Curse

Mercury Angel · Apr 22, 2006, 06:58 PM // 18:58

Foreward;

This is a guide about something mostly pointless, though people interested in game mechanics might like it. This guide was written about a month or 2 ago, in regards to hexing allies, and enchanting enemies, one of the only groups that you can really do this to being minions.

For Hexes, I had Verata's Aura on me, created a minion, cast Conjure Element (No longer works, it was altered) or Contemplation of Purity, and lost control of said Minion. In the masterless state, I hexed it, and immediately afterwards, used Verata's Aura/Gaze to regain control. Then, I observed which aspects of the hex still took effect when they were allies.

For Enchantments, I had Verata's Aura on me, I created a minion, enchanted them, and then used Conjure/Contemplation to lose control, and observed what benefits they still gained from it.

Some of the key points I discovered, or verified;

*Masterless Minions are their own separate group from all others. Healing Seed and Death Nova demonstrate this; They work only on the side of the Masterless Minions, rather than any other enemy (Practice Targets or your party).
*There is some kind of PK lock system in place to prevent you from damaging allies with certain effects, such as Scourge Healing, Spiteful Spirit, Shield of Judgment, Retribution, Holy Wrath, and the like. I say this because you can observe it when healing a Scourge Healing target, hexed by an ally's spell; The animation triggers, but no damage is suffered. Or more easily observed, attacking an enemy enchanted by Shield of Judgment from an ally; You are knocked down, but you suffer no damage.
The one, and only, exception to this rule is Death Nova, which for some reason, associates itself with the Minion's party upon losing control, and will blow up everyone that isn't a minion in its range.

Why did I not post this for 2 months or so? Because Death Nova bombs are fun to PK your allies with. Mind you, I did it only to minions and a friend who willingly participated in the experiment.
In general, you can turn minions masterless to turn them against your allies and even kill a few. But this is a bit better. (What I mean to say, in not so many words, is that Death Nova bombing allies could be seen as an exploit, and I wanted to give Anet time to fix it. I reported it already, and no action has been taken regarding it)
There're a few situations where you might actually want to kill certain allies with stronger effects, such as your Ghostly Hero (to prevent the enemy from receiving a Morale Boost when they need it; To recharge their rez signet), or to kill the pets [pet owner attacks the minion, and the pet will charge it, entering Death Nova range, whether the minion attacks it or not.] your party brought in advance, without relying on the enemy party to do it for you.

However, due to the uncontrollable nature of Pet and Minion AI, and the requirement for a Minion Master in the party, I'm not sure it's all that worthwhile to do.

And as I said, if you want to grief and kill your allies, there're other ways as well. Edge of Extinction and killing yourself, turning a massive army against them, or some other weird build.

In reality, this is mostly a useless guide, and I highly doubt a flavour of the month will come of it. Regarding exploiting Death Nova, since you can already PK allies using Edge and masterless minions in general, I see no reason to exclude it from a comprehensive guide. That, and I reported it when I first discovered it. Either Anet has decided that it is a non-issue, or it's not important enough to fix. And either way, it really doesn't matter.

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Hexes, Enchantments, Minions, and You

Enchantment Orientation (Ally->Masterless):
Healing Seed - Heals only masterless minions.
Balthazar's Aura - damages only creatures hostile to your party, including the minion it's cast on.
Death Nova - damages creatures other than masterless minions.
Healing Breeze - Continues working as described
Maintained Enchantments - Do not end when a minion becomes masterless, and work as described.*
*Holy Wrath - Does nothing to caster, though animation triggers. Your enemies are still affected completely.
*Retribution - Does nothing to caster, though animation triggers. Your enemies are still affected completely.
Reversal of Fortune - Triggers and protects+heals the minion
Divine Intervention - Triggers on damage to heal
Shielding Hands - Works as described
Shield of Deflections - Works as described
Shield of Judgment - No damage to caster's allies, but still causes knockdown. Your enemies are still affected completely.

Hexes Orientation (Masterless->Ally):
Scourge Healing - Does nothing, though the animation triggers
Spiteful Spirit - Does nothing, though animation triggers
Soul Barbs - Does nothing, though animation triggers.
Defile Flesh - Reduces healing
Insidious Parasite - Steals health from minion, gives it to you.
Other Necromancer Curses - Work as described.
Price of Failure - Does nothing, though animation triggers
Barbs - Effect still triggers.
Mark of Pain - damages only creatures hostile to your party, (including the minion it's cast on, when applicable).
Incendiary Bonds - Only hurts enemies
Lightning Surge - No effect
Water Hexes - Work as described
Earth Hexes - Work as described

Other:
Convert Hexes - No effect after becoming hostile
Deathly Swarm - Only targets enemies
Sustained AoE's - Only damages while masterless

Untested:
Mark of Rodgort
Glimmering Mark
Thunderclap
Mesmer Hexes

Edit: Fixed a few typos.

Haggard · Apr 22, 2006, 08:31 PM // 20:31

An exploit perhaps, but not a truly dangerous one. And a hard one to pull off at that.