The Spellbook of Mesmerize

[Viegon]

I support that direction for Mesmerize.

[Lazy Orang]

Okay, then - officially calling in playtesters for Mesmerise and Mesmerise only!

~ Lazy Orang, who's pretty bloody relieved we seem to be moving somewhere at last - this has not been fun. Thank you quozl!

[quozl]

Sometimes designs hit roadblocks. There's always a way past the roadblock. Because the thing to remember is that we're all here because we want the designs made. We may disagree about lots of things but we all have the same goal.

Thanks for keeping this going, L_O!

[Lazy Orang]

Thanks, quozl.

Here's Test One for the new Mesmerise - should be able to get the other one up tomorrow.

Name Of The Playtest Unit: Mesmerise

Army Test 1
Map: Underground Catacombs (no glyphs)
Armies:
Selene Gallio, Jubilee, Mesmerise (25), 2x Fire Ant Swarms (465 points)
vs.
Luke Cage, Tigra, Dagger (465 points)

Spoiler Alert!

Overview of Mesmerise’s performance:
Used on Luke Cage, ineffective, still received a wound.

Round One

The Fighters claim the initiative. Tigra leaps forwards, and Luke Cage runs forwards.
Selene and Jubilee advance.
Dagger and Luke advance slowly.
Selene runs forwards and blasts Luke from range but fails to hurt him. Jubilee runs forwards and also blasts Luke to no effect.
Dagger runs forwards and throws two light daggers at Selene. Both hit, but more than that, she rolls a 16+ for both, eliminatig the remainder of Selene’s round. Luke holds his ground in order to command Tigra.

Round Two

Selene claims the initiative and the ants tunnel forwards. Selene uses Inanimate Object Control to rip some masonry out of the catacomb wall and throw it around at Luke, Dagger and Tigra, inflicting a wound each on the first two. Jubilee attempts to blast away with her Fireworks but misses wildly.
Tigra charges in and slashes Selene for a wound. Luke charges in and is Mesmerised, but his punch still lands home, inflicting another wound on the Mutant witch.
Selene fails to drain Luke Cage. Jubilee blasts Dagger with her Fireworks, rolling three skulls - Dagger takes a wound, but Cage is taken entirely off guard, blanking and taking three wounds despite his Impenetrable Skin, leaving him bleeding out.
Dagger throws two more light daggers at Selene, but only the one lands home and it fails to make her grow a conscience. Luke punches Selene, but his blow is pathetic and easily blocked.
Selene drains Luke Cage dry, eliminating the Fighters’ last turn. Jubilee blasts Dagger with her Fireworks, inflicting another wound and leaving her battered.

Round Three

Selene claims the initiative, and the ants continue to tunnel forwards. She tries and fails to drain Tigra. Jubilee flings more Fireworks at Dagger, but misses wildly.
Tandy Bowen flings two more Light Daggers at Selene, both of which land, leaving the Mutant witch close to death, but neither of which send her into shock.
Selene desperately drains Tigra of her Psychic Energy, rejuvenating herself from near death. Jubilee blasts Dagger again, knocking her out.
Tigra slashes at Selene three times - two of the blows draw blood, leaving the sorceress moments from death once more.
Selene’s desperate attempt to drain Tigra fails. Jubilee does nothing, fearing she may harm Selene.
Tigra slashes at Selene twice more, the second blow ripping her throat out.

Round Four

Jubilee claims the initiative, and two Fire Ant Swarms tunnel to new positions. Jubilee retreats behind an abyss of shadow, the ants flanking her on either side, and throws her fireworks at Tigra, who shrugs them off.
Tigra charges into melee with Jubilee and, despite having to attack uphill, rips her apart in two blows, leaving her third to scatter one of the fire ant swarms.
Greer Nelson pounces on the last of the ants, and claims victory for the Crime Fighters.

Crime Fighters victorious - Tigra 2 wounds.

Overview: Mesmerise did literally nothing here, as will often be the case, and since its' potential has been drastically cut as well, I can't see a very high price here. Jubilee was the star of this game, honestly - that blast on Luke Cage was insane! She's consistently much more badass than she ever was in the cartoon.... Selene was disappointing this time, though.

[Lazy Orang]

- Theme Test - Pass, it feels like Mesmerism to me.
- Mirror Test - Pass
- Bonding Test - Pass- Spells don't bond.
- Synergies Test - Pass - No synergies.
- Power Check - Pass - I can see it being useful, but it's not a big deal now..
- Fun Test - Pass - It's a fun, helpful little defensive spell.
- Fun Competitive Test - Pass - It's really not an issue for the opponent.
- Drafting Test - Pass - It'd need to be pretty damn low now, but I can see myself drafting it at 20..
- Usage Test - Pass - You'll almost certainly use it at least once, even if it doesn't work (which it could easily fail to).
- Strategy Test - Pass - Here's this defensive spell. You can cast it one time. Choose it wisely.

Name Of The Playtest Unit: Mesmerise

Army Test 1
Map: Underground Catacombs (no glyphs)
Armies:
Selene Gallio, Jubilee, Mesmerise (25), 2x Fire Ant Swarms (465 points)
vs.
Luke Cage, Tigra, Dagger (465 points)

Spoiler Alert!

Overview of Mesmerise’s performance:
Used on Luke Cage, ineffective, still received a wound.

Round One

The Fighters claim the initiative. Tigra leaps forwards, and Luke Cage runs forwards.
Selene and Jubilee advance.
Dagger and Luke advance slowly.
Selene runs forwards and blasts Luke from range but fails to hurt him. Jubilee runs forwards and also blasts Luke to no effect.
Dagger runs forwards and throws two light daggers at Selene. Both hit, but more than that, she rolls a 16+ for both, eliminatig the remainder of Selene’s round. Luke holds his ground in order to command Tigra.

Round Two

Selene claims the initiative and the ants tunnel forwards. Selene uses Inanimate Object Control to rip some masonry out of the catacomb wall and throw it around at Luke, Dagger and Tigra, inflicting a wound each on the first two. Jubilee attempts to blast away with her Fireworks but misses wildly.
Tigra charges in and slashes Selene for a wound. Luke charges in and is Mesmerised, but his punch still lands home, inflicting another wound on the Mutant witch.
Selene fails to drain Luke Cage. Jubilee blasts Dagger with her Fireworks, rolling three skulls - Dagger takes a wound, but Cage is taken entirely off guard, blanking and taking three wounds despite his Impenetrable Skin, leaving him bleeding out.
Dagger throws two more light daggers at Selene, but only the one lands home and it fails to make her grow a conscience. Luke punches Selene, but his blow is pathetic and easily blocked.
Selene drains Luke Cage dry, eliminating the Fighters’ last turn. Jubilee blasts Dagger with her Fireworks, inflicting another wound and leaving her battered.

Round Three

Selene claims the initiative, and the ants continue to tunnel forwards. She tries and fails to drain Tigra. Jubilee flings more Fireworks at Dagger, but misses wildly.
Tandy Bowen flings two more Light Daggers at Selene, both of which land, leaving the Mutant witch close to death, but neither of which send her into shock.
Selene desperately drains Tigra of her Psychic Energy, rejuvenating herself from near death. Jubilee blasts Dagger again, knocking her out.
Tigra slashes at Selene three times - two of the blows draw blood, leaving the sorceress moments from death once more.
Selene’s desperate attempt to drain Tigra fails. Jubilee does nothing, fearing she may harm Selene.
Tigra slashes at Selene twice more, the second blow ripping her throat out.

Round Four

Jubilee claims the initiative, and two Fire Ant Swarms tunnel to new positions. Jubilee retreats behind an abyss of shadow, the ants flanking her on either side, and throws her fireworks at Tigra, who shrugs them off.
Tigra charges into melee with Jubilee and, despite having to attack uphill, rips her apart in two blows, leaving her third to scatter one of the fire ant swarms.
Greer Nelson pounces on the last of the ants, and claims victory for the Crime Fighters.

Crime Fighters victorious - Tigra 2 wounds.

Overview: Mesmerise did literally nothing here, as will often be the case, and since its' potential has been drastically cut as well, I can't see a very high price here. Jubilee was the star of this game, honestly - that blast on Luke Cage was insane! She's consistently much more badass than she ever was in the cartoon.... Selene was disappointing this time, though.

Army Test 2
Map: Sirrocco (No Glyphs)
Armies;
Nightwing, Raven, Speedy (Mia Dearden), Mesmerise (25), 1x Hellfire: Ignition, 1x Hellfire Fire Line (520 points)
vs.
Iron Man (Mk V), Iron Man (Hasbro) (520 points)

Spoiler Alert!

Overview of Mesmerise’s performance:
Used on Hasbro Iron Man, ineffective, still received a wound.

Round One

Stark claims the initiative and flies up the south eastern hill, followed by his Hasbro branded suit.
Raven flies forwards and ignites the Hasbro suit, inflicting two wounds but getting scorched in the process.
Stark flies forwards and blasts Raven with a Pulse Bolt, inflicting a wound. The Hasbro suit fires two blasts at Raven - she Mesmerises him for the first blast, but he hits her for a wound both times anyway.
Nightwing activates Teen Titans Go!. Raven retreats and transfers a wound to Hasbro Iron Man with Soul Self. Mia runs forwards and looses a Diamond Tipped Arrow at the Hasbro Suit, but it glances off. Nightwing runs forwards and throws a baton at Hasbro Iron Man, taking him out.
Stark flies into the shadow to blast Raven with a Pulse Bolt, inflicting a wound.
Speedy charges into melee with Stark and punches him, but her punch bounces off.

Round Two

Stark claims the initiative and flies to the northwestern hill, slipping out of Mia’s grasp, before firing a Pulse Bolt at Raven, killing her.
Nightwing activates Teen Titans Go and he and Mia run towards Stark, but do not reach him.
Stark flies away and blasts Speedy with a Pulse Bolt, inflicting two wounds.
Nightwing charges Stark and strikes him uphill, but the Iron Man blocks.
Tony strikes Dick, who is taken by surprise and fails to dodge, being blasted for three wounds, leaving him bloodied and battered.
Nightwing makes his way up the hill and strikes Stark again to no effect.
Mia suffers from her Delicate Health, and is left nearly dead.

Round Three

Stark claims the initiative and strikes Nightwing, who dodges the blow.
Nightwing commands Speedy to run forwards before claiming equal height with Stark and punching him, his fist doing nothing to his armour.
Stark throws a punch at Grayson, but his fist misses wildly.
Nightwing strikes Tony to no effect.
Stark strikes Nightwing, who vaults away.
Nightwing punches Stark but fails to harm him.
Mia stays strong.

Round Four

The Titans claim the initiative, and Speedy, at Nightwing’s command, runs up and strikes Stark from low ground to no effect. Nightwing strikes Stark, but continues to be blocked.
Stark takes Nightwing out.
Tony strikes Speedy, but she blocks the blow.
Stark strikes Speedy again, but misses wildly.
Mia stays strong.

Round Five

The Titans claim the initiative, and Speedy runs to equal height wih Stark and punches him, but he continues to be uncrackable.
Tony strikes Speedy, but she blocks the blow.
Mia punches Stark, but his suit holds strong.
Stark strikes Speedy, but she continues to block him.
Mia strikes Stark, and she finally manages to inflict a wound!
Speedy blocks Stark’s blow.
Mia passes out.

Stark Industries Victorious, Tony Stark 1 wound.

Overview: Once again, Mesmerise failed to achieve anything - that's pretty bad luck, but this is clearly not a high level spell right now. Stark was unreasonably tanky here, and that allowed him to win despite the fact that his auxilliary suit was taken out in short order.

Thoughts On The Tested Unit's Cost, Balance, & Draftibility:

It's a pretty low level spell - useful, but no big deal and it may not even work. I'd say 20 looks about right to me.

[Lazy Orang]

Okay - I'd appreciate getting one more tester in on this, but if no one else steps up, I'll try to move to pass this at 20 after the weekend.

[TrollBrute]

I'm not sold at 20, but I'm planning to run some tests today.

[Tornado]

Ask @dok what is the best way to test the spell?

Maybe he can come up with some smaller match-ups that would speed up testing but still deliver good results.

[dok]

I mean, it's fairly pointless to fixate on what the actual result of the roll was. In a normal test of a figure one roll can swing things a lot but you usually have a bunch of rolls involving the figure; here it's literally a single attack that we're looking at. It's just too random and noisy of a data point to really matter. What matters is what the situation was when the spell was deployed - we can infer expected value from that.

In those two cases, it was used to block an attack of 5 (I'm assuming no height for Luke) and an attack of 4 or 5 (depending on height). So it was worth about 20 points before we consider board position and OM security (both of which enhance the value). Neither unit had any special power that makes it more relevant.

The obvious things to test against if you want to see the potential of the spell:
- Magical Defense figures
- Master Motivators and other "if you inflict a wound you get to do X" figures
- Double Skull figures, I guess

On the flip side, you could put a MD figure on a team against an opposing team that has one good special attacker or special wounder. See how easy it is to try to kill the MD figure without ever using a normal attack. Of course this becomes highly dependent on tactics and "tester bias" can become an issue (in either direction).

I'm still of the opinion that anything below 25 basically means "if you're playing an expensive MD figure and you don't include this spell, you're probably not playing the strongest build you could".

[Yodaking]

Originally Posted by dok

I mean, it's fairly pointless to fixate on what the actual result of the roll was. In a normal test of a figure one roll can swing things a lot but you usually have a bunch of rolls involving the figure; here it's literally a single attack that we're looking at. It's just too random and noisy of a data point to really matter. What matters is what the situation was when the spell was deployed - we can infer expected value from that.

In those two cases, it was used to block an attack of 5 (I'm assuming no height for Luke) and an attack of 4 or 5 (depending on height). So it was worth about 20 points before we consider board position and OM security (both of which enhance the value). Neither unit had any special power that makes it more relevant.

The obvious things to test against if you want to see the potential of the spell:
- Magical Defense figures
- Master Motivators and other "if you inflict a wound you get to do X" figures
- Double Skull figures, I guess

On the flip side, you could put a MD figure on a team against an opposing team that has one good special attacker or special wounder. See how easy it is to try to kill the MD figure without ever using a normal attack. Of course this becomes highly dependent on tactics and "tester bias" can become an issue (in either direction).

I'm still of the opinion that anything below 25 basically means "if you're playing an expensive MD figure and you don't include this spell, you're probably not playing the strongest build you could".

You state that the spell blocked Luke Cage's attack of 5, and Iron Mans' attack of 4 (or 5) except it clearly states in the report that both attacks were not blocked and a wound was still inflicted by both attacks.

[dok]

Originally Posted by Yodaking

You state that the spell blocked Luke Cage's attack of 5, and Iron Mans' attack of 4 (or 5) except it clearly states in the report that both attacks were not blocked and a wound was still inflicted by both attacks.

I said "the spell was used to block", not that it was successful. Admittedly, this was misleading wording - I'll try to be more clear in the future - but I thought it was understandable in context.

Anyway, the expected value of such an attempt is around 20 (more for Selene, less for Raven). Obviously the value it delivers is zero when you take the wound anyway, and well over 20 when you take no wounds, but it's the expectation that we care about.

[TrollBrute]

C3G STANDARD PLAYTEST FEEDBACK FORM

NAME OF THE PLAYTEST UNIT: Mesmerize

Army Test
Map: Custom
Units: Doctor Strange (300), Mesmerize (20) (320) VS Abomination (Hasbro) (320)

Spoiler Alert!

Spell used: on the first attack, which was blocked.

Abomination and the Doc went right at it, Strange came out on top.

Who won? List figures remaining in the winning army (include life remaining for heroes): Doc Strange with 5/6 wounds.

Army Test
Map: Custom
Units: Doctor Strange (300), Mesmerize (30) (330) VS Mary Marvel (330)

Spoiler Alert!

Spell used: early on, attack was blocked.

The spell was plenty useful, but Mary just rolled better overall.

Who won? List figures remaining in the winning army (include life remaining for heroes): MM with 5/6 wounds.

Army Test
Map: Custom
Units: Doctor Strange (300), Mesmerize (30) (330) VS Mary Marvel (330)

Spoiler Alert!

Spell used: early on, attack was blocked.

The Doc rolled much better here, removing a bunch of OMs to prevent MM from even taking turns, and he steadily took her down.

Who won? List figures remaining in the winning army (include life remaining for heroes): Doc Strange with 3/6 wounds.

Army Test
Map: Custom
Units: Selene (360), Jubilee (60), Mesmerize (20) (440) VS Wolverine (280), Wild Child (160) (440)

Spoiler Alert!

Spell used: early on against Wolverine, attack was blocked.

Selene got a lucky here, and it definitely would have been a closer game otherwise. The other Mutants got her close to death, but back-to-back 2 out of 2 skulls on Psychic Vampire allowed her to take down Wolverine and heal her way back into it. Nothing crazily outside the norm, but luckier than most games. Also, somewhat negated by how long it took her to kill Wild Child. He stuck around for rounds against the two of them.

Who won? List figures remaining in the winning army (include life remaining for heroes): Selene with 4/7 wounds, Jubilee unwounded

Army Test
Map: Custom
Units: Selene (360), Jubilee (60), Mesmerize (30) (450) VS Luke Cage (190), Iron Fist (260) (450)

Spoiler Alert!

Spell used: against Luke Cage, attack was blocked.

Jubilee was one-shotted early on, leaving Selene in hot water, but she had better positioning and managed to grab height. Very nearly died, but timely rolls with Psychic Vampire kept her around. Not quite as lucky as the previous game, but she rolled 3/4 skulls on her four rolls, if I recall.

Who won? List figures remaining in the winning army (include life remaining for heroes): Selene with 5/7 wounds.

Army Test
Map: Custom
Units: Selene (360), Jubilee (60), Mesmerize (30) (450) VS Luke Cage (190), Iron Fist (260) (450)

Spoiler Alert!

Spell used: against Luke Cage early on, attack was blocked.

The fighters positioned better this time, but Selene was still able to use her range effectively. Jubilee still went down, but this time the Fighters struggled to wound Selene.

Who won? List figures remaining in the winning army (include life remaining for heroes): Selene with 2/7 wounds.

___________________________________________________________

THOUGHTS ON THE TESTED UNIT'S COST, BALANCE, & DRAFTABILITY: So 5-1 overall here, 2-0 at 20 points, and 3-1 at 30 points. It’s definitely a very useful spell. It doesn’t automatically block an attack, but will allow the MD figure to block it a majority of the time. 25 really feels like the floor here, and I'd be much more comfortable with 30-35. 40 doesn't seem out of the question either.