Guild Wars 2

Just wondering if @ some point some devs will do a pass on the unused utilities and elite skills , to give more options , thanx

My elementalist would really like to survive without bringing a full suite of cantrips (and the requisite water/arcane traits for those cantrips) to every single fight.

Not sure what you mean by “unused” utilities. You mean the ones you don’t use? I don’t think there is such thing as a skill that no one uses.

There are probably some which don’t get used as often as others, across the player population, but getting rid of them is not a solution — nor is it the reason we don’t have more skills coming in. I would much rather see lackluster skills be improved in some way, rather than merely deleted.

My necro and ele would like more than one underwater elite option. Could we start a Flesh Golem Swimming Lesson lesson, maybe?

Unused means lacklustre , unused for a reason , hope we cleared that up lol

pretty sure nobody uses prayer to kormir ranger skill ?

Decrypter.1785:

pretty sure nobody uses prayer to kormir ranger skill ?

That is a racial skill.

Decrypter.1785:

pretty sure nobody uses prayer to kormir ranger skill ?

Kormir, enlighten me!

starts to float off into the sky

nooooooooooooooooooooooooo°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°

When talking about unused utilities, it’s always Racial skills, which are weaker than profession skills.

They’re very unlikely to be buffed in the future, unless something big requires their rebalance.

There’s no such thing as “unused profession utility skill”, each of them have their uses and synergies.

FrostSpectre.4198:

When talking about unused utilities, it’s always Racial skills, which are weaker than profession skills.

Not in my books. A PvE perspective, since I don’t do any PvP and very little WvW. I play all professions, but mostly Guardian and Elementalist, so I’ll focus on what annoys me the most:

Guardian

• Spirit weapons (SotA gets some usage) see almost no use. I can go hundreds of hours in-game between seeing one spirit Hammer or Bow to the next. They used to be stronger, but got nerfed hard. They’re much too weak now, despite a plethora of traits for them. I see three almost useless utility skills right there.

Elementalist

• Summoned Axe and Shield. Just like Guardians spirit weapons, except I don’t think they were ever strong. Never use them after trying to find a valid role for them but Cantrips and Arcane are just too vital. I saw a summoned Axe lately, and it could have been the only one I’ve seen since about this time last year.

• Signets are pretty weak for Ele, compared to others signets. Their passives are ok, but their actives are woeful. I concede that in PvP they might be more useful, but for PvE the actives are awful.

When I think of unused and useless, warriors “on my mark!” skill always comes to mind.

The last I heard, there was two guys working on class and skill balance. If true, that explains whey changes are so few and far between, and it probably explains why new skills haven’t happened yet (yeah, yeah, we all got one new healing skill). I really wish they’d divert some resources from the Living Story to areas of the game that have set too long on the back burner.

dace.8019:

FrostSpectre.4198:

When talking about unused utilities, it’s always Racial skills, which are weaker than profession skills.

Not in my books. A PvE perspective, since I don’t do any PvP and very little WvW. I play all professions, but mostly Guardian and Elementalist, so I’ll focus on what annoys me the most:

Guardian

• Spirit weapons (SotA gets some usage) see almost no use. I can go hundreds of hours in-game between seeing one spirit Hammer or Bow to the next. They used to be stronger, but got nerfed hard. They’re much too weak now, despite a plethora of traits for them. I see three almost useless utility skills right there.

Elementalist

• Summoned Axe and Shield. Just like Guardians spirit weapons, except I don’t think they were ever strong. Never use them after trying to find a valid role for them but Cantrips and Arcane are just too vital. I saw a summoned Axe lately, and it could have been the only one I’ve seen since about this time last year.

• Signets are pretty weak for Ele, compared to others signets. Their passives are ok, but their actives are woeful. I concede that in PvP they might be more useful, but for PvE the actives are awful.

…I use my earth shield for Mai Trin everytime. Please don’t take my infinite blocks and nice invuln away from me.

dace.8019:

Guardian

• Spirit weapons*

Elementalist

• Summoned Axe and Shield.*

• Signets are pretty weak for Ele

Guardian Spirit Weapons, yes, they’re quite hard to use in PvE. Even I haven’t found good use for them.

Elementalist Axe and Shield?

Axe for Might stacking Dagger/Dagger with Pyromancer’s Puissance.
Flame Axe:
- skill 1 grants 1 stack of might when hitting enemy.
- skill 2 is a blast finisher.
- skill 3 is emergency escape.
- skill 4 is fire-field.
- skill 5 is leap finisher.

Bring in Arcane Brilliance and Arcane Wave for additional stacks, damage and healing, when Blasting Fire-fields. Or use Persisting Flames and get Fury on each blast.

Shield:
- Skill 1 is a combo which deals bleeding and cripples foes in line.
- Skill 2 is an active defense block, dealing damage and bleeding to nearby foes. Recharge – is also halved on successful block.
- Skill 3 is a leap attack that dazes 3 foes.
- Skill 4 is a AoE pull for 3 foes.
- Skill 5 is a three seconds of Invulnerability.

Signets, some traits give endurance on successful activation, inflict vulnerability, grants you fire shield and so on.

Will agree spirit weapons on Guardian are rarely used. Shield is used quite a bit in FoTM runs, but I’ve only ever seen someone using the other weapons by mistake. As in they are completely new to the game and don’t know they are terrible yet.

FrostSpectre.4198:

-snip-

The first problem with both of them is Frost Bow and Lightning Hammer. If you’re conjuring anything, you’re more than likely conjuring one or both of those. That renders the likelihood of the remaining utility slot(s) to be something other than yet another conjure.

Problem 2 is weapon sets. Lava Axe is a DPS weapon conjure. Staff provides

• An AA that has AoE, compared to the LA’s single target, however granted that the LA’s AA rate is double the staff’s AA, which is negated by the presence of one more mob or (next on list)
• A better fire field on #2 (it ticks damage) than the LA’s RoF on #4. Which is usually traited to be permament or have little downtime. This makes staff dump way more DPS than this weapon can hope to do, with ease.
• A much safer but only very slightly less damaging fire DoT on #3 than the LA’s #5, staff’s is AoE, LA’s not.
• The same dodge/fire field on #4 that the LA has on #3
• Meteor shower

The highlight of the LA is the #2, I can grant you that. Besides that, it’s unnecessary. If you’re serious about the LA I can’t imagine taking it over just equipping a staff. As a backup to burned CDs on Sc/x… maybe? Again, concerns faced by problem 1 arise.

The less said about the earth shield, the better.

Going back to the OP though, they are both quite unused compared to other Utilities on Ele. I almost never see Lava Axe or Earth Shield in PvE. They’re rarer than most Legendaries. I can’t even tell you the last time I saw Earth Shield used. The Lava Axe about a year ago. Unless I’m beating the odds, I’m sure most people rarely encounter those conjures too. With good reason.