Polymock

General
Polymock is a mini-game available in Guild Wars Eye of the North. The game has been invented by the Asura, who are its undisputed masters.

Playing the game requires Polymock pieces that can be acquired via quest rewards, found as rewards in dungeon chests, or be traded with other players.

Registration
To be able to play Polymock, a player needs to register at least three Polymock pieces. The first three pieces can be obtained from Hoff in Rata Sum. To register the pieces, they have to be in the player's inventory, then the player has to talk to Denn (also in Rata Sum) to have them available for play. Once a Polymock piece has been registered, it is permanently removed from the inventory and can no longer be traded with other players or other characters of the same account. Polymock pieces are registered per character.

Rules
There are two ways to play Polymock: commoner rules and tournament rules.

Commoner rules
Commoner rules apply for duels that occur as part of the Polymock quest chain, starting with Polymock: Defeat Yulma. Players are free to choose three pieces of any rarity as they want. The Polymock quests are NOT repeatable. However, once Polymock quests have been beaten and the respective rewards have been accepted, you can speak to the Polymock player who had the quest and play with tournament rules.

Tournament rules
Tournament rules apply when dueling a Polymock player outside the Polymock quest chain. The restriction imposed is that the player has to choose exactly one Polymock piece from each rarity: common, uncommon, and rare. If a player does not have at least one piece of each rarity, that player cannot duel under Tournament rules.

For beating an opponent in a tournament match, points for the Asura Title Track are granted, but if you are rank 8 (Not Too Lazy) or higher in the Asura Title Track, you will gain no points. The rewards depend on who you beat: Yulma yields 40 points, Plurgg 60, Blarp 80 and all others (Volumandus, Teardrinker, Silverfist and Hoff) rewards 90 points.

Setup
If the rules' conditions have been met, both the player and the opponent NPC will be transported to one of the Polymock arenas. All enchantments or other effects the player has used ends, and all summoned creatures are removed from play. The character's equipped weapons and armor have no effect on the game. These arenas essentially consist of two platforms that are close enough to each other that the combatants cannot move out of their opponent's range. Talk to Wokk the Polymock Judge to select three of your registered pieces with which you will play. Whenever you choose a piece, your opponent will too, so you can base your next pick on your opponent's previous choices. Then pick the piece with which you will open the duel. Each choice is final, and once all three pieces and the starter piece have been picked, you can start the first round at any time by talking to Wokk again.

The duel
A 10 second countdown will start the match, and also occurs whenever an opponent or player's piece dies. When it reaches zero, the duel starts.

Piece stats
Each Polymock piece can have different values of maximum Health and Energy than another piece. There is no natural Health or Energy regeneration. Pieces can be moved around during play to evade projectile spells. For a list of pieces, their rarity, and stats, refer to the Polymock pieces list.

Skills and effects
Polymock skills follow the same basic mechanics as in the normal game. The only difference is that all conditions, such as Burning or Bleeding, cause -10 Health degeneration instead of their normal values.

Death
When a piece's Health reaches zero, it has been defeated, and its owner must select one of the remaining pieces as the next one. If no pieces are left, that player loses the game.

Deaths during Polymock do not affect the Survivor title. However it should be noted that if the players piece is defeated by a condition such as Burning or Bleeding the death is then counted.

Strategy
(Note: for more specific strategies visit the discussion page).

Overview
All Polymocks have the same five skills and three more that differ.
 * Slot 4 is Polymock Power Drain, which interrupts target's spell or glyph and you get 3 Energy.
 * Slot 5 contains the Polymock Block skill which makes the next spell targeting against you in the next 2 seconds fail.
 * Slot 6 there is Polymock Glyph of Concentration that makes your next spell unable to be interrupted.
 * Slot 7 has Polymock Ether Signet which gives you 10 energy if you currently have 0.
 * Slot 8 is Polymock Glyph of Power, it gives your next 1 attack (if your HP<50%) or 2 attacks (if your HP<25%) +200 damage.

There is also one skill in every polymock that does a small amount of damage with small cooldown which differs in details (approximately 120 damage averaging over all polymocks).

The remaining two skills are the most powerful and distinctive ones each build has to offer, with each having certain proportions of damage, interrupt, or utility effects. Those skills by and large determine a piece's play style, strengths, and weaknesses. They also typically have the longest recharge and the largest energy costs of a build's skills, so it is wise to make sure these skills find their target.

General tips

 * Opponents usually start by casting Polymock Glyph of Concentration followed with their most damaging skill, so be ready for an initial spike. To counter this, start with your most damaging 1 second cast skill, followed by Polymock Block as soon as the opponent starts casting. If your opponents damage skill is dodgeable, you can save the block and dodge. If your piece has a second high damage skill, use the Polymock Glyph of Concentration on yourself and then follow with that for an initial damage burst that your opponent will not be able to stop.
 * Interrupting Polymock Glyph of Concentration is generally not worth it as your interrupt will then be unavailable for the next spell anyway.
 * Pieces with Polymock Mind Freeze make poor pieces for being first to face opponents, but they make excellent pieces to be second and third as bonus damage from that spell is much more likely to land and finish opponents quickly.
 * Beware of quickly spiking an opponent under 50% or 25% of health. You might not have enough energy to finish them off, or spells could be inconveniently unavailable because they are recharging. The bonus from Polymock Glyph of Power can quickly undo any advantage you gain.
 * Using strafe to dodge incoming projectile attacks can make most fights much easier. Beware, however: while dodging, you cannot cast. So dodging a major attack is a good idea, while dodging the spammable 1-Energy-attack is usually not worth it. If you get into the pattern, you can cast your spammable attack then sidestep to dodge theirs to pick up some free damage.
 * If you have trouble with skill lag (such as when trying to interrupt your opponent) try playing at non-peak hours when there is less of a load on the servers.
 * As soon as your opponent uses Polymock Block, use a glyph or preparation spell of your own. If you need to press your attack, use your spammable attack to drop the block. Don't worry about interrupting through the block, as the enemies almost never cast while it is still active.
 * Try to interrupt the major damage skills while not worrying about the spammable attacks. If you have problems with interrupting, try not to be casting anything and ready when you think a 2 second cast is coming up and just try to interrupt those.
 * When your piece is defeated, wait at least 30 seconds before entering the next round. This gives the enemy pieces time to recharge their Polymock Glyph of Concentration and allows you to spike them while they're casting it, for a free burst of damage that can often finish them off if they're weak without your piece taking more damage. If your enemy is the Ice Elemental, this also allows the +1,000 health bonus from Polymock Frozen Armor to expire so you can finish them easier.
 * A good opening piece when you still only have Common pieces, is the Skale because it does 150 damage with its spammable attack to enemies with HP>50% and has two damage skills, both of which do a great deal of damage but take time to activate and thus benefit from facing a healthy opponent.
 * If your piece has a degen skill, try to maintain it on the enemies because it adds a significant amount of damage. If you're about to die however, don't bother applying degen because all negative conditions on the enemies are removed when your piece falls. Note that when their piece falls, all negative conditions remain on your piece so you don't want to let your guard down on interrupting or blocking degen conditions even at the end of the round.
 * When the Kappa is your only Uncommon piece, try to use it as your second piece behind the Skale so that you can take advantage of its higher life total to use Polymock Glyph of Power as long as possible.
 * Be certain to use Polymock Glyph of Power as often as possible when below 50% health, because it greatly increases your damage output.
 * Be willing to waste a Polymock Power Drain or Polymock Block to run yourself out of energy if you need to so that you can use Polymock Ether Signet to gain the use one of your expensive attacks to finish or damage an enemy before it finishes you.
 * Polymock Block can be used as an alternative to Polymock Glyph of Concentration if you use a 1 second spell right after it. Frequently the enemy won't react right away after having a spell blocked, giving plenty of time for your spell to complete. They will often be able to interrupt a 2 second spell after being blocked though, so if you can use the block while they're not casting then it will work for longer spells as well. If you have neither available, you can also slip a 1 second spell in right as the enemy is activating one of their spammable attacks to get it through uninterrupted.
 * To make future runs easier, avoid registering the Ice Elemental, Aloe Seed, and Mirage Iboga pieces as you get them, and just complete the quest sequence with the Earth Elemental, Fire Elemental, and Kappa pieces. Then pass these pieces off to new characters that want to go through, and return them after completion. Note that this will prevent you from participating in Tournament Mode until you register a Rare piece.
 * To win with your first character, consider using a speed gaining item, e.g. Slice of Pumpkin Pie.

Opponents
See each opponent's article and talk page for more detail.

Plurgg will always use his pieces in the following order: Fire Imp, Ice Imp, Kappa.
 * He can be the hardest to beat, due to the limited pieces at your disposal. The key to defeating him is to dodge his major projectiles (such as Polymock Meteor), and as many of his smaller projectiles (such as Polymock Ice Spear) as you can.
 * A good strategy is to use Skale, Fire Imp, and then Gargoyle.
 * Another good strategy is to use Gargoyle, Skale, and then Fire Imp.

Blarp will always use his pieces in the following order: Earth Elemental, Ice Elemental, Fire Elemental.
 * Use Kappa, Fire Imp and finally Gargoyle.

Fonk will always use his pieces in the following order: Kappa, Aloe Seed, and Wind Rider.
 * A good approach is to use the Ice Imp first, then Kappa, and lastly the Fire Imp.
 * Alternately, this works really well Fire Imp, then Kappa, and finally Ice Imp.

Grulhammer Silverfist will always use his pieces in the following order: Dredge, Dolyak, Dwarf.
 * Try using the Gargoyle, then the Earth Elemental, and lastly the Kappa.
 * Another good strategy is to use the Earth Elemental, followed by the Kappa, and finally the Ice Elemental.

Necromancer Volumandus will always use his pieces in the following order: Skeleton, Smoke Wraith, Bone Dragon.
 * A suggested strategy is Aloe Seed, then Kappa, followed by Earth Elemental.
 * Alternatively try Kappa, followed with Fire Elemental, and Earth Elemental last.
 * or Gargoyle, Earth Elemental, and Kappa.

(NOTE: As long as you use the above pieces, Necromancer Volumandus and Grulhammer Silverfist don't offer much of a challenge despite the master difficulty warning in the Quest Log).

Dune Teardrinker will always use his pieces in the following order: Charr Shaman, Charr Flamecaller, Titan.
 * Try using the strategy of Fire Elemental, then the Kappa, and lastly the Earth Elemental.
 * Also good is Gargoyle, followed by Earth Elemental, and Kappa.

Polymock Master Hoff will pick different polymock pieces each time, but always use them in order from your right to left.
 * He can be difficult to defeat without a calculated strategy, but using the Ice Elemental, Earth Elemental, and Fire Elemental should result in an easy take down.
 * Otherwise, try Earth Elemental, then Fire Elemental, followed up with Ice Elemental.

Trivia

 * Polymock is loosely based on Nintendo's Pokémon game series which is similar in name and gameplay. Additionally, the Polymock Colisseum is a reference to Pokémon Colosseum, a game of the franchise.

Polymock