Looking for a PK Instructor

[Cosmo]

If you have a choice, I would highly recommend learning on a hunter. Obviously, good hunters are a nightmare to stat though. Warriors are very easy to setup obviously. Main reason to pick a hunter is you can get a feel for most of the skills people use in PK like autotrack, bash, charge, whatever. Warriors simply don't get the autotrack. It's also worth getting a rogue to learn stabbing mechanics/strategy for yourself and basically you should give each class a go just to understand how they work from your opponent's shoes.

As mentioned already, I also think channelers can be very challenging to learn on. You have like no hps and generally use none of the main PK skills. In group PK you'll often just be a follower and expected to weave targets which also doesn't generally lead to much learning.

That said, always best to play a character you enjoy playing. If you really aren't motivated to play a warrior for example, then don't play a warrior.

You're also welcome to get a Seanchan. I teach people PK stuffs and have run a few classes for people. I think you can learn PK on any side but one advantage of SS is often you're on your own or outnumbered which is challenging and forces you to actually learn to do stuff for yourself. I don't think you can ever learn much beyond understanding mechanics from people telling you what to do because if you know the mechanics its about getting out there and putting those mechanics into practice and implementing good PK strategies! While I may be unpopular among the Marath'damane folk, I can also be quite helpful to those who have sworn the Oaths!

Grouping/following is also important, but you should be mindful that on certain sides and as certain classes you will be more inclined to group/follow which may limit your learning. You learn more in the front seat and once you've got the basics down, assuming you want to keep learning, you'll want to be leading and learning to call the shots. This can be hard to do on LS though as if you're bad at leading, people on LS lose all trust in you and never follow you again. On SS there is often no one to follow you though, so the only person you're letting down is yourself! I think DS is a lot more forgiving because people understand the value of following/grouping even on a bad leader however there are a lot of fades who can't follow trollocs so naturally they lead.

I guess what I am trying to say is don't refuse to follow in a situation you should be following/grouping in but try to put yourself in that front seat as much as you can.

I also don't subscribe to the "Go abs and die lots" logic. When you die lots, you spend a lot of time sitting in *oL and not learning anything when you could be out there learning.

[Shiva]

Play ds, follow rig and wear abs. You will die and you will have fun.

[Shiva]

I also don't subscribe to the "Go abs and die lots" logic. When you die lots, you spend a lot of time sitting in *oL and not learning anything when you could be out there learning.

I think people suggest this because an abs kit requires 6 basic pieces to be at relatively full strength while defensive setups take more time to acquire and you need a decent kit to compete which is harder to obtain and more annoying to lose.

[Cosmo]

The first step to learning PK is learning to survive. Abs is much harder to survive in. Combo is also not as difficult to get as it used to be. There are frequently full combo sets and basic trinks in barrels around the world, even Seanchan barrels!

[Ragyn]

Depending on how new you are to pk and the mechanics, making a SE character is also an option. You won't have to face any super bonused characters while getting the mechanics down, and you likely won't get ganked either, and the average skill level is likely also a bit lower. So its kind of a safe space to learn all the basics, doublelining, bash timing, engaging vs not engaging etc. But if you already feel you have a feel for that, then as others have said make a hunter/warrior and pk a lot while learning the zones. Side would just be your preference. Likely easier to learn northern zones on a trolloc and vise versa.

Edit: I started as a companion myself when I first started the game, had a lot of fun learning basics by Alevere, Herron etc. I think one of the advantages of starting down there was how chaotic it was whenever we had 3v3, 4v4 pk, simply because you had to have an alias for each player. If you knew someone was in a charge/stab setup, you'd pay more attention to them - was back when you could start timers on engaged people, so it really gave you a good idea of how to process different setups vs your own setup, things that are also important in Northern PK. If you are in dodge try to get the combo/rogue trollocs on you and don't buff the fade with a heron/unique.
That being said, sameside PK vs Northern PK is a lot different, but I think having started down in the SE it made the transition a lot smoother for me, as I basically just needed to learn the zones. Granted of course that was back when the mud was more active, and you'll likely not see too many 3v3/4v4s down there anymore, but it is still a good place to pick up some basic stuff. I know Defenders also have a lot of new players, so if you make a companion/winged guard, you could likely learn vs people who are also somewhat new. Means you won't have to face down players who've been here for two decades and have the best gear etc. You can make more mistakes while you perfect your basics. But of course this will leave you lacking in the zone knowledge area, so it has its pros and cons, depending on how much time you want to dedicate.

Anyway just my two cents

[Kathala]

I ended up using a hunter I had laying around and went with a leatherleaf staff, bash and whatever combo I could find. The leatherleaf plus dodge pracs kept me alive and while I wasn't getting any kills with that staff, it allowed to be be an okay-to-good buffer, depending on the eq I was wearing. It was easy to re-eq and relatively high survivability, so excellent for learning, imo.

If you have a client like zmud or cmud, where you can spam through your map while you're offline, you can also practice spams, which is useful during downtime or when you only have a few mins spare.

[Khahliana]

If you have a client like zmud or cmud, where you can spam through your map while you're offline, you can also practice spams, which is useful during downtime or when you only have a few mins spare.

This makes learning what the area "feels" like infinitely easier, and you can practice with the map visible or invisible.

[Hiroko]

I’ll echo the SE clans. It’s where I got my first taste of pk. If you’re dead set on learning on Etain and are used to people dragging you around the map in general and not having to pay attention, a good first step is volunteering to lead a smob group or even just a partner to farm coin. It makes you really aware of things like horse moves, how far you can run in different zones, and gives you confidence spamming around the map.

[Monsoon]

Dark side is by far the best way to learn pk. I always play ds after long breaks to get myself back into the swing of it.

Zone knowledge is the most important thing. I’d suggest becoming familiar with common pk zones and pay close attention to narrates when pk is happening to get a feel for where common regroup spots/chokes, etc are located. That will give you a gauge on the ebb and flow of things.

[ecthus]

I'm going to suggest a slightly different reason for playing a hunter, although I agree with most of what's been said. A hunter is going to be useful no matter what situation you find yourself in. Channies have much more limited usefulness, and diminishing returns to a group. The more channies you have in a group, the harder it is to get anything done. Your group is either far too weak or far too strong. It's far less likely that DS will take it's ball and go home when one more non-bonused hunter shows up to fight.

Since you are aiming to eventually play Etain up north, I thought it could be helpful to know all the reasons why most channies are not successful at northern PK.

1. They show up unprepared. Often, this means showing up on bad horses. If you show up to northern PK in anything worse than a warhorse, you are asking to be killed, and asking your group to get killed trying to help you. You will also miss out on kills from not being able to chase.

2. They hagg themselves out. This is related to 1, but not the same. Regardless of what horse you're on, you should never ride it to 0 mvs unless a) you're dismounting to run b) you're with a large group c) you're dismounting to chase.

3. They run too far. Running is not really about getting to safety, or about putting a maximum number of rooms between you and your enemy. Most of the time it is about deciding which room you want to be hit in next. If your enemy can't track, that often means a random room off the beaten path that has safe dlines. If they can track, it's often a room with mobs and good dlines. Mobs are useful in this case, not for doing damage but for stripping enemy leaders of their followers and slowing down their chase.

4. They use the wrong weave for the weather, or weave the wrong targets. The classic is weaving a mob, although I don't see this as much with moblead changes. My general strategy for targetting is: whoever will die in one weave, dreadlords, MVPs, anyone else.

5. They don't stick around. The classic example is channies hiting dusty or camp, and then going inside when the fight goes further north. This messes things up for DS, because they have to act like you're there, and for LS, because they have to act like you're not. General rule of thumb on any PKer is don't hit dusty if you're not willing to hit in Blight.

6. They get stabbed and charged, a lot. This happens because you're most likely to be targetted by stabbers and chargers (another good reason to start on hunters), and a lot of channies still weave unengaged. It's a real problem if your last stand at some mobs depends on a channie dishing out damage and she gets blicked while weaving unengaged.

7. They use weaves that end PK rather than weaves that get kills. If you show up in a big group, or with relatively even odds, and create zing, DS will leave. This will make your allies unhappy.