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Nox Mindclaw, a dignified charr mesmer with a secret passion for destroying rabbits when no-one is looking.

Edit: Created from images of Charr Elementalist and GDC China 2010.

Mesmers are my favorite Guild Wars profession. Mesmer fans are very vocal, and there are plenty of forum threads discussing the class for Guild Wars 2.

This article reflects upon the Mesmer’s main tool, the Hex, alongside Enchantments and Conditions. I describe in fundamental terms what a Hex is, how it works, and what it brings to Guild Wars.

In Guild Wars 2, Hexes have been rolled into the condition system. The new necromancer doesn’t have hexes, but we know of hex-like skills, like Mark of Blood and Life Siphon.

Ultimately this article makes a case for the inclusion of Mesmers in the sequel, theorizes upon how they will retain the complexity we love from the original game, and concludes that the removal of Hexes will improve gameplay.

For 3…18 paragraphs,

Guild Wars launched with 4 spell-casting professions: the Elementalist, the Monk, and then two other spell casters: Mesmer and Necromancer.

Mesmers focus on subverting and disrupting enemies, while Necromancers excel in summoning minions and promoting aggressive, anti-support tactics.

Both professions share a skill type: the Hex.

A Hex is a harmful effect applied by a spell of the same name. The Hex will have a duration, and a unique combination of triggers, conditions and effects (I strongly recommend reading my post on the GW1 Toolbox). Hexes are often powerful and expensive to remove.

An example of a classic Mesmer Hex is

• Diversion: For 6 seconds, the next time target foe uses a skill, that skill takes an additional 10..47..56 seconds to recharge.

Enchantments are the same as Hexes, except that Enchantments are cast on allies and are beneficial. The only difference is that a few Enchantments are maintained until you dismiss it (at a drain to your energy). The Monk uses Enchantments to protect allies, while a Dervish stacks them to buff themselves up for battle. Enchantments can be stripped with a few expensive, powerful skills.

An example of a complex Dervish enchantment is

• Balthazar’s Rage: All adjacent foes take 15..51..60 holy damage. For 20 seconds, this Enchantment does nothing. When this Enchantment ends, you gain 4..9..10 Health for each successful hit while under the effects of this Enchantment.

Conditions are effects with only one variable: the duration. Conditions can be applied by other skills. Burning causes 7 pips of health degeneration; Blind causes attacks to miss (90% chance); Cripple slows your movement by 66%. Conditions are thrown around a lot, especially by physical professions, and are easily removed.

An example of a skill applying a Condition is the Paragon spear attack,

• Maiming Spear: If your attack hits a Bleeding foe, that foe is Crippled for 5..17..20 seconds.

Conditions, Enchantments and Hexes of the same name do not stack. If it is applied again, the duration (and any counters) are reset. You can, however, stack multiple effects; stacked Conditions/Hexes often create pressure on enemy healers; stacked Enchantments, combined with all the other buffs (Stances, Wards, Wells, Weapon Spells, Shouts, Anthems, Echoes, Spirits), can build a web of defense that’s nigh-impenetrable.

There are other positive effects in the game; fundamentally they work the same as Hexes/Enchantments, just with different skill type-names. Stances, Glyphs, Weapon Spells, Echoes and Preparations can only have one effect active at a time (for example, Barbed Arrows will replace Ignite Arrows). I am only looking at Hexes and Enchantments, but the same logic applies to these other buffs.

Duration makes a difference

Hexes and Enchantments utilise the same set of conditions and effects as standard skills, such as spells and attacks. They differ in that they have a duration of effect, which opens a window to a huge range of triggers.

Standard skills are limited to instantaneous conditions and effects such as

• Signet of Clumsiness: If target foe is attacking, that foe is interrupted and takes 15..51..60 damage.

Standard skills must look only at the present moment in time, evaluate conditions as they exist in that moment, and apply an effect only once.

Compare that with a similar skill in Hex form,

• Clumsiness: For 4 seconds, the next time target foe attempts to attack, the attack is interrupted and target foe suffers 10..76..92 damage.

Hexes can trigger upon application, upon any event for the duration, and at the end. Each effect could be different, with different variables (e.g. numbers and targets), and different conditions. Be sure to read my post about the Limitless Toolbox of GW1, to get an idea for the vast complexity of the GW1 effect system.

This is the difference that a Hex can make:

• Allows the caster to do something else, to multi-task, to fire-and-forget, while the Hex does its work;
• Multiple Hexes may be stacked to increase pressure;
• Removes the dependency on player reflexes, by catching the next action rather than attempting to react to it; and
• The target can see the effect, and may avoid the trigger/condition, or prepare for the effect.

Of the skills which apply effects for a duration, there are 248 Enchantments, 206 Hexes, 93 Stances, 91 Shouts, 28 Chants, 23 Weapon spells, 18 Preparations, 16 Forms, 15 Echoes, 14 Signet effects,  13 Glyphs, 12 Wards, 10 Conditions, 8 Wells, plus many untyped duration skills. That’s a lot of unique effects to remember!

Only Hexes, Conditions and Wells applied harmful effects.

Now, let’s look at Guild Wars 2.

Streamlining the system

Eric Flannum, lead developer of Guild Wars 2, told Ravious in an interview at Kill Ten Rats:

“We wanted to streamline things for Guild Wars 2, so we rolled all of our negative and positive buffs into our condition and boon systems. We did this to make combat easier for players to learn. Instead of having to learn what a potentially unlimited pool of hexes do, players only have to learn about a much smaller set of conditions. [...]

It should be noted that many of the things that necromancers were able to do with hexes in the first game can be accomplished through other means in Guild Wars 2.”

Hexes, at least as we know them, are out. The 216+ negative effects of Guild Wars have been cut down to a set of 10 conditions, which behave similarly to how they do in Guild Wars

Enchantments have suffered the same fate; they have been reduced to boons, a positive version of a condition. Izzy even mentioned that stuff like Orders would apply the Fury and Might Boons.

So, essentially, just as Guild Wars Hexes/Enchantments share a mechanic, so do Guild Wars 2 Conditions/Boons.

Cracked Armor, Deep Wound and Disease will not be returning. Daze seems to have been renamed to Stun, which is more like a knock-down than a condition. Frozen, Immobilized and Vulnerability have been added. Necromancers can inflict the Fear condition. The  exact effects and mechanics have not been confirmed for conditions.

Stances, Shouts, Preparations, Signets, Glyphs, Conditions and Wells are currently known to be returning in Guild Wars 2. That’s half of the effect types that were in Guild Wars, and all but 1 of the harmful buffs: Hexes.

Why have Hexes been left behind?

The net effect: Fire-don’t-forget

There’s a clue in how they’ve dealt with the necromancer. One of the cooler names for Hexes in Guild Wars is “Mark”, as in “Mark of Pain”, “Mark of Death”, etc. Hexes of this informal subtype are immensely powerful single-target spells. If you have a Mark on you, someone wants you dead.

Marks are returning as a special skill type in Guild Wars 2, but they have been changed: they are now ground-targeted, and can be manually triggered (read my post on skill activation methods). Conceptually it still works. You’re marking the ground, not the enemy. It’s a Hex on the ground, like a remote-control Well or Trap.

People won’t see an effect pop up in their monitor, they won’t read it and go, “Hmm… So that means I should… huh?”, try reading it again, but it’s too late, the effect has finished, bam-bam-bam they have another 5 effects to read. Instead, they’ll just be walking around, knowing what all 10 of the Conditions do, and then bam-bam-bam they’re taking damage from a blood-red, pulsating, circular Mark of Blood.

Another clue lies in Life Siphon.

In Guild Wars, Life Siphon was a Hex that caused health degeneration on the target, and health regeneration on the caster. When the hex ended, so did both effects. In Guild Wars 2, Life Siphon appears to be a hold skill* – while you hold it, you steal health every second. I don’t have proof that this is the case, it’s just my gut feeling based on the skill video.  * Izzy has replied to my tweet: Life Siphon has been tested as a Hold skill, but they prefer the non-Hold version. This both supports and undermines my argument here.

In Guild Wars 2, there is a direct, instant and obvious link between cause-and-effect. We won’t have the kind of fire-and-forget skills we saw in the original; to hurt someone, you need to be actively using a skill.

Stacks and caps

Now, let’s think about persistence. In a truly massive multiplayer online game, players will be joining forces to overcome evil and chaos, and mobbing by the hundred to fight for dominion in World-versus-World.

Imagine the Guild Wars Hex in that game.

Forget massively multiplayer – it would be massive failure. You couldn’t fight alongside the same profession as yourself. If they made each Hex stackable, the effect bar could fill the screen, and Empathy would become “The next time target attacks, target dies.”

ArenaNet have given Bleeding, Poison and Burning a makeover for the massive environment: they can stack. Bleeding can stack up to 9 times, and deals a certain amount of damage per second. Single skills can apply multiple copies of it. Even if there are 9 sword warriors in a team, they will all have the pleasure of seeing little numbers bleeding out of the target (a very cool effect).

I’ve mentioned Life Siphon and Bleeding. Have I mentioned health degeneration? Or should I say negative health degeneration?

In Guild Wars, degeneration is an effect applied to health or energy. A typical skill is

• Conjure Phantasm: For 2..13..16 seconds, target foe experiences -5 Health degeneration.

This number 5 is often referred to as a “pip”.

Let me ask you: what is a pip? Can you answer?

I couldn’t. I know what it does, but not how much, and not the specific mechanics behind it. It’s a fairly obscure mechanic.

A pip of Health regeneration is equal to 2 health per second. A pip of Energy regeneration is equal to 1 energy every 3 seconds. (Bonus info: Exhaustion wears off at the rate of 1 pip).

The appeal of regeneration as a mechanic is:

• It is an alternative form of health/energy gain/loss per second; and
• It is capped: All positive and negative regeneration is summed, and capped at 10.

In Guild Wars 2, regeneration has been replaced by X per second, as in the elementalist healing skill

• Ether Renewal: Hold down to expend energy and heal yourself.

* I have now found mention of a regeneration boon, granted by Well of Blood and Mark of Blood. Once again, this both supports and undermines my case; regeneration is a factor, but it’s a boon so it can only apply within the stack limit.

Please Hold while we redirect your damage

Here’s what I’m getting at: if you want duration, it cannot be an effect on the foe. It must be a skill you’re actively casting, or a visible range of effect at a location. Players need to understand what is happening to them, and what they need to avoid.

The complexity of Hexes have been replaced by the revamped skill activation mechanics, especially the Hold mechanic.

I’ve mentioned these activation mechanics earlier. In Guild Wars, skills are simply Click -> Activating -> Completion, and the condition/effect was applied only upon completion. Boy, things have changed in Guild Wars 2. Here’s how skills have been activated so far:

• Passive – Skill is equipped
• Hold (with initial/end) – effect applies during casting
• Click – the standard
• Charge – hold to increase power/effect
• Toggle – click effect on/off
• Trigger – click again to trigger effect

(Can I just say: This stuff makes me squee. I love having more options than simply clicking!)

With all this, I can speculate upon possible mesmer skills… and that’s the reason I wrote this article.

New Mesmer Skills

• Conjure Phantasm: Conjure a phantasm near foe’s location, burning foes.
• Fragility: All stackable conditions on foe are duplicated.
• Shatter: Remove all boons, dealing damage for each.
• Wastrel’s Worry: Charge (max 6 seconds) for increased damage. Ends if foe uses a skill.
• Backfire: Mark a location. Trigger to conjure a barrier that reflects spells to the source.
• Empathy: Hold to conjure a ghostly warrior near foe. This illusion punishes foe for attacking.
• Cry of Frustration: Interrupt foe, causing a shout that transfers nearby Boons to your allies.
• Echo: Replace Echo with the last skill you activated.
• Ether Feast: Hold to absorb spell damage, healing yourself.
• Leech Signet: Passive: Steal health from nearby foes. Active: ?
• Diversion: Hold (max 6 seconds) to disable foe’s next skill for 20 seconds.
• Panic: Send a fearsome projectile at foe, dealing damage and bouncing to other foes.
• Shatter Delusions: Destroy your illusions in a burst of blinding light.
• Chaos Storm: Conjure a storm around the target, deflecting projectiles and inflicting random conditions.
• Channeling: Toggle on to heal nearby allies when they use skills.
• Shame: Conjure a wall of shame around foe, preventing boons.
• Guilt: Hold to absorb nearby damage. Release to unleash it upon your target.
• Imagined Burden: Immobilize a moving foe. Freeze an attacking foe.
• Disarm: Interrupt skill. Disable weapon skills for 6 seconds.
• Signet of Midnight: Passive: You are Blinded. Active: Conjure a fog of darkness around you, blinding foes.

I think skill chains could be really cool too, I just can’t think of spells that would work together.

Here’s a little gem I thought of last night: What if the mesmer’s special mechanic was double-casting? It would certainly make those Hold skills more attractive.

Conclusion

I enjoy games for their mechanics. I enjoy understanding a system and finding a way to succeed and have fun in a system. Guild Wars, with its hundreds of unique skills, is overwhelmingly fun.

But when it came down to it, I didn’t use most of them. I generally stuck to the basics: straight damage, punishment, interruption, and utility. So much of the feel of the Mesmer comes from the skill names, skill descriptions, skill icons, armor, weapons, animations and special effects. That will all be retained, even amplified, in Guild Wars 2.

I’ve shown you how skills like Backfire and Diversion can work in a hex-less game. It’s better this way. Why?

Hexes are passive. You don’t get the thrill of quickly casting spells and seeing immediate effects. You just make sure it lands, and then let it do its thing.

With the new skills, you’ll be actively engaged with a target, anticipating and reacting with it in a real-time one-to-one engagement. This concept reminds me of a duel, rather than a card game.

• Blogger’s Disclaimer: For 1..12 months, author will be proven wrong every 3 days. When this Hex ends, Blogger is happy just to talk about mechanics. Attribute: Fanaticism.

Vorsakan is working hard at gathering all known information about the skills of Guild Wars 2. I love the vivid skill descriptions, mostly avoiding numbers and programmer logic. I’m worried about the recharge on most skills. You should check it out!

I have gone through the lists of Hexes and Enchantments to get a feel for the structure of the Guild Wars skill system. From this sample of skills, I have extracted the triggers, conditions, and effects utilized, which should cover most Guild Wars skills (according to this list, there are 2473 skills in total). On it’s own this research isn’t very useful, except to demonstrate the depth of the Guild Wars developers’ toolbox when creating skills.

I have an upcoming post, comparing the Guild Wars Hex/Enchantment system to the Guild Wars 2 Boon/Condition system, and demonstrating how some of the complexity can be retained through the use of the various new skill activation methods.

My interest in all this is purely selfish: I want to prove that the play style of the Mesmer is possible in Guild Wars 2, albeit in a very altered form, and that the removal of unique effects may be the best skill-related decision ArenaNet have made. Follow after the jump…

Dear ArenaNet animators and artists,

You have blown my mind.

Yours Speechlessly,

Shaun

I’m currently contacting some people who captured great photos at Gamescom, to ask permission to use their photos. I don’t want to ruffle any Moa feathers.

• Hold – indefinite duration
  eg: Ether Renewal, Hold down to expend energy and heal yourself.
• Charge – a hold skill, with defined stages having different effects once released
  eg: Obliterate, Can be charged to up to four different levels, each dealing increased damage.
• Click – the most common method
  eg: Chop, Chop once [with axe].

Skills can also have interesting mechanics:

• Stances can be toggled on/off.
  eg: Berserker’s Stance, Drains energy while giving adrenaline.
• Signets have passive (while equipped) and instant effects (can be activated).
  eg: Healing Signet, Passive: You constantly regenerate health. Active: You instantly gain health.
• Burst skills – Special warrior mainhand skill. Functionality/effect improves at each stage of adrenaline, usage depletes adrenaline.
  eg: Eviscerate, Unleash all of your adrenaline in a massive attack.
• Manual trigger – Will activate after a set period of time, or can be triggered by clicking the skill again.
  eg: Mark of Blood, Ground-targeted spell. When triggered (after time or manually), damages enemies while placing a regeneration boon on nearby allies.
• Context-sensitive replacement skills, including:
  • Chain – If a skill is successful, the next skill in the chain replaces it. Skills must be used in an uninterrupted sequence or the chain will be reset
    eg: Sever Artery -> Gash -> Final Thrust
    
  • Minion – Minion summoning skill is replaced by that minion’s utility skill
    eg: Bone Minions -> Putrid Explosion
    
  • State – The player has changed state or equipment, and the skillbar has changed
    eg: Death Shroud -> Deathly Swarm / Shadow Fiend / Doom / Life Transfer / End Death Shroud
    eg: Attunements
    eg: Environmental weapons, Banners, Conjures
    

Updated 26th August 2010: Necromancer “manual trigger” skill activation method.

Follow after the jump to see more…

It’s back for good this time – http://augw.net – my latest Guild Wars community project :)