What exactly are Elite abilities?

I see that some abilities have the word Elite next to them. What exactly does that mean?

for as far as i know elite's are yust that bit more special than normal players and can only be aqquired using a signet of capture on a boss who used that skill and you can only carry 1 elite skill at a time in ure skill bar so that must mean theyre powerfull hope this helps

They're basically exceptionally strong or useful skills, which you can only get in the last part of the game, acquiring each by defeating a boss that used the elite, then using Signet of Capture to retrieve it from their corpse.

You can only select one 'elite' skill from your list of elites to bring along into a mission or quest, so you'll have to choose it well before going out.

Check the Skill Listing. Any skill with {Elite} behind the name is an elite skill. Elite skills can not be purchased from skill trainers or be obtained as quest rewards. You must "steal" them from an enemy boss by use of the Signet Of Capture.

[edit]Bah, I'm too slow. [/edit]

The Elite Skills are more powerful versions of original spells. Let me give you an example of a normal and an Elite Skill

• Healing Breeze - Healing Prayers - for 10 Seconds, your character gains Health Regeneration of 3-9
• Shield of Regeneration - Elite, Protection Prayers - for 4-10 Seconds, your character gains Health Regeneration of 3-9, AND gain +40 to armor until this skill ends

As you can see, the skills are different and better, however, they cost slightly more energy to cast. This in turn is a nightmare for Non-Glad W/Mos as their energy isn't fast enough to recover for another skill charge.

And another thing, Unless you get an Elite from a Signet of Capture, you can only use 1 skill at a time with the gold border around the skill.

Ah, I get it now. How do you know if the boss you're fighting used the elite ability, or do you just use the signet of capture on a dead boss every time you kill one?

Also, can you use the signet of capture on a boss as a warrior, let's say, if the boss used a necromancer elite ability (considering you arent warrior/necro)?

Also, how do you know what class the elite ability is when the boss uses it?

Sorry for the questions, just wondering :P

Enemies all have a skill monitor (next to their health bar) which shows which skills they're using, but you can also just bring a Signet of Capture and check which skills the boss had after they're dead - you're not required to capture a skill if there's nothing you want.

You can only capture skills from your primary or secondary profession, elite or non-elite.

Each PvE monster only has one class, and boss monsters even have a coloured aura around them to indicate which class they are (blue = monk, red = elementalist, yellow = warrior, purple = mesmer, yellow-green = ranger, dark-green = necromancer), and they'll typically only use skills from that class. One exception to this rule seems to be warrior troll bosses using the ranger skill Troll Unguent.

Ah ok, thanks. One more thing heh, can you switch skills (the hotbar of 8) inside an instance so you dont have to carry the signet of capture around on your hotbar taking up a slot until you just need it after the boss is dead?

I am waiting for the GW to come, so I dont know much about it besides the beta I played a long time ago.

The Signet of Capture gets replaced by the skill you capture, so don't worry about that..

No, while you are in an instance, you can't adjust your skillbar. So if you want to carry a SoC, then you'll effectively only have 7 skills till you use it, at which point it becomes the skill you captured.