Curse

Endrosz · Jun 02, 2008, 07:27 PM // 19:27

Some people from the community have been long been aware that Guild Wars skill icons are available in a much better resolution than the in-game icons. The so-called skill sheets, prepared for sealed play tournaments contain the treasure. Now, as several people pointed out in other threads and forums, "someone" needed to cut them from the sheets, name them properly, arrange them into galleries and downloadable compressed versions.

I'm a little bit surprised that a community this big didn't have a volunteer for so many months - if I'm wrong, correct me -, but here I am, with the job done to the best of my abilities. Here's a little sample of the stuff.

Galleries

Warrior
Ranger
Monk
Necromancer
Mesmer
Elementalist
Assassin
Ritualist
Paragon
Dervish

Packages

Assassin - Mesmer (~7 MB)
Monk - Paragon (~6 MB)
Ranger - Warrior (~7 MB)

(GSites doesn't allow files bigger than 10 MB)

Ancients, errors, and oddities

There were many issues I had to deal with while going through the grind. I will list them all, so that no will blame me for looking at a picture s/he didn't expect.

Wrong name

Some Eye of the North skills still had their preview weekend names. This had no impact on the end result, it was a simple renaming issue. However, if someone were to print out the skill sheets as it was envisioned, then it would become a problem.

Aura of Stability is listed as Steadfast Aura
Way of the Master is listed as Way of the Warrior
Maiming Spear is listed as Nonsensical Spear

Horizontally flipped pictures

It was easy to match the in-game version with no loss in quality.

Belly Smash
Penetrating Attack

Wrong picture

Some skills had the wrong picture. Some of these were, I think, intentional, putting the cool Factions art in place of the old Prophecies art for a few duplicate skills, while others were a mistake.

Galrath Slash <- Silverwing Slash
Pure Strike <- Jaizhenju Strike
Bestial Pounce <- Savage Pounce
Dodge <- Zojun's Haste
Point Blank Shot <- Zojun's Shot
Savage Pounce <- Bestial Mauling
Tiger's Fury <- Bestial Fury
Zojun's Haste <- Dodge
Zojun's Shot <- Point Blank Shot
Shield Guardian <- Stonesoul Strike

Accidentally exchanged pictures were easy to put into place. For the others, I had to enlarge the in-game icons, which look ugly at this resolution.

Alternative picture

The most curious issue I encountered was that some skills had a totally different art. Most of them look cooler than the original, even! However, for the sake of correctness, I provided the enlarged in-game icons (still very ugly) as the default art, and a link below the picture shows you the alternative. In the downloadable version, the "unseen" art is named "<skill name>_alt.jpg".

Crude Swing
Crushing Blow
Deflect Arrows
Riposte
Rush
Pestilence
Power Flux
Visions of Regret
Maiming Spear

Vow of Silence has another, smaller issue. There is only a small difference between the two versions: the in-game dervish only raises one finger to her lips, while the skill sheet version shows her putting all of her fingers to seal her lips. The gallery and the package contain only the skill sheet version.

The Ancients, including the untrimmed ones

I suppose, though I can't tell for sure, that for some very old icons, no high-res art exists. Some icons were obviously enlarged from the in-game icons, and yes, they are ugly. As someone who went through this process multiple times, I know that one step is to trim the icon, it has a few pixels wide black border. Now, the person in charge of providing the pictures missed this step on many occassions, resulting in an even uglier picture.

I won't list all of the Ancients, that would be too long, but I will list the ones where the border was still present, and I had to do the trimming, even-more-enlarging myself. If you have a keen eye, you will notice that these pictures miss the about two pixel wide gray border which is present on the sheet originals.

Feral Lunge
Oath Shot
Smite
Crytal Wave
Earthquake
Flame Burst
Ice Prison
Searing Heat
Whirlwind
Windborne Speed

Project information

I will list the necessary info for cutting. Now, why would someone do this job again when it's already done? First, I'm hoping that some day, we will have an entirely correct version of the skill sheets, so cutting might be needed later. Second, the pictures I provided to you were compressed again into JPEGs to have reasonable sizes. I randomly checked them against the originals on the skill sheets, and I would say the the difference is noticeable to the trained eye in many cases, if not every time. So if you want the maximum you can get from the originals, you need to do the cutting for yourself, and save them as bitmaps or another lossless format.

The skill sheets have an array of 3x3 skills on them - the last one for each profession has a few blanks, of course.

1,1 - 62,145
1,2 - 912, 145
1,3 - 1762, 145

2,1 - 62, 1245
2,2 - 912, 1245
2,3 - 1762, 1245

3,1 - 62, 2345
3,2 - 912, 2345
3,3 - 1762, 2345

The size is 254x254, though in my image manipulation tool, I had to set the cutting size to 255x255 to get what I wanted.

Copyright notice

Even though ArenaNet provided the skill sheets as free downloads, I do not have the right to alter and re-distribute them. I most sincerely hope that the result of my "labour of love" - I spent about 25 hours on this project, all told - will not be considered a copyright infringement, and will be left alone for the viewing pleasure of the Guild Wars community.

Corrections, please? Pretty please, with cherry on top?

I know that the skills sheets and sealed play in general are just a little side project that has probably very low priority inside ArenaNet's working schedule (they are updated irregularly, that much I know). However, if someone who knows the right person to talk to were to see this message: please tell them correct the errors I listed in this message.

And if we could have the PvE skills listed in an eleventh package, that would be soooooo great. O.O As the sealed play page states, the rules are just guidelines, so why not provide the players with the PvE skills as well, they will know what to do with them.

Merry viewing, everyone! ^_^

TheGuildWarsPenguin · Jun 04, 2008, 01:14 AM // 01:14

Nice

Except the website is in another language.

Covah · Jun 04, 2008, 02:06 AM // 02:06

These are awsome. Thanks ^^

Paul thy god · Jun 04, 2008, 03:56 AM // 03:56

Nice, i love the necro ones, some i could just never figure out what they were

MMSDome · Jun 04, 2008, 06:03 AM // 06:03

very nice that someone took the time to do this

obsidian ectoplasm · Jun 04, 2008, 07:06 AM // 07:06

Wow.... this is really cool

Sleeper Service · Jun 04, 2008, 09:24 AM // 09:24

sir i commend you on your effort!
thanks a bunch this is awesome. =]

Tatile · Jun 04, 2008, 10:00 AM // 10:00

Sure are a few Necromancers in those icons o.O
Sloth Hunter's looks painful when it's big.

It's nice to see what the icons are meant to look like. I always though Healing Seed had an image of a woman holding a water urn >.<

Haldibarn · Jun 04, 2008, 10:02 AM // 10:02

Very nice job, and thanks for sharing with the community.

Sethellington · Jun 04, 2008, 10:11 AM // 10:11

Love that one ! These are awesome.. I like the detail on air of enchantment too

EDIT:

drool

Arduin · Jun 04, 2008, 10:12 AM // 10:12

Very nice indeed. Some artwork on the icons is simply stunning, it's a shame the ingame-icons are too vague.

Thanks for all the work you put in!

blurmedia · Jun 04, 2008, 10:37 AM // 10:37

Gaile Gray

Shawn The Divine · Jun 04, 2008, 10:40 AM // 10:40

Amazing, after three years of playing this game, I'm only realizing what the hell is going on in some of the skill icons now. Had no idea Gash was a picture of a body, it always looked like another sword pic to me, like to Sever Artery. Magehunter's Strike looks amazing, too. Pity the skill itself sucks. : /

Huge kudos to you, Endrosz.

BenjZee · Jun 04, 2008, 10:55 AM // 10:55

haha there great, i only just ntoiced some of my favourite skills and what they are actually of

icedwhitemocha · Jun 04, 2008, 11:01 AM // 11:01

Quote:

Originally Posted by Shawn The Divine

Amazing, after three years of playing this game, I'm only realizing what the hell is going on in some of the skill icons now.

Same here.

"You Will Die!" looks like a straight up photomanip.

Oh, and sloth hunter's shot is hilarious.

One more... Discord looks like some famous actor.. dunno.

xDusT II · Jun 07, 2008, 01:50 PM // 13:50

Oh wow, never noticed the [skill]masochism[/skill] skill depicts someone fish-hooking themselves...

I also never noticed the face in [skill]empathy[/skill], and the detail on [skill]castigation signet[/skill] is fantastic.

It's amazing how much effort goes into these skill icons which many of u don't stop and think twice about, really great of you to post these.

Sethellington · Jun 07, 2008, 02:14 PM // 14:14

never knew that [tranquility] was a waterfall... so much is lost here... the skills actually look really nice !

Lawliet Kira · Jun 07, 2008, 07:08 PM // 19:08

Didnt notice the face in the middle of the shield in SoA

Very nice

White Lies · Jun 07, 2008, 07:58 PM // 19:58

This is brilliant. Sheer brilliance. I looked at it and thought 'this is perfect'. Even the 'ancient' ones as you put it are brilliant. I love it. This is.... brilliant.
/awed.

MrGuildBoi · Jun 07, 2008, 09:36 PM // 21:36

The guild wars Vow of Silence is different from the king-size one =o