Skill

Skills are special actions carried out by characters in Guild Wars and are one of the central and most important concepts of Guild Wars combat. Every Profession has a set of around 70-80 Skills that are unique to that respective Profession and most of them are dependant one one of this Profession's Attributes. Around 15 of the Skills in each set are additionally labeled Elite Skills.

Learning Skills
A Character can only learn Skills of his Professions. Learning a Skill means it is made available for this character to equip, but does not affect other character this player has. This rule also applies to Mobs in Guild Wars, so it is safe to assume that, if a Mob uses a Skill specific to a Profession, then that Mob is of that Profession.

There are currently three ways to learn a Skill:


 * Completing a Quest which has that Skill as part of the reward.
 * Talking to a Skill Trainer, expending some Gold and 1 Skill point. Skill Trainers can be found in many Cities and Outposts all over Tyria.
 * Capturing it from a dead Boss with a Signet of Capture, permanently replacing the Signet with the learned Skill.

Note that the third method is currently the only method of learning Elite Skills. Only certain high-level Bosses, starting from the Crystal Desert, but most common in the Southern Shiverpeaks and the Ring of Fire, have Elite Skills.

Unlocking Skills
In Guild Wars, there are two kinds of Characters: Role-Playing Characters and PvP-only Characters. Apart from the Basic Skills of each Profession and the Skills given in Character Templates, every other Skill has to be unlocked with a Role-Playing Character in order to be equip it to a PvP-only Character.

Unlocking a Skill is closely related to learning a Skill. For the very first time (and only then) that a player learns the Skill with any of his RPG Characters, it is also unlocked for all future PvP-only Characters. Thus, unlocking a Skill basically happens in the same three ways as learning a Skill.

Additionally, there are Priests of Balthazar in every City. By redeeming Faction while talking to them, Skills can be unlocked. Note that, unlike the other 3 methods, this method does not cause the redeeming character to learn the respective Skill. On the other hand, a player can unlock any locked Skill, regardless of his character's Professions.

Equipping Skills
Without exception, a maximum of 8 Skills can be equipped by a character at any time.

Skills are equipped by opening the Skill Menu and dragging them from there to the Skill Bar while inside Cities or Outposts. Only 1 of the skills equipped this way may be an Elite Skill. While being in an Explorable Area, Mission, or Arena, neither Skills nor their order can be changed. There are some exceptions to these rules:


 * When a character learns a Skill as part of a quest reward, the player has the opportunity to replace one of his character's current Skills with the just learned Skill, even while in a Mission or Explorable Area.
 * When using a Signet of Capture on a dead boss, the capturing Signet of Capture will be permanently replaced with the learned Skill, thus equipping it. Note that capturing an Elite Skill with Signet of Capture might also violate the rule of "only 1 Elite Skill at any time". See Signet of Capture for details.
 * A Mesmer can use one of the Skills Arcane Thievery, Inspired Enchantment, or Inspired Hex. If successful, the respective Mesmer Skill will be temporarily replaced with whatever Skill it has captured. This method can violate the "1 Elite Skill" rule, too.

Using Skills
To use a Skill, all of the following conditions have to be met:


 * The Skill must show up in the Skill Bar.
 * The Character must be in a Mission, Explorable Area, or Arena.
 * The Character must have a sufficient amount of Energy in his Energy Bar to activate the Skill. Some Skills require Adrenaline instead of Energy; in that case, the Skill must have built up enough Adrenaline to be activated.
 * The Skill has to be recharged.
 * The Target, if one is required, must be valid. See Target for details.

Note that a Target can be invalidated in several ways: It can be of the wrong type (for example Opponent, Ally, Fleshy Creature, Animated Undead, or any meaningful combination thereof), or it can be protected by a certain effect (Spell Breaker). Also, some Skills don't require a Target (Lava Font), which means the second condition is always true for such Skills.

Note that it is not a condition that the Skill must be linked to one of the character's Professions. In practice, a character is still restricted to using Skills of his own Professions most of the time, since he can learn no other Skills. However, the Mesmer has the Skills Arcane Thievery, Inspired Enchantment, and Inspired Hex, which allow him to use Skills of Professions other than his own.

A general Skill Timeline
Activating a Skill follows a certain timeline. T is short for Time, the time difference between Now and the Time when activating the Skill:


 * 1) T < 0 Once a player clicks on the Skill in the Skill Bar or presses the corresponding hotkey, the Skill will be put in the Action queue. The character moves until he is in range to activate the skill.
 * 2) T = 0 The caster is in range to activate the Skill on the Target. The Skill is activated and all Skill costs have to be paid. If the Target is invalid, the Skill will fail, otherwise the Activation Time starts.
 * 3) 0 < T < Activation Time The Skill is being activated. The target may move out of Skill from this phase on. The Skill can be interrupted or cancelled.
 * 4) T = Activation Time The Activation is complete. If the target has become invalid during the last phase, the Skill will fail, unless it is a Area of Effect Skill that requires an initial target. If it resolves, all instantaneous and duration-based effects start now. The Recharge Time starts.
 * 5) Activation Time < T < Activation Time + Recharge Time The Skill recharges and can not be used. The Recharge Time for this Skill instance can no longer be modified, except by effects that recharge this skill immediately.
 * 6) T >= Activation Time + Recharge Time The Skill is recharged and ready to be used again.

Skill Anatomy
A Skill is sufficiently described by a number of characteristics:


 * Description
 * Linked Attribute, if any
 * Energy costs, or Adrenaline costs, or other costs
 * Activation Time
 * Recharge Time
 * Skill Type
 * Upkeep, if any
 * Name and Icon

Description
A complete summary of all direct effects a Skill has. A Skill's effects resolve as soon as the Skill's Activation Time is over and the Skill resolves. At resolution, every Effect is checked individually whether or not the Target is valid for this effect.

All Linked Skills have one or more Effect Variables in their Description, which are colored green for easy recognition. In the game, each variable is of the form number1..number2, where number1 is the Variable's value at its Linked Attribute's level of 0, and number2 is the value at its Attribute's level of 12.

Linked Attribute
The Attribute that determines the value of all of this Skill's Effect Variables. Most Skills have a Linked Attribute. See Linked Attribute for details.

Skill cost
Skill costs have to be paid as soon as a Skill is activated. When a spell is canceled by the caster, is interrupted by a foreign effect, or fails for some other reason, during its Activation Time, the Skill will have no effect but the Skill Costs will not be refunded or reversed.

Energy Cost
This is the amount of Energy the skill will consume once you activate it. Energy costs and Adrenaline costs are currently mutually exclusive.

Adrenaline Cost
See Adrenaline for details. Energy costs and Adrenaline costs are mutually exclusive. Many Warrior skills require the caster to build up adrenaline through dealing or sustaining Physical Damage in combat. The equipped Adrenaline Skills do not share a common Adrenaline pool, which means they gain and use Adrenaline independently from each other. Every Adrenaline Skill builds up Adrenaline individually until it is ready to be used; when the Skill is used, its Adrenaline pool is emptied. This means that, for an individual Skill, Adrenaline can not be stored in order to use that Skill more than once without building up new Adrenaline between two activations.

Other Cost
Currently, Exhaustion is the only Skill Cost that is not Energy or Adrenaline. Other costs combine with Energy or Adrenaline costs.

Note that it is a crucial property of Costs that they are due before the Activation Time starts, not when the Skill and its effects resolve. All other "costs" like, for example, sacrificing Health, are part of the Skill's effects and have to be seen as separate from the costs.

Activation Time
The time required from when the Skill is activated until it can resolve. Activation Time is measured in seconds and is also referred to as Casting time. For most Skills, the Activation Time lies anywhere between 3/4 and 2 seconds. Spells that take a short time to activate are often more useful than ones that take a long time to activate, because the latter are more easily interrupted or evaded; additionally, the caster can not perform - only queue - any other action while casting a spell, without cancelling the Skill he is activating.

During the Activation Time, a Player can queue one other action. This other action can, among others, be another Skill, a Physical Attack, or picking up an item. All of these actions can be safely queued even if the character has to walk in order to perform the action; however, a direct movement order, i.e. pressing a movement hotkey or clicking on the ground, will cancel the Skill being activated and clear the action queue. A player can any number of times switch its current Target while activating a Skill; this does not count as an action and will thus be performed immediately instead of being placed in the action queue.

Recharge Time
Measured in seconds. Once a skill has either resolved or has been interrupted, that skill's icon will become shaded and starts charging up. The amount of time it takes to become usable again is the Recharge Time. The Recharge Time can be affected by some Skills, for example by Mantra of Recovery. Note that cancelling a Skill while activating it by moving does not count as it being interrupted; instead it will be ready for use immediately. The costs, however, are still lost.

Skill Type
Skills come in a number of types. Some Skills or game mechanics interact with only certain types of Skills.


 * Attack - An enhanced attack on an enemy with any weapon. Often requires Adrenaline instead of Energy. Includes
 * Axe Attack
 * Bow Attack
 * Hammer Attack
 * Sword Attack
 * Such Attack Skills can only be activated with the respective weapon equipped.


 * Enchantment - A spell that improves an ally's status (such as armor, health or speed).
 * Elite - In addition to any other Skill type, a Skill can be Elite For Elite Skills, a few special rules apply.
 * Glyph - A skill that affects the next spell you cast in some way. Only works with spells.
 * Hex - A spell that puts a negative, duration-based effect on one or more enemies (such as decreasing their Armor Level, Health or movement speed).
 * Nature Ritual - Creates a Spirit creature that affects both allies and enemies in an area surrounding it. Nature Rituals give a 5% Death Penalty to the caster.
 * Preparation - A skill that enhances your attacks for a certain time span. Different preparations are mutually exclusive, at most 1 at a time can be active.
 * Shout - An untargeted Skill which instantly affects either nearby allys or nearby foes.
 * Signet - A skill without Skill Costs. Generally, when compared to a different Skill with similar effects, a Signet will have a balancing disadvantage such as higher Recharge or Activation Time.
 * Skill - The general type applicable to every Skill. A Skill is always at least of the type Skill. If a Skill is also of another type, the Skill is always dropped from the Type property label; for example, Frenzy were, if correctly labeled, a Stance Skill. However, that label is contracted to Stance, although Frenzy remains a Stance Skill.
 * Spell - Any Skill that does not fall into any of the other categories, except Skill. Enchantments, Hexes, Nature Rituals, and Traps are always Spells in addition to their respective type.
 * Stance - Instantly activated Skills that affect only the caster. Like Preparations, Stances are mutually exclusive.
 * Trap - A Ranger Skill that sets up a Trap for opponents. When an opponent walks through the trapped area, the Trap will be activated and its effects resolve.

Upkeep
Upkeep is the maintenance cost for certain permanent Skill effects. Currently, the only Skills requiring an Upkeep are some Monk Enchantments, and the only kind of Upkeep is "-1 Energy Recovery". Effects that require Upkeep can at any time be canceled by the caster, which makes both the effect and the Upkeep end.

Note that there are other Enchantments and Hexes for most Professions, which incorporate a kind of Upkeep, like for example Malaise. However, those are not officially labeled as Upkeep and the respective Effects can by default not be canceled by the caster. Thus, strictly speaking, they are not Skills requiring Upkeep.

Name and Icon
A Skill's name is a unique identifier for each Skill, and an Icon has a purely aesthetic value. There are currently no game mechanics that depend on a Skill's name or Icon.

Related Pages

 * Skills Category lists all known skills, grouped by their Profession and Linked Attribute.