Guild Wars 2

The goal of this thread is to hopefully call attention to the underused skills in the game. There are plenty of them to go around. First off, let me explain what this thread is and what it is not.

This thread is a place to list what skills you feel are simply underpowered or bad and why they are. Please do not leave a short list with no explanation, as that doesn’t really help ANet in bringing the skill up to par.

This thread is not a place to write complaints about playstyles and builds overall. It is also not a place to write complete overhauls of skills, though a suggested tweak is probably fine.

Finally, please make sure to mention the skill’s full name (not abbreviated), skill type (utility, weapon skill, etc.) and profession/race. This is just for clarity of discussion, as not everyone has all the skill names memorized.

The #1 skills on most ranged weapons. Especially Pistol (Thief/Engineer) and Staff/Scepter.

a t s e.9614:

Warrior : The skills that suck are:

- sword auto-attack
- GS #4
- stomp ( utility) too easy to dodge
- shake it off because cleansing ire is 3 shake if offs but on 7 sec CD
- Axe off hand both #4 and #5 suck
- riffle trololol , I can’t even….

Thief : D/D > #3 and #4 are both terrible
- all venoms suck except the elite
- all traps also suck

Engi : Utility googles
That’s pretty much what I got.

I think the OP was fairly specific about not making blunt post claiming something “sux”, and asked that you offer an actual logic behind your opinion or reasoning. Other wise a post is counter productive and might as well not even exist.

I think the OP is trying to actually be productive with this, and thus, productive reasoning is essential for his intention.

dancingmonkey.4902:

a t s e.9614:

Warrior : The skills that suck are:

- sword auto-attack
- GS #4
- stomp ( utility) too easy to dodge
- shake it off because cleansing ire is 3 shake if offs but on 7 sec CD
- Axe off hand both #4 and #5 suck
- riffle trololol , I can’t even….

Thief : D/D > #3 and #4 are both terrible
- all venoms suck except the elite
- all traps also suck

Engi : Utility googles
That’s pretty much what I got.

I think the OP was fairly specific about not making blunt post claiming something “sux”, and asked that you offer an actual logic behind your opinion or reasoning. Other wise a post is counter productive and might as well not even exist.

I think the OP is trying to actually be productive with this, and thus, productive reasoning is essential for his intention.

Bingo. I hate having skills that don’t get used because they are just terrible. I’d rather have skills that don’t get used because the situation doesn’t call for it (or calls for something else), but then see use in other situations.

But there are a number of skills where that “situation” is either too specific (Corrosive Poison Cloud, for example, is really only useful against the Searing Cauldron Effigy at the end of CoF path 1), or even in their “best situation”, they just aren’t as good as something else in the same slot (Utility Goggles).

I’m in mesmer mode right now from my other topic, So I’mma just do mes and other classes later.

Illusionary Mage.

The cool down doesn’t justify the effect.

Chaos Armor.

has me left wanting. For an “Armor” Skill you have no real protection.

Mimic.

Sounds good in theory but the idea of taking a shot seems kind of counter intuitive, and only working on range skills makes the niche seem even more bland.

Signet of Midnight.

Does virtually nothing. Blind on a 30 sec c/d at point blank range and a meh passive.

And Illusionary Leap. is bad because it needs a nice hearty fix.

I’m only going to comment on my main, a necromancer in the interest of time.
Axe 1: Axe 3 is great and axe 2 is ok, but axe 1 is flat out terrible. It doesn’t stack enough vulnerability to justify the terrible damage.
Staff 1: Like the elementalist staff 1s this skill doesn’t move fast enough, and doesn’t do enough damage. Coupling that with the long cooldowns on the staff skills and you can understand why this is lackluster.
Dagger 2: Many people on the necromancer forums will argue this, but dagger 2 doesn’t do enough to justify its huge channel. I’ve said before it needs to be a short cast time skill do go along with the high damage, high speed auto.
Dagger 3: Basically it is Pin Down without bleeds, at lower range and without piercing. Same cooldown and everything.
Corrosive Poison Cloud: As Drarnor said, it only really has one use. Not enough damage, and it’s to easy to walk out of for the 40 second cooldown.
Signet of Vampirism: Someone broke it down in the Necromancer sub-forum, but this skill is just bad. It is never worth it to take this skill over other necro heals, and, as with necro life-steal, doesn’t work well enough in a sustain build. I would go as far as to say this is the worst healing skill in the game because it never has a use and doesn’t fit into any real build.

Other than that most necro skills are good, but not op.

zapv.8051:

Signet of Vampirism: Someone broke it down in the Necromancer sub-forum, but this skill is just bad. It is never worth it to take this skill over other necro heals, and, as with necro life-steal, doesn’t work well enough in a sustain build. I would go as far as to say this is the worst healing skill in the game because it never has a use and doesn’t fit into any real build..

I broke it down on this sub-forum

Thief

Dagger Off-hand

• Death Blossom (3): Unreliable evade and mediocre damage when speccing for power. Odd placement on D/D which is usually power based.
• Dancing Dagger (4): A guaranteed projectile finisher, but the projectile often flies off in random directions. It needs better tracking to become an efficient means at slowing down fleeing targets. A boost to the cripple duration or damage (increasing damage as it bounces?) would also benefit the skill.

Traps

• Overall traps are lacking because of the fact that they hit only a single target and are not throwable. They also rarely do any damaging conditions unlike ranger traps. Having additional skills (similar to the activation on Shadow Trap) that you can use on Tripwire and Needle Trap would also be nice.

Tricks

• Roll for Initiative: While the evade and initiative gain can be useful, it is a sub-par stun break compared to Shadowstep/Shadow Return. The only use it probably ever sees is as an underwater gap closer/fleeing skill.

Deception

• Shadow Refuge: I may get some hate for this, but the skill is way too powerful. The only time I ever remove this skill from my bar is when I run around in overworld PVE. It’s simply too good compared to every other thief utility, which makes it badly designed in my book.

Drarnor Kunoram.5180:

zapv.8051:

Signet of Vampirism: Someone broke it down in the Necromancer sub-forum, but this skill is just bad. It is never worth it to take this skill over other necro heals, and, as with necro life-steal, doesn’t work well enough in a sustain build. I would go as far as to say this is the worst healing skill in the game because it never has a use and doesn’t fit into any real build..

I broke it down on this sub-forum

Oh sorry thought it was the other one. Thanks for doing that btw. I’m to lazy to look.

Elementalist – All delayed skills are actually impossibru to hit.

Engineer:

Utility-skills:
Super speed – Yes it’s a stunbreaker, but we have better sb’s on shorter cooldowns and the description of the skill is completely false since the speedcap in th game is 33% movement speed. The boots do not excel beyond the normal swiftness boon in terms of speed.

Rocket – Its extremely high ballistic curve and long activation-impact delay makes this skill completely useless. Often enough the rocket simply hits the roof of a room and explodes far away from any damageable object. Even for bombing walls in wvw it’s ineffective since its dmg/cd ratio is ridiculously low.

Weapon-Kit Skills:
Grenade underwater-combat is completely broken since all grenades chaotically fly off in all directions and most don’t even hit the appointed target anymore. Previously only the grenade barrage were broken in that manner, but after the patch the whole kit is rendered useless underwater.

Flame-Jet. This skill still scales terribly with power which ridiculed this kit out of any serious attempt of achieving dps. Even the most dedicated flamethrower defenders in the forums have already given up on constructing builds with or around it. Basically it’s only in use for its firefield and knockback. The base-damage must be increased by at least 70% (still far behind bombkit #1) to make it considerable for effective builds. Remember that its low dps was originally excused with perma-stability, but since that got removed from the juggernaut-trait, the flamethrower remains as underpowered and useless data-junk in the game.

Traits:
Bunker down – The mines do not set off when placed while standing in an npc’kittenbox, making them completely useless against immobile bosses or while being stacked. a possible solution would be an automated explosion after reaching the 10s despawn timer. Also the trigger-range should be slightly improved to 100 or at least 80. 60 is simply too less.

Static discharge – Its projectile is still bugged when triggered by throwing any elixier. Please fix that.

“Gust” – Skill #3 in air attunement for Staff Elementalist. Extremely rare that it will actually hit anything to the point where it’s basically useless. Maybe make it work in a 45 degree cone or something like that?

Also “Churning Earth” – Dagger Earth Skill #5. Also impossibly difficult to hit anything with half a braincell. Amazing skill if it lands, but it rarely does. Maybe a shorter channel for a less powerful effect would be good?

Arantheal.7396:

Traits:
Bunker down – The mines do not set off when placed while standing in an npc’kittenbox, making them completely useless against immobile bosses or while being stacked. a possible solution would be an automated explosion after reaching the 10s despawn timer. Also the trigger-range should be slightly improved to 100 or at least 80. 60 is simply too less.

Static discharge – Its projectile is still bugged when triggered by throwing any elixier. Please fix that.

Honestly, the tittle and OP do not mention traits, and I believe we should keep it that way. Personally, I feel we will have a more hashed out discussion if we keep it to problematic skills. and avoid traits for another thread.

Ranger:

Weapon Skills:

• Longbow:
  long range shot => most time you can’t stay max range
  rapid fire => the skill cast time is to long if you want burst
  barrage => you can’t move and get a easy target
  survive and damage is to low at all

how the longbow could work better in my mind:

• Longsword:
  hilt bash => feels not smooth (its like you stuck on the position if use it)
  survive and damage is to low at all

how the Longsword could work better in my mind

• offhand axe:
  path of scars => to slow or to long range, nearly impossible to catch players with it
  whirling defense => you can’t move and get a easy target

• mainhand axe:
  ricochet (auto attack) => is just really weak Oo

• horn:
  call of the wind => only 1 might stack… should maybe have also some condi remove?

slot skills:

• healing skills:
  healing spring is the only interesting healing skill.
  the other healing skills are much to weak (don’t means healing spring is to strong!)

• heal as one => should have a second effect, maybe dodge
• troll unguent => should have a second effect, maybe condi remove?
• water spirit => should also have something make it more useful

all heal skills should also become trait bound, so you can change or improve there effects by traits aswell.
like it is on some heals on other professions already

shouts: all are not really useful..

• sic em => should also work without a target (to remove stealth from enemys)
  it should also remove stealth from all stealthed enemys near the pet!
  would lead to counterplay vs much stealth teams (mesmer + thief)

• guard => i dont even know why this skill exist :/

• search and rescue => to huge cooldown and not really worth to lose one skill slot atm

• protect me => description sounds good, but in practice the skill dont works smooth

spirits:

• frost spirit => the active effect 10% more damage each 10 sec on a random attack is not interesting, should maybe be chill each 10 seconds for 2 sec?

• spirit of nature => nerfed to much on the last patch. some professions can oneshot it.

traps:
at all, the traps are much to weak atm.
but thats also a trait problem

survival:

• zephyr => cooldown to huge after the quickness nerf

• muddy terrain => to long cast time

• entangle => just port out or even run out, really weak ulti

• rampage as one=> huge cooldown and always someone who can steal/remove this staby fast

at least
traps, shouts and signets need much more trait support to make them
unique in builds based on this.
sigils have a to huge cooldown at all and they should effect always the player aswell…

sry for the wall of text :P

Ranger – Longbow #2: Less damage than auto attack at max range. Is it a utility skill to be used a min range or a utility skill to apply vuln? Because applying vuln at max range is a DPS loss.

Ranger – Longbow #5: Skill pulses very low damage which often results in a Ranger’s death due to retaliation. It has a rooting mechanic so can’t be used to kite. Does not synergize with the #4 skill because it breaks stealth.

Ranger – Shortbow #2: Fails to leap backwards a large amount of the time. Leap back is also quite useless as anything but the evade.

Ranger – Shortbow #4: It’s only a criple. The attack does less than auto attack. It’s a weak skill overall and should apply torment instead of bleed..

Ranger – Axe #1: Very poor damage and doesn’t apply a condition base.

Ranger – Sword #3: Activation time too long.

Ranger – Sharpening Stone: 5 additional bleeds is not worth a utility slot.

Ranger – Signet of Stone: Active requires a 6 pt trait before being useful. 6 pt trait is in a very bloated tree.

Ranger – Signet of the Hunt: Active requires a 6 pt trait before being useful. 6 pt trait is in a very bloated tree.

Ranger – Signet of the Wild: Active requires a 6 pt trait before being useful. 6 pt trait is in a very bloated tree.

Ranger – Guard: Useless unless you have Nature’s Voice. Still borderline useless as high uptime on regen and swiftness is too common.

Ranger – Spike Trap: Incredibly weak without a 6 pt trait. Should reset itself at least once.

Ranger – Pet F2 skills: Majority need improvement in various ways such as activation time, range, ability to be used while moving, accuracy, overall power, etc.

That’s pretty good for a ‘from memory’ list I think.

Necro
Scepter 3 – Feast of Corruption is a direct damage skill in a pure condition weapon. Damage scales with number of conditions on target, but requires a high power investment to payoff, something that never happens. Also happens to be the singular life force generating skill in the scepter. I suggest removing all damage and reducing the cast time to instant. It now grants 5% LF for each condition on the target, 15 second cooldown.

thief D/D Deathblossom, deals low damage and applies bleeds,
D/D is a direct damage burst weapon set, deathblossom is so out of place.

engineer Mortar, takes up your elite slot and causes you to deal less damage than with your normal auto attacks.

warrior Rampage, disables all of your utility skills+healing skill and lowers your damage,
enough said.

ele earth shield, its not aweful, but its just not worth a slot.
lava axe, same as above.

most of the new heals
A.E.D,
you can only heal when you’re very close to dying, and then there is a high chance you’ll die while casting it, plus it has a long CD. BAD.

Signet of Vampirism,
VERY bad, internal cooldowns mean that you cannot heal with this, it is impossible.
without internal cooldowns it has potential, but the cooldowns make it (imho) the worst heal in the game.

Litany of Wrath,
nice idea, heal for the damage you deal over the next 6 seconds, but the values are just ridiculously low, to heal for a similar amount to another guardian heal, you’d need to deal 36,000 dmg in the next few seconds.

Arcane Brilliance,
alot longer CD than other ele options, the aoe is on the ele,
if it was ground targeted then it would have potential.

Necromancer

Rending Claws —- Axe #1 —- this sucks in every way a skill can suck. Tiny Damage, wonky targeting requiring auto targeting, no cleaving, and zero counter play.

Wail of Doom —- Warhorn #4. —- Too long of a cast time and cooldown for too little effect, and wonky targeting

Dark Spear —- Trident #5. —- pulls you to an enemy and leaves you just helpless for a second with a long aftercast so your enemy can wail on you in melee range.

Signet of Vampirism —- Possibly the worst skill in the game. Anet quit trying to make lifesteal a thing, you have never balanced lifesteal in 10 years.

Plague Signet —- The transferring of conditions to yourself is so wonky, depending on range and time spent in combat, that the signet offers zero team support. It doesnt happen often or predictably enough to help your team, but still happen often enough to overwhen your condition clears. It’s so bad that nobody uses this despite being a full condi clear and stun break.

Well of Darkness —- the skill is actually ok, but the cooldown is ridiculous.

Downed skills —- all of them offer neither control nor damage (necromancer downed state requires 4 traits to max, and even then is a sitting duck)

I am not sure its a bad skill as such, but more that its in the wrong place entirely.

Thief D/D attack 3, death blossom. Its a nice condition move, but if your condi, 1 is meh, 2 is pointless and 4 and 5 are not amazing either (in that build). If your a power build, well the others become useful again but then deathblossom is worthless.

Plus other weapons are clearly better in a sense. I wish heartseeker was a D/D special, that way it would focus a different type of play. As it is, thieves weapons are a bit hit or miss (excluding the sb, which is the best weapon in the game without question, which is annoying as every build pretty much must have it in pvp)

OliT.7945:

“Gust” – Skill #3 in air attunement for Staff Elementalist. Extremely rare that it will actually hit anything to the point where it’s basically useless. Maybe make it work in a 45 degree cone or something like that?

Gust and the Water/Earth #1s are the only skills that really feel bad for Staff Ele. Air #2 (Lightning Surge) is generally ineffective when used to blind, and its channel breaks an awful lot when foes dodge behind the caster, but it at least deals decent damage.

Gust could do with either a slightly faster cast, faster projectile, or larger projectile radius – as it is now it’s hard to hit anyone just in front of you, and foes farther away can easily see it coming and sidestep.
Earth #5 (Shockwave) is also hard to hit with, but I tend to chain it after other CC so don’t notice this so much.

Water Blast and Stoning, the AAs in Water and Earth, are both slow, single-target projectiles, very easy to dodge. The healing from Water Blast is generally unnoticeable, even with healing power investment, and the weakness from Stoning doesn’t really last long enough to make up for the relatively long cast and low hit rate.
I wouldn’t like to see either of these skills buffed through the roof, but slight improvements to cast/aftercast times, damage dealt or projectile speeds would be a start, with minor buffs to the secondary effects maybe helping too.

nekretaal.6485:

Wail of Doom —- Warhorn #4. —- Too long of a cast time and cooldown for too little effect, and wonky targeting

This is curious to me as a Mesmer but I guess it’s the complete difference in classes: I have a 1s lasting line-daze, to which I consider my Necro’s 2s lasting CAE daze substantially superior. Much easier to hit something with due to the cone.

Carighan.6758:

nekretaal.6485:

Wail of Doom —- Warhorn #4. —- Too long of a cast time and cooldown for too little effect, and wonky targeting

This is curious to me as a Mesmer but I guess it’s the complete difference in classes: I have a 1s lasting line-daze, to which I consider my Necro’s 2s lasting CAE daze substantially superior. Much easier to hit something with due to the cone.

It could use a blast finisher, but I think most necros think that skill rocks. Especially when you trait for 3 second daze.

Daishi.6027:

Mimic.

Sounds good in theory but the idea of taking a shot seems kind of counter intuitive, and only working on range skills makes the niche seem even more bland.

As someone who actively uses mimic on my mesmer I feel I need to point out one quick thing that you missed.

Yes mimic only absorbs 1 projectile, but every projectile AFTER that one is reflected back to the source of the cast. If you use mimic for the reflecting shield, and not for the single absorb it’s a really useful skill. Especially if you’re running a reflect build.
(Mimic, feedback, and focus with the focus talent)

Also mimic works on ANY projectile. I’ve used it on elementalists, and engis dozens of times. It’s always fun to watch them react to their own fireballs.

Elementalist:

Scepter
Water 2 – Shatterstone (1s cast time, 2s cooldown, 1s delay on damage)
This skill literally does nothing but waste 1s when you could be doing just about ANYTHING else and being more productive. Very low damage when it does hit, takes about 2 seconds to actually hit. I curse myself every time I accidentally hit 2 when in water. The ONLY time this skill is ever worth using is a random aoe when a thief is downed in shadow-refuge to hope you hit him and prevent self-resses.

Focus
Fire 5 – Fire Shield (Instant-cast, 40s CD)
This skill gives you a fire aura for 5s, which is EASILY the worst aura. It is supposed to be offensive, but given the squishiness of the ele, it doesn’t actually slow or deter damage at all. It also doesn’t give enough offensive benefit when being hit to make ele scary. Its BEST aspect is that it kind-of looks like arcane shield, and might deter enemies from hitting you that way. Reduce the CD to 20s so it is at least worth-while with aura traits.

Staff
Air 3 – Gust (1/4s cast time, 30s CD)
The tracking and cone of this skill is HILARIOUS. I have used this skill on a stationary target (by waiting for him to stop) from just outside melee range, and had it sail wide right of him for no reason. Increase the size of the cone (not as high as flesh wurm, which hits well past the size of the actual sprite) or the projectile speed.

Ssenkra Bloodroot.1028:

Daishi.6027:

Mimic.

Sounds good in theory but the idea of taking a shot seems kind of counter intuitive, and only working on range skills makes the niche seem even more bland.

As someone who actively uses mimic on my mesmer I feel I need to point out one quick thing that you missed.

Yes mimic only absorbs 1 projectile, but every projectile AFTER that one is reflected back to the source of the cast. If you use mimic for the reflecting shield, and not for the single absorb it’s a really useful skill. Especially if you’re running a reflect build.
(Mimic, feedback, and focus with the focus talent)

Also mimic works on ANY projectile. I’ve used it on elementalists, and engis dozens of times. It’s always fun to watch them react to their own fireballs.

True facts.

Rest is still lacking tho. Mesmer isn’t devoid of reflection skills, the class has quite a few viable options. But eating a 3k fire ball then reflecting the rest and being able to just throw one more feels kind of sluggish imo.

Personally I’d rather just take one of the other various reflect methods (my favorite being “Master of Reflection”) and ya know… Not eat that pindown, or kill shot…

the block afterwards is kinda cool but I think it should just stop everything and give you the full attack of the first shot that landed. (like someone hits you with a barrage, you hit them back with the whole barrage. You block a 100B then turn around and 100b them with a staff!)

The problem with that, is that it is waaaaay to much offensive capability on a defensive skill. This would be comparable to giving all shield skills the functionality of not only blocking damage, but also the ability to send equivalent damage right back at you. Both cases are over powered for defensive skills.

a t s e.9614:

Warrior : The skills that suck are:

- sword auto-attack
- GS #4
- stomp ( utility) too easy to dodge
- shake it off because cleansing ire is 3 shake if offs but on 7 sec CD
- Axe off hand both #4 and #5 suck
- riffle trololol , I can’t even….

Thief : D/D > #3 and #4 are both terrible
- all venoms suck except the elite
- all traps also suck

Engi : Utility googles
That’s pretty much what I got.

This is all wrong. The only skills that I can point out that are actually useless are thief traps, axe offhand warrior, and rifle for warrior

I only have 5 classes so i’ll focus on those.

Guardian:

- Spirit Weapons – Shield is niche and only used in Fractals. Others are BAD!
- Litany of Wrath – Just BAD!
- Healing Breeze – Huge cooldown. Kinda low self heal. The cone is weird.
- Torch offhand – #5 should cure conditions on self.
- Mace – MEH!
- Shield – MEH!
- Sanctuary – Small area, huge cooldown & really small duration.

Mesmer:

- Scepter – #2 and #3 are very nice skills but #1 is just to slow…
- Chaos Armor – was a lot better when we gained protection upon activation.
- Signet of Midnight – MEH!

Warrior:

- GS #F1
- Riffle – so BAD it hurts.
- MH Mace/ MH Sword/OH Axe/ Shield – These are not bad weapons but should get a little extra to be put at the level of other weapons.
- Mending & Healing Surge – Two words: Healing Signet!!!
- Rampage

Ranger:

Well…i dont even know where to start…

Sword: #1 should not root you
- GS – #1 damage is low for a melee weapon. The evade should be removed and put somewhere else while buffing the damage.
- LB – #1 damage penalty is way to high. Rapid Fire damage is way to low for such a long channel. #3 is clunky and so is #4.
- SB – Solid weapon but some skills should get some extra.
- MH Axe – Gosh…so BAD!
- Troll Ungent/Water Spirit/Heal as One – Healing Spring is better in pretty much every situation.
- Shouts – BAD!
- Signets – WTF??? Only good when traited!
- Pet Skills- LOL!

Thief:

- D/D – #3 is clunky and BAD! Dagger is a power weapon…
- P/P – #1 is slow. #3 is kinda meh damage (but has a great name & animation!!!)
- Skelk Venom – I just don’t like it.
- Traps – Really underpowered.

If all the skills listed here were actually bad, only 10% of the skills in the game would be good. The idea behind the thread was a good one but I’m afraid you just openened the floodgates for all the QQ in the world. :P

Aedrion.6483:

If all the skills listed here were actually bad, only 10% of the skills in the game would be good. The idea behind the thread was a good one but I’m afraid you just openened the floodgates for all the QQ in the world. :P

Hence my request for reasons behind it. You’re overstating numbers, at any rate, as for the most part I’m seeing the same skills popping up over and over again. What I’m trying to do is gather information that ANet can use (why people don’t use those skills, not just that they don’t use them) to hopefully improve the situation. ANet already knows which skills don’t get used. They may not know why.

Aedrion.6483:

If all the skills listed here were actually bad, only 10% of the skills in the game would be good. The idea behind the thread was a good one but I’m afraid you just openened the floodgates for all the QQ in the world. :P

The thread actually shows rather well why your playerbase is a terrible source for balancing input in a MMO. :P

Carighan.6758:

Aedrion.6483:

If all the skills listed here were actually bad, only 10% of the skills in the game would be good. The idea behind the thread was a good one but I’m afraid you just openened the floodgates for all the QQ in the world. :P

The thread actually shows rather well why your playerbase is a terrible source for balancing input in a MMO. :P

Also that several people aren’t actually saying what they don’t like about each skill, they’re just saying “this sucks”. Excellent feedback, that. Very constructive.

Engineer elixir gun #1 auto attack is weak, and doesn’t pierce, but elixir gun #3 (Fumigate) basically does nothing

Fumigate – or rather, the entire Elixir Gun – is a support skill, though. It poisons enemies in a cone and cures conditions on friendly targets in a cone.

It’s a very powerful ability if supporting friendly players, one of the strongest condition cleanses Engineers have.

Entangle
I wouldn’t say the most useless elite skill in the game, but definitely the one that is easiest to counter/ignore

• Enemies just walk in and out of it like the vines aren’t even there because the effects from the vines only triggers every 1.5 seconds.
• There is no need to ever destroy the vines, since Immobilize is so easy to cleanse from so many different sources/traits.
• Enemies also port away or stealth themselves, also negating the effects.
• The skill also says unblockable, but I have seen this skill get blocked and have no effect, forcing the 150 second cooldown.

• This skill should not be so easy to counter if the effects are so weak to start, that basic skills can do the same effect for way less effort and cooldown.
• If this is supposed to be an elite skill, then enemies should be bound to the vines until the vines are actually destroyed.

Entangle is an AE skill, though. It’s balanced around that use, it shines in situations where you need to make sure enemies cannot orderly withdraw from a certain position. It’s very strong when cast on the enemy retreat direction in a WvW engagement, for example. Or when enemies are trying to dodge siege fire.

Carighan.6758:

Entangle is an AE skill, though. It’s balanced around that use, it shines in situations where you need to make sure enemies cannot orderly withdraw from a certain position. It’s very strong when cast on the enemy retreat direction in a WvW engagement, for example. Or when enemies are trying to dodge siege fire.

Entangle activates 600 range from the Center of the Ranger, and must have unobstructed targets in order to be used. There is no direction of casting either because of this. It can also be dodged, evaded, missed(blind), and blocked(even though its supposed to be unblockable). And I’m pretty sure that last point is a very valid one (the blockable part). Are you sure you know this skill?

Chrispy.5641:

Carighan.6758:

Entangle is an AE skill, though. It’s balanced around that use, it shines in situations where you need to make sure enemies cannot orderly withdraw from a certain position. It’s very strong when cast on the enemy retreat direction in a WvW engagement, for example. Or when enemies are trying to dodge siege fire.

Entangle activates 600 range from the Center of the Ranger, and must have unobstructed targets in order to be used. There is no direction of casting either because of this.

Ummm, yes there is. It hits your target and enemies around them. You can very much direct the position of the skill’s radius.

Engineer:
Rumble- Skill is good but the recharge is too long for what you get. I would think it should be closer to 30 seconds or less
Toss elixir U- again a good skill but recharge should be lower than smoke screen and wall of reflection (or at least the same) due to rng
Mortar- generally the range needs to be increased by 500 (whether traited or untraited I leave to those who know better)- this is due to the fact that you are locked in position. Also, the new traits that affect turrets should affect mortar since it is a turret.
Launch Mortar Shot (Mortar 1)- needs to be spammable. I believe this is one of the reasons people feel (and correctly so) that grenade kit outperforms mortar even if mortar is an elite skill.

Elementalist

Churning Earth- make the earth churn, crippling nearby foes before unleashing a seismic wave that damages and bleeds them.

Cast time: 3.25 seconds
Base damage: 1,092
Bleeding: 8 stacks/ 8 seconds base duration
Radius: 360
Combo Finisher: Blast
Recast: 30s

I believe the skill should either be changed to have the option to be detonated between 1 and 3.25 seconds(Damage scales accordingly) or the skill should be completely replaced with a defensive ability. A 3.25 second cast while rooted in place, unable to do anything is far too much time potentially wasted.

Magnetic Grasp- Immobilize your Foe, following up with magnetic leap.

This skill misses far too often, the projectile travels much too slow. I find this skill missing even when I cast it right in front of someone who hasn’t even dodged. I suggest adding a telegraph which allows you to aim the projectile and drastically increase the velocity.

IMPALE- Spear your foes with a stone spike
Damage: 168
Cast time: .75s
Bleeding: 1 stack/8 seconds duration
Range: 300

This skill would have much more potential if the range was just slightly increased.

VAPOR BLADE- Cast a Vapor Blade that inflicts vulnerability and returns to you.
Cast time: .5s
Damage: 111
Range: 600
Condition: Vulnerability/6s duration

This is one of the worst auto attacks I’ve ever seen, it wouldn’t be as bad if this skill had 900 range, and the projectile wasn’t so easy to avoid. You can literally strafe to the side to avoid this attack.

FlAME WALL-
Damage:49
Condition: Burning 1s
Duration: 8s
Range:900
Combo field: Fire
Cast time: .75s

Flame wall is a skill which is very notorious for being quite ineffective. My advice is to change the fire wall into a fire pit, making it sort of like the warriors adrenaline skill(Combustive Shot) with the long bow.

Flame barrier – You have a 20% chance to cause burning when ever a foe attacks you in melee. Only works in Fire Attunement.
(An elementalist doesn’t stay in fire attunement long enough to really benefit from this. Lingering elements doesn’t work with this.)

One With Fire – Flame barriers chance to proc goes up the longer you are attuned to fire.
(A trait enhancing an already bad trait… and only very slowly enhancing it while camping fire attunement.)

Zephyr’s speed – Move faster while attuned to air (10%).
(Not noticable at all with almost any Ele build, we have near perma swiftness.)

Zypher’s Focus -Your endurance recovers 100% faster while channeling spells.
(Does not stack with vigor. We have permanent vigor. Useless)

Soothing Winds – Gain healing power = to 7% of your precision.
(other adept traits in air provide much better return)

Windbourne Dagger – Run 15% faster with a dagger in main hand, 10% faster with a dagger in offhand.
(Useless in most scenarios, d/d set ups usually have permanent swiftness, turn this trait into some form of super speed!)

Vigorous Scepter – Endurance recharges 50% faster when wielding a scepter.
(useless, does not stack with vigor)

Inscription – Gain a boon depending on your attunement when you use a glyph.
(Only the elite glyph usually finds a spot in spvp)

Weak spot – 60% chance to inflict 1 stack of vulnerability on crit (6 second duration)
(This GM minor trait provides very little return, the duration is too low IMO)

Enduring damage – Gain 10% damage when your endurance is full.
(The elementalist needs to stay evasive, don’t give us traits which makes us not want to be evasive)

PERSISTING FLAMES – Blast finishers you use in fire fields grant fury. Fire fields last 2 seconds longer.
(Not worth the 30 point investment into fire trait line, I can basically accomplish the same thing with 10 in air)

Pyromancer’s Puissance – Fire skills grant might.(base duration 10 seconds)
(Not worth the 30 point investment into Fire, the fire trait line is pretty unrewarding when it comes to pvp)

Blinding Ashes- Blind foes when you burn them. (5s ICD)
(Global CD ruins this trait, needs a CD per target instead)

TEMPEST DEFENSE- Apply shocking aura when disabled (ICD 25s) +20% damage when target is stunned.
(This would be good if this trait also increased the duration of stuns by 1 second so you could actually benefit from the extra damage when disabling a target)

LIGHTNING ROD- When you interrupt a foe hit them with a lightning bold and apply 4 seconds of weakness.
(We are not a great interrupt class)

Drarnor Kunoram.5180:

Chrispy.5641:

Carighan.6758:

Entangle is an AE skill, though. It’s balanced around that use, it shines in situations where you need to make sure enemies cannot orderly withdraw from a certain position. It’s very strong when cast on the enemy retreat direction in a WvW engagement, for example. Or when enemies are trying to dodge siege fire.

Entangle activates 600 range from the Center of the Ranger, and must have unobstructed targets in order to be used. There is no direction of casting either because of this.

Ummm, yes there is. It hits your target and enemies around them. You can very much direct the position of the skill’s radius.

Are you sure you’re not thinking of Muddy Terrain? Entangle is a PBAE. It leaves vines on the ground that people can run into and be entangled themselves, but they can also be killed.

It’s certainly not worth the horrendously long cooldown. 60 seconds would be more like it. While immob is a powerful effect, it’s important to remember what class is actually casting it.

Silly to have entangle with a 2.5min cooldown and Muddy Terrain with a 25second one imo.

Carighan.6758:

Aedrion.6483:

If all the skills listed here were actually bad, only 10% of the skills in the game would be good. The idea behind the thread was a good one but I’m afraid you just openened the floodgates for all the QQ in the world. :P

The thread actually shows rather well why your playerbase is a terrible source for balancing input in a MMO. :P

Its quantity over quality.

If this topic has 1000 posts and 10 players complain about one skill than its QQ.
Now if 800 players complain about another skill than it means it’s worth looking at.

Atherakhia.4086:

Drarnor Kunoram.5180:

Chrispy.5641:

Carighan.6758:

Entangle is an AE skill, though. It’s balanced around that use, it shines in situations where you need to make sure enemies cannot orderly withdraw from a certain position. It’s very strong when cast on the enemy retreat direction in a WvW engagement, for example. Or when enemies are trying to dodge siege fire.

Entangle activates 600 range from the Center of the Ranger, and must have unobstructed targets in order to be used. There is no direction of casting either because of this.

Ummm, yes there is. It hits your target and enemies around them. You can very much direct the position of the skill’s radius.

Are you sure you’re not thinking of Muddy Terrain? Entangle is a PBAE. It leaves vines on the ground that people can run into and be entangled themselves, but they can also be killed.

It’s certainly not worth the horrendously long cooldown. 60 seconds would be more like it. While immob is a powerful effect, it’s important to remember what class is actually casting it.

Silly to have entangle with a 2.5min cooldown and Muddy Terrain with a 25second one imo.

I’m pretty certain. I’ve been using it a lot on my Ranger recently and it hasn’t hit some enemies that were closer to me than my target. It’s always an AoE around your target.

I agree it isn’t quite worth the cooldown when Muddy Terrain exists and does something similar, but it’s definitely not a PBAoE around the Ranger.

SoulSin.5682:

If this topic has 1000 posts and 10 players complain about one skill than its QQ.
Now if 800 players complain about another skill than it means it’s worth looking at.

Not at all.
If it were 500 000 players, then yeah, you might have a point. :P

Compare the size of the outcry when Blizzard wanted to switch to real names on the forums. That really really showed just how minor a portion the usually active forum base is (compared to what insane numbers of players posted during the protests against that).

Drarnor Kunoram.5180:

Chrispy.5641:

Carighan.6758:

Entangle is an AE skill, though. It’s balanced around that use, it shines in situations where you need to make sure enemies cannot orderly withdraw from a certain position. It’s very strong when cast on the enemy retreat direction in a WvW engagement, for example. Or when enemies are trying to dodge siege fire.

Entangle activates 600 range from the Center of the Ranger, and must have unobstructed targets in order to be used. There is no direction of casting either because of this.

Ummm, yes there is. It hits your target and enemies around them. You can very much direct the position of the skill’s radius.

Drarnor Kunoram.5180:

Atherakhia.4086:

Are you sure you’re not thinking of Muddy Terrain? Entangle is a PBAE. It leaves vines on the ground that people can run into and be entangled themselves, but they can also be killed.

It’s certainly not worth the horrendously long cooldown. 60 seconds would be more like it. While immob is a powerful effect, it’s important to remember what class is actually casting it.

Silly to have entangle with a 2.5min cooldown and Muddy Terrain with a 25second one imo.

I’m pretty certain. I’ve been using it a lot on my Ranger recently and it hasn’t hit some enemies that were closer to me than my target. It’s always an AoE around your target.

I agree it isn’t quite worth the cooldown when Muddy Terrain exists and does something similar, but it’s definitely not a PBAoE around the Ranger.

Yeah…okay dude……

From the Wiki, and personal experience…. Also, an Attached Screenshot with the Effect/Bug I was talking about, because some people don’t like to click on links.

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Entangle

edit – If you want to test this yourself, go into the game, disable auto targeting in the options. Run into a group of enemies and use Entangle without selecting a single target. If you don’t have a target selected, then Entangle wouldn’t work and go on cooldown, if it requires a target like you say.