GW:EN Skills Preview

WARRIORPulverizing Smash
Overpowered version of crushing blow Keen Chop
Underpowered Knee Cutter
Probably abusable as an infinite energy engine.
Looks fun though... at least until it's nerfed. Disarm
Considering Wail of Doom is elite, this seems overpowered. At least sword is getting some long-overdue love. Grapple
If not for "I Meant to Do That" this skill would never see play except for in "annoyance" builds. The combination of the two scares me a little. "I Meant to Do That!"
Overpowered. Makes for an infinite adrenaline engine in two non-elite skills. Distracting Strike
Seems a bit weak without any warrior skills that cause cracked armor. Symbolic StrikeIf you could find a way to build your adrenaline through signets, this skill could be wickedly powerful in gimmick builds. Otherwise it's kinda meh. (What warrior carries more than 1 signet right now?) The written max of 70 is superfluous. You've got 8 skill slots; the bonus is 10 per signet; this skill is not a signet itself... Soldier's Speed
Brutal for PvP; probably not worth a skillslot in PvE, except maybe running builds. Body Blow
Looks like junk. Crap damage linked to a crap attribute plus a conditional deep wound tied to a condition warriors can't cause, and all for a really steep adrenaline cost. Count me out.
RANGERRapid Fire
Rangers finally get a speed boost -- cool! But... it's a preparation... So I have to give up using any other preparation, and give up barrage (PvE), and give up volley. Heck, I'd rather use Never Rampage Alone... Sloth Hunter's ShotWho the heck names these things? Seems like an awfully hard condition to meet. Perhaps if it had interrupt-like activation time so you could reliably follow up interrupts or knockdowns it might be quite good. As is, I'm not so sure about it. Piercing TrapThe raw damage alone makes it a decent trap. The lack of any ranger skills that cause cracked armor make me question the usefulness of the bonus effect, though. Companionship
GAH!!! When are the devs going to figure out that, when we already need to take charm and comfort just to bring a pet, we are never going to dedicate yet another skill slot to pet healing. Ever. There just isn't enough room in the skillbar. Give it a weak pet rez effect so that it can be used as a replacement for comfort, or it just won't see any play at all. Feral Aggression
Best new ranger skill so far. This one might make my skillbar sometimes, without being overpowered Disrupting Shot
Overpowered much? Compare savage shot. Volley
OK, so it's a mini-barrage. But you still lose your preparations. Maybe it could combo well with elite damage boosts from other classes (ie spirit's strength, illusionary weaponry, etc), otherwise I don't see a lot of point. Maybe so you could use magebane shot and kinda-barrage? Expert Focus
Not so great. Not really enough damage to beat out the other preps. Rangers don't really need a lot of e-management. Incompatible with barrage and volley anyway. Body Shot
Also not so great. The damage is so-so. The condition is hard to meet as a ranger (no skills that do it). And rangers don't really need the energy anyway. Poison Tip Signet
One poison arrow every 11 sec? Seems... underwhelming. OK, so it's not elite, or a prep, or a pet skill, or a trap... but... one poison arrow every 11 sec?
That's two professions down. I'll get the other's as I have time.

Ok i guess your right.
Expose defenses is just always on the target anyways and in that 4 seconds you don't have that many chances to fail, thats why i missed it

Quote:

Ooo, these skills make me excited!

Already got great ideas... Some skills look like incredible additions to certain builds, and still others give whole new ideas for builds! I must give Anet props for the creativity and variety in the upcoming skills.

I'll save my critique till i actually get to use them, because at this point anything can change and anything can happen!

cheers!

All these are opinions. I don't intend to give an authoritative view but more of a general overlook.

WARRIOR
=======
Pulverizing Smash --> Deep wound on 4 adrenaline is kind of cheap. If you take into account hammer speed under IAS you might want 5 or 6 minimum adrenaline. Then again the target needs to be knocked down which more or less hinges on an elite knockdown or an energy based one. The non-elite knockdowns from the hammer line make you lose all adrenaline. Maybe give it a small recharge like 4 or 5 seconds. Crushing blow, the only deep wound in the hammer line is 10 recharge.

Keen Chop --> axe base damage is decent but not in PvE against monsters where the + damage which is armor ignoring is more or less most of your damage. That basically means it is a PvP skill (if hammer damage ever becomes a reason to use this skill). Too bad axes have less damage than Scythes on critical.

Knee Cutter --> adrenaline and energy on a crippled foe is fine but you need a crippling skill to pull it off. Sword doesn't have cripple outside of Crippling Slash and Hamstring (horribly energy intensive) so you're going to end up using things like Harrier's Grasp.

Disarm --> looks solid. I bet it will make swordsmanship skills more tactically useful than ripostes which rely on tanking. Should probably interrupt non-spell skills too though given the 12 cool-down.

Grapple --> a non-elite knockdown that has a decent constraint!

"I Meant to Do That!" --> very niche to the point of Steady Stance warriors. Only really combinable with things like Desperation/Drunken Blow and POSSIBLY Forceful Blow. Fleeting Stability and the GW:EN skill "Grapple".

Distracting Strike --> really condition dependent (a condition that the warrior himself cannot inflict as well). Maybe have a 10 second base disable time. Compared with Disrupting Stab, Disrupting Lunge, Distracting Shot, Disrupting Chop under IAS, and other skills it isn't that great.

Symbolic Strike --> I doubt any warrior is going to carry more than 3 signets but you get +30 if you bring Res sig, Heal Sig, and one other sig (Signet of Removal maybe?) for 4 adrenaline is pretty insane. Compare it to Cleave, 2 signets will net you +20, 3 signets get you a executioner's strike level of armor-ignoring + damage.

Soldier's Speed --> relies on shouts/chants meaning you have to be sure they are up. A lot of micro when it easier to just forsake the duration and 8% speed boost over sprint.

Body Blow --> niche and condition dependent. It relies on you knowing your teammates will bring cracked armor skills since the warrior himself doesn't have cracked armor inflicting skills. Is the + damage worth the risk (at 7 adrenaline) when dismember is 5 adrenaline? Maybe on sword, but not on axe or hammer which have less condition reliant deep wound.

RANGER
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Rapid Fire --> 33% faster IAS prep means you will need stuff like conjures. IIRC people were complaining about how preps don't do enough DPS. Making this a prep means you cannot use stuff like Glass Arrows or Read the Wind. IMO + damage and arrow speed is better than IAS.

Sloth Hunter's Shot --> I really expected this to be extra damage while foe is moving slower than normal (Cripple/water hexed). Guess I was wrong. Not using a skill means that the target isn't spamming, which is usually good. +63 bonus damage on a caster not casting (think mesmers with fast cast times) on a 8 recharge is kind of overkill though.

Piercing Trap --> Cracked armor has a really narrow set of applications. +110ish damage is really overpowered compared to the other traps that do about 50ish (such as the pure damage Flame Trap).

Companionship --> going to need a 1 cast time if it's going to be used once you consider that it is not an unconditional heal.

Feral Aggression --> yay for making beastmasters more powerful. The fact that it is unstrippable and unstoppable (make it a shout/chant?) due to 0 cast time is worrisome, however.

Disrupting Shot --> This is just a worse version of Savage shot in terms of interruption, really. The fact that it +40ish damages on any skill doesn't make it 12 recharge worthy. It does give more options in the form of utility based damage though.

Volley --> wannabe Barrage that hits 4 targets instead of 6. 2 recharge instead of 1. No 1 cast time meaning it needs the bow draback animation, You're going to need a real good non preparation elite to justify using this over barrage.

Expert Focus --> will probably imbalance all the cheaper 5 energy bow attack, given it makes them more efficient than their 10 energy counterparts (provided you give up your preparation for this one)

Body Shot --> if this was an elite it would never see play because of Prepared shot. If cracked armor was applied more easily it would probably be use a lot.

Poison Tip Signet --> no Poison Arrow/Apply Poison usage means this would make an alternative...but I fail to see the 10 second recharge given the application of poison is generally quick and recurring.

MONK
====
Cure Hex --> Healing prayers Hex removal? NICE

Smite Condition --> Smiting Prayers needs some more usable skills for this to see use, ESPECIALLY with the 7 cool-down. See Reversal of Damage and Smite Hex for parallel instances of Smiting Prayers being overshadowed support-wise.

Patient Spirit --> Like Watchful Spirit, it is too niche and cumbersome for regular use. Usually when you heal you want to have the bar go up. I presume the healing doesn't have divine favor bonus, only the application of the enchantment. This is extremely dangerous in presence of Shatter Enchantment.

Healing Ribbon --> Heal Other will be used more often because unless your team is balling up as melee (nearby range) it will be inferior in recharge and heal power.

Steadfast Soul --> like the crappy elite Balthazar's Pendulum and the Paragon's "Brace Yourself", it is WAY too niche

Spotless Mind --> too bad hex teams use enchantment removal and so do AI mesmers and necromancers. At max it removes 19.2/5 hexes (20% longer enchantments, 16 Healing Prayers) = 4 or 5 hexes on 12 cool-down. Could work, but only if the first hex is removed when the enchantment is applied.

Spotless Soul --> the recharge is brutal. Needs to remove first condition on application to be useful and fails against preparations.

Smiter's Boon --> might make smiting prayers more viable but smiting needs to have more ally-targeted skills with decent recharges for this to work. I see this being used on a primary dervish more likely than on a monk since it doesn't scale, meaning it is essentially unlinked.

Castigation Signet --> it will likely be used for the energy instead of damage, so it might see use with 8+ smiting prayers given energy management giving 5or so energy every 20 seconds isn't too bad. Too bad it is so cumbersome to use, so Glyph of Lesser Energy will be used more with 10 energy skills.

Purifying Veil --> might work against burning/blind SPAM (not just application which can be removed every few seconds) but against all other conditions that typically last a long amount of time (15+ seconds) it is relatively useless.


NECROMANCER
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Withering Aura --> 3 cool-down means this is insanity. This will be insane with barrage or any form of AoE physical attack. Weakness is a powerful condition when applied on physical attackers for 0 energy (as long as enchantment is up). Having it spammed means that this is slightly overpowered. Perhaps the clause when ally hits a foe using an skill (since the -1 attribute still counts for something). The closest thing is Enfeeble or Enfeebling blood which are 5 cool-down...

Foul Feast --> Bleeding + Poison + Disease are the only self inflicted conditions. Given that 10 cool-down and 80 damage cap, the only kind of play it will see is crazy self-inflicted condition spam and spiking. 2 Vampiric Gazes outshine it in the form of DPS. Shadow Strike outdoes it when the target is over 50% HP. If anything the recharge needs to be lowered and the cpa needs to be upped.

Putrid Bile --> Puts Icy Veils to shame, since it is armor-ignoring and nonelite?

Cacophony --> niche. Only shout users are warriors and paragons, beastmaster rangers don't really count. Essentially the "Visions of Regret" syndrome.

Hexer's Vigor --> sucks on the level of mending.

Masochism --> nice if you use sacc-ing skills that steal HP. Long cool-down means if it gets stripped it rains on your parade.

Defile Defenses --> good for punishing Wards, non-strippable block-age. Nice cool-down. The damage is utterly insane since 5-6 blocks or so at 16 curses means the target is dead (at least in PvP).

Angorodon's Gaze --> don't know what's up with all the sac-skill promoting...the 15 energy cost means it is reliant on mass kills, energy management via glyphs and such, or self-inficted conditions. Needs a longer cool-down once you factor in self-inflicted conditions making it free.

Well of Ruin --> given this is once of the few ways to inflict cracked armor, it ought to have a 10 cool-down. You need a corpse first of all, and you also need to have the melee/physicals hit and the foe has to be in the well.

Atrophy --> overpowered as all hell even with the 7/20 uptime. My elementalist and monk are going to be annoyed. I feel for the ranger too.

MESMER
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Calculated Risk --> 15 energy cost is brutal unless you bring spirit of failure to pair it up. Seems like Blurred Vision with a downside, to be honest.

Shrinking Armor --> YEH that's what I'm talking about. A reliable way to inflict cracked armor! Not enough to make Mesmers wanted in PvE though.

Aneurysm --> interesting. Probably will only be used as a finisher given the massive disadvantage it will give you. My elementalist is going to hate this one when it hits for 150-200ish. Probably needs a cap of 130 damage?

Wandering Eye --> wow, Clumsiness on AoE. (Reminds me of Mistrust too.) Probably needs a recharge time of 10-12 so Mantra of Recovery doesn't make this ridiculous.

Signet of Distraction --> Nobody is running signet builds so this is kind of useless. Even if you run 8 signets it will be 32 seconds disable time. That means you are better off using Power Block or Distracting Shot/Disrupting Chop/etc.

Signet of Recall --> essentially Mantra of Recall with a load of maluses. Probably shouldn't have the lose all energy, but -10 to 15 energy instead.

Power Lock --> Distracting Shot is widely used because it hits all skills. Under Mantra of Recovery this has 6 recharge so it is a strong contender but only on spellcasters.

Waste Not, Want Not --> energy management that is extremely hard to use doesn't see play often. Casting spells and/or attacking is basically all you do, unless you are using non-spell skills or no skills AND not attacking.

Sum of All Fears --> needed to be toned down, but the recharge saves it. The most likely use will be the snare which is cripple-like in duration.

Confusing Images --> like Diversion, but the effect is not profound and anything less than 3/4 second in cast time won't be hit that hard.

ELEMENTALIST
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Winter's Embrace --> except for shadow stepping, this is like suicide for elementalists.

Shell Shock --> My elementalist thanks you for the only viable direct way to inflict Cracked armor besides "Shrinking Armor".

Glyph of Immolation --> cannot pass judgement on this one since it is pretty niche for Searing Flames, Glowing Gaze, or Steam-style synergy.

Earthen Shackles --> given the easiness to inflict burning with Burning Arrow and Incendiary Arrows, this ought to be toned down to be 33% slower instead of 90% (especially if it is non-elite).

Ward of Weariness --> interesting and maybe even overpowered...especially with Lava arrows, Fireball, a 0 recharge spam. Akin to my thoughts on Withering Aura, the Weakness condition is devastating on physicals. The fact that this is a Ward makes it all the more lethal since it cannot be stripped. This combined with PBAoEs such as Searing Flames, Fireball, Earthquake and you get a 20 second weakness every time. Kinda like Enfeebling Blood spam, making it in need of toning down the duration of Weakness or making it specific instances only (like non-spammable skills only...).

Glyph of Swiftness --> the only things I can think of are Lightning Orb, Shard Storm, Ebon Hawk, Phoenix, Stoning, Lightning Bolt. All other skills are pretty spammable making this skill impractical.

Magnetic Surge --> in the lore sense it seems odd that it would rely on an encahntment as opposed to weakness or some other Elementalist condition. THe cast and recharge seem on par with spiking skills though.

Slippery Ground --> with attunements to make this 15 energy skill workable, Gale would still be more reliable.

Glowing Ice --> yay energy gain for water magic! (Air needed some love too though.)

Energy Blast --> broken if it is armor ignoring since it supports degenerate beginning of the game spike tactics when your energy reserves are at their highest. Glyph of Lesser energy, attunements (especially dual attunements), and weapon swaps make this totally ridiculous.

ASSASSIN
========
Vampiric Assault --> Makes deadly arts based assassins' survival a bit easier. Essentially an 80ish point heal if you spec up in deadly arts (dual attack).

Lotus Strike --> the energy gain is a bit high for a 12 recharge, especially if you have high dagger mastery making +10 energy.

Golden Fang Strike --> the recharge on this is too low for it, even as an offhand attack. Consider Jagged strike is 1 second recharge. A Jagged followed with this would be 5 recharge. Sever Artery-Gash or Crippling Slash-Gash or Dismember or Eviscerate all need more for the deep wound. Consider that Impale and Twisting Fangs are essentially used for the deep wound only.

Falling Lotus Strike --> up to +7 energy in Horns of the Ox/Trampling Ox and knockdown chains (Iron Palm,Grapple) ... 12 recharge saves it from being ridiculous.

Shadow Fang --> probably will be cumbersome to use. I don't see why so many skills are giving Deep Wound to the assassin either. I'm guessing the 45 recharge is because of the shadow step.

Sadist's Signet --> ooh a DEADLY ARTS heal. It ought to have a base like the Leaders' Comfort heal so it isn't all that useless if condition removal is used right before you cast it.

Trampling Ox --> given this is a dual attack, it isn't too unreasonable. Maybe with Harrier's Grasp it will be a bit strong (especially versus kiting) but nothing ridiculous.

Smoke Powder --> the duration versus cool-down is extremely low, making it unlikely to see play. The fact that it is a stance doesn't help.

Signet of Deadly Corruption --> if you use a condition chain then you can eek out the damage. You need 3 conditions to get the 130 damage cap provided you have the spec for 35 damage per condition. Signet of Toxic Shock will probably see play more since you don't need daggers for poison and it is easily applied.

Way of the Warrior --> uh, Assassin is not a warrior. Outside of this fundamental lore confusion, it promotes not using daggers...which usually means about half the assassin skills (i.e. ones relying on dual attacks and daggers only) are made unusable. A/R, A/P, A/W, A/D are the only combos which can critical. I doubt you want to critical with a staff or wand.

RITUALIST
=========
Energetic Was Lee Sa --> +2 energy regen --> 2/3 energy per second. If you hold it for 15 seconds that is 10 energy and another 10 from the ending drop bonus. Realistically you will drop it beforehand so it is decent if you spec in it. Kind of like non-elite Mantra of Recall.

Pure Was Li Ming --> This is nice when removing condition stacks that tend not to have more than 2 or 3 conditions on top, but the recharge is insane considering that deadly conditions tend to have roughly 15-20 second recharge. Daze and Blind are both <30 seconds recharge.

Weapon of Aggression --> WHY "YOU"? Making it target ally would open up a whole new realm of buffing for the ritualist! The fact that it is a weapon spell prevents it from being overpowered since it cannot stack. If anything we will see a lot more A/Rt and R/Rt since A/ and R/ don't have IAS in PVP outside of Tiger's Fury and its duplicate.

Sundering Weapon --> Cracked armor is the only perk. 10% armor penetration (on one attack!) will be crap-tastic. I dislike it being a weapon spell since it means Mesmer and elementalist options for cracked armor are more direct and too the point instead of having to beat around the bush by relying on an ally hitting. Also doesn't make sense in the communing line.

Weapon of Renewal --> feels more paragon-like than Ritualist-like in terms of Lore.

Mending Grip --> Recharge seems high. I guess the fact that it has easy-to-satisfy-conditional removal of conditions might be the reason but take into account monk condition removal is unconditional. Mend Body and Soul's widespread use is because it does a hefty heal even when there is no condition removal needed. The 75 heal from this every 6 seconds isn't enough to make it decent.

Spiritleech Aura --> given the recharge on spirits, this will likely not see use. You usually want to be able to control when your spirits die.

Rejuvenation --> 10 HP / sec is 5 regen. Why anyone would use this is pretty much beyond me. It does overshadow Rejuvenation energy-wise when there are no pets or minions.

Agony --> damage is pretty pitiful but it is armor ignoring. If there are many things in earshot, this spirit will die way too fast to be of use.

Ghostly Weapon --> Useful effect but unless there is a crucial attack to be made, it will require much micro-managament. Perhaps the recharge ought to be upped and the effect should be next couple of attacks akin to Nightmare weapon and splinter weapon.

PARAGON
=======
Anthem of Weariness --> with all the weakness skills from GW:EN, I'd think that this is underpowered. Compare this to Enfeebling Blood and Withering Aura. Enfeebling Blood is better for clumps of mobs, Withering Aura is better with applications on called targets and is just crazy with Barrage. This however just spreads weakness once.

Chest Thumper --> like the warrior, given Paragons don't have their own means of Cracked armor infliction I don't see this being used unless the team arranges beforehand to have this used.

Anthem of Disruption --> the potential for abuse is immense (Ranger spike?). Don't know how this will be in practice however.

Hasty Refrain --> PvPers will probably see this as a flag-running skill. I cannot see the other uses given the amount of maintenance required.

Nonsensical Spear --> Cripple shouldn't be this easy to apply, especially if this skill isn't elite. Compare this to Crippling slash, Pin Down and the 5 recharge is ridiculous since Bleeding is so easy to meet.

Inspirational Speech --> niche. The 20 second recharge leaves a lot to be wanted, especially with the lose all adrenaline cost.

Burning Shield --> like Shield Bash, this is extremely hard to use yet devastating against assassin attack skill chains.

Holy Spear --> good for killing bunched minions and spirits, other than that...base damage is decent for 4 adrenaline

Spear Swipe --> if GW:EN is indeed the last GW1 product, then this totally is out-the-window with Lore. No other skill is melee for spears. Unconditional daze is usually elite or extremely conditional, and the melee range doesn't seem a strong enough restriction for it if it is non-elite. (Consider Paragon adrenaline based tanks which use an Axe, meaning you can just switch out the axe to attack with this skill: needs to be spearmastery.)

Spear of Redemption --> Signet of Removal is more consistent. Whether this is reasonably combo-able with Wearying Spear will be the make it or break it deciding factor.

DERVISH
=======
Radiant Scythe --> sees potential for E/D abuse. Good thing the cap is scaling! I bet +5 energy swap scythes will be more prized if this makes it into the skill lists of Dervishes. The scale should be bumped down to 40ish most likely, considering the + damage on an elite like Reaper's Sweep doesn't hit that high.

Aura Slicer --> like the warrior, given Dervishes don't have their own means of Cracked armor infliction I don't see this being used unless the team arranges beforehand to have this used. Its 10 recharge and average to mediocre damage means any other time than when hitting a cracked armor target the skill is horrid.

Zealous Sweep --> up to +4 energy every 10 seconds (9 energy - 5 cost) is okay and the damage is respectable

Grenth's Aura --> if this removed more than 1 enchantment, then Chilblains is made pointless. I think the recharge seems reasonable.

Signet of Pious Restraint --> come on... the requirement is incredibly easy to meet on a Dervish. The cripple should probably last half as long...

Farmer's Scythe --> PvE wise this will be ridiculous for attack skill spam in mob clumps. PvP wise it is essentially useless. The skill name fits it extraordinarily well.

Pious Fury --> seems usable but I think it will be overshadowed by Heart of Fury which doesn't rely on stances. It might replace Whirling Charge as an IAS when Heart of Fury is on downtime/cooldown.

Crippling Victory --> the wording should probably have the "If you have more Health than target foe" bit after the unconditional damage so that it has a more standardized description.

Signet of Mystic Speed --> runners rejoice. Pairs well with IAS enchantment Heart of Fury. The fact that it is un-strippable (even thought he enchantments can be stripped) makes me a bit anxious though.

Shield of Force --> seems more assassin-like than Dervish-like. Other than that it is pretty generic

Companionship isn't that bad Cthton , just replaces Troll.

Cacophony: This just owned Vision of regret -_-. Although I could combine them...

Aneurysm: ahahaha my e-denial mesmer shall have his day once again >.(watch out eles)

Signet of Recall: I think this is for encouraging signet use...I could see this in my skill bar.

Ranger skills: Yay for pets

Sundering Weapon: that skill....scary

Holy spear : woot take that minion masters.

Symbolic Strike: This might make me use a melee mesmer.

http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Signet_of_Recall

Awesome way to disable yoursel but remove E-denial?

I wonder how Elite Skills are going to work with monsters... Will they only have Core Elites and monster skills? Kind of limited, wouldn't you say?

OK, Round 2:

MONKCure Hex
Since it's in the healing prayers line, this one might see some play. That's a pretty big heal, and the cast/recharge/cost aren't out of line compared to other hex removal. Smite Condition
People used smite hex because it was fast compared to other hex removals, not because it.. er.. smited stuff. Basically it was used as straight-up removal. With a 7 recharge, this is terrible as straight-up condition removal, and it's too conditional as direct damage. Meh. Patient Spirit
I'm not sure about this one. On the one hand, it looks pretty sucky. Not-so-great healing, after a wait. The only benefit is a slightly better cast time than most healing prayers. The one thing that has me doubting my instinct that it's going to just plain suck is the fact that it's "quasi-prot," and the other two quasi-prot skills in the healing line see a ton of play. Healing Ribbon
Is near big enough? I'm not sure if I see this triggering the bonus heals often enough. If it did, maybe a replacement for heal party?... Steadfast Soul
And this would be useful to my team when? The only time I ever see anti-knockdown used is for certain PvE gimmick builds, but the other ally restriction prevents this for being useful even in those. Spotless Mind
If it removes the first hex on cast, and then every 5 sec thereafter, great skill. If you have to wait 5 sec for the first removal, not so good... Spotless Soul
Pretty much the same deal. Smiter's Boon
Seems like the worst skill of the bunch. Smiting doesn't exactly have a whole bunch of skills that target allies. And the circumstances when you'd want to hit an ally with a smiting spell for damage don't always coincide with when you'd want to heal them. Castigation Signet
I guess it's fun little e-management for smiters. Honestly, I have no idea if it's balanced or not, given the pretty much near-total lack a viability for smiting in general. Purifying Veil
Not sure here. It seems other options that do outright removal are so strong that mere duration-shortening is a waste of time. Maybe I'm wrong.
NECOMANCERWithering Aura
Stick it on a barrage ranger and watch it go. On paper, this may seem overpowered, but after using AoE weakness on my dervish (hint: contagion), I really don't think so. Kudos for encouraging inter-build synergy. My one question is: why death magic? The non-minion aspects of the line are so sucky, and this skill's syngery with minions really isn't there, so that's strikes me as the worst place to put it if you wanted it to see play. Foul Feast
This skill is simply terrible. It's hard to self-inflict enough conditions to beat out other non-conditional direct damage skills without hosing yourself. Putrid Bile
Overpowered. Compare Icy Veins. Cacophony
Probably metagame-changing. Complete shutdown on a paragon. Though I do wonder: (1) Is this too powerful? Doesn't it just completely hose an entire class? (2) Why now? If you're going to make an uber-pagragon-screwer, why not put it into Nightfall before making all those horrific nerfs to paragons? If we had this from the get-go instead of ulcerous lungs, maybe those nerfs wouldn't have been called for.

Hexer's Vigor
Not quite sure what to think. Seems like an OK self-heal for the e-cost, and the condition of using an all-hex bar isn't too hard to do. But, do we need a self-heal for hexers?... Don't hexers tend to stay back, kite, and wait for the monk rather than rely on self-heals? MasochismThis skill infuriates me. After seeing soul reaping get mangled beyond recognition, here we are with a soul reaping skill that replaces the energy gain the attribute itself was supposed to provide. Feels like a kick in the nuts to me. Fix soul reaping; get rid of the silly timer crap; don't try to fix through skills what you shouldn't have broken in the first place. Very highly likelihood of crating infinite energy engines. Which will in turn lead to this being nerfed into the ground a couple weeks after release. At the very least, it would be wise to give a 0 return at 0 SR to limit it to necro primaries. The one redeeming thing I see in this skill is its potential to greatly improve the blood line. Spamming blood of the aggressor user this might work out pretty nicely. Defile Defenses
Another metagame changer. Aegis chain --> dead. Guardian --> dead. Block stances (not coupled with a speed stance for canceling) --> dead. And it's spammable. If this stays the way it is, we're going to see a major shift away from damage prevention and towards healing. As someone who thinks the "prot >>> healing" attitude is annoying and snooty, and (insofar as it's also right) the effectiveness of prot makes the game stagnant, I might like to see how this change works works out. But I can imagine that a lot of people are going to be outraged over this. Angorodon's Gaze
Goes with blood drinker? Might be nicer if the cost of missing the condition weren't so high. Well of Ruin
As the only source of AoE cracked armor, this skill is like automatically overpowered. Atrophy
Like someone said earlier, we got our primary attribute ruined, so now we ruin everyone else's? This skill strikes me as something impossible to balance because of the huge variance in primary attributes. Knocking 39+ max energy off an ele is quite likely to shut them down entirely for the hex's duration. 7 sec of that is probably way too long. On the flip side, unless the target built around their linked skills, I'm not sure there's a duration long enough for knocking out spawning power or strength that would ever justify the 10e cost.

My first 8 man build with GW:EN skills (with a little of sarcasm, maybe)

6 Elementalist/Mesmer.
Echo, Energy Blast, Res.Sig., 5 empty slots.

2 Monks.

Hey Cthon. I'm interested in reviewing the new skills myself, but mainly the necro ones, since my necro will be the first to make it through GW:EN - so I have vested interest. I just decided to take what you said, and add my opinion to it, elaborating or contrasting where I find needed.

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