Skill template

Using the skill template
You can use this template on PvE characters as well as PvP characters.

This template saves your skillbar and the attribute point allocation, not the equipment. For saving equipment, see the equipment template.

Saving skill templates

 * Bring up the Skills and Attributes window (default key k).
 * Press the [[Image:Savetemplate.png]] in the upper left corner.
 * Press the [[Image:Savechoosetemplate.jpg]] item to open the save template window.

Loading skill templates

 * Bring up the Skills and Attributes window (default key k).
 * Press the [[Image:Savetemplate.png]] in the upper left corner.
 * Press the [[Image:Loadtemplate.jpg]] item to open the load template window.

Text files
Templates are saved to your local hard drive only and are not saved to the server the way your controls are. If you reinstall Guild Wars you should back up your template files beforehand and put them back in when finished. Vista saves your templates to a different directory, than other operating systems, file paths can be found below.

Windows XP and older: Templates are saved to "\Templates\Skills".
 * Eg. "C:\Program Files\Guild Wars\Templates\Skills"

Windows Vista and 7 Templates are saved to " \Documents\Guild Wars\Templates\Skills".
 * Eg. "C:\Users\John\Documents\Guild Wars\Templates\Skills"

You can send your template by entering the templates folder that is inside the Guild Wars main folder, then entering the skills folder and giving the text file with the template name to friends.

To add someone's build from outside the game, you need to put their text file into the skills template folder, and hit the 'Refresh' button on your skills template window in Guild Wars.

Subfolders
If you navigate to the template folder in Windows explorer (or equivalent file browser), you can create a folder structure within it to better organize your templates. You cannot create folders from in-game, but you can navigate them in the normal fashion.

Guild wars chat template transfer
When holding the Ctrl button while inside an outpost and clicking your skill bar, you will send a message to the chat window to everyone, "My equipped skills are [(your name) ' s Skills.]" You can click the words "[(your name)'s Skills]" to see their skills and save its template. Alternatively if you wish to send it to the guild channel or alliance channel you may open the template menu and go to manage template, click on Send to chat to put the code into the chat input field. The local channel and trade channel will not display the click able link, instead showing the raw code for that template. This update was made on April 4, 2007.

Tips

 * Give your templates meaningful names so that you can easily scan through them in-game.
 * If Guild Wars is running and you make changes to the text files that store the templates in the game directory itself, remember that these changes will only be reflected when you press the Refresh button.
 * You don't need to change your profession with a Profession Changer or with the drop down menu in Skills and Attributes panel before loading a template. If you have the necessary secondary profession unlocked, it will automatically change it.
 * An easy way to organize templates is to start their names with the letter(s) corresponding to their primary and secondary profession. For example, all the templates that use Assassin and Monk can start with "AMo" or "MoA."
 * Another easy way to organize templates is to create sub-folders inside of your skills template folder. You can name these folders to your corresponding profession of the skills inside, and the skills template manager in Guild Wars will recognize the folders and files.
 * You can manually edit the text file to include usage tips; the template works fine as long as you leave the first line (the code) unchanged.

Decyphering the code
The game itself is the standard software to encode and decode a template file. However, if you should ever want to decypher or create a template file manually, instructions for that can be found in the Skill template format guide.