Talk:General secondary professions

I'd be incredibly happy to see this replace the slew of secondary profession articles. Was that your intent? - Auron 20:23, 4 July 2007 (CDT)
 * It was created to get rid of the redundant notes about things such as condition removal. -- Gordon Ecker 20:44, 4 July 2007 (CDT)

Theoretical vs applied suggestions
Do we really need to restate the obvious about pretty much every skill on the list, including ones that aren't useful to begin with? Sure, epidemic spreads conditions, but is a really bad elite... we shouldn't be suggesting it simply because it spreads conditions.

Are we going to draw the line on quality control here, or let it slowly slip into decay and end up like the 'secondary professions for a ____ articles?' Those are near useless now because they're full of bad advice. If our goal is to list things that people commonly choose secondaries for, I'm down for that. Tons of warriors, sins and rangers go secondary monk simply for Mending Touch; that's fine. But who on earth goes secondary mesmer for a mesmer elite to spread conditions inefficiently (or to recharge signets), or secondary monk for Martyr? And hell, no primary paragons use Cautery Signet, why should a secondary one do it?

If we aren't serious about the usefulness of this article from the beginning, we might as well scrap it now. - Auron 22:00, 4 July 2007 (CDT)


 * Epidemic isn't elite (you're probably confusing it with Fevered Dreams), and the cost was recently reduced to 5 energy. I've heard that Martyr is (or at least was) used in GvG primarily by secondary monks, but I don't really know much about the current or historical GvG metagame. As for Cautery Signet, most of the Paragon elites aren't that useful in PvE. "Incoming!" was severely nerfed, and is largely eclipsed by the non-elite "There Is Nothing To Fear!", Anthem of Guidance is nice but primarily useful for attacker-heavy party setups, Crippling Anthem looks useful as a snare for B/P groups but seems to be primarily a PvP skill, Angelic Bond is an elite, unstrippable version of Life Bond, and is useful when Protective Spirit can be stripped, Anthem of Fury only helps Warriors and Paragons, Defensive Anthem is like Aegis, but it can't be stripped, but it's also elite, and ends when the tanks and melee attackers who tend to take most of the physical hits start using attack skills, Focused Anger is great for adrenaline-heavy builds, Soldier's Fury is good for Spear Mastery builds, but not as good as the roughly doubled adrenaline gain from Focused Anger, "It's just a flesh wound." is an elite, spammable version of Purge Conditions slightly faster but generally inferior version of Restore Condition, "The Power Is Yours!" is only really good if most of your other skills don't use energy, Cruel Spear is okay, but there's other non-elite Paragon skills which can inflict Deep Wounds and Stunning Strike can now keep a foe Dazed indefinitely like Broad Head Arrow thanks to Spear of Fury and has a much faster projectile speed, however, unlike BHA, it needs to charge up before it can be used. Cautery Signet removes one condition for each party member for free with a minor drawback and no attribute investment, it may not be the best Paragon elite, but it is among the most versitile. As for Keystone Signet, I had to make a decision how exhaustive to make the Mesmer signet recharge skill list, I omitted Mantra of Signets and Symbolic Posture, but now I agree that I should've omitted Keystone Signet as well. -- Gordon Ecker 22:55, 4 July 2007 (CDT)
 * I forgot about Restore Condition. -- Gordon Ecker 01:56, 6 July 2007 (CDT)


 * Kill this pls. Rather worthless imo. Readem (talk *contribs ) 02:20, 6 July 2007 (CDT)
 * IMO kill all the others and keep this.--Diddy Bow 14:59, 19 July 2007 (CDT)
 * Agreed Leeroythefeared 16:46, 26 July 2007 (CDT)
 * ...this states obvious things tho... Readem (talk *contribs ) 17:58, 26 July 2007 (CDT)

article purpose
It seems like the specific primary/secondary profession articles (der originals) would work for listing specific skill synergies; this one might be better suited to more general advice, i.e. for Warrior: "A Warrior secondary will grant melee weapon skills, as well as stances and some miscellaneous skills in the Tactics line. You won't have their armor rating, but sufficiently high Tactics will allow you a shield and some defensive bonuses. If you're choosing it for weapon skills, make sure your primary can offer you the protection you need to be a front-line fighter." Of course, that could easily go in the Warrior article itself (there's a brief line there, but it could easily be expanded). In any case, the thing is a boneyard; should probably either be filled out or axed. --Nunix 15:30, 19 July 2007 (CDT)
 * I believe the purpose of the profession combination articles is to compile useful information which is not obvious to inexperienced players. People familiar with all the professions and their skillsets don't need any of these articles because they've already learned the information. -- Gordon Ecker 19:33, 26 July 2007 (CDT)