Pox has a lot of information to handle, but there are ways to grip it. This essay will provide methods to organize and remember that information. These mental tricks will aid those who use them, but at its heart, memory is about meaning: the surest way to remember everything is to care about it, and a player is best served - in every respect - by first and foremost enjoying their time with the game. The first step to broadening horizons is habitual: read everything. Now, that does not mean read the entirety of Poxbase and every scrap of data on the forums, that would be laborious and, in the latter case, abhorrently painful. To read everything means to remain inquisitive and perceptive in-game. During idle time of an opposing turn, when mulling over a plan of action, or observing a game, constantly scan the field, clicking from champion to champion and perusing their abilities and stats. In particular, read something as soon as it’s deployed. This doesn’t mean just the first time a champion is deployed, but every time: give the 100th encounter with a champion just as much chance to inform and impress as the first. A player who reads constantly will find some abilities, especially the common ones, jump into memory easily. Even so, familiarity and information are only the first step. Constant reading lays the groundwork for the next component of understanding: establishing a system. Disparate facts and figures best remain in memory when they have a latticework of relationships to which to adhere themselves. Particularly for Pox, this means recognizing similar abilities and forming categories, groups, and relationships among them. Teleport is similar to Leap, which has a connection to Tunnel: Earth, which is also like Portal. Portal is common on defensive runes, such as Stitched Librarian, or supplied through Grimlic’s Portal. Grimlic’s Portal is a relic with physical immunity, which makes it at once like Earthshaker’s Bracelet and Grimilic’s Eye, which features instead physical resistance. That train of thought it only one example of how to chain information together; the general pattern is what is important. Considering how runes are related and using those relationships to remember other runes makes the matter trivial. It is much like pulling a net from a river: one need only grab a single knot, tug, and the entire apparatus will bit-by-bit emerge. Another element of this systemization is establishing particular foci. These are abilities or runes that have generic or common qualities, to which other abilities can be then easily related. These lighthouses will be different for everyone, but for reference and potential ease of use I will list a few I use. They are both useful as reference and important in their own right. Poison Teleport Frostcone Battlemaster Hammer Strike Stealth Block Icestorm Resistance: Physical A limited list from any any angle, the above set should at least provide a base to which to relate other abilities and runes. This third technique aids in remembering a single ability. Some, such as Multi Attack, are simple, but others have nuances and details that are easily jumbled. To circumvent this, condense an ability into a single fact: for 4 AP, Teleport provides an additional point of effective speed per rank. From that statement, a player can extrapolate Teleport’s cooldown, its cast distance, and other abilities that might be similar; Leap rank 3 does the same thing for 3 AP. This isn’t a hard and fast way to remember an ability or rune, but performing this process in the back of the mind while scanning abilities will simplify material for storage and subsequent recall. These three approaches should arm the well-intentioned to grasp onto Pox, not quickly, but firmly. No matter how closely followed, however, the surest track to understanding is to have fun. Pox is a wonderful, complex, mad game, and if there were but a single rule to follow, it would be this: Enjoy! So go forth, have a blast, and best of luck.
