Skill


 * This Article is about Skills in your skill bar. For the Skill type "Skill" see Skill (Skill type).

Skills are special actions carried out by characters in Guild Wars and are one of the central and most important concepts of Guild Wars combat. Every Profession has a set of around 70-80 Skills that are unique to that respective Profession and most of them are dependant on one of this Profession's Attributes. Around 15 of the Skills in each set are additionally labeled elite skills.

Learning Skills
A Character can only learn Skills of his Professions. Learning a Skill means it is made available for this character to equip, but does not affect other characters this player has. This rule also applies to Mobs in Guild Wars, so it is safe to assume that, if a Mob uses a Skill specific to a Profession, then that Mob is of that Profession.

There are currently three ways to learn a Skill in PvE:


 * Gaining it from a Quest (usually as the reward)
 * Talking to a Skill Trainer, expending some Gold and 1 Skill Point. Skill Trainers can be found in many Towns and Outposts all over Tyria.
 * Capturing it from a dead Boss with a Signet of Capture, permanently replacing the Signet with the learned Skill.

Note that the last method is currently the only method of learning elite skills, which are available from certain high-level Bosses in the Crystal Desert, the Southern Shiverpeaks and the Ring of Fire.

Unlocking Skills
In Guild Wars, there are two kinds of Characters: Roleplaying characters and PvP characters. Other than a few Basic Skills of each Profession and the Skills given in Character Templates, each Skill must be unlocked in order to use it on a PvP only Character.

Unlocking a Skill is closely related to learning a Skill.
 * The first time a player learns a Skill with any PvE character, that skill is unlocked on that player's account for current and future PvP Characters. In PvE, unlocking a Skill happens in the same three ways as learning a Skill.
 * There are Priests of Balthazar in every arena. By redeeming Faction by speaking to these Priests, Skills can be unlocked.  Unlike the other methods, PvE characters who unlock skills in this way don't learn those Skills.  On the other hand, players can unlock any locked Skill this way, regardless of the character's Professions.
 * Whenever a Skill becomes unlocked (either from learning it in PvE or unlocking it with faction), it becomes available from all Skill Trainers for PvE characters to purchase but only if that skill is available for that profession.

Equipping Skills
Skills are equipped by opening the Skill inventory and dragging them from there to the Skill Bar while inside staging areas. Without exception, a maximum of eight Skills can be equipped by a character at any time, corresponding to the eight non-thumb fingers. Each skill can only be equipped once (you can't have multiple copies of a skill on your Skill Bar). Only one elite skill can be equipped at a time. While in Explorable Areas, Missions, or Arenas, the Skill Bar cannot be altered.

There are some exceptions to these rules:

Note that, upon zoning, your skill bar will be reset to what it was before you last left town, except for the ones acquired by Signet of Capture, which are permanently in you skill inventory now. If you have more than one elite skills on the bar because of a recent capture, however, all but the left-most one will be removed from the bar upon zoning.
 * When a character learns a Skill as part of a quest reward, the player has the opportunity to replace any one of his character's current Skills with the new Skill, even while in a Mission or Explorable Area.
 * The Signet of Capture can be equipped multiple times on your skill bar. To do this, you need to have purchased multiple copies of the Signet from a Skill Trainer.
 * If an Elite skill is captured with the Signet of Capture and there is already an Elite skill equipped, both skills will remain equipped until the character enters another area. Only the first equipped elite skill will stay in the skill bar after changing an area.
 * When activated, certain skills, (the Signet of Capture, and the Mesmer skills Echo, Arcane Echo, Arcane Mimicry, Arcane Thievery, Inspired Enchantment, and Inspired Hex) will replace themselves with another skill for the duration of the skill effect. Depending on the specific skills involved, it effectively causes one or more of the following, otherwise impossible scenarios:
 * Changing your skill bar during a Mission or in an Explorable Area
 * Having the same skill more than once on your skill bar (only the Mesmer skills can do this)
 * Having more than one Elite skill on your skill bar.

Using Skills
To use a Skill, all of the following conditions have to be met:


 * The Skill must be on the Skill Bar.
 * The Character must be in a Mission, Explorable Area, or Arena. Skills can't be activated in cities.
 * The Character must have a sufficient Energy or Adrenaline to activate the Skill.
 * The Skill has to be recharged and must not be disabled.
 * There must be a valid Target selected if one is required.
 * You must have the valid Weapon type wielded if one is required.

Targets are invalid if they are the wrong type (Opponent, Ally, Fleshy Creature, Minion, Corpse), or protected by some effects (Spell Breaker, Obsidian Flesh). Some Skills don't require targets (Lava Font).

The skill need not be from one of the character's Professions. In practice, characters are usually restricted to Skills of their own Profession. However, the Mesmer Skills Arcane Mimicry, Arcane Thievery, Inspired Enchantment, and Inspired Hex allow other skills to be used. If the Mesmer "borrows" a skill that does not match his current professions, it will be used with an Attribute rank of zero.

Core Skills and Campaign Skills
With the introduction of Guild Wars Factions, all skills were assigned a “Campaign” value. Currently there are three types:
 * Core Skills: are available to all campaigns
 * Prophecies Skills: are available only to the owners of the original Guild Wars
 * Factions Skills: are available only to owners of Guild Wars Factions

Presumably as new chapters of Guild Wars are released, additional skills will be added to the Core Skills set, and further campaign sets will be added.

Skill Overlap and Duplicate Skills
An interesting consequence of having skills unique to each campaign is that there is a certain amount of overlap between them. There are now certain campaign specific skills which have counterparts within the opposite campaign (Heal Area and Karei's Healing Circle is just one of many examples). For players with access to both campaigns these duplicate skills allow you make builds that can effectively use the same skill twice. This can be especially useful for skills with a long recharge time. A perfect example of how players have embraced this ability is the R/N Touch Ranger; by using both Vampiric Touch and Vampiric Bite, the ranger can effectively use the same skill twice, without concern for the recharge time.

A General Skill Timeline
Activating a Skill follows a certain timeline. T is short for Time, the time difference between Now and the Time when activating the Skill:


 * 1) T < 0 Once a player clicks on the Skill in the Skill Bar or presses the corresponding hotkey, the Skill will be put in the Action queue. The character moves until he is in range to activate the skill. A few skills, notably corpse affecting skills, will not cause the player to move into range; the player must do this manually.  Skills without targets are automatically in range.
 * 2) T = 0 The character is in range to activate the Skill on the Target. If the Target is invalid, the Skill will fail, otherwise the Activation Time starts and all Skill costs have to be paid.
 * 3) 0 < T < Casting Time The Skill is being activated. The target may move out of range from this phase on. The Skill can be interrupted or cancelled.
 * 4) T = Casting Time The Casting is complete. If the target or skill has become invalid during the last phase (target dies, or is no longer dead, Spell Breaker was cast, player is hit by Blackout etc.), the Skill will fail. (Area of Effect Skills will cast successfully on dead targets.) If it resolves, all instantaneous and duration-based effects start now. The Recharge Time starts.
 * 5) Casting Time < T < Casting Time + Recharge Time The Skill recharges and can not be used. The Recharge Time for this Skill instance can no longer be modified, except by effects that recharge this skill immediately.
 * 6) T >= Casting Time + Recharge Time The Skill is recharged and ready to be used again.

Related Pages

 * Category:Skills
 * Index of Skill Lists
 * List of skill anomalies