Guild Wars 2

Do you want to be able to use an utility skill in the elite slot?

Yes or No?
Would it make your build better?

This is not a debate of how good elites are.

However some would like to use utilities with shorter recharge time as opposed to an elite with longer recharge.
In essence you’re not gaining any advantages (i.e., a skill for a skill) so I’d like Anet to allow this option for us.

What’s your preference?

I wouldn’t mind being able to use a utility skill there, but I don’t think it needs a shorter recharge, since that might open some exploits.

Though, the issue would be solved if there were more elite skills to choose from.

Even though I know for most of my characters that I’d be better off with a utility skill, I’d rather just see them fix elites. So, no, such a change would just be a band-aid when they need to revisit just what they were trying to do with the elites in this game.

I think it’s a good idea, especially since some classes do not have a single elite that is useful for PvE.

ProphetSword.5427:

I wouldn’t mind being able to use a utility skill there, but I don’t think it needs a shorter recharge, since that might open some exploit.

Think he meant that he prefers abilities that have a shorter recharge (i.e. the normal utility skills) rather than more ‘powerful’ skills with really long recharges (the elite skills), not that he thinks utility skills in an elite slot should have shorter recharge times ‘cause they’re in the elite slot.

Actually, this would open up a lot of options for me on a lot of my builds. I’ve found the elite skills rather lackluster, so I would love having another utility skill there instead.

I wouldn’t mind this since I find some of the elite skills to be anything but elite. Most classes aren’t as well designed as warriors. :/

Yes please my Necro would run a 4th well and never look back at the elites I now can choose from.
A radical step away from balancing pve for pvp needs would be even better.

Yes; I’m always open to more choice in character builds.

There is at least one technical problem – engineer tool belt skill. Elite skill slot does not have tool belt skill (would be F5 by default), so would it then not have tool belt skill at all?

I would like that, as engineer I only see one real elite skill anyhow, and the cooldown is a bit too long for it. Not to mention it’s stationary.

But in general: just as another option for personal tuning, yes please.

Voqar.2349:

I wouldn’t mind this since I find some of the elite skills to be anything but elite. Most classes aren’t as well designed as warriors. :/

Warriors don’t exactly have it made in the shade, either. We have a lot of viability problems, although some of that could be from some competing classes just being way too good at performing certain roles.

If you’re talking about the elites, we’ve got Signet of Rage, which is one of the better elites in the game. It doesn’t really do anything, exactly. It’s just a passive stat boost you have to remember to keep turning on. I’d prefer my elites to be more active and responsive, but if it works, it works.
Battle Standard is rather mediocre (one stack of might, swiftness, fury – underwhelming), and cannot revive defeated players, only downed, which are usually defeated by the time the animation is completed. Other professions’ normal skills can revive defeated players, or even do the same AoE revive with a much lower recharge. The listed stability actually comes from one of the Warbanner’s skills – #2 Whirlwind Banner. You have to keep picking it up to use it. It’s still okay, but you’ll want to use SoR most of the time.
Rampage is, of course, 100% useless, just like all transformation skills. Transformation skills were handled in the most asinine way possible in this game. They were made to replace your whole skillbar so ANet wouldn’t have to worry about build synergy and potentially gamebreaking combinations. To top it off, you still take damage while you use them, and the skills themselves are situational and often weaker than your normal skills. But these kinds of skills are easy to make and require little thought. Of course, players just don’t use them as a result. Brilliant.

Elites in general kind of have to be made this way. In GW1 you could put the elite skill anywhere, and it was often a normal skill you used just as often (if not more) than your other skills. Imagine if some elites in GW2 were normal physical attacks with recharges of about five seconds. What a mess that would be. So, they generally have to be minute long, at the least, because they’re stuck on the end of the skillbar and not everyone has a multi-button MMO mouse. Maybe not worthless, but something you’d fire off as an emergency button or as some specialty tool.

It’d be nice if Elites instead overlapped with all skill slots, and could replace any of them, and we got four secondaries instead of three, but at level 30 you unlocked the fourth slot and HAD to bring an elite (the game gives you one). This would let the developers make some elites that were primary weapon elites, or healing skill elites, or so on. There’s so much potential being lost in this game.

Actually, I would love this. I’m based around shouts and have all but one. If i had all four I could definitely do better.

Yes i would like to have an extra utility skill , i tried to use my Guardian Elite Heal in a dungeon yesterday and most my group died before i finished casting it. I only find the Mistfire Wolf anything worth using.

Looks like the general consensus is that an extra utility skill is more desirable than an elite. I see a lot of people complain about elites being very underwhelming.
A quick fox from Anet before they decide what elites should do in this game is to let us use utilities in their place.
I hope this gets the attention of the devs.

It’s because the shorter cooldown skills can be meaningfully built around, while stuff like transforms cannot be, and at times they actually detract from your build as they replace your weapon skills.

Yeah, those skills are powerful and fun, they’re just not very fun*ctional*.