Curse

Sophitia Leafblade · Feb 28, 2007, 03:32 PM // 15:32

As well as agreeing with some of the afore mentioned skills these ones have to be mentioned

[skill]swap[/skill] The ultimate skill no one should be without, lol as if. I dont ive Ever seen or heard of anyone using it.

[skill]Dark Bond[/skill] What goods a minion based skill when its on in the attribute with minions

[skill]Second Wind[/skill] Heh dont even get me started on this one

Say why is there no conjure Earth or Mind Quake (same as Freeze and burn etc.) skill? seems to me Earth gets the rough end of the Eles skill spectrum.

Gert Butterfing · Feb 28, 2007, 03:52 PM // 15:52

Swap is good for a Channeling Rit with Destruction and Rupture Soul...

BryanM · Feb 28, 2007, 05:16 PM // 17:16

Quote:

Originally Posted by cthulhu reborn

Chilblains the worst? Guess you never played a necro...cold damage and removal of enchantments...yes you get poisoned but a necro has skills that transfer conditions.

I wouldn't call Chilblains the worst skill, but it is very awful. It uses a ton of energy, the damage a player can do with it is minimal (elemental = reduced by armor and level - against high level monster monks/necromancers/mesmers it'll do about 30 damage), and it's range isn't too hot.

The condition transfer skills aren't extremely hot for a necromancer primary; the most awesomest one is Plague Touch, and that's more of a melee dudes tool.

So most of the time, Rend Enchantments and Gaze of Contempt performs better than Chilblains.

Beaver might have given a situation where it's pretty useful - my indesire to play through Nightfall so far has left me (satellite modems are not fun) ignorant of the later half of that campaign.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sophitia Leafblade

Dark Bond

It's a pretty okay protection enchantment. Even with zero blood it can be kept up all the time.

Second Wind also counts its own Exhaustion in its energy return. The skill is clearly linked to Energy Storage >_> if not explicitly, then functionally. I guess if you want the Energy RIGHT NOW.......... you could tinker around with Ether Prism??

.... the only skill that has the same direct functionality as Second Wind is Energy Boon (unless you want to spec for Offering of Blood/Spirit....). Second Wind will give higher energy return when your exhaustion goes beyond 20 with it.

That it recharges in 5 seconds also makes it vicious for pumping out energy for massive Exhaustion.

Extend Conditions!

Balthazar's Pendulum is pretty lame. Would be kind of cool if it knocked down someone who hit the dude.

Evilsod · Feb 28, 2007, 05:37 PM // 17:37

Quote:

Originally Posted by BryanM

So most of the time, Rend Enchantments and Gaze of Contempt performs better than Chilblains.

Balthazar's Pendulum is pretty lame. Would be kind of cool if it knocked down someone who hit the dude.

Rend or Gaze can't remove Shadow Form or Obsidian Flesh or Spellbreaker or Vow of Silence. Course Vow has the advantage of been that low duration you can just interrupt it when they try to recast it.

But removing the other 2 ASAP is handy. Signet of Disenchantment can only go so far.

I dunno why, but Balthazaars Pendulum sounds like it should be the Mark of Protection of the Smiting line, it reverses XX damage back to whoever attacked for X seconds. Guess it would be too powerful for farming or just completely worthless though...

linh · Feb 28, 2007, 07:08 PM // 19:08

Worst skills ?
Discord, Lamentation...
Worst class ?
Rit. Just need to remove it from the game.

BryanM · Feb 28, 2007, 08:19 PM // 20:19

Quote:

Originally Posted by linh

Worst skills ?
Discord, Lamentation...
Worst class ?
Rit. Just need to remove it from the game.

Discord - try it with four or so AI heros with it. Be amazed at the Obsidian Flame level damage coming out every two seconds.

The Ritualist really hasn't been well defined.

VendingMachine · Feb 28, 2007, 09:46 PM // 21:46

Not worst but look compare these 2

http://gw.gamewikis.org/wiki/Swirling_Aura

http://gw.gamewikis.org/wiki/%22Shields_Up%21%22

Stormlord Alex · Feb 28, 2007, 11:29 PM // 23:29

Sophita... I hope you're sarcastic about Dark Bond. IMO it's one of the few *essential* MM skills. Who cares if it's in Blood? It can still be kept up permanently at 0 rank.

Swap has uses - as someone mentioned, rits could find a use for it. It's also pretty good on a 'sin for getting close to a spirit spammer or MM safely. There's a *hell* of a lot worse skills than Swap.

Also... The reason Earth doesn't have Mind Quake and Conjure Earth is 'cuz Earth eles got Obs. Flame and Ward vs. Melee instead. Much better.

Zaq · Mar 01, 2007, 02:02 AM // 02:02

Scavenger's Focus is embarassingly weak. If you're using a bow, Read the Wind is better. If you're NOT using a bow, in order to make it pump out an amount of damage that would make it worth the elite slot, you need an amount of Wilderness Survival which is, frankly, difficult to reach for non-Rangers... so if you ARE a ranger, why aren't you using a bow? This doesn't work with a thumper or expertise sin... I just don't see the use.

Meekness hardly seems worth it... the extra area it has over Shadow of Fear doesn't matter with Shadow's miniscule recharge.

Breath of Fire is inferior to Fire Storm in just about every way... and that's friggin' Fire Storm.

Banishing Strike is so conditional as to be nigh-worthless... I guess it could be fun in AB, but still.

Lava Arrows is just confusing as to why it even exists. Half range on an ele isn't good, the damage is inferior to Flare (Flare!), even the multi-targeting isn't that useful due to its tiny range (adjacent)...

Muddy Terrain is one of those skills that's designed to be used by monsters, not humans. I can think of no time that it would be useful in PvE, and in PvP, there's almost no time that it would make enough of a difference that it would be worth snaring your OWN team along with the enemy. The reactions if you use this in AB are humorous, I admit, but humorous and useful rarely overlap.

I have tried and tried, but I cannot find a use for Malign Intervention. Seriously.

Has anyone ever used Winds of Disenchantment? Seriously? If each foe could lose more than one it MIGHT be worth the large amount of sacrificed enchantments it needs to be better than most other enchant removal, but as it is... why?

It pains me to say this, but Fragility is just so hard to use it's tempting to call it worthless. It may have been overpowered earlier, but even basing your entire build around it, it's hard to do a respectable amount of damage with it.

Similarly, I have NEVER seen Griffon's Sweep or Leviathan's Sweep used. Why do they exist? What is their purpose? WHY IS THERE TWO OF THEM?

Snare. Why would anyone take Snare when Barbed Trap does the same thing only BETTER, with the SAME CAST TIME and SAME RECHARGE, for only ten more energy (which you should have plenty of Expertise for anyway)? If Snare recharges in 10 seconds I could maybe see it. Maybe.

Point Blank Shot/Zojun's Shot. The range is prohibitive and the damage isn't worth it... not to mention that they cost too much to take advatage of their quick recharge times, the one advantage they have over Power Shot (yes, Power Shot).

Ignite Arrows. Fun in pre-searing, I suppose, but it's mediocre damage, reduced by armor, that casuses foes to scatter. If I'm going to have my enemies running from me, I want the damage they're fleeing to make it worth it (Sandstorm pre-nerf, for example)

If Spell Shield had a lesser cast time it would be decent for emergency situations (last-ditch Rebirthing, for example), but... the huge cast time, downtime, and skill disable make this skill firmly Not Worth It.

Unyielding Aura. WHYYYYYYYY.

Amity. Why is this elite? Why does it have a 45s recharge? Why isn't the area bigger?

Kirin's Wrath and Symbol of Wrath are another baffling pair. Why would a smite monk want to get point blank, then cast a two second long spell? At least use Balthazar's Aura so you can chase them and inflict more than two hits.

Stone Sheath. There are better ways to prevent criticals that aren't elite... and forcing earth damage isn't that big of a deal. Definitely not worth the elite, anyway.

That's enough for now.

Sir Seifus Halbred · Mar 01, 2007, 02:40 AM // 02:40

I don't really feel there is TRULY any bad skills. Ok-well maybe there are a few-but overall, It is how the person uses them IMO

Cruz Ctrl · Mar 01, 2007, 02:50 AM // 02:50

Right now it actually looks like ArenaNet is running out of ideas for skills...because with the introduction of Nightfall, and already a load of nerfs (Bye Bye Paragon) there really is nothing new. There are lots of dupes of skills, and most of those dupes are just worse versions of the skills. You gotta admit that many skills are just copies of another. There are some good original skills but right now it looks like they running dry.

So yeah that's pretty much another reason this thread was made...to point out those skills

Asplode · Mar 01, 2007, 02:54 AM // 02:54

[skill]Reverse Hex[/skill]
imho

Trixz · Mar 01, 2007, 02:54 AM // 02:54

Quote:

Originally Posted by LightningHell

Mm...a Healing spell in Protection Prayers is good enough, and with a full energy return at <50% is just...hax.

Assuming you use ZB 50% times above 50%, which shouldn't really happen, you get, at 12 Protection: 150 per 5e, which is 30/e. While if you use WoH 50% times, you get 83 per >50% heal and 83*2 per <50% heal, which makes for 24.9/e. Even then it's more efficient.

ZB is too crapy and conditional.

Priest Of Sin · Mar 01, 2007, 02:57 AM // 02:57

Quote:

My useless skill is [wiki]Symbolic Posture[/wiki]...why would you use this when you could use [wiki]Mantra of Inscriptions[/wiki]?

Is Symbolic a stance? (wiki not displaying correctly for me, i'm not at home), and if it isn't, would they stack? I'm starting to see something here... ZOMG, IT COULD BE THE KEY TO BANE-SIGNET SPIKE

As for Shield's Up, I have the paragon bring it in FoW (in addition to Watch Yourself) so that we can tank the Shadow Rangers without troubles. Barrage is alot less painful that way.

Divinus Stella · Mar 01, 2007, 04:17 AM // 04:17

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sophitia Leafblade

As well as agreeing with some of the afore mentioned skills these ones have to be mentioned

[skill]swap[/skill] The ultimate skill no one should be without, lol as if. I dont ive Ever seen or heard of anyone using it.

[skill]Dark Bond[/skill] What goods a minion based skill when its on in the attribute with minions

[skill]Second Wind[/skill] Heh dont even get me started on this one

Say why is there no conjure Earth or Mind Quake (same as Freeze and burn etc.) skill? seems to me Earth gets the rough end of the Eles skill spectrum.

Second wind is actually a good skill if you know how to use it, dark bond is pretty useful aswel.

Try using swap then rapture soul on destruction, its not the most imbalanced thing in the game, but it has a use.

Jcon · Mar 01, 2007, 04:38 AM // 04:38

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fossa

Otyugh's Cry.
Agree, it's been in the game since 2004 and has yet to be used by anyone, ever.

Used it as a rank 200 guild with 2 mm bombers and a total of 6 pets, had revive animal, call to haste, the general idea was to overload with melee try to get all those +10-20 damage add up pretty much like moving spirits, worked decently, but not very useful and more a for fun build.

Coloneh · Mar 01, 2007, 05:49 AM // 05:49

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sophitia Leafblade

Say why is there no conjure Earth or Mind Quake (same as Freeze and burn etc.) skill? seems to me Earth gets the rough end of the Eles skill spectrum.

there is no conjure earth because it would be horribly abused by geo farmers. you wouldnt have to put points in another attribute to deal damage.

creelie · Mar 01, 2007, 06:22 AM // 06:22

Quote:

Originally Posted by Zaq

Stone Sheath. There are better ways to prevent criticals that aren't elite... and forcing earth damage isn't that big of a deal. Definitely not worth the elite, anyway.

When you're an assassin, getting hit with Stone Sheath is deeply depressing.

Toutatis · Mar 01, 2007, 03:30 PM // 15:30

Quote:

Originally Posted by Zaq

Kirin's Wrath and Symbol of Wrath are another baffling pair. Why would a smite monk want to get point blank, then cast a two second long spell?

You'd be surprised. My smiting monk always carries one or the other of them (depending on the visual effect I want to see when using it). It's extremely useful as an emergency defensive mechanism if you're surrounded and can't get away - the AoE update that made monsters flee was a huge benefit in this situation. Even if you go down before the damage forces the monsters off you, it'll still last long enough for the monsters to be forced away from your corpse's location, so when you're rezzed the area is guaranteed to be clear and you can heal yourself back to full health and get down to business again without being pestered by incoming attacks.

Alleji · Mar 01, 2007, 04:54 PM // 16:54

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sophitia Leafblade

[skill]Dark Bond[/skill] What goods a minion based skill when its on in the attribute with minions

Dark bond is constant with 0 blood... and you're gonna have 3 or 4 if you throw some change into it, so it's a really good self-prot for a MM.

The problem is, of course, why does MM need a self-prot? When you're on top of things and have 10 minions running around, nothing is gonna get to you anyway. Unless it's PvP... then it's really good because an active MM poses more threat that pretty much everything else and you'll be the #1 target. Of course, "who the hell runs a MM in PvP?" is another question.

I guess it's a good AB skill...

(It used to be a whole lot more useful when blood of the master healed minions "in the area" and you had to be on the frontline with them.)