Worst Skill in the Game

Rico Carridan

Krytan Explorer

Join Date: Aug 2005

Eternal Comrades

E/Mo

I'd like to have some opinions on what people think are the worst skills in the game for each class. These are skills, that, for whatever reason, have probably never found their way into any player's skill bar, pretty much ever. Maybe their effect just doesn't make sense. Maybe the energy cost is just too high to justify the effect. Maybe the spell is just too situation to ever be used. Whatever the case, I'd love to hear what people think about these skills. Also, if you have ever found an effective use for any of the skills that people claim to be the game's bottom of the barrel, I'd love to hear it.

Here's my 6:

Warrior: Deflect arrows. In principle this skill looks like it could be nice, except for the part that says "this skill ends if you attack"

Ranger: Otyugh's cry. There aren't enough random animals in any area that I can think of to make this spell worth using. If it worked on pets, I can see a lot of good things coming from this.

Elementalist: Rust. There are a few builds that *technically* would be gimped beyond any recovery if this skill was used. But nobody would ever bother bringing this skill on the off-chance that they will run into one of those builds.

Necromancer: Dary fury. If I'm reading the description correctly, this spell gives *one character* one strike of adrenaline. For 10 energy. Makes sense to me.

Monk: Vital Blessing. I don't know of any builds that benefit from -1 energy regeneration for a bit of extra health.

Mesmer: Signet of Humility. Disabling an elite skill is a nice idea, but let's be honest here, you're a mesmer. If you want to disable the enemy's elite skill, use diversion or something. Frankly, I don't think there are any elite skills in the game that are dangerous enough to warrant bringing something like this along. Maybe before ER was nerfed there might have been some advantage to this.

Rico

Omega_2005

Omega_2005

Krytan Explorer

Join Date: May 2005

UK, or is it? *confused*

A/Rt

Hmm, quite true, but some people actually benefit from Vital Blessing on a Glint Run...

Arcador

Arcador

Wilds Pathfinder

Join Date: Jul 2005

--

R/N

I agree Deflects arrows can be boosted a bit, compared to other stances which they deflects all.

Otyugh's cry is pvm skill.

Rust is situational - it makes ress signet work 9 seconds and all other 6 (except the istant ones). Vs some builds is evil (smite signet builds), but the chance you will meet such mayne is not worth the 1 skill slot.

Vital blessing has its uses. - extra hp is extra hp - 4-8 more strikes of living.
Disabling player's elite often results to stoping his combo. Ranger with no Melandru's arrows? Warrior with no everclease (or however its typed), and so on. Of course you can dissable some minor skill that is not icluded in combo, so the risk is yours. It disables automaticly, - no need to wait to interupt which is a plus.

Mistress Develion

Mistress Develion

Academy Page

Join Date: Oct 2005

GRZL

R/Me

Vital Blessing FTW at lvl 8 as a prot monk it currently gives me 93 extra life... and thats onlt with my Protection magic at 5

want a useless Monk spell... Heal area... cause most people cant use it correctly and sit their healing everyone including the mob while you whack senselessly away at it

Neutron Star

Ascalonian Squire

Join Date: Mar 2005

The Netherlands

Dark Fury is a decent skill. It gives ALL your party members one bonus strike of adrenaline on each attack for 5 seconds. Deathly Chill or Verata's Aura have to be the worst necro skills.

Holy Wrath is by far the most useless monk skill.

Signet of Humility is pretty good. Try Ignorance, that's the worst mesmer skill.

entropy

Wilds Pathfinder

Join Date: Jun 2005

N/W

Doesn't ignorance give everyone in ward area -2 energy regen? If it does then it is actually great.

Cymmina

Cymmina

Krytan Explorer

Join Date: Apr 2005

Me/N

Quote:
Originally Posted by entropy
Doesn't ignorance give everyone in ward area -2 energy regen? If it does then it is actually great. No, Ignorance prevents the target from using signets for 8-20 seconds (15 energy, 10 recharge). You're thinking of the elite Panic.

The only reason Signet of Humility is bad is the recharge time for the duration (16 duration @15 inspiration, recharge 20). Keep in mind that a fair number of builds use an elite skill as a cornerstone of their build and eliminating it leaves them in a pickle. Unfortunately, you can't really disable an elite long enough to make it worthwhile, making Arcane Thievery and Diversion better choices for eliminating individual skills.

Zexion

Zexion

Wilds Pathfinder

Join Date: Apr 2005

Warrior Nation [WN]

N/Me

@OP:
Deflect Arrows has a use when running you know.
However, have to agree with you on Otyugh's Cry!
Signet of Humility, as you said yourself, has it's uses, if EG another FotM comes along which is 100% Elite dependant.
As someone pointed out, Dark Fury has the same AoE as the Orders, meaning that it isn't that bad. I've seen worse.
Vital Blessing has it's uses. Ever seen the upkeeper protection build (with upkeeping around 20 enchantments at a time). VB is used for this build.
Holy Wrath is used for some signet based Mo/Me or Me/Mo builds.
Thus making both Rust and Ignorance valid counters for those builds.

Don't feel like I have the time to come up with useless skills now though:P

_Zexion

unienaule

unienaule

I dunt even get "Retired"

Join Date: Aug 2005

Fifteen Over Fifty [Rare]

Quote:
Originally Posted by Arcador
Otyugh's cry is pvm skill. Otyugh's Cry - Shout
All animals in the area become hostile to your target and gain +20 armor for 30 seconds. Otyugh's Cry cannot turn charmed animals against their masters or their master's allies. (50% chance of failure with Beast Mastery 4 or less.)

So... I get to have level FIVE animals attack my target, when my target is going to be a WAY higher level. The animals dont get extra hp, or attack speed, or anything. You should've said, "Otyugh's cry is a noob skill."

Rey Lentless

Rey Lentless

Krytan Explorer

Join Date: May 2005

Otyugh's cry definitely is. This has no use in any scenario.

Dark fury is a great skill worth carrying on any necro with a warr or two in their party.

Signet of humility is a very powerful skill used quite often in pvp.

If Rust had a larger range, it would be useful.. turning rez sigs into 9 sec casts could win games.

Vital blessing's useful for fow and UW.

Deflect arrows is useful on runners. It's cheap, has a nice recharge/duration ratio.

Hot Dead

Hot Dead

Krytan Explorer

Join Date: Jul 2005

The deflect arrows can be quite good when running

Vital Blessing is REALLY good for a warrior if they want to use protection spells...

Stayfrosty

Frost Gate Guardian

Join Date: May 2005

Marduke guild

LOL now its on.... I will assemble a pet team that will kill at least some teams in PVP using Otyughs cry.

If im reading it right if everyone on your team had a pet and you cast otyughs cry all of your allies pets would attack your target?

Rico Carridan

Krytan Explorer

Join Date: Aug 2005

Eternal Comrades

E/Mo

Sorry, I misread the description on Dark Fury; I can certainly see it's uses, particularly for warrior heavy builds (IWAY for example). From the way the description is to be read, it sounds like it is the next time (and only the next time) someone attacks within 5 seconds, they gain adrenaline. I'll revise my choice to Verata's gaze.

Rico

the drizzle

the drizzle

Academy Page

Join Date: Jul 2005

E/N

Veratas gaze isnt that bad. Someone raises a minon and you turn it against everyone, the master included.

Rico Carridan

Krytan Explorer

Join Date: Aug 2005

Eternal Comrades

E/Mo

Minions aren't generally a huge threat though anyway, unless there's a lot of them. And if there's a lot of them, Verata's probably won't help you. Very situational at best.

Rico

Texas Flood

Ascalonian Squire

Join Date: Oct 2005

Wiltwangsons legionnaires

W/N

deflect arrows could help on runs maybe on a shiverpeak runs becuase there are achers there

mortalis doleo

mortalis doleo

Wilds Pathfinder

Join Date: Sep 2005

my house

The Cutting Edge [TCE]

N/

Quote:
Originally Posted by Neutron Star
Dark Fury is a decent skill. It gives ALL your party members one bonus strike of adrenaline on each attack for 5 seconds. Deathly Chill or Verata's Aura have to be the worst necro skills.

Holy Wrath is by far the most useless monk skill.

Signet of Humility is pretty good. Try Ignorance, that's the worst mesmer skill. vereta's aura is an important skill for a minion master.
if the master dies, this skill restores the control over those minions that are now neutral.

i seem to be the only one with this opinion, so i may just be a noob

A User Name

A User Name

Academy Page

Join Date: Jul 2005

None atm

Question: The Otyugh's cry would it allow you to redict your allies pets to another target (build i am consdiering would find this useful if it does). Since this relly isnt turning the pets against thier masters so maybe. Could someone answer that plz. Ty in adavance and if not oh well.... If not this has to be the worst skill ever created.

alwo

Ascalonian Squire

Join Date: Jun 2005

anet really should post up stats of the amount of usage each skill is used by the players.
Some of the useless skills really need to be buffed up someway because at this time, the claims of upto hundreds of combinations of skills to experiment is bs coz only a handful would be useful.

twicky_kid

twicky_kid

Furnace Stoker

Join Date: Jun 2005

Quite Vulgar [FUN]

has anyone forgotton about keystone sig? this is the more horrible skill on game. worst of all it doesn't recharge res sig.

Davion

Davion

Krytan Explorer

Join Date: Feb 2005

wherever the winds take me

R/Mo

Res signet cannot be part of the equation as when you read the skill itself it has a special disclaimer touting its ONE TIME only usage per outting. As far as keystone signet itself is concerned?....The only feasible reason for using it is on a signet heavy skill build. In which case it becomes a vital skill to reduce some of the horrendous recharge rates of signets.
And yes, this is also a situation where rust is feasible as someone stated before. come up upon a character with a signet setup and you make them a little wary of you and your rust ability.

a_scrawny_gnoll01

Frost Gate Guardian

Join Date: May 2005

lfg, invite me. HA! no need to post in guild forum.

W/Mo

Point Blank Shot Ftw!

Kassad

Kassad

Wilds Pathfinder

Join Date: Jul 2005

W/

Quote:
Originally Posted by a_scrawny_gnoll01
Point Blank Shot Ftw! Thats a joke right? Point Blank shot got buffed in the update, my ranger is Exp/Wild Surv its very nice, half range doesnt matter since im trapping, closer the better. Better dmg than most bow attack skills and most have 6 second recharge, this one has 3.

rii

Desert Nomad

Join Date: Mar 2005

UK

deflect arrows was great during nr ownage.... monks invunerable to arrows half the time against all ranger teams? ok its out of vogue a little.... actually no, ranger spike is huge

apparantly cry makes all animals bound to you (kind of) so apparantly if you use a bm team (which is sometimes fun) you only need one guy with calls and so on, with cry.... or at least im told.

who doesnt use res signets? Ignorance is better single target, but if three warriors are all stood around a monk their asking for trouble. combine with ranger interrupter ftw perhaps.

dark fury works for your whole team. 4 warriors with the quilvalent of battle rage and evis and devastating and final thrust on super charge? youve got to have no sense not to want it.

vital blessing screws spikes, which are calculated to the hp.... of course youll probably need sb to stop enchant removal before hands, but whatever.

signet of humility is the best mesmer inepir skill atm... no devastating for the whole game (with inscriptions/high inspir)... no energy management for monks? no evis (no spike????) goddam man, its amazing.

Ruoenkruez Tudor

Ruoenkruez Tudor

Jungle Guide

Join Date: Aug 2005

with Jessica Alba

Me/W

dude Keystone signet is way suckier than signet of humility except when somesones dead and mantra of recall is pretty sucky

Omega_2005

Omega_2005

Krytan Explorer

Join Date: May 2005

UK, or is it? *confused*

A/Rt

I'm surprised no one thought of Bane Signet at a high level as a bad skill... it takes a long time to cast and also does little damage.

Rancour

Rancour

Wilds Pathfinder

Join Date: Aug 2005

Camp Rancor (Rancour :D)

I'm a free spirit (that's not what the guild is called, I just am)

W/R

Well, Bane Signet knocks target down right? Atleast it could be used to slow down pesky warriors running at you.

Jenosavel

Jenosavel

Master of Beasts

Join Date: Jul 2005

Servants of Fortuna [SoF]

R/

Because there is such a horrible misunderstanding in this thread of the skill Otyugh's Cry, I felt the need to address several things regarding it.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Rico Carridan
Ranger: Otyugh's cry. There aren't enough random animals in any area that I can think of to make this spell worth using. If it worked on pets, I can see a lot of good things coming from this.
It does work on pets, although the definition of "agressive" within the skill description is misleading. I'll address that below.

Quote: Originally Posted by unienaule Otyugh's Cry - Shout
All animals in the area become hostile to your target and gain +20 armor for 30 seconds. Otyugh's Cry cannot turn charmed animals against their masters or their master's allies. (50% chance of failure with Beast Mastery 4 or less.)

So... I get to have level FIVE animals attack my target, when my target is going to be a WAY higher level. The animals dont get extra hp, or attack speed, or anything. You should've said, "Otyugh's cry is a noob skill." This displays a complete lack of understanding as to what the skill is really about. You've never actually tried using it have you? The point of using the skill isn't to try and round up lvl 5 critters to do your bidding, rather it's to give your own pet +20 AL while tanking. You do realize that 20AL is the difference between a caster's armor and a warrior's right?

Quote: Originally Posted by Rey Lentless Otyugh's cry definitely is. This has no use in any scenario. Completely wrong. Otyugh's Cry does have its own niche to fill which no other skill can compare to, even if it isn't useful in a wide variety of situations. Otyugh's Cry will give your own pet (and any nearby teammate's pets) a huge armor bonus, and also has a glitch within it which helps you to make enemies stop attacking you and move onto your pet (a vital quirk for any soloing pet ranger).

Quote: Originally Posted by Stayfrost
LOL now its on.... I will assemble a pet team that will kill at least some teams in PVP using Otyughs cry.

If im reading it right if everyone on your team had a pet and you cast otyughs cry all of your allies pets would attack your target? No. The skill doesn't make a pet attack anything. Only its master's own attacks or an attack on its master can make a pet attack. Using Otyugh's Cry will not make your or any teammate's pet initiate combat. However, the armor bonus does apply to all pets within range.

Quote:
Originally Posted by A User Name
Question: The Otyugh's cry would it allow you to redict your allies pets to another target (build i am consdiering would find this useful if it does). Since this relly isnt turning the pets against thier masters so maybe. Could someone answer that plz. Ty in adavance and if not oh well.... If not this has to be the worst skill ever created. Wrong, again. You can not change the targets of your teammates' pets, because each beastmaster has sole control over what its pet attacks. Otyugh's Cry will not change that target. However, since making things attack isn't the primary benefit of this skill, this doesn't make it useless by anymeans. I'll say it again, use the skill for the armor increase.

Quote: Crippling shot is very effective on a ganker/flag runner in gvg. Have you actually even played any gvg?

Quote:
Originally Posted by rii
apparantly cry makes all animals bound to you (kind of) so apparantly if you use a bm team (which is sometimes fun) you only need one guy with calls and so on, with cry.... or at least im told. No, it doesn't bind any animals to you at all. All it does is change the animal's behavior patterns towards the party of the enemy you're targeting. It makes the animal "aggressive" towards that enemy's group. This does not mean that those lvl 5 critters (or any pet for that matter) will run straight at your target to attack when you use Otyugh's Cry. Rather, they'll wander around until their own aggro bubble alerts them to the presence of your target's party. At that point, the little guy will attack the closest member of that party. For pets, the only thing which can make them attack is either their master's own attacks or an attack on their master.

Normally animals are neutral towards enemies and will wander forever among them without feeling the need to attack, however Otyugh's Cry changes that. It causes animals to hate your enemies so that they'll attack when they come into contact. Notice, that normally enemies are aggressive towards animals and will attack. As soon as an animal is attacked it changes to aggressive towards its attacker and defends itself. Therefore, all Otyugh's Cry does in this respect is speed up the process a little bit.

Cymmina

Cymmina

Krytan Explorer

Join Date: Apr 2005

Me/N

Quote:
Originally Posted by Ruoenkruez Tudor
mantra of recall is pretty sucky How can you say Mantra of Recall is sucky? It is the single best energy recovery skill available to a mesmer. The only down side to it is that it takes 15 energy to jump start (meaning you have to watch your energy if you want to fire it continuously every 20 seconds).

(comparisons at 15 inspiration)
Mantra of Recall: 15 cost, 38 recovery, net gain 23, 20 recharge
Energy Drain: 5 cost, 20 recovery, net gain 15, 30 recharge
Drain Enchantment: 10 cost, 22 recovery, net gain 12, 25 recharge
Energy Tap: 5 cost, 14 recovery, net gain 9, 30 recharge

The Purple Pants Guy

Academy Page

Join Date: Sep 2005

Quote:
Originally Posted by Cymmina
How can you say Mantra of Recall is sucky? It is the single best energy recovery skill available to a mesmer. The only down side to it is that it takes 15 energy to jump start (meaning you have to watch your energy if you want to fire it continuously every 20 seconds).

(comparisons at 15 inspiration)
Mantra of Recall: 15 cost, 38 recovery, net gain 23, 20 recharge
Energy Drain: 5 cost, 20 recovery, net gain 15, 30 recharge
Drain Enchantment: 10 cost, 22 recovery, net gain 12, 25 recharge
Energy Tap: 5 cost, 14 recovery, net gain 9, 30 recharge First, what would you have 15 inspiration magic for? Second, why don't people use Power Drain? It costs 5 energy and with 8 inspiration magic you gain 17 energy giving you a net gain of 12 energy. All you have to do is find a spell to interrupt. I think the recharge time is 30. And it takes very little time to cast.

Hot Dead

Hot Dead

Krytan Explorer

Join Date: Jul 2005

Crippling shot is by far the worst skill in the game: why would you want to fill an elite skill slot when you have Pin Down (a better skill, that isnt an elite, than crip shot).
Quickshot is also a sh**y skill: you have tigers fury and frenzy and also shortbows, they all allow you to shoot/attack faster...

If you want to shoot fast and cripple someone take a Vamp. 5/1 Shortbow of Fort. with Poison Arrow (E), pin down, tigers fury/frenzy, and kindle arrows/ignite arrows, and dual shot and you got a build that deals a lot of damage, cripples, shoots fast, and with tigers fury/frenzy the 5/1 from the vamp. recovers some health and deals extra dmg.

Eonwe

Jungle Guide

Join Date: May 2005

New Jersey

Idiot Savants

Quote:
Originally Posted by Hot Dead
Crippling shot is by far the worst skill in the game: why would you want to fill an elite skill slot when you have Pin Down (a better skill, that isnt an elite, than crip shot).
Res signet cannot be part of the equation as when you read the skill itself it has a special disclaimer touting its ONE TIME only usage per outting. Just a little tid-bit of info : Like stated before, Keystone Signet will not recharge ressurection signet, however you can Echo ressurection signet.

Jczech

Jczech

Frost Gate Guardian

Join Date: May 2005

Mo/

Verata's Gaze has its uses. For example, a necromancer can hex a foe with Malign Intervention (lowering healing effectiveness by 20% for the duration), and, when the target dies, it instantly uses the body to raise a masterless bone horror. Then the necromancer can cast Verata's Gaze on the new minion to take control.

As for worst skill, I'd have to say Epidemic. Range is much too small to have much of an impact on anything.

NatalieD

NatalieD

Desert Nomad

Join Date: Aug 2005

Quote:
Originally Posted by Hot Dead
Crippling shot is by far the worst skill in the game: why would you want to fill an elite skill slot when you have Pin Down (a better skill, that isnt an elite, than crip shot).
Quickshot is also a sh**y skill: you have tigers fury and frenzy and also shortbows, they all allow you to shoot/attack faster... Pin Down: 15 second recharge. Crippling Shot: 1 second. It also costs less energy, and it doesn't require any points in Marksmanship, which is sometimes advantageous.

Quick Shot is another great skill. Yes, there's Tiger's Fury. Guess what? You can use both.

a_scrawny_gnoll01

Frost Gate Guardian

Join Date: May 2005

lfg, invite me. HA! no need to post in guild forum.

W/Mo

Quote:
Originally Posted by Kassad
Thats a joke right? Point Blank shot got buffed in the update, my ranger is Exp/Wild Surv its very nice, half range doesnt matter since im trapping, closer the better. Better dmg than most bow attack skills and most have 6 second recharge, this one has 3. /cough They upped point blank damage? News to me...it use to have a pathetic recast and damage on par with power shot. 1/2 range wasnt worth it.

Going to have to check it now...

Kassad

Kassad

Wilds Pathfinder

Join Date: Jul 2005

W/

Quote:
Originally Posted by a_scrawny_gnoll01
/cough They upped point blank damage? News to me...it use to have a pathetic recast and damage on par with power shot. 1/2 range wasnt worth it.

Going to have to check it now... Point Blank Shot – Increased damage to 10..25.

Arrow-bow

Academy Page

Join Date: Aug 2005

Finland

Army Of Crusader Kings

R/Mo

Power shot

because penetratkign atatck do nearly same dmg than power shot,its recharching faster,and it doinign 25% armor penetration,and its faster.

octaviancmb

octaviancmb

Frost Gate Guardian

Join Date: May 2005

Me/

The rest of you are all wrong! The worst skill, currently, is Fevered Dreams, since it doesn't even work...

Hot Dead

Hot Dead

Krytan Explorer

Join Date: Jul 2005

Quote:
Originally Posted by Eonwe
Crippling shot is very effective on a ganker/flag runner in gvg. Have you actually even played any gvg? Yes I have played GvG, and I would say that Pin Down is a better skill than crippling shot. Why would you want to cripple anyone but the flag runner or the theif in GvG?
With pindown you can take incindiery arrows/poison arrow/ greater conflagration/ melandrus resiliance/ escape/ and other great elites.
With crippling shot the best you can do is the rest of the ranger skilz (if you are mainly a ranger.

smurfhunter

smurfhunter

Banned

Join Date: Aug 2005

my w/mo uses mending, orison, and healing breeze. you cant kill him.

Sand Scorpions [SS]

W/Mo

Quote:
Originally Posted by Hot Dead
Yes I have played GvG, and I would say that Pin Down is a better skill than crippling shot. Why would you want to cripple anyone but the flag runner or the theif in GvG?
With pindown you can take incindiery arrows/poison arrow/ greater conflagration/ melandrus resiliance/ escape/ and other great elites.
With crippling shot the best you can do is the rest of the ranger skilz (if you are mainly a ranger. no the standard recon ranger has two versions:

poison arrow, pin down
or
crippling shot, apply poison

alot of people say the apply poison one is better because your guaranteed to cripple and poison your target, while the poison arrow argument was... i think energy and its uses outisde flag running or something, i forget exactly.