Guild Wars 2

I’m finding as I play, for most of my characters I absolutely hate their choices of elite skills. They are usually unwieldy and really do not provide much of a benefit. I find myself wishing I instead had a choice to just slap in a 4th utility slot.

For example, the necro elites:
Flesh golem = Basically a long cooldown knockdown, he dies shortly after. Mildly useful for destroying objects.

Plague form = 20 seconds of blind can be helpful in clutch moments, but the other skills are pretty bad and do very little damage. Not to mention you lose your heals, your utility skills, the ability to res others, lose your pets, etc. etc.

Lich Form = Power based form that doesn’t mesh very well, in my opinion. Highly offensive skill that makes you a giant target with no escape skills and no heal. Same issues as plague, no utility, no heal, no ressing, lose your pets, etc.

I have to say, the ‘transformation’ elites are almost all entirely unused on my characters that have them. Guardian, ele, warrior, necro and I may be forgetting another one. The only one I ever use is Plague to spam blind… which amounts to hitting the 2 button and doing no damage.

Are you happy with these kinds of skills? Do you find yourself using them often?

I find most of the Elites Ive tried on various classes to be a total waste of time and completely useless. They either last a pitiful amount of time and take ages to recharge, or the last a pitiful amount of time, take ages to recharge, and are totally pointless.

For instance why does the Asura have TWO golem summons? I mean one fine, but two? That just lack of immagination and/or lazy design.

Basically I just take whatever elite has the shortest cooldown and longest effect time. Otherwise there aint much point. Having 10/20 seconds of something and then having to wait 2-3 minutes for it again is just idiotic.

I have played a necromancer for ages.

Flesh golem does a nice amount of damage and can take some foes off your back. Plus it can rush in and interrupt. I’ve used this a lot whenever I rolled as a minion master.

Plague form works well in a team or when you face quite some foes at point blank and your skills are recharging. Underwater it’s magnificient.

Lich Form. Time this right and you can take down quite some foes faster.

Do remember that these elite skills should be used to give you a little more during combat so that your chance of victory is higher or quicker. It does not mean it’s always efficient to use it. Play your cards right

Depends on the profession but not as often as I should I guess. You’re right, you can’t create a build around them and sometimes they’re more a hinderance than a benefit.

Ranger’s Entangle is great, but others are meh
Guardian’s books are strong/novel but are highly situational. Virtue recharge one is nice but only if you’re specced into using your virtues a lot.
Necro’s elite golem is great for PvE but otherwise not so much. Others you hit on the head.
Mesmer has some awesome elites.
Don’t know enough about other professions to state an opinion.

Most seem to be super long cooldown, situational, strong but non-conforming to builds. Nothing like elites of GW1. I miss those that you can really build around (ie – Barrage, double Echo, etc)

Elites are, in general, terribly implemented. There’s only a few per class, and only a third of those are actually useful. Take warriors, for example. Signet of Rage, Juggernaut, Battle Standard.
We get three (plus terrible racials). Banner is circumstantial and uneffective at best. Juggernaut is just terrible. So everyone uses signet of rage. It’s essentially the only elite in the warrior’s repertoire.

Some elite skills are ok, others are just bad.

An elementalist for example has 2 completely useless elite skills (“Conjure Fiery Greatsword” and “Tornado”). The underwater version “Whirlpool” is pretty good. “Glyph of Elementals” is ok. Having some kind of tank sometimes helps in PvE. For PvP however there is not a single good elite skill.

Thiefs are an example for (kinda) good elite skills. All of them are useful compared to not using them.

In general though I would say instead of having an elite skill I would much rather pick another utility skill.

FGS is not useless, it is infact one of the better elites in the game. The ability to drop it anywhere close for AoE damage on landing, and a team mate being able to pick it up while you have one in hand its a godsend in many dungeons.

Well, instead of using the greatsword you and the ally could just use the regular abilites. They are stronger when it comes to damage and healing/support. The AoE damage on landing is ok at best and not really worth the high CD. You are not completely wrong though, I had a some situations where the FGS was kinda useful.

Generally I wish I could slot a regular skill in my “10” spot. Lots of regulars I would/do use more than my elites.