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. 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. You will gain 40 points (for defeating Yulma) 60 points (for defeating Plurgg) 80 points (for defeating Blarp) 90 points (for defeating Fonk) 90 points (for defeating Necromancer Volumandus) 90 points (for defeating Dune Teardrinker) 90 points (for defeating Grulhammer Silverfist) 90 points (for defeating Hoff).

NOTE: If you are level 8 (Not Too Lazy), you get no 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. 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.

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, see the Polymock Pieces section.

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

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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.
Polymock Block is in slot 5 and makes the next spell targeting you in the next 2 seconds fail.
In slot 6 there is Polymock Glyph of Concentration that makes your next spell not able to be interrupted.
Polymock Ether Signet in slot 7 gives you 10 energy if you have 0.
And the last one in slot 8, Polymock Glyph of Power, 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.

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 Polymock Block chained with your damage skill. The AI is likely to use Polymock Power Drain and fail. This can give you a head start.

Alternately against many opponents it works well to start with your highest damage 1 second spell, then block. Follow with a Glyph of Concentration then your slower powerful attack. If you have a 2 second condition spell it might be worth starting with block, concentration, then your 2 second activation condition spell. Other than that, focus on spamming damage and interrupting any condition spells your opponent has. The best chain I've found when low on energy is to use block at 2 energy which drops you to zero and then use your Polymock Ether Signet. In general, if you can land your condition and interrupt his, you will win the round.

General strategy notes:

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.
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. The bonus from Polymock Glyph of Power can quickly erase any advantage you gained.
Using strafe to dodge incoming projectile attacks can make most fights much easier.
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.

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

Plurgg 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 Meteor), and as many of his smaller projectiles (such as Ice Spear) as you can.
Against Plurgg, a good strategy is to use Skale, Fire Imp, and then Gargoyle.

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

Against Blarp, a good strategy is to use Kappa, then Fire Imp and finally Skale.

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

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.

Grulhammer Silverfist will always use his pieces in the following order: Dredge, Dolyak, Dwarf.

Against Grulhammer Silverfist, a good strategy is to use the Gargoyle, then the Earth Elemental, and then the Kappa.
Another good stratergy is to use the Earth Elemental, then the Kappa, and finally the Ice Elemental.

Necromancer Volumandus will always use his pieces in the following order: Skeleton, Wraith, Dragon. Suggested strategies:

Aloe Seed, Kappa, Earth Elemental.
Kappa, Fire Elemental, Earth Elemental.
Gargoyle, Earth Elemental, 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.

Against Dune Teardrinker, a good strategy is to use the Fire Elemental, then the Kappa, and then the Earth Elemental.

Polymock master Hoff will use different polymocks each time depending on your selection.

Master Hoff is difficult to defeat without a calculated strategy, but can be taken down with ease by using the Ice Elemental, Earth Elemental, and Fire Elemental. Be aware you may need to change your piece order to ensure that you don't draw pieces vulnerable to one of his attacks, eg Ice Elemental against a fire caster.

Defeating these NPCs again in tournament mode will give Asura points (if you are less than level 8--Not Too Lazy). The amount of points you receive depends on the difficulty of your opponent. Yulma, for example, will only yield 40 points on victory, but Hoff will award you 90 points for a win.

Trivia

Some ideas from Polymock may have come from the classic Nintendo Series Pokémon, since it is similar in gameplay and nature, and the name sounds suspiciously similar.