Curse

Mercury Angel · May 22, 2006, 10:17 PM // 22:17

Working on lists for all of the professions, but this is my first, and currently only, complete one.

As a preface, I want to make a few things fairly clear.

Errors = downright wrong descriptions. Glyph of Sacrifice for example, is totally wrong.
Inconsistencies = A choice of wording that is not uniform/standard. See Lightning Hammer, for example, and compare it to Lightning Strike, Lightning Touch, and Mind Shock.

Basically, Errors are real description inaccuracies, while Inconsistencies are nitpicking.

Why nitpick? Because they're a professional company, and why not? It doesn't hurt anyone if the descriptions were more uniform, free of spelling, grammar, and errors of the style persuasion. If you don't like it, don't read through it. They come AFTER the errors section for a reason.

Without further ado:

Skill Errors:

Glyph of Elemental Power -
Gives +2 to Water, Fire, Earth, and Air Magic, and ends when you cast a spell. Mostly unimportant, but the reason why this is an 'error' can be seen when you use Shock or Lightning Touch, as you gain the +2 to Air Magic, but it doesn't end. They're not spells, and they shouldn't really get the bonus at all.
If not an 'error', then it could be worded as, "For 15 seconds, you gain +2 to your Air, Earth, Fire, and Water Magic attributes. Glyph of Elemental Power ends when you cast a spell."

Glyph of Sacrifice -
Causes 90 seconds of additional recharge, not 30.

Swirling Aura -
Blocks all forms of projectiles, rather than just arrows.

Meteor -
Can miss the target, while the description would lead you to believe otherwise.

Churning Earth -
Lacks an area of effect clarifier. (Nearby)

Double Dragon -
Strikes for the first half of the damage immediately, and the second half after 2 seconds.

Lava Arrows -
Lacks a damage type clarifier.

Phoenix -
Lacks an area of effect clarifier on the projectile aspect of the skill. (Adjacent)

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Description Style Inconsistencies:

Attunements (Drop the 'you are attunened to X' parts)
Does not contribute to the skill description at all.

Arc Lightning
"Target foe is struck for X lightning damage. If that foe is suffering from a Water Magic Hex, one foe near your target is struck for X lightning damage. This Spell has 25% armor penetration."
"This skill" and "This Spell" are the normal wordings used on all of the other armor penetrating Air Magic spells.

Glimmering Mark:
"For X seconds, whenever target foe is struck for lightning damage, that foe and adjacent foes suffer from Blindness for 3 seconds.
Suffers is generally used to describe one under a condition or hex. Skills such as Thunderclap and Mark of Rodgort with conditional damage triggers were used to justify this change.

Gust:
"Target foe is struck for X cold damage. If that foe is suffering from an Earth or Water Magic Hex, that foe is knocked down for 3 seconds."
Lightning Touch uses the 'suffering' wording, rather than the 'under', as does Arc Lightning.

Lightning Hammer:
"Target foe is struck for X Lightning Damage. This Spell has 25% armor penetration."
"This skill" and "This Spell" are the normal wordings used on all of the other armor penetrating Air Magic spells.

Lightning Touch:
"Target touched foe and all adjacent foes are struck for X lightning damage. Foes suffering from a Water Magic Hex are struck for an additional Y lightning damage. This Skill has 25% armor penetration."
Capitalized Skill to be more consistent. Skill types, of which Skill is one, should probably be capitalized when used like that, as Spell is.

Shock:
"Target touched foe is knocked down and struck for X lightning damage. This Skill has 25% armor penetration and causes Exhaustion."
See Lightning Touch.

Shock Arrow:
"Send out a swiftly moving Shock Arrow towards target foe that strikes for X lightning damage if it hits. This Spell has 25% armor penetration."
The change to the first sentence are to match it up with Flare, Fireball, and other projectile spells. "This skill" and "This Spell" are the normal wordings used on all of the other armor penetrating Air Magic spells.

Churning Earth:
"Create Churning Earth at target foe's location. For 5 seconds, nearby foes are struck for X earth damage each second. Foes moving faster than normal when struck by Churning Earth are knocked down."
"For 5 seconds", as opposed to "For the next 5 seconds", to fit in with Fire Storm, Eruption, Meteor Shower, and all of the other pulsing DoT's. Nearby is missing from the skill description, so it currently doesn't specify an area of effect. Overall, the description is more standardized.

Earthquake:
"Target foe and all nearby foes are knocked down and struck for X earth damage. This Spell causes Exhaustion."
Overall, much cleaner, and simpler. Descriptions have overall lost their non-descript RPness to be more concise, and this is just another instance where it can occur.

Dragon's Stomp:
"Target foe and all nearby foes are knocked down and struck for X earth damage. This Spell causes Exhaustion."
Overall, much cleaner, and simpler. Descriptions have overall lost their non-descript RPness to be more concise, and this is just another instance where it can occur.

Magnetic Aura:
"For X seconds, you have a 75% chance to block melee attacks."
Magnetic Aura isn't being attacked. Neither is Bonetti's Defense, Critical Defenses, or Guardian, and so on. It's simpler this way, and more consistent.

Sliver Armor:
"For X seconds, you have X% chance to block attacks and whenever you are the target of a hostile Spell or attack, one nearby foe is struck for Y earth damage."
The comma after 'attack' makes it read more smoothly.

Ward Against Elements, Ward Against Melee, and Ward Against Foes:
"Create a Ward..."
Drop the 'You', as in Ward of Stability and Ward Against Harm. It sounds better overall, and either the former or latter should change anyway.

Energy Boon:
"You gain X Energy. This Spell causes Exhaustion."
"This skill" and "This Spell" are the normal wordings used on all of the other Exhausting skills.

Double Dragon:
"Adjacent foes are struck for X fire damage. After 2 seconds, adjacent foes are struck for X fire damage. This Spell causes Exhaustion."
The skill works more closely to this than the current description, dealing immediate damage with a longer pause, rather than 2 pulses one second apart, and the usage of 'spell' is generally capitalized, such as air magic spells that have Armor Penetration, or Obsidian Flame, Lightning Surge, and other spells that cause Exhaustion.

Lava Arrows:
"Send out Lava Arrows that fly toward up to 3 foes near your target that strike for X fire damage if they hit. This Spell has half the normal range."
Description change for the first sentence to match it up with Flare, Fireball, and the changes to other projectile spells. Specifies fire damage this way, since it DOES deal fire damage, and a more consistent description, akin to Scorpion Wire, though Ice Spear also uses the specific naming system. Still, for Armor Penetration and Exhausting effects, it works like this, and it'd be more consistent if half range effects did as well.

Lava Font:
"Create a Lava Font at your location. For 5 seconds, foes adjacent to that location are struck for X fire damage each second."
More consistent with other pulsing DoT's.

Meteor:
"Summon a meteor to fall at target foe's location. Foes adjacent to that location are knocked down and struck for X fire damage when it hits."
The current description would lead one to believe that there is a guaranteed hit, but that is untrue. A foe moving faster than normal can actually move out of range of the Meteor in time to avoid it.

Phoenix:
"Adjacent are struck for X fire damage. Send out a fiery phoenix that strikes target foe and adjacent foes for Y fire damage."
Simple and concise. Not much more to say here.

Blurred Vision:
"For X seconds, target foe and adjacent foes have a 50% chance to miss with attacks."
AoE hexes such as Shadow of Fear and Suffering have lost the 'foes are hexed with ___' aspect, as that is already clear. This description change merely follows that example.

Deep Freeze:
"Target foe and all foes in the area are struck for X cold damage and move 66% slower for 10 seconds."
It's not a pulsing DoT and it has no unique effects, such as Meteor's overhead projectile properties, to warrant the additional sentence "Cause a Deep Freeze at target foe's location", so it should be dropped. Rodgort's Invocation no longer says anything along the lines of "Invoke the power of Rodgort at target foe's location", and neither should this.

Ice Prison:
"For X seconds, target foe moves 66% slower. Ice Prison ends if that foe is struck for fire damage."
Once again, another RPish definition when most skills have lost theirs. This is short and sweet. Suffers has once again been switched out for 'struck', as is typical to damage-linked conditionals.

Ice Spear:
"Send out an Ice Spear that strikes for X cold damage if it hits. This spell has half the normal range."
The slight wording change on the first sentence makes it more consistent with spells like Flare. See Lava Arrows for reasoning on the 'Half the normal range' sentence description change.

Shard Storm:
"Send out an ice shard that strikes target foe for X cold damage if it hits, causing that foe to move 66% slower for Y seconds."
If it hits and causing target foe to move slower? o_O Causes, I could see, but causing doesn't really sound like it fits there.

Shatterstone:
"Target foe is struck for X cold damage. After 3 seconds, that foe is struck for Y cold damage."
More consistent with other water magic hexes with front-ended damage as well.

Swirling Aura:
"For X seconds, you have a 50% chance to block projectile attacks."
See Magnetic Aura for the reasoning on this change. Also, it is NOT limited to just arrows. It blocks wand/staff attacks as well.

Teinai's Prison:
"For X seconds, target foe moves 66% slower. Teinai's Prison ends if that foe is struck for fire damage."
See Ice Prison for the reasoning on this change.

Vapor Blade:
"Target foe is struck for X cold damage. Enchanted foes are struck for half damage."
No real problems here, I just like saying it this way better. It's just as descriptive, while shorter.

Water Trident:
"Send out a Water Trident that strikes for X cold damage if it hits and knocks down moving foes."
Simpler, and matches spells like Flare more closely.

===

Toss-ups:
The following skills either do, or do not use the word 'all' before an AoE clarifier in their descriptions, such as "Target foe and all nearby foes" vs "Target foe and nearby foes".
Skills in the following categories that are unusual are marked with an asterisk, either because they're a pulsing DoT that uses 'all', or they're a non-DoT that does not.

Skills that use 'all' for AoE's before the AoE modifier (Generally non-DoT AoE's):
Glimmering Mark, Lightning Touch, Teinai's Wind, Whirlwind, Dragon's Stomp, Earthquake, Grasping Earth, Burning Speed, Fireball, Flame Burst, Inferno, Meteor, Rodgort's Invocation, Searing Heat, Deep Freeze, Frozen Burst, Rust,

Skills that do NOT use 'all' for AoE's before the AoE modifier (Generally DoT AoE's)
Aftershock*, Churning Earth, Crystal Wave*, Eruption, Shockwave*, Teinai's Crystals*, Unsteady Ground, Bed of Coals, Breath of Fire, Fire Storm, Incendiary Bonds*, Lava Font, Meteor Shower, Searing Heat, Teinai's Heat, Blurred Vision*, Ice Spikes*,

Lacks any:
Phoenix

Even if all of the skills with asterisks in the second category were shifted to the first category, then there's still an issue on whether 'all' is even needed or not, going by the pulsing DoT's. Really, it would probably be best if all skills used 'all', spelling it out, or they didn't, and it became assumed on skills that lacked a clarifier, as opposed to skills that possess one (Unholy Feast, Lava Arrows, and such.).

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If anyone has any input on the stylistic changes, further inconsistencies, or further errors to report, you're welcome to do so. After I refine this, I'm going to submit it to Anet, though judging by the report I submitted a few months back of Glyph of Sacrifice, which is a cut and dry error (There's a thread about that elsewhere, and I cut and pasted the report verbatim. There's no possible confusion, they simply chose not to fix it at this time.), I doubt they'll act on this information any time soon.

Vermilion Okeanos · May 23, 2006, 12:53 AM // 00:53

It does feel someone just recieved a vacation, and thus, have alot of free time.

In my opinion, elementalist are the #1 class that I actually need to do field test before knowing it would be effective. While Necro would be #2.

Maybe you got time to do a necro one too?

Mercury Angel · May 23, 2006, 03:00 AM // 03:00

Quote:

Originally Posted by Vermilion Okeanos

It does feel someone just recieved a vacation, and thus, have alot of free time.

In my opinion, elementalist are the #1 class that I actually need to do field test before knowing it would be effective. While Necro would be #2.

Maybe you got time to do a necro one too?

I've actually been considering something like this for some time, but what sparked it was Churning Earth completely lacking a descriptive modifier, and the requests for a bugs thread, though this is a much more limited scope.

Many of the skills have undergone an evolution from a less informational RP-ish description ("Invoke the power of Rodgort" "Create a brilliant flash of light" or other such things), and it only seems right that they all complete the transition. Magic the Gathering is manages both, if I recall correctly, with purely informational descriptions, but RP-ish information on their 'flavour text', or whatever. It's not that I dislike the more flavourful descriptions, it's just that consistency and uniformity is an important part of both having a well organized system, and giving something a professional appearance.

If all of the skills had some kind of flavour text on them in the user-based mouse-over in the skill window (as opposed to the mouse-over done by enemies when a foe is using a skill, or on the skill bar), it'd be nice. But mixing them intermittently with purely informational descriptions just feels off.

And yes, I'm planning on doing so with all professions.

As for more time, not really. I have less time. I'm even supposed to be updating the skill listings, rather than working on little side projects <_< But they'll all get done eventually. Even the monster only skill listing.

Draygo Korvan · May 23, 2006, 03:47 PM // 15:47

comment on this:
Glyph of Sacrifice -
Causes 90 seconds of additional recharge, not 30.

This is a bug, it is supposed to be 30 seconds, the description isnt wrong just anet screwed something up. I recall patch notes a while back when they buffed this to 30, next patch it broke and was back at 90 with the description still at 30. Bug.

Wrath Of Dragons · May 23, 2006, 05:49 PM // 17:49

Quote:

Originally Posted by Draygo Korvan

comment on this:
Glyph of Sacrifice -
Causes 90 seconds of additional recharge, not 30.

This is a bug, it is supposed to be 30 seconds, the description isnt wrong just anet screwed something up. I recall patch notes a while back when they buffed this to 30, next patch it broke and was back at 90 with the description still at 30. Bug.

its the very first one commented on

Vermilion Okeanos · Jun 02, 2006, 11:48 PM // 23:48

I just recently found out that ride the lightning have 25% armor penetration as well, I am not sure when that happen, whether it always did or they added it without telling us.