The Guru unveils yet another in what's hopefully an ongoing series with the Spotlight on Skills.
This ongoing column will try and periodically take one of the more than 400 skills in Guild Wars and to explain the various tricks, tips, and techniques associated with it. It's a look at what makes the skill good at what it does, what can be used to prevent it from working, just who might like such a skill, and whether or not it's worth taking in the first place.
The first skill so discussed is Skull Crack. Just a note that until *someone* runs the magic script there won't be any links at the bottom of the article but eventually there should be a list of skill trainers, monsters, bosses, and builds that use whatever skill's been spotlighted at the tail end of every column. So in the meantime you'll have to follow this link to a Skull Cracking build.
There are also plenty of other skills to talk about, so if you've got a skill you're interested in knowing more about, feel free to suggest the next skill the spotlight should showcase.
The Spotlight is on...
Sausaletus Rex
Devil's Dictionary
A terrific article, Sausaletus Rex. I do not play a warrior but broadening my GW knowledge is nevera a bad thing. I am looking forward to see more spotlight articles.
Greentongue
Nice review. (I only hope that it is updated when the skills get adjusted.)
It is nice seeing useful but less popular skills "Spotlighted".
It is nice seeing useful but less popular skills "Spotlighted".
Draken
good review, will the spotlighted review also apear in the skill listing if the skill has been spotlighted? 
THX
Yes it will,
ex: http://www.guildwarsguru.com/content...elite-id83.php
ex: http://www.guildwarsguru.com/content...elite-id83.php
Uthar
It's unfortunate that such an impressive and possibly useful skill has to be set in amongst a weak line of skills. I might try to make a build off of it, maybe. have to see what I can come up with.
Anyway, it's great to see another feature column that can be of use.
Anyway, it's great to see another feature column that can be of use.
Rushing Wind
That is some tight info! Too bad, like it stated, that this skill is correlated with Tactics! There isn't enough exciting stuff in there to drop my Axe, Strength and other skill (can't remember) to get into that.
That was an awesome overview though Rex and I can't wait for more of the same! It'll be fun to see these in the future because it makes things easier to understand and where one might start drawing ideas from to start on new builds!
That was an awesome overview though Rex and I can't wait for more of the same! It'll be fun to see these in the future because it makes things easier to understand and where one might start drawing ideas from to start on new builds!
Kui
Just a quick note... seems more relavent here than in site suggestions..
at the skill display:
http://www.guildwarsguru.com/content...elite-id83.php
The link to the Skill Spotlight isn't linked properly. [There's a # in the link that shouldn't be there]
~Kui
at the skill display:
http://www.guildwarsguru.com/content...elite-id83.php
The link to the Skill Spotlight isn't linked properly. [There's a # in the link that shouldn't be there]
~Kui
Sausaletus Rex
You can thank Scaphism for the Tactics sections, in the first few drafts the skill line and its place in the meta-game was an after thought. However, Tactics, I feel, is being under-rated. It's not an exceptionally strong line, true, but it's not an abysmal line. It's not as poor as Death Magic or Beastmastery. Because it exists on a profession that's almost always going to take as much of a weapon attribute as possible it's always going to be second rate. And, like any attribute line that's as large and as focused on a single mechanic - for a long time Tactics was shouts and stances, nothing more - there's some real clunkers in there. A lot of those stances and shouts should be moved out and added to the weapon lines to flesh them out and the mechanic of skills that last for 10 seconds and recharge for 60 needs a real close examination, sure. But there's gold in the wasteland. Especially in the elites. Skull Crack and the vastly superior Victory is Mine! are both skills that don't *require* a high level of Tactics to work well. If you can spare a rank of 6~8 then there's plenty of nice little options in the Tactics line. They're burried under a lot of junk but they are there. As long as you accept that Tactics is a supporting player rather than a line to take the center stage, then it's really not that horrid (Granted, I don't like that. I'd rather Tactics was to shields what, say, Swordsmanship was to Swords, and that the purely defensive skills got spread around a bit more, Strength being for things like Defy Pain, not Power Attack, and the weapon lines having a bit more than sheer offensive power. But that's just what I'd do if ANet hired me to redesign the game. Unfortunately, they don't seem likely to do that, so I'm stuck exploring the same game as everyone else....
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Originally Posted by Greentongue
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I only hope that it is updated when the skills get adjusted.
Well, I'm hoping I won't have to redo the column drastically when something gets changed. Skull Crack's elite, it's in Tactics, it's going to cost ungodly amounts of adren. As long as that remains true it's just the details that need fixing. Some skills are due for a change, an improvement, a nerf, and I'm going to try and stay away from those skills that are subject to varying widely - you won't see me do an article on Unnatural Signet or even skills from, say, Beastmasteryany time soon because I hold out hope that they're not in their final versions. But, by sticking to those skills that are on the sidelines, as it were, adn aren't as popular as the old stand-bys, I'm hoping I can remain right at least beyond the next BWE.
Sausaletus Rex
(Yes, I am double posting, thank you very much...)
The spotlight's been warmed up again so you can now view Spotlight on...Flourish here.
The ultra secret magic script hasn't been run yet so you can check out two Flourish builds here and here.
The spotlight's been warmed up again so you can now view Spotlight on...Flourish here.
The ultra secret magic script hasn't been run yet so you can check out two Flourish builds here and here.
Narcism
I'm a little confused as to why you put points into Divine Favor in this build:
http://www.guildwarsguru.com/content...ead-id1186.php
Nice writeup... there's a surprise in your PM.
http://www.guildwarsguru.com/content...ead-id1186.php
Nice writeup... there's a surprise in your PM.
Sausaletus Rex
I was originally going to put the points into Healing to bring along Orison or something like that. Then I became concerned about energy, so I was going to look at Blessed Signet which necessitated points in Divine Favor but since I would only be running the one signet it wouldn't be doing me much good. I suppose I could have switched over to Tactics for a better shield but I decided to leave the points in Divine Favor so that Balthazar and Judge's could act as mini-heals in their own right. Each time they're cast they'll give the character 32 health, basically, and at least Judge's is going to be cast pretty frequently. Therefore, that constant rebuffing serves a dual purpose as increasing offense and in adding a bit of self-healing to an otherwise offensive build.
I should point out that the builds I'll try and post along with these articles are not the most overpowering or complete of things. They're builds that I've run or tried to run or have been meaning to run and have stashed away but which require a bit of fine-tuning to bring them up-to-date. As such, I tend not to make them as "competitive" as possible, just viable enough that people can twist them to their own needs, but instead to showcase a few tricks and combinations that people might otherwise not have considered. I mean, you really want a tight Flourish build, take your standard War/Ele with Gash+Sever+Final+Conjure and throw in a few non-adrenal skills like Hundred and Power Attack and so on, and then use Flourish so you can chain them together. But that's something that people have already seen, could already come up with, I'd like to further people's strategic options a bit more than to slap a highlighted skill on the FoTM build and call it a day.
So, for my undead slayer I was trying to point out that you don't necessarily have to be in Healing to get a bonus from Divine Favor. As long as you're casting Monk spells on yourself you're going to get some healing. Not the best healing, not the brute power of a Healing+DF combination but enough so that you can spend your slots elsewhere if you're not really looking to heal.
I should point out that the builds I'll try and post along with these articles are not the most overpowering or complete of things. They're builds that I've run or tried to run or have been meaning to run and have stashed away but which require a bit of fine-tuning to bring them up-to-date. As such, I tend not to make them as "competitive" as possible, just viable enough that people can twist them to their own needs, but instead to showcase a few tricks and combinations that people might otherwise not have considered. I mean, you really want a tight Flourish build, take your standard War/Ele with Gash+Sever+Final+Conjure and throw in a few non-adrenal skills like Hundred and Power Attack and so on, and then use Flourish so you can chain them together. But that's something that people have already seen, could already come up with, I'd like to further people's strategic options a bit more than to slap a highlighted skill on the FoTM build and call it a day.
So, for my undead slayer I was trying to point out that you don't necessarily have to be in Healing to get a bonus from Divine Favor. As long as you're casting Monk spells on yourself you're going to get some healing. Not the best healing, not the brute power of a Healing+DF combination but enough so that you can spend your slots elsewhere if you're not really looking to heal.
Tantor
That was realy a great spotlight write up. I like to use an axe most of the time and didn't even concider the 'weapon swithch' until the end of the article...think out of the box tantor..
Sausaletus Rex
Yep, well, that's all part of why I'm doing those columns. I'm sure I know a lot of tricks that aren't common knowledge by this point. But they should be. So, hoepfully by going in-depth on these things I can point them out.
Swapping between a bow and a sword for Flourish was one a good best way to utilize a bow Ranger back in the days when their attacks had those long recharges, for example.
But, really, weapon swapping for fun and profit is something you should be getting used to if you're playing a Warrior. You'll want to have a few good weapons and to swap between them based on need - to gte past resistances on armor, among other things - and swapping for skill use is just a step further along that path. It's a bit tricky and you'll need to practice but it can be done and done well.
Swapping between a bow and a sword for Flourish was one a good best way to utilize a bow Ranger back in the days when their attacks had those long recharges, for example.
But, really, weapon swapping for fun and profit is something you should be getting used to if you're playing a Warrior. You'll want to have a few good weapons and to swap between them based on need - to gte past resistances on armor, among other things - and swapping for skill use is just a step further along that path. It's a bit tricky and you'll need to practice but it can be done and done well.
March Hare
[size=3]Actually it's not all that hard switching weapons during combat considering that it is all quick keys. Though I am looking forward to what they are going to introduce in the next BWE. I hope that's one thing that they don't change around too much (other than possibly placing weapons in a separate bags or something so it doesn't mess with your inventory as much).[/size]
[size=3] [/size]
[size=3]I guess that's a question for some of the alpha tester's. I haven’t seen anything so far as to what we should expect for the next BWE. I've heard that they're going to fool around with the PvP, GvG, and WoW, but are they going to change the skills and weapons?[/size]
[size=3] [/size]
[size=3]I guess that's a question for some of the alpha tester's. I haven’t seen anything so far as to what we should expect for the next BWE. I've heard that they're going to fool around with the PvP, GvG, and WoW, but are they going to change the skills and weapons?[/size]
Sausaletus Rex
The latest skill column is up here . It's the oft-misunderstood Pain pair up for explanation this time around (And, also, perhaps you can all guess my favorite profession by now...).
Once again, until the magical tech elves wave their magical hands and make the magic happen, magically, of course, you can view a Defy/Endure build here
Don't forget, if you've got a skill you'd like discussed feel free to suggest it here.
Once again, until the magical tech elves wave their magical hands and make the magic happen, magically, of course, you can view a Defy/Endure build here
Don't forget, if you've got a skill you'd like discussed feel free to suggest it here.
Davion
makes me want to consider a warrior secondary even more than before...nice..got my interest. thanks
FireMarshal
Nice read.
I have a few skill suggestions:
Oath Shot
Mantra of Recovery
Aura of the Lich
I have a few skill suggestions:
Oath Shot
Mantra of Recovery
Aura of the Lich
Bobangry
Quote:
Originally Posted by Davion
makes me want to consider a warrior secondary even more than before...nice..got my interest. thanks
If you mean warrior secondary as in your secondary profession then it wont really work. Like Saus said, it requires strength to be truly effective. Something that secondary warriors don't have. I can attest to Endure Pains usefulness to a primary warrior though, as it has saved me often as an "panic button" skill. Just remember to tell your healers to heal you even though you're at full health.
Very good read, covered everything that needed to be said for the pair.
Very good read, covered everything that needed to be said for the pair.
Sausaletus Rex
These skills are interesting, FireMarshal, and probably - well, 2 out of 3 - deserve a column of their own, but here's a general idea of what each skill does:
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Originally Posted by FireMarshal
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Quote: Originally Posted by FireMarshal Mantra of Recovery Again, a recharge skill. All your spells - not skills but spells - will recharge in half the time. But, they'll be costing you more energy to do so - every time you cast MoRec will drain a bit of energy from you. That energy drain's linked to Fast Casting, which, of course really lets you pump out a lot of spells with this skill in a short amount of time, but the recharge time isn't so it's something that any spellcaster can take advantage of as long as they've got the energy management. And, you'll have */Mes somewhere, unless you've necklaced things, and there's no profession better at managing energy than the Mesmer.
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Right, there are pluses and minuses either way, scenarios where one is better than the other and all that, but the net effect is to add more defense to your character. And defense is, ultimately, just to keep you from catching the dead. |
Originally Posted by FireMarshal
Aura of the Lich
Is a skill to waste a slot on. Seriously, I have no idea why you'd want to use this spell. It does exactly as it says, halves health, halves damage. Except, of course, damage from DOT or from those abundant Necro sacrificial skills. By halving your health you've doubled the effective DPS of any Bleeding or Poison or On Fire you might take. And you've doubled the effective blood cost of any skill. I haven't tried it in a while but it seems to me that I remember it halving healing as well - game must treat healing as a positive damage number - although I might be wrong there and it might effectively double any healing. As it doubles your HOTs, such as Life Siphon or Well of Blood, which can be nice, but those weren't very good heals to begin with. Still, as long as sacrifical skills work as flat numbers rather than percentages of your overall health it's going to be a skill that most Necomancers should avoid.
ratatass
Nice Read indeed!
Thank you for the in depth analysis of the Defy Pain/Endure Pain Combo. I have been thoroughly confused for quite a while on this combo. So, that is interessting. You are at 1 hp. Throw Endure and you buy some time to heal. Goddie, goodie. You will have to make your healer aware of this though! Thank you very much for write up! Ratatass Sphynx
With respect to endure and defy pain:
I was quite surprised when reading this article as to how it discribed the mechanics of gaining/loosing health when using the skills at a time when you are not at full hit points. My experiments with Demonic Flesh, which increases your maximum health, sugested that when your maximum health changes, your health in proportion to that maximum doesnt change. So, for example casting demonic flesh with 12 blood magic (sacrifice 101 health, increase your maximum by 176), what was happening was that your 480 health jumped to 480+176-101=555 health, and your max jumped to 480+176=656. When it wore off, if you were, for example, at 328/656 (ie 1/2 max) health, you would go to being 240/480 health (still 1/2 max). This meant that if you took 200 damage, for example, while demonic flesh was cast, when it wore off, that would be the equivelent of only 200*(480/656)=146 dam. So, do Defy Pain and Endure Pain realy work in the additive way described in the article, or are they actually working in this proportional way like the demonic flesh?
Sausaletus Rex
Sphynx, there are two explanations.
Originally Posted by ratatass
A) Demonic Flesh works differently than Endure/Defy Pain. They're different skills from different lines from different professions. And although they both add health they don't add it in the same way. Ie I'm right. B) There's been a change to Defy/Endure since I've tried them last and I'm talking out of my ass. Ie You're right. We'd have to wait until the next BWE to find out which version is the correct explanation. For what it's worth the last time I used Demonic Flesh I found it to work pretty much like Defy/Endure. A percentile raising and lowering makes a lot more sense, especially in light of the way Deep Wound works now (there's already code out there to drop people's health by a percentage, basically) and does make the Pain pair much more useable. They're no longer so much of a panic button you can use to avoid trouble - a quick and dirty way to make sure that you don't drop below 1 hit point for at least a few hits - but they are much more like what I got into at the end of the article, just another way of increasing your armor. For that matter, a better version of increasing your armor because while there are armor penetrating skills, there aren't many skills that deal damage that don't care about your total hit points (Grenth's Balance is the only one I can think of off hand), so since you take the same damage from an ingore armor skill no matter your total hit points you'd be reducing their effective damage. You do, however, reduce the efficiency of healing in a similar manner to damage so it's a bit of a wash. That 100 hp heal when you're buffed up shrinks when the buff fades, too, after all. All that adds up to a much better skill. Especially Defy Pain which, I think, you can run almost continuously. All you need is one more strike of adrenaline from some source and you should be able to earn those 7 strikes of adrenaline in the 8 seconds in the time it takes Defy Pain to fade. Just using an attack speed buff should do that for you (Using a sword/axe, of course, hammers are out of luck, as usual)... Anyone out there use Defy/Endure last BWE that can clear things up? Quote: So, that is interessting. You are at 1 hp. Throw Endure and you buy some time to heal. Goddie, goodie. You will have to make your healer aware of this though!
Right, I generally CTRL-click whenever I use Endure Pain (I tend not to use Defy in favor of other things) so that the rest of my team knows I think I'm in trouble somehow. They need to know what it means, of course, as unless you're at low hit points you won't see the health bar display change when you use something like Endure - it's a percentile representation and unless you're really low you're not changing the percentage of current to maximum health very much. But yes, the Endure Pain button is akin to screaming "HEAL ME NOW!!!!" A healer has to know what Endure is to know what I'm saying with it, true, but then people should be familiar with skills outside the ones they use, in a perfect world.
Ellestar
Quote:
Originally Posted by Sausaletus Rex (Defy Pain and Endure Pain)
*** Also, you mentioned switching weapons. Do you know, if there is any delay when you switch weapons? Say, if i'm attacking with one weapon and switch to another, do i lose some time without attacking waiting when switching animation will end etc.?
Ensign
Generally I'd agree that I'd rather have armor than base health if the two choices resulted in the same effective health - however, you don't want to take this to extremes simply because attacks that penetrate or ignore armor are not all that uncommon. If you're a caster the extra armor is certainly preferable as ignore armor isn't going to have a huge effect, but if you're a Warrior with heavy armor and a shield you should definitely be grabbing the +health over +armor, because armor penetration and ignores armor effects are going to be what really rip you apart.
Weapon swapping doesn't cost you any time - you can't do it during an attack or skill without interrupting yourself, but if you make the switch between attacks you don't skip a beat. I'd like to see the ability to queue up a weapon swap - hit the key during a skill, and you'll switch immediately upon completion of the skill. Assuming, of course, that isn't already in the game. =) Peace, -CxE Hikarate
It sounds like these Pain skills just delay the damage. If you add Armor it will actually block a % of the damage. The Pain skills buffer the damage while in effect, and when they expire the damage is still dealt as it was originally received to your base HP. If +Armor spells worked the same way, they would block a % of the damage while active, and then once they expire you would take all the damage that armor originally blocked.
Sounds like +armor is a better choice in most cases. Thanks for the info. Sphynx
Note that the elite pain skill give you armour too!
THX
The latest Spotlight is on Dwarven Battle Stance, read the column here.
ratatass
As usual I great write up. I am little dissapointed in not finding an UBER Combo with a twist that makes this skill worthwhile. And the reason for it - is probably that there isn't.
I do not understand the finer mechanics of the game, but using an elite slot that prevents you from using any skills in 8-9 amount of seconds - is hard to justify. Yes it is fine to have the caster not able to do anything for 8 seconds, but I don't think I would have a problem with it in PvP - I never hit the guys back, it would actually be too most casters benefit. In PvE, trying to control multiple target with such a skill ? Maybe - but usually the 4 Char Warriors hacking on you are using regular melee attacks. It is those that kill you - not the power spikes now and then. On another note, Ensign says that your really don't know your effectivness of skills untill you try them and test them out under different conditions. It might be worth a try to test it out and see if it is some use. I might do that. Idefinetly will test Defy Pain and Endure Pain, just to see how they work for me. Thank you for another great writeup! Ratatass Sphynx
I would think one of the better uses for this skill would be to deal with those irritatingly hard bosses that keep healing themselves in pve; 8 seconds of them failing to get of that critical healing spell might well be enough for them to die.
It also occured to me that it would be a good idea to use it when your skills are short of adrenaline; you will likly be left doing several normal attacks to charge up the adrenaline skills at some point - why not spend that time interupting your target as well? nicosharp
Now that most warriors seem to be the designated rezzers in a team, I think that this stance could be effective for a mid-battle after-adrenaline ressurection stopper. Of course, this skill is basically only effective on primary elementalists with aoe, a ranger trying to troll unguent, or primary/secondary monks with ressurection, unless you have the timing of a god.
Dovi the Monk
its basically just one of those ok elites, has some purposes out there, but there are much better skills to choose for your elite. it would prob beuseful against a caster, but thats about it, and in pve like what was said
it may help in the capture of bears in pre seaered ascalon, but i dont think u can get the skill yet.
Sausaletus Rex
I'll point out that a build using DBS is up here although you're probably all already familiar with the basics of it. It's just a nasty little interrupt/denial build, I wouldn't be using it to deal damage with.
Originally Posted by Ensign
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On another note, Ensign says that your really don't know your effectivness of skills untill you try them and test them out under different conditions. It might be worth a try to test it out and see if it is some use. I might do that. By all means, do try these things out for yourself. These columns are opinions, for the most part. Namely mine. Granted, I probably have more experience with these skills and a clearer picture of just how they've altered and changed over time than most but beyond the bare facts it's nothing more than my opinion. And I most definitely do not hold myself up as the final arbiter off all things GW. Your opinions may well differ from mine. Just because I or the common wisdom can see no value in a skill doesn't mean there is none.
Try them for yourselves. You never know, you might be onto something no one else's figured out yet. Or you could fail horribly but, hey, it's a game.
Except, don't try DBS. It's horrid. I've tried it and while it's useful in spot duty - say for when you really don't want someone to do much for a brief moment - it can be pretty effective. But you can't really captalize on it yourself, you'll need your teammates to help your out because there's no way to crank out the damage - or even the interrupts, really - while using DBS. I'd consider it as a hammer war if it was a normal skill, maybe, but it's just not worth the elite slot at the present time. Cut the recharge time so you can get something closer to 50% efficiency out of it or make it adrenal and we'll talk. I still don't get why it's not linked to hammers, either, while I'm at it.
Quote: Originally Posted by Sphynx I would think one of the better uses for this skill would be to deal with those irritatingly hard bosses that keep healing themselves in pve; 8 seconds of them failing to get of that critical healing spell might well be enough for them to die. Right, if you really need to stop someone from using something to open that window of opportunity it can really shine. I personally found good use for it to prevent the Hero from capturing a dias when, say, you had five or six seconds until the rez (Although for that you could use Earthshaker or Backbreaker just as well, even though those are pretty poor at the moment, too.). But the problem there is the hammer's swing speed. It's just too slow, skill that have less than a 2 second casting time can be safely used in between your blows and those are generally the skills that have low recharge times - the spammable ones you care about taking down repeatedly, anyway, the long recharge skills only require a single use interrupt - so even if you get lucky and catch one it'll only be a few more seconds before they can try again.
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Originally Posted by Sphynx
It also occured to me that it would be a good idea to use it when your skills are short of adrenaline; you will likly be left doing several normal attacks to charge up the adrenaline skills at some point - why not spend that time interupting your target as well?
Wait, there's going to be times when you're out of adrenal and energy skills to use? Not if you're doing things right. The real hard part of coming out with an effective Warrior skill bar is to get one that has a pattern of skills you can do over and over again. You want as little downtime, as few crucial seconds during a battle, when you're not using a skill to aid you in bashing away at someone as possible. You want to go from adrenal to adrenal to energy to buffing spell to energy to adrenal to energy to normal and back all over again. 8 or 9 seconds of forgoing your skills is intolerable. Of course, this is the hammer line we're talking about, the land of 20 and 30 second recharges, so maybe you're on to something... Quote:
Note: "received or dealt".
From the latest spotlight: Quote:
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