Guildwars2 skill recharge Tips
Chilled- Reduces movement speed and skill recharge by 66%. Stacks in duration.
Chilled functions similarly to Crippled (see below) but could be considered its stronger counterpart. Rangers, Elementalists and Necromancers all excel at causing Chill while the Engineer through their use of Freeze Grenade can also cause it. Its ability to slow players by 66% and increase skill recharges by the same amount makes it incredibly potent as a control tool. Whether using Chill against a single opponent or a group, it allows for unrivalled opportunities to focus targets and bring them down. Skills such as the Engineers Freeze Grenade or an Elementalists Frozen Ground are excellent tools for diverting oncoming attackers or snaring them in place. A favourite combination of mine is to use an Engineers Freeze Grenade in a large group of enemies, followed by an Elementalists Meteor Shower to really deal heavy area of effect damage.
Confusion – Inflicts X damage each time a foe uses skill. Stacks in intensity.
Confusion is a Condition originally intended to be unique to the Mesmer but was expanded to several skills on the Engineer as well as the Asura racial skill and a trait for the Necromancer (amoungst a few others). When you inflict someone with Confusion, each time that person attacks or uses a skill they receive damage based on your total Condition Damage attribute. Many Confusion skills only last for several seconds, with the Condition itself significantly reduced in recent updates due to the difficulties ArenaNet have faced in balacing it for both Player versus Enemy (PvE) and Player versus Player (PvP). The primary skill on a Mesmer for causing Confusion is Confusing Images which inflicts the Condition for a total of 5 seconds. Unless you are a Mesmer, you’ll rarely encounter this Condition unless on the receiving end at which point I’d simply recommend you resist using anything for its duration.
Crippled – Reduces movement speed by 50%. Stacks in duration.
Crippled is arguably the lesser counterpart of Chilled but remains incredibly important as it is a little more widely available through skills and traits. Like Chilled, it too stacks in Duration so can be chained effectively to keep a foe with reduced movement speed. If you plan on taking part in Player versus Player combat having some form of skill to slow your opponent (whether Crippled or Chilled) is incredibly important. For any Longbow Rangers out there, Muddy Terrain + Barrage is a wonderful combination and guarantees a huge amount of damage against a single or multiple targets.
Fear – Causes the target to run directly away from the caster.
Fear is a mechanic originally unique to the Necromancer but can also be used by Warriors and Mesmers. In the Mesmers circumstance, the Fear effect is as a result of Chaos Storm that causes random Conditions and so lacks the certainty of the skills available to the Necromancer or Warrior. When you’re affected by Fear your character will run away for around 1 second. During this time you cannot move or use any skills and as a result, you are incredibly vulnerable. As a Mesmers Chaos Storm is obvious (a giant purple electric cloud on the floor) primarily you only have to worry about the Necromancer and Warrior. A Warriors Fear Me! has a very limited range while the Necromancer can only cause Fear when using a Staff (Reaper’s Mark) that can clearly be seen on the floor, or when they are in Death Shroud. If they’re in Death Shroud it is often better to just avoid them until it wears off.