Guild Wars 2

This is a fun discussion that I’ve had on TS a few times that I thought I would bring to the forums. Rank the top 10 most powerful (including its effect, casting time, and cooldown) utilities in the game for Team Arena across all classes. Keep in mind, I’m not referring to heals or elites, just the 7 8 and 9 skills. Also, they dont necessarily have to be “genericly” powerful, just powerful in a particular build, and thus may be traited to be better than it is by default. Lastly, everyone has their own opinions, so if you dont like my list, make your own and share! Here’s my list:

1. “Stand Your Ground!” – Guardian
2. Illusion of Life – Mesmer
3. Portal – Mesmer
4. Shadow Trap – Thief
5. Epidemic – Necromancer
6. Grenade Kit – Engineer
7. Shadow Refuge – Thief
8. Elixir R – Engineer
9. Sun Spirit – Ranger
10. Berserker’s Stance – Warrior

This is hard!

1. SYG
2. Portal
3. Elixir R
4. Illusion of life
5. Corrupt boon
6. Grenade kit
7. Berserker Stance
8. Lightning flash
9. Blink
10. Sun spirit

That would be my first pass.

Yeah, I guess Sun Spirit does deserve to be in the top 10 somewhere, dem burns. Think I’ll update my list.

Very interesting discussion.

1) Stand Your Ground – Nothing is even close.
2) Shadow Refuge
3) Elixir R
4) Corrupt Boon
5) Portal
6) Sun Spirit
7) Sanctuary
8) Berserker Stance
9) Bomb Kit
10) Grenade Kit

All of these skills provide some kind of unique benefit that a team has to consciously make up for if they don’t have someone in their lineup carrying the skill. I suppose the Engie kits are kind of a cop-out because it is 6 skills in one, but all of the others are either completely unavailable to other professions, require an elite for similar effect or require skilled execution to make up for. In going through this exercise it kind of exposes why Mesmer is in its current state. The utility of Portal and IoL served as crutches for a long time, and now that Spirit of Nature has become the replacement for IoL people can live without Portal. Mesmers struggled against condi-cleave comps before the June patch, and now that there are more conditions and other ways to get their utility there isn’t really a good reason to try to carry one.

Myrmidian Eudoros.4671:

All of these skills provide some kind of unique benefit that a team has to consciously make up for if they don’t have someone in their lineup carrying the skill. I suppose the Engie kits are kind of a cop-out because it is 6 skills in one, but all of the others are either completely unavailable to other professions, require an elite for similar effect or require skilled execution to make up for. In going through this exercise it kind of exposes why Mesmer is in its current state. The utility of Portal and IoL served as crutches for a long time, and now that Spirit of Nature has become the replacement for IoL people can live without Portal. Mesmers struggled against condi-cleave comps before the June patch, and now that there are more conditions and other ways to get their utility there isn’t really a good reason to try to carry one.

Well, I think Mesmer is still very good in a burst DPS comp, they just have a very hard time with conditions, which this meta is full of. Once burst comps become more viable again, I think Mesmer will make a comeback. Right now, Rangers are taking their spot as you say due to the strength of their top spec and it’s synergy with the other condi specs.

Without question, the best utility skill in the game is Signet of Mercy, followed by Mimic and then Prayer to Lyssa.

NAH just kidding, the best utility skill is Box of Nails.

1.) “Stand Your Ground!”
2-10.) “Stand Your Ground!”
Un-Honorable Mention: “Save Your Shelves!” for that key shelf saving.

This is a super interesting thread.

1) Stand Your Ground – Guardian
2) Portal – Mesmer
3) Epidemic – Necromancer
4) Shadow Refuge – Thief
5) Illusion of Life – Mesmer
6) Shadow Trap – Thief
7) Elixir R – Engineer
8) Bomb Kit – Engineer
9) Blink – Mesmer
10) Berserker Stance – Warrior

While certainly not perfect, I ranked these based on how game changing they can be in a team fight or on the shape of the game as a whole. Sad to see Eles not on many lists — I really didn’t realize until now they don’t have great ‘selfless’ utilities.

Excited to see where this discussion heads!

cymerdown.4103:

This is a fun discussion that I’ve had on TS a few times that I thought I would bring to the forums. Rank the top 10 most powerful (including its effect, casting time, and cooldown) utilities in the game for Team Arena across all classes. Keep in mind, I’m not referring to heals or elites, just the 7 8 and 9 skills. Also, they dont necessarily have to be “genericly” powerful, just powerful in a particular build, and thus may be traited to be better than it is by default. Lastly, everyone has their own opinions, so if you dont like my list, make your own and share! Here’s my list:

1. “Stand Your Ground!” – Guardian
2. Illusion of Life – Mesmer
3. Portal – Mesmer
4. Shadow Trap – Thief
5. Epidemic – Necromancer
6. Grenade Kit – Engineer
7. Shadow Refuge – Thief
8. Elixir R – Engineer
9. Sun Spirit – Ranger
10. Berserker’s Stance – Warrior

lol this is the exact list i would make.

Vena.8436:

“Save Your Shelves!” for that key shelf saving.

Read that as self shaving x_x “Shave Yourselves!”

Don’t see how it’s all that hard; you pick the order that you want the utility skill of each profession to be in (your Portals, and your Shadow Refuges, and your Berserker’s Stances), with SYG always #1. Am I missing something?

Cool to see the responses! We know all of these utils are really strong, but its always interesting to try to weigh them in our minds on an “absolute” scale. And yes, Shave Your Shelves, indeed!

1) Stand Your Ground – Guardian
2) Shadow Refuge – Thief
3) Epidemic – Necromancer
4) Spirit of Nature – Ranger
5) Portal – Mesmer
6) Bomb Kit – Engineer
7) Berserker Stance – Warrior
8) Grenade Kit – Engineer
9) Illusion of Life – Mesmer
10) Thieves Guild – Thief

And ironically enough, no ele utility will make it to the top 10 xD

This makes not much sense since there are utilities which are pretty crap unless you push them with a lot of traits.
A good example would be the sun spirit, which is useless if you don’t invest 2-3 traits (one tier 3 trait). If you look just at the sun spirit alone nobody would ever consider it to be a good utility. That’s why no BM ranger played with it. You need the traits.
Other utilities are op without any trait investment like portal, iol, berserker stance, syg etc.
So it always depends in when you compare utilities you should ether say the basic skill or pushed at the max.

And many elites are much better than any utility (e.g. supply crate)but that’s not what op was referring to.

Would be better to say “best 5 utilities/elite on one toolbar” and see what combos people make