PvP
Days of Britannia's custom PvP runs on a modern emulator and is built around pressure and response, not a fixed rotation. Players combine physical damage, magic, and poison to force a defensive answer; they then manage hits, mana, bandages, and positioning until a finishing window appears.
Outside the Arena and during a fight in the Arena, the PvP ruleset is the same: hit chance, damage, poison, healing, bandages, cast delay, and mana cost follow the same rules. The Arena adds session flow, preparation, boundaries, and loot; those differences are described in Arena and training.
How a fight works
- Create pressure: use a weapon, poison, or spell to keep the opponent responding instead of attacking freely.
- Force the response: accumulated damage, poison, and control can make the target use a bandage, potion, protection, or movement.
- Read the commitment: a bandage, a long cast, or a consumed defense opens an opportunity, but it can also be bait. The goal is to recognize the window, not repeat an automatic sequence.
- Finish: Flame Strike (FS), Lightning, and Harm are examples of spells used to confirm damage when the target's recovery is limited.
Physical, magical, and poison pressure
The most consistent pressure package combines sources that demand different responses:
- Melee or archery weapon: maintains physical damage and a hit threat while the target tries to reposition.
- Poison: creates recurring damage and turns a bandage into an immediate decision.
- Magery: alternates pressure, control, and confirmation. The immediate target is selected before the cast delay; the effect is released only after that time.
Bandages and poison
Bandage treatment is selected automatically when the bandage starts:
- if poison is present at the start, the application attempts to cure it immediately;
- that poison-cure application does not restore hits;
- a normal life or bleed bandage ends in 3.5 seconds;
- poison applied after the start does not replace the life or bleed treatment that was already selected;
- starting an accepted spell cancels a pending bandage.
For that reason, applying poison is not only about damage: it tests whether the opponent will spend their response now. Likewise, attacking during the treatment window is a timing decision, not a guarantee of damage.
Cast delay and mana
These are the base values for the Magery spells most relevant to PvP. Cast delay is fixed per spell in this ruleset; FC and FCR do not change it. The cost is the spell's base mana expenditure; LRC and LMC do not reduce costs in this ruleset.
| Spell | PvP role | Cast delay | Mana |
|---|---|---|---|
| Magic Arrow | Cheap pressure | 1.0 s | 4 |
| Harm | Short-range pressure | 1.0 s | 6 |
| Fireball | Magical pressure | 2.5 s | 9 |
| Lightning | Fast finisher | 2.5 s | 11 |
| Mind Blast | Offense | 3.0 s | 14 |
| Energy Bolt | Offense | 3.5 s | 20 |
| Explosion | Offense with delayed impact | 3.5 s | 20 |
| Flame Strike | Heavy finisher | 3.5 s | 40 |
| Paralyze | Control and opening | 2.5 s | 14 |
| Cure | Poison cure | 1.5 s | 6 |
| Heal | Healing | 1.0 s | 4 |
| Greater Heal | Strong healing | 2.5 s | 11 |
| Protection | Defense | 1.4 s | 6 |
| Reactive Armor | Melee defense | 1.0 s | 4 |
| Magic Reflection | Magic defense | 4.0 s | 14 |
The delay in the table is the casting time, not necessarily the moment of the visual impact. Some spells have an additional wait before damage reaches the target.
Opening a second spell target does not interrupt a cast already in progress. The fizzle, with normal reagent and mana loss, occurs when a valid target starts the second cast.
The finishing window
“Finisher” describes a timing decision, not a mandatory rotation:
- Lightning is a direct and faster confirmation, suitable when the target's recovery is compromised.
- Flame Strike requires a larger time and mana commitment, but it is a heavy direct-damage option for a well-prepared window.
- Harm has a very short cast and short range; in PvP it deals 5–7 damage and works as pressure or confirmation when distance allows.
Practical examples, without turning the fight into a fixed sequence:
- a weapon with poison makes the target start a bandage; follow that commitment and look for Lightning or Flame Strike when recovery cannot answer the impact;
- Fireball or Explosion can maintain pressure while you manage mana and position; Lightning can confirm the next window;
- Paralyze can create space, but the target can renew the defense or break the effect, so the cast must be read together with the opponent's response.
Defense that buys time
- Parrying: on direct PvP hits, the chance scales with base Parrying and reaches 20% at 100.0. A successful Parry can reduce the direct hit to zero.
- Protection: lasts 90 seconds and reduces part of the remaining damage after the other absorption steps.
- Reactive Armor: lasts 90 seconds and returns part of melee damage to the attacker.
- Magic Reflection: has one charge against the next eligible harmful spell or field.
- Armor Rating: armor and shields display a value calculated from ingot cost, material, and protection tier. Direct hits against players use the global Armor Rating absorption of equipped items; there is no public body-region roll.
After normal absorption, final physical damage between PvP participants is limited to 40 Hits per exchange. This ceiling does not limit ordinary PvM hits or change magical damage, poison, or other ruleset formulas.
Defense is not only waiting for hits to rise: it buys the time needed to reposition, recover mana, or prepare the next response.
Status: 0.40.0
This page summarizes the active ruleset on the official server. Gameplay values were checked against the official server source.