Talk:Cast

Have you verified that it applies to non-spells? --Fyren 18:56, 1 Oct 2005 (EST)


 * This defintion is wrong. Casting is only "spell" activation. The generic act of activating a skill is called "Activation" not "Casting." A warrior does not "cast" Devastating Hammer, he activates it. We had this discussion somewhere in some skill page about the skill template, already. Right? That's why we have "Activation" in the skill template, not casting. --Karlos 20:45, 1 Oct 2005 (EST)


 * So all the weapon/armor bonuses that apply "while casting" do not apply while you activate non-spell skills? Okay, I stand corrected. --Tetris L 20:55, 1 Oct 2005 (EST)
 * We agreed that "casting" non-spells didn't make sense. But, the game uses the term "casting" for some mods (like the shield Tetris recently made the article for, which he linked here, and then wrote), so I was wondering what the game thought.  --Fyren 21:43, 1 Oct 2005 (EST)


 * Also note that the text for many weapon upgrades says "Improves Casting speed using [attribute] skills". It says "skills", not "spells". --Tetris L 21:51, 1 Oct 2005 (EST)


 * Good points. I can offer not assertion that casting referred to in the shield is only for spells. One would have to have the Shield and then try casting versus using skills (other than attacking) and then measure damage delt (from a source that does not vary in value like a weapon but something like a Lightning Spell). But for the improves casting speed part, I have never seen those on any non-spell-casting attribute. i.e. Improves casting speed on Swordsmanship skills by 18%. Has anyone seen that? On the contrary, I think this part has been consistently used with only magic attributes. But, it is of note that it improves SKILLS, not spells. That would be tricky to measure. A mesmer would be a good choice because they have many skills and spells. If someone has something that improves Inspiration Magic casting speed, they can try it on Mantra of Resolve. It takes 5 seconds and is not a spell so it would be easy to notice if it was reduced. --Karlos 22:14, 1 Oct 2005 (EST)


 * Note the wording of Curse of the Bloodstone. It talks about casting skills, not just spells. -- 01:40, 4 January 2006 (UTC)

Casting Animation / Symbols
I realized that there is one aspect of GW that we have not covered by now: The casting animations, or more specifically: The symbols that appear above your head while you cast/activate a skill. I checked a few of them briefly yesterday, but I wasn't able to understand the pattern yet. Some symbols appear for more than one skill, but in different sequences. For sure that symbol is profession specific. It may also depend on the skill type, linked attribute or something else. It is not a simple pattern, for sure. It may even be that each skill has a unique sequence of symbols.

Has anybody understood the pattern and can explain it?

If not, I want to look into this a little deeper tonight and investigate the pattern. Anybody want to help? -- 00:19, 7 March 2006 (CST)


 * I've been thinking about that. Some of them seem to have repeated animations partially, while others dont. I have been observing 55 monks now for like 3 months, and I can now easily tell each one of the 7 monk skills on their bar without even looking at the skill monitor. But, in battle, I sometimes thikn I see some symbols (like the floating blue cross) in more than one situation. --Karlos 00:53, 7 March 2006 (CST)


 * I've done some research yesterday and found some patterns. I'll expand the article now, with the things I found. -- 17:48, 7 March 2006 (CST)


 * A few more things:
 * Since we have no final clarification whether "casting" is reserved for spells only or for any kind of skill, I'd suggest to make the paragraph about the animation a separate article Skill Animation.
 * I plan to upload screenhots of all the casting symbols. Should be about 25 symbols overall.
 * I'd like to add a paragraph "Skill Animation" to each skill article, describing the animation sequence. This would include an image of the casting symbol, and a written description of the auras. (Taking screenshots of all the auras would clearly be overkill, since they are unique we'd end up with several hundred new images. We might make exceptions for auras that are very characteristic.)
 * -- 19:44, 7 March 2006 (CST)


 * I put in what I know about the character movement. It's mostly a function of duration and target (self/other). I think screen caps would be a thousand times more expressive than describing them. Case in point, Healing Breeze and Spell Breaker will seem almost identical when described in text. I want to test if for Warrior the movement is also a function of the weapon (1 handed or 2 handed). I also know that the animation changes if the caster is holding an item. My ele holds the book to her chest and does weird things. --Karlos 21:51, 7 March 2006 (CST)


 * The movement is the part of the animation that I paid the least attention to so far. I was mostly interested in the casting symbols and "auras". The movement is merely "eye-candy" for me. -- 22:31, 7 March 2006 (CST)