Vexinyeen (for one last time)

Did you notice any circumstances in this saga that felt similar to some concept from Art of War?

After reading The First of a Thousand Autumns I think I picked up a few. I’ll try to bridge the book’s concepts and moments in the story using the subdivisions (chapter-verse) Art of War by Sun Tzu has.

1:1-2 “Sun Tzu said: The art of war is of vital importance to the state. It is a matter of life and death, a road to safety or to ruin. Hence it is a subject of inquiry which can on no account be neglected”

The conflict between the Proxies and Sui promises to end with the annihilation of one side (and more, depending on who wins). Wang calling it “a matter of life and death” just sounds peculiar. The only proxy that seems to word it like that conveniently is the one interested in warfare.

1:26 “Now the general who wins a battle makes many calculations in his temple ere the battle is fought. The general who loses a battle makes but few calculations beforehand. Thus do many calculations lead to victory, and few calculations to defeat: how much more no calculations at all! It is by attention to this point that I can foresee who is likely to win or lose.”

4:15 “Thus it is that in war the victorious strategist only seeks battle after the victory has been won, whereas he who is destined to defeat first fights and afterwards looks for victory.”

Not much to comment here. The first image suggests Wang has been calculating and taking many elements into account. Different people in this story also have moments commenting “did you also plan this?”

1:20 “Hold out baits to entice the enemy. Feign disorder, and crush him.”

1:22 “If your opponent is of choleric temper, seek to irritate him. Pretend to be weak, that he may grow arrogant”

1:24 “Attack him where he is unprepared, appear where you are not expected.”

3:18 “Hence the saying: if you know your enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat. If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle”

5:17 “Simulated disorder postulates perfect discipline, simulated fear postulates courage; simulated weakness postulates strength.”

6:8 “Hence that general is skillful in attack whose opponent does not know what to defend; and he is skillful in defense whose opponent does not know what to attack”

6:29-30 “Military tactics are like unto water; for water in its natural course runs away from high places and hastens downwards. So in war, the way is to avoid what is strong and to strike what is weak”

7:15, “In war, practice dissimulation, and you will win”

Wang’s conflict with Sui did seem to account for Sui’s arrogance and sense of superiority. Wang’s previous loss against Sui probably fed that same arrogance. Sui was certain it could win next time. He played with Sui’s confidence acting weak, baiting Sui into action and then provoked Sui after getting a small (but important) victory, killing a memory, attacking what Sui wasn’t prepared to defend. Being underestimated and perceived as weak favored his tactics. Something he seems to have been doing for a while, but I’ll leave the subject to another post.

3:1 “Sun Tzu said: In the practical art of war, the best thing of all is to take the enemy’s country whole and intact; to shatter and destroy it is not so good. So, too, it is better to recapture an army entire than to destroy it, to capture a regiment, a detachment or a company entire than to destroy them.”

Elsewhere (3:2) Sun Tzu does mention that the supreme excellence consists in breaking the enemy’s resistance without fighting, but Wang (probably) had no knowledge or means that could make have broken Sui’s resistance without conflict. Conquering Sui’s body and then becoming it was probably the second best form of victory.

4:1-2,13 “Sun Tzu said: The good fighters of old first put themselves beyond the possibility of defeat, and then waited for an opportunity of defeating the enemy. To secure ourselves against defeat lies in our own hands, but the opportunity of defeating the enemy is provided by the enemy himself”, “He wins his battles by making no mistakes”

5:13 “The quality of decision is like the well-timed swoop of a falcon which enables it to strike and destroy its victim”

There are some ways in which this story shows the opposite of what Sun Tzu recommends.

6:1 “Sun Tzu said: Whoever is first in the field and awaits the coming of the enemy, will be fresh for the fight; whoever is second in the field and has to hasten to battle will arrive exhausted.”

9:11 “The art of war teaches us to rely not on the likelihood of the enemy’s not coming, but on our own readiness to receive him; not on the chance of his not attacking, but rather on the fact that we have made our position unassailable.”

Wang arrived late at Sui’s tomb. Sui was ready for his arrival.

7:34 “Do not pursue an enemy who simulates flight; do not attack soldiers whose temper is keen”

11:58-59 “Place your army in deadly peril, and it will survive; plunge it into desperate straits, and it will come off in safety. For it is precisely when force has fallen into harm’s way that is capable if striking a blow of victory.”

Near the end of this story Wang reveals he himself has lost many things.

It’s a familiar concept. Don’t burn your enemy’s bridges, don’t corner a wild beast… don’t make your enemy feel like they have no choices left. Sui was continuously pushing its influence on the Proxies. Trying to overwhelm its opponent made him disregard what otherwise would have been treated with more importance.

This takes me to the last point.

13:21 “The enemy’s spies who have come to spy on us must be sought out, tempted with bribes, led away and comfortably housed. Thus they will become converted spies and available for our service.”

Sui could have considered a bargain. Giving Wang an alternative besides fighting to the death. Wang himself mentioned he was only employing these methods because he knew Sui wouldn’t willingly go back to sleep.

Maybe that sense of superiority is what kept Sui from even considering negotiation as option.

That’s all I felt like sharing. I don’t know what may have been intentional or just casually landed in this story. There may also be more concepts I wasn’t able to notice, so anyone is free to add or correct where I may have been mistaken.

On a previous post I said that except for Ela and Dorothy, Trapmasters lean mostly towards support and utility with some kind of damage.

Ela has utility, but her main uses are usually burst damage. Dorothy has utility and provides support, but has map-wide damage that can clear mob waves and even selected elites.

The new Trapmaster, Wang, feels like a mirrored Dorothy, whereas Dorothy can be considered 75% control and 25% damage, Wang feels like 75% damage and 25% control.

On another previous post I mentioned Wang is, on debut, the most “efficient” Trapmaster, but looking at his talents that’s not unconditional.

His first talent (considering potential 1) says that he can hold up to 7 traps and deploys at most 6. When a trap is deployed manually, Wang will deploy another next to it. If, for some reason, Wang doesn’t deploy a trap next to it, that single trap won’t be activated until another is placed next to it.

His second talent (increased with his module) says that when a trap is activated, for every trap in the same straight chain, all traps within that chain deal an additional 13% damage and ignore 12 RES (stacks up to 3 times)

When equipped with Skill 1, once a trap is triggered, a single enemy is Slowed and receives 135% of Wang's ATK as Arts damage every second for 6.5s (7 damage instances. Since it’s damage over time, it benefits from Tin Man’s talent)

His skill 1 is all about damage and slight single target crowd control. Slow from his trap will only affect one enemy, but since it’s his highest single target damage you’re probably expected to use against some elites and bosses, like Alistair in that first video, where he’s also taking the damage from chaining 3 traps in a line, vertically and horizontally. That method, however, reduces the amount of traps you really use, because almost half are being retreated. It’s funny that this skill setup is the closest thing to his boss mechanic we got.

Skill 2 makes it so that when a trap is triggered, deals 580% ATK as Arts damage to all enemies within 3 tiles, but only in directions where the trap is connected to another trap, and reduces their Movement Speed by 50% for 6s.

This is the best crowd-control skill his kit will have. If 2 traps hit an enemy, their movement speed falls to its minimum (no matter what, movement speed can’t be reduced beyond a minimum speed though).

Most enemies don’t have some resistance to movement speed reduction, but some do.

If you connect these traps both vertically and horizontally at any point, the detonations will become cross shaped like you see above.

Very satisfying to use against some Collapsals and other “runners”.

By the way, did you notice how Wang didn’t die from reflect damage when those traps hit the chest? That’s because the traps you deploy are consideres sourceless damage, while the traps Wang deploys are damage tied to him.

Because of that you can prevent reflect damage by deploying traps on top of those Wang himself deploys.

Keep in mind that could affect how you deal with some enemies. Witch King isn’t taking damage here because his shield nullifies damage coming from the other side of it.

What about skill 3?

Its passive effect gives every trap an AoE same as Texas (vanguard) or Flametail (both on skill 2). Traps deal 380% of Wang’s damage as arts damage. When you activate, Wang stops attacking, his attack range increases to 5x5, he’s able to place traps on tiles occupied by enemies (that is, if you can deploy an operator you can deploy a trap. Spires of Epoch, the crystals from IS5, and other enemies like that won’t allow you to do that on their tiles). If you deploy one trap, Wang will deploy 3 more besides the one from his talent (total:4, which surround the one you deploy from every side), making sure the traps on skill within range always fully benefit from Wang’s talent 2. Skill will grant 8 traps and 20 ammo and can be manually deactivated, but there’s a catch: you only gain traps from this skill activation or if you deactivate while there’s still ammo left. Remaining ammo will be converted into traps.

These traps are coded in a way that, if an enemy that could die from a single trap damage enters the range of multiple traps, only a single trap will be activated (or just the sufficient amount). This prevents wasted damage/effect. Something Ela’s traps don’t have…

Optimally you’d want to use this skill, place traps as needed, then deactivate it if

•If you notice Wang has 8 ammo left.

•If you deployed enough traps to handle what comes through during his long downtime and no enemies are coming.

Since remaining ammo is converted into traps, it’s wise not to spend all ammo.

That last part takes me to points where Wang falls short. That IS3 stage is called Sanguinarch’s Legacy. Most enemies in that stage have Physical and Arts damage reduction.

No matter if Wang has high multipliers, no matter if he has Resistance ignore… Enemies with Damage Reduction and/or high HP will walk through multiple of his traps without dying, like you see those enemies doing. Skill 3 has no crowd control like slow, bind etc to prevent enemies from advancing.

Invisible enemies will still ignore his traps and enemies that have global range may attack him 2-3 times and he will die.

On skill 3 it can become hard to handle reflect damage. No other Trapmaster before Wang had such issues with reflect damage.

But also no other Trapmaster had traps that could hit aerial enemies.

Before Wang, Trapmasters had one arts damage option. Dorothy Skill 3, among a total of 12 skills.

Wang also brings high damage over time and the ability to deploy traps on tiles occupied by enemies, directly (skill 3) and indirectly (through his talent).

The traps he himself deploys next to yours will prioritize tiles with enemies, if no enemy is nearby, undeployable tiles, then available melee tiles and only then will Wang himself place a trap on a ranged tile. Through each of these steps he will follow the order of ↑, →, ↓, ←.

Wang brings some satisfying things to Trapmasters. Despite the fact he himself doesn’t offer much crowd control, he’s pretty versatile to use in many situations.

He does set a new high for arts damage but… I can’t say I’m optimistic about this part. Damage is, once again, the most replaceable part of any operator’s kit. Today his damage seems absurd, but eventually a Wiš'adel outdamages a Typhon, who outdamaged a Pozëmka earlier… Only to give Lemuen the meta throne.

Trapmasters require active gameplay and even Wang doesn’t escape the need for planning. Eventually another arts damage with less active effort may take his place.

That said, nothing stops you from using Pozëmka these days if you like her, right?

If you got Wang I hope you can enjoy his gameplay style for a long time. Same goes for Chen Trilogy.