Zinger's Elite Revamp!

There are many, many Elites in Guild Wars that are underpowered, nigh unusable. Why? Elites should be elite! All players should consider all Elites in a build, not just one or two!

Thus. I’ve taken the liberty to analyze every underused Elite and fix them so that they are more balanced, and hopefully, would be used more often by both players in PvP and PvE.

I haven’t put some Elite skills on this list for 3 reasons:

1) They are fine.
2) They suck so much that they are impossible to fix (Hello, Glimmering Mark!)
3) They are too delicate to balance (see all Ranger Nature Rituals)

(NOTE: All scaling is 0 . . . 12, because I hate ArenaNet’s 0 . . . 15 system.)

Warriors

Axe Mastery

[skill]Cleave[/skill]

Increase range from “target foe” to “target foe and one adjacent foe.”

Makes it a slightly weaker Triple Chop, but with the advantage of no recharge time.

[skill]Decapitate[/skill]

Add “cannot be blocked”

It’s a big gamble already in the current metagame with Aegis flying around. Unblockability adds a little flexibility.

[skill]Whirling Axe[/skill]

Add “+10 . . . 34% chance to critical hit.”

Whirling Axe prevents Warriors from using other attack skills. Might as well give them a better reason for sacrificing so much…

Hammer Mastery

[skill]Backbreaker[/skill]

Add “cannot be blocked” and a cast time of 1/2 second.

It allows Backbreaker to be the ultimate tactical melee interrupt.

[skill]Earth Shaker[/skill]

Increase range from “adjacent foes” to “nearby foes.”

Adjacent sucks, really. This kind of skill particularly needs a larger range.

[skill]Enraged Smash[/skill]

Remove maximum bonus damage cap, but increase cost to 4 adrenaline.

Without a damage cap, Enraged Smash could be very, very fun. (but, of course, the cost would be overpowered with such a low cost, so that would need to adjusted.)

[skill]Magehunter’s Smash[/skill]

Add “cannot be blocked.”

If they have Enchantments, they probably have Aegis and/or Guardian. This provides options.

Strength

[skill]Battle Rage[/skill]

Increase running speed to +33%, and cause double adrenaline from damage taken.

Minor tweaks.

[skill]Defy Pain[/skill]

Increase armor gain to +10 . . . 34.

Makes Defy Pain more of a protypicial “survival” skill.

[skill]Primal Rage[/skill]

Add a 25% increased attack speed.

Flavor.

[skill]Rage of the Ntouka[/skill]

Change recharge so that it only affects the next 2 adrenal skills.

Allows for some creative skill manipulation; will you save the important attack skills for later, or will you use them early?

[skill]Warrior’s Endurance[/skill]

Add a +18 . . . 52 self heal on each hit.

Endurance…without health gain? Odd.

Sword Mastery

[skill]Quivering Blade[/skill]

Add Bleeding for 10 . . . 22 seconds.

Parallels Crippling Slash and assists Gash.

Tactics

[skill]Soldier's Stance[/skill]

Add +4 . . . 9 damage per hit while affected by a Shout or Chant

Gives it a needed damage boost; it’s barely better than Frenzy!

Ranger

Expertise

[skill]Archer's Signet[/skill]

Reduce recharge to 30 seconds.

No Elite should have a recharge of 45 seconds unless it makes the user God. (some do, unfortunately.)

[skill]Expert's Dexterity[/skill]

Reduce attack skill cost increase to 50%

Rangers aren’t made of Energy. How would a Ranger utilize the quicker recharge if they ran out Energy immediately? The 50% effectively equalizes Expertise’s cost reduction at high levels.

[skill]Trapper's Focus[/skill]

Add “cast traps 50% faster.”

Trappers Focus is moreso a PvP skill, therefore letting it be less susceptible to normal interrupts and faster casting efficiency may help.

Wilderness Survival

[skill]Incendiary Arrows[/skill]

Add “Cripples for 1 . . . 3 seconds.’

Makes the preparation more intimidating, and can be decent pressure in PvP.

[skill]Scavenger's Focus[/skill]

Remove Condition conditional requirement, change “damage” into “life-steal”

This change would turn one of the worst Elites into one of the more fun ones. It’s a portable Order of the Vampire!

Monk

Divine Favor

[skill]Aura of Faith[/skill]

Reduce Energy cost to 5.

10e is a tad too prohibitive for such a passive effect. 5e would make it more usable.

[skill]Peace and Harmony[/skill]

Increase Energy Regeneration to +2

It’s time. Seriously.

[skill]Unyielding Aura[/skill]

Reduce cast time to 1/4 second, increase recharge to 30 seconds.

This is an Elite resurrection spell, thus it should cast the quickest. An instant res would have near endless utility! (but it’s still Elite…)

[skill]Withdraw Hexes[/skill]

Change range to “party members.”

A party-wide Hex removal would be awesome, even if you could only use it once every minute or so.

Protection Prayers

[skill]Amity[/skill]

Reduce recharge to 20 seconds.

This skill makes no sense on a Monk. But a 20 second recharge might allow for some utility on a secondary profession, atleast…

[skill]Life Sheath[/skill]

Reduce casting time to 1/4 seconds

All other Protection Spells do it, why not Life Sheath?

Necromancer

Blood Magic

[skill]Cultist's Fervor[/skill]

Add 25% faster casting and [/b]33% spell recharge[/b], reduce Energy reduction to -5

Blood Frenzy! Now a Blood Necromancer can spam spells as if Soul Reaping wasn’t nerfed! (although such a Necromancer will need to rely on life-stealing…)

[skill]Life Transfer[/skill]

Reduce recharge to 20 seconds.

The skills released with Nightfall trump this skill in both health regeneration and degeneration. Might as well be able to cast it more often.

[skill]Ravenous Gaze[/skill]

Change unconditional lifesteal to 18 . . . 52, change conditional lifesteal to 18 . . . 52.

That makes Ravenous Gaze without the condition being filled equal to Vampiric Gaze, which allows the skill to be useful without requiring the condition.

[skill]Well of Power[/skill]

Reduce recharge to 2 seconds.

Makes it the same as Well of Blood. Don’t see the problem. Well Spamming is a fun tactic in PvE and PvP…

Curses

[skill]Feast of Corruption[/skill]

Increase range to “nearby,” reduce recharge to 15 seconds

Alright, Soul Reapling exploits have been fixed, FoC should be restored…

[skill]Lingering Curse[/skill]

Decrease cast time to 1/4 second.

The 2 second cast time says “We’re going to spike you!” Might as well be a part of the spike.

[skill]Pain of Disenchantment[/skill]

Increase damage to 25 . . . 85.

It’s just as conditional as Spoil Victor; it should have the same damage as a result. Destroy those enchantments!

[skill]Plague Signet[/skill]

Move to “No Attribute” (thereby removing the Curses requirement), reduce recharge to 6 seconds

Monks can make as good a use as Necros can; might as well share the love.

[skill]Soul Bind[/skill]

Increase attack speed reduction to 50%, add a knockdown if target of an Enchantment while attacking.

The attack speed reduction puts it on par with Faintheartedness. The second fix is more flavor (paralleling Soul Barbs), and could have some unpredictable effects.

Death Magic

[skill]Contagion[/skill]

Allow the skill to be cast on allies.

It would basically be a more conditional Tainted Flesh, which would be interesting.

[skill]Discord[/skill]

Remove recharge completely

The 2 second casting time plus the insane conditions make the skill unusable in PvP. Might as well attempt to salvage the skill for PvE by allowing it to be spammed.

[skill]Jagged Bones[/skill]

Reduce recharge to 10 seconds, increase duration to 60 second.

Alright, Soul Reaping has been nerfed, unnerf Jagged Bones a little bit. The duration increase is more of a PvE fix, allowing many minions to be enchanted with Jagged Bones.

[skill]Virulence[/skill]

Remove Condition conditional requirement, remove Disease, add Bleeding

The condition requirement is annoying, since there aren’t many reliable ways for a Necromancer to easily cause a condition in the Death Magic tree. The change of Disease/Bleed is more of a PvP update, as Disease is a no-no in PvP without Tainted Flesh…and that’s another Elite.

Mesmer

Inspiration Magic

[skill]Extend Conditions[/skill]

Reduce recharge to 5 seconds.

The faster recharge is necessary, since with the old recharge, it was more efficient to just reapply the condition…

[skill]Tease[/skill]
Increase range to “half the normal range.”

Touch range + Mesmer doesn’t work and make the skill too much of a gamble for an Elite. Half-normal is safer.

Elementalist

Air Magic

[skill]Gust[/skill]

Change conditional to ”Elemental Hexes”

Gives a little more flexibility.

[skill]Ride the Lightning[/skill]

Increase damage to 10 . . . 82, reduce casting time to 1/2 second, and add an “interrupt” on targeted foe

If a spell deliberately puts an Elementalist in harm’s way, it better be a potent strike!

Energy Storage

[skill]Ether Prism[/skill]

Decrease Energy cost to 15 Energy, increase recharge to 15 seconds

Gives the skill more flexibility on when it can be cast for Energy gain.

[skill]Ether Renewal[/skill]

Decrease recharge to 20 seconds

Ether Renewal can be dangerous, but having it up 7/20 of the time still allows for flexibility.

Water Magic

[skill]Mirror of Ice[/skill]

Allow the skill to be cast on allies, decrease the recharge to 5 seconds

That change would make Mirror of Ice a more powerful Vengeful Weapon, appropriate for an Elite.

Assassin

Critical Strikes

[skill]Seeping Wound[/skill]

Change the skill to cause degeneration for each condition applied

Again, flexibility. Mass degeneration is fun.

No Attribute

[skill]Wastrel's Collapse[/skill]

Reduce recharge to 5 seconds

Uh…maybe?

Ritualist

Channeling Magic

[skill]Clamor of Souls[/skill]

Change damage to armor-ignoring damage.

Compare this skill to Ancestor’s Rage and try not to laugh. Then look at my proposed change. It’s fair.

Communing

[skill]Signet of Ghostly Might[/skill]

Increase time of death to 20 seconds

Spirits are traditionally defensive; 20 seconds gives enough time for your spirits to make an impact.

Restoration Magic

[skill]Preservation[/skill]

Fix AI so that Preservation will always heal the ally with the lowest Health in range

I always thought that was a bug.

[skill]Tranquil Was Tanasen[/skill]

Add a +2 . . . 4 health regeneration

Tranquil Was Tanasen is a survival skill, and it needs a tad more survival.

Spawning Power

[skill]Attuned Was Songkai[/skill]

Increase duration to 60 seconds

Why not?

No Attribute

Paragon

Leadership

[skill]Defensive Anthem[/skill]

Reduce Energy cost to 10 Energy, remove “end” condition

Defensive Anthem is barely better than Aegis in PvE, and is significantly worse than Aegis in PvP. Might as well equalize a bit…

[skill]Focused Anger[/skill]

Fix the bug that caps Adrenaline gain from this skill at 100%, increase duration to 60 seconds

Another “why not?” How many Adrenaline skills do Paragons have, anyways?

Motivation

[skill]"The Power Is Yours!"[/skill]

Change range to “other party members,” remove degeneration drawback

The skill isn’t that powerful in the first place: Look at Aria of Zeal. This buff will make the skill somewhat worthwhile.

Dervish

Scythe Mastery

[skill]Wounding Strike[/skill]

Make the Bleeding unconditional

The whole with enchant/without enchant mechanic is too confusing. When won’t a Dervish have an enchantment? Streamline the skills.

And that’s it for the skills. Yes, I admit some of these changes are flawed; but it’s something immediate to discuss instead of the Weekend events and GW2, right?

EDIT: Removed Energy Surge balance.

some good idea but also some horrid ones, the buff to energy surge in particular is insane, comparing esurge to FoC is not a good idea.

Wow....your suggestions are so imba...

Cleave: Would make it a bit too strong
Backbreaker: That's a stupid suggestion, it's a 4 second KD...why make it 1/2 sec use time, AND unblockable. GTFO
Earthshaker: Also would be imba the range is fine
Quivering Blade: Bleeding!? WTF ARE YOU THINKING. DAZE + BLEEDING IF BLOCKED. GTFO.
Energy Surge: Do you even play GW? That'd be overpowered like crazy.
Discord: No rech?! Wow.


Really, you should quit GW. You have NO IDEA about balance.

I like the changes, and i agree with what youre trying to do, although i wish they would just put Jagged bones back to its original state, 6 sec recharge was awesome

Also Fenix, with quivering blade i think he means you apply bleeding to the foe... not that its applied to you if its blocked.

Except for the fact that it broke PvP, yeah, awesome.

PvErs should be banned from balancing skills. They have no idea about anything, and always suggest balance that would kill monsters faster, but totally break PvP.


Yes I know it's Bleeding on them. But you are stupid not to bring Plague Touch with Quivering, to transfer Daze to targets. Hence the Daze + Bleeding, then Deep Wound from Gash. Like I said, GTFO.

I agree with "The Power is Yours!" buff. -10 EN is absolutely insane and exaggerated for a Paragon. I would prefer weakness condition instead. But there are many elites that are balanced, IE: Plague Signet. Changing it to No Attribute would make it overpowered, like a Plague Touch on steroids. Enraged Smash with no cap would do an insane amount of dmg. Sounds fun but it could be more than devastating, resulting it in another overpowered skill. And for last Quivering Blade, it caught my eye that you added bleeding as a suggestion. I think we have a few swordsmanship skills that adds bleeding, why another? But in overall, good analysis and nice suggestions Zinger.

Um fenix your wrong if it's blocked YOU THE WARRIOR gets dazed. Not the enemy.

i like what you're trying to do, but no offense, this is all, and by all, i mean all way overpowered. sure, elites should rock, but not all can be breadwinners and autowin buttons. i think the 2 most overpowered you made were Esurge and Cleave.. pretty nuts lol. both, as most of the skills you chose, already work great as is.

Merc, Fenix is talking about the typical use of Quiv, which is to take plague touch to have a win win against casters bro. thats how most use it.

Alright. I tried. I was bored today.

I'll admit, I've never played a Warrior. But I've seen enough on how they play competitively.

I'm not sure how you are saying E-Surge is overpowered. Yes, it hits for about 135 armor-ignoring damage upfront, but that's relatively low in the metagame. Shadow/Lifebane Strike foes 110. Backfire does 147. And it's on a 20 second cooldown, so it's not like it's spammable.

They have actually done a decent job of balancing skills even though their biggest motive is just making sales. Yeah they've made some pretty stupid buffs/nerfs in the past but do they really care? Well yes of course they care, because they just want to sell more copies of a certain campaign that needs a little help.

You've got some pretty good ideas for buffing some of the more useless skills but you've also taken some pretty widely used skills and buffed them even more: earth shaker, backbreaker, defensive anthem (and you're wrong it is better than aegis in pvp) energy surge.

Put these changes in and heres what you get: 2 backbreakers, 2 esurge wrackers, 1 bsurge, 2 monks, flagger.

and everyone else will just run esurge spike.

then theres gonna be the 1 earthshaker warrior 4 esurge mesmers.

don't forget 4 esurge 4 monk builds in HA.

oh yeah and then there will be the 3 esurge 5 monk teams in HA.

(did I mention you buffed esurge a little too much?)


Edit: just read your post above

I don't think you understand what dom mesmers can do by what you just said. Shadow/Lifebane: Look at how successful blood spike was (before objective change + SR nerf). 110 armor ignoring is pretty significant considering all those excellent blood magic skills (BiP, Vamp Gaze, ... did I miss any?). Backfire isn't AoE and I should hope that a monk won't cast 5 spells at once when he gets backfired like you would get with Esurge spikes. Just browse through the domination skills for 10 seconds. See all the energy denial, shutdown, enchant removal, interrupts, and various hatred skills in there? Thats why domination doesn't need a huge damage spell and it's also why spiritual pain and wastrels got nerfed (After NF sales went through the roof of course). Every team ran 2-3 dom and some just went all out with a 5 dom mesmer spike.

Ok so, firstly, learn to read. Secondly, learn to warrior. No one uses Quivering without Plague, the chance of Dazing is too good.


Esurge got nerfed multiple times, because it both does big AoE damage, AND drains energy. Paired with Energy Burn, Signet of Weariness, Mind Wrack, etc, you have a very strong bar. Buffing Esurge like that, is just ridiculous.

Mesmer Skills:
You think that E-Surge should nearly double in strength? It's fine as is. Using it now on a foe who's in a bunched up group will do a TON of damage. ( I love this skill as a lead off attack when LB farming Margonites in Domain of Secrets)

Extend Conditions is fine as is, too.

Tease - that skill's a joke to me. The "Touched target foe" combined with "This skill ends if that foe hits you" gives me a laugh. If you're a Mesmer, and you're within touching range of a foe, odds are that foe is going to hit you! Get rid of the "This skill ends..." part and it'd be much more appealing

I dont agree on the Archer signet thou. 3 sec cast make you missed a lot of important skill intrupt. Beside even I used this one at 10 expertise I still got a few shot left when the duration expire.

Incendary arrow.Dont forget that ranger preparation is very flexible.Pair this one up with fast attack skill or increase attack speed skill and its still deadly.

Scavenger Focus.Agree with this one when I look at Glass arrow(Elite Expertise skill).At same number of attribute glass arrow looks much better.Although Scavenger focus doesnt limit you to use only bow.

The other ranger skill I didnt play with them much so no comment.

I'll be the first to admit it, Zinger has too much time!

Good job man, alot of changes I agreed with. I'd love to see most of these elite skills change a bit.

Alright, alright. Removed the Energy Surge fix. I need to watch some more Observer Mode. The last time I did, the only Elite I saw Mesmers use was Psychic Distraction. But I digress...

Zinger,

I salute your knack to do something for which I would have no patience... nor thoroughly analyse their impact in the game.

In my player viewpoint, they are an excellent incite for change in "elite" skills that pertain only a marginal effect. Wouldn't it be great to have problems choosing, not because most elites are bland but because they are all so great?

My post comes in a way to aknowledge your painstaking effort and hoping that people at Anet will acknowledge that as well and take it into serious consideration.

/salute /applaud

Yeah, well if you look at guilds like Ward Against Noobs [Wa], who used 5 Surge mesmers, and tore people apart, it's easy to see how it can be used to own faces. It's basically the damage paired with crazy edenial that would make Surge so strong with your suggested buff.

I'll coment on the ones I liked, because like people said, you made some skills way too imba. Your proposed backbreaker was not only more flexible. I'd probably run 4 hammer warriors with that if the skill changed hehe. Anyway:

- Ravenous Gaze: possibly good, but wouldn't that be too powerfull? I mean, those mandragoras can wipe a wurm by themselves without kds.
- Well of Power: wells aren't that safe to be used in the first place, so I agree with this change, maybe a way to advertise well's usage.
- Pain of Disenchantment: yes, it must more punitive.
- Jagged Bones: yes, now this would be ok again. It asked for a nerf before.
- Extend Conditions: yes, maybe 10 seconds, or you can have perpetual dazed in coordination with a ranger.
- Tease: half range sounds better, because the skill works in percentage, not a fixed amount, so it kinda sucks by concept.
- Gust: yeah, elemental hex would make it interesting.
- Ether Prism: keep it at 25e and change break point to 10 e.storage. The problem is not the initial cost of the skill, because if you have more than 50, you always end up getting a lot of energy, it is that elementalists lose versatility because they have to invest too much on e.storage.
- Preservation: either this, or keep the spirit dumb but healing each 2 seconds.
- Defensive Anthem: yeah, agreed pretty much.
- The power is Yours!: I'd rather raise the amount of energy given. Even if you have -10 energy regen, paragons still have adrenaline and signets to rely on. The energy degeneration servers to cripple their natural leadership regeneration.

Concerning the rest of your sugestions, most of them either encourage spike, clearly, and some would be like, rule over everything else. To list a few, energy burn does armor ignoring dmg. You take 3 mesmers and spike an elementalist, everyone nearby will be taking 360dmg. Same thing with clamor of souls, and basically every chanelling spell. Some other sugestions do sound ok, but would be problematic, like lingering curse. If a spike included lingering curse on it, it's quite sure that the target would die. There's no suficient amount of healing so save it. It has to be expensive and cast longer because it is too dangerous once applied. Expert's dexterity also would make ranger a potent and unstopable interrupt machine. You can spam distracting shot forever.

Even if your sugestions might have been too strong, it's good that you steped up to list them. Ritgh now, I don't think skill changes can balance the game anymore. I'd delete some skills actually, to give myself the impression of a real balance. Sounds like a lost cause, like mesmers and pve.

No kidding.

Archer Signet at 30-sec recharge = You can keep it on you ALL THE TIME. Is that what you want?

On elites with long recharge. I'd agree that it's a bit inappropriate, but this one in particular lasts for 30sec. It makes sense that it has 45-sec recharge (so that you can't keep it on all the time, I think that's the whole point of it).

Well, there are some good ideas here, but also some potentially imbalancing ones (even in PvE!)

The one that I would really like to see something done with is Preservation... I suppose it would be overpowered if it healed lowest to highest, but I really would like to use this more when I go rit healer, but it just isnt effective at all as it stands... It actually happened once when I was testing using this that I saw the comment: "someone is energy happy!" Even if it only targeted wounded people... but healing teammates at full health is the breaker for this particular spell. Too bad....

Preservation definitely needs a buff, I'll agree there. There are only 2 elite spirits for rits, and I've never been a fan of Wanderlust, since it self-destructs. I like the ^^ proposed change of healing a random ally every 2 seconds. Clamor of Souls also needs some kind of buff. Either armor-ignoring damage as you suggested, or considerably lower recharge. I'd dare say 7 seconds. Considering that it forces your Rit into the frontline to be even remotely useful, it should do more. The few times I've used it, I've found it to be unworthy even if it were non-elite.

Backbreaker and Earth Shaker are fine as is, but that's already been said. For Cleave, I'd suggest making it 5 adrenaline and adding a random condition (like Drunken/Desperation) if it hits. It needs more utility. Elite attacks that do nothing besides extra damage pretty much suck and see very little PVP use.

Make Decapitate drain your adrenaline and energy if it hits. The risk is not worth it with the insane amount of block skills being used these days. That's putting way too much into hoping one skill will land.

All "disabled if blocked" attack Elites are pure garbage and need to be reworked. Except for Oath Shot, which was intended to be a gamble anyway.

no, ty, looking at ur proposed changes to Necromancer skills, together with some quite questionable warrior, monk, mesmer changes, I cant get the feeling that u want to run whats considered "gimmick"s all day long

theres a reason skills are not that powerful, its supposed to teach you when to use what.

backbreaker like that would be quite... OMFG like

i dont see why you want every elite to have a really really nice use in pvp, most of them can be used, its up to u to place them in the right places (imo)

PS. that lingering curse... owa

Unyielding Aura--the basic mechanics behind it mean that it can never be used by anyone ever unless it's in some kind of gimmick build. If someone finds a gimmick build that can use unyielding aura, it will yet again be "reworked" to be weaker.

imo: elite res should be worth the elite slot and be a basic res. Remove the upkeep mechanic. Remove the "no dp" mechanic. 5 Energy, Recharge 10s, casting 3s. 100% health, 100% energy. Holy crap, it would suddenly be marginally better than death pact signet.

On Archer's Signet: Long recharges are butts. But so are goofy mechanics.

I think Archer's Signet should not have a duration and should not have a recharge. 3s casting time, but affect 1 bow attack.

Yay, free conc shots for all. If you spend 3s between shots casting archer's signet

No, play more Guild Wars. That'd be better. Why is it that people always want earthshaker warriors? And backbreaker warriors? A 1/2s Backbreaker? GTFO.

By far.

Soul Reaping exploits haven't been fixed, it just rolls shit slower now.

I love how angry people became with these. Most of these skills do deserve a buff, be it PvE or PvP. With ANet, over-buffing compared to over-nerfing isn't really an issue, so hopefully they catch a skill or two from here to buff.

i really really like these skill changes, well done. hopefully some of these will be considered by ANet.

these skill changes will make alliance battles a lot more fun, although in my opinion AB's are already the most fun and best form of competitive PvP in guild wars.

thanks,
mire~

Unyielding Aura is fine...it earned me two gladiator points before...

No, every other factor in that match except you earned you those two points.

Zinger u have the right idea, alot of these Elites need to be tweaked aswell as a few others (although the same can be said for several normal skills too) unfortunately uve taken it to the extreme and have overpowered several of them and made all the current high powered ones seem weak in comparison.

I was going to just.... not post anymore on this, since I basically summed the whole thing up with my first post, but I've decided it might actually be amusing enough to be worth my time to go through and explain exactly why all of the changes you listed (yes, all of them) are ridiculous.


Cleave: I'll ignore the fact that a skill called "Cleave" has absolutely no reason to be dealing any damage to anthing but it's target, and instead focus on the fact that you've decided that Cleave has no recharge. Granted, you've admitted that you haven't played Warrior, but I would hope that perhaps you have some idea how adrenaline works. To use an adrenaline skill, you must "charge" it up, and after you use it you must charge it again. You have to recharge it. Recharge.

Decapitate: Obviously you don't know, so I'll share a little secret with you.... many elite skills released post-Prophecies were an attempt to offer an alternative to a skill that was nerfed. Unfortunately, in ANet's very distinct style, all of the skills are made of fail. Eviscerate was nerfed, so the geniuses at ANet decided that a MEGA-DAMAGE-OMFG Axe skill might make up for it, thus, Decapitate. Of course, it had to be retardedly gimped, and the way they did it destroys it's playability, whether it gets blocked or not. One of the things that's good about Warriors is that their DPS increases over time because of how adrenaline works, as opposed to most classes, where DPS decreases over time because they're reliant on Energy.... which goes away. Anything that makes your adrenaline go away is not good, i.e. Burst of Agression on a Warrior is also not the best idea ever.

Whirling Axe: I find it interesting that you're under the impression that Whirling Axe stops Warriors from using other attack skills. It's two adrenaline, not one, meaning that there is, in fact, a strike in between Whirlings to use a skill that doesn't suck, you know, like.... anything else. The odds of getting blocked (in pve or pvp) are why this skill blows, and making it more likely to critical doesn't make it less likely to suck.

Backbreaker: As basically everyone who has posted has said, your changes don't make this skill good. The skill is already good, and very much playable and played. Your changes make this skill retardedly good, to the point that all the other Warrior elites in the game (even with your changes!) become shit. A four second knockdown is already amazing, it doesn't need to also be impossible to avoid and instant also.

Earthshaker: Probably because your Backbreaker changes were so amazingly horrible, very few people have really had time to notice how devastating this change to Earthshaker would be. It's already also playable and played, it doesn't need to be an 8 adrenaline version of Earthquake with no exhaustion.

Enraged Smash: So basically you'd like this skill to be a 4 adrenaline skill with the text "Kill target foe." Sweet idea.

Magehunter's Smash: Actually, making this skill so that it can't be blocked makes it at least as good as Shock... except elite and 5 Adrenline. How about instead I run Backbreaker and Shock on the same bar.... OMFG that's liek, 2 elites? Amirite?

Battle Rage: Even with your changes, Frenzy is better... primarily because then I can run either an elite attack skill or an elite support skill and not be embarrassingly bad at Guild Wars. Trolls don't use it because it's awesome.

Defy Pain: Or you can play a W/E and tank better with primarily Earth skills on your bar, since Earth Magic has better damage reduction than anything Warriors use for tanking in pve.

Primal Rage: Honestly, the best way they could fix this skill is to remove it from the game. An attack speed boost on a Warrior that doesn't allow you to build adrenaline and blacks out any adrenaline you had is the kind of thing that should have never existed in the first place. Show me any bar with this even with your change and I would prefer to change the skill for Frenzy and go with no elite than run Primal Rage.

Rage of the Ntouka: This skill isn't bad because of how many adrenal skills it ruins, it's bad because it's a shitty way to gain adrenaline when instead you could run an IAS and gain more adrenaline and increase your DPS at the same time. Zomg. With your change, "To The Limit!" is still better.

Warrior's Endurance: Um. The problem with this skill is that it's a stance, and it doesn't prevent damage or deal more of it and the energy gain is shit. Adding Healing Breeze to it does not make it good.

Quivering Blade: No, that wouldn't parallel Crippling Slash, that would pass it like a Ferrari passing a corpse. How about we don't give Warriors a skill that's the same as having Broad Head Arrow and Sever Artery in one slot?

Soldier's Stance: No, that's still not as good as Frenzy, because using Soldier's Stance means you just blew your elite. You'd be better off with Frenzy and a different elite skill.

[[Whew, you sure did a lot of Warrior "balances" for someone who doesn't play Warrior.]]

Archer's Signet: Actually, that would still be a waste of time. This is one of those skills that is elite only because as a non-elite, it would be devastatingly powerful with other elites. This was also the case with Hundred Blades, which was too powerful with Illusionary Weaponry to be non-elite. Of course, then people learned that that was a shitty combo and so they reintroduced Hundred Blades in Factions and called it Sun and Moon Slash. But I digress... the real reason this elite will never be good is because Ranger's energy management is based on Expertise. The more you put in Expertise, the better the skill is but the less you need it... changing the duration doesn't make it worth using over Broad Head Arrow, Burning Arrow, Crip Shot, Barrage, Spike Trap, Smoke Trap, or Rampage As One... or anything.

Expert's Dexterity: Actually, Ranger's are made of energy. This is what's known as "Expertise". It's the second most imba Primary Attribute, after only Soul Reaping, which is still wtfpwn even after it's "nerf". At 50% this skill would be overpowered... but guess what? It still wouldn't be as amazing as Broad Head Arrow, Burning Arrow, Crip Shot, Barrage, Spike Trap, Smoke Trap, or Rampage As One... or anything.

Trapper's Focus: First of all, saying that "Trappers Focus is moreso a PvP skill" is incredibly and 100% incorrect. I would wager that I have never once in my entire existence seen someone running Trapper's Focus in PvP. They probably would with your buff though, especially if the 50% from this stacked with Trapper's Speed. 1/2 second Traps, awesome! Then conditions would be almost as overpowered as hexes... but still not quite.

Incidiary Arrows: Or instead you could not suck, and run Crippling Shot. Without a duration change, this skill is just going to blow. Forever. Choking Gas is better... hey, how about we just make Choking Gas elite, and make Incidiary Arrows normal? That might actually be balancing. Again, I digress...

Scavenger's Focus: Hey yeah, portable Order of the Vampire! Then you can run it with Order of Pain, and dual orders RSpike will work again! That's so0o0o0o0o balanced!

Aura of Faith: Or could run Divine Boon, then all your heals will grant the Aura of Faith bonus except you can still actually have a good elite on your bar. ZOMG two elites? Amirite?

Peace and Harmony: +2 energy regen is actually still shitty. Blood Ritual is better, and it's +energy regen isn't even a variable, nor is the skill elite.... and that's before you even take into account using an enchantment as your energy crutch. Sure hope there's no enchantment removal wherever you're going! ......................

Unyielding Aura: Let me quote you: "An instant rez would have near endless utility!" Glyph of Sacrifice. Resurrection Chant. Look them up. Combine them. Save your elite skill for one that doesn't reek of fail. Oh, and a little of the copypasta as a side dish: Sure hope there's no enchantment removal wherever you're going! ......................

Withdraw Hexes: Um, no. A party hex removal is something that the game needs with the current ammount of hexes vs. reasonable hex removal capability, but a recharge like that is.... horrible. Light of Deliverance is better... there's no reason to have an elite that removes hexes once every 2-3 minutes when you can instead have an elite that alleviates alot of the pressure all the time.

Amity: This is another one of those skills that shouldn't exist. Pacifism is moderately cool and possibly usable, but this is a total joke, no matter what the recharge, and whether you're in pve or pvp. If you're in pve.... just kill everything. If you're in pvp.... blind? Snare? Hex defense? Blocking? Delete from the game tbh.

Life Sheath: Sure, make it 1/4 second cast.... except then it's still dick compared to almost all of the other Monk elites that are reasonably playable. Instead, you can run Reversal of Fortune, which is better than Life Sheath, and then still have an actually good elite to go with it. Zomg two elites? Amirite?

Cultist's Fervor: Oh sweet, then you could Blood Spike faster than old school Ranger Spike! Awesome man, let's denerf Soul Reaping when it's still the best Primary Attribute in the game!

Life Transfer: First, take Life Transfer off of your skill bar. Then, put Life Siphon on your skill bar. Then, put Spoil Victor on your skill bar. Then, you're good at Guild Wars. Amirite?

Ravenous Gaze: This skill just... isn't going to be playable whether you make that change or not. Even with your change, explain to me how this skill is better than.... BiP, Spoil Victor, Well of Power, Offering of Blood, Order of the Vampire or Soul Leech? It's not. It would still never get played.

Well of Power: You don't see the problem? Well that's nice, that means there must not be one, amirite?

Feast of Corruption: First of all, Soul Reaping is not fixed. Second of all, with the retarded ammount of hexes available and playable right now, and the complete lack of effective removal (Purge Signet HARRRR), rebuffing this skill right now would be the worst mistake since releasing Factions.

Lingering Curse: Yes, it's two seconds because if it were fast enough to spike with it would be too good... or actually it would be called "Gaze of Contempt" and it wouldn't be elite, and it would cost 10 energy.

Pain of Disenchantment: Explain to me how this skill's condition is anywhere near comparable to Spoil Victor's. This skill deals damage when enchantments are removed, Spoil Victor deals damage to anyone doing anything to anything with less health. That said, making this skill more powerful would make it too good, since it would fit well into any hex build, and then a Rend Enchantments (or any other enchant removal at all really...) has the capability of dealing hundreds of damage on top of a shit ton of hex pressure. Let's not do that.

Plague Signet: Actually this skill is already good enough on a secondary without making it a ranged and free version of infinite Plague Touch. That is, it's usable when a Warrior is trying to figure a way to beat a Crip Shot one on one... beyond that, it's not going to get used ever for anything no matter what it's related attribute or recharge are.

Soul Bind: Unpredictible effects like becoming impossibly overpowered when combined with a massive stack of other hexes that are already overpowered on their own? I can predict it. It's not unpredictible.

Contagion: No, Tainted Flesh prevents you from becoming diseased, this just makes conditions go back on what put them on... assuming they're nearby. Which is shitty. Just like Tainted Flesh. See, Tainted Flesh was only really good in Prophecies because there wasn't anything better to run. This is Chapter 3. Get in the game.

Discord: Um, unfortunately, being able to click it more just makes it Flare, it doesn't make it good. The conditional nature of the damage makes it worthless enough on it's own, not the [oshi~] 2 second recharge.

Jagged Bones: I would make fun of you for not knowing why this skill got nerfed, but what's really magical about that whole situation is I get the feeling ANet didn't even understand why the skill was broken. If this skill was broken like it was when it was halls playable in the first place, it would still pwn face with Soul Reaping as it is now... instead of actually fixing the broken bit, of course, they just destroy'd the recharge and made the whole thing lame.

Virulence: I'm so, so sorry that the portion of this skill that keeps it balanced annoys you. Really, it devastates me to know that you're annoyed by this skill being not overpowered. Have you considered that... maybe... possibly... you could.... use this skill in a team build that has conditions that come from somewhere besides your bar? Oh man, that would require teamwork... that's kind of a big concept for someone like you who seems to be so0o0o0o into the pvp uses for things.

Energy Surge: You removed it, but I have to say it. That was the stupidest idea ever in the history of skill balance ideas. If Izzy had've been reading this list, he, in his infinite wisdom, may have taken some of your ideas to heart, but even he would've lol'd at the E-Surge change you had.

Extend Conditions: Even at 5 seconds, this skill is absolutely horrible and not worth having on any skill bar ever. Ever. Not once. Never. Condition removal is so common and simple that if you're relying on a shitty elite hex to keep your conditions on, and you can't just reapply them, you've failed before you've started. Deletion from the game would make this skill worth thinking about, if at least in a "remeber that one really shitty skill they removed?" sort of way.

Tease: Yeah dude, touch range Mesmer skills ALL SUCK, automatically. Especially that Blackout, that skill is the worst of the worst! .............. This skill is bad because of it's ending condition, not it's range.

Gust: First, take Gust off your bar. Then, put Gale on your bar. Then, put any other Elite on your bar you want in the whole game, on any class. Then, you're good at Guild Wars. Amirite?

Ride the Lightning: Your changes make the skill funnier, but not good. Just in Air Magic I would rather have Blinding Surge, Mind Shock, Invoke Lightning, or hell, even Thunderclap. Yeah, I went there.

Ether Prism: The way you shifted the variables on this skill shows me that one day, you too could be a skill balancer at a high end company like ANet. See, when Izzy does it, that's what he does; he just changes the variable so they sound good, without any concept of how it actually changes the skill's capabilities.

Ether Renewal: They should have just removed this skill from the game after the nerf they layed on it's ass after Smiting proved to be overpowered with it. Your change makes it even better when run on a E/D or E/Mo gimmick Earth Tanker thingy, but overall it's still shitty.

Mirror of Ice: Except.... Vengeful Weapon steals life for the person who it's on, it doesn't just negate damage. Just in Water Magic alone, even with your change I would rather have Water Trident, Icy Shackles, Ward Against Harm, Shatterstone or even Mind Freeze.

Seeping Wound: Um. Mass degeneration is not "fun". That's called "pressure". If you really think pressure is fun, try closing your head in a car door. Besides, Bleeding (3)+ Posion (4) + the conditional degen from Seeping already is -13 or -15, depending on your attribute level. It doesn't need to be -50.

Wastrel's Collapse: This skill could have a 1 second recharge, and it would still be worthless. Any Warrior KD build, Shock, Gale... anything that causes KD when you want it is instantly better.

Clamor of Souls: Yeah, sweet let's make this change, then we can run Rt/A teams in halls with tele skills and an AoE spike that works like Obsidian Flame. I can't wait, seriously.... or maybe we could never have an AoE armor ignoring spike skill again (cough cough Spiritual Pain cough cough Feast of Corruption cough cough Oppressive Gaze cough cough).

Signet of Ghostly Might: Even with your change, there's no purpose for this skill when you could use your elite on something better... like Preservation, which recharges in as much time as you'd like the sig to.... and you want this to be used on defensive spirits when it's singular purpose is to buff their damage? Derrrr.

Preservation: Actually, free Heal Other every 4 seconds forever is good enough without it being able to help catch a balanced spike. It's pressure help, not a free Monk.

Tranquil Was Tanasen: A survival skill? Um, that skill stops interruption, primarily. Your suggested buff wouldn't really affect the skill's playability either way.

Attuned Was Songkai: Why not? Because have it up all the time forever is like never coming down off a cocaine binge... you'll be going strong while everyone else is crashing, and you won't understand what's going wrong. It's powerful enough as it is, and it's not hard to work around the small downtime. It's what we call "balanced". That's why not.

Defensive Anthem: Yes your knowledge of the metagame shines with your comment here that this skill is significantly worse than Aegis in PvP. In reality, it's significantly better, since it's completely impossible for your opponents to remove. Your buff would make it impossible to not run... oh I'm sorry, did you miss that Paragons are still overpowered despite being continually nerfed since their release?

Focused Anger: Ok, I have to quote it because you saying it made me lol a lot: "How many Adrenaline skills do Paragons have, anyways?" The answer is 20, and a lot of them are extremely powerful... and that's ignoring the fact that many Warrior adrenaline skills can be run on a P/W and used effectively. Did you miss the fact that Paragons are the only class in the game besides Warriors that even have adren skills? Come on now.

"The Power Is Yours!": Um, even with your buff this skill is horribly lame. 7 energy every 20 seconds... how about instead you run a P/N with Blood is Power. Oh, that's already meta, and wouldn't change with this buff? Obs moar plz.

Wounding Strike: "The whole enchant/without enchant mechanic is too confusing." Aw, I'm sorry that it confuses you. Unfortunately, it's what the Dervish class is largely based on, so it's not just going to disappear because it's so0o0o0o0o complicated to understand. How about we just... don't make this skill a double condition applicator that hits every 3 seconds?



Yes, that took me forever to type out. Yes, it was worth it.

I like the Peace and Harmony idea.

Some of the Warrior elites like Cleave and Quivering Blade are powerful in their own right. Cleave is high DPS where it's cousin, Eviscerate, is for spiking. Making it AoE doesn't make much sense.

Did I mention I want the Peace and Harmony buff?

Alright folks, lets try to keep critique constructive here. Lets avoid flames.

Atleast Zinger has the right idea, rather than dismiss the elites fully, he suggests a way to fix them, ok his suggestion may be not fully fixed but atleast the thought behind them makes sence. lets take a few random examples for instance -

The reason why this isnt used more often: Because more often than not people die fast while they have this on them (among other things) and then theres a whopping 30 sec delay before u can target the next person. Its meant to be the Elite version of life siphon.
Possible solutions: are to increase the duration to 7.....17, reduce the degen/gain to 6 and cut the recharge to 10secs. Or Reduce it even further to 4 +/- and then add a 1 +/- energy degen and cut the recharge to 15 secs.
The reason why this isnt used more often: Because few people mix elements
Possible solutions: Its meant to be the elite version of Gale, Zingers suggested change wouldnt make it more usable since there are no non elite Air hexes. It needs a total rework, For example Give it an unconditional knockdown, reduce the damage to 10....34 damage, increase to 3 seconds knockdown and add in exhaustion, (so it becomes a slightly longer kd Gale with damage)
The reason why this isnt used more often:Because it leaves the ele vulnerable and it does medicore damage with exhaustion.
Possible solutions: nice and simple - Remove the exhaustion and increase the damage slightly to 15....73
The reason why this isnt used more often: Because it lasts a pitiful 7 seconds resulting in little benefit and takes 30 secs to recharge
Possible solutions: Either increase the length so it scales from 5...15 seconds or increase the gain to 1..6 energy and 5...42 health, (in 7 seconds ur not going t be able to cast more than 4 times max and that just using a quick skill like flare making a net energy gain of 14 and 168 health in 7 seconds compared to the current 2 energy and 68 health) and in both cases reduce the cast time to 1/2 a sec
The reason why this isnt used more often:Because the Spirits die so fast there nearly useless.
Possible solutions: Drop the damage to 5...19 and increase the time to scale from 10....20 seconds
The reason why this isnt used more often: because it effectily removes all energy from the Paragon and makes it unable to use energy skills for 10 seconds.
Possible solutions: Reduce the gain to 1...5 and Reduce the degen to -5 energy (so u have -2) and make it effect all other party members

Cleave is fine. It's already a nice pressure build.

Nothing will make decapitate worth using.

Still not worth using.

Backbreaker is already great. This would make it ridiculously overpowered.

Range is fine. People get as many as 5 foes hit with this fairly often, even in pvp.

Broadheadarrow + sever artery in one skillslot = balance?

For one thing, it's not like conditions are exactly hard for necromancers to inflict. Secondly, disease is not a no-no in pvp. It's a calculated risk. Sometimes it will end up pressuring your team more. Sometimes it'll pressure your enemies more.

So.. basically make it work with mark of rodgort?

This change doesn't do anything, unless they've got health regeneration on them, and pretty much the only worthwhile health regen in the game is troll unguent.

Problem 1: Defensive anthem is better than Aegis in pvp, because it's unremovable. Problem 2: even if it wasn't already, this change would make it strictly significantly better than aegis in any situation. Problem 3: There are already enough triple aegis, double defensive anthem, warder, defensive spirits teams.... Don't make them even better.

There are problems with other proposed changes, but I don't feel like commenting on them.

GAH....just thought GAH would cover it

no [card]Mending[/card] love?

The Discord idea was worst imo.
Same with Decapitate, Decapitate does A LOT of damage if used correctly.
Cleave spike ftw. those were the good ol days. Still not a bad skill imo ,doesnt need buff or nerf.

Other than that, zinger, thanks for taking the time and opening up A LOT of options to EVERYONE. It shows elite skills that need to be buffed or nerfed. GJ

This is about the only good idea I've seen in this whole thread.

You know, a number of people in this thread don't seem to know how quivering blade works. You are the one getting dazed, not the other guy. All Zinger wanted was it to add bleeding damage to the enemy and not to you or dazed to the enemy. Anyways, I'm going to disagree with the added bleeding damage for Quivering Blade just because I think there are better ways to improve it.

And in general, I'm going to say that these suggestions in general tend to over buff skills.

er.. bro, i think you need to double check..

quivering gives you (the warrior) the daze effect once blocked. daze is super broken against casters, and thus, by transfering the condition by means of the skill Plague Touch, not only CAN you deal damage/pressure, but when blocked, you can DAZE and get a sort of "win win" effect. you never ever play Quivering anything without Plague, and on top of that, being able to add bleeding as well.. well.. thats terribly over powered.

[skill]quivering blade[/skill] vs [skill]guardian[/skill] +[skill]plague touch[/skill] = caster pain