The "Elite" Discussion

And I mean elite skills! lol There are literally hundreds of elite skills in the game. I cap them based on how good I think they are, then of course location and attribute. So I was wondering, what all elites does everyone out the like the most, and which ones suck? Here's my list (more might be coming later):

Good:
Barrage (love 5 energy 1 second recharge)
Burning Arrow
Spiteful Spirit (except for the 15 energy requirement)

Bad:
Shatter Storm (why would you want to have a skill disabled for so long because of how many enchantments it removed?)

Shatter storm has fastest potential enchantment removal in the game, so it finds use in some spike builds.

Eh? why is 15e going to be a problem with a Necro? SR is ftw...

Dragon Slash gets to go in the good Elite section.

Greatest is ray of judgement

[card]Triple Chop[/card] Awesome skill

Have you EVER seen someone running THIS?!? [card]Balthazar's Pendulum[/card]


Is there honestly more lulz to be had in GW than rolling [card]Crippling Shot[/card] in AB?


[card]Illusionary Weaponry[/card] Good for some giggles in RA, but not much else.






Police officer: "Can you describe your attacker, and what he was using please?"


[card]Light of Deliverance[/card] "Oh it was so horrible, I know his name is Izzy, and he was weilding some kind of soft nerf bat!"


Police officer: "Thank you mam"



To name a few....

Eviscerate is good
Word of Healing is good

Good:

Glass Arrows
Spiteful Spirit
Spoil Victor
Divert Hexes
Healer's Boon
Signet of Illusions
Ineptitude
Beguiling Haze
Moebius Strike
Avatar of Melandru
Avatar of Lyssa
Dragon Slash
Eviscerate
Headbutt
Vengeful Was Khanhei

Bad:

Wastrel's Collapse
Peace and Harmony
Amity
Keystone Signet
Primal Rage
Healer's Covenant

Just my opinion. The 'bad' skills are ones I never use, and never have used. Just don't see a point in using any of them in their current form.

SF,DS,SV,BiP, SoJ to abreiviate a few.

good ones

elemental attunement for elementalist
poison arrow for ranger
spiteful spirit for necro

I don't know any bad ones, but a useless one comes into mind, Quick Shot.... what the... this should be a mod on your bow!

very bad at other profession, haven't a clue what is good for them.

For me

Good:
Offering of the spirit
moebius strike
aura of displacement
eviscerate
woh(in its current form)
mind blast
dragon slash(with FGJ ftw!)
devastating hammer
backbreaker
restore condition
shield of deflection(back to 5sec recharge please)
glass arrows
spiteful spirit
spoil victor
icy veins
jagged bones
elemental attunement
shove(depending on what you synergize with)
cripshot
burning arrow
AoM
song of restoration
shadow prison(too bad it's been nerfed alot, still usable though)
ineptitude
migraine
beguiling haze
icy shackles


bad:
balthazars pendulum-seriously who the hell would run this when there are monk elites like woh D:?
the list goes on :/

[card]Melandru's Arrows[/card] I've recently fallen in love with this
[card]Poison Arrow[/card] Used to be on my skill bar for a long time
[card]Zealous Benediction[/card] Great healing for 3 energy
[card]Power Block[/card] Fun to shut down people with this
To name just a few.

[card]Mark of Protection[/card] I would love to use this, but it's long rechage gets me >.<
I could've sworn I dislike more elites. Hmm...

How about a supporting smite build to compliment the WoH monk in a 4-man team??

Good: Broad Head Arrow. If it hits, interrupts and dazes
Zealous Benediction. one of those skills you pray it never becomes the target of a skills update

Bad. Light of Deliverance. You know it's nerfed when henchies won't even use it

SS, Shove, Moebius Strike

Dragonslash is currently the baby on my war.
Healers boon and ZB on my monk.

[skill]Zealous Benediction[/skill] is my all time favorite Elite.

Along with the [skill]"For Great Justice!"[/skill] and [skill]Dragon Slash[/skill] Combo

[skill]Mind Blast[/skill]

I'll let you decide what category to put it in.

Dragon Slash is win. I don't think that I need to post what is fail, just know it has to do with the bears.

Covenant isn't good, but it's not anywhere near the class of those other skills. It has no downside with skills such as patient spirit or healing seed, and theres a dumb zealot's fire build you can make with it.

For shame your a ranger and you don't even mention [skill]Broad head Arrow[/skill]. That + [skill]Epidemic[/skill] == GG hard mode.

For pvp [skill]Rampage as one[/skill] & [skill]Heal as one[/skill] & [skill]Magebane shot[/skill].

For farming [skill]Famine[/skill] & [skill]echo[/skill] (traps) & [skill]offering of blood[/skill] (E-manage for vamp skills).

Not even gonna mention other profs. To many good elite's to outway the really bad ones.

I always feel like creating a "to-nerf" list when posting in such threads.

NERF BARRAGE!

Reason: People love it
Reason against: It is PvE, and ANet does not care?

Sarcasm, SCNR.

[skill]Ether Renewal[/skill]
Rest in peace old friend.

BAED, mirite ?


So, good:

[skill]eviscerate[/skill]
[skill]frenzy[/skill] -- Elite skill alright.
[skill]mind blast[/skill] -- Couldn't ignore this one
[skill]dragon slash[/skill]
[skill]word of healing[/skill]


Bad:

[skill]amity[/skill][skill]defy pain[/skill][skill]keystone signet[/skill][skill]primal rage[/skill]

3 words: Legendery Skill Hunter!

Yay for reading . And no not all the elites in this game are good..

PvE?

[skill]dragon slash[/skill][skill]mind blast[/skill][skill]word of healing[/skill][skill]spiteful spirit[/skill][skill]broad head arrow[/skill][skill]moebius strike[/skill][skill]offering of spirit[/skill][skill]focused anger[/skill][skill]avatar of lyssa[/skill][skill]hex eater vortex[/skill] > all

PvP?

[skill]eviscerate[/skill][skill]blinding surge[/skill][skill]restore condition[/skill][skill]corrupt enchantment[/skill][skill]crippling shot[/skill][skill]shattering assault[/skill][skill]weapon of remedy[/skill][skill]defensive anthem[/skill][skill]avatar of melandru[/skill][skill]ineptitude[/skill] = win

Then there's just the shit ones, Defy Pain, Archer's Signet Amity, Extend Conditions, Ether Renewal etc.

so i herd this was gud

[skill]Grenth's Grasp[/skill]

Rather than post what elites are good, since everyone's already done that, I'll post my favourites (which are/used to be good)

Ranger: [skill]Crippling Shot[/skill] (probably the "best" elite in the game)
Warrior: [skill]"Charge!"[/skill] [skill]Eviscerate[/skill] (no way can I choose one over the other)
Mesmer: [skill]Energy Surge[/skill] (!)
Monk: None, because boon prots > your face.
Elementalist: [skill]Ether Prodigy[/skill] (<3)
Necromancer:[skill]Offering of Blood[/skill] (on monks)
Assassin: [skill]Aura of Displacement[/skill] (bring back sin bars with 2-3 attack skills)
Ritualist: [skill]Ritual Lord[/skill] (easiest fame of my life :P)
Dervish: [skill]Avatar of Grenth[/skill] (pain train is good)
Paragon: GTFO

love...

[skill]elemental attunement[/skill]

An oldie but a goodie.

[skill]mind blast[/skill]

So what if I'm just following the crowd? It's a hard skill to beat.


hate...

[skill]ursan blessing[/skill]

lame

[skill]dragon slash[/skill]
Totally renewed my interest in Guild Wars. I quit about 10 days after I started with Prophecies, but gave GW another try when Factions was released, and I was so happy when I found this baby, it never left my skillbar since. I couldn't imagine GW without it.

[skill]restore condition[/skill]
Warriors hate conditions and love healing, so when Heroes were released, they got this one as soon as I could.



Suck:

[skill]triple chop[/skill]
The main benefit of this skill is being able to attack all foes around you. I'd pick Cyclone Axe over this skill, because Cyclone axe has a 4 second recharge time while this one is down for 10 seconds. Cyclone Axe should be the elite, IMO, and with the introduction of Whirlwind Attack this one has become completely obsolete because you can spam WW/CA nearly continuously if surrounded by foes without being bothered by a TEN SECOND RECHARGE.

[skill]hundred blades[/skill]
Overrated piece of crap, due to the long recharge and lack of bonus damage, see above. Yeeey I hit 20 foes around me for 2x0.

[skill]battle rage[/skill]
Because its a stance and thus doesn't allow any attack speed increases.

[skill]headbutt[/skill]
Yeah you can transfer the condition to someone else, but 15 energy and 20 sec recharge for THIS crap?!

[skill]primal rage[/skill]
Self explaining.

[skill]defy pain[/skill]
Not useful since armor stacking nerf.

[skill]rage of the ntouka[/skill]
Not even useful with a bar full of adrenal attacks, and totally abysmal with anything less then that.

[skill]warrior's endurance[/skill]
Again is a stance, thus cannot be used with attack speed increasing stances.

[skill]shove[/skill]
Lose all adrenaline for a silly knockdown and some crappy damage? 20 sec recharge? This shouldnt even be elite.

[skill]soldier's stance[/skill]
Shouldn't be elite, who'd pay the price of an elite slot AND a stance for a short conditional attack speed increase? Compare to [skill]soldier's fury[/skill]

[skill]"coward!"[/skill]
You need to get 6! adrenaline first and that takes a while if someone's kiting you. Energy would be better, and otherwise I'd take Bull's Charge.

[skill]Withdraw hexes[/skill]
Totally useless as it always is down for over a minute.

[skill]ray of judgment[/skill]
30 sec recharge ftl, 15 energy is enough to stop people spamming it.

[skill]word of censure[/skill]
Even though it's armor ignoring, its still useless for 10 energy compared to other skills.

[skill]"Incoming!"[/skill]
20 sec recharge and 3 sec duration for the lose.

[skill]Angelic Bond[/skill]
With no damage reduction, this is useful why? Okay, maybe a situational use, but not warranting Elite status.

[skill]Defensive Anthem[/skill]
I'll take Aegis thanks, at least that doesn't get removed BY ITSELF.

[skill]"It's just a flesh wound."[/skill]
Haha, compare to [skill]Restore Condition[/skill]

[skill]Song of restoration[/skill]
Pathetic heal amount, especially since a paragon doesn't have divine favor, 15 sec recharge ftl.

[skill]"The power is yours!"[/skill]
Maybe some use in a gaybar.

[skill]Cautery signet[/skill]
I'll take RC and heal them at the same time thanks. Also compare to [skill]Martyr[/skill]

[skill]"Coward!"[/skill] is actually a very strong skill in small skirmishes, especially in the hands of a warrior with good battlefield awareness.

[skill]Battle Rage[/skill] is actually not a bad skill; people used to run them in GvG with Purge.

The rest I agree though; they're pretty baed. Soldier's Stance is extra bad

Only one truely great elite not mentioned so i'll do the job

Good : [Unknown skill: ursan blessing]

Keystone Signet was good when it got buffed.
Spam Sig of Humility, Sig Distraction, Ether Sig, Hex Eater Sig, Leech Sig, etc.

DA and SoR are not bad elites. Why have they been called bad elites?

Agree with most above me, but just to add a few:

Good:

[skill]Weapon of Fury[/skill] [skill]Ebon Dust Aura[/skill] [skill]Water Trident[/skill]

Bad:

[skill]Clamor of Souls[/skill] [skill]Thunderclap[/skill] [skill]Avatar of Balthazar[/skill]

Because Paragons are a bad class.

[skill]defensive anthem[/skill][skill]aegis[/skill]
Because Aegis is not elite, and allows attack skills. It's an enchantment, yep, but that also means it can cover up another enchantment. Also, because of the 25! sec recharge of DA which doesn't fit for an ELITE.

[skill]song of restoration[/skill][skill]light of deliverance[/skill]
Because SoR does not have divine favor bonus, and has a 15 sec recharge, and the target has to use a skill before it takes effect (which he might not be able to do if knocked down or interrupted or dazed whatever)

DA is an unstrippable 50% block for those that need it the most,your mid/backline.

LoD's divine favor bonus only counts for the caster..

I lol'd irl.

What is this "Incoming!" you speak of?

Yeah and it's ELITE and still doesn't allow attack skills thus you lose the effect on several party members, regardless if they need it or not. Sure it can't be stripped, but I rather have Aegis being stripped then another more critical enchantment.

Point, I wasn't aware of that.

Still, it has a shorter recharge and doesn't require the use of a skill which delays the effect by another second or two.