Ack! The disappointments! >.<

OMG! This is pathetic! Just look at how many of these new skills that are exactly the same as the old skills...just a change of name!

Vampric Bite == Vampric Touch (Necromancer: Blood Magic)
Penetrating Chop == Penetrating Blow (Warrior: Axe Mastery)
Stonesoul Strike == Holy Strike (Monk: Smiting Prayers)
Defile Enchantments == Desecrate Enchantments (Necromancer: Curses)
Arcane Larceny == Arcane Thievery (Mesmer: Domination Magic)
Ancestor's Visage == Sympathetic Visage (Mesmer: Illusion Magic)
Revealed Hex == Inspired Hex (Mesmer: Inspiration Magic)
Revealed Enchantment == Inspired Enchantment (Mesmer: Inspiration Magic)
Teinai's Wind == Whirlwind (Elementist: Air Magic)
Teinai's Crystals == Crystal Wave (Elementist: Earth Magic)
Teinai's Heat == Searing Heat (Elementist: Fire Magic)
Teinai's Prison == Ice Prison (Elementist: Water Magic)

I'm NOT going to buy factions until these skills are fixed to have SOME difference from other skills

I know. I was like "Wow, they gave Desecrate Enchantment a new name and picture" o.o

Prophecy Skill, Desperation blow. Exact same skill in factions: Drunken blow.

Prophecy Skill, Penetrating Chop. Exact same skill in factions: Penetrating blow.

Prophecy Skill, Penetrating Attack. Exact same skill in factions: Sundering Attack.

Prophecy Skill, Dodge. Exact same skill in factions: Zajun's Haste.

So there's 4 skills out of all the NEW ones they give you which are nothing more but the same skills with different icons.

Re-charge time SAME
Energy/Adrenal cost SAME
Skill description SAME
Skill type SAME


Also the warrior shout "NONE SHALT PASS!" is under Tactics. But it has no modifier, so with 1 tactics its as good as with 16 tactics, so really it belongs under No Attribute.

I was looking forward to the new skills but so far my Prophecies build WILL NOT CHANGE as the skills on offer are the exact same friggin ones.

What the hell has ANET been up to, these skills and how they were thought out are shite! But theres hundreds of forum feedback on skills that are wanted/needed and still balanced. And it looks like ANET just pulled any ol crap out. So far factions isn't offering Prophecy characters anything other than different armor.

Anyone else found stupid or repetious skills?

Considering that Factions will have a different skill tree, there is reason for the overlap. Not everyon who buys GWF will have access to the Prophecy skills. Some of these identical skills are there for balance. It all works out in the end.

Overreact much? I do hope you dont buy Factions in that case...

Oh and the reason that there's duplicate skills, according to Gaile, is so people can have the option of equipping two of them if they choose without using something like Arcane Echo.

I dont think that's valid reasoning. The skills that are necessary for both (all) chapters are in the "Core List". The chapter-specific skills are supposed to be distinct and optional.

There might be an argument that having clones of these skills means you can have 2 copies of them, but the actual skills that have been cloned aren't really the ones you would want to be cloned. (Whirlwind? Earthquake? Spinal Shivers??)

I'd be greatly relieved if Gaile pops up somewhere and tells us these are placeholders and will be changed into distinct skills when release comes around.

Alternatively, if the clones are really intentional and final, then I hope they tweak them around so that there's some differences. (Eg. Dragons Stomp has a shorter recharge but longer casting time than Earthquake, etc.)

Edit: Oh, someone posted Gaile's response. Hmm, well, that kinda sucks. I hope they tweak some differences then.

Yeah, that's true. And we can also now do a massive Desecrate Enchantments spam! Yay for Desecrate Enchantment spam!

Actually before you jump to conclusions, Anet said there would be 25 brand new skills for each class. They didn't lie and infact, there are 25 new ones. However, they also added I believe 5-7 duplicate skills so that people who only bought factions have some required skills. Those are bonus skills not Anet just running out of ideas.

And they're offering propehices characters a lot:

new armor
new weapons
new skills/elites
new pets
new gameplay modes
etc...

And why not just make those core skills then? No, I believe they have not yet fully balanced all skills, and those skills we see now are placeholders.

_Zexion

they are not placeholders.

add this to the growing fields of .............

EDIT

here tis

You guys must not play Magic: The Gathering much.

I'd say I've played Magic : The Gathering too much. Counterspell! Power Leak! Mana Drain! Mana Leak! Power Drain! Force Spike!

More or less the same ability over and over..with light twists. Very useful once you get used to it.
Perhaps the similarity of skill names will help out players, being an easy access to memorize all the skills in the same line.

You kind of have to buy them.. lol

No Disappointments! They promised ~25 new skills for core professions and we got that + about 5 skills which are functional repeats from Prophecies. This leads to some interesting possibilities with 2 copies of the same skill on bar. Also a cool thing is that you can choose the one with name/picture you like more

Having to unlock these will make the way to 100% unlocks in factions longer...

So you can have two penetrating chops as an axe warrior? Sweet.

These skills were intentional, they're ment to overlap for builds.

Im sure you really need two duplicates for a skill with a 5 second re-charge time.

How is 2 of the same skill a BAD thing???

2 versions of SV...hmmm think 2 man UW, you can have 2 SV without actually echoing it, saving ur echo for SS...and I dont know about you, but I would love to have 2 heal other skills in my bar (3 sec cooldown down to 1.5)

is there a double for "distracting shot"? if yes, then....

make that 2.5 seconds effective

Heh, they could of just list it as Core skill instead of giving it a new picture and name