Guild Wars 2

This game suffers from many underpowered elites. You don’t need me to tell you, just check your internal data on elite usage.

This game has needed elites/improved elites since release. How many times do you wince that your Thief in HotW final fight with an underwater boss has the impressivly awesome Basilisk Venom? Seriously….

I suggest future elites come with passives that are useful. At least that way, at a minimum, they will be utilized in some environments.

My most basic example would be to have elites for Mesmer and Guardian that include what all other classes currently have in some form of trait or utility: 25% movement speed.

Currently the slowest classes to level in PvE are these two classes, purely for that reason. All other classes have access to 25% faster movement speed very early, usually at least by level 20. But this isn’t the end of it, all classes should have elites with useful passives.

Technically, Mesmers can get +30% Speed while out of and in combat.

Buuuut, it relies on AI. Getting the 30% out of combat requires abusing cliffs and staying within leash range of AI so they don’t explode.

Technically, Guardians can get +33% Swiftness with 100% uptime. It does, however, require them to stand still. I think that’s the problem.

The game is already plagued with too many passive traits and skills that should be removed as it is. Adding more passives to the game is a very very bad idea.

dancingmonkey.4902:

The game is already plagued with too many passive traits and skills that should be removed as it is. Adding more passives to the game is a very very bad idea.

True, but my guess is at some point all the signet professions (sry engies) will get an elite signet…

It’s okay!

because when that day comes they are going to give Engineers a 4th utility slot where the alternative Weapon Slot is. We are also going to get an addition Tool Belt slot for whatever specific Main Hand Weapon we have equipped. We’ll also get a new Kit that is a Chainsaw!

-takes a few moments to inhale-

And they will redesign the Turret Pick Up Mechanic so that you can now literally equip your Turrets like an Enviromental Weapon" and carry them around in your arms like Bomberman and throw them!

Yup yup yup! That’s what’s gunna happen. Yes sir.

(is In denial)

What you are missing, and this goes for everyone that replied so far, is the horrible Elites you are stuck with right now. There are very few good elites, very few.

Take your thief into an underwater boss fight. Get back to me.

Just ONE shining example.

I feel like choosing between an elite and another utility should be an option. In GW1 elite skills were amazing because they were optional, and if you had one it was the centerpiece of your entire build.

In GW2 we are all forced to have an elite that is usually only situationally useful, if even that. I almost never use my elite skills anymore because they aren’t worth it.

If we could choose between utilities and elites then people could take a utility that has a more constant value to the build. Elites should only be a part of a build if they serve a large, impactful purpose to how said build is played.

Ehecatl.9172:

I feel like choosing between an elite and another utility should be an option. In GW1 elite skills were amazing because they were optional, and if you had one it was the centerpiece of your entire build.

In GW2 we are all forced to have an elite that is usually only situationally useful, if even that. I almost never use my elite skills anymore because they aren’t worth it.

If we could choose between utilities and elites then people could take a utility that has a more constant value to the build. Elites should only be a part of a build if they serve a large, impactful purpose to how said build is played.

And then I would never slot Time Warp and end up stronger than before, bwahahahahahahhahaa.

GOSU.9574:

What you are missing, and this goes for everyone that replied so far, is the horrible Elites you are stuck with right now. There are very few good elites, very few.

Take your thief into an underwater boss fight. Get back to me.

Just ONE shining example.

I so not feel like I am missing anything. Adding passives is a horrible way to handle anything in my opinion. If we are worried about adding to or fixing elites, this is the worst way to do it in my opinion.

>>Technically, Guardians can get +33% Swiftness with 100% uptime. It does, however, require them to stand still. I think that’s the problem.

You can get 100 percent swiftness up time without standing still. Save yourselves+ retreat along with high percent boon(swiftness) duration gives ample swiftness.

or don’t alter your build atall, just use Executioner’s Axe toy skill #2 skill Corpse Toss which makes you charge forwards and its spammable combined with swiftness you can cross maps EXTREMELY quickly,
even just using focus on mesmer or staff on guard.

it’ll probably be available again at halloween

passives…

dawut.

They’ve add more healing skills in the past, its not impossible to add some elites. They should make racial elites stronger though, they serve no competitive use (N/A in pvp) so… how about I enjoy my wolf form?

NinjaEd.3946:

They’ve add more healing skills in the past, its not impossible to add some elites. They should make racial elites stronger though, they serve no competitive use (N/A in pvp) so… how about I enjoy my wolf form?

The racial skiils were always intended to be weaker and are more just for fun skills.

And some are actually really good…

You can already run rune of the traveler on mesmer and it’s pretty great. No need to use some kittenty focus in pvp, you can stick with a pistol.

Muchacho.2390:

NinjaEd.3946:

They’ve add more healing skills in the past, its not impossible to add some elites. They should make racial elites stronger though, they serve no competitive use (N/A in pvp) so… how about I enjoy my wolf form?

The racial skiils were always intended to be weaker and are more just for fun skills.

And some are actually really good…

If they had some effect on legit pvp or even GvG (hardly acceptable atm) then I’d agree. But they do not, and they rarely see a place in pve aside from jokes. PVE dungeons I agree in not letting htem excel in any form but open pve, why can’t my Balthazar hounds live for more than 6 seconds? Why can’t my sylvan hound do something impressive aside from ignore conditions (which AI hardly ever use)? Why can’t my artillery barrage do something? Such wasted skill slots even in the game mode that is meant for fun.

@OP

Passive are a bad idea. If you want to play a passive build, just go be a turret engi or something.

NinjaEd.3946:

Muchacho.2390:

NinjaEd.3946:

They’ve add more healing skills in the past, its not impossible to add some elites. They should make racial elites stronger though, they serve no competitive use (N/A in pvp) so… how about I enjoy my wolf form?

The racial skiils were always intended to be weaker and are more just for fun skills.

And some are actually really good…

If they had some effect on legit pvp or even GvG (hardly acceptable atm) then I’d agree. But they do not, and they rarely see a place in pve aside from jokes. PVE dungeons I agree in not letting htem excel in any form but open pve, why can’t my Balthazar hounds live for more than 6 seconds? Why can’t my sylvan hound do something impressive aside from ignore conditions (which AI hardly ever use)? Why can’t my artillery barrage do something? Such wasted skill slots even in the game mode that is meant for fun.

I’ll give you a few reasons:
1.) Elite skills aren’t balanced relative to each other by race.
2.) Powerful racial elites will deadlock players into possibly playing certain professions for min-maxing.
3.) The new universal/human race overlay to allow enemy movement prediction would be rendered useless when your standardized enemy performs a non-standard action.
4.) In order to account for the RP’ing part of the RPG, every single race would need access to each of these skills, in which case why not just make more class elites or unify some of these class elites’ effects between classes?

I disagree with more passive gameplay options, but would like to possibly improve the suggestion: All professions should have access to an elite skill classified as one of each of their categories of utilities (signets/traps/clones/spirits/minions/spirit weapons/consecrations/physical/etc.).

DeceiverX.8361:

NinjaEd.3946:

Muchacho.2390:

NinjaEd.3946:

They’ve add more healing skills in the past, its not impossible to add some elites. They should make racial elites stronger though, they serve no competitive use (N/A in pvp) so… how about I enjoy my wolf form?

The racial skiils were always intended to be weaker and are more just for fun skills.

And some are actually really good…

If they had some effect on legit pvp or even GvG (hardly acceptable atm) then I’d agree. But they do not, and they rarely see a place in pve aside from jokes. PVE dungeons I agree in not letting htem excel in any form but open pve, why can’t my Balthazar hounds live for more than 6 seconds? Why can’t my sylvan hound do something impressive aside from ignore conditions (which AI hardly ever use)? Why can’t my artillery barrage do something? Such wasted skill slots even in the game mode that is meant for fun.

I’ll give you a few reasons:
1.) Elite skills aren’t balanced relative to each other by race.
2.) Powerful racial elites will deadlock players into possibly playing certain professions for min-maxing.
3.) The new universal/human race overlay to allow enemy movement prediction would be rendered useless when your standardized enemy performs a non-standard action.
4.) In order to account for the RP’ing part of the RPG, every single race would need access to each of these skills, in which case why not just make more class elites or unify some of these class elites’ effects between classes?

I disagree with more passive gameplay options, but would like to possibly improve the suggestion: All professions should have access to an elite skill classified as one of each of their categories of utilities (signets/traps/clones/spirits/minions/spirit weapons/consecrations/physical/etc.).

There are hardly any racial skills that serve a pvp purpose though. Also there are racial elites that are easily out performed by a profession elite (artillery barrage vs mortar or rampage vs bear form). The point is make them less situational and more of a little boon. Take the asuran golem suit, right now if you get in it you literally lower your defenses despite it giving you almost 2k toughness and nearly 1k vitality because of the skills it has. Melandru support is weaker than a engi just pulling out elixir gun and will more than likely get you killed for entering it.

There are base lines to keep them in check, they don’t have to be stronger than any comparable profession elite, just let them be useful. Right now grenth and snow leopard are the only 2 I find useful, with snow leopard only being good to cover ground.

I completely disagree with your statement.

Reaper of Grenth’s use is almost exclusively one for PvP. All of the norn elites provide massive assistance in PvP scenarios – stealth, hard CC, movement long-duration fury, might, and regen, and huge bonuses to health, Hounds and Warband allowing for hit-blocking and are recipients of support skills and effects, and Take Root’s incredible bleeding applications. Some WvW players explicitly run certain races for these abilities, especially the norn and sylvari ones.

Unless all races get the same effects, there’s no way to properly allow them in sPvP or even buff them further.

DeceiverX.8361:

I completely disagree with your statement.

Reaper of Grenth’s use is almost exclusively one for PvP. All of the norn elites provide massive assistance in PvP scenarios – stealth, hard CC, movement long-duration fury, might, and regen, and huge bonuses to health, Hounds and Warband allowing for hit-blocking and are recipients of support skills and effects, and Take Root’s incredible bleeding applications. Some WvW players explicitly run certain races for these abilities, especially the norn and sylvari ones.

Unless all races get the same effects, there’s no way to properly allow them in sPvP or even buff them further.

Where did I say put them into pvp?

I said buff them because they cannot be used in a competitive scene. Buff doesn’t mean give it a jet pack and missile launcher shoulder pads, it just means make them semi useful instead of turning yourself into a liability.

Also take root bleeding is pathetic and the seeds die quick, warband and Balthazar hounds die in split seconds, and 3/4 shapeshifts on norn are highly telegraphed and offer no real sustain since you disable your healing skill.

Lastly, how is a self stealth which isn’t actually a stealth (so no trait benefits) at all beneficial to pvp?

I believe I misread your earlier post, but I still don’t see why buffing them would solve anything. For those in WvW, it could become a serious issue, and as I said, for many people who play WvW, their racial decisions are often influenced by their racial elites. Nothing screams OP, perhaps, but there are some skills which are strictly better than others and synergize incredibly well with some builds. Just going out and buffing these isn’t a solution either unless each race gets an equivalent version of each skill made available. Should something turn out to be a wee bit stronger than other elites, thus making the entire race in demand, we’ll now see party kicks by race and class and the WvW/GvG meta even stricter.

DeceiverX.8361:

I believe I misread your earlier post, but I still don’t see why buffing them would solve anything. For those in WvW, it could become a serious issue, and as I said, for many people who play WvW, their racial decisions are often influenced by their racial elites. Nothing screams OP, perhaps, but there are some skills which are strictly better than others and synergize incredibly well with some builds. Just going out and buffing these isn’t a solution either unless each race gets an equivalent version of each skill made available. Should something turn out to be a wee bit stronger than other elites, thus making the entire race in demand, we’ll now see party kicks by race and class and the WvW/GvG meta even stricter.

I don’t see it being much different from profession elites at that point. Everyone is going to have something that’s useful in a specific situation, you can’t expect everyone to get something like signet of rage. Now if a racial elite was universal and was decent then I’d say there is a problem but if they are tailored into less desirable encounters such as corner stacking in a dungeon (because you can’t be as mobile) then it does nothing to help in wvw which is already a terrible place of balance.

IF they didn’t do one patch every 5+ months I’d say tweak it to avoid imposing a stricter GWEN meta. They don’t have to throw in this giant overhaul and expect it to be gravy without proper player feedback, just look at how well that worked on Healing signet. The do little things here and there every month just to give them a little shine but in the back of their mind, always make sure it isn’t something that can turn out to be abusive rending other profession elites useless. I 100% agree to not make racial elites in any shape or form stronger than profession elites, but I do believe they need some attention to spice things up.

GVG fights have rules anyways so if this is a trouble that crosses over to wvw where a racial elite is now stitched into a group comp, both respective parties can say “we’re not using racial elites”. Most people acknowledge broken comps and will kindly not use them assuming they are mature enough.

All the elites in this game are kittened, just get rid of the special elite slot and give ppl 4 utility slots with the option of using an elite in the fourth slot like in GW1 where it worked perfectly fine.

It’s kittening stupid that these supposedly “elite” utility skills are worse than the other 3 normal ones on my bar.

I honestly just want access to a new Weapon Set. I legitimately don’t want any new Ultimates.

And before you think that you have it rough with your weapon options or that professions have plenty of Weapon options currently, Just know that I play Engineer.