List of skill anomalies

DISCLAIMER: The information in this article is based on experimental research conducted by the community, and may contain inaccuracies and speculation. While we strive for accuracy in these articles, we make no claims of experimental rigor or unbiased conclusions. Caveat lector.

A Skill Anomaly is a case where an effect does not exactly match its stated or implied description, but still functions. It is similar to, but not as serious as, a Bugged effect.
The following is a list of anomalies in skills and their descriptions. Please feel free to add anomalies that you have noticed. Also see Category:Anomalies for more info.

General notes on skill behaviour

• "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.
• All Shadow damage skills and all Holy damage skills except for Judge's Insight, Avatar of Balthazar, Lightbringer's Gaze, and the converted weapon damage from Heart of Holy Flame 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.
• When a spell's description says it causes some effect every second or every N seconds, this effect is always caused at the end of the interval.
• When a skill's description says it makes a skill activate or rechange X% faster, this means that it makes the activation or recharge time X% shorter. Increases to attack speed likewise reduce the attack interval, so a 25% attack speed increase results in a ~33% attack rate increase, and a 33% attack speed increase results in a ~50% attack rate increase.
• In general, Pet Attacks will trigger effects dependent on activating attack skills, such as Anthem of Fury or Zealous Anthem, but will not trigger effects dependent on hitting or attacking with attack skills, such as Defensive Anthem.
• Resurrection skills will not work on non-fleshy creatures, such as Djinn.

Warrior

• The description of "I Will Avenge You!" is misleading, as it says: For each dead ally, you gain 10 seconds of +3...6 Health regeneration and your attack speed increases by 25%. The area of this skill's effect is not infinite as the description implies, but counts fallen allies only within radar range.
• Bonetti's Defense, Defensive Stance, and Deflect Arrows block all projectile attacks, not just arrows.
• Although Dwarven Battle Stance does improve the attack speed of all weapons, the skill's description does not mention that it can only be activated while wielding a hammer.
• The skill descriptions for Eviscerate and Hamstring are redundant, describing the condition they inflict.
• Healing Signet is a healing skill, rather then a gain health skill.
• The description of Shield Stance is ambiguous: this skill will provide no deflection bonus if you are not wielding a shield, yet will still slow your movement.
• The description of Swift Chop is ambiguous: if blocked, the target takes only 1..16 damage, rather then 1..16 bonus damage as the description implies.
• The description of Yeti Smash is ambiguous: the target is struck for +5..17 damage, and foes adjacent to the target take 5..41 damage.

Ranger

• Conflagration states that it only affects arrows, but it will change Spear and Bone Fiend attacks to fire damage.
• Rampage as One and Never Rampage Alone require a living animal companion or it cannot be activated.
• Whirling Defense deals physical damage that ignores armor and cannot be converted into fire damage by Greater Conflagration.
• Winter is currently inconsistent.
• 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.
• If you use Comfort Animal without having a pet with you, you incorrectly get the message "Your pet is out of range".
• If you miss with Oath Shot your skills will be disabled for 5 seconds instead of the 10 seconds the skill description advises.
• The bow attack Power Shot appears to have a 1 second cast time, but it actually has a 1/2 second cast time similar to inturrupting attacks such as Distracting Shot.

Monk

• Draw Conditions mentions "negative" conditions, which is redundant as all conditions are negative.
• Balthazar's Spirit 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.
• 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

• Animate Flesh Golem's description says that you can only have one Flesh Golem at a time. It does not mention that when the old golem is destroyed because you have a second Flesh Golem, it will leave an exploited corpse.
• Aura of the Lich says that it reduces all damage by half. Actually, it reduces both damage and life sacrifice by half.
• The descriptions of Deathly Swarm and Vampiric Swarm are misleading. Contrary to their descriptions, they are not PBAoE spells or projectile spells, and do not require line of sight to hit a target. Similar to Chain Lightning, they hit the primary target first and then move on to hit up the second and third targets, however, unlike Chain Lightning, there is a 1 second delay between each target and the next.
• 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, Plague Sending, and Plague Signet mention "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. Additionally, the description implies that it can target any fleshy creature, but it can only target fleshy foes.
• 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.
• The description of Verata's Sacrifice says that it affects all undead allies. It only affects your own undead minions. It neither removes conditions from nor gives health regeneration to allied minions that you do not control.
• Taste of Death and Feast for the Dead: their descriptions say "target undead ally", but automatically act on the the nearest undead ally if the player is not targeting an undead ally.
• Rend Enchantments is health loss, not damage as specified in the description, and as such, it is not altered by Protective Spirit or Reversal of Fortune, but furthermore is not reduced by Aura of the Lich.

Mesmer

• Arcane Thievery, Arcane Larceny, Inspired Enchantment, Inspired Hex, Revealed Enchantment, Revealed Hex, and Simple Thievery cannot copy monster skills.
• Arcane Mimicry cannot copy Junundu Siege.
• Frustration deals damage if the target is interrupted in any way: Clumsiness, Signet of Clumsiness, or a knock down while the target casting a spell will trigger the damage.
• 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.
• Illusionary Weaponry says that your attacks "deal no damage" in melee; your attacks simply do not hit, yet do not trigger effects based on failing to hit.
• Mantra of Recovery does not recharge spells 33% faster, but instead reduces their recharge by 33%.
• Signet of Humility displays a message about invalid spell target when an invalid target is selected, this should be signet or skill target. Signet of Humility also actually disables all of the foe's elite skills if the target has more than one.
• While Signet of Illusions is active, spells ignore +1 Illusion Magic percentage effects. Signet of Illusions also affects spells with linked titles.

Elementalist

• Gale states it knocks down a target for 2 seconds; this is now redundant, as all knockdowns last 2 seconds unless stated otherwise.
• Glyph of Sacrifice actually reduces the next spell's activation time to ¼ of a second rather than making it activate instantly.
• The description of Master of Magic is ambiguous. "This Spell's attribute" refers to the attribute of the spell just cast, not the attribute of Master of Magic. Additionally, Master of Magic treats all unlinked and title-based skills as a single attribute.
• The skill description of Phoenix does not specify the projectile's blast radius. Like the PBAoE effect, the projectile explosion has a blast radius of adjacent range.
• Savannah Heat's pulses actually inflicts 5..17 damage for each second the spell has been active, rather than 5..17 damage plus an additional 5..17 damage for every second the spell has been active.
• 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.
• Stone Striker appears to convert at least some non-elemental, non-physical damage from attacks into Earth Damage.

Assassin

• Aura of Displacement is ambiguous as it doesn't distinguish between shadow step and teleport. The effect is identical to a shadow step.
• Similarly, Return is a shadow step, rather than a teleport.
• 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.
• The description of Sharpen Daggers is ambiguous. Only successful hits with attack skills decrement the skill counter.
• Attacks with Shattering Assault use the skill's listed damage in place of base weapon damage. This damage is affected by Dagger Mastery, critical hits, armor penetration, inscription and inscription-equivalent weapon damage bonuses and the target's armor, but does not benefit from the customization damage bonus.

Ritualist

• Bloodsong summons a spirit called "Spirit of Blood Song". This was apparently not updated after the FPE, when this skill was named Blood Song.
• Although Destructive was Glaive is classified as a Spell, it is functionally indistinguishable from an Item Spell.
• Ritual Lord actually reduces recharge time by 15..51% rather than increasing recharge speed by 15..51%.
• The skill description of Shadowsong does not list the spirit's damage.
• Weapon of Quickening reduces the recharge of spells and binding rituals by 33% rather than increasing recharge speed by 33%.
• The duration bar under a Binding Rituals icon on the Effects Monitor has no functionality.

Paragon

• Because Energizing Chorus reduces cost at the beginning of skill activation and doesn't end until activation is completed, using a Shout in the middle of a Chant's activation will allow both skills to benefit from this Chant.
• Mighty Throw and Unblockable Throw have activation times of 2 seconds and not 3 seconds reported by the skill description.
• Pet Attack skills are not considered Attack Skills by many Paragon Chants because they're activated by a different character (the ranger who owns the pet). However, Brutal Mauling does trigger paragon chants.

Dervish

• The description of Chilling Victory says that it inflicts extra cold damage whenever it strikes a foe with less health than you, however the attack does not need to hit to trigger the bonus effect and will only trigger once, even if multiple targets have less health than you.

Common skills

• When used against an invalid target, Resurrection Signet incorrectly gives the "Invalid spell target." message rather than the generic "Invalid target." message.
• Although the description says "nearby", the actual range of Signet of Capture is significantly larger than earshot. Furthermore, Signet of Capture cannot be used to capture the elite skills of some bosses in Istan, which is suspected to be related to boss level.
• Sunspear Rebirth Signet can only resurrect dead party members, rather than being able to resurrect any dead ally as the description indicates.

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, and implies the damage is armor-ignoring; actually, the skill strikes for 40 damage four times every second, one each of Lightning damage, Cold damage, Fire damage, and an unknown Elemental damage, presumed to be Earth damage.

Monster skills

• Creatures summoned with Call to the Torment are not considered summoned creatures by other skills, such as Banish and Unnatural Signet.
• Dark Chain Lightning deals 300 damage to the first target and 10% less to each subsequent target, not 200 as the description states. Also, the damage is not Lightning Damage in spite of the description.
• Enchantment Collapse triggers every time the target foe loses an enchantment, lasting until it is removed, Rather than only triggering the next time the target loses an enchantment as the description implies.
• 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 display 700 damage, whereas the Effects Monitor displays the correct figure of 500 damage. Also, the description does not mention that reaching the damage cap will end the Meditation early.
• Splinter Mine has an inaccurate description. This effect inflicts Bleeding rather than Burning, and inflicts 0 damage.

Item Effects

• When used against Zhu Hanuku while fully charged, the Spear of Archemorus deals 1900 damage, rather than the 235 damage listed in its description.

Special skills

• Disarm Trap is easily interruptable although it is not mentioned in the skill description.
• Snowball, Mega Snowball and Flurry of Ice are called spells in their descriptions, however other skills and effects treat them as both spells and attack skills. Because of this, there are numerous instances that have redundant effects, and therefore do not work when these three skills are applied. These instances are; the mesmer's blinding effect from Blinding Snow and the easily interrupted effect caused by Daze
• Ice Fort does not block incoming projectiles. Instead, it reduces damage from all sources including the non-projectile Icicles hex to 0 and prevents projectiles from inflicting conditions and knockdowns. It is currently not known if Ice Fort prevents knockdowns from Ice Breaker.
• Because of it's long skill animation, Leave Junundu actually takes significantly longer to activate than its listed 1/4 second activation time.
• The descriptions of Rollerbeetle Dash, Harden Shell, and Ram omit the fact that they can only be recharged by reaching a checkpoint.
• The descriptions of Distracting Lunge, Spit Rocks, Rollerbeetle Echo, Rollerbeetle Blast, and Super Rollerbeetle omit the facts that these skills are not charged by default, and can only be charged by touching a bonus power box, which randomly charges one of them.
• Ram has the undocumented effect of providing a brief speed boost.
• Although the description does not mention it, Vial of Purified Water fires a projectile which inflicts 50 damage if it hits.
• Ursan Strike deals armor-ignoring damage, but Ursan Rage does not, even though they have similar descriptions.