Skill details

A Skill can be identified by a number of characteristics:
 * Name
 * Profession
 * Attribute
 * Type (see below)
 * Cost (Energy/Adrenaline/None)
 * Activation Time
 * Recharge Time
 * Upkeep
 * Effect

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

Almost 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 x...y, where x is the Variable's value at its Linked Attribute's level of 0, and y is the value at its Attribute's level of 12. The value varies linearly (before rounding) with respect to the linked attribute level. The exact formula is:

VL = round(V0+L*(V15-V0)/15)

where VL is the value at attribute level L.

Linked Attribute
The Attribute that determines the value of all of this Skill's Effect Variables. Most Skills have a Linked Attribute (some skills are unlinked). See Linked Attribute for details.

Skill cost
Skill costs have to be paid as soon as a Skill is activated. The caster is charged the cost immediately upon activation regardless of whether the skill is succesfully performed or not.

[[Image:Energy.png]] 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.

[[Image:Adrenaline.png]] Adrenaline Cost
See Adrenaline for details. Energy costs and Adrenaline costs are mutually exclusive. Many Warrior skills require the fighter to build adrenaline up by dealing or sustaining physical damage in combat. Equipped Adrenaline Skills do not share a common Adrenaline pool. Instead, each Adrenal skill gains and spends Adrenaline independently from other Adrenal skills. However, each time an Adrenal Skill is activated small amount of Adrenaline is lost from every other Adrenaline Skill. Each Adrenal Skill builds up Adrenaline individually until full. When an Adrenal Skill is used, that skill's Adrenaline pool is emptied. This means that Adrenaline cannot be stored for multiple uses of an Adrenal skill. The Adrenaline pool must be built back up after each use.

Health Sacrifice
The amount of Health the skill will consume once you activate it. If you do not have enough Health to fulfill the amount specified for a skill, you will die upon activating that skill. Currently, the only skills requiring a Health sacrifice are Necromancer skills. Health is sacrificed at the end of skill activation, and interruptions result in no sacrificed Health.

Exhaustion
Exhaustion is an additional cost for some Elementalist spells.

Note that all Costs except Health sacrifice are due when activation begins, not when the Skill and its effects resolve, so interruptions result in their loss. Health Sacrifice is part of the effect of the skill.

[[Image:Activation.png]] 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 character generally cannot perform - only queue - any other action while casting a spell, without cancelling the Skill he is activating. (A few skills, such as Stances and Shouts, break this rule.)

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 switch their Target any number of times while activating a Skill. If the target is a foe then the player will begin attacking the foe once they have stopped performing skills.

[[Image:Recharge.png]] 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 activation of a Skill does not start the recharge timer and the Skill will be ready for use immediately, though the energy required to activate the Skill is still lost.

[[Image:Upkeep.png]] 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.

When maintaining skills that have upkeep, the caster needs to be mindful of their reduced energy supply or try to get more energy some other way. For example, monks might utilize Blessed Signet or counter with Peace and Harmony, mesmers can utilize Inspiration Magic that will increase their energy reserves, and a warrior could use mostly adrenaline-based skills. If a player has negative energy degeneration and the player's energy reaches zero, the last maintained Enchantment cast will be lost.

Note: 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.

Skill Type
Skills come in a number of types. Some Skills or game mechanics interact with only certain types of Skills. The Skill type is recorded in the Type label.

There are 10 'Basic Skill Types', but there exist further specialisations of certain types, as shown by multiple levels in the following list


 * Skill - The most basic Skill type. Pure skills are hard to counter, because their Casting Time is usually very low and their effects instantaneous, which makes them hard to prevent or cancel. Only few Skills can interrupt pure skills directly.
 * Attack skill - Attacks on an enemy with any weapon.
 * Melee attack skill - Requires the use of any melee weapon or bare hands.
 * Axe melee attack skill - Requires the use of an Axe.
 * Hammer melee attack skill - Requires the use of a Hammer.
 * Sword melee attack skill - Requires the use of a Sword
 * Pet melee attack skill - Requires a pet.
 * Ranged attack skill - Requires the use of a Bow, Wand or Staff.
 * Bow ranged attack skill - Requires the use of a bow.
 * Glyph skill - Affects the next spell you cast. At most 1 Glyph at a time can be active.
 * Nature Ritual skill - Creates a Spirit creature that affects all creatures, allies and enemies, in its area.
 * Preparation skill - Enhances your attacks for a certain time span. At most 1 preparation at a time can be active.
 * Shout skill - Instantly affects either nearby allies or nearby foes.
 * Signet skill - Has no activation cost but long activation time and recharge time.
 * Spell skill - Most skills are Spells.
 * Enchantment spell skill - Puts positive effects on an ally.
 * Maintained enchantment spell skill - Stays on the target for the cost of 1 energy regeneration.
 * Hex spell skill - Puts a negative, duration-based effect on one or more enemies.
 * Stance skill - Affects only the caster. At most 1 Stance at a time can be active.
 * Trap skill - Covers the area around a Ranger.

Elite Skills
Skills can also be classified as Elite skill. A player may only have one elite skill equipped at a time, except when they capture one, or copy an elite skill (with Mesmer skills like Arcane Mimicry). While there is some debate as to whether Elite is actually a type of skill, it currently seems to be the best fit.

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.