Which profession got the best skills from Nightfall...

I was wondering what class people thought got the best end of deal with the new skills from nightfall. I guess this would be best taken in two ways: Who got the best PvP skills and who got the best PvE skills.

My 2 cents is that I think monks made out well, which I am glad to see. I say this because there's nothing sadder than sitting in a mission town looking for a monk for a long time, settling with henchies, then watch them get pwnt. Hopefully giving the monk class better skills will either encourage more people to make monks (since I know the appearance of monks in nightfall definatly won't attact anyone to make one) or allow people to have better healing hench/heroes. Glimmer of Light is probably the best example of this.

assassin got that one dual attack that does +79 if u remove an enchantment...

Scourge Enchantment = FTW!

Monk, holy haste and glimmer of light.

The Ele spell "Ether Prism" is a real powerhouse.
(1) Raise your Energy Storage to 12
(2) Fire Away 35 pts of Energy
(3) Use Ether Prism and you have maximum Energy again
(4) Go to step 2

With the right rhythm and some attunement you could potentially spam spells forever. Just as long as you dont rush it.

Oh I'm loving a number of NF skills, you can't ask me to pick one...
I finally get to play true buffer as a paragon.
Dervish is both caster and melee (I'm hopeless with assassin and warrior but good with casters so this profession will be an interesting one for me.)
Eles the new energy storage skills are looking good.
I'm a little disappointed with the protection skills for monk, but the healing and divine favour ones are looking very good.
Mesmer... Well what can I say... Signet of illusions is going to be soooooo nice. I know some people are complaining about it - but I'm not

And on the whole, I think the Elementalist is probably getting the biggest boost out of this. While all the other classes do have a couple of nice things coming in, the Elementalist does, at this point, have the most skills I'm looking forward to seeing.

Consider, just to name a few:
Blinding Surge: Yes, it's Elite, but it's also a cheap, spammable blind. The damage (although note that it doesn't seem to be armour-penetrating) and the chance to blind multiple targets is almost a bonus.

Ebon Hawk: Decouples the dependance of Earth skills that work off Weakness from cross-attribute skills.

Stone Striker: Mantra of Earth, anyone?

Mind Blast: Unlike Mind Burn, this one helps you maintain the special condition!

In fact, in general, I think one of the big things in Nightfall is signified by skills such as Mind Blast and Ether Prism: Elementalists actually seem to be gathering some decent energy management now!

EDIT: I've managed to miss the complaints about Sig. Illusions - what are the basis for these complaints?

1) Elite
2) No attribute
3) A lot of "spell steals" are domination
4) You will want 16 illusion, decent fast cast, and decent inspiration, leaving not much for dom.

Personally I don't have too many issues with it, since I like the idea of using it on arcane mimicry (no attr) and inspired enchantment/hex.

Assasins got an INCREDIBLE new critical spell, that raises the chance of criticals by something like 20%

That's ON TOP of critical eye.

My god.....it's not even an elite. I think I'm in love

Sorry, I was wrong, it is an elite.

http://gw.gamewikis.org/wiki/Way_of_the_Assassin

But it adds 29% to critical chance, not 20% That, ON TOP of critical eye, with 16 in critical hits.....

The potential is EXTREME. You're talking builds that will almost always allow you to heal yourself with every hit, cause bleeding (sharpen daggers) with every hit etc. If you factor in 29% from that skill, the 16 in critical strikes and critical eyes, you've almost got a 50% chance of getting a critical with EVERY SINGLE HIT whilst this baby is up and running. (Plus, critical is an enchantment, so if you cast it BEFORE way of the assassin, you're all set anyway)

PLUS! If you're criticalling that often, you're getting energy back with 1 out of every 2 attacks!

Remember that criticals/chance/recharge doesn't "stack". As far as I am aware it evaluates one, then it evaluates the other. So it works like this:

WotA - critical - yes/no -> CEye - critical - yes/no -> critical - yes/no

Chance for a critical is:
Chance of WotA & Not CEye +
Chance of CEye & Not WotA +
Chance of WotA & Chance of CEye

CEye chance is 20, correct?

=> (0.29 * 0.8) + (0.2 * 0.71) + (0.29 * 0.2) = 0.232 + 0.142 + 0.058 = 0.432

A lot of people assume that they stack such that 29 + 20 = 49% but this is wrong. The chance using both these skills, of getting a critical, is 43.2%

Heh Rangers ---> Toxicity ----> pwnage

That spirit cause so much degen when coupled with Poision arrow, or arrows. I love that combination, just wish its attribute wasnt beast mastery.

Also I'm really digging the new Minion types and the way they look.

I played a mesmer in the preview and became enamored with Spiritual Pain. Mesmer AoE, fairly quick recharge. Me likey.

Holy Haste.. I love playing WoH, woohoo!


AND OMG, another heal area, BUT, its 5E and 10 recharge, I can heal all your minions with these 3 ownage spells. /end sarcasm

My W/N has his eye on 1 skill.

Headbutt.

This will take a bite out of guardian spamming monks for sure. Plus it may do a thing against messers if done right. All in all, I LOVE IT

But the Soldier Skills in the Tactics Line just look plain NASTY......Steady stance looks like a all purpose anti-Shock war/thumper skill.......

Monk?

Holy Haste <3

Glimmer of Light - VERY nice spell to me considering one of my choice spells is Healing Whisper...but it comes at the cost of Offering of Blood ;_;

The new smiting skills are VERY nice and defender's zeal may prove to be a
useful elite, with assassins/barrage rangers

Reversal of Damage may be a point to get people into the smiting line....


Necros

Tattered Bonds is CLEARLY an anti-D/Mo CoP abuse skill, and perhaps a anti AoE smiter skill too. D/Mos suffering from this will drop like flies. If combined with Order of Apocasy or a similar skill, it's got frightening power.

The two non-elites in the soul reaping line are pretty good.

Signet of Sorrow mind you just cries "DIE IWAY DIE LOL!!"

The other skills don't really appeal much to me. But I'm sure certain....

Rangers

Toxicity - Ok this skill just screams madness. Expect it as a standard spirit

Sweltering Heat - "FEAR ME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!", that is both skills btw :P

Smoke Trap - Very good against caster loving teams :P. Use with Aria of concentration for even more fun

Magebane Shot - moar like monkbane shot amirite?

Mesmers

Wastrel's Demise - It's cheap, it's the best way to smack people down after degen

Extend Conditions - Good if you like cheap dazing skills

Hypocondria - this is going to be nasty with fragility........

Eles

Glowing Gaze - Rodgorts gets a follow up.

TONS of other skills, but the point is, energy love.

Can't be bothered with the others, but point is.

They got equal love, tho the warriors have some........."interesting" ones.

Poison Arrow? I'm thinking more Tainted/Warder Necros w/ Rotting Flesh in HA/GvG .

Flail looks brilliant for a secondary warrior. Even at 5 seconds some professions/builds could keep it up constantly.

The warrior skill with the 21 second self-dazed is really begging you to use Plague Touch...

Magebane Shot... you may aswell say goodbye to elementalists running anything but Air in competitive matches.

That elite that boosts critical chance is worthless... Who cares if you hit criticals more often, you hit criticals all the time if they're kiting/knocked down (i think the latter). Its a waste of an elite, Locusts Fury was much more useful and a hell of alot more fun.

Personally I think Me/A dagger based IW mesmers might become pretty brutal with Feigned Neutrality:

http://gw.gamewikis.org/wiki/Feigned_Neutrality

It works as both a way to save your butt and cover your enchants.

It also doesn't heal you.

I'm happy with a LOT of new skills. The NF team did a great job

I'm pumped about Zealous Benediction

i think monks got tons of great new stuff but a few mesmer spells interest me

on would be Hypochondria-All conditions on foes in the area of the target foe are transferred to that foe.

so Fragility->Virulence->Epidemic->Hypochondria looks cool

Right. My response to these criticisms, not to you (obviously, since you're just the messenger after all) but to the people making these comments:

1) So you have to make a specialty build with it. The point being?
2) So what are you going to make tied to the attribute? Actually, I suppose you could tie it to Illusion, and have it so that more spells get to use Illusion if you have a higher Illusion score. This would be leading to an exponential effect, though - maybe Inspiration would actually be better?
3) And the hexes that slow down casting are mostly Illusion, while the interrupts are Domination and Inspiration.
4) Wrong. You want 16 illusion because you have a hang-up that every single spell you cast must be at the maximum attribute. (Besides, even if this was a serious issue, you could always use Sig. Illusions on Arcane Thievery to start off with after all, the effect of the signet doesn't wear off until you use it... )

Personally, if I was going to complain about anything, it would be the 2 second activation time. if it turns out that the skill is crippled by any of this, however, ANet has shown a willingness to buff underused skills in the past (unlike some developers who'll just nerf what's overused while the underused stuff stays under the proverbial radar) so I'm sure that if the above problems turn out to be insurmountable.

Actually, come to think of it, you should be able to get 16 Illusion and decent scores in the other Mesmer attributes (9,9 and 8) fairly easily. Yes, it means your Arcane Larceny doesn't last quite as long (except for your opening one which should itself be boosted by the Signet) and yes, it means you only break even out of Inspired Enchantment instead of getting an energy profit, but hey, it's still better than having to build up the attribute of the spells you expect to steal directly (yes, I have run around doing that to hydra with a maxed Fire Magic attribute before).

Its official, if you have a ranger hero on you with this skill and your spell is longer than 1/2 second cast don't even bother.

Speaking of Anti-IWAY

Vocal Minority

Hex Spell. For 5...17 seconds target foe and all foes in the area cannot use Shouts or Chants.

Well of Silence

Well Spell. Exploit target corpse to create a Well of Silence for 10...26 seconds. Foes within the well cannot use Shouts or Chants and suffer -1...-3 Health degeneration.

Ulcerous Lungs

Hex Spell. For 10...22 seconds, target foe and all nearby foes suffer from -2 Health degeneration and begin Bleeding for 3...13 seconds whenever they use a Shout or Chant.

I am really happy with the new Nightfall skills, as everyone seems to be.

It's really isn't fair to people who aren't Necromacers, as they rock many a face off. I think my primary profession, Necro, got a HUGE boost!

I just about peed myself when I read Meekness. Shadow of Fear on steroids with a slightly higher cost and some health sac. Other curses too, but all in all, Curses are even MORE powerful.

Shamblings, nice. More Soul Reaping skills, nice. Factions gave a huge boost to blood, but Nightfall gave back to Curses and Death Magic.

All in all, I like all the new skills!

One person a few posts back said something like:

"Finnaly, Eles can properly manage their energy."

What? You couldn't before? Eles are the MASTERS of getting energy. Mesmers can manipulate it, but Eles are 2nd to none with Energy. Are there Blood Magic or Healing Prayer attunements? No. Who else can gain back their own energy after every spell they cast? Ether Prodigy is nuts by itsself as well! My ele in PvE uses a nuking build and the line up is:

Glyph of Energy/Fireball/Breath of Fire/Firestorm/Searing Heat/Tenai's Heat/Fire Attunment, then either Res sig or Meteor Shower. (depending if I trust the monks or not.

I can CONSTANTLY cast spells and NEVER run dry of energy. As soon as one spell is done, another is on its way. No other class can do that. (cept necros in PVE, thx to soul reaping, if things are dieing, but I can pull this off in PvP if I wanted to.)

Anyways, woo! to new skills and fun.

Firestorm, Searing/Teinai's Heat and Breath of Fire in PvE? Remind me never to invite you to any group where aggro needs to be managed well, such as the UW or FoW.

Is there a skill list anywhere else than GWwiki?

with 16 in critical arts, its 37%. read your own website link. lol

I'd have to say Necros got it real good out of the skills

3 anti-shout/chant skills - Ulcerous Lungs, Vocal Minority, and Well of Silence

A LOT of enchantment expoits (I hope Dervishes like my Tattered Bonds elite)

A non-elite energy gain skill (Signet of Lost Souls)

And finally some worthwhile death magic elites

So now:

You will melt faces as a Necromancer in PvP

Necromancers, no doubt. There is not 1 new elite that is below avg, and only 2 that are actually avg. The other 8 elites are superb. The non-elite skills are wonderful as well.

Monks got a few good skills, but on the whole their story is like that of Eles, Sins, and Rangers- few great skills, improvements in the right direction, but on the whole lots of filler skills. More than Factions offered for sure.

Mesmer normal skills are fine but elites are mediocre. The only semi-decent new elite is Sig of Illusions. Rest needs buffs or will never see the light of day. Rits as well- ok-ish new skills, mediocre elites. I think Me and Rits got the worst new elites.

Warriors I cant speak of, because that is the one prof I don't ever play.

As the other prof. got many good new skills it saddens me to see that deverishes are becoming more and more "sucky", or at least imo. On the other hand im really excited about some of the ele, rit, and sin skills such as mind blast (my fav ), blinding surge, shameful waste, weapon of remedy, renewing surge, shadow walk, and many other skills.
im hoping to see sins grow more powerful in nightfall

Even though rangers got some decent skills, this Elite has to be the biggest joke I have ever seen:

http://gw.gamewikis.org/wiki/Scavenger%27s_Focus

Especially when you compare it to Read the Wind:

http://gw.gamewikis.org/wiki/Read_the_Wind