Polymock

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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.

Game mechanics

Registration

To be able to play Polymock, a player needs to register at least three Polymock Pieces. The piece(s) to be registered have to be in the player's inventory, then the player has to talk to Denn in Rata Sum to have them registered 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 as many pieces from each rarity as they want. The Polymock quests are not repeatable, so once a Polymock player has been beaten and the respective quest reward has been accepted, that player can only be dueled under 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.

Setup

If the rules' conditions have been met, both the player and the opponent NPC will be transported to one of the Polymock arenas. These arenas essentially consist of two platforms that are close enough to each other that the opponents cannot move out of their opponent's range. Talk to Vokk the Polymock Judge to determine 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 Vokk again.

The duel

When the match starts, an enemy piece dies, or the player's piece has died and the next piece has been chosen, a 10 second countdown will start. When it reaches zero, the duel starts. All enchantments or other effects the player has used end, and all summoned creatures are removed from play. The character's equipped weapons and armor have no effect on the game. However A vampiric weapon will cause constant -10 degeneration.

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.

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.

General strategy

Overview

Each Polymock build consists of five common skills. Another one is always a cheap and fast-recharging damage dealing spell that does mediocre damage and that only differs in details from those of other builds.

The remaining two skills are the most powerful and distinctive ones each build has to offer, with each having certain proportions of damage, interrupt, and/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.

Oponents usually start by casting Polymock Glyph of Concentration followed with their most damagaing skill, so be ready for initial spike. To counter this, start with Polymock Block chained with your damage skill, AI is likely to use Polymock Power Drain and fails. This can gives you headstart.

• Interrupting Polymock Glyph of Concentration is generally not worth it as interrupt will then be unavailable for 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 and finish opponent quickly.
• Be wary of quickly spiking opponent under 50% or 25% of health. You might not have enough energy to finish him up or spells could be inconveniently recharging. Bonus from Polymock Glyph of Power can quickly erase any advantage you gained.
• In the Second round vs. Plurgg in Vlox's Falls a good strategy is to use the Gargoyle first, followed by the Skale second, and lastly the Fire Imp.

Plurgg will always use his pieces in the following order: Fire Imp, Ice Imp,and Kappa.

• In the Third round vs Blarp in Gadd's Encampment a good strategy is to use the Skale, then Kappa, then the Gargoyle.

Blarp will always use his pieces in the following order: Earth Elemental, Ice Elemental, and Fire Elemental.

• In the Fourth round vs. Fonk in Gunnar's Hold a good strategy is to use the Ice Imp first, then Kappa, and lastly the Fire Imp.

Fonk will always use his pieces in the following order: Kappa, Aloe,and Wind Rider.

Trivia

• Some ideas from Polymock may have come from the classic Nintendo Series Pokemon, since it is similar in gameplay and nature.