- Winter :Ask again on the final mission; Fire ele + Winter
- Otyugh's Cry : Won't really argue with you here <.<
- Primal Echoes : If your group doesn't use signets, why not? Maintained enchantment monks use Blessed Signet often, most people weild Resurrection Signet, and Warriors tend to have Healing Signet. How likely do you think it is that they'll use those skills when they cost 10 energy? It may even prevent them from using them, if they save them for when they're low on energy. Picture a warrior trying to revive his fallen comrades, but he's spent. Not gonna happen. As with other nature rituals, it requires coordination on your team's part. Since the only effect on the ritual is a negative effect, it just means circumventing that so that only the other team can feel the effect.
- Quick Shot : Quick hard to avoid attack. Never actually tried it myself so I won't bother trying to talk about it.
Warrior:
- Protector's Strike: Can't say I've used it or even recognize it <.<
- "Fear Me!": From what I've heard, it has a pretty large area. If you can garner some quick adrenaline, then you can cause a lot of energy loss to many people. Goes up to 4 at 13-14 tactics, not sure which.
- "Charge!": PvE skill primarily, although whatever the case, the point is, as said, that it is a shout rather than a stance, and can be used in conjunction with a stance.
Elementalist
- Grasping Earth: It's cheap and fast to cast and PbAoE. If you're surrounded and need to get away, there you go. The AL bonus is only to physical, so elemental or any other non-physical attribute on your weapons or spells will be unaffected.
- Iron Mist: 90% slow. Who cares if you can't hurt them? Some people weren't meant to be hurt yet anyway. I've used Mantra of Persistance to extend Imagined Burden to 40 seconds of 50% movement speed to set on a warrior that nobody was attacking to take him out for most of the battle. He spent most of the fight chasing people, and took no damage until we were all ready for him. 90% slow means that even if he were to use Hamstring on you, you could still get away. Not every skill is to make people easier to kill. Some are to incapacitate them temporarily.
- Ice Spear: Bleh, but what can I say, it's non-elite and spammable. What else are you going to use before water trident?
- Mind Freeze: Ok, you got me here. The damage isn't impressive, and neither is the slow debuff. There're other ice skills which provide unconditional damage and slow without causing exhaustion.
- Rust: You did not just knock rust! AoE water hex, turns Healing Signet to 6 seconds (during which the warrior will take extra damage), Resurrection Signet becomes 9 seconds (Even longer than the longest castin resurrection spell), Blessed Signet takes 4 seconds (Really annoying for a maintained enchanter). It only costs 5 and lasts a good long while to boot. Have you tried to resurrect an ally with a 9 second resurrection skill? It might not be a miracle skill, but I find a place for it if I can in my water ele builds. If nothing else, it's really fun to watch someone cast rez signet for that long.
Mesmer
- Ignorance: Totally locks out signet ring users. Toss it on an enemy just as you see them start Resurrection Signet and it'll fail, as will future attempts. Throw it on a warrior under fire and no healing signet for them. Throw it on a maintained enchanter and no more Blessed Signet for them.
- Panic: Think Backfire for signet rings while being AoE and also causing energy degeneration. Once again, REALLY annoying for maintained enchantment users. Causes them to lose energy even faster, and to take damage when they use Signet of Devotion and Blessed Signet. Puts Warriors at 0 energy regeneration and causes them to take damage when they use the only non-adrenal skills that are free.
- Echo: Great skill, can be used with Arcane Echo to get 3 copies of any spell, or alone to get 2 copies of any skill. Copy a signet, copy an attack, copy a stance. Doesn't matter. Some skills have recharge times set so that you can't use a skill constantly, but with echo, you may be able to. Some rangers fire multiple debilitating shots this way.
- Ether Lord: Really not a spectacular skill, with very limited usage. The energy gain isn't great, and it only takes 1 less second to cast than Energy Tap. At 10 seconds and 3 arrows, it only nets you 10 energy. The perk: You can take energy even when they're out. Unfortunately, that drawback is a lot worse.
- Mantra of Concentration / Mantra of Resolve: Mantra of Concentration is a great toss-up for when you need a stance for "Increases damage by 15% while in a stance". It lasts a LONG while. Mantra of Resolve is great for when you know you'll be interrupted a lot. That IVEX Trapper premade template becomes a lot more trapper oriented if you toss in Mantra of Resolve and a few more traps.
Monk
- Scourge Healing / Sacrifice: Even if you don't focus fire on the monk, Scourge Healing makes them take damage anyway as they heal their ally. Paired with skills that reduce the effectiveness of healing, and the damage may go above the amount they heal. Probably not, but in any case, the amount of net health gain on their team is reduced. Somebody's going to have to heal the damage the monk takes, and whether that's the monk himself, it still = less energy for them.
Scourge Sacrafice on the Fi Boon Healer and they'll take 20% damage whenever they use Offering of Blood. 66% damage on a BiP necro. Tons of damage on a Dark Aura necro.
- Holy Veil: Pass. One pip of your energy regeneration for an enchantment that barely helps. Maybe on a mo/me with an interrupt you could find a use for this: 6 seconds of casting backfire should be relatively easy to spot for a good mesmer.
- Light of Dwayna: One of the fastest rezzes, and it's PbAoE. Sure, it's expensive, but if you can get up multiple people simulataneously quickly, it's not so bad right? I'd suggest Bring Heal Area with this though. I actually like this in PvE where a lot of the hench die in the same area. Little Thom, Devona, Cynn, and Eve are often all corpses at the same spot. (Don't know why Cynn goes to the front lines so often.)
Some of them might not be the best suggestions for usage, but the point is, even in highly conditional circumstances, they DO still have uses.
. The skill is good if you want to copy a good, but long cool-down spell
