FIRST 3 THINGS TO KNOW

PvP begins at level 4 and is subject to the below level bracket system. Or, alternatively, PvP is enabled the moment you walk into a Free For All (FFA) volume, where you can be attacked by anyone of any level. As a note, FFA volumes are typically found in high level dungeons or content areas.
When you die in PvP, the player(s) who killed you can loot all your coins off your body. You do not lose any items or gear, only coins. Your corpse is still left behind as normal. You do not lose experience from a PvP death (a player getting the killing blow on you).
Attacking players near guards will typically get you killed by those guards. There are some caveats to this, covered below.

PVP SYSTEMS

PvP Aggressor System
Engaging another player or their pets in offensive combat makes you a PvP Aggressor (PvPAggro) for 60 seconds, refreshing each time you take another offensive action.
PvPAggro status causes you to be killed on sight by most guards, so be careful fighting in cities.
Note: attacking a PvP Aggressor does not give you PvPAggro status yourself, and you can still attack PvP Aggressors while in a PvP Suppression (PvPOff) area.
PvP Suppression areas are usually around city gates, inns, banks, and personal houses.
PvP Mitigation System
To promote a more fun, interactive PvP environment, damage is mitigated across the board in PvP compared to PvE.
This is necessary because PvE targets often have double, triple, or more of a player's health pool, so PvE damage output is tuned much higher.
Baseline mitigation ranges from about 10-20% at level 4 up to 50% at level 60, depending on the attack or ability type.
There is also up to 25% additional mitigation based on what percentage of a player's max health the attack would deal.
The goal is to increase time to kill overall and create a more back and forth PvP experience.
Player Nameplate Colors
These help you determine whether you can engage a player in PvP.
Blue names: below your level bracket, or otherwise cannot be engaged (such as party members).
Teal names: your guild members, who are not currently in a party with you.
Red names: can be engaged. They are within your bracket, opted into higher level PvP, or flagged FFA.
Orange names: above your bracket, cannot be engaged unless you opt in or toggle higher level PvP.
-- To opt in, you can do this via your player UI (right click your health bar, then PvP -> Toggle Higher PvP) or via the /pvpoptin or /togglehigherpvp commands.
-- Opting in lets you engage anyone higher level than you, but also lets them engage you as well.
Bracket Based Level Restrictions for PvP Engagement
Levels 4 to 9: plus or minus 2 level range (a level 6 can fight a level 4, but a level 7 cannot fight a level 4 — unless the level 4 decides to 'toggle higher pvp/opt in')
Levels 10 to 19: plus or minus 4 level range
Levels 20 to 29: plus or minus 6 level range
Levels 30 to 39: plus or minus 8 level range
Level 40 and up: plus or minus 10 level range
When determining if two players can engage, the lower level player's bracket is always used, unless that player is FFA or opted into higher level combat.
Friend List, /who List, and Tracking Changes
Friends only appear on your list if you are mutual friends (on each other's lists).
/who only shows the current zone's player count, or the total server count with /who all. It does not show names, except for /who friends, /who guilds, /who lfg, and similar variants.
Tracking now only shows generic, anonymous names such as "Ogre Player" or "Gnome Player."
These changes exist to prevent players from hunting specific people, giving players a way to avoid stalkers.
Soulbind and PvP Suppression
PvP Suppression areas: these are found at city gates, inns, banks, as well as a player's own personal house. These areas will not let you perform new PvP Aggressor actions, but WILL let you attack those who are PvP Aggressors themselves.
Soulbind: Players can now only bind and set their respawn point within PvP Suppression areas.
Note: If you were to bind yourself in your personal home, and you transfer, abandon, or otherwise let your house expire, your bind point will reset to a safe position in your initial starting zone you began at character creation.
This change serves three purposes:
- Curbing "bind rushing" of both players and content.
- Curbing "death looping," where mobs sit on a player's bind point (whether brought there by players or otherwise), causing major experience loss and forcing players to close their client or otherwise disconnect from the game to stop it.
- Increasing foot traffic in common areas, encouraging social and cooperative or mercantile behavior around buffs, teleports, and corpse recovery.
  The trade-off is longer corpse recovery time, since players can no longer bind right next to their camps or content, but we think the change is worth it overall. This is subject to change over the course of Early Access.
Ability Crowd Control Duration Adjustments, Diminishing Returns, and Temporary Immunity
Diminishing Returns:
- Each successive cast on the same target, of the same crowd control debuff group (stuns, fears, long duration snares, etc.), has its PvP duration reduced by a third of the max.
  Example: a 15 second base duration mesmerize becomes 10 seconds on the second cast, and 5 seconds on the third.
- The Diminishing Returns window is 21 seconds. Successive casts within that window reduce duration as above.
- After 3 casts of the same CC group on the same target within the DR window, the target becomes temporarily immune to that CC group for the length of the DR window, starting when the debuff wears off.
  Example: after the last 5 second mesmerize wears off, the player is immune for 21 seconds.
- Waiting out the full 21 second window before reapplying CC resets the successive DR count.
  Most abilities with CC have reduced durations in PvP compared to PvE.
  Most CC abilities such as stuns, mesmerize/incapacitate, longer duration snares, and fears have diminishing returns.
  Many short "soft" CC abilities (mostly snares, some blinds) are not affected by diminishing returns.

ADDITIONAL PVP ABILITY EFFECTS

Certain previously PvE-only abilities now have additional or alternate effects in PvP. The reason for this is to let those abilities on your bar still be effective, so you aren't at too much of a disadvantage during your PvE grinds.

Taunt
Effects vary by class. Pet 'provokes' do not count.

Fighters:
- Forces the target to turn and face the fighter.
- Applies a short duration snare.
- Forces the target to redirect their selected target to the caster.
Paladin, Shadow Knight, Inquisitor:
- Applies a debuff reducing the target's damage dealt by 15% for a short duration.
- Applies a debuff to self increasing damage taken by 10% for a short duration.
- Forces the target to redirect their selected target to the caster.
Ranger, Monk:
- Applies a debuff reducing the target's damage dealt by 15% for a short duration.
- Applies a debuff to self increasing damage taken by 10% for a short duration.

Lulls/Pacifies

Applies a sight debuff to the target(s), causing a 20-40% effective Ability Range reduction for a moderate duration.

MISC PVP ADJUSTMENTS

Players cannot have their casting interrupted by other players via failing to channel, like they would against PvE enemies. Only actual interrupts, silences, stuns, or incapacitate abilities will cause a cast to fail.
Tracking range for PLAYERS across all 3 tracker classes is normalized, meaning at maximum skill, all 3 classes see players from the same max distance.

PVP STATUS EXPLAINED

PvPAggro: the status a player receives after performing a hostile action against another player. It marks them as a PvP Aggressor for the duration, during which they will be killed on sight by guards.

PvPOptIn: the status a player receives after opting into higher level PvP. Since PvP engagement is normally restricted by level bracket, this status lets a player engage upward outside their bracket, and lets higher level players engage them in return. Activated via a UI toggle or the /pvpoptin command, which triggers a short cast time. Using the toggle or command again begins the opt-out process.

PvPFFA: the status a player receives after performing a beneficial action on a player who has PvPAggro status and is outside the caster's level bracket. This status lets anyone, of any level, attack them freely for the duration. FFA is also enabled in certain "FFA areas" around the world, often in high level dungeons or heavily contested places.

PvPOff: the status a PvP-flagged player receives upon entering a PvP Suppression zone (city gates, inns, personal houses, and city banks). While in PvPOff status, a player cannot become a PvP Aggressor, but can still attack current PvP Aggressors.