"DING! Level 25! Finally, I get to go to the Abyss! I can't wait tofly around in there, find some enemies, and smack them dead! Oh, andI'm going to go take some artifacts and a fortress while I'm at it!I'm going to own every..."

*BAM!*

"What the...? I died? What the heck killed me? Oh, there's aSorcerer behind me laughing. Did he just one-shot me? How am Isupposed to fight that?"

I, like a number of you no doubt, went to the Abyss and quicklylearned the hard way that it is very, very unfriendly to a level 25.I wasn't aware of some of the PvP mechanics, such as higher levelplayers getting bonuses to defensive stats such as Evasion and MagicalResist, which makes them very difficult to hurt. And then there's thefact that they often band together in roving gank squads and hunt downlower level players and kill them for 1 XP, 1 AP, and 1 Lulz. It'spossible to do your own thing in these areas, but it's not easy.Grouping helps, but isn't always viable. Plus, PvP happens outsidethe Abyss too thanks to rifts. Here's some general advice on how tosurvive a PvP encounter. Not necessarily to win it, just come out ofit alive. If you're strong enough to defeat your foe, then by allmeans do it. But, sometimes, that's not an option.

General Survival

One of the best tricks you can use to avoid being caught off guard bythe other faction is to create a sort of early warning system. Thisis actually rather easy to do: simply create a chat tab and set it todisplay enemy combat spam. All of it. You'll want any warning youcan get, especially when it announces an Assassin used hide. Ipersonally set the text to some nice red, yellow, and orange colors.I did multiple colors so I'm more likely to notice it scrolling thecombat spam. I also went ahead and put enemy death in there as abright green color so I know when an enemy has died (by default, allyand enemy PvP deaths both appear white, which is confusing). Once youhave your tab, put it somewhere you can see it easily while goingabout your business.

This chat tab provides two very good advantages: First, combat spamhas a longer range than your radar. So if xxxgankerxxx is attackingiracarebear somewhere off your radar, you'll see it on your chat tab.You won't know which specific direction it's in, but you'll know theenemy is near and that you can be ready. The second, major advantageis that the combat spam will also give you the name and rank of theskills the enemy is using. This is valuable, as it'll give you anidea of the level of the foes in question. The level differencebetween, say, Swift Edge II and Swift Edge IV is huge. In general, ifthe ranks of the basic skills being used are higher than the ranks ofyours, then the enemy is probably a higher level, which in turn meansthey'll have a big advantage over you.

Second is to keep an eye on your radar when you're in the Abyss or aPvPvE zone. Any enemy not in a hidden state will appear on your radar, even if there's a big altitude difference.

If you look around and stay alert, you may spot them before they reachyou or, more importantly, before they spot you. Avoiding gettingjumped will greatly improve your survival rating. Even if you couldkill the opponent normally, if they jump you, they may kill youinstead! Also, unless you have a visual of their character, alwaysassume if you see a big red dot on your radar, they see a big red doton theirs. And remember, you can set a key that will automaticallyrotate your camera 180 degrees without changing the direction you'regoing.

Third is to run away. But just peeling off and running as fast as youcan won't necessarily work. You need to out run your enemy, need tomitigate any ranged damage they have, and, most importantly, have away do deal with any mez effects such as sleeps, stuns, and roots,that they may have. Tossing on whatever protective abilities you haveas well as speed boosts will help. Assassins and Rangers can simplyhit hide. And consumables, which I'll cover in a moment, can handlemuch of the rest. However, even still, just running away can hurt youmore than standing. Why? Running forward lowers your defensiveattributes! Running backwards boosts physical defense and parry (Ithink movement might be a little slower though), whereas sidewaysboosts Evasion. Both lower attack power, but that's not importantduring retreat. Of course sideways and backwards may make it hard tosee where you're going, but that can be overcome by left-clickrotating the camera. The direction you see will change, but thedirection you move won't.