PvP

''This article is about PVP servers. See Arena for arena information.''

PvP, or Player vs. Player combat allows characters in EverQuest II to fight and kill opposing teams' characters spontaneously throughout the world, not only in arena or duel battles. PvP has a different ruleset than normal combat.

Servers
There are 3(?) PvP servers available: * Nagafen (US) * Venekor (US Roleplay) * Vox (Station Exchange, in US)

An old page mentioned 3 others, Darathar (UK), Talendor (DE) and Gorenaire (FR) but these do not appear on the EQ2Players server list and may be defunct.

PVP Leaderboards

Alignments
There are three alignments or teams of players on PVP servers. Characters of Kelethin and Qeynos make up the Good team, characters of Freeport, Neriak and Gorowyn make up the Evil team, and Exiles are allowed to attack and be attacked by anyone.

The Good and Evil factions do not have characters of the opposite faction's eight aligned classes. For this reason, some players believe that the Exiles are best suited for raiding.

Exclusion
Citizens of differing factions cannot communicate. Evil characters speak Lucanic, Good characters speak Antonican and     Exiles speak Argot and other languages cannot be spoken. Chat channels are separate for different factions and only members of your own faction show up in /who queries. The only trading or exchanges permitted between factions are through Fences, neutral brokers. Characters on opposing teams cannot group, and guilds are all aligned with a faction and are exclusive.

PvP Combat

 * Many items, spells, combat arts, etc. have separate stats when used in PvP combat. This is to make up for the fact that players have less HP than NPCs.
 * Threat abilities tend to force enemies to be targetless (detaunts), lock their targets to the taunter, or do nothing. Other than taunting targeting is unrestricted in PVP.
 * Melee range is increased and rear/flank-requiring attacks (such as many Scout attacks) will work with either flank or rear positioning.
 * Control abilities (Snare, Root, Stun, Fear, Charm, Stifle, Mez, and Daze) cause immunity to that type of ability for twice the duration of the effect.
 * Ability ranges are more lenient and will work after the initial cast as long as the target stays within 2x the range of the ability. Spells are less likely to be interrupted in PVP.
 * Stealthy/invisible characters can be seen by opposing characters within 20m. Going into stealth, turning invisible or feigning death during combat makes opponents targeting you lose their target.
 * Healing or buffing characters fighting PVP battles will include you in their battle.
 * Players respawn in different areas of zones depending on their alignment.
 * Walking backwards is slightly slower than walking forwards on PVP servers.
 * Heroic Opportunities are unusable in PVP combat currently.
 * Groups or raids engaged in PVP battle cannot be joined, left or kicked from until the battles are over.
 * Rogue classes are unable to Pick Pocket other players. Predators can receive bounties from killing blue-or-better players.
 * 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.

Considering other players

 * Players who are able to attack you have a red border around their name (like an aggressive NPC)
 * Players can attack enemy players who are higher level than a certain amount below their own level, the amount depending on the zone they are in. Attacking a player whose level is too high to attack you allows them to counterattack.
 * If a player in your PVP level range is grouped with a person who is too high to attack you, that person will NOT have a red border around their name, they are unable to attack you; should you initiate combat with them, the higher level person they are grouped with is then free to attack you
 * PVP level range varies by zone:
 * Newbie areas = 4 level range
 * Antonica, Commonlands = 4 level range
 * Thundering Steppes, Nektulos Forest = 8 level range
 * Zek, Enchanted Lands = 8 level range
 * Rivervale, Feerrott, Lavastorm, Everfrost = 10 level range
 * DoF Zones = 10 level range
 * KoS Zones = Unlimited level range
 * EoF Zones = Various according to zone level
 * RoK Zones = Various according to zone level
 * If a player is "carnage flagged" (a red icon with a skull beside their name) they can be attacked by anyone of an opposing faction. Players in a hostile city zone become carnage flagged after a short period of time
 * Difficulty:
 * Solo players consider as solo
 * Grouped players consider as heroic
 * Players in raid consider as Epic x2/3/4, depending on how many players are in that raid; 7-12 players is Epic x2, 13-18 players is Epic x3 and 19-24 players is Epic x4.
 * Characters grouped with someone that would normally be too high for your level range consider as arrow up, those grouped with characters normally too low for your level range consider as arrow down.

Protection from PvP
Until a character reaches level 10 they are unable to kill or be killed by other players. When you change zones, you are granted 30 seconds immunity from PvP. You will not be able to attack anyone until your immunity expires. As of Live Update 35, you can no longer zone when if you have engaged in PvP. If you attempt to run through a zone you will bounce off of it.

PVP Writs
Good and Evil faction-aligned NPCs in Qeynos Harbor, Nektulos Forest and elsewhere in other cities will give PVP Writs, similar to other status writs but requiring defeating a certain number of opposing characters, often of certain types. An made-up example writ would be
 * I must kill five enemy characters.
 * I must kill two scouts.
 * I must kill a mage.

Risks and Rewards
Triumphing in more challenging battles is generally more rewarding.

Fame/Infamy/Notoriety
Fame is known as Infamy by Evil characters and Notoriety by Exiles. Fame is gained from killing enemies neutrally or honorably and lost from dying to enemies neutrally or honorably


 * The titles are:
 * Untitled
 * Hunter
 * Slayer
 * Destroyer
 * Champion
 * Dreadnaught
 * General
 * Master
 * Overseer
 * Overlord

Going under the threshold for a title will cause loss of that title. There may be negative titles for characters with poor records.

Coin
Players that are honorably killed can be looted for 60% of the coin they are currently carrying with them. Coin kept in the bank is not affected, so it is important to store money in the bank if expecting any PVP.

Items
There is a chance that players that are honorably killed will drop a chest containing a random item that is COMMON, UNCOMMON, TREASURED, or HANDCRAFTED and not ATTUNED or NO-TRADE. LEGENDARY, MASTERCRAFTED, FABLED and MYTHICAL items may not be looted.

PvP Insignia Tokens
Players often will drop boxes containing PvP faction tokens when honorably killed. These can be used to increase the PvP faction with your city. Tokens differ based on the tier level your opponent belonged to. Tier 7 tokens (those dropped by players 60+) can be used to purchase fabled PvP armor sets specific to your class.

Faction
Killing enemies honorably or neutrally increases PvP faction with your city's PVP faction and decreases faction to the killed character's PVP faction. The factions are: Gaining your team's PvP faction unlocks legendary and fabled items for purchase from PvP merchants within your city, which costs certain amount of money and lots of personal status points. Additional and significantly superior PvP armor sets are available for purchase in EoF using T7 PvP faction tokens (Antonican Heroism Token or Lucanic Carnage Insignia). In addition, with the introduction of the Rise of Kunark expansion, PVP items and armor are available for level 80 adventurers. As it stands now, you must complete PVP writs in order to gain PVP tokens for the PVP items/armor. PVP armor sets are available for each class, and each piece costs 400 tokens. The breastplate and leggings cost 450 tokens.
 * Good: The Royal Antonican Guard
 * Evil: The Lucanic Knights

Dying neutrally or honorably to an enemy and killing enemies dishonorably causes loss of faction.

Status
Killing enemies honorably awards you status points. The number of status awarded varies based on the con of your opponent, how many people participated in the defeat, and amount of dps caused by you to the target. Ex. killing a solo player while in full group may award you 100-300 sp, while killing same target solo may award over 3000sp.

Experience
Killing enemies honorably awards you experience. This experience gain cannot be turned off.

Cities

 * All guards no longer politely banish enemies from their city. Instead, they attack any intruders that they dislike and can be attacked in return! (More aligned guards are aggressive)
 * New guards have been enlisted to protect the cities of Freeport and Qeynos, and existing guards have undergone extensive training to ensure they are capable of protecting the areas to which they are assigned.
 * Guards in Kelethin other than the Royal Guard are indifferent to non-aligned characters who have not killed large numbers of guards, as are most (all?) guards in Gorowyn. Non-aligned characters in these cities will still be rapidly carnage flagged however.  Guards in Qeynos, Freeport and Neriak are all hostile to opposing characters.

Common Behaviors
Scouts, especially Predators are generally notably more common than on PVE servers. Turning off combat experience ("level locking") is more common, as players may wish to remain in a low level tier with a powerful character or gain achievements to aid in pre-80 PVP. It may be a good idea to group even if doing easy quests or killing easy mobs as numbers are a large advantage in PVP.

Links

 * List of Guides For Beginners by Eradani
 * EQ2players info
 * EQ2Players official PVP info page
 * EQ2 official PVP forum