Some elites have uses, other are hard to get situation to benefit enough taking them, others are very specific and work only in certain builds and etc.
BUT LET us focus on elites that are like - always BAD. (I am looking only at PvP side) (I am also unfamiliar with Mesmer, A and Rt)
[wiki]Withdraw hexes[/wiki] - errr...it is adjustent Convert Hexes with HUGE recharge. Absolutely not worthy except some PvE farm build???
[skill]Scavenger's Focus[/skill] - Well they guys said it. It is so bad even it hates itself. It is like a huge missing link - a mystery skill.
[wiki]Primal Rage [/wiki]- Ok, it is good vs Dummies. In actual battle if you use it - your target must be AFK, be enegy denied to 0, or be in consta KD, otherwise if the target do something (anything) you will fail to respond.
[skill]Amity[/skill] - Again very limited PvE use. Otherwise maybe some sort of runner that meets enemy mostly 1v2 and they are melee? Hardly.
[skill]Wither[/skill] - basicly any descent caster can hide around ~20 Energy and remove it instantly. Maybe on Ele? Do it worth taking only to drain Ele? I suggest they reduce the duration (max 10-12) and remove the bad side.
[skill]Ether Renewal[/skill] - Well...I know 2 builds for it and they definetely won't see action nowdays.
[skill]Energy Boon[/skill]- Even Ether Renewal is more good than that. An Ele to waste his Elite slot and GAIN exhaustion to get around 12-15 NET energy? I fail to see the use on ANY build.
Dang - all the new classes got skills with max recharge around 30, and most of them are 20. Some old skills with recharge 45+ really need to get some boost of the recharge to see the action.
Amity is very handy, especially in AB, all it takes is an assassin to teleport to u, or a Warrior etc. cause Amity, laugh and pretent like there not even though (until its effects wear off)
Scavengers Focus works nicly with a with a party that causes conditions or with an attack like Screaming shot. so u can get the bonus damage very consistantly.
Wither is handy to de energise a monk without and kind of Hex removal and as we all know a monk with little energy is a weakspot to attack. The damage its does is minor buts its the energy degen thats its best effect.
Energy boon is great for restoring energy very quickly ie. u need to finish off a boss and uve got low energy and walla uve suddenly got enough to cast a high cost energy skill to kill him.
Ether Renewal is great with a quick spam of skills, eg Flare or Stone daggers spam to boost ur hp and without dropping ur energy very much (or increasing depending on if u have several enchants on you)
Primal Rage works great on a primary target such as a boss that generally ignores Warriors and helps to take them down very quickly
Granted this skill has a very high cost and recharge when its used on large groups, but it can be very handy to remove alot of Hexs if a party are standing close together, it can be used veyr fast on indivuals but the energy cost will cause problems, This skill needs some tweeking i agree but it is still a handy skill to have and def istn the worse Elite
I think the worst elte would be Marksman's wager which although has a few uses is totally made not so useful since its based in expertise and the cost of skills is reduced to low lvls that u dont need more energy from the energy gain unless u plan on completely overusing Concussion shot in which cause u would be betta using Archers Signet