Guild Wars Wiki:Projects/AI skills usage/Fallings
File:Falling Lotus Strike.jpg Falling Lotus Strike & File:Falling Spider.jpg Falling Spider (Assassin - Dagger Mastery) by User:Yoshida Keiji.
Background
I am currently backtracking every single revision made on the Hero behavior page to double-check user inputs to understand better their point of view when editions were made prior my arrival to GWW.
- Somewhere in time (will find out when sooner or later). Somebody typed this in Hero_behavior/Unexpected_behavior#Misused_skills:
"AI pauses unnecessarily between attack skills, losing the opportunity to complete a skill chain. Example: it doesnt use Falling Lotus Strike or Falling Spider while a target is knocked down, thus wasting/failing its purpose."
- On December 6th of 2011, an IP came to argue that statement here: Talk:Hero_behavior/Archive_01#Incorrect
Preparation phase
Today I decided to observe both skills and made up a very simple build:
To be able to make an efficient study:
- The Assassin hero must be given a knockdown. And for this I chose that particular elite.
- The player designing the build must break the traditional Assassin chain-attack skills (Dagger spammer) and remove any skill that depends on a lead attack. So as to not confuse the AI.
Testing phase
The experiment took place while my Elementalist was traveling from The Kodash Bazaar to the Command Post to complete the Heart or Mind: Ronjok in Danger quest. All explorable areas between these outpost were the grounds of observation.
- Zenmai would effectively use Wastrel's Collapse and follow-up with (Critical Eye + Jagged Strike and then) either Falling Lotus Strike or Falling Spider. The hero monitor would show me her gaining 8 energy after hitting the target. And also, by selecting the targeted enemy, I could see it getting poisoned with the health bar turning green.
- If this wasn't enough, as an Elementalist, I had Meteor Shower equipped in my own build and everytime I would throw it in... Zenmai would be having hell of a party.
Result
Special:Contributions/24.13.211.110 was right.
The Thursday, March 1, 2012 game update that "Adjusted the speed with which Assassin heroes execute skill chains" makes this test build run perfectly.