Skull Grinder

Primal Burst. Unleash a powerful skull strike that dazes your target and inflicts multiple conditions. — In-game description

Skull Grinder

Profession

Warrior (skill list)

Specialization

Berserker

Slot

Profession mechanic

Weapon

Mace

Type

Primal Burst

Game link

API

29679

“

0.5½  5  

Skull Grinder

Primal Burst. Unleash a powerful skull strike that dazes your target and inflicts multiple conditions.

 Damage: 550 (1.5)^?

 Damage: 488 (1.33)^?

 Blindness (5s): Next outgoing attack misses.

₄ Bleeding (8s): 704 Damage

₃ Bleeding (8s): 528 Damage

₄ Confusion (4s): 176 Damage, 198 Damage on Skill Use

₅ Confusion (3s): 165 Damage, 247 Damage on Skill Use

 Cripple (8s): -50% Movement Speed

 Cripple (5s): -50% Movement Speed

 Daze: 1 second

 Defiance Break: 100

 Range: 300

— In-game description

Mechanics

• This skill inflicts its conditions first followed by  Dazing.
  • This allows for traits like  Auspicious Anguish to immediately convert two conditions into boons.
  • This allows for relics like Relic of Akeem to immediately apply bonus  Confusion and  Torment in PvP/WvW.

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.
• Bloodlust — You have a chance to inflict bleeding on critical hits, and bleeds that you apply last longer.
• 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 increased 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.
• Leg Specialist — Immobilize a target when you cripple them with a skill. Deal increased strike damage to foes affected with movement-impairing conditions.

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

• Primal Rage — Gain access to berserk mode and primal bursts.
• Smash Brawler — When you hit with a Primal Burst skill, extend the duration of your berserk. Critical-hit chance is increased while berserk.
• Heat the Soul — Grant boons to nearby allies when you use a Burst skill.
• King of Fires — Increase the duration of burning you apply. Gain fire aura when you critically hit an enemy. Berserker skills detonate fire aura, damaging and burning nearby foes.

Version history

For a detailed skill history, see here.

Patch	Changes
March 19, 2024	Increased the power coefficient from 1.0 to 1.33 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.
February 25, 2020	Competitive content update: (Competitive split) Reduced bleeding stacks from 4 to 3. Reduced cripple duration from 8 seconds to 5 seconds.
May 08, 2018	The bleeding this skill inflicts is no longer split between game modes and will now use the higher duration of 4 stacks for 8 seconds in all modes.
February 06, 2018	The previous PvP split of this skill has been extended to WvW, with confusion now added to the list of split conditions. Confusion application has been modified from 4 stacks for 4 seconds to 5 stacks for 3 seconds.
May 17, 2017	The blast finisher delivered by this attack has been removed, as indicated in the original release note.
May 16, 2017	The damage of this skill has been reduced by 33%. Bleeding has been reduced from 4 stacks for 8 seconds to 3 stacks for 6 seconds. The blast finisher on this skill has been removed. All changes apply to PvP only.
October 23, 2015	Heart of Thorns release: Skull Grinder has been added to the game.