Curse

Sausaletus Rex · Mar 03, 2005, 06:15 PM // 18:15

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.

Devil's Dictionary · Mar 03, 2005, 06:27 PM // 18:27

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 · Mar 03, 2005, 06:30 PM // 18:30

Nice review. (I only hope that it is updated when the skills get adjusted.)
It is nice seeing useful but less popular skills "Spotlighted".

Draken · Mar 03, 2005, 08:39 PM // 20:39

good review, will the spotlighted review also apear in the skill listing if the skill has been spotlighted?

THX · Mar 03, 2005, 08:54 PM // 20:54

Yes it will,
ex: http://www.guildwarsguru.com/content...elite-id83.php

Uthar · Mar 03, 2005, 09:18 PM // 21:18

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.

Rushing Wind · Mar 03, 2005, 11:06 PM // 23:06

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!

Kui · Mar 04, 2005, 12:35 AM // 00:35

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

Sausaletus Rex · Mar 05, 2005, 01:14 AM // 01:14

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....

Quote:

Originally Posted by Greentongue

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 · Mar 05, 2005, 05:37 PM // 17:37

(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.

Narcism · Mar 05, 2005, 06:54 PM // 18:54

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.

Sausaletus Rex · Mar 05, 2005, 07:19 PM // 19:19

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.

Tantor · Mar 07, 2005, 01:17 AM // 01:17

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 · Mar 07, 2005, 01:56 AM // 01:56

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.

March Hare · Mar 07, 2005, 03:38 AM // 03:38

[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]

Sausaletus Rex · Mar 08, 2005, 06:57 AM // 06:57

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.

Davion · Mar 08, 2005, 07:07 AM // 07:07

makes me want to consider a warrior secondary even more than before...nice..got my interest. thanks

FireMarshal · Mar 08, 2005, 07:22 AM // 07:22

Nice read.

I have a few skill suggestions:

Oath Shot
Mantra of Recovery
Aura of the Lich

Bobangry · Mar 08, 2005, 08:21 AM // 08:21

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.

Sausaletus Rex · Mar 08, 2005, 02:31 PM // 14:31

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:

Quote:

Originally Posted by FireMarshal

Oath Shot

It's the recharge version of Marksman's Wager. Shoot an arrow, if it hits all your skills are instantly reusable. Miss and they have to recharge a while longer. It's got a high failure rate without high Expertise and that's before you get into the issue of people being able to dodge your arrow, but if you don't have high Expertise, why are you playing a Ranger? And, you can get around the dodging problem by using skills like Read the Wind or Favorable Winds.

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.

Quote:

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.