There's a distinct difference between dueling and PKing. If you forced all
of the PKs to engage in dueling only they would howl with anger. They enjoy
the 'hunt', the unknown of just how deadly their prey is. They claim it is
an adrenaline rush unmatched. So if you do anything to remove it from the
game they will be highly angry. And like I said, Blizzard recognizes this
segment of their customer base and caters to their play style.

Regards-
Mark

Bongo Fury

This would be met by absolute HATRED from PKers. Duelists are one group,
PKers are another, and they are NOT the same. Duelers like the thrill of
fighting someone that they expect to be able to match them in combat, or at
least pose a threat. The thrill isn't so much in the combat itself as in the
feeling of accomplishment gained by beating a well matched foe(referring to
actual manner duelers here, not the random asshats that join duel games
solely to target people who are already naked, weakened from, or involved in
another duel). PKers(and non-manner duelers), OTOH, usually prefer to go
after much weaker targets, people they know(or at least think) they can kill
with no risk to themselves. The thrill for them is the "thrill of the hunt"
or the "fun" of annoying other people.

The thing is, I suspect there's more of those griefers than there are
"legitimate" PvPers. I duel regularly, but I know I encounter far more
"duelers" whose idea of "dueling" is looks like this as opposed to actual
manner duels:
1)Wait till other players are in town, stand at town gate, go hostile on
people you want to fight. Be sure to not hostile anyone you're not fairly
certain you can kill by using step 2. Remember that if you're lvl 90+, a lvl
70 is safer to hostile than another level 90+. And note characters who
appear to be wearing "noob gear"(like a pally wielding a Baranars Star and
not wielding Exile or HoZ) or are setup for PvE, and be sure to hostile
them.
2)Step outside town gate, and spam meteor, blizzard, GA, lightning sentry,
hammer or whatever at the gate so that nobody you are hostile to can step
outside town without dying or taking damage.
3)When victim dies, take any gold or pots victims drop and be sure to call
them "noobs", "LOL" a lot, inform them how you "pwn", talk about how "ez"
everyone is to kill, and throw out insults relating to their supposed race,
gender, sexual orientation, and/or the honor of their mother. For best
results, string insults together in 1 semi-coherent sentence:"LOL noobs I
pwn u fags ez LOLOLOLOL I win 10-0 LOL". However, do not get so distracted
typing your insults that the person may have a chance to recover their body.
4)If one of them manages to make it outside town without being near death
and is coming after you, immediately teleport back into town unless you KNOW
you can kill them(a bonewall/bone spirit using necro against a
non-teleporting zealot for instance).
5)Wait inside town until person who posed a threat leaves game, is dead, is
dueling someone else, or just won a duel but is near death as well.
6)Leave town and kill them. Return to step 3.
7)If somehow one of the above steps goes wrong and you die, inform your
killer(s) that it was "LOL luck" and note that you were experiencing "WTF
lag!!!". If the players allow you to recover your body return to step one.
Consider unhostiling the person who managed to kill you, at least until you
get a chance to take him by surprise. If the person who killed you decides
to retaliate by using the same methods you used in step one, see the next
step.
8)Bitch loudly and frequently about "OMG nk" and "LOL townguard noob WTF".
If someone points out that you started it, pretend not to hear it and call
them "noobs" again, then whisper a friend to come help you or exit the game.
If possible, return to game with stronger character and get revenge.
9)When done "dueling", be sure not to leave game before telling everone "LOL
seeya noobs ty for gold LOL".
10)Rremember, you having a live merc makes killing people easier, as does
having a friend partied with you. 2 on 1 is okay as long as it's 2 on 1 in
your favor. If someone else parties or has a merc and comes after you
together, complain about "LOL 2 on 1" or "LOL merc". Also remember, using
hacked, duped, or ebayed gear is fine, but if called on it, "LOL" and deny
it vehemently. Consider accusing them of the same if they appear to have
good equipment.

And I'm not so sure about the PR boost either, Guild Wars is like that, PvP
is seperate from PvE, you only engage in it by creating a PvP only
character, or taking one of your PvE characters to a PvP arena, and there's
no hostiling, PKing, or dueling outside of those PvP areas. Yet it didn't
seem to give them a radical PR boost.

In alt.games.diablo Gumby <gumbyjd@eastlink.spammersmustdie.ca> wrote:

Uhm, you may not realize it, or more likely just don't like it, but
PKing is meant to be built into the game.  Using a hack to PK is not
good.  But going hostile on someone and attempting to kill them is meant
to be part of Diablo 2.  

Changing the whole approach to PKing in a patch seems like a bad move
imo.  

Having dueling be an option would be kinda cool, but lets leave that for
D3.  

That being said, getting PK'd by people using a cheat is pretty lame and
the fact that easy to implement 'fixes' have not been introduced by
Blizzard is pretty infuriating.  It's one of the reasons I quit playing
hc.  Getting pk'd isn't the problem, it's getting pk'd with absolutely
zero warning, which is not the design intent of D2.

-dave

There's no such thing as a legitimate PK'er. Sneaking up on someone
weaker and beating the crap out of him with no warning of any kind is
cheating-pure and simple.

Hostiling MUST be mutual!!! Absolutely MANDATORY that they fix that!!!