New Skills For Consideration

Name: Dirge
Class: Necromancer
Attribute: Soul Reaping
Type: Elite Spell

5e
2 casting time
45 recharge

For each dead ally or enemy, all party members gain 3...13 energy and 1% morale boost. 50% failure chance with Soul Reaping 4 or less.

I think its a little too powerful, but thats how I like my skills :P

Since many of these suggestions seem to be mostly for the Mesmer I thought I'd plug this other thread. Even though I don't really like his implimentation of the idea, he brings up a very good point.

Basically the Mesmer has all sort of skill thief spells (Arcane Mimicry, Inspired Hex, Inspired Enchantment, Arcane Thievery, possibly another one I'm forgetting), but this line of spells is just gimmicky and for the most part isn't used except for their secondary effects (i.e. removing a hex, locking out an enemy's skill, etc.). He's looking at ways to make them useful.

Just thought I'd throw that out there. If you want to discuss it I suggest you do so in the thread I linked rather than here, so we don't hijack this one. I just thought it was a good topic and relevant to this one.

IWAY has a new champion.

Herald of departing souls (Elite)
Nature Ritual. Create a level (Min: 1 - Max: 10) Spirit. For creatures within its range, whenever any creature dies, Herald of Departurting Souls deals (Min: 14 - Max: 50) damage to all nearby creatures. This Spirit dies after (Min: 30 - Max: 150) seconds

its Edge of Extinction to the Necros with Soul reaping, since some skills already is duplicated among other classes and Edge of Extinction seems more soul reaping than beast mastery
IWAY are going to love this... though

Reap Soul (fast casting time, 5 energy)
cast on corpse, gain energy (Min: 10 - Max: 22) Energy, the corpse is considered exploited.

Blessing of Grenth (fast casting time, 5 energy)
cast on corpse, the corpse is considered exploited and for a duration of Min: 30 - Max: 150 seconds the corpse cant be restored to life.

Then otyugh's cry shouldn't happend

yes there are skill balances toward PvP only. But there are many skills that never I repeat never find their way into PvP. In such cases they are often very useful in some way to PvE. Please guys. remember Guild wars is more then Just PvP or Just PvE. Its a combination of both. Chapter 2 WILL emphasize that as certain PvP will be integrated into PvE story, and Visa Versa...

This Elitist attitude Must stop that all there is is PvP... That's only 20% of the game... If Chapter 2 were only PvP it would have been done 3 months ago...

Let me put it this way... If you were to buy chapter 2 and all you were getting were the 2 extra characters, and 1 slot more for that character... And the battle Isles as is right now... would you pay $50 for that? Nope...

What you pay for is the continuation of the story and the new maps and quests. Guess what? That's PvE folks... That's the bread and butter... Yes PvP is a good portion of strategy building and Profiteering... And maybe even one of the most enjoyable portions of the game. But it certainly not the scope of the entire game. So making a claim that all skills are for PvP only is a little Naive.

Many mesmer And Ranger skills are good examples if PvE skills... For that matter Several Monk skills are PvP. No one brings certain monk skills to a PvP match.

I for one had 70% of the game unlocked , Skill, Rune, and Item wise before what we now know as faction ever existed. This was a bit of a downturn to PvP, as suddenly everyone had the best of everything... But the majority remained quite... Look what that brought us too. Arrogance beyond all huberous... If it were the old system at least the game play respect would be balanced, if nothing else.. Now that PvP Purists can cut PvE out of their lives they do so... And that is a real pity cause in reality there is a full and rich game out there to be played... that they will not take the time or effort to ever care about in any way. If they could purge it they would. Oh and Agro circles are important... This is why PvPers Su(c)k at the rest of the game. they have zero clue about how or why things work in the game as a whole. Can't pull, Can't draw, can't block, Basically they are worthless most of the time... unless its as a meat shield (tank) for the rest of the players since that's all they know how to do from PvP.

Now back to subject. All your ideas about skills are much appreciated.

Have fun using a skill backed by 0 attributes
Elementalist Primary/Fastcasting doesn't work.

Strength

Berserker’s Fury
Description: For the next 5…12 seconds, you attack 33% faster, and +1…16 attack power, but reduce your armor by 20 AL and suffer 2 hp degen in duration. This skill ends if you use any spells.
Energy Cost: 10.
Casting Time: None.
Recharge Time: 30 seconds.
Skill Type: Stance.

Head Butt
Description: Knock yourself and target foe down. You and target foe both suffer Daze for 8 seconds.
Energy Cost: 8 Strikes.
Casting Time: None.
Recharge Time: None.
Skill Type: Attack.

Tactics

“I will Last!”
Description: You gain 24…60 health.
Energy Cost: 7 Strikes.
Casting Time: None.
Recharge Time: None.
Skill Type: Shout.

Chaser
Description: For the next 3…8 seconds, you move 25% faster. This skill renewal itself each time you hit a moving foe.
Energy Cost: 5.
Casting Time: None.
Recharge Time: 20 seconds.
Skill Type: Skill.

Hammer Mastery

Defense Breaker
Description: If this attack hit, reduce the AL or target foe by 10…22 for the next 8 seconds.
Energy Cost: 7 Strikes
Casting Time: None.
Recharge Time: None.
Skill Type: Hammer Attack.

Axe Mastery

Axe Throw
Description: You attack target foe at range. If this attack hit, you strike for additional 5…16 damage. Your attacks and axe skills are disable for 2 seconds.
Energy Cost: 5.
Casting Time: 1/4 second.
Recharge Time: 5 seconds.
Skill Type: Axe Attack.

Sword Mastery

Double Strike
Description: You attack twice to a single foe.
Energy Cost: 6 Strikes.
Casting Time: None.
Recharge Time: None.
Skill Type: Sword Attack.

Sounds overpowered because of extra damage and only 20 less armor for a class that already is strong in that area. The 2hp degen is just mending food
Maybe causes a 50% decrease in attack speed and/or exhaustion after the stance ends?
Good skill, will help when you see someone setting a trap and you won't be able to get there in time

Monk enchantment - While you maintain this enchantment it prevents shatter enchantment or backfire - costs 25 energy 1/4 casting time 3/4 recharge lasts 9seconds

That's a pretty lame skill, it blocks specifically two skills and they are skills to keep a monk balanced

Thank you for your comments Ingram, they are quite accurate. The only thing I would add is that the AoE Nerf really could not have been just for those silly ghosts (now Zaishens) at the beginning of the ascent to the Hall. :P

hm...perhaps the mantra would make a mo/me runner possible...oh wait, no SB or Obsidian Flesh...nvm, doesnt work ^_^

Necro: Blood Bond {elite hex}
10en/1cast/5recharge/1hp + 1en upkeep/Blood (and soul for guaranteed casts)
Lose 25% max health. Target touched foe is hexed with death bond. When you die, all you are maintaining this hex on die. While hexed half the damage and healing you take is redirected to them, reduced by (50-0), and half the damage and healing they take is redirected to you, damage reduced by (0-25). No more than one foe may be hexed with this at any one time. This skill will fail with Soul Reaping 4 or less.

The no more than one foe is to stop a team having 3 necros with this running up to the enemy monks, hexing them and killing themselves. Gives primary necros a nice trick that lets them steal enemy healing, and halve the damage they take. The enemy also gets some nice boosts, to make this skill less overpowered. And of course you want a coordinated team to stop the team killing the necro.

Warrior
Furious Strike {elite sword attack}
9 Adren/Swords
Any stance you are using, beneficiant shout, or enchantment you are maintaining ends. Nearest other char is attacked with Furious Strike. If this hits it will result in a critical hit and +(1-10) damage being done to target, and all your adrenal skills being recharged except Furious Strike. If blinded, Furious Strike hits all nearby characters instead of one target. Furious Strike and all non-adrenal are disabled for 20 seconds. After 10 seconds, you suffer from weakness for (20-5) seconds.

Swords doesn't have enough elites, and this could make for some interesting combos, provided you get them all off in 10 secs. The idea is that you go into a blind rage for this move, building a huge amount of adrenaline and unleashing you fury on the nearest thing, be it a pet, foe or ally. If you're blinded you don't care, you just swind wildly round you, hitting everything near you. However, blind rage tends to interfere with concentration, so no more stances, maintaining enchantments or paying concentration to shouts.

Mesmer
Mantra of Duality {Elite Stance}
15/0/120/Insp
For (1-10) seconds, the next time you are casting a spell, you may cast another spell simultaneously. Should you do this, Mantra of Duality ends. Should this stance end while casting two spells, both spells cease and you suffer from exhaustion. Any interruption while casting two spells only interrupts the first spell to begin casting.

Yes, yet another Mesmer elite. Sure they're already powerfull, but they're also the cast that all the cool effects look like they should belong to.

Ranger
Spirit of Solidity {Elite Nature ritual}
10/3/60/WS
Create a level (1-10) spirit that dies after (30-90) seconds.
All elemental, physical, holy, chaos and dark damage in the area of effect of this spirit becomes blunt damage. Greater Conflagration takes precedence over this spirit.

This will make some skills (such as orders) vastly more powerful, greatly weaken others (Illusionary weapon, anyone?) and can be countered very easily with GC.

Elementalist
Overwhelm {elite spell}
25/2/30/ES
Lose all energy. For each point of energy lost, target foe is struck for (1-3) damage in each element. You gain double exhaustion.

By each element I mean earth, air, fire and water. This could be very powerful at high levels of energy storage, but makes you very useless for a long time, unless you have some better way of gaining energy.

Read the rest of my post :P

Show me three seconds of instant-casting any spell and I'll show you the power of a Fire Attunement nuker emptying his/her skillbar in those three seconds.

Blood Bond is a bit overpowered. The half-redirected healing won't stop anyone, since people regularly kill themselves off for no bigger reason than EoE or Minion Factory. Plus, used in a similar setting as EoE, you could just Bond, die, Light of Dwayna, rinse and repeat.

Furious Strike is interesting, but you have to change it to "Adjacent foe", since from the descriptor it sounds like you can accidentally attack allies, which, from the TA fiasco, is a bad idea. I'm also a bit leery of the big spike you can get off as soon as you use this skill, but sword skills could use the boost.

Mantra of Duality is one shot, so I'm not sure why the duration is so short (Or, indeed, why the recharge is so long). Also, I'm not sure what happens if you try to cast two spells of different length. Since the stance 'ends' when you cast two spells, and both spells are interrupted when it ends, does that mean that you'll have to time the spells perfectly?

Ovewhelm, hm. Might be too much of a boost, since it hits four times, managing to overcome RoF. With dual -1/+15 items, it could hit for, well, I don't know, around 960 damage (240 in each element, assuming 80e), easily killing anyone, with the exception of someone with Protective Spirit, on which you'll just do 40% max life to.

I don't mean to be overly critical, though. Some of these skills show some thought put into it. (Heck, I have a word document where I dump GW skill ideas into myself!)

Good skills, I like Blood Bond and Matral of Durality especially. However, the conditions you give to your skill are really LONG...

Name: Sharpened Dagger
Class: Assassin
Attribute: Deadly Arts
Type: Spell

Description:
Throw a Sharpened Dagger at target foe. If it hits, target foe takes 13...43 piercing damage and begins bleeding for 3-18 seconds. Foes struck by Sharpened Dagger are interrupted.

Energy Cost: 5
Casting Time: 1/2 second
Recharge Time: 15 seconds

Name: Locust Strike
Class: Assassin
Attribute: Critical Strikes
Type: Lead Attack

Description:
If this attack hits, you gain Adrenaline and your next Off-Hand Attack has an additional
1...44% chance of being a critical hit. (The amount of Adrenaline gained increases depending on your rank of Critical Strikes)

Energy Cost: 10
Recharge Time: 12 seconds

Name: Shadow Stab
Class: Assassin
Attribute: Shadow Arts
Type: Lead Attack

Description:
If this attack hits, you strike for 13...36 shadow damage and your next Off-Hand Attack cannot be "blocked" or "evaded".

Energy Cost: 10
Recharge Time: 15 seconds

Name: Vanish
Class: Assassin
Attribute: Shadow Arts
Type: Skill

Description:
For 4 seconds, you "evade" all attacks and magical projectiles used against you. All your skills are disabled for 8 seconds. (25% failure chance with Shadow Arts 9 or less)

Energy Cost: 10
Recharge Time: 20 seconds

I came up with a nice responce to the feed back I'd got on my skill suggestions. Then I previewed it. It was about 2 pages. It is now in the attached text document to allow people to read it if they really want to.

Alot of good skills posted. Hopefully the devs at Anet are reading this. I'm sure they would best know how to tweak these if they are unbalanced. Heck, maybe they should hire some of you guys!

Name:Lightfoot
Class: Assassin
Attribute: Shadow Arts
Description: Stance. For 4-16 seconds, you can't trigger any traps.
Energy Cost: 10
Recharge: 30 seconds

Name: Trigger Traps
Class: Assassin
Attribute: Shadow Arts
Description: Skill. You trigger all traps in a 60-100 degree radius
Energy Cost: 10
Recharge: 45 seconds

Name: Remedy
Class: Ritualist
Attribute: Restoration Magic
Description: Spell. Heal target ally's exhaustion. This spell causes Exhaustion.
Energy Cost: 10
Recharge: 20 seconds

Name: Disarm
Class: mesmer
Attribute: Domination
Description: Spell. Disable all target enemies attack skills and all your spells for 4-9 seconds
Energy Cost: 10
Recharge: 30 seconds