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Each character can acquire large quantity of skills, which he or she can then put to good use in battle. The tactically difficult decisions which must be under taken are in regard to which skills should be brought into a mission, as characters are limited to 8 per quest/map. The selected skills can only be changed in an outpost or town, while in a mission they are unalterable. It is important to work as a team when deciding upon which skills to bring, as your group will be much more effective if skills which are complementary are brought instead of individually useful abilities.

A few different categories of skills are available to players:

• Hex/Curse – Cause negative effects upon enemy characters/creatures, typically cause deficiencies over a period of time.
• Buffs – Boost allied character statistical values and benefit them. Certain of these skills can only be self-cast.
• Attack – Skills, which cause physical damage, usually found within the ranger and warrior skill sets.
• Defensive – Each profession has at least one defensive skill at its disposal; these have the ability to decrease the chance of being hit by a melee attack. The Warrior has a larger variety available to him/her.
• Spells – Magical attacks which damage enemy characters/creatures. Can be target specific or area based.

It can be said that not all skills are both useful in player-versus-player and player-versus-monster game types. Certain skills appear to be more geared towards PvP and are relatively useless in PvE (yes, they can be used in PvE; but they are not nearly as useful and are not typically brought into a quest). A great example of this is the Warrior’s Bull Strike, which is very useful in PvP when in cohesion with a speed increasing skill (sprint for example) as Bull Charge will knockdown an opponent if he/she has their back to you (incredibly useful when your character is running after a foe). That is why players must realize that a great PvP build is not necessarily that useful in PvE as different requirements are set.

Skills become more effective as their linked attribute is increased in level. Attributes can be increased up to 12, and even more so if using items which have the statistical ability to boost a specific attribute. As players increase a character’s attribute level, they will notice that it becomes more and more expensive to do so. To bring the attribute to level 1, it will merely cost one point while it would cost 20 points to boost it from level 11 to level 12.

Made a mistake and wish to remove points from your attribute? Not a problem as Guild Wars allows players to use attribute refund points, even though they are limited, they typically allow a character to completely change his/her attribute point allocation once.

Attributes by profession:

• Elementalist
• Mesmer
• Monk
• Necromancer
• Ranger
• Warrior

As you have most likely noticed, each profession has a ‘primary only’ attribute at their disposal. This in return means that only characters which have selected the profession, as their primary will gain access to it. As an example, a player which has created a elementalist/ranger will have access to the Elementalist’s “Energy Storage” attribute, but not the Ranger’s “Stealth”. But all other “non-primary only” are available whether or not the character is using a profession as the primary or secondary.

Attributes affect each skill differently and there is no clear formula on how to calculate the effect of adding a point into an attribute in regards to skill effectiveness. But it can be said that the attribute may affect one or two (maximum two of the following can be increased or decreased depending on the nature of the skill) aspects of the skill in question. What is altered is pre-determined; the following are aspects which are often adjusted by the linked attributes:

• Damage output – How badly the skill hurts the enemy character/creature. May affect an ally or an enemy. If it is meant to be cast upon an enemy, their damage output would be decreased. Warrior damage output is directly related to specific weapon masteries. If the level is below the requirement of the weapon being used, damage will not be at its full potential. Allocating more points than specified as a requirement will not increase damage output, but there is no downside either as the character will be dealing the maximum damage output of his weapon.
• Duration – How long a skill lasts upon an allied character/creature or enemy character/creature. Duration can either be decreased or increased, depends on the skill in question. Example: A buff duration could be increased and benefit an allied player. Or a Hex’s duration could be increased and affect an enemy character.
• Armor Penetration – Usually used upon an ally or self, increases the amount of damage output (Armor reduces damage taken. With armor penetration, some of the armor is nullified and hence allows greater damage to be inflicted)
• Speed – May increase or decrease the speed of an ally or foe. Allies usually are increased in speed, unless using speed is specified as a sacrifice in order to gain a potent advantage of another sort. The speed of a foe is always decreased; the skill often is accompanied with damage over time effects as well as speed deficiencies.
• Health – Maximum health may be increased. Health may be restored in full or part. Maximum health may be decreased (usually on a foe). Health may be lost (typically happens when a character is using a skill which needs a health sacrifice in order to cast)
• Energy – May increase or decrease the energy cost of casting a skill. Typically decreases for allies and decreases for foes.

The maximum amount of attributes a player can acquire is of 250 (5 points per acquired level and they may be spent as soon as they are received), more than enough to create a powerful and well-balanced character but not enough to become maximized in more than 2 attributes. It is often best to nearly maximize one attribute and then spread the remaining points over a few others without maximizing them but rather spending intelligently in order to find the most productive attribute level for the cost (In my opinion, it is roughly 8-9 but this is a generality and does not hold true for all skills).