Guild Wars 2

In my opinion, most Elites from the professions I play/played don’t exactly feel… Elite.

Would you take an Utility Skill in your Elite Skill slot if you could?
Please state your profession and if you want, the reason.

I’ll start:

Guardian: Anytime. Most Elites are too situational with a long CD, and there’s only one I’d pick but Guardians have Utilities way too useful, even more powerful than Elites.

Elementalist: Sometimes, probably no. Utilities don’t feel so much obligatory and 3 slots is more than enough, though the Elites are really underwhelming.

Mesmer: Never. Moa Morph and Time Warp are priceless.

Thief: Never. Dagger Storm and Basilisk Venom are too useful too, more than any Utility.

Elementalist: Nah. My utility lineup is pretty situational, and I never feel like I wish I could have a fourth utility. Our elites are kinda weak, but I’d rather they buff those than risk all the balance issues a fourth slotted utility could cause.

Good point. Personally, I think elites currently feel quite a bit off balance wise, especially in pve, and to a lesser degree in wvw.
Thus, I’d also welcome the ability to slot utilities in the elite slot after all, though on some classes more then others.

Warrior: In PvE, signet of rage is incredibly awesome. 50% base uptime on all of fury, swiftness and 5 stacks of might is so great, I would literally trade that for all of the other elites, on any class, even though they wouldn’t even get the passive part. It’s just that great (in pve, mind you.) Battle standard is decent for the res, and could probably be good in pvp for the stability boon alone, if it were fixed that is. I don’t see any use in rampage besides it’s cc potential, but even then it probably is the weakest of the 3. People just don’t build for something that is available only ~10% of the time. Ironically, it is very prone to cc itself, and the loss of all utilities really hurts it.

Engineer: Embarrassingly bad choices overall. There is absolutely nothing good here, neither of the elites do really work in any situation I could think of.
Supply crate is the least bad one, but that’s not saying much really. It just never really works due to numerous issues. First it’s ground targetted, meaning the 2s stun will miss more often then not in pvp, which is about it’s only use there, since people usually do not stand in range of a flame turret for extended periods of time. In pve, it does not have a niche either, it’s best use is the “free” healing turret which does not even give the initial heal, so effectively only a regeneration boon for as long as it’s up (which is not going to be long usually). Meh.
Mortar is worse then traited grenades (and your engineer does trait grenades, period) in every aspect, never even worth deploying.
Elixir X is utter garbage. A chance to randomly get one of 2 already bad elites is complete junk, I wonder who came up with that… I mean even if for whatever reason you actually wanted (which is not saying I could say why) to change to one of the forms, you still have a 50% chance to end up with the other one, which will probably just get you killed.

I feel like some Elites are crap, and would rather they be slightly weaker Utility skills or just buffed.

For example, the 30 point Elementalist Elite, Twister…seems completely worthless outside of the Stability. I definitely don’t think it’s worth 30 skill points at all. Yes, it gives Stability, but outside of that it does bad damage (in my opinion), and the abilities are pretty bland. Now my Elementalist isn’t 80, and maybe that’s effecting my opinion, but overall I found it an utter waste of 30 skill points, and such a shame because I was looking forward to it. Being the only 30 skill point base Elementalist elite is a huge disappointment. I make significantly more use out of the Fiery Greatsword than I do Twister.

delmarqo.5038:

Elementalist: Nah. My utility lineup is pretty situational, and I never feel like I wish I could have a fourth utility. Our elites are kinda weak, but I’d rather they buff those than risk all the balance issues a fourth slotted utility could cause.

I also wish I could have just one more ultility slot for my Ele. Overall, I would say you can get quite a good array with the Utility options, but if you are a staff user or want to use combos in any way you have to have arcane wave. But if I had one more utility slot it would be amazing. Right now I just run one Glyph (usually Earth), arcane wave, and arcane shield. While its a good range. I wish I could have access to a Cantrip like Cleansing Fire at all times.

Elite skills wise I think the Glyph of Elementals is okay (in pve), but not too amazing. I like it because it practically gives me a “tank” which is helpful in situations that you would normally use Elites in. The other Elite skills are not that great IMO though. Twister I only use for stability, and only used it in jumping puzzles that required stability, otherwise I find it meh. Whirlwind is okay in water though.

Been saying this for a while now. I don’t think ANet will let us do this though, because I doubt they could be bothered to do more skill balancing.

Guardian – only one I use is Renewed Focus
Engineer – I only use Supply Crate but most of I time I don’t even bother, it just sits there taking up a slot

I agree, as a necro I found it hopelessly anticlimactic to read all these fantastic skills, avatar of melandru, the two hounds, flesh GOLEM (really?) and then seeing someone become he lich… only to find these skills downright useless. To such an extent I stuck with the hounds (which any human player will know is ridiculous) until I dinged. At 80 I’m now running golem again – it’s suddenly living long enough to be meatshieldy and its damage is…. noticeable. This is all quite a pity for me because aesthetically (as in how much I just appreciate the animations/design etc) I really don’t like it. It looks like the offspring of Lindsay Lohan and some endangered rhino species. With no skin. Basically it doesn’t suit my necro, and im stuck with it. Haven’t tried running certain skills now that I’m 80, will do so soon.

Warrior’s signet of rage is good.

Otherwise, I haven’t found something I’d choose on purpose.

Warrior: No. Elites aren’t very good, but Utility skills are even worse.
Mesmer: Yes. Time Warp is decent in large groups but the cooldown is too long for it to be any good. Rather have a skill that allows for 1 extra illusion.
Guardian: Yes, no good elites.
Thief: Yes, no good elites.
Elementalist: Fiery Greatsword is nice, too bad it has such a look cooldown. Kinda like Mesmer, it’s not really worth the cooldown.

Dunno on my other 6 chars, but my guardian and mesmer are both norn and I prefer to use “become the wolf” on both.

Oh but I do use flesh golem on my necro, even if Id like for it to be less “leroy jenkins”.

I’m an Elementalist and I don’t even use the elite skills of the elementalist because they are downright balls. Instead I’ve been using my hounds of balthazar because they’re the only halfway decent option I have.

Glyph of Elementals:
I’d love to use this, but the cooldown is bugged. It resets cooldown when the elemental dies or disappears, making it way longer than it should be.

The sword
I’m sorry but why would I want to change out my weapon skills for subpar weapon skills?

Tornado
Ehm… I use this underwater because my dogs can’t be summoned there, I suppose. That’s about it though, it’s a terrible skill that does bugger all.

And this is why Arena Net should have went with the GW1 style of Elite Skills, at least in PvE. Having a 2-3min cool down on your bar is NOT the definition of active combat…

Waar Kijk Je Naar.8713:

Warrior: No. Elites aren’t very good, but Utility skills are even worse.
Mesmer: Yes. Time Warp is decent in large groups but the cooldown is too long for it to be any good. Rather have a skill that allows for 1 extra illusion.
Guardian: Yes, no good elites.
Thief: Yes, no good elites.
Elementalist: Fiery Greatsword is nice, too bad it has such a look cooldown. Kinda like Mesmer, it’s not really worth the cooldown.

I found dagger storm to be really useful for Plinx when used at the right time, especially while grouped.

Gab Superstar.4059:

And this is why Arena Net should have went with the GW1 style of Elite Skills, at least in PvE. Having a 2-3min cool down on your bar is NOT the definition of active combat…

The comparison to the way GW1 handled elite skills is quite curious actually. In GW1, elite skills often were more or less blatant copies of regular skills that were made stronger numerically/better/shorter cooldown, and often a build defining piece.

In GW2, the lowest common denominator is that they are something “different” that gets used situationally, because of arbitrarily high cooldowns. They are not factored into the usual gameplay or skill chains, and it seems this is what makes more utilities more desirable in many cases.

the ele elites are absolutely bloody terrible.
110% bad.
I would kill to be able to put another utility on that slot. Then I would actually have something worthwhile on there.

The idea behind elites is indeed they’re situational and on long cooldown. I also do think most of them could use a nice buff + all professions should have more to choose from. As of now the problem is more in the lack of choice than in lack of power. Elites are game changing when you use them properly. In GW1 they defined your build, in GW2 they feel …. redundant. More variation needed direly.

It’s the lack of options that disappoints me about elites.

When is a choice not a choice?

Underwater thief has one choice.
Underwater ele has one choice.

If we had the option to slot in regular utilities in the 0, I definitely would, at least on some maps. But if you used the utility in the 0 slot, would it put your other real elites on cooldown?

Elementalis: no. Glyph of Elementals is a great swiss army knife, which allows you to pick askill based on what you need at the time. Very useful.

They may not be instant uberpower skills, but they’re definitely more useful than the utilities.

Elementalist, here… I would like the option to trade my elite slot for another utility simply because I rarely use my elite. I only find Glyph of Elementals sort of useful so if I notice it (aka remember it’s there), I’ll use it, otherwise I don’t need it since I can get out of most jams without it… so I’d rather use the slot for a passive signet.

But, i’m confident that they will be releasing more elites down the road so hopefully one of those is something passive

As an engineer.. the elite skill is definitely kinda lackluster. I mean… you either summon a stationary cannon or a weak druid pet .. all for the cost of 30 skill points … i mean come on …. 30 skill points… make them at least worth it. I think the 30 SP elite skill for Engineers should be a vehicle the player can ride in and move and shoot at enemies.. like a mobile tank :P

I miss how elites were in GW1.

They were more like regular Utility’s but just, stronger.

I think it would’ve been nice if they just let us have 4 utility slots, but instead each utility had an “Elite” version, and the 4th utility slot would be that elite version of whatever utility you took.

Best example would be Lesser Ele summon, stick that in your elite slot and it becomes the Greater Ele summon.

I’m just not a fan of these really long cooldown super abilities.

Ranger: hell no, you are not going to get me to relinquish a single one of those skills!! I will kill every last one of you if it means I get to keep my elite skill slot!!

Mesmer: Eh, maybe, mass invis is super sexy to me, resets Agro, SARS groupies near death, and makes people so freaking confused in pvp, if they had a 4th utility skill I was interested in though I’d say yes, but there really isn’t one id really rather have over mass invis or time warp.

Ele: no, fiery great sword/ tornado is to strong for me to not want, so much damage… And so much control with that tornado…

Eng: I actually like elixir X a lot because of how much uptime I have with it… 25s duration, 90s CD…. Yeah you keep your utilities, I’ll keep my super amounts of CC and bonus survivability…

Necro: The utilities are kind of meh too, but yeah I’d swap out the elite.

Guardian: Yes, I’d swap them out in a heartbeat. I love the guardian utilities.

Engineer: I believe that Supply Create is one of the best elites, but if I’d get an extra toolbelt? Tough call.

Theif: No, the venom elite is basically a utility already anyway.

Ele: Yes, there is no elite to like in this profession

In GW1, you literally built your entire character around your 1 elite skill. In GW2, your elite skill just like a normal skill only with 3-4 times longer cooldown.

wintermute.4096:

Good point. Personally, I think elites currently feel quite a bit off balance wise, especially in pve, and to a lesser degree in wvw.
Thus, I’d also welcome the ability to slot utilities in the elite slot after all, though on some classes more then others.

Warrior: In PvE, signet of rage is incredibly awesome. 50% base uptime on all of fury, swiftness and 5 stacks of might is so great, I would literally trade that for all of the other elites, on any class, even though they wouldn’t even get the passive part. It’s just that great (in pve, mind you.) Battle standard is decent for the res, and could probably be good in pvp for the stability boon alone, if it were fixed that is. I don’t see any use in rampage besides it’s cc potential, but even then it probably is the weakest of the 3. People just don’t build for something that is available only ~10% of the time. Ironically, it is very prone to cc itself, and the loss of all utilities really hurts it.

Engineer: Embarrassingly bad choices overall. There is absolutely nothing good here, neither of the elites do really work in any situation I could think of.
Supply crate is the least bad one, but that’s not saying much really. It just never really works due to numerous issues. First it’s ground targetted, meaning the 2s stun will miss more often then not in pvp, which is about it’s only use there, since people usually do not stand in range of a flame turret for extended periods of time. In pve, it does not have a niche either, it’s best use is the “free” healing turret which does not even give the initial heal, so effectively only a regeneration boon for as long as it’s up (which is not going to be long usually). Meh.
Mortar is worse then traited grenades (and your engineer does trait grenades, period) in every aspect, never even worth deploying.
Elixir X is utter garbage. A chance to randomly get one of 2 already bad elites is complete junk, I wonder who came up with that… I mean even if for whatever reason you actually wanted (which is not saying I could say why) to change to one of the forms, you still have a 50% chance to end up with the other one, which will probably just get you killed.

are you kidding me? Elixer X is far from useless! I find myself using it when running TA explo especially against the knights. The constant knockdown and the stability gained is priceless for an engineer. Most of the time I pray to be the tornado since it seems whatever you pick, you knock down mobs every 2-3 seconds or os. the brute’s 5 skill is very useful as well. And supply crate is useful if used appropriately. I tend to use it as an “uh-oh” moment as the 2sec stun and the med packs will prove invaluable in letting me live.

Randomness is great if you’re playing Mario Party, however when you are trying to have a competitive and engaging PvP experience, randomness is infuriating and reduces the effectiveness of the class.

Waar Kijk Je Naar.8713:

Thief: Yes, no good elites.

Ya mean, aside from Dagger Storm an’ Thieves Guild, right?

From what I’ve seen, all classes need more Elites … just more skills in general.