Items with Built-in Skill or Skill Slot.

Hopefully this will be an interesting submission and feasible (not causing imbalance in the game).

Why not have another category of rare item (shield for example) with a built in skill? It may not need to be anything too spectacular - maybe an armor buff, a taunt or a rez sig. Either way, it would free up one skill slot on your bar (assuming you always carry some sort of rez).

This could be a very sought after type of weapon, armor or item due to it's potential in specific builds. Another option could be to go Final Fantasy 7 style and allow people to pick which skill goes into the skill slot - but I image that would introduce too many balance issues.

Just a thought.

diablo 2 had something similar as well.

~the BotD Rat~

I had a similar idea. I was thinking more along the lines of casters' offhand items. Instead of giving an energy bonus, have it give you some sort of effect, similar to an enchantment. It would be on all the time and it wouldn't be able to be removed. Of course the effect wouldn't be too great, it would be an effect that would be worth giving up 12 energy for.

I don't like the item dependance of this idea, and I also don't like the thought of items that allow people to have extra skils so /notsigned.

What I think would work better is items or item mods that always give a small bonus to a certain skill. Like a 100 Blades sword that gives you +4 damage per hit whenever you use 100 blades. That kind of thing I think might be acceptable because it modifies how an existing skill is used in a minor way.

I'm curious...

Someone posted that they wanted a special effect on a focus item instead of +energy. Why not give up energy for an extra pip of energy regen?

How come there aren't any focus items that read:

+12 energy
-15 energy
+1 energy regeneration

We already have:

+12 energy
+15 energy
-1 energy regeneration

So why not the opposite?

Because the first is incredibly powerful, and the second is only useful as an emergency energy pool.

That would fundimentally give you 9 skills, which would over power warriors since other professions wouldnt use a shield with an inbuild skill/spell.

Unless you suggest that wands, staffs and bows can also have skills built in, but I dont love that idea.

You would have to create whole new unique weapon skills, because I cant see how you could use the current ones as most enchantments have time limits or something which causes them to expire.

But I would also expect this to either be a NF or next campaign unique thing, which would still see unfair to those who wouldnt own them.

They wouldnt update the two or three previous campaigns with new weapons.

Yes, Diablo II has a system where certain "charged" items can be obtained, allowing a set skill to be used a limited number of times. However, I think this probably would'nt work in guild wars as it would allow for brief energy/recharge less spamming of a skill and would be too easy to exploit.

More items like blood stained boots and stoneskin guantlets!
That would be interesting. And make them PVE attainable only. That way a PVE character could have access to some unique effect in PVP to balance out their lack of all that PVP gear and mods at the click of a button.

On the PvP side, it would throw the balance out of whack. On the PvE side, well...

"GLF PPL W/ [X(>8)] SKILLS ONLY SI"

In the long run it would be wiser to just add a ninth skill slot, but even that is a pretty wild idea that would radically change the game. Given these and other factors, I'll give this one my almost-obligatory /notsigned and move on.