Passive Skills

That's even worse! Do I really need to explain why it's a bad idea to introduce a new kind of skill that can only be countered with other newly-introduced skills?

I kinda like these ideas (much better than mine), but some need to be weakened and some need to be strenghtened. Like the that gives 1 energy with cold dmg being given, wouldn't that give too much with aoe + dot?

I really think that these skills could work with guild wars. It would make things a lot more interesting. Maybe they also don't need a spell to disable it either. If they seem fair enough, using up a skill slot is making it balanced. On a lot of my characters, they're tight on skills slots and they can't afford to change much. Losing a skill slot would be a disadvantage.

You've got a point. What I was trying to achieve is making water spells energy efficient. The biggest complaint about the water line is that the effect you cause is not worth the energy you spend.

Hmm, maybe passive skills could be used to buff up weaker attributes or skills.

I vote for:
Passive skills that take up a skill bar slot, especially if some skills exist that target passives (like the mesmer idea, or extra damage done to ennemies that have passives; other classes could have such skills). So when taking up passives in your bar, you improve your average character, but since you can't disable it, others might be able to exploit it. Moreover, since it takes up a slot, you are also giving away a potentially useful skill slot.

Alternatively, you could have a 9th skill slot dedicated to a passive skill (i.e. take a passive with you, or leave it blank). But I prefer the idea above.

I vote for:
Racial bonuses. Like in WoW and such, these are given during character creation, and are not linked to any profession. So you can pick the bonus that fits your style.

I vote against:
The additional passive bonuses given to classes. The primary attribute is enough along with the armor and class-specific runes, adding more than this would be ridiculous.

If they are weak, there is no reason to run them
If they are strong, they are going to be imbalanced because you can't counter them.

/not signed.

Seems a bit simplistic, Makkert. Any modification to the game has a potential of being too strong or too weak. The ideas is to make it strong enough to be useful to some players (in this case, passive skills would be good for playing styles that work on fewer skills) and yet weak enough not to become a requirement (in this case, stances & preps would be stronger, except for their cast time & cost).

And I forgot to sign
/signed

/notsigned This really reminds me of an earlier thread about getting permanent bonuses with higher titles. Almost everyone said it was overpowered due to how cheap it could be in pvp. I sure hope A-net doesn't implement things like this into GW.

/not favored

Every skill in Guild Wars has some way of countering them. Almost every skill in the game can be interrupted except stance. But stance can also be canceled with wild blow/strike/throw.

But this passive skill of your cannot be countered in anyway.

There is ONE passive skill already:
- Charm animal (when having a charmed pet already)

There is one effect you can have permanently active already:
-Lightbringer (Title)

There are also skills with no recharge times and skills with no cast times.
This would be just like merging them both in one.

Ritualist added Spirint summonings and weapon effects.
Assasins added chains.
Paragons added chants.
Dervishes added forms...

So why not to add one more? Sacrifice a skillbar slot to get something.

Everything else would be just 'balancing'.

/signed

I would make those skills available to all professions though, as it only seems fair.

wow, talk about my post coming back from the thread

But since people are talking... the point of the passive skill is that it has a minor support and it fills one skill slot. Maybe have some sort of counter from mesmers that temporary disable these skills with a hex or something, kinda like necros who can stop shouts/chants with that curses hex.

I think it would add something a little new to the game.

It has to be balanced. They are seem like they should inherent bonuses to a character's physique in exchange for skill diversity (brain vs brawn?); obviously active skills should be far more effective than the passive ones since they have so many existing counters. Example: Right now we have skills that increase run speed by like 25%, as an active skill. The passive variant would only have an effect in the range of ~7%, give or take. They should be basic, simple bonuses that work with the class, but there should NOT be skills that specifically disable them. Heck, there might even be potential to create a class that specializes in passive skills with active skills that can affect others...maybe.

I might be opening up a can of worms with this, but I'll write it anyways. Things like dual wielding might be able to be implemented with this setup. Let's say without any passive skills, a warrior, when dual wielding, has a 50% chance of hitting with the dominant arm, and 10% with the off-hand (or 30-30 if ambidextrous). Each skill slot filled up with a [Dual Wielding] passive skill could make each hand rise in accuracy by 10%; you'll need at least a slot or two to be effective, but it is in exchange for about a quarter of your skill bar. This is just an idea I'm throwing out, and it probably isn't perfect, but it's how I imagine it would be set up.

/signed (as with any signing, it is implied to include proper balancing of signed proposal)

They could be self-countered too.

Make a passive skill that removes HP to add energy.
Make a passive skill that reduces armor to buff damage.
Make a skill to suffer part of damage dealed to allies...

At the end, all is about balance.