Talk:Stone Sheath

This would really worth usi--Media Control 17:17, 5 June 2008 (UTC)ng if they make it the hex version of Stoneflesh Aura. Lightblade 09:54, 7 July 2007 (UTC)

its pretty dam useless skill
lol, stone striker does exactly the same effect besides the critical hit portion,but then theres always stoneflesh aura which reduces dmg also,so y bother making this skill at all and also as an elite???
 * Well, it completely hoses Assassins if you have some ele damage around. It's also an AoE Earth cover hex, so it works on foes, protecting your team, not just you. Still, it shouldn't be Elite, it's just an upgraded Dulled Weapon. Would be worth it if it did cause dmg redution on the target's attacks. 81.2.90.239 23:11, 12 November 2007 (UTC)
 * This is a skill that shines with synergy. You essentially force the enemy team to deal a specific type of elemental damage that your team can prepare for. Mantra of Earth? Elemental Resistance? Storm Chaser? Dryder's Defenses? Ward Against Elements? Winnowing without fear of the enemy benefitting? Or even shut down the enemy from using anything that requires physical damage such as Barbs, Order of Pain, Order of the Vampire, etc? You shouldn't be so down on a skill until you've fully considered its possibilities. That's part of the fun in Guild Wars. -- Hercanic 17:56, 14 December 2007 (UTC)
 * not to mention it completely makes warriors useless when attacking kiting targets because they never critical and thus do VERY little damage. But I agree, it should have some sorta other effect to be elite, and if they arent willing to add something else, make it non-elite and add 5 energy to the cost. atm not really worth the elite slot imo. *edit* forgot to add it completely removes any benefit from using a conjure skill, as no conjure is earth dmg oriented.... not that anyone really uses conjures anymore... :(--Lou-Saydus[[image:User Lou-Saydus Hail Storm.jpg|19px]] 18:04, 14 December 2007 (UTC)
 * I can't believe the news today, can't close my eyes and make this crap skill go away, how long how long must we sing this song, how long too long for too long.

STOP THE FRIGGIN U2!!!!ExtremelyDeadly 01:15, 18 March 2008 (UTC)

Imo this isn't that bad, it just hasn't been discovered by the meta yet. Maybe if they add weakness people will run this. Dark Morphon  (contribs)  16:38, 25 March 2008 (UTC)
 * Discovered by the meta? The meta is full of skills that are...you know: good. If this had damage reduction; then yes it would be used. But it doesn't, so it won't. Saying this counters all those physical damage benefits is a half-lie because you're not factoring in Hex Removal on organized teams, and elementalists have a poor selection of cover hexes. RitualDoll 01:49, 20 April 2008 (UTC)

This is not at all a useless hex, I mean, almost complete Assassin shutdown? And combined with weakened condition, it pretty much obliterates Warrior, Ranger, Paragon and dervish DPS as well. This is one of those skills I'd use just to be an asshole.--Media Control 17:17, 5 June 2008 (UTC)
 * By that logic, Dulled Weapon is the ultima in Melee shut down. 71.127.159.233 16:02, 30 August 2008 (UTC)

critical eye
It seems that you still gain energy when you would gain energy. So it doesnt completely stop assassins form gaining energy. I would liek someone to double check my findings however... 90.207.10.233 14:54, 24 May 2008 (UTC)
 * as far as i can tell, removing the ability to critical hit, just stops them from dealing extra dmg, assasins would still gain nrg, so this skill is pretty much crap for edenail on sins, the descritption says cannot *cause* a critical hit, so it does not remove the ability, just makes them deal less dmg, good counter vs scythe sins, though 66.233.201.54 17:45, 9 August 2008 (UTC)
 * I noticed the same thing, Critical Agility had no problems with recharging. If it stops the extra damage instead of the critical, then it is even more pointless then it already was. 145.94.74.23 09:18, 24 September 2008 (UTC)
 * Sounds like a bug to me. 86.26.63.60 15:21, 8 February 2009 (UTC)

ebon dust aura
example is very bad... Ebon Dust Aura needs the dmg dealt to be earth,... therefor it doent hinder dervish with that enchantment at all 62.198.195.94 17:48, 18 September 2008 (UTC)

change functionality
Do what you did to Visions of Regret. Seeing how VoR's original function was only useful towards foes using adrenaline, (i.e., only good against warriors and paragons) it wasn't a very practical elite since it only affected 2 out of 10 classes. The same is said for Stone Sheath. It appears it's primary function is to hinder (not stop) Assassins along with some effect that causes other to have earth damage. So what? So I bring this elite in the hopes that the opposing team has an Assassin or some situation that is listed above? An elite should be able to affect any class. I noticed this too --out of all guild wars skills (1319) and a plethora of stances, there are only 3 stance removals. That's right, only 3 -- Wild Blow, Wild Strike and Wild Throw. Now, you have the Assassin's Mark of Insecurity that reduces enchantments and stances by 50% so how about this:

Stone Sheath Elite Hex Spell 5/.25/20 Target foe and nearby foes lose their stance and cannot enter stances for 3...21 seconds. For each second under this hex, those foes incur -1 armor. If more than one foe was struck, you lose 5 energy.

I put some thought behind this. The reduction in armor will go under the 60 mark unlike Cracked Armor...after all, it's an elite skill. So, if you want the -21 armor on your foes (16 spec of course), it has to last the full duration. If this hex is reapplied then the armor resets. For those worried about the .25 cast then you better take a look a Wail of Doom. I made it .25 also for creating combos. If it was a high cast (including aftercast), then you just lost possible damage. What is the point of removing a stance if this spell can just get interrupted anyway. Defeats the purpose...the foes still stay in the stance and your elite is now wasted. So it has to have a quick cast. Foes in stances have to have the fear of removal just like a lot of skills have the fear of interruption. Works both ways.

Dunno, I'm not the test team but it is a thought. 24.106.177.50 13:52, 5 November 2008 (UTC)
 * Love your comparisation to WoD which is the most imba skill in the game. The thing you suggested isn't all terrible, but I don't really see how it will change anything. That elite wouldn't be on my bar tbh. Dark Morphon  (contribs)  13:30, 30 November 2008 (UTC)
 * At this point, I really hope this skill is in the next volley of function changed elites. It is almost totally useless and at its best not worth an elite slot. So I got to thinking about what other elites there were, and what kind of things Earth Magic already does, and had an idea.
 * "For 1-10 seconds, target foe and all adjacent foes move 25% slower and cannot be the target of enchantments. Affected foes also gain 20 armor." To go with that, the recharge goes up, and probably the energy cost. Earth Magic already has Obsidian Flesh (precedent for spell stopping and slowing, as well as armor boosting), Iron Mist (hex that snares but gives the victim protection against damage), and a few other miscellaneous hexes.
 * Tactically, it would give a good snare for spiking, stop enchant-based protting, but weaken the spike as a balance. Probably a crazy idea, but there it is. Guildwarsrunner 03:59, 5 January 2009 (UTC)
 * Lol, since it is a stone sheath, make it do something like: "For x...y...z seconds target foe deals blunt damage and cannot cause bleeding." If you want, also give it something like that foe can't swap weapons.122.126.51.252 05:01, 5 January 2009 (UTC)

I think if was slightly changed to, target foes and all nearby foes deal earth dmg with attacks and spells, and can not deal critical hits. with this probably increase the recharge time. This change might add more utility. for example, Smiting monks wouldn't deal holy dmg, so it could be more manageble to reduce the dmg taken, and also for mesmers, no longer have to worry about energy surge spikes. But this is just my opinion. (i'm thinking about this for pve, not sure how this would effect things in pvp) V&amp;L 20:43, 24 April 2011 (UTC)

Like many other skills, it has its "scene"
Monks, Rangers, Warriors, Elementalists all have the option of putting insignias on themselves to reduce elemental damage. Rangers, and mesmers have the oportunity to use skill sthat benefit from taking elemental damage. This also turns holy damage and chaos damage and dark damage which have higher penetration into a lower damage type, if I'm not mistaken. As mentioned above, turning physical damage into earth negates order of pain, mark of pain, etc etc. It also turns fire damage into earth damage, negating the pain of Mark of Rodegort, upon which many teams and CHARR rely for degen. To me, this makes the skill almost as valuable or more so than they're on fire" - and available to all professions, whereas ToF is not.

And if you haven't found ToF skill to be beneficial, you certianly haven't played with skills.

In addition, there are many places where elementalists (and others) face enchantment shatters and removals. An elementalist (or anyone else) can rely on this skill to reduce damage (ie turn attacks into a type their armor has inherent protection against) without relying on enchants! Add (as mentioned above) wards against elements (another non enchant that reduces damage) and you effectively remove most of the pain an enemy team can do.

I think it has been undervalued by many, and certainly deserves both elite status and more frequent skill bar use. But hey that's just me.

OH! and with its duration even at low attribute... well... isn't that a clue that maybe it was geared as a secondary? Fast recharge (compare to most hex removal) skills trigger any ideas?? --
 * Well, it has a few uses, I won't argue with that. However, compared to most other skills, it's effect is rather niche. Earth has plenty of defense even in its offensive skills and it's other elites have a lot more desirable effects (and damage). When compared to other hexes, any elite hex has an extremly powerful effect...this one's mediocore even if it had been a normal hex. Just compare it to skills like Shatterstone, Ice Spikes, Backfire, Weaken Knees, etc. and you'll understand why most players dislike this skill. Especially since part of it's effect can be duplicated using Stone Striker, a non-elite. This skill is just...undesirable. But I agree, that doesn't mean that a use can't be found for it. 145.94.74.23 07:47, 16 April 2009 (UTC)
 * Won't do a lot against MoRodgort as the elite only appears to affect attacks. Anyone packing MoR will probably have another fire spell. SarielV [[Image:User SarielV sig.png|20 x 20px]] 19:31, 12 August 2009 (UTC)

New Functionality
Stone Sheath: 10 energy 30 second recharge 1/2 second cast. Elite Spell For 15 seconds you take -5..-10..-11 damage from all sources. When this skill ends all nearby foes take 10..55..60 earth damage.The Emmisary 00:10, 23 August 2009 (UTC)
 * ArenaNet:Suggestions kthxbai  Titani [[image:User Titani Ertan Sig2.jpg|19x19px]]  Ertan  { {Snappy the Turtle}} 19:20, 23 August 2009 (UTC)
 * That would still make it useless, btw. -~=Sparky  User Sparky, the Tainted charr sig.PNG  (talk)  20:11, 23 August 2009 (UTC)
 * How so? It would be actually go with what its supposed to be a "sheath." Although i do agree the damage at end might be useless but it would synergize with Obsidian tanks.The Emmisary 23:18, 23 August 2009 (UTC)
 * But it's quite a bit weaker than Stoneflesh Aura. [[Image:Felix_Omni_Signature.png]]elix Omni 23:27, 23 August 2009 (UTC)
 * It's only a suggestion and I only wanted to get the rough idea across.><  The Emmisary 23:30, 23 August 2009 (UTC)
 * (EC) Elementalists don't need an inferior and elite Stoneflesh Aura that in no way synergizes with Obsidian tanks. -~=Sparky  User Sparky, the Tainted charr sig.PNG  (talk)  23:35, 23 August 2009 (UTC)
 * It's just a suggestion. I'll try to think of something better.The Emmisary 23:39, 23 August 2009 (UTC)
 * AoE crit disable is good enough, this skill just needs shorter recharge and damage reduction on top of that. --Super  Igor  [[image:User Super Igor siggy.jpg|19px]] flame my shove sin bar!  23:52, 23 August 2009 (UTC)

Which one takes priority, this or Winter?
If your foe hex you with this and you put winter somewhere near by, does it convert again to cold damage? 99.245.10.193 03:24, 7 March 2011 (UTC)
 * winter wins - nature rituals usually have the final say.
 * Winter just wins, winter also overrides other nature rituals; both Conflagration and Greater Conflagration. Z  encow [[Image:User_Ox_rider_Sig.png]] 08:12, 21 June 2011 (UTC)