My griping thread on elite skills

[gameshoes3003]

So I'm going to gripe about elite skills that should be changed. Mostly the ones that weren't changed.

Scribe's Insight- Yes we all know how many monks use signets and we all just know that this skill is fabulous! That was sarcasm if you didn't catch that already. Anyway, I'm suggesting that it'd be changed to the following:
Cost/casting/recharge same
Elite Enchantment Spell. For 5...17 seconds, your signets gain an additional 10...40% boost to their effect.
So say your signet of devotion healed for 50 health. At 12 divine favor, the 40% increase will have it heal for 70 health. Then things like Bane signet, if it dealt 50 first, it'll now deal 70. Energy gaining signets like Leech Signet will increase. And yeah, I hope you get the point. Though things like Signet of Mystic Wrath, some mesmer hexes, may hurt slightly more...

Unyielding Aura- I really like the PvE version now, but the PvP version is the old version of this skill. I suggest that it should heal for +10...47% without the resurrecting part for the PvP version.

Withdraw Hexes- Did ANET really think that people used this skill enough to not change it? Peace and Harmony is now considerably better than this skill. My suggestion:
5 energy, 1 second casting, 15 second recharge time
Spell. Target ally loses 1...6 hexes; for each hex removed you gain 3 energy.
Yeah sure the energy yield is low (unless if you removed 6 hexes), but I think it's better than having this skill shutdown for a long ass time after using it once.

Healing Burst- Sure the first part of the heal is alright, but the Area of Effect healing is a joke. My suggestion:
energy/casting/recharge time same
Elite Spell. Target ally is healed for 5...67 health and all party members in the area are healed for 5...55 health.
Now the "Burst" part of the title may actually relate to the skill.

Amity- No matter how many threads go up about this skill, it still never changes... I suggest looking at the other threads for this skill, I'm not gonna repost them.

Divert Hexes- Now since Peace and Harmony has changed, Divert Hexes kind of lost its value, though it was never used much in the first place. I think it should be reduced to 5 energy and then the maximum amount of hexes removed is 2 instead of 3. (This is so that it doesn't do better than Peace and Harmony because this spell heals).

Mark of Protection- First this was Reversal of Fortune's most related skill, now it's not because of the change to Life Sheath. But anyway, it's not used much and I am thinking that's because of the ridiculous recharge time. I say it should be at 30 seconds instead of 45 and that the casting time should be at 1/4 seconds.

Balthazar's Pendulum- I think this skill should be an elite form of Reversal of Damage, but with the knockdown contingent on it.

Martyr- Yes I know how many people use this skill... But I think this should be moved into protection prayers and it should heal the monk for the same rate of Draw Conditions.

Headbutt- I think this skill should interrupt as well.

Soldier's Stance- This skill wasn't used very often in the first place because people preferred Frenzy and now it's Primal Rage. I suggest an increased duration and maybe possibly a slight damage reduction.

Skull Crack- So the last change on this skill was more than a year ago and that made it go from 10 adrenaline to 9 adrenaline. Oh goody what an upgrade! Put this in Strength and the following:
adrenaline/casting same
Elite Melee Attack. If this hits, you deal +10...24 damage and interrupt current foe's action. If that foe was casting a spell, that foe is dazed for 10 seconds.
I know that this is just adding more damage to this skill and people may say that's "overpowering". But there are many other skills that deal more damage and I haven't seen anybody using this skill in a long time anyway so have they really cared about this 10 second daze when the rangers' Concussion Shot/Broad Headed Arrow dominate this?

Stone Sheath- Reduce the duration to 22 seconds and have the affected foes attack 33% slower.

Order of Apostasy- Reduce to 15 energy and reduce the screwing you get for using this.

Shatter Storm- Change the skills to this:
5 energy, 1 second casting time, 25 seconds recharge time
Elite Spell. Target for loses 2...7 enchantments; for each enchantment removed, you and target foe lose 1 energy. (Domination Magic).

Melandru's Arrows- Increase duration to 24 seconds.

Poison Arrow- Have casting time at 1 second.

Quick Shot- Have this deal +5 damage and leave it in no attribute.

As for the non-core professions... I don't play them enough so I don't care about them!

[turbo234]

while you have some good ideas, there would be some abuse.

scribes would increase damage dealt and could promote signet spikes. like we dont have enough spikes anyway in guild wars

for unyielding its just another healers boon but affecting all healing. however most healing is from healing prayers anyway so i would think it would need something else to make it worthy of being used.

withdraw eh i probably wouldnt use still

healing burst, meet [light of deliverance]. it would be worse imo because its limited to area.

amity..it just sucks.

divert needs to have a set amount to heal for, and for each hex removed(max of 2-3) heal for a little more. thats just my opinion.

mark of protection, well i think it should be shorter duration and shorter recharge. help against heavy pressure for a bit but not worry about the horribly long recharge as much.

pendulum well i would agree with youre idea as long as the recharge increases.

martyr i completely agree.

headbutt just needs to cost less energy

i think it could be alright if used properly in team builds but people are just better off using the nonelite frenzy.

skull crack is fine as it is imo. maybe add bleeding because that would make sense(skull being cracked and all)

stone sheath sure ill agree

order. well i think it should be reworked but it could work for those 1hp sacrificers and machoism would help regain the energy, but it should cost less energy i agree

william shatner storm, should deal damage for each enchant removed(1-4)

melandrus i think is fine. people just prefer glass arrows because of the guarenteed extra damage.

poison arrow is fine. i see it used fairly often.

quick shot, well i dont know what to say about it just needs to be buffed.

[warrior running]

some should be different but some fine the way they are

[pumpkin pie]

Do not touch my Poison Arrow :P~ If you must, change recharge time to 5 like incendiary Arrow. but then if they do that, then it should also inflict poison on 2 foes in that area, so yeah, leave it alone!

Melandru's Arrow should change to cause Daze instead of bleeding, who need it when we can Barbed Arrow?

Quick Shot is a joke of an elite compare to Read the Wind and Rapid Fire.

I suggest Quick Shot: 0 energy 3 adjacent foes. can be use with preparation

Order of Apostasy is fine, if you remove the sacrifice health, then it should be targeted ally (ie: Tainted Flesh.) and not all party members.

Shatter Storm, agree should deal damage, leave it in unlink attribute, and add this, next time the same enchantments cast by or on that same foe the caster gets interrupted and that enchantment is disable for extra 5 seconds.

Second Wind - change to cause no energy, gain 1 energy for each point of energy lost by exhaustion, skill does not cause exhaustion and the energy gain heals caster of exhaustion.

[gameshoes3003]

Second wind is sketchy, I'm not sure what to do about that.

[snaek]

yesh...lets have a monthly skill balance dedicated solely to buffin monk elites
that would make for one leet mat

[_Nihilist_]

Let's just make it so that all elite skills are one-button kills. That would solve the gripe, since ANet clearly pays Izzy to smoke crack and not give a damn.

[Faulcon]

Originally Posted by turbo234

skull crack is fine as it is imo. maybe add bleeding because that would make sense(skull being cracked and all)

Maybe deep wound (I mean your skull is cracked)

[draxynnic]

Originally Posted by turbo234

mark of protection, well i think it should be shorter duration and shorter recharge. help against heavy pressure for a bit but not worry about the horribly long recharge as much.

Agreed. It would also make it less frustrating to go up against if you've forgotten to bring enchantment removal, as it won't be up for as long before you can switch targets back.

quick shot, well i dont know what to say about it just needs to be buffed.

This is more directly aimed at the OP, but if you're going to add bonus damage to it, I'd be inclined to link it to Marksmanship. It's not like anyone's going to use it without half-decent ranks in Marksmanship, after all.

[DoomFrost]

Amity -energy - ? recharge - ? casting time - ?

Elite Hex. The next ?..?...? attacks by target foe that would damage an ally, heal for that amount instead (max heal cap?). When this spell ends, allies adjacent to target foe are healed for ?..?...? health. This spell ends if target foe is blocked.

Crappy wording but that's my idea.

[draxynnic]

I'm not sure about it ending on being blocked, or of it suddenly healing (logically, such a 'hex' could be used to turn around and start hitting your allies). Possibly something like "Hex Spell: For X seconds, the damage on all skills and attacks of target and adjacent enemies is reduced by Y. Whenever an affected creature takes damage, the reduction effect is reduced by Z% the damage taken."

Y would be set at a high figure (say around 50-100ish), so this would effective shut down damage-dealers unless they take damage - including some lower damage spells - but wouldn't be instantly shut down on taking any damage like it is now.

Pacifism could also be similarly reworked as the non-elite version of the effect.

[gameshoes3003]

Originally Posted by snaek

yesh...lets have a monthly skill balance dedicated solely to buffin monk elites
that would make for one leet mat

I wasn't just focusing on monk elites, I just found more problems with them and didn't even bother with ones I couldn't think of such as Second Wind... Oh boy that's a hopeless elite.

[Skyy High]

Originally Posted by pumpkin pie

Do not touch my Poison Arrow :P~ If you must, change recharge time to 5 like incendiary Arrow. but then if they do that, then it should also inflict poison on 2 foes in that area, so yeah, leave it alone!

You know the OP's suggestion of a 1 second cast time for Poison Arrow was a buff, right?

[pumpkin pie]

[poison arrow] has cast time?

don't confuse me, the skill does not show any cast time and giving it 1 second cast time is a buff?