Kill Stealing, often abbreviated as ksing or simply KS is a type of player interaction in which one or more players will attack the creatures that others are hunting. Kill Stealing has the immediate objective of lowering the target's Experience per Hour and Loot gained, with long-term objectives usually being forcing a player out of the Hunting Place, paying a hunted fee or even transferring to another Game World. It's usually done concurrently with other indirect forms of players clash, such as Luring and trapping.
In Optional PvP worlds, Kill Stealing is the main strategy used by players when picking up a fight. It is also considerably common in Open PvP and Retro Open PvP worlds, since the Skull System forces players to carefully choose their fights in order to avoid Red Skulls.
Strategies
In Tibia, for a player or a Party to optimize a hunt and make the most Experience and Profit out of it there must be a significant level or organization and efficiency, and any disturbance is enough to have a considerable impact. Kill Stealing's most basic strategy is to, of course, deal damage to the creatures in order to steal some of the experience and, if they can be the highest damage dealer, the loot. During these fights, players will also engage in other actions to disrupt the target's hunt, for example, by using strategies to make the hunt more dangerous and even getting the targets killed by creatures. These actions often include the following:
- Using field runes such as Fire Bomb Rune and Energy Wall Rune to disturb creature's movement and increase the time it takes for the target to kill them.
- Throwing field bombs at the blocker in order to force creatures to avoid them, as well as on shooters in case they are using bombs to protect themselves.
- Throwing Magic Wall Runes in front of shooters, especially mages, which will prevent them from shooting runes themselves unless they move (in Optional PvP worlds).
- Destroying Wild Growth thrown by players in order to set safe spots during pulls.
- As a Knight, using Challenge on the creatures to move the creature's away from the the target's attacks, which will also decrease the effectives of some mage's wave spells. These creatures can also be lured onto the shooters, forcing them to move or heal themselves, increasing the risk of death for the target party.
- Trapping small passages, such as doors, by closing them or using creatures to make a barrier, in order to leave creatures or players behind or in separate rooms.
The effectiveness of these actions will greatly vary depending on the level and ability of the involved players, as well as the hunting spot. Whereas in some situations it might be most effective to try to kill the players, in others simply using raw power to deal as much damage as possible will cause more harm.
Tibia Rules
Kill Stealing is not against the Tibia Rules. For some time during the history of Tibia, it was considered Destructive Behaviour, which was illegal, but this rule no longer exists. Even when it's performed systematically, for example by strong guilds against individual players, this type of Power Abusing is accepted by CipSoft, under the idea of Tibia being an open world MMORPG where players are expected to socialize, have conflicts and use the game's owm mechanics to deal with them.