Guild Wars 2

Substitute regular skills for elite skills, for example, using my 25% movement speed signet on my necromancer’s elite slot, because I don’t really like many of the elite skills.

Also, allowing us to use any secondary stat in our trait trees for more customization, and any 5/15/25 skill as well.

(this would be extremely fun, and allow MANY combos and builds.)

That’s not fixing the problem, that’s just covering it up.

The real problem is the lack of usefulness of most Elites.
You don’t fix that by letting people not use Elites.
You fix the Elites.
Elites need to be more synergic.
Perhaps we could use an additional Utility Slot, or perhaps each Utility skill could come in duos (like a Chain after first use).

Nurvus.2891:

That’s not fixing the problem, that’s just covering it up.

The real problem is the lack of usefulness of most Elites.
You don’t fix that by letting people not use Elites.
You fix the Elites.
Elites need to be more synergic.
Perhaps we could use an additional Utility Slot, or perhaps each Utility skill could come in duos (like a Chain after first use).

Well, replacing an elite skill with another utility slot seems like a good trade off, all “When use Elite, do this.” are on a 45 second cooldown anyways.

Both of your suggestions would cause some pretty serious balancing issues.

Olba.5376:

Both of your suggestions would cause some pretty serious balancing issues.

Why would it cause balance issues?

Daecollo, I think your idea is a bad tradeoff, because it encourages to ignore part of the game mechanics (Elite skills).
Anet is better off making Elites attractive and balanced, instead of encouraging players to ignore them by giving them an easy alternative.

Daecollo.9578:

Olba.5376:

Both of your suggestions would cause some pretty serious balancing issues.

Why would it cause balance issues?

For traits: you could pick any traitline for the primary bonuses and traits, then get the minor traits from other lines. Here’s a quick list of what I personally consider game-changing minor traits:

• Renewed Justice
• Precise Strikes
• Adrenal Health
• Fast Hands
• Automated Medical Response
• Meld with Shadows
• Preparedness

For example, as a Thief myself, the only reason I went 15 into Trickery was to get Preparedness. And I know tons of Warriors who put 15 into Discipline to get Fast Hands.

As for being able to use utility skills in the elite slot, it would make some builds that center on a few key utilities even stronger.

And of course, there are certain utilities that have very neat synergies, such as Kleptomaniac+Serpent’s Touch+Lotus Poison+Exposed Weakness.

And as was said, weak elites do not mean you should be given the choice not to use them. It means the elites themselves should get looked at. But honestly, certain skills being too weak is far less of a concern than certain skills being too strong or exploitable.

The elite skills are diseased. I am currently using a Charr Warrior as my main char and I rarely use anything due to them being 95% worthless. I would love for the GW1 elites to be in this game or let us use an alternative skill.

The banner is a kitten good Elite for the Warriors, revives players in its radius, including NPCs. Can definately be a gamechanger , especially since coming patch you can’t WP back into combat.

Nurvus.2891:

That’s not fixing the problem, that’s just covering it up.

The real problem is the lack of usefulness of most Elites.
You don’t fix that by letting people not use Elites.
You fix the Elites.
Elites need to be more synergic.
Perhaps we could use an additional Utility Slot, or perhaps each Utility skill could come in duos (like a Chain after first use).

That.

i have to agree… being allowed to swap elites isnt fixing the problem.

The fact is most elite skills are worthless hence u want to swap them out to something else.

Fix the Elites…

At least give us shorter cooldowns in PvE.
You wont hear people rant of balance issues in PvE.

I’ve fantasised about having an elite skill that just randomly picks a utility skill that you’ve unlocked. As soon as the cooldown expires within combat it swaps out for another utility skill (possibly including elites).
While they do need to add more useful elites, sometimes I’d just like any other utility skill. Occasionally I think I’d like my preconceived ideas of what are good skills shaken up a bit, get a little moved outside my comfort zone. Randomly getting the chance to try out other skills I don’t usually slot might open me up to new ideas and experiences.

I wouldn’t mind if their not going to fix the elite skills to let you change them for utility slot.

Buuuuuut they should fix the main problem and not just cover it up with butterscotch and a nice tin wrapper.

Many elite skills, are simply awesome. However many elite skills are also pathetic (not just racial elites). They really don’t bring enough to the table to define a build or even suit a build for that matter. When I run ranger, excluding all racial elite skills, it is almost pointless to use the Spirit elite. It dies super fast, its only skill has a 30 second cooldown and the heal is minor even with full healing power gear (idk if it scales off healing power).

As thief, we kinda got all good ones but for the most part it’s either dagger storm or Basilik Venom. Thieves guild is good for ambushes in things like WvW or in pve when you need the enemy to focus them and not you but they can’t dodge and the cooldown is 3 minutes so they just die super fast in most pve encounters and you’re left open. Not to mention it is literlly a slightly upgraded [Ambush] trap which seems kinda lazy for an “elite” skill.

Can’t speak too much for other professions but I know warrior gets a game changing banner, or a signet that half of the cooldown you get benefited by its boons which seems a bit outrageous (the signet not banner). They outa work on making all profession elite skills attractive and suitable for that professions various builds before they consider dropping all votes and just swapping that last slot with another utility skill (which would result in various balance issues. Its like adding a secondary healing skill, too much work to make that even remotely fair).

I would like the option of being able to place a utility skill in the elite slot, even if it using it doesn’t count as triggering an elite skill. Sometimes the utility skills are just better suited for the situation and it sucks that I can’t have more of them available. I also prefer to use skills with smaller cooldowns. I feel I get more out of them.

The point of an elite skill is supposed to be that it’s so good that it’s the one you want to have in the slot, even if you have the option not to. Clearly, if the elites are so useless that people would rather have a utility, something is wrong. Utility skills should not make you build stronger than having an elite.
We’re being forced, at this time, to slot in a skill that we don’t want to – a skill that provides us with very little use (comparatively to utilities/heals).

I know it’s a different game, but I like to look back to GW, because the two games are not entirely disconnected; many of the people in GW2 worked on GW, and could have taken a lot from that game. Elites being one.
Builds were based around elites. They were often the best skill you had, and all the others synced with it to produce something useful. They weren’t something you were begrudgingly forced to put into the build (which elites parties forced you into using due to metagame is a different story).
So, if there’s more of a payoff in using utilities, we should be able to use utilities. Clearly the elites have to be reworked, and the uts that would “overpower” a build should be nerfd.

interpol.2397:

The point of an elite skill is supposed to be that it’s so good that it’s the one you want to have in the slot, even if you have the option not to. Clearly, if the elites are so useless that people would rather have a utility, something is wrong.

I wonder if the cooldowns make elites inhibitive? I’ve had times I’ve wished for one of my utilities because I could use it three or four times over in the time it takes a good elite to refresh.