The skill bar and weapon skills
The basic skill bar has ten slots. Your weapon determines skills 1–5; 6 is healing, 7–9 are utilities, and 0 is your elite skill. For Revenant, the selected legend determines all five skills on the right.
📊 Skill bar layout
🗡️ Weapon skills (1–5)
These depend on your equipped weapon. Changing a weapon changes the skills in the slots it controls. Replacing only your main-hand weapon leaves your off-hand skills unchanged.
💚 Healing (6)
A skill that restores health. Choose one of your profession’s available healing skills. Activating it interrupts another skill you are currently casting.
⚡ Utility (7–9)
Three combat utility skills. Choose from categories such as signets, shouts, and stances.
💥 Elite (0)
One skill with a powerful offensive or supportive effect. Cooldowns and purposes vary, so use it when its effect is useful.
🗡️ Weapon skills: slots 1–5
One-handed weapons occupy the main hand or off hand. The hand you equip a weapon in determines which skill slots it controls.
Main hand + off hand
■ Main hand → skills 1, 2, 3 ■ Off hand → skills 4, 5
Thief’s third skill depends on the combination of main-hand and off-hand weapons.
Two-handed weapon
One two-handed weapon provides all five weapon skills
The same weapon provides different skills for different professions. A Warrior’s greatsword and a Guardian’s greatsword, for example, have different skill sets.
Available weapons vary by profession. Checking what your profession can equip is a starting point for building your character.
🔄 Swapping weapon sets
Weapon swapping unlocks at level 10. Equip two sets and switch between them with the ` (backtick) key. Most professions can swap during combat.
⏱️ Swap cooldown: 10 seconds in combat
Outside combat, you can swap freely without a cooldown. In combat, the cooldown is 10 seconds. Since the January 2026 update, Warrior has a default swap cooldown of 5 seconds. Some sigils also trigger when you swap.
🔁 Choosing two sets
Combine weapons with different roles so you can adapt: for example, a ranged set and a melee set. You can also switch sets while waiting for the first set’s longer cooldowns.
⚠️ Professions that cannot swap in combat
Elementalist, Engineer, and Bladesworn (a Warrior elite specialization) cannot switch equipped weapon sets during combat. Instead, Elementalist uses attunements, Engineer uses kits, and Bladesworn uses Gunsaber and Dragon Trigger.
⚡ Healing, utility, and elite skills
Most professions place a healing skill in slot 6, utilities in 7–9, and an elite in 0. Choose from unlocked skills and change them outside combat. Revenant selects a legend instead of choosing each skill separately; that legend determines all five slots.
💚 Healing skill (slot 6)
Its main purpose is to restore health, often with additional effects.
⚡ Utility skills (slots 7–9)
Three skills that support your combat plan. Each profession has several categories; adjust your selection for the situation.
Signet Shout Stance Mantra Trap Spirit Banner Elixir
💥 Elite skill (slot 0)
Elite skills can deal damage, provide crowd control, or support allies. Use them for their purpose: damage skills while you can attack, for example, or control skills when a breakbar is active. Saving them indefinitely wastes their value.
A red bar below a skill icon means your current target is out of range. Check range before using the skill.
🔶 Profession mechanics (F keys)
The profession skills and resource indicators above the main skill bar vary by profession. Use the F keys for core mechanics such as changing attunement or commanding your pet. The available keys and number of slots depend on your profession and specialization.
Guardian
Virtues: passive benefits and powerful instant effects when activated
Warrior
Adrenaline: build it by landing attacks or using certain skills, then spend it on a burst skill
Revenant
Legends: use energy to activate skills associated with legendary heroes
Engineer
Tool Belt: additional skills linked to your equipped healing, utility, and elite skills
Ranger
Pet: commands, pet swapping, and attack orders
Thief
Initiative: a resource for weapon skills. Steal provides a stolen skill based on the target’s type
Elementalist
Attunements: switch among fire, water, air, and earth to change weapon skills
Mesmer
Illusions: create illusions, then shatter them for different effects
Necromancer
Death Shroud: build life force and enter a shroud form
See the profession pages for details. First, read what your own profession skills do and practice using them alongside your weapon skills.
📦 Bundles: temporary skill sets
Some skills and environmental objects temporarily replace weapon skills 1–5. These replacements are called bundles. Dropping the bundle restores your normal weapon skills.
🔧 Engineer kits
An Engineer equips a kit to replace weapon skills with another set. Depending on the kit, it occupies a healing, utility, or elite slot. Med Kit, for example, uses the healing slot.
⚡ Elementalist conjured weapons
Holding a weapon created by a conjure skill, such as Conjure Fiery Greatsword, gives you that weapon’s skills. A conjured weapon remains on the ground for 30 seconds and can be used for 30 seconds after being picked up.
🌍 Environmental weapons
Interacting with objects in the world or picking up special weapons can temporarily replace your skills. These appear frequently in particular events and dungeons.
🌊 The underwater skill bar
Entering the water switches to your underwater weapons and skill setup. Equip a harpoon gun, spear, or trident in the aquatic weapon slots, according to what your profession can use. Configure healing, utility, and elite skills separately underwater.
⚠️ Set up your underwater skills
Choose skills that work underwater. On your first dive, check your healing, utility, and elite slots and fill any empty ones. Your underwater setup is saved separately from your land setup.
🚫 Skills unavailable underwater
Check the tooltip indicator for underwater availability. Engineer’s Flamethrower cannot be used underwater, but Med Kit can.
🐟 Aquatic weapons by profession
Each profession has its own aquatic weapon options.
Harpoon gun: Warrior, Engineer, Ranger, Thief
Spear: Guardian, Warrior, Revenant, Ranger, Thief, Mesmer, Necromancer
Trident: Guardian, Revenant, Elementalist, Mesmer, Necromancer
Even if you rarely fight underwater, setting up your skills ahead of time prevents avoidable problems. Elementalist and Engineer each have one aquatic weapon type, supplemented by attunements or kits.