Skull Crack

Burst. Stun your foe with a skull crack. Effect increases with adrenaline level. — In-game description

Skull Crack

Profession

Warrior (skill list)

Slot

Profession mechanic

Weapon

Mace

Type

Burst

Game link

API

14414, 14425, 14426, 14427

“

0.5½  8  

Skull Crack

Burst. Stun your foe with a skull crack. Effect increases with adrenaline level.

 Damage: 550 (1.5)^?

 Damage: 275 (0.75)^?

 Level 1 stun: 1 second

 Level 2 stun: 2 seconds

 Level 3 stun: 3 seconds

 Defiance Break: 600[sic]

 Range: 130

— In-game description

Related traits

Strength

• Building Momentum — Burst skills restore endurance on hit.
• Body Blow — Stuns, dazes, knockbacks, pulls, pushes, and launches inflict bleeding and weakness.
• Berserker's Power — Gain increased strike damage when you use a burst skill; this damage increase is based on your adrenaline.
• Aggressive Onslaught — Gain quickness when you disable an enemy. While you have quickness, your movement speed is increased. This stacks with other movement speed increases.

Arms

• Opportunist — Gain fury and adrenaline when you immobilize or disable a foe.
• Unsuspecting Foe — Increased critical-hit chance against disabled or defiant foes. Disables include stun, daze, knockback, pull, knockdown, sink, float, launch, taunt, and fear.
• Sundering Burst — Burst skills inflict vulnerability if they hit and inflict additional vulnerability if the attack is a critical hit. Can only occur once per interval per target for multihit burst skills.
• Burst Precision — Burst skills have an increased critical chance. Gain bonus critical-hit chance and ferocity for a duration when you hit with a burst skill. Duration is based on adrenaline spent.

Defense

• Cull the Weak — Deal strike damage to weakened foes. Burst skills inflict weakness. Can only occur once per interval per target for multihit burst skills.
• Adrenal Health — Gain health based on adrenaline spent.
• Merciless Hammer — Hammer and mace skills deal increased damage when striking a disabled or defiant foe. Gain adrenaline when you disable a foe. Disables include stun, taunt, daze, knockback, pull, knockdown, sink, float, fear, and launch.
• Cleansing Ire — Gain adrenaline when hit. Remove a condition when you hit with a burst skill, then remove an additional condition for every bar of adrenaline spent.
• Stalwart Strength — Gain stability when you disable a foe. Deal increased strike damage while you have stability.

Tactics

• Marching Orders — Periodically gain Soldier's Focus. Hitting with a burst skill expends Soldier's Focus to grant might to nearby allies.

Discipline

• Versatile Power — Gain might on weapon swap. Burst skills gain reduced recharge.
• Heightened Focus — Gain quickness and recharge your Burst skills when you strike a foe that is below the health threshold. Gain increased outgoing healing when you strike with a Burst skill, based on adrenaline spent.
• Burst Mastery — Burst skills deal more damage, grant swiftness, and restore a portion of adrenaline spent.

Berserker

• Heat the Soul — Grant boons to nearby allies when you use a Burst skill.

Spellbreaker

• No Escape — Dazes and stuns inflict immobilize.
• Dispelling Force — Dazes, stuns, pulls, knockdowns, knockbacks, and launches remove boons.
• Attacker's Insight — Gain Insight when disabling foes or removing boons. Full Counter refreshes all burst skills on hit. Disables include stun, daze, knockback, pull, knockdown, sink, float, launch, taunt and fear.
• Magebane Tether — Hitting with a burst skill casts Magebane Tether on your target if they are within range.

Notes

Bug:

The Defiance Break sums up all three levels: 100+200+300=600 instead of correctly displaying the level-depending value.

Version history

For a detailed skill history, see here.

Patch	Changes
October 04, 2022	Increased power coefficient from 0.01 to 0.75 in PvP and WvW.
February 28, 2022	End of Dragons release: (Undocumented) Added tooltip fact Defiance Break.
July 07, 2020	Icons for daze and stun are now displayed in light purple in skill and trait tooltips.
March 17, 2020	Fixed a bug that caused the spellbreaker version of this skill to do more damage than expected in PvP and WvW.
February 25, 2020	Competitive content update: (Competitive split) Reduced power coefficient from 1.5 to 0.01.
June 23, 2015	Specialization update: Using a burst skill for your equipped weapon will now set the recharge of all adrenaline tiers of that burst skill. The recharge of all burst skills has been reduced from 10 seconds to 8 seconds.
December 10, 2013	Increased the cast time from .25 seconds to .5 seconds. Updated the animation and effects of this skill to be more clear. Fixed the skill facts to indicate the damage increase when Burst Mastery is traited.
June 25, 2013	Increased the stun duration from 1, 1.5, 2 to 1, 2, 3. Increased the damage by 50%.
August 28, 2012	Game release: Skull Crack has been added to the game.

Trivia

• A Guild Wars skill bears the same name as this skill.