Talk:Energy

Energy and Enemies
I think this is as relevant a place as any to discuss this. Can anyony elighten me exactly how energy works for monsters and other NPC enemies? Clearly they have it, as evidenced by the fact that skills such as Energy Burn work, and clearly they CAN run out of it, as evidenced by the fact that Mind Wrack can work on them. However, through my experimentation with them, I've found that even after draining their energy to zero (as indicated by Mind Wrack going off), it does not seem to impair their usage of skills. I do know that it's possible for them to run out of Adrenaline, but Energy doesn't seem to work that way with them. What's more, although they keep casting at a consistent rate, I have never seen a stalemate (say, between a heavily defensive Warrior with Healing Signet, a full gamut of Stances, and the like, and any enemy caster) break because the opponent ran out of energy (as would have been indicated by a slowdown in the rate at which they cast spells). My hypothesis, which certainly needs much more testing before I'm willing to claim much truth to it, is that while enemies do HAVE an energy rating, they do not actually use energy when they use skills.

One problem with this hypothesis is that certain enemies do use Attunement skills, which have no benefit other than to save their energy. (Inspiration skills often have a small penalty to the enemy... for example, Channeling does cause some slight energy loss in nearby foes, Power Drain/Leech Signet don't drain energy but do interrupt spells, and so on). Whether this is for realism or because enemies do actually use energy is yet to be determined.

One hypothesis which I reject is that enemies simply have a truly large amount of energy at their disposal. I reject this because my Mesmer has proven time and time again that Mind Wrack can be very effective when used competently, proving that they have zero energy. However, I find it extremely vexing to watch Mind Wrack go off (thereby indicating an energy of zero) then within seconds to see them successfully cast a very expensive spell, like Maelstrom.

Can anyone help me shed some light on this? -149.169.88.9, 2:40 PM PST, 26 Oct 2005


 * Yes, Arena Net. :) I have long suspected that energy denial does not work on computer controlled enemies. See: Talk:Willa the Unpleasant. I however suspect that as soon as their energy gets to 0 the computer infuses them with some amount of energy. --Karlos 08:49, 27 October 2005 (EST)

energy regen from skills
list needs more skills Nuble 13:58, 2 Aug 2005 (EST)

Skill list should be complete, with the following exceptions: I did not include skills that cause the caster to lose energy upon certain conditions (eg Distortion, Purge Signet) in "drain," and I did not include skills that require upkeep under "degeneration." --Kiiron 13:42, 19 October 2005 (EST)

Must Tabulate
Info looks good, now we need to tabulate this info. The long stream of text on one side with a big white space next to it looks bad. --Karlos 02:41, 20 October 2005 (EST)
 * yeah, I was going to do something like that, but tables aren't my forte... =) --Kiiron 02:45, 20 October 2005 (EST)
 * With no descriptions, why not just make each profession a comma-separated list instead of using tables? --Fyren 04:53, 20 October 2005 (EST)
 * Like this? --Rezyk 05:22, 20 October 2005 (EST)
 * Yeah. I guess it does kind of look ugly where the lines wrap.  --Fyren 06:14, 20 October 2005 (EST)
 * How's that?--Kiiron 07:12, 20 October 2005 (EST)
 * Oops, was working on that when Rezyk updated it, then stepped away for a while and posted later... tables, or commas? My only concern about commas is how it looks when the screen starts wrapping --Kiiron 07:19, 20 October 2005 (EST)
 * Here's one way to cut down on the long lists: Talk:Energy/Comma2. This way also adds a lot of practical utility (for example, a Mesmer not interested in Inspiration Magic can now dismiss those skills without a ton of clicking).  --Rezyk 08:02, 20 October 2005 (EST)


 * Must say I am completely breathless! The blue is so cool! :) I like the table more than the list, I think the shade of blue should be lighter though (for readability purposes, must not forget our senior citizen players). :) --Karlos 09:32, 20 October 2005 (EST)