The chain system, also known as "chain spells", allows players to cast spells that propagate from one target to another, affecting multiple enemies in sequence. This mechanic offers several advantages and can be implemented in different ways, providing dynamic and strategic gameplay experiences.

The essence of the chain system lies in the ability of a spell to propagate beyond its initial target, affecting other enemies in a specific pattern. This propagation is usually conditioned by predefined criteria, such as:

• Distance: The spell can only propagate to enemies within a certain radius of the initial target.
• Status conditions: The spell can only propagate to enemies that are not in protection zones.
• Status conditions: The spell can only propagate to a certain number of creatures.

By meeting these criteria, the spell "jumps" from the initial target to the next eligible enemy, causing damage or applying other effects. This process can repeat until the chain is interrupted for one of the following reasons:

• Jump limit: The spell has a predefined limit in the item's configuration of how many times it can propagate, how many creatures it can hit, whether it only accepts players/monsters and the maximum distance it can reach.
• Absence of targets: There are no more eligible enemies within range or meeting the propagation conditions.
• Effect: Typically the effect has the color of the elemental damage and when hitting a target, the spell casts an extra effect on that target.

• Damage efficiency: It allows significant damage to be dealt to multiple enemies with a single spell cast, optimizing the player's mana and time usage.
• Creative strategies: It opens up space for various gameplay strategies, such as focusing on specific enemies to start the chain or positioning oneself to propagate the spell to as many enemies as possible.
• Sense of power: It provides players with a sense of power and control over the battlefield.

How the creature count actually works:

• The creature count does not depend on rarity: every wand and rod carries its own value in the item's maxtargets attribute.
• That value is the total number of creatures hit, counting the first one — it is not an extra on top of your target. The highest value in the game today is 4.
• The maximum distance from one target to the next is also per item. If the chain finds nobody within that range, it stops before reaching the maximum.
• Why does it sometimes seem to hit more creatures than the table says? Because chain is not the only system spreading damage. On top of it there are two cleaves, independent of the item and of maxtargets: Cleave hits up to 2 creatures next to your target for a percentage of the damage, and Cleave Custom hits up to 8 creatures around you — not around the target — for flat damage, granted by outfits and mounts. Together, one attack can touch well over 4 creatures. The number in the table is the chain alone.
• The table below is read from the server's items.xml, so it never goes stale.

Example of Chain Spells
(The system only works in PvE)