Skill

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 one 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 character 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:


 * Completing a Quest which has that Skill as part of the reward.
 * Talking to a Skill Trainer, expending some Gold and 1 Skill point. Skill Trainers can be found in many Cities 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 third method is currently the only method of learning elite skills. Only certain high-level Bosses, starting from the Crystal Desert, but most common in the Southern Shiverpeaks and the Ring of Fire, have Elite Skills.

Unlocking Skills
In Guild Wars, there are two kinds of Characters: Role-Playing Characters and PvP-only Characters. Apart from the Basic Skills of each Profession and the Skills given in Character Templates, every other Skill has to be unlocked with a Role-Playing Character in order to be equip it to a PvP-only Character.

Unlocking a Skill is closely related to learning a Skill. For the very first time (and only then) that a player learns the Skill with any of his RPG Characters, it is also unlocked for all future PvP-only Characters. Thus, unlocking a Skill basically happens in the same three ways as learning a Skill.

Additionally, there are Priests of Balthazar in every City. By redeeming Faction while talking to them, Skills can be unlocked. Note that, unlike the other 3 methods, this method does not cause the redeeming character to learn the respective Skill. On the other hand, a player can unlock any locked Skill, regardless of his character's Professions.

Equipping Skills
Without exception, a maximum of 8 Skills can be equipped by a character at any time.

Skills are equipped by opening the Skill Menu and dragging them from there to the Skill Bar while inside Cities or Outposts. Only one of the skills equipped this way may be an elite skill. While being in an Explorable Area, Mission, or Arena, neither Skills nor their order can be changed. There are some exceptions to these rules:


 * When a character learns a Skill as part of a quest reward, the player has the opportunity to replace one of his character's current Skills with the just learned Skill, even while in a Mission or Explorable Area.
 * When using a Signet of Capture on a dead boss, the capturing Signet of Capture will be permanently replaced with the learned Skill, thus equipping it. Note that capturing an Elite Skill with Signet of Capture might also violate the rule of "only one Elite Skill at any time". See Signet of Capture for details.
 * A mesmer can use one of the skills Arcane Thievery, Inspired Enchantment, or Inspired Hex. If successful, the respective Mesmer Skill will be temporarily replaced with whatever Skill it has captured. This method can violate the "one Elite Skill" rule, too.

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


 * The Skill must show up in the Skill Bar.
 * The Character must be in a Mission, Explorable Area, or Arena.
 * The Character must have a sufficient amount of Energy in his Energy Bar to activate the Skill. Some Skills require Adrenaline instead of Energy; in that case, the Skill must have built up enough Adrenaline to be activated.
 * The Skill has to be recharged.
 * The Target, if one is required, must be valid. See Target for details.

Note that a Target can be invalidated in several ways: It can be of the wrong type (for example Opponent, Ally, Fleshy Creature, Animated Undead, or any meaningful combination thereof), or it can be protected by a certain effect (Spell Breaker). Also, some Skills don't require a Target (Lava Font), which means the second condition is always true for such Skills.

Note that it is not a condition that the Skill must be linked to one of the character's Professions. In practice, a character is still restricted to using Skills of his own Professions most of the time, since he can learn no other Skills. However, the Mesmer has the Skills Arcane Thievery, Inspired Enchantment, and Inspired Hex, which allow him to use Skills of Professions other than his own.

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.
 * 2) T = 0 The caster is in range to activate the Skill on the Target. The Skill is activated and all Skill costs have to be paid. If the Target is invalid, the Skill will fail, otherwise the Activation Time starts.
 * 3) 0 < T < Casting Time The Skill is being activated. The target may move out of Skill from this phase on. The Skill can be interrupted or cancelled.
 * 4) T = Casting Time The Casting is complete. If the target has become invalid during the last phase (dies, or is no longer dead), the Skill will fail, unless it is an Area of Effect Skill that requires an initial target. 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

 * Skills Category lists all known skills, grouped by their Profession and Linked Attribute.