Guild Wars 2

I’ve just purchased Heart of Thorns over the weekend. I have a number of Level 80 characters.

Is there any (good) reason I wouldn’t choose an elite specialization beyond personal preference?

No.
15charr actors

I’ve seen theorycrafters commenting that a couple of the elites don’t synergize well with the other spec lines in the profession. I suppose that would be a reason not to.

Mostly it’s personal preference, though, whatever you find most fun to play, until you get further into min-maxing than I ever do.

Unless you are WvW-Backline-Wellbomber-Nekro.. no

if you are an engi sneak gyro is all you need to know~ makes getting end map event loot so much easier.

Viper condi engi

Maybe you wanted to play a ranger instead of a monk

Sandpit.3467:

Maybe you wanted to play a ranger instead of a monk

This.

MAN they screwed rangers (from a PvE perspective). Druid isn’t just a problem. It’s a huge detriment to what should be a killer profession. The skills are useless and the traits are worse; they’re actually harmful.

On the other hand, reapers look really good.

in PvE, maybe Ranger. Maybe Warrior…otherwise, no. The eSpecs are head and shoulders above most vanilla spec combos, or they give access to one or two things that are worth trading anything else (alacrity).

Hot Specializations > Core Specializations. No one in sPvP or WvW would tell you otherwise.

Once they add more elite specs then you’ll have a reason not to use a certain elite spec.

Yes, if the build you want to do gets nothing from the elite specialization.

For example, with my condition necromancer in WvW I prefer to keep the ranged shroud.

Daddicus.6128:

Sandpit.3467:

Maybe you wanted to play a ranger instead of a monk

This.

MAN they screwed rangers (from a PvE perspective). Druid isn’t just a problem. It’s a huge detriment to what should be a killer profession. The skills are useless and the traits are worse; they’re actually harmful.

On the other hand, reapers look really good.

Yup, I was gutted when I realised the character I had most HPs on (due to world completion mainly) was the one class whose Elite spec was total garbage and had not relevance whatsoever to the class on to which it was bolted.

Who in Anet decided players who liked playing a Ranger enough to get enough points to unlock their Elite would want to play an old-style trinity healer? (hint: if I wanted to do that I’d have played a Water-based Ele though pre-HOT content!)

Totally idiotic.

Phantasm Mesmer is also not improved by the elite.

Personal preference seems like more than a good enough reason to me, though.

Andraus.3874:

Viper condi engi

There have been a few niche situations where I’ve changed away from power reaper to power necro. For example when my party didn’t have enough burst to bring dredge suit/ ice elemental down in fractals and we moved to the ranged option. Using power necro in this situation for the life blast in necro shroud worked pretty well.

No. Which is why the game is now P2W.

I find that my ranger is doing better w/o Druid in HoT map when roaming

Nature magic is better, higher dps and good against one-shot, which is all over HoT.

Andraus.3874:

Viper condi engi

as an engi player with over 9k engi hours, i almost always want scrapper. even in a glass condi build.

when i dont want it for sneak, i usually want it for f gyro. when i dont care about f gyro, i usually want sneak. and of course, there is overlap where i want both.

Depends on class and what kind of build you’re going for. It would probably be more helpful to you to ask about elite spec for a specific class and aim (whether your aim is condi DPS, zerker DPS, tanky/healy, etc.).

In many cases, the elite specs offer superior traits, if not use of the weapon itself. But as people have pointed out… that’s not really the case with ranger, unless you want to heal. In fact, ranger synergy in general seems to be very pet reliant and harder to piece together than some classes.

And there are no doubt other instances where you can make a spec that is on par with others while using old specializations entirely. It’s just… Anet clearly wanted to make elite specs appealing out of the gate, so some of them are kind of OP in what they offer, when compared to the old stuff.

The only reason not to is needing to get enough HP to fully unlock it. Especially if your preferred game mode isn’t PvE. It’s not that I find them better, just another option available in your build. A player who is well versed in the base profession is still superior to someone learning the ins and outs of the elite. And of course “elite” is describing the specialization line, ie trait line, relative to the othe five specialization lines and not the sub-profession. It’s elite because it’s more than just traits in the line.

A reason to not select an elite specialisation… Well, my main (elementalist) has maxed skill points and can max tempest at any time if I want to, but I’m not because his staff skills are more powerful than the warhorn, and the build I’m using is also more powerful than if I were to run tempest, so there is zero incentive for me to use his specialisation right now. Only thing I’m using from the specialisation is the shoulder skin.

In general… no. In specifics…

#1: Dragonhunter doesn’t mesh well with Guardian’s core feature. If you want to keep instantaneous virtues, supporting boons, and more flexibility in your build, you can go core Guardian and not many will bat an eye.

#2: The Scrapper is a mixed bag, having an excellent weapon but meh utilities and traits. If you aren’t using the hammer, then there’s little reason to be a scrapper. Mostly condi sets, though.

#3: The Druid is loaded with group support and all, but if you ever find yourself by yourself, you’ll want to be running core ranger.

#4: Tempest is a mixed bag. Though personally I love the stunbreakds and overloads it gives, there’s still plenty reason to go into other trait lines. Not every environment is overload friendly, as you’ll learn eventually.

#5: I don’t play berserker, but I hear this is basically a condi heavy spec, so it isn’t always the best to run it.

#6: You gotta go reaper.

#7: You gotta go chronomancer

#8: You gotta go daredevil.

#9: you gotta go herald.

Zaoda.1653:

A reason to not select an elite specialisation… Well, my main (elementalist) has maxed skill points and can max tempest at any time if I want to, but I’m not because his staff skills are more powerful than the warhorn, and the build I’m using is also more powerful than if I were to run tempest, so there is zero incentive for me to use his specialisation right now. Only thing I’m using from the specialisation is the shoulder skin.

LOL, Tempest is so much better than Ele core even w/o using war-horn.

Donnu why you think you’re obliged to use E-spec weapon when you trait for E-spec.

You miss out so much for not using Tempest.

Blood Red Arachnid.2493:

In general… no. In specifics…

#1: Dragonhunter doesn’t mesh well with Guardian’s core feature. If you want to keep instantaneous virtues, supporting boons, and more flexibility in your build, you can go core Guardian and not many will bat an eye.

#2: The Scrapper is a mixed bag, having an excellent weapon but meh utilities and traits. If you aren’t using the hammer, then there’s little reason to be a scrapper. Mostly condi sets, though.

#3: The Druid is loaded with group support and all, but if you ever find yourself by yourself, you’ll want to be running core ranger.

#4: Tempest is a mixed bag. Though personally I love the stunbreakds and overloads it gives, there’s still plenty reason to go into other trait lines. Not every environment is overload friendly, as you’ll learn eventually.

#5: I don’t play berserker, but I hear this is basically a condi heavy spec, so it isn’t always the best to run it.

#6: You gotta go reaper.

#7: You gotta go chronomancer

#8: You gotta go daredevil.

#9: you gotta go herald.

DH and Scrapper is pretty wrong.

DH Virtue, generally speaking, is so much better than Core Guardian’s Virtue.
F1 free pull on a very short CD.
F2 Huge heal with so much shortened CD. In PVE, new F2 outclass old F2 100%
F3 is kinda ridiculous. It’s not a projectile block, but BLOCK EVERYTHING in front of you. Core Guardian F3 does not come close.

Only reason that old Virtue may do better is on PVP Burning guardian, which you want your f1 to be instantaneous that you can blind stomp with F1 or F3.

Scrapper’s utility is way under-valued. Gyro is alot better than people make it be.
-50% damage on a 20 cd is a huge survivability boost.
Stealth Gyro is instantaneous, and even outperform thief’s stealth.
Combo Gyro can be utilized pretty well with lightning field that does massive aoe damage.
Cleanse Gyro is a very short cd consistent cleanse.

As for Reaper, if you play a MM Zerk Necro, you don’t need Reaper at all.
2 lines for MM and one Soul reaping is better for Zerk MM Nero. Dagger/Warhorn is better than GS in most cases too.

However, if you want to play condition Necro, you must go Reaper. It’s so much stronger than any variant condition necro spec.

Do you want to play a condition warrior? No? No specialization needed.

Hammer symbol pug carrier Guardian can go on the pile of builds that is worse by crowbarring in the Elite Spec.

Shiro + Mallyx Sinister Revenant

So far I’ve only played Berserker and Herald. Herald is really good, and lots of fun to play. Berserker is very meh. It’s ok, just about. but I found my self using more core skills with it, so I just went back to my core build. I have not looked at Berserker since.