List of skill anomalies

The following is a list of anomalies in skills and their descriptions. Please feel free to add anomalies that you have noticed.

General

 * "Takes no damage" means a damage number of 0 will show up. However, "deals no damage" does not produce a damage number at all.  Finally, "takes damage" (as a trigger for other effects) will count a damage number of 0.
 * The use of the term "spirit" in many skill descriptions is ambiguous. The effects of these skills are limited to spirits created by rituals. For example, an Unnatural Signet will not recharge instantly if used against a Spirit of the Fallen, and you will not gain energy from Essence Strike standing near the "protective spirit" Zunraa.
 * There are some bosses in Istan with elite skills that cannot be obtained from them with a Signet of Capture.
 * All Shadow damage skills and all Holy damage skills except for Judge's Insight, Avatar of Balthazar and Lightbringer's Gaze ignore armor and caster level, which is not listed in their skill descriptions.
 * Although not technically an anomaly, it is worth noting that the 'only recharged by Morale Boosts' effect of Resurrection Signet and Sunspear Rebirth Signet takes priority over the instant recharge effects of other skills such as Keystone Signet and Assassin's Promise.

Warrior

 * The description of Dwarven Battle Stance implies that it improves attack speed for all weapons and causes hammer attacks to interrupt foes. In reality, the skill cannot be activated unless a hammer is equipped.
 * Earth Shaker's description is erroneous. The skill is targeted, and knocks down target foe and foes adjacent to your target, rather than foes adjacent to you as the wording implies.  In this case, "adjacent to your target" means the second smallest area of effect represented by the concentric circles at the Practice Target in the Isle of the Nameless.
 * Shield Stance is ambiguous. This skill will provide no deflection bonus, but will slow your movement if you are not wielding a shield.
 * Swift Chop: if blocked, there is no additional damage, the target just takes 1..16 damage and suffers from Deep Wound for twenty seconds.
 * Yeti Smash's description says that it strikes for +5..17 damage and all adjacent foes take 5..41 damage, however the area damage does not affect the primary target.

Ranger

 * Call of Haste and Call of Protection say that your animal companions are buffed. This is ambiguous. A footrace between a Dodge ranger and a Call of Haste ranger, will result in one pet running significantly ahead of the other. Also, Call of Protection cannot be cast if your pet is dead, even if there are other pets belonging to allies in range. This seems to indicate that the buffs only apply to the beastmaster's pet, not all pets.
 * Flame Trap, Barbed Trap and Spike Trap deal the initial damage that is not shown to the user of the trap, although the damage of the other traps is shown. Additionally, damage dealt by these traps does not benefit from any "damage level" (neither weapon, which uses attribute; or spell, which uses level), thus the damage value is only accurate if target has 0 armor.
 * Spike Trap deals damage that is neither physical nor elemental.
 * Whirling Defense deals piercing damage that ignores armor and cannot be converted into fire damage by Greater Conflagration.
 * Sometimes bow attack skills and normal bow attacks do not function on bridges or stairs. This is fixed by moving slightly or moving completely off the bridge/stairs.

Monk

 * Draw Conditions mentions "negative" conditions, which is redundant as all conditions are negative.
 * Essence Bond says that the caster gains 1 energy if the target takes damage. Actually, the target merely has to be hit; the energy is gained even if the target takes 0 damage. Balthazar's Spirit behaves similarly.
 * Judge's Insight says that attacks deal holy damage with 20% armor penetration. It has been experimentally verified that attacks under Judge's Insight do not ignore armor, although every other source of holy damage in the game does. There are two possibilities here: either holy damage is not armor ignoring, in which case every other skill that does holy damage has armor ignoringness as an unstated property, or attacks under Judge's Insight do not deal holy damage, in which case its skill description is wrong. In the latter case, it would be fair to say that attacks under Judge's Insight deal light damage, as both light and holy damage deal double damage to undead, and attacks under Judge's Insight have been verified to have this property.
 * Martyr says that all conditions and their durations are transferred to the caster. This is ambiguous. Experiments show that for each condition only the maximum duration is transferred to the caster, not the sum of all durations on all party members. Draw Conditions displays this behavior to a lesser extent.
 * Life Attunement says that it causes the target to deal 30% less damage in combat. This is ambiguous. It appears to reduce only damage caused by weapons, but has no effect on damage from other skills, including skills that "count as" attacks such as Palm Strike.
 * Protective Bond and Protective Spirit say that they limit damage only for attacks and spells. However, they also work for damage sources such as Vile Touch that are neither attacks nor spells.
 * Spirit Bond states that "whenever target ally takes more than 60 damage..." but actually heals before the damage itself is applied. i.e. it heals before target ally takes said damage.

Necromancer

 * Aura of the Lich says that it reduces all damage by half. Actually, it reduces both damage and life sacrifice by half.
 * Grenth's Balance also balances the health of the caster and target if the caster has more health than the target. This balancing effect does not happen if the caster has maximum health.
 * Plague Touch mentions "negative" conditions, which is redundant as all conditions are negative.
 * Rotting Flesh's description states that target fleshy creature becomes diseased and slowly loses health. This wording is redundant.
 * Taste of Pain's description states that you gain health; however unlike other health gain skills, it is affected by Life Attunement and Aura of Faith, and thus should be considered a healing skill.
 * Verata's Sacrifice only affects up to three minions per casting.

Mesmer

 * Arcane Thievery, Arcane Larceny, Inspired Enchantment, Inspired Hex, Revealed Enchantment, Revealed Hex and Simple Thievery cannot copy monster skills.
 * Clumsiness causes attack skills to fail rather than actually interrupting them, which means that the disrupted skill recharges instantly. However, under Frustration, clumsiness is considered as an interrupt.
 * Frustration deals damage if target is interrupted in any way: Clumsiness, Signet of Clumsiness or a knock down while the target is using any skill or attacking will trigger the damage.
 * Illusionary Weaponry says that your attacks "deal no damage" in melee. Actually, your attacks simply do not hit. This can be tested with the stance Deflect Arrows which will not be ended by attacks under Illusionary Weaponry. To compare, Deflect Arrows will end when attacking a target under Mist Form &mdash; in this case, the attacks do hit, but deal no damage.
 * Signet of Humility displays a message about invalid spell target when an invalid target is selected, this should be signet or skill target.
 * Illusion of Weakness subtracts 1 more life than the skill description says. In addition, the -XXX red damage number also shows a value incorrect by 1 point.

Elementalist

 * Although the description does not mention it, the projectile created by Phoenix inflicts has a blast radius of adjacent range.
 * Sliver Armor says that it strikes "one nearby enemy" with earth damage. This is somewhat ambiguous. A natural reading would assume it to mean "one random nearby enemy", but actually, given a constant set of enemies in range, it always strikes the same one. This is not necessarily the closest enemy - presumably it is the first enemy encountered in whatever data structure the game uses to determine such things.

Assassin

 * Aura of Displacement says that, when you stop maintaining the enchantment, you "return" to your starting location. This is ambiguous as it doesn't distinguish between shadow stepping and teleportation. The effect is identical to a shadow step.
 * Death Blossom's description says that, if it hits, it strikes for +20..40 damage and all adjacent foes take 20..40 damage. In reality, if it hits, it strikes for +20..40 damage and all other foes adjacent to the target take 20..40 damage.
 * Return says that you teleport to target ally. Actually, you shadow step to target ally.
 * Shadow of Haste says that, when the stance ends, you "return" to your starting location. This is ambiguous as it doesn't distinguish between shadow stepping and teleportation. The effect is identical to a shadow step.

Ritualist

 * The description of all Binding Rituals use the wording "Create a level ## spirit ...", where as "Summon a level ## spirit ..." or "Bind a level ## spirit ..." would be in line with the lore.
 * Bloodsong summons a spirit called "Spirit of Blood Song". This was apparently not updated after the FPE, when this skill was named Blood Song.
 * The skill description of Shadowsong does not list the spirit's damage.

Paragon

 * Contrary to their descriptions, Anthem of Envy, Anthem of Flame and Crippling Anthem affect the first hit of the next non-pet attack skill used by each ally within earshot. Pet Attacks will not trigger them.
 * Contrary to their descriptions, Anthem of Fury, Defensive Anthem and Anthem of Guidance are not triggered by Pet Attacks.

Dervish

 * The description of Chilling Victory says that it inflicts the area cold damage whenever it strikes a foe with less health than you, however the damage will trigger even if the attack is blocked or evaded, and will not trigger more than once per activation.
 * The description of Lyssa's Assault states that the conditional energy gain is fixed, however it actually progresses with the Scythe Mastery attribute.
 * Intimidating Aura uses the old Preview Event name, Intimidating Gaze in the description.

Blessings

 * Although the skill descriptions do not mention duration, all Bounties lasts until you leave the current zone.
 * The description of the Skree Hunt blessing may be inaccurate, depending on whether Skree Hatchlings and Skree Griffons are Harpies.
 * The description of the Insect Hunt blessing may be inaccurate, depending on whether Stalking Nephilas are Insects.

Celestial skills

 * Although it is omitted from their descriptions, Celestial Skills cannot be recharged by anything other than Morale Boosts.
 * Celestial Storm says that it strikes for 40 damage per second. The skill actually strikes for 40 damage four times every second, in effect striking for 160 damage per second. Additionally, the skill description suggests that the damage is armor ignoring, when, in fact, it is reduced by armor.
 * Star Servant claims to summon a level 20 Star Servant. It actually summons a level 25 Celestial Horror.

Monster skills

 * Impossible Odds does not mention that all conditions on Shiro are transferred to those he strikes when under this effect.
 * Meditation of the Reaper has an inconsistent damage absorption figure. The tooltip on the skill activation icon says 700 damage, whereas the icon in the Effects Monitor says 500 damage (and is the correct figure). Also, the skill does not say how to end the Meditation early (by reaching the damage cap).
 * Dark Chain Lightning deals 300 damage to the first target and 10% less to each subsequent target, not 200 and 10% less to each subsequent target as the description states. Also, the damage is not Lightning Damage in spite of the description.

Item Effects

 * The Spear of Archemorus is able to deal 1900 damage to a single target, rather than the 235 damage listed in its description.

Environmental Effects

 * Healing Fountain does not inflict weakness on undead.

Special skills

 * Disarm Trap is easily interruptable although it is not mentioned in the skill description.