Pile jumping

Pile jumping (PJ'ing), means attacking a player who has just killed someone else in a Player killing area. In other words, attempting to kill an already weakened opponent who may be busy looking at their loot from a previous kill.

The abbreviaton PJing can also mean player jacking or player jumping, which is attacking a player whose opponent is not dead yet. (See also: Tagging.)

Pile jumping can be considered as dishonorable, since the player being jumped may have been able to easily take out their jumper if they were ready. It used to be a major source of frustration in Bounty hunter, due to the 180 seconds drop penalty. PJers also target no arming fights in free-to-play worlds, as the victim is wearing no armour and has it inside his inventory.

Another occurrence with this is in the PvP worlds. With these new PvP worlds, Pile jumping is back to being its old state of attacking some one right after their encounter with another player. However, Bounty Hunter remains as one of the largest areas that pile jumping occurs. Clan Wars is another area that pile jumping happens, even though drops cannot be attained.

The word pile refers to the pile of stuff dropped by the killed player or to the act of piling on someone.

Example of pile jumping
Player A finishes his match against Player B. Player A receives his loot and is suddenly attacked by Player C. Player C's goal is to kill player A, receiving the loot from both Player A and Player B. Player C is a pile jumper in this scenario. New updates give players at least 5 seconds to pick up their loot or run away before another player can jump them.

Example of player jacking
Player B is running away or eating constantly and not attacking Player A. If Player A is also eating or not attacking for a short period of time, Player C is able to player jack either player. Before, if Player A was attacking Player B, but Player B was not attacking back, Player A could get player jacked, but new updates make it so that as long as one player is attacking, neither player can be player jacked.

How to avoid pile jumping
There is no perfect way to avoid pile jumping, but these tips still the help in escaping a pile jumping incident:


 * Teleporting: You may teleport as a method of escaping, but it will not work if you have been teleblocked, in combat at Bounty Hunter, or are simply not at a PvP World. But, you must be prepared as anywhere you teleport to, you may be ambushed. It is advised players teleport to Lumbridge, as the area is a safe PvP area, or your house. For members, house teleport is the most beneficial way to escape since nobody can follow you into your house if you have Private Chat off, and it is a safe area. For free players who have at least 50 Runecrafting, they can use the Runecrafting Guild Teleport Tablet to teleport to the Runecrafting Guild, which is a safespot. Runecrafting Guild Tablets only take up one space in the inventory, as opposed to three when using a teleport spell. This allows players to carry more food. Teleporting during combat results in losing 20% of your current EP (i.e. if you have 25 EP you lose 5 EP).
 * If teleporting is not available to you, watch around for players who are likely to be Player Jackers or have recently PJed at that area, and move to another Player Killing spot or change worlds.
 * Be prepared: Whenever you kill someone, be prepared for someone else to join the fray when you aren't ready. Try to eat food to get your HP as high as possible before you start picking up the loot, and turn on Protect from Melee if you can. This will greatly improve your chance to survive a pile jump.
 * Be aware of your surroundings: Look around, and find any one with the common pj gear. Void, Bandos armour, Godsword, Ahrim, Dragon Claws, Initiate armour, Mystical robes, etc.

Effective ways to pile jump
Even though Pile Jumping is considered "dishonourable", it is still a wide and successful practice. Pile-jumping is often done with a KO weapon, such as a rune 2-handed sword, which is commonly used in Free-to-play worlds. This way, if a careless PKer does not eat food and/or uses protection prayers and starts looting their kill right away, they will be in for a surprise attack. However, this will not usually deal enough damage to actually obtain the drop, simply because the PKer's kill had done more damage than the Pile-Jumper him/herself. In member PvP worlds, things are slightly different. With much higher hitting weapons and special attacks, there is more of a danger for a nearby Pile Jumper just lurking, waiting and watching for the correct chance to strike.

One very successful Pile-Jumping weapon is the Dark Bow. The "Descent of Dragons" special attack already has enough power to kill a player in one hit, it is even more devastating if it is used on another PKer who has just killed and looted someone. When using this method, make sure that your target has eaten AND picked up the loot, or else you will get nothing at all. The Dragon dagger and dragon claws are also popular weapons to pile jump with.

The ancient magic spell 'Ice Blitz' can be used to not only hold your opponent in place, but add an extra 200 life points or so. It is used over the spell 'Ice Barrage' due to the fact that barrage hits instantly, whereas blitz takes a while to hit, and by that time, you could be just about to attack, meaning you can stack the hits, leaving no time for eating. This is often used with an Armadyl godsword special.

PJing in RuneScape Classic
In Runescape Classic, the term pile jumper has an alternate meaning. Since RSC players are unable to pick up items when fighting, have to fight at least 3 rounds before able to run away (and then get re-attacked quickly forcing another 3 round wait), and do not have the ability to turn off auto-retaliation, a successful PKer was frequently attacked by another person in order to delay the PKer as much as possible and not let him or her pick up the items from the PK pile. After 2 minutes, the pile was open for other people to steal from. This tactic is also used in monster-infested areas, where other players simply wait for the pile to appear while the PKer is locked into combat with an aggressive monster.

Trivia
On 28 July 2009, Jagex made a small update where a player would be "in combat" if they are attacking another player or monster even if they're not being attacked in return. This does cut down on pile-jumping a bit, as players can stop attacking or eat food without fear of a pj. (However, players still can be pile-jumped after they kill the other player then take time to look at their loot.)