Vampi's Guide to PvP an Anarchy Online Player Guide FINAL UPDATE 13-Sep-01 Note: this used to be Lusti's Guide to PvP. Lusti was my fixer and she was great at PvP. But I've put Lusti on the shelf and gone back to my agent Vampi for various reasons. Hence, the change to the title of this guide. A big thank-you to the following contributors: Aufklarung, CaptFallout, Croak, DB (no in-game name given), Fadinaway (Funcom Events Team Lead), Kusimi, Moondragon, Vanven, Wrathstar, Xaxon

Warning: this is a loonnnnggg guide (16 pages, so far). There's a lot to say about PvP in Anarchy Online, and I go into a lot of detail. So if you're reading-challenged or have the attention span of a gnat, don't say I didn't warn you. =P

Goodbye, My Friends

I will leave this guide and my Weapon Evaluation Guide up for some time, at least until I need the server space for things related to the next game I play. I give blanket license to anyone to take my weapon evaluation spreadsheet and carry it forward, and to take the information in this document and carry it forward. I, however, will no longer be updated either of these guides or my spreadsheet.

Contents

• PvP is BROKEN At All Levels
• What Can You Do About Exploiters in PvP?
• Why Every Player Should Care about PvP
• The Newbie's Reluctance to try PvP
• PvP Overview - The Nuts and Bolts Mechanics
  • Level Restrictions
  • The Deal with 25% Political Zones and 75% Monster-Only Zones
  • The PvP Titles
  • Looting Your Kills
  • Neutrals Have It Rough
  • Res-Camping and Grid-Camping
  • The Dirty Facts About Line of Sight Attacks
• Where to PvP and How to Get There
  • Getting to Stret West and the Holes-in-The-Wall Political Zone
  • Getting to Meetmedere
  • Getting to Stret East
  • Getting to 4-Holes
• General PvP Tips and Tactics
  • Equipment Has a Huge Effect
  • Speed Kills
  • Spying Skills and Aimed Shot
  • Timing Your Big Damage Shots
  • Using General Nano Debuffs Offensively
  • Miscellaneous Tactics
• Team Tactics

PvP is BROKEN At All Levels

In my last update to this guide, I limited this section to a discussion of how PvP was broken at levels 75 and up. Well, it still is broken at the high levels, but unfortunately there are quite a few reasons why it is also broken at EVERY level now:

• The 12.5 patch changed the way that critical hits are calculated, resulting in a noticeably larger amount of critical hits for most players. While this was good news for the PvE environment, it has essentially broken PvP at all levels. Critical aimed shots, bursts, and FAs are increasingly resulting in one-shot kills even at lower levels. The Agent class has been most affected by the change, because they are a high-critting profession to begin with.
  
  
• There are quite a few balance-shattering exploits in use right now, including a new one that I only became aware of today:
  
  
  • The "Hammer Exploit" involves a way to bypass the long, long recharge time on some high-damage weapons, allowing some players like enforcers with hammers to hit you MUCH faster than intended by the game designers.
    
    
  • The "Ranged Invulnerability Exploit" involves a bug that has an effect similar to the speed debuff bugs of the past. It's tricky to induce and does not consistently stick, but when you can pull it off, your Dodge skill goes through the roof and you are more or less impervious to ranged attacks until you zone.
    
    
  • The "Charm Exploit" allows a grief-player team to attack other teams in 75% zones, or same-side teams in 25% zones.
    
    
• By now, many people have learned all the techniques of equipping maximum implants, armor, and weapons for their level. Several classes can equip weapons near twice their own level. To some extent, you can argue that the level of the person you are fighting in PvP is really the level of the weapon that they are weilding. EVERY player is geared for maximum offensive power, and the poor way that evades are implemented in the game means that most people walking around in the PvP zones have defensive evasion skills that are 2-3 times less than the attack skill of the person they're facing. This means a seriously high amount of critical hits are occurring in PvP.

Exploits aside, the big problem at all levels of PvP is that Funcom has screwed up big-time by developing two completely different fight curves: one for PvP, and one for PvE. They took the easy solution to the age-old problem that monster AI is weak. Because a human player can use creative tactics in a fight, game designers have typically compensated for this by making monsters much tougher than human characters. Funcom is no exception. That yellow mob you're fighting has more hit points than you, more AC than you, and better evades than you.

The net result is that as players and mobs approach the higher levels, Funcom has to seriously increase the damage output of players. Even with the current PvE curve, you see high-level players having a hard time soloing even yellow-greens and greens.

How this completely screws PvP is that monster hitpoints, AC, and evades increase at a much steeper rate than for players. So while a level 120 agent may need his massive 3000-point aimshot to give him a fighting chance in the PvE environment, it allows him to get off one-shot kills in PvP. While that soldier may need his massive fling-burst-FA combo to give him a fighting chance in PvE, it allows him one-shot kills in PvP. Same goes for any class that is capable of dealing out special damage in the 1500+ range.

Also complicating/screwing high-level PvP is the fact that the three evasion skills seem by all accounts broken and ineffective. I waited a long time to weigh in on this, but I've seen enough factual accounts with hard data to believe it now. At best, all that IP you are pumping into evades does is to reduce the amount of criticals scored on you. Big whoopee-do. By all common logic, if my total Attack skill is equal to your evasion skill for the type of damage that I'm doing, I should MISS you 50% of the time or thereabouts. Read that again. This is definitely NOT how it is working in-game right now. Not even close to that. Why? Again, probably because it would completely bork PvE--either we'd be killing mobs way too easy or they'd be killing us way too easy.

The bottom line is this:

• PvP at pretty much all levels, especially 75-200, is broken, worthless, unplayable, and most importantly, NOT FUN. I don't care what real-world analogies and rationalizations the trolls come up with, you have to remember that all RPGs and war games are abstractions of reality. Sure an agent with a sniper rifle most certainly *could* one-shot you in real-life with a nice headshot. But this isn't real-life, it's a game. Every class must have at least some chance of winning a fight against an opponent near their own level. EVERY class. Even the doctors and bureaucrats, etc. Otherwise, what's the point? And for every class to have a chance, for every class to have FUN in PvP, a fight must last longer than 1-5 seconds. A fight cannot be decided by who gets the first one-shot kill off. There has to be some back-and-forth, some opportunity for tactics.
  
  
• Funcom MUST redo their entire PvP curve. Which probably means redoing their whole PvE curve. They MUST balance PvP at levels 75+ so that fights last at least 20-30 seconds or longer. So that fights have room for tactics. So that fights are NOT decided in 1-3 hits, but more like 15+ hits at least. This is a tall order. Don't expect it anytime soon.
  
  
• Until Funcom fixes their PvP curve to address the problems at the higher-levels, grief-players are gonna have a field day in the Political and Mayhem zones. And guess what? when you hit level 75+ the only zones with mobs appropriate to your level are..... That's right! Political and Mayhem zones!
  
  
• Funcom could make a temporary fix to PvP by taking the EQ approach and reducing your damage output by a large percentage when you are attacking a player instead of a mob. This will help but is NOT a real solution. The specials will STILL be too powerful; the same imbalance will exist. You will make fights last a little longer but the same basic problem will still be there--Aimed Shot, Fling/Burst/FA, and some NT nukes will STILL be too powerful compared to basic damage.
  
  
• Another temporary fix that Funcom could apply would be to institute PvP level restrictions at levels 75-200, just like they currently do for the players under level 75. In my opinion, this should actually be a permanent fix unless they can really, really nail down the PvP balance issue. I mean, logically, a level 75 character should have NO chance in hell against a level 150 character. Or even against a level 100 character. I'm sure that Funcom's original intent was that a group of level 75s should have a chance to kill some solo level 150 that they encountered, but really, how often is this going to happen? How can the vaunted storyline really set up such circumstances? What's FAR more likely is that a group of level 150s will roll into 2HO or some similar outpost and simply own the place. That a group of level 120s will roam 4Holes or Stret East looking for lower-level groups to gank. And so on.

So what is my recommendation? Just stop. Forget about PvP until FunCom fixes all this, because you won't have fun unless you're one of the few classes that can actually pull off nice one-shot kills. Avoid the Political zones and Mayhem zones, and if you do need to go there for leveling, make sure you're always with a full group.

Meanwhile, keep bitching to FunCom LOUD and LONG to fix high-level PvP.

Don't even bother reading the rest of this guide because it was written at a time when some of these exploits were not in frequent use, and before the 12.5 patch when criticals happened almost never in PvP. Back then, PvP was a blast, at least at the lower levels below 75. Now, it's all a huge clusterf*ck. Come back and read on when FunCom fixes the main exploits I list above, and when they fix the basic PvP offense-defense formula.

What Can You Do About Exploiters in PvP?

Note: Due to Funcom's more stringent policy about banning people who post exploits, and due the to fact that some game sites would not host/post this guide while it contained PvP exploits in it, I have elected to remove them from this guide.

Exploits will always be found. Some will always stoop to using them; it's human nature. If you encounter somebody in a PvP zone who you are *certain* is using an exploit, here are some things you can do about it:

• Be sure to file a bug report to Funcom. If you don't report about it, they don't know it's a problem.
  
  
• Don't fight back if your solo and at a disadvantage. Deny them any option of a fight, if possible, by running away if they attack you, and by being aware of their position and avoiding getting in range for them to attack you. Deny them their "fun."
  
  
• /shout to the entire area that "SoAndSo is using the Blah Blah exploit!" Don't spam the place, but make sure everyone in the area is warned. Trust me, it's like painting a big target circle on their back.
  
  
• If you're fighting solo, consider teaming long enough to gank the exploiter repeatedly. Or just coordinate with other soloists in the area to be on the watch for the exploiter, and to rush to each other's aid to gang up on the exploiter.

Remember, the best deterrence to exploiters is to deny them the benefits of their exploit, and if you can (by coordinating with others), to punish them severely for even existing. Be creative, and do what it takes to spank them mercilessly and repeatedly until they leave. Even if they swear up and down they'll stop using the exploit, keep ganking them. Over and over.

Don't tolerate an exploiter in PvP. Don't buy their bullshit. Don't let them con you. Just kill them, efficiently and repeatedly until they leave.

Why Every Player Should Care About PvP

Special Update 6-Aug-01:

Fadinaway, the FunCom Events Team Lead, has responded (very quickly, I might add) to requests that Funcom clear up the confusion about whether levels 75-200 would be able to PvP even in 75% suppression zones. Dr. Giggles had earlier reported that both GMs and a Funcom developer had stated that when the storyline got started, a "war" switch would be thrown that would enable levels 75-200 to attack each other even in the 75% zones.

Fadinaway said that no such thing would be happening. Here is his exact quote:

"There has been no official comment like the one you described relating to a 'war switch'. Currently, anyone over the level of 75 should be able to freely PvP each other regardless of level difference, but only in a Political or Mayhem zone. Political and Mayhem zones may change in the future due to issues related to the storyline, but this should affect everyone. If there is to be any change other than this, we will definitely let you know."

So those of you who wish to avoid PvP can choose to do so, provided you avoid the 25% "political" and 0% "mayhem" suppression gas areas.

Which brings me to why everyone should care about PvP. Sooner or later, you simply cannot avoid the 25% and 0% zones altogether. As you advance in levels, for instance, more and more missions end up being in political zones. I imagine that at levels 75+ a fair number of missions end up being the mayhem zones. Also, as the dimensions become more populated (the game's only a month old now, and many people are holding off until they see whether FunCom fixes the technical problems), you're going to have more competition for the good high-level spawn, and I betcha that some of the better spawn areas will end up being in political and mayhem zones.

Remember, this entire game and storyline is based around a war between Clan and Omni. If players themselves do not meet in conflict, there is no storyline. So I lay $100 on the table right now that says as the storyline progresses, we will see more 25% political zones cropping up, and FunCom making subtle tweaks to encourage players to come into conflict with each other. You will still be able to avoid PvP conflict if you really really want to, but by doing so you will be significantly limiting your options and the areas that you can visit.

My advice? Get comfortable with PvP now, at your early levels. PvP can really be quite enjoyable and fun, and to address the main drawback of PvP in other games (namely, that risked losing valuable exp and some or all of your best equipment), FunCom has made it about as risk-free as possible to engage in PvP.

The Newbie's Reluctance to Try PvP

Unlike other MMORPGs to date, AO gives you the ability to PvP your ass off with NO RISK if you so choose, while you're a newbie. Until level 75, if you scan at an insurance terminal before entering a 25% suppression zone (the "Political" zones) or a 0% "mayhem" zone, you lose NOTHING if you die except the time it takes to wait out your resurrection effects and travel back to the PvP zone.

So those of you who are new to the concept of PvP on an MMORPG server, and are reluctant to try PvP, don't be! Try it; you'll like it!

The only real risk (and it is a real one) is that as you go higher in levels your missions, and the choice leveling spots, end up often being in political zones or mayhem zones. So you won't always have the luxury to scan at an insurance terminal before you enter a 25% or 0% suppression zone. Really, this is all the more reason to get comfortable with PvP early on in your character's life. And if you really find some incredible loot in a mission that you just can't bear to lose to PvP attack because your mission area is in a political zone, you always have the option to /terminate from within the mission area.

PvP Overview - The Nuts and Bolts Mechanics

Here are some basic facts about PvP mechanics.

Level Restrictions

• If you are under level 75, you can attack or be attacked only by someone that is within a certain range of your own level, and who is from the enemy side. Unlike in Asheron's Call, for instance, you can walk right into the middle of Meetmedere and stand next to a bunch of solid red enemies, and be perfectly safe. (Well, more or less anyway--there is one fact about teams that modifies this statement a bit.)
  
  
• Once you are level 75, you can attack and be attacked by anybody from the enemy side up to level 200.
  
  
• Neutrals have it rough because both the Clan and Omni are "enemies." Both Clan and Omni can attack a Neutral, but a Neutral cannot attack a Clan or Omni. Once attacked, though, a Neutral can fight back.
  
  
• Generally speaking, if an enemy is grey or solid red when you target him/her/it, you cannot fight them. By the same token, if an enemy is green to orange, you can fight.
  
  
• Calculating the level range for solo fighters - For people under level 75, there is some question still about exactly how solo ranges are calculated. All I have for now are some spot observations that indicate the range starts at +-5 levels and shifts upwards to probably +-15 levels as you near level 75:
  • At level 17 the solo range is within +-5 levels
  • At level 31, the solo range is within +-8 levels
  • At level 50, the solo range is within +-11 levels
    
    
• Calculating the level range for team fighters - Teams composed of people under level 75 have two different level ranges:
  • The team's defensive range is some sort of combined average range based on the levels of the team members. This range used to be much wider before the 12.5 patch.
    
    
  • The team's attack range is some sort of combined average range based on the levels of the team members. This range used to be much wider before the 12.5 patch.

This fact about team ranges has an important ramnification if you are fighting in areas with multiple enemies nearby: you cannot always presume that a deep red or grey enemy is unable to attack you---if they are teamed, they just might be able to. I'm reasonably certain that their teammate(s) don't even have to be in the vicinity, but I could be wrong. This fact also explains why sometimes you will get a message that you cannot attack a given enemy that is green or orange--they may be grouped with somebody who takes them out of your effective solo range, despite their "color."

• If you engage in a fight with another player in your PvP range, the other players outside your PvP range cannot jump in and start attacking you too (unless they are teamed with the player you're fighting.) The best way to check whether that lone yellow is in a team or not is to send a Join Team request to them. If they're a member of a team, you'll get a message to that effect. If they're not a member of a team, who knows? You might confuse them long enough to get the drop on them, if you're the type that likes cheap tactics like that.
  
  What other players around you can do, however, is to heal the player that you're fighting. This is just a fact of life in a more crowded PvP zone like Meetmedere. Usually if one side jumps in to heal the player you're fighting, your side will often notice and come heal you too. It all depends on the crowd and how well known you are.
  

The Deal with 25% "Political Zones" and 75% "Monster-Only Zones"

• When fighting in 25% political zones, once you engage in a fight with somebody inside the 25% zone, you are NOT safe if you run to a 75% zone--other players can no longer attack you, but the individual(s) or team(s) that were taking shots at you in the 25% zone can continue to do so even if you are both now outside the 25% zone. The only real safe bolthole is if you hit a physical zone border.
  
  
• Once you engage in a fight, even if you go run around the 75% zone and the person you were fighting wanders off without either of you killing the other, your ability to use treatment or nano kits is nullified until you either find that person and kill them, or else you hit a physical zone border. Even though your attack bar is not active, and you're no longer being attacked by the other player, the game still thinks that you're under attack for purposes of using treatment/nano kits. I don't know if this is a bug or a feature. And once you hit a zone line to clear that state--you can no longer attack the other player in a 75% zone.
  
  
• In some areas, the 25% zones are very small and narrow. When you look at the various zone maps available on fan sites, it looks like the entire zone of Stret West, Stret East, 4-Holes, etc. is a 25% political zone. Nope; at least not for Stret West. Most of the area inside Stret West is perfectly safe 75% suppression. Instead, what Funcom has done is create certain bottlenecks in the roads and across river bridges where you are forced to run through a 25% zone to get from one area to another.
  
  However, I suspect this holds true only in Stret West, as it's the lowest-level political zone. In 4-Holes and in Stret East, every place I've gone is all 25% suppression gas. The only protection from enemy players is that afforded by the numerous NPC guards all around and inside the various outposts/towns. Some of the roadways are heavily guarded as well.

The PvP Titles

• The PvP titles ("Freshman," "Rookie," etc.) are indicators of your overall prowess at PvP. You get titles only if you win a lot more fights than you lose.
  
  
• You get your PvP titles only for making solo kills. If you are a member of a team, any kills you get will not count towards the body counts needed for your PvP titles. So don't team up with others if you're looking to build up your PvP titles.
  
  
• We used to think that a certain fixed win-loss spread would give you the Freshman, Rookie, and Apprentice titles. Now we know better. Your PvP title is not based on a simple win-loss spread, but instead on an underlying chess-style "rating points" system. If you're not familiar with how ELO/Chess type rating systems work, the basic idea is that every person starts out with a base rating value. When you kill somebody (you can't be in a team), your rating goes up. When somebody kills you, your rating goes down. How much your rating goes up and down seems to depend on both the underlying rating of your opponent and on the character level of your opponent. Your rating will go up much faster if you kill somebody that is quite a few levels above you. Or if you kill somebody the same level as you, but they have a higher PvP title than you.
  
  
• Nobody knows the exact formula for this rating system, but the rule of thumb is this: the farther apart you are in both PvP rating and in character level, the more that the winner gains, and the more that the loser loses. If you get killed by some body 10 levels below you, you could easily lose your title even if you've made a bunch of successful kills after gaining that title.
  

• Your kill counts towards a title rank even if your victim loses no exp to their death.
  
  
• If multiple solo individuals contribute to a kill (which can happen often in places like Meetmedere, where others often jump in on a fight you start), then it's the person who does the most damage who gets credit for the kill, kind of like looting rights on a mob when multiple non-teamed people kill the mob.

• You can lose your title to PvP deaths, so it appears that your PvP title is a dynamic indicator of your relative win-loss spread. You might gain the Freshman title, for instance, but then if you have a string of losses you're likely to lose that title until you win enough solo fights to gain back the title.
  
  
• You can lose your title to using /terminate. Especially if you /terminate during a PvP fight--there seems to be a huge penalty associated with this exploit. But even if you use /terminate outside of PvP, as a kind of poor man's teleportation device, the reports are clear that it does affect your PvP title.
  
  
• It is pretty clear, however, that you cannot lose your title to deaths from mobs while out leveling.
  

Looting Your Kills

• As far as corpse looting goes, if multiple players who are not teamed participate in a kill, it seems that looting rights work like they do for mobs--the player who did the most damage gets the looting rights, if any. If you are in a team, then looting rights depend upon the team loot setting.
  
  
• If the player recently scanned at an insurance terminal, or if they did not lose any exp to their death, you will not be able to loot the body.
  
  
• If your kill did lose exp, and they have new items in their inventory that were not saved at the last scan, you will be able to loot all of the newly acquired items since the last scan. You will also receive a "pinky" if your victim lost any exp to the kill.
  
  
• If your kill loses exp to their death, you do NOT get the exp that they lost. No player will ever receive exp for making a PvP kill; FunCom has clearly stated this.
  
  
• There have been rumors of a bug whereby if you lose a large amount of exp to a PvP death, the player who killed you could loot your entire inventory--even the things that you had saved at the last scan. I've seen several reports that this bug is no longer active in the game, but if there's anyone reading this who can confirm or deny whether this bug still exists, please email me. Until you hear the final word on this, I say better safe then sorry--scan yourself before intentionally going to a PvP area.
  
  
• Nobody knows what pinkys, pinky jars, and pinky cutters actually do yet, or whether they have any real value. I've tried combining my pinkys with pinky jars and nada, zip, nothing. There is one cute trick you can do with a pinky, though. Right-click the pinky and a blue "Heh" floats above your head. Stupid tricks to impress the newbs in a city crowd.

Neutrals Have It Rough

• Neutrals cannot attack either Omni or Clan. Neutrals must wait to be attacked before they can fight anyone. For this reason I personally think it's bad form to run up and whack a Neutral, but then I leaned towards Anti-PK sentiments in Asheron's Call so don't mind me. From a roleplay perspective, however, it doesn't make a lot of sense to enrage and antagonize Neutrals by attacking them all the time--you're just encouraging them to aid and abet the enemy. I suggest that if you want to fight a neutral, just ask them if they want to duel.

Res-Camping and Grid-Camping

• You cannot be auto-targeted with the Tab key when you pop out of the grid into a 25% zone, as happens when you drop into Meetmedere. A player trying to camp the grid drop point must put his/her mouse cursor on you and click to target you for attack, which is harder than it sounds because to the local players you still look like a very small upside-down pyramid for a short while when you drop out of the grid. The bottom line? You usually have plenty of time to run to the 75% border when you grid into Meetmedere. Most players that I've seen, however, have the class not to gank people dropping in from the grid. Still, you're better safe than sorry so be sure to buff up completely before you enter the grid, and be alert for attack the minute that you resolve into Meetmedere.
  
  
• You can be ganked the instant that you resurrect at a reclaim terminal - this is called "res-camping." Again, most players I've seen have the class and honor to leave alone players that are stupid enough to scan in a 25% zone like Meetmedere. But you do get the occasional asshole who will camp the reclaim terminal and gleefully smack you down the instant that you resolve, when you're at less than half health and suffering from res effects. In my opinion, if you are dumb enough to scan in a 25% zone, you almost deserve it, but like I said before, I tend to roleplay a more honorable killer so like most people I'll at least give you a minute to reclaim your stuff and get the hell out of there. Stand around for too long after reclaiming your inventory, though, and I'll toast you with a smile on my face. The moral of this story? Don't be stupid and scan in the middle of Meetmedere. You can grid right into the place if your Comp Lit. is 100 or better, or quickly run there from Newland City if you're a real lowbie, so why bother anyway?
  
  
• (I can't believe I kept forgetting to add this one until now) Every player should be aware that you get NO credit for killing somebody who is still under resurrection effects. Remember that res effects last for 6 minutes after death. Many players are capable of healing to full health before their res effects wear off completely, so it's possible that even if you attack and kill somebody who seems to be at full health, you might not get any credit for the kill because they are still under res effects. This is yet another reason that people are wasting their time by res-camping.
  
  
• If you see somebody getting res-camped by idiot grief-players, you can do something about it even if the poor sap getting res-camped is from the "enemy" side. Just invite them to team with you. If they accept before the res-campers can kill them again, you can now open fire on the res-campers, even if the res-campers are from your own side! You do not have to stand by yelling at idiots from your own side to quit res-camping; you can kill them for the griefer swine that they are.
  

The Dirty Facts About Line of Sight Attacks

• Funcom says the 12.3.2 patch fixed LOS so that you can't shoot through obstacles anymore. While this has been observed to be somewhat true on a gross level versus mobs in a dungeon (with a LOT of execeptions), I've noticed that even as of the 12.3.3 patch I'm perfectly able to shoot mobs and players just fine through entire structures like shacks in the Mutant Camps or buildings and walls in Meetmedere. It seems that the actual edges of LOS barriers are smaller than what you see with your eye. So don't think that just because you ducked around the corner of a building you're immune to ranged attacks.
  
  
• Us humans being slightly smarter than mobs, DB reported that the more savvy PvP players are starting to use a "camera exploit" to get around the few LOS barriers that do exist. In short, if you can see the target with your camera, you can shoot it, even if there's a huge wall in between you that you normally couldn't shoot through. For example, in MMD there is a wall that separates the inside of the outpost from the open area outside where people drop in from the grid. He discovered than an NT was hiding just inside the wall, in a spot very hard to see even from an overhead camera view. This NT had manipulated his camera angle to be able to see the players gridding into MMD, and would manually click on them with his mouse and start nuking them with NT nanos. This was an especially devestating tactic because your autoattack is NOT triggered by combat nanos attacking you. So players were getting attacked immediately upon dropping in from the grid but unable to find or return fire on their attacker.
  
  The player that reported this factoid says it can be invaluable to learn how to manipulate your camera with precision to target other players hiding behind obstacles.

Where To PvP And How To Get There

I wasted the better part of a Saturday afternoon figuring out how to get my level 17 fixer to the Stret West political zones for my first foray into PvP, AO-style. Took me for-freakin-ever. Nobody I asked in-game knew what to tell me. None of the bulletin boards had any better directions other than "run up through 4-Holes" (I'm Omni). Blah. A level 17 dies too easily running up through 4-Holes. Add that to the fact that my map skill wasn't nearly high enough to load maps of Stret West, etc., and I ended up doing a lot of running around in Newland, Athen, Varmit Woods (yikes), and Aegean, not to mention looking all over Stret West for the tiny little 25% zones once I got there. All without maps.

Stupid me. Of course now I know better, and I'm gonna save you the trouble that I went through. Be aware that since I've only PvPed with my lowbie Fixer reroll, I can't tell you much about the PvP areas in 4-Holes or Upper Stret East. If any of you reading this can give me succinct directions (and preferrably coordinates, too) to the PvP areas that I don't list here, please email me with that info and I'll add it here. Eventually I plan to show actual maps marking all the PvP zones.

Getting to Stret West and the Holes-In-The-Wall Political Zone

1. If you're Omni, use the grid to get to Tir. You need a buffed Computer Lit. of 75 to get into the grid and take the Tir drop.
2. From Tir, take the whompa to Newland. (Note: even if you have a high enough comp lit to take the Newland drop, don't do it! You're dropped from midair into the middle of Newland desert, which is a long run away from Newland City itself. Presuming you even survive the drop. (A trick that actually worked for me is to jump just before you hit ground. I kid you not--I took only 28 points of damage that way.)
3. In Newland, take the whompa to Borealis, which is a neutral city *in* Stret West. Both Clan and Omni can shop and restock in Borealis.
4. Take the only road out of Borealis, follow it down the mountain, and you'll zone into Holes-in-the-wall about 40 seconds down the road. Keep following the road straight for another half-minute and you'll see a Bronto Burger stand up ahead. Go there and scan at the insurance terminal there, for speedy return to the PvP zone nearby.

To get to the small PvP zone in Holes-in-the-Wall

Head down the road to your right if you're facing the Bronto Burger. (Can't remember the compass direction right now.) You'll see that the road you're following forks to either side of a small hill in front of you. Take either fork and go around to the other side of that small hill.

You'll be standing at a cross-roads where something like 4 different roads come together. Take the road South that goes up another embankment. On the other side is a river and a bridge. The road/bridge leads into 4-Holes. Almost as soon as you start down that road to the South, you'll cross into a 25% zone. Theres a physical zone barrier to 4-holes in the middle of the bridge.

Explore and fight in this area. It's the main PvP zone in Stret West, at least for lowbies. Chickens will often run for the safety of the zone border on the bridge, so you'll have to devise tactics for killing runners before they can hit the zone wall.

To get to the large PvP zone in Stret West proper

There's a much larger 25% zone directly to the East of the Bronto Burger stand. Out there you may catch teams who are leveling up, and there are lots of mission areas. Just take a beeline East from the Bronto Burger. It's 25% all the way to the big river, with only a few very small 75% zones here and there.

Getting to Meetmedere

The best and quickest way is to take the Meetmedere drop on the 2nd tier of the grid. You'll need Comp Lit of 100 to use the MMD drop. (Note: you'll need Comp Lit of 110 to use the grid terminal in MMD itself. Also note that the Grid terminal in MMD is in a 25% zone in the middle of the outpost.)

1. If you can't grid directly into MMD, then with a Comp Lit of 75 you can grid to Tir, then take the whompa from Tir to Newland.
2. Exit the West gate from Newland and head straight North across a small expanse of desert. If you have a Newland area map, or look on your big map, you'll see a set of twin lakes right next to each other with a narrow spit of land in between them. MMD is sitting at the North side of that spit of land between the two lakes. All the mobs you'll run into on the way are newbie mobs, so it's a safe run even for lowbies.

Take your time exploring MMD--there are three different 25% zones, some inside the walls of the outpost and some outside. There are also 75% zones that you can use to walk safely right into the middle of the outpost. Remember that once you step inside a 25% zone and somebody attacks you, they can continue attacking you even if you move back into a 75% zone. There are two different "back entrances" to the MMD outpost, and it can be very effective to sneak into the outpost using these, and also very effective to confuse teams by running them into and out of the outpost using the different entrances.

Getting to Stret East

I've been to Stret East only for full-difficulty missions, so I haven't seen much of the area because it's pretty dangerous for my mid-20s character to run around out there. What I do know is that Omni can get there via whompa or grid into 2HO. The 2HO military base is heavily guarded by scads of NPC guards, so it would be certain death for a Clan to grid there. The roads near the 2HO base are heavily guarded by Omni NPCs as well. The only feasible way for Clan to hunt in Stret East would be to run there from somewhere else, avoiding the guards that are probably located near bridges and crossroads.

Despite the danger to Clan of gridding directly into 2HO, a lot of Clan, particularly the high-level ones, try to do it. So if you're over level 75, watch your back while in 2HO.

Getting to 4-Holes

Similar to Stret East, 4-Holes is easy for Omni to get to via either whompa or grid. I know that the whompa drop would be certain death for Clan, due to the high density of Omni Guard NPCs. I haven't taken the Grid drop yet so I don't know what the story is at the grid exit.

I have noticed a lot of higher-level clan running South from Stret West into the 4-Holes zone, but never followed them. There is a bridge leading to 4-Holes right near Borealis, in the Holes-In-The-Wall area that I describe up above in the Stret West section. So it seems fairly easy for Clan to get down into 4-Holes via Borealis and Stret West.

One interesting thing about 4-Holes--there are a ton of Clan NPC mob/guards that spawn in the same area as the Omni NPC guards, so even if you're Omni you can die easily to a Clan NPC within sight of Omni guards. There are always firefights going on between the local Omni guards and these Clan NPCs. I tried sneaking past a Clan NPC once, thinking that it would ignore me since it was already fighting with an Omni guard. Wrong! I was dead in one hit.

General PvP Tips and Tactics

Here are some useful tips and tactics, in no particular order, that apply equally to solo and team fighting:

Equipment Has a Huge Effect

• Equip the best weapon/armor that you possibly can for your level. Preferrably things that you have to buff attributes/skills to even be able to equip them. You want max killing power. I fought a level 17 fixer when I was level 17. He had a QL8 Mausser, while I had a QL24 Mausser that I had to use Expertise buffs and implants just to equip. He had mission loot armor; I had armor from a previous high-level character that I had to buff up just to equip some pieces. Can you guess who won? He was dinking me for 8 points of damage per hit, while I was whacking him for 40 per hit. Yes, your AC really does make a difference.
  
  
• Know your actual damage output per second, and yes, do keep upping your combat initiatives, at least to a certain point. There is a lot of misinformation floating around on what the "best" weapons are, whether or not ranged initiatives have any real effect, and so on. If you want to understand exactly how to determine which weapon puts out the most damage when you are weilding it, then read my guide to evaluating weapons.
  
  
• A useful extrapolation of this tip is this: don't PvP all the time unless you really love being a PvP-nut. Instead, go level up in the non-PvP zones until you're ready to make your next set of major equipment/nano upgrades. Then, when you've barely squeezed into your new upgrades, take a few days off from leveling and go live in the PvP zones for a while. You'll perform well and rack up lots of kills to advance your PvP titles. When you get sick of PvPing, go back to leveling again until your next major equipment/nano upgrade.
  
  A downside of this approach, however, is that opponents who like to use skill debuffs on you can make life difficult if you've just squeezed into a higher-level first-aid, nano, or weapon (if you like to switch weapons in combat). By debuffing you appropriately, you may not be able use first-aid in combat, or get off that killer nano that you can barely cast, or swap out weapons mid-combat.

Speed Kills

• Root nanos and speed buffs are your best friend in PvP. A simple fact is that when a player is obviously losing, they will very often try to just run away before you can kill them. Yes there are some steadfast warriors who finish what they start no matter what, but many people can argue that it's just good tactics to run away until your first aid and specials recycle. I know that I've killed some of my toughest opponents this way, by letting them think they've got the kill if they can just get a few more shots in followed by their special---I'll run like the wind and wait until my aid and burst recharges (and my HOT nano is slowly recharging my health too), then turn around and lay into them again. So you want to prevent players from bolting and running, if you can. If you've got root capability learn to use it to keep the other guy trapped until you can deal your death blow.
  
  
• Here's a new tip for those of you who don't have root nanos, and who keep getting killed by stinkers like me who use root-n-shoot tactics effectively. If your Nano Resist skill is kept fairly high, you will resist roots more often, and you will have a chance to break roots early. I can personally verify this after another fun weekend of fighting in MMD. I was battling an agent who was 5 levels above me. Normally, since my Mausser has longer range than a typical agent's rifle, I would use root-n-shoot to my advantage. However, the agent didn't seem at all affected by my first root. My second root held him well, like I would expect, but my third root broke after I'd hit him just one time. Okay, that was enough to make me wonder if he was using some /follow exploit to break my roots, until he tried rooting me! (This is the first time, surprisingly, that I have ever been rooted by another player.) Well what do you know? Even though I had the blue nano haze all around me, I could run just fine, and the blue haze disappeared almost instantly.
  
  What this clearly shows is that Nano Resist does have a strong effect on how you are affected by combat nanos such as root. My nano resist is currently maxed for my level (we learned in Asheron's Call that the equivalent skill was critical in PvP, and it turns out to be critical here as well). That agent obviously had a high Nano Resist as well, because although he was much less affected by my roots, most other players I was rooting this weekend were severely hampered by my roots.
  
  
• Xaxon reports an unconfirmed rumor that the /follow exploit still works to some extent in PvP, as follows. If you are in a team, and you are /following a team member, you are unrootable. I have not been able to confirm this personally, and in the occasions where I've fought solo against teams, my root has seemed to work just fine. They may not have been using this exploit, however. If you have a definitive answer on whether this exploit works, please email me.
  
  
• I'm gonna spill the beans on an exploit that currently STILL WORKS as of this document's latest revision date, because you will come across some PvPers that are exploiting it. Anyone who can guess at my identity from Asheron's Call know that I was a big champion of exposing the PvP exploits to as many people as possible, because I was sick of the exploiting uber dogs just owning players who tried to play "fair."
  
  The speed exploit is this: pretty much any profession that has speed debuff nanos can cast their debuff nano on themselves. Instead of lowering their own run speed, it usually increases their run speed by the amount of the debuff. Not only that, but you can keep stacking the debuff on yourself and it just jacks up your run speed again. The effect will last for as long as you keep refreshing the debuff on yourself, and it will be cancelled only if you hit a zone border.
  
  Use it and abuse it to your heart's content so that Funcom is forced to fix crap like this--it's been in the game since Beta, apparently. Tell a friend. Spread the love around. Useful when hunting outdoors too. For what it's worth, though, I don't use this exploit, just because I have a thing about enjoying the game the way it's meant to be played. If I didn't already have strong speed buffs as a fixer, though, I'd be sorely tempted.
  
  
• Root nanos can also be very useful to keep a shorter-ranged opponent at bay while you fire at him with a longer-ranged weapon. The coolest fight I've ever witnessed was an Adventurer in leet form fighting a Fixer. The Fixer had great tactics. The leet was using melee weapons and killing with either brawl or dimach, so the fixer would root the leet, run away and take a couple shots while the leet was out of melee range. The leet would cast a heal just as the root wore off, and practically scream across the gap to get in some melee swings, trailing red sparks from his healing nano as he ran. Hilarious to watch. BTW, the leet won. The point is that the leet would have won a LOT quicker if the fixer hadn't been using his root to keep the leet at bay.
  
  
• Here's a tip from CroakAO that the speedy classes can use against NTs and shorter-ranged projectile opponents. Provided your opponent is the type who will doggedly chase you to try and toss big NT nukes at you or whatever, just run away from them until your targeting indicator for them turns grey, meaning they've dropped out of even your range. Then stop and fire, then start running again. If you get the timing down, You'll be able to keep getting shots off on them but they'll never get a shot on you.
  
  This is similar to what I've experienced myself when chasing down fleeing opponents. If I'm out of nano for more roots, or I can't get within close enough range to fire off a root while they're still pelting away from me, I'll just close the gap enough, stop and fire one shot, then immediately start running after them again. Even with opponents I can barely keep up with I've managed to whittle them down this way, although they can run you a looooonnnng ways before you finally kill them.
  
  
• Especially if you don't have root nanos, a strong speed buff can help you chase down a runner and get in enough shots to finish them off. Many is the time I wished for a good speed buff at my lower levels when I couldn't run Limited Grid Jump yet. One trader who tried to gang me with two other players ran after I killed the first guy and his bud ran off. I decided to chase down the trader since he had jumped in with an opportunistic attack after the other two had first decided to jump me. That little bastard ran me half way across the Newland Desert before I had finally plinked him into Burst range and finished him. I had to burn two stim charges just to keep closing the gap enough to squeeze periodic shots in. Ever since I upgraded my NCU to make room for more buffs, and leveled up enough to run Limited Grid Jump as a standard buff, I've had a MUCH easier time fighting PvP, killing runners, and even fighting solo versus teams very effectively.
  
  
• Slow-down debuffs are pretty much worthless in PvP. If a runner gets enough of a head-start on you, you still can't close the gap fast enough to finish off the kill easily, if at all. I'll take a root nano over a slow-down nano any day. However, as I've had opportunity now to fight solo against teams that where trying to gank me, I've found that the crowd-control snares (such as Passive Distributed Entanglement) can really frustrate the hell out of a team trying to pin you down.

Spying Skills and Aimed Shot

• Stealth mode and cloaking devices are pretty much worthless. A real player can still see you just fine when you're cloaked. If you want to visually hide to lay an ambush, you'll be much more effective hiding in the local geometry. At the bridge in Holes-in-the-wall, for instance, you can hide under the bridge itself, merging into the concrete bottom of the bridge. Or you can merge with a big tree trunk near the path to the bridge. If you adjust your camera angle, you can still see out through the clip lines of the geometry you're hiding in. Unless players are constantly hitting their Tab key to spot hostiles, they may be lulled into a false sense of safety. Is this an exploit? Depends on your definition of exploit, I guess. The real lesson here is to keep hitting that tab key when you're in a PvP zone.
  
  
• Aimed Shot, on the other hand, is apparently not at all worthless. DB reports that Aimed Shot always works versus human opponents--you'll never get a "the target is aware of you" message. I imagine this is to ensure that Agents get to use their one and only special attack, for balance reasons.
  
  
• The jury is still out on concealment and perception skills and the role they play in PvP. One thing for certain, players are much more aware and astute than mobs, and players are constantly running around and panning their camera angle, so they will visually see you even if your concealment is so high that their Tab key doesn't find you. And yes, the LOS fix does work to a certain extent. I noticed last night while leveling at a clan spawn area that I could not target clan agent mobs that were on the other side of visual obstacles like tree trunks. My perception is currently pretty low. I could see them shooting at my teammate, and most of my teammates had no trouble shooting back, but I could not target them with my tab key until I moved my position so that I could also see the mob.
  
  So what does this mean about concealment and perception? I extrapolate the following points. These are unproven hypotheses at this point so take this with a grain of salt for now. If you observe that these points seem to be true or false, please email me with your feedback.
  • If your opponent's concealment is significantly higher than your perception, you may have trouble seeing their blip on your map screen (if you have the people upgrade), and you may have trouble targeting them with your Tab key if you can't also visually see them.
  • If you are using the information tool that tells you a target's Hit Points and Nano Points, your relative perception-concealment skills could affect how easily you can read your opponent's exact HP/NP. If you don't know why this would be useful, just think about it. =)
  • If you have extremely high concealment (buffed even higher with nano and cloaking devices), it might be a viable strategy to hide in geometry (like a tree trunk, under a bridge, or in a wall/building) for a relatively nasty sniping position.

Timing Your Big Damage Shots

• There are two schools of thought on when you should unload your special attacks on your hapless victim. The first school says to save your kill shot for last. Don't open with your nastiest nuke--you'll just make them run. Sucker them into thinking they have a chance to get off their nuke first and win. Save your Burst, Dimach, or whatever specials for your killing blow. This was my general strategy for pretty much all of my first 30 fights and it stood me very well. The few times that I accidentally bursted my opponent early on, they ALWAYS ran.
  
  
• The 2nd school says that against professions that typically have low HP, a large opening Burst or other kill shot can sometimes kill them outright or at least seriously freak them out, putting you at the advantage for the fight. Soldiers have long taken advantage of this and often open with a Burst and FA attack. Another strong reason to use your specials right at the start of a fight is that if the fight lasts long enough, you may get a chance to use them again after they recycle, allowing you to do more overall damage during the same time period, versus an opponent who saves their specials for a "kill shot."
  
  
• Now for the fun part, because there's always a flip side to every flip side. Knowing that some fighters, particularly soldiers, love to open with a huge kill shot attempt, Vanven claims very good success against soldiers using this tactic: when facing a soldier, start the fight with your aggro bar set all the way left to Full Defense, until after they unload their opening Burst and FA on you. He claims you'll take much less damage that way. Then, flip your aggro bar to full aggressive and tear into the soldier. I can verify that Vanven's tactic works very well against soldiers. I fought several soldiers again this weekend, including one who was on a team that I was soloing against. None of those soldiers were able to do squat to me, and some of them were 4 levels above me and I took them down easily using Vanven's technique and root-n-shoot tactics. Soldiers are strong, but definitely not uber. I have not been killed by a soldier yet, and overall, soldiers don't even fall in the category of my toughest matches.
  
  
• Personally I think that all this makes for some interesting tactics in a fight. Is your opponent gonna open with a kill shot, or will they hold it to the end? Or will they try to sneak it in on you somewhere in the middle? Should you monkey around with your aggro bar in a fight to attempt mitigating their big damage, or just leave it at full aggro for the whole fight? Interesting choices.

Using General Nano Debuffs Offensively

• CaptFallout (a soldier, btw) reports that a good way to deal with soldier's mirror shields is to debuff them early in the fight with the general nano SpaceTime Incompetence. Since most soldiers equip their highest Mirrorshield nano on their shortcut bar, and often buff Time and Space to be able to cast the best mirrorshield they can, you can really screw them up by knocking 20 points off their Time and Space skill. They may have to fumble with their nano window to find the next-lower version of their mirrorshield, giving you valuable time.
  
  
• Croakreports that MatCrea Incompetence can be a useful debuff against NanoTechs who are barely squeezing into their biggest nukes.
  
  
• Croak also reports good success using BioMet Incompetence against Martial Artists and Adventurers to bork their self-healing nanos.
  
  
• Croakalso reports good success using Lethargy against an opponent who stops attacking to heal, or who may be getting ready to retreat and make a run for it. Lethargy decreases their Dodge skill by 10 points, which gives you a better chance to hit them and get a crit on them, especially if you're trying to finish them off with potshots while they're running for a zone line
  
  
• Finally, remember that *any* offensive combat nano eats up your opponent's available NCU. Croak once accidentally put Contact Poison on a soldier opponent, which didn't do much damage by itself, but it did eat up 10 of the soldier's NCU. This prevented the Soldier from being able to cast his Mirrorshield. Remember, you cannot cancel a hostile nano.
  
  
• Bug Warning - It's reported that the Fixer combat nano Active Microentanglement actually increases the run speed of your opponent by 320. You might want to be careful using this particular nano in combat for now.

Miscellaneous Tactics

• Here's another miscellaneous soldier-fighting tip I can't believe I omitted from the first couple drafts of this guide. Everyone phears the soldier's mirror shield nanos, right? Pay attention when you're fighting a soldier, and the minute you see that shield go up, stop attacking them. Heal, run around them, root them, whatever--just don't try to inflict any damage that will just be spat right back at you for 75%. Wait 20-31 seconds (depending on the level of your opponent and the level of the Mirrorshield they're likely to be using) and then lay into them again. This has always worked well for me, at least against the very few soldiers I've seen in PvP. Strangely, I just don't see all that many soldier anymore, anywhere. I think they're all nearing level 80 now and the entire population of soldiers is bivouaced down in Lush Fields camping the Juggernaut.
  
  
• CaptFallout also reports that soldiers get a "you already have a higher-quality nano running" message when they try to cast mirrorshield but already have the 13% reflect shield running. This may be a bug or intentional anti-stack by Funcom, but either way the net result is that it's currently much harder for soldiers to whip out their much-dreaded mirror shields in PvP than you might guess.
  
  
• Finally, don't just stand in one spot and duke it out, especially if you're losing the damage race. Now with the recent LOF patch, you can supposedly dodge behind things to avoid some of the ranged hits. My experience as of Saturday afternoon (Aug-4) at MMD, however, makes me question this--after starting a fight with someone, I was still hitting them clear through buildings and walls no problem. One thing that is certain though: time is your friend. Use evasive tactics to give your first aid time to recycle, and for your nuke to recycle if you wasted it early or your opponent came back from near-death with some trick up his/her sleeve or some heals from his cohorts.
  
  
• If you're fighting a pet class, it can often pay to ignore the pet and attack the controller, if you're a ranged class. I've beaten bureacrats 5 levels above me by doing this. Watch your aggressive bar, though--if it's set to full agressive, the pet will trigger your autoattack and you'll waste valuable time trying to stop attacking the pet and switch your attack to the controller.
  
  
• Here's a useful trick for defending a base or outpost in a political zone. 2HO, for example, has some "safe" space near the grid drop where the local guards cannot see or aggro enemy Clan that grid into 2HO. But all any Omni has to do is go attack a nearby guard and make it chase you over near the Clan. Then duck into a store before the guard kills you. The guard will now see the clan and attack. This is a trick that even lowbies under 75 can do to help repel incursions by high-level enemies that you cannot directly attack.

Team Tactics

I don't have much to say here because I've focused only on solo fighting to get my Rookie title. As I do more team PvP I'll add stuff later. If you have team PvP experience and would like to contribute some tips, email me and I'll add them. Here are some things that I have managed to learn from fighting solo against entire teams, and from team tips that others have sent in:

• If you are a solo fighter, you will run into teams fairly often. Don't expect a "fair" fight when you're soloing. The good news is that at least if you have good speed buffs on you, you really don't need to fear teams. (Although if they have good speed buffs too, it could get dicey.) CroakAO has reported good success with a "divide and conquer" tactic, and I had similar success with it this weekend at MMD.
  
  In a nutshell, if you have a speed advantage against the team that is attacking you, just run like crazy and jink and double back on them and just keep being unpredictable. What happens is the team gets split up trying to stay on your tail, because each player is making different choices about what direction they think you're heading in and they're trying to cut you off. Eventually, you can make it so that only one person is still chasing you and visible on your map screen. Keep pulling them along, then stop and nip at them until their teammates finally find you both. Then rinse and repeat.
  
  This tactic is a BLAST. I had the most PvP fun so far this Saturday, when a team of three that were exactly my level simply could not kill me. For the first few attempts, I couldn't get a full kill on any of them, but I kept recharging, running back into town, and attacking one of them randomly to get them on my tail again. It took about 4 "guerilla raids" like this to finally get to a point where they had lost one team member to another fight with somebody else, and it was now me against two of them. The remaining two had gotten split up in MMD, and I had one in my sights but was /telling the other one who wanted to duel me solo. So I was just waiting for the other one come come duel me, when the one that was in my sights noticed me and started attacking me. So I used root-n-shoot tactics on him, and by the time his teammate had found us I had the first guy down to half health and was clearly winning. The second teammate, a solider, must have used up his burst because he wasn't hitting me for much. So I focused on my rooted target, staying out of his range most of the time, and just let the soldier shoot at me all he wanted while I worked on his teammate. By the time I'd killed the teammate, I was at half health so ran from the soldier to give my aid and burst time to recycle.
  
  The point of all this is that you can fight effectively against multiple opponents if you're not completely outclassed by any one of them. You just gotta use tactics.
  
  
• If you're on a team, you benefit strongly from having the People upgrade to your map. Your team members show up as a different color, so it makes it easier to find your teammates in a crowded area like MMD.
  
  
• CaptFallout describes a "dirty" team tactic that revolves around the way that the attack limit and defense limit work in teams. A high-level team will recruit one very low-level member. That low level member cannot attack anyone else their own level, due to the team's attack limit being that of the highest member in the team. But, if that low-level member can taunt somebody into attacking them, which is possible because of the team's ultra-low defense limit, then the whole team can open fire on the person who got taunted into attacking the lowbie member.
  
  
• Here's another "dirty" team tactic that CaptFallout reports seeing used. This one revolves around using the borders between the 25% and 75% zones--be especially wary of this tactic when you're in MMD. Most of the team will stand in the 75% zone. Only one person will go into the 25% zone and will find a target they can attack. As soon as they start attacking someone, they try to lure their victim out into the 75% zone quickly. What happens, if the victim follows, is that nobody else in the vicinity can jump in any longer, because the two combatants are now in a 75% zone. However, the teammates can still jump in just fine. Something to be afraid of? That's your decision. Exploit? Maybe. Bottom line is if you get sucker-ganked this way, just don't ever return fire on members of that team again, and you should be okay. But it might force you to leave the area or find a team yourself, because you can't just stand there and get shot at by one person for too long without eventually being forced to return fire. And then their team can hit you anywhere. Bleh.