Spotlight on Skills #1
Originally Published by Sausaletus Rex
Every so often this column will shine the spotlight on a particular skill or set of skills for an in-depth analysis of just what that skill can do for you and the best ways to make it work. Keep in mind that Guild Wars is still under development and the information in this column is subject to swift and drastic change.
For the first skill to bask in the spotlight, we've selected an elite Warrior skill. And so we present to you:
“If this attack hits while target foe is casting a spell, that foe is Dazed for 5-17 seconds. While Dazed, that foe takes twice as long to cast spells and is easily interrupted.”
An attack skill, Skull Crack will cause its target to become Dazed for a set duration. That Duration is linked to Tactics, a Warrior attribute. As an adrenal skill it takes no energy to use but it has a healthy cost of ten adrenaline to charge. As an attack skill its casting time is the swing speed of your weapon.
To use Skull Crack you’ll need to be in melee range as it requires you to use a melee weapon. Then, you’ll need to swing that weapon quickly enough to catch your targeted foe casting a spell. As such, Skull Crack can be countered by Pacifism, which will prevent you from attacking, or Mantra of Concentration, which will prevent you from interrupting a target, among others or by the simple expedients of staying out of close range or not casting any spells. However, if you can manage to land the blow on your target they’ll be Dazed.
And it’s Dazed that really gives this skill the elite tag. That’s because Dazed is one of the few conditions in the game that’s capable of completely shutting another player down. While suffering from the Dazed condition all spells have their casting times doubled. A spell which took a second to cast would take two. A two second casting time becomes four seconds. Not only that, but during that lengthened casting time any time taking any amount of damage interrupts the spell. The energy needed to cast that spell is gone and it fizzles and needs to recharge before it can be used again. With the increase to casting times it becomes very easy to disrupt the casting of any spell by someone who’s Dazed.
Dazed, then, is the most effective when you can place it on a target and then keep attacking that target. While Dazing someone and then walking away is hampering them by increasing their casting times if you can keep pounding away at someone who’s Dazed they won’t be able to cast anything at all. Skull Crack is an excellent way to Daze someone because since you’ll already be close enough to deal melee damage you can simply keep swinging away once you’ve used Skull Crack.
The big drawback, however, is that adrenal cost. Ten hits is an extremely large amount that will take several swings to get up to. Since you have to time your hit to nail a target during their casting time it means that Skull Crack can be unwieldy and hard to use. You’ll want to make sure you can get that spell so you’re not wasting your ten hits so Skull Crack is a skill you won’t want to cast as soon as it charges but one you’ll need to wait on. Likewise, you want to be sure to hit a spell and not a signet or anything else so you shouldn’t slam the button as soon as you see your target start to cast. With proper timing and a good sense of what your target’s casting it’s not too hard to pull off, though.
There are ways around the high adrenal cost, too. Any skill that increases your swing rate will decrease the amount of time it takes to build up that adrenaline. As a Warrior you’ll have access to a skill like [Frenzy and you should be using it. Skills like Balthazar's Spirit or Dark Fury or For Great Justice! will give you some adrenal charge, too. And you can use a skill such as Hundred Blades which hits more than once to gain more than one adrenal charge at a time. Any technique that will increase your adrenal gain will shorten the time it takes for Skull Crack to charge and allow you to use it much more frequently. Stilll, because you’ll need a fast swing to be sure to hit that spell and because you’ll need to swing a lot to charge up Skull Crack, it’s a skill that works best with the one-handed melee weapons. Use it with either an axe or a sword.
For builds that are looking to deal melee damage and to disrupt casters it’s an alright choice. It’s an elite skill but if you’re running caster hate and have nothing else for your elite slot then it can work. It does, however, require your character to get into Tactics for it to be truly effective. You’ll want not just to Daze a target but to keep that target Dazed permanently. To do so you’ll need to ensure that the Dazed condition is going to last longer than the time it takes to charge Skull Crack. If a sword or axe deals a blow every 1.33 seconds unaided then you’ll want your Skull Crack to last longer than the 13~14 seconds it will take to be able to use it. That involves spending a lot of points into getting your Tactics fairly high. And while there are ways of increasing your adrenaline, such as using Berserker's Stance, you’ll still have a hard time gaining ten strikes worth of adren in the five seconds Dazed will last with no points whatsoever in Tactics.
This is a problem because Tactics is overall a weak line full of poor and redundant skills. And most Warrior builds don’t have the attribute points to splash around to bother with picking up Tactics. It’s mostly a defensive line so a skill like Skull Crack is an odd fit because Skull Crack works best with more aggressive characters. Picking up Tactics offers such characters very little. Coupled with the high adrenal cost and need to time the hit properly, it’s off-putting. But Skull Crack does give a melee character the ability to shut down their targeted caster with Dazed and that’s a very strong ability, indeed. If a build’s already dipped into Tactics it might be worth considering. But it’s probably best to avoid Skull Crack if it would involve sacrificing an elite and the points to pump Tactics.
Below you’ll find a list of where to find Skull Crack as well as some builds which make use of it.
For the first skill to bask in the spotlight, we've selected an elite Warrior skill. And so we present to you:
Skull Crack
“If this attack hits while target foe is casting a spell, that foe is Dazed for 5-17 seconds. While Dazed, that foe takes twice as long to cast spells and is easily interrupted.”
An attack skill, Skull Crack will cause its target to become Dazed for a set duration. That Duration is linked to Tactics, a Warrior attribute. As an adrenal skill it takes no energy to use but it has a healthy cost of ten adrenaline to charge. As an attack skill its casting time is the swing speed of your weapon.
To use Skull Crack you’ll need to be in melee range as it requires you to use a melee weapon. Then, you’ll need to swing that weapon quickly enough to catch your targeted foe casting a spell. As such, Skull Crack can be countered by Pacifism, which will prevent you from attacking, or Mantra of Concentration, which will prevent you from interrupting a target, among others or by the simple expedients of staying out of close range or not casting any spells. However, if you can manage to land the blow on your target they’ll be Dazed.
And it’s Dazed that really gives this skill the elite tag. That’s because Dazed is one of the few conditions in the game that’s capable of completely shutting another player down. While suffering from the Dazed condition all spells have their casting times doubled. A spell which took a second to cast would take two. A two second casting time becomes four seconds. Not only that, but during that lengthened casting time any time taking any amount of damage interrupts the spell. The energy needed to cast that spell is gone and it fizzles and needs to recharge before it can be used again. With the increase to casting times it becomes very easy to disrupt the casting of any spell by someone who’s Dazed.
Dazed, then, is the most effective when you can place it on a target and then keep attacking that target. While Dazing someone and then walking away is hampering them by increasing their casting times if you can keep pounding away at someone who’s Dazed they won’t be able to cast anything at all. Skull Crack is an excellent way to Daze someone because since you’ll already be close enough to deal melee damage you can simply keep swinging away once you’ve used Skull Crack.
The big drawback, however, is that adrenal cost. Ten hits is an extremely large amount that will take several swings to get up to. Since you have to time your hit to nail a target during their casting time it means that Skull Crack can be unwieldy and hard to use. You’ll want to make sure you can get that spell so you’re not wasting your ten hits so Skull Crack is a skill you won’t want to cast as soon as it charges but one you’ll need to wait on. Likewise, you want to be sure to hit a spell and not a signet or anything else so you shouldn’t slam the button as soon as you see your target start to cast. With proper timing and a good sense of what your target’s casting it’s not too hard to pull off, though.
There are ways around the high adrenal cost, too. Any skill that increases your swing rate will decrease the amount of time it takes to build up that adrenaline. As a Warrior you’ll have access to a skill like [Frenzy and you should be using it. Skills like Balthazar's Spirit or Dark Fury or For Great Justice! will give you some adrenal charge, too. And you can use a skill such as Hundred Blades which hits more than once to gain more than one adrenal charge at a time. Any technique that will increase your adrenal gain will shorten the time it takes for Skull Crack to charge and allow you to use it much more frequently. Stilll, because you’ll need a fast swing to be sure to hit that spell and because you’ll need to swing a lot to charge up Skull Crack, it’s a skill that works best with the one-handed melee weapons. Use it with either an axe or a sword.
For builds that are looking to deal melee damage and to disrupt casters it’s an alright choice. It’s an elite skill but if you’re running caster hate and have nothing else for your elite slot then it can work. It does, however, require your character to get into Tactics for it to be truly effective. You’ll want not just to Daze a target but to keep that target Dazed permanently. To do so you’ll need to ensure that the Dazed condition is going to last longer than the time it takes to charge Skull Crack. If a sword or axe deals a blow every 1.33 seconds unaided then you’ll want your Skull Crack to last longer than the 13~14 seconds it will take to be able to use it. That involves spending a lot of points into getting your Tactics fairly high. And while there are ways of increasing your adrenaline, such as using Berserker's Stance, you’ll still have a hard time gaining ten strikes worth of adren in the five seconds Dazed will last with no points whatsoever in Tactics.
This is a problem because Tactics is overall a weak line full of poor and redundant skills. And most Warrior builds don’t have the attribute points to splash around to bother with picking up Tactics. It’s mostly a defensive line so a skill like Skull Crack is an odd fit because Skull Crack works best with more aggressive characters. Picking up Tactics offers such characters very little. Coupled with the high adrenal cost and need to time the hit properly, it’s off-putting. But Skull Crack does give a melee character the ability to shut down their targeted caster with Dazed and that’s a very strong ability, indeed. If a build’s already dipped into Tactics it might be worth considering. But it’s probably best to avoid Skull Crack if it would involve sacrificing an elite and the points to pump Tactics.
Below you’ll find a list of where to find Skull Crack as well as some builds which make use of it.
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