, nor their function.

[Occhidiangela]

A reply to you both.

MEAT: hmmm, was unaware that the 10 second timer was client side, glad to hear the details (have not been playing for about 7 months) and was about to wander out onto bnet HC this weekend.

CLIENT SIDE?? WTF WAS BLIZZ THINKING!!!!!!

Wyrm: Your PoV is understood, I have had a few chars PK'd in pubbies. What I found was: if you stay pretty alert and look hard at the folks who come into and out of the game environment, you can avoid being PK'd. The cost is, to be trughful, some inconvenience. However, since it is your hardcore char, and you are dealing with the public, some of whom are as you describe, a bit of wariness is required. That is the RoE.

Retreating cedes to the pinheads the "victory" of having run all the nice people "out of town." Do we really want to allow them that?

Occhi

[Munkay]

My friend is constantly getting PK'd.  I have NEVER been PK'd. [right][snapback]56953[/snapback][/right]

I'm in the same boat, unless you count monster trapped wp's (which happened once at the very beginning of d2), and the times I said 'what the heck' and attempted to PPK. PPK'ing sometimes works, since some pk'ers aren't really ready to fend off a real attack. Of course, enigma's changed everything :)

I've never avoided pubby games, and consider myself a verteran of them. There is something about watching one guy call another guy a n00b that never gets old. Heck, sometimes I like to pick verbal fights with 'n00b pwnzors' to keep myself from boredom.

The key to my success? I don't often ally with groups unless I am doing Baal runs. For the most part I solo by myself and level in area's where people aren't. Even in Baal runs I don't ally until we get to The Throne of Desctruction, and at that point its almost impossible to be pk'd, although on a few occaisions people have tried (and subsequently died on the way down). Can't forget a good measure of luck either ;)

I understand a lot of lurker's aversions to public games. But I think if you don't expect too much out of them, and enjoy them for what they are worth (a good chuckle with the right sense of humor; an exp bonus and better drops/monsters) they aren't so bad.

Cheers,

Munk

[Guest]

Well, to avoid being PKed by bone spear=dont let it hit you. Enigma helps here, for example, I borrowed it from my friend and dueled a necromancer. I teleported pasthis spears and up to him. I zealed once, ran around him, zealed again. When he ran away I teleported to him again and zealed again. Of course he died after 2 hits but it took me 3 zeals cause sometimes it didnt hit.

[Guest]

This is a bit of advice on how to dodge hammers.
Hammerdins tend to say "Duel" and immediately rush out and start3 hammering. If they do not, Quickly come out and attack. Usually hammerdins need lots of mana to maintain all the hammers, so they are pretty weak, but their hammers are REALLY powerful. If he stays in one spot, find a place where the hammers do not pass and switch between those spots and kill him. If you do decent damage, Hammerdins usually die in 2 hits.

[Wyrm]

Retreating cedes to the pinheads the "victory" of having run all the nice people "out of town."  Do we really want to allow them that?

A couple years ago (pre-expansion) I probably would have been on board with that. But with the way Blizzard handles cheaters and their utter determination to not actually do anything about the lame ways to pk, etc. that are out there (seriously, would it be so hard to disable minimizing/switching out of the d2 window, or making it so that as soon as you go to town any/all of your projectiles (Bone Spirit, Hydra, Traps, etc) vanish?), I can't convince myself to actually bother joining a public game anymore. I don't like playing with the mini-map on, and I like even less having to play the game paranoid.

Usually hammerdins need lots of mana to maintain all the hammers, so they are pretty weak

A level 80 Hammerdin with no extra base points in ene or bonuses to ene/mana, will be able to fire off 20+ hammers without needing to refill mana. Unless the person you're playing against doesn't know how to actually control the hammers (ie someone who saw the damage numbers and decided to build one) it shouldn't take more than 5-10 hammers to kill someone. If they just stand in one spot and fire off hammers, then they deserve to be killed by a Necro weilding a cracked short bow.

[Rinnhart]

seriously, would it be so hard to disable minimizing/switching out of the d2 window,

A while back microsoft handed down the Law on that one. All windows programs must be alt+tab-able.

or making it so that as soon as you go to town any/all of your projectiles (Bone Spirit, Hydra, Traps, etc) vanish

Traps do go when you hit a portal, and I'm fairly certain hydras poofs when you hostile. The reverse is probably true as well.