Fixing bad elites. (Long list)

Ive been going through some of the bad elites in my head, and decided to post my ideas about changes to them. This is to make more elites viable, rather than just using the old builds over and over. I will monitor this.

Warrior:
[skill]"coward!"[/skill]- Change to 8 adren, 3 sec kd, lose all adren.
[skill]battle rage[/skill]- 8 adren, You move and attack 25% faster, duration 5...10...12, no double adren.
[skill]bull's charge[/skill] 15 recharge, add damage on hit/end.
[skill]decapitate[/skill] This should not be able to be blocked.
[skill]defy pain[/skill]Add some regen, upto 5 or so.
[skill]dwarven battle stance[/skill]5 energy.
[skill]enraged smash[/skill]Add +5...15 damage per charged skill.
[skill]forceful blow[/skill]4 Adrenaline
[skill]hundred blades[/skill]add +1...13 damage.
[skill]magehunter strike[/skill]Add "if foes is casting a spell."
[skill]magehunter's smash[/skill]8 adrenaline, 1/2 second activation.
[skill]primal rage[/skill]Disables only non- attack skills, on start lose all adrenaline.
[skill]quivering blade[/skill]Remove disable clause, adrenaline cost to 5.
[skill]rage of the ntouka[/skill]Disables adrenal skills for 2 seconds.
[skill]warrior's endurance[/skill]20 second recharge.
[skill]whirling axe[/skill]Disable for 5 seconds.

Ranger:
[skill]archer's signet[/skill]20 second recharge.
[skill]poison arrow[/skill] Can not be blocked.
[skill]scavenger's focus[/skill] 5 energy
[skill]strike as one[/skill] Plus 6...12...17

Monk:
[skill]amity[/skill]30 second recharge.
[skill]balthazar's pendulum[/skill]Change to "Elite Enchantment Spell. For 5...17...20 seconds, the next time target ally would be knocked down by a foe, that foe and all adjacent foes are knocked down instead.
[skill]blessed light[/skill]5 energy, 6 recharge. Lose 5 energy is a hex is removed.
[skill]empathic removal[/skill]Double divine favor bonus.
[skill]healing light[/skill]3/4 cast time, 3 sec recharge.
[skill]mark of protection[/skill]I want this to work more like angelic protection, we already have this skill anyways... rof. Chage functionality to: For 10 seconds, target other ally cannot take over 250...130...100 damage per second. All damage over this limit is negated.
[skill]martyr[/skill]1/4 second cast, 8 recharge.
[skill]ray of judgment[/skill]5 energy, 20 second recharge.
[skill]withdraw hexes[/skill]10 energy, 0 recharge.
[skill]Word of Censure[/skill]5 energy, 5 recharge, 15 disable if below 33%

This is all for now, there are too many skills i want to focus on atm. More posts will bring more professions.

Edit: I will keep changing this based on comments.

I would agree with about 25% of those, the others are fine the way they are. Also, I think we should change Frozen Soil or add this skill, since there needs to be a skill with this funtion.

agreed on most of the skills, but some will still be terrible (amity)/
sig of judgement is strong enough as it is btw.

yeah i like most of the changes you've suggested, Almsot all those skills need an adjustment of some sort

Some of those are bad changes, like [skill]Primal Rage[/skill] for example.

250 damage [skill]Final Thrust[/skill] anyone?

totally random buffs (and in the case of skull crack and quivering blade nerf: daze = gud)

Why would you buff them, we already have got enough usefull elites

I agree with you 100% on Dwarven Battle Stance. Archer's signet would make rangers too powerful, though.

Yeah but we have alot of bad/useless elites too...

coward - wow, gogo FGJ + KD gloves = 3 secs kd every 3 secs? ... lolwut?

battle rage - adrenaline version of RaO - are you out of your @#*&# mind?

Decapitate - ... not for 8 adrenaline

dwarven battle stance - free interrupts for eternity = no way

magehunter smash - 1/2 sec cast for a kd is too fast, especially under an IAS

signet of judgment - nah, it's perfect the way it is.

word of censure - no way, it'd create a new meta of 8 monk spike

the others are quite good

Wouldn't need KD gloves because he already made Coward 3 seconds.

Ty for the feedback. I would like to say that I haven't looked over all of these really closely, but thats why I'm posting it; for feedback. As for "random buffs, I am putting this out here because I am somewhat bored with the current fotm builds, and some new elites in play would be fun. I'm trying to buff some skills that would be considered "noobish" into skills that people might consider using. Some of theses are only minor buffs, though.

Necromancer:
[skill]life transfer[/skill]2 sec cast, 20 recharge.
[skill]ravenous gaze[/skill]5 energy.
[skill]well of power[/skill]+3 energy regen, 10 second recharge.
[skill]lingering curse[/skill]15 energy.
[skill]pain of disenchantment[/skill]1 second cast.
[skill]plague signet[/skill]1/4 cast
[skill]weaken knees[/skill]duration: 10...32...45

Mesmer:
[skill]simple thievery[/skill]5 energy.
[skill]stolen speed[/skill]10...20...25 duration.
[skill]symbols of inspiration[/skill]5 energy.
[skill]crippling anguish[/skill]10 energy.
[skill]shared burden[/skill] 20 recharge.
[skill]extend conditions[/skill]10...90...120% longer
[skill]keystone signet[/skill]non-signet disable 15...7...4 seconds.

Plague signet = No, it needs a reason to be under the curse tree, otherwise it will be a non-attribute skill.
Reaper Mark = It's already annoying...

The other are good (except maybe Keystone Signet, maybe it will be a little too good...)

alot of the skills are fine as they are. Defy Pain doesnt need a Regan that would make it way way to overpowered because a War would never die with armor Boost and Hp Boost and with Regan Boost no that way to overpowered. Seeing alot of Wars use this skill because it can removed and it can be keep up for unlimited Duration that just overbalanced the game.

I agree with maybe 2 of those... The rest seem way to OP. And for Warrior elites what needs to be fixed is [skill]charging strike[/skill].

Change it to the next 2 attacks and attack skills end it and lower then dmg to +10...15...20.

soul leech - nah, it's quite powerful, with a 40/40 set you can already almost keep it up indefinitely

plague signet: i like

reaper's mark: i think you need to stop looking at things on their own, in combination with other hexes it gives massive amounts of pressure already

shared burden: no effing way, WAY too powerful, especially the recharge

i have to agree on all the crappy necro elites tho

Are you attempting to suggest that you wouldnt have kd gloves in pvp anyway???? That 'buff' would make coward much worse on a warrior, and about the same on a sin/other.

The whole point of skull crack was for the interrupt. Having it at 1 second will make it like how IWAYers use disrupting chop, and basically makes it so a bad player can use it almost as well as a good player (aka random spam). Keystone should be left as is. Otherwise, I wouldn't really care if they randomly buffed a couple of those useless elites.

To OP:

A lot of these are a huge /sign for me. All the warrior ones I think would be great, right now, Warriors only have about 3 to 4 elites worth using, they could use a few more. Although, I don't understand the reasoning behind Magehunter's Smash being 1/2 sec activation?

The buffs are very subtle, yet make the skills usable.

One I have a problem with is the Keystone Signet buff. They tried bringing it down to 20 seconds in a past nerf/buff session, and it was getting very heavily used (especially in GvG) to just have a Keystone Mesmer that spammed Sig of Distraction and Sig of Weariness and 4 other Signets. If you're going to buff Keystone that much, you'd have to nerf Sig of Weariness and Distraction, at least.

If this was put into effect, Well of Power may be overpowered, but if it was still just +2 Nrg Regen, it would be fine.

Extend Conditions to 50 seconds? What condition even lasts the 25-or-so seconds that would be required to reach the cap? I'm not really disagreeing, I'm just questioning the difference it would make.

/sign except for Well of Power (currently) and Keystone Signet (currently)


To repliers:

Why would Archer's Signet make Rangers too powerful? It's the worst skill in the game (bar none, not even non-elites) right now. It's completely useless. If any Ranger needs to switch his elites because of an Energy management problem, they aren't good anyway. The suggested buff might make it usable.... might.


And Reaper's Mark, contrary to what an above poster said, would be fine with those buffs. It is becoming really underused compared to Corrupt Enchantment. It used to be really overpowered and has been nerfed bad. A little equality between it and Corrupt Enchant would be fine. The person who said it was overpowered needs to learn to play.

BTW, I don't think Charging Strike needs altering. Besides, the changes suggested would really not change the skill in any way. Use it for double the time, but does half damage?

You couldn't use Primal Rage + Final Thrust, because Primal Rage, you lose all Adren according to the suggested buff, so, you'd have to get 10 more to use Final Thrust, and if you're getting 10 adren every 2 or so seconds, you are godly.

Thank you for all the feedback. My main point here is to mix up the different fotm's here, by making underused skills viable. However, I don't always look at the big picture, and thats where i have made some mistakes. I appreciate your feedback. Hopefully this list will be reviewed by anet when it's more concrete.

If they buff Primal Rage that would be beautiful, but I'm happy with the skill as it is. The only thing I would love for them to change about it is to make it so heroes would use it.

I hope I don't cause all the noobish children to start their whining about what they think about the skill or hero skill use. Heroes don't refuse to use certain skills at any time because the AI thinks it's a poor skill to be using. That topic has been discussed already and it isn't valid.

I do like the list in general, indeed the game has a boring meta, and opening up "elite" skill usage can make the game more intersting, but what I'd like to see personally is Eviscerate buffed back to Origional dmg and Adrenaline from The Sept 14 2006 update and previous updates.

Wait what?

If the only KD on my bar was [skill]"Coward!"[/skill], why would I need KD gloves? KD gloves boost to a maximum of 3 seconds, which is the duration of the KD of [skill]"Coward!"[/skill] after the suggested buff.

He changed his OP after I posted, in case you didn't notice.

[skill]Charging Strike[/skill] does end on an attack skill. The attack skill ends [skill]Charging Strike[/skill] before the +dmg of the stance.

Some are alright, some are stupid...
Nice work though

I do like your idea, so I'll /sign it. I've been thinking about one myself:

[skill]Shadow Form[/skill]Make it so that you don't lose so much health when it ends. You should lose some but make it like half or so instead of almost all of it. Otherwise, why use it if you just die after it's up (unless you're not in a mob)?

Less pve thinking, more pvp.

It's the ultimate griefing skill. I'd make it so you instantly die when it ends.

Shadow form is already very good in pve, it would be very bad for pvp if it became vaible there, leave as it is imo.

Rest look good although Magehunter smash would still be ignored i rekon.

What about Tease??? otherwise pretty good ideas

Equinox needs buff imo.

or some added value

[skill]Equinox[/skill] -> Create a level 1...8...10 Spirit. Spells cast within its range that cause Exhaustion, cause double the Exhaustion instead. Equinox deals xx damage to all foes that are interrupted and within range of the Spirit. This Spirit dies after 30...126...150 seconds.

[skill]Stone Sheath[/skill] -> For xx seconds, attacks made by target foe and all nearby foes deal earth damage and cannot cause a critical hit. All allies have 10 base damage reduction when hit by elemental damage.

edit: It was late, it should read "Stone Sheath + Affected foes deal 10 less damage with attacks".

Yes, equinox seemed to slip by. Damage on interrupt sounds cool.
Ill continue with ele skills:
[skill]glimmering mark[/skill]Maybe blinding and daze? it would have to have a lower duration. maybe dazed applied after a foe is blinded?
[skill]lightning surge[/skill]less energy, 1 sec cast. also maybe 25% penetration...
[skill]stone sheath[/skill]I had an interesting idea for this: For 5...10 seconds, target foe has +40...10 armor vs physical, but -40armor vs earth damage
[skill]energy boon[/skill]not worth the exhaustion- maybe lower the amount gained to 5...15 with no exhaustion.
[skill]ether renewal[/skill]Lower recharge.
[skill]double dragon[/skill]reduce to 10e, 25r.
[skill]second wind[/skill]Not sure, maybe get rid of exhaustion, but increase recharge? Ele's have enough exhaustion.
I didn't touch the "mind" skills, i think they are fine as they are imo.

Agreed with many of those, but definitely no daze for elementalists, its not one of their patron conditions.
Rather, have [skill=text]Thunderclap[/skill] changed to cast air magic faster on that target, and only KD that target making it a more viable replacement interruption.
But then, its useful as and occasional group KD or single target perma Knockdown a.t.m. which is not something I'd want to lose either.

And you got the function of [skill=text]Balthazar's Pendulum[/skill] wrong, it's function is spamability, its the quickest recharging skill that targets allies in smiting and its 5 sec recharge, it needs to be 2 or 4 sec recharge and 0.75 or 0.50 cast, the effect is has doesn't really matter.

Since when do hexes affect all allies?
It should read "affected foes deal 10 less damage with attacks" which is still mwah IM(I)O.
I think it should be:
"For XX seconds all elemental and physical damage dealt by target foe and nearby foes is earth damage instead and projectiles from attacks and spells by those foes more twice as slow."
[skill=text]Ward against melee[/skill] already covers my *ss against attacking foes, I want some defense against spells.

lastly, [skill=text]Aura of Faith[/skill] deserves a buff to keep it useful in higher areas, perhaps a small heal when removed.

[skill]hundred blades[/skill] These attacks are unblockable. / 4 second recharge
[skill]defy pain[/skill] Damage you receive is reduced by 1...10. (instead of +20 Armor)


Oh and a bit off-topic:

[skill]Thrill of Victory[/skill] If the target foe has less Health than you, you gain 30...70 Health. / 4 second recharge

Idea for Mark of Protection...

[skill]mark of protection[/skill]
Elite Enchantment Spell. For 8 seconds, the next 2...4 times target ally would take damage, that ally is healed for that amount instead, maximum 6...49.
Cost: 5 Cast: 1/4 Recharge: 8

Basically, it makes it a lot more reusable, but less directly powerful.

Don't be silly.
Hundred Blades, Defy Pain, lightning surge are okay. PVP>PVE so you never see the changes that you suggest.
I'm agree with equinox and second wind/energy boon.
Balthazar pendulum must be declassed.
The worst elite is Quick Shot.

No, Wastrel's Collapse.
Anyway this topic has been done before and looks like AN has nothing else to say but "fu and your elites"