Human Racial Elite Skill Change?
Actually as a human necro I would like some functionality changes for the elites. I sincerely wish I could refund my trait points and not have Reaper of Grenth. It is so far sub-par to Plague it’s not even funny.
RoG lasts 15s and inflicts chill & poison on a 180s recharge
Plague lasts 20s, inflicts 75dps, poison, bleeding, blidness, cripple & weakness and grants you stability for the duration on a 180s recharge
The only thing RoG has over Plague is that you retain the use of your normal skills while it is active. However as a necro I also have the option to use a warhorn and gain access to Locust Swarm which grants me 10s of swiftness, 60dps and cripple in AoE on a 60s recharge.
I understand that racial skills are supposed to be less potent than profession skills but the human ones are woefully underpowered. As a Norn or Charr I can justify bringing an animal form or artillery barrage because not only are they unique visually (and not a cheap knock off of a profession ability) but they also have arguably powerful and unique effects.
A bear form Norn can really cause some damage and knock down and disable almost as effectively as a warrior in Rampage. But a human in Reaper of Grenth is nowhere as effective at spreading conditions and damage in AoE as a necro in Plague.
Indeed, the only useful human elite skill is Hounds of Balthazar.
Indeed, the only useful human elite skill is Hounds of Balthazar.
Hounds of Balthazar are severely underpowered. They are basically two Lesser Fire Elementals with half the duration and 4 times the cooldown.
They can’t withstand a few attacks from spiders in Ascalonian Catacombs
Yet they are still more useful compared to the other Elites.
Yet they are still more useful compared to the other Elites.
Ice Elemental can heal you, Renewed Focus grants you one more Aegis, Supply Crate drops much needed bandages.
They’re not really that useful in actual skirmish. Against small monsters, yeah, but then that’s not how you designate Elite
I think the skills really need an change. It would be cool if the skills were tuned to your profession in some way. It would at least give me a reason to use something like Avatar of Melandru on my ranger. Right now, Rampage as One is the only thing I find semi-useful, and it does what AoM does and more.
AoM gives boons like rampage, has a root, a heal, gives mass protection and area-wide condition removal. It doesn’t last long, the recharge is too long and the skills take too long to cast whilst locking out other skills. All it needs is faster cast times and longer duration and it may be a considerable elite.
It’s not horrible, certainly there are situations where it is very useful, but their are just too many disadvantages for regular use at the moment.
Rampage is only really good so if your traited for beast mastery, for the initial boons and pet burst damage when combined with the signets. Overall it’s an average and an ‘all situations’ elite, which makes it more viable than AoM, but that’s design.(This is a ranger only skill, just referring to it due to previous reply, just to show that it does not do ‘more’ than AoM.)
HoB is quite good for small mobs, not good for strong enemies or large mobs where they don’t have shared aggro with others, otherwise they die too fast to pull off their second leap for the massive burst of damage it owes its usefulness to.
RoG well…I don’t see why you would even use it unless you were a condition damage melee char that doesn’t inflict poison with their melee weapon. In which case most of the time they have other more useful skills anyway.
When talking about human racial elites we need to consider the elites of other races, not professions.
Here are my comparisons (Note: It is not a spoiler, it’s just to minimise a wall of text):
Sylvari:
Summon Druid – similar to AoM however it doesn’t lock any skills – 60 sec longer recharge but a 40 sec longer duration, which, depending on your situation, is generally better.
Sylvan Hound – Similar to HoB, but only one, is immune to all conditions, has a bit more health but deals less damage, or at least less burst damage (from own observations). However, it last twice as long and it has 60 seconds less recharge. So, sylvan might be a bit more useful, although it is only one and thus doesn’t have the shared aggro aspect as 2 HoBs.
Take root: Doesn’t lock skills and causes turrets to be summoned to attack at a steady pace. It has more aggro sharing than HoB, does less damage, but has more survivability. It has 90 seconds less on recharge but has a 3 second cast where you can’t move, however, you are also invulnerable. So I would say about the same. Since they aren’t mobile they may be worse as they also only have a 30 second duration.
Asuran:
Powersuit: In comparison with AoM, its skills are more offensive, activate quicker and it’s duration is considerably longer. It has a 60 second longer recharge, though the duration more than makes up for it as its skills also have short recharge. Have about the same utility, though powersuit can be used in more situations. Overall it is much more useful than AoM.
7 series golem: Longer cast time and duration than HoB, shorter recharge time. Does slightly less approximate damage (from observation not statistical). Overall it is about the same as HoB.
D series golem: Same times as 7 series, has more utility and is much more durable than HoB. Damage seems to do more damage than 7 series statistically, and may be better than HoB.
Charr:
Warband Support: Same times as HoB and same aggro share, the skill offers more utility than HoB but less offensive power. It has a lower skill point cost. About the same as HoB.
Artillery Barrage: Longer recharge and less duration than RoG, however it does considerably more damage and is target based aoe rather than PBAoE. Altogether Artillery Barrage seems more useful and is better than RoG.
Charrzooka: Longer duration and same recharge as AoM. It is more offensive based and not as situation-specific. Skills activate quickly and recharge quickly so can be used multiple times throughout the duration, both offer aoe. In most situations Charrzooka seems to be better.
Norn:
I cannot give an accurate opinion, however, as they are all form changes like AoM, and each have their own utility and average damage, most not having any heals, having a longer recharge and duration, they may be better overall than AoM in most situations bust statistically seem to be about the same individually for utility.
Summon skills were compared to HoB
Skill set skills were compared to AoM
Passive upon activation/misc skills were compared to RoG
Exceptions were made if skills had similar effects to the human racial skills so that they could be compared more accurately and to avoid situational usage comparisons.
These are only from my observations and experiences, a took info from the wiki and I tried to be as critical as I could, if you disagree, then give reason in the same format and any corrections to statements or assumption I may have made, or ignore it.