As many of you know, we've been Beta testing PvP combat in EverQuest II for a while now, and we have some exciting changes to let you know about based on feedback and testing. Among the changes are item and coin loot, increased PvP danger as you get farther from your home city and a change to how we determine what an honorable kill is.

PvP Mechanics & Communication
/duel will no longer function across alignments. Sorry, but the Queen and Lucan will not allow any friendly fighting to take place.

Combat
Stealth, Invisibility and Feign Death effects cast during combat will force anyone targeting you to lose their target.

A character that would normally be invisible or stealthed to you will appear with a shadowy outline if within a specified range (currently 20m instead of 30m).

Healing or casting beneficial spells on players who are currently hated by another player in PvP combat will open the caster up as a valid target regardless of the level ranges involved.

Death and Rewards
We've changed the way we determine if a kill is honorable, neutral, or dishonorable.

Honorable Kills: Any kill of the opposing alignment that was engaged while the target had greater then 50% health. All players that generate at least one point of hate with the victim while the victim’s health is above the honorable kill threshold will be eligible to receive rewards, including experience, status, faction, and the ability to loot item or coin dropped by the other player.

Neutral Kills: Any kill of the opposing alignment that was engaged while the target had greater then 20% health. Neutral kills result in moderate faction gain.

Dishonorable Kills: Any kill of the opposing alignment that was first engaged while the target had less than 20% health. Dishonorable kills result in a loss of faction with both your alignment and the opposing city’s. Losing enough faction will cause you to fall out of favor with your alignment, and will restrict or remove any access to the rewards system.

Note: Dishonorable/Neutral status will be removed if the victim’s health goes above the specified thresholds during the course of the fight.

The Kill List: Honorably killing another player will place them on a list tied to your character, designed to reduce friend farming and griefing. Any Honorable subsequent kill of the same player will result in a neutral kill until you have killed 10 other players. 

  • Players will be removed from your list of recent kills after 30 minutes of real time. 
  • Killing a player already on your recent kills list will move them to the top of the list and reset their timer.

Coin and Item Loot
In the event of an honorable death, players will drop a percentage of their coin into a chest that can be looted by anyone who gained rewards for the kill (or the player who died if they make it back to the chest in time).

Additionally, there is a chance that players will drop a single item from their non-equipped inventory upon death. These items are of Treasured quality and lower, and cannot be Attuned or No-Trade.

PvP Rules
For the opposing alignment, players’ names will have a red outline indicating that they are a valid hostile target.  By default, any players  +/- up to 8 levels are valid targets, and their names will appear as a color based on the level difference:

  • Green: 5-8 levels below you.
  • Blue: 1-4 levels below you.
  • White: Even level.
  • Yellow: 1-4 levels above you.
  • Orange: 5-8 levels above you.
  • Player names more than 8 levels below will appear grey (and formerly non-aggro).
  • Player names more than 8 levels above you will appear red, and non-aggro.

As players travel farther from the city walls, the level of valid targets increases:

  • Nektulos, Thundering Steppes: You may attack players up to 10 levels below you
  • Enchanted Lands, Orcish Wastes: You may attack players up to 12 levels below you
  • Lavastorm, Everfrost, Feerrott, Rivervale: You may attack players up to 14 levels below you
  • Desert of Flames: You may attack all players
  • Kingdom of Sky: You may attack all players

Note: While the valid range of players you can kill does increase, the rewards will only be granted for players within the default +/- 8 level range.

PvP: Coming Soon to EverQuest II
Read the full details on EverQuest II PvP, slated to be unleashed on new PvP-ruleset servers with Live Update #20 on February 21, 2006, in the Player-versus-Player Combat feature!