You could wield a weapon, hold a shield and hold a light source. To make it more realistic, they made it so you could hold a shield (or Something else) OR a light source. This made all the sought after light sources much less in demand.
A light source would appear at the top of your eq above the rings.
The point is, a lot of changes that have made EQ more specific to class/race/weapon spec etc, has drastically reduced the lure of PK.
With a recent shapeshifter, the enemies I fought for the most part would never have anything I would want to loot or could use. I got no edge points for killing them. So, you systematically reduce the motives for taking a risk and attacking someone, you are going to have less of it. And if someone doesn't have strong motivation for PK beyond the ones they remove, they will likely get bored and stop playing.