Originally Posted by Praetor

But look at the duration of ether lord, maxes about 10 seconds. For a grand total of, 10 energy denied. Sure it's going to hurt a bonder, but so is malaise + wither for 4 energy degeneration for about 30 seconds (and counter the life degen on yourself with life siphon or something). On top of that, ether lord can't spam as well as malaise. Even more so, energy burn/surge denies 10 energy each at 14 dom, as well as dealing 80 dmg a piece.

Sure if you're completely out of energy, might as well use ether lord. However, ether lord still needs a longer duration to be really effective.

Originally Posted by se7en18

Vengeance.

Originally Posted by j_babs

Vengeance is a great skill, i have it equipped on my W/Mo. It brings players back for 30 seconds with no DP and with full health and energy, enough to change the tide of a battle in PvE. It has saved my team many times.

Originally Posted by NatalieD

Comparing Ether Lord to Energy Burn in terms of quantity of energy denied is misleading. Ether Lord is meant to be used when the target is at or very near zero energy. Then they're likely to go the full duration without getting back to the 5 energy needed to cast anything. (This doesn't work as well on ranger primaries, of course.) With Energy Burn, you have to either cast prematurely and only deny a few points, or wait for them to build up energy and thereby give them a chance to use it before you burn it.

Of course, you still need Energy Burn or something like it to get them down to zero in the first place, and EL is rather expensive unless you're at very low energy at the same time, so I'm not gonna say it's a great skill. But it's not useless.

Originally Posted by Neutron Star

I think you don't quite understand what the skill does. It gives one bonus strike of adrenaline on each attack for 5 seconds on all party members within radar range. How is that not good? Next time, test the skill before you decide it's crap.

Originally Posted by James Earthwarder

{Ward Againist Harm} could use some work. First of all its the only non-earth ward. This means you can't stack it with other wards. The Level 16 version gives you + 63 Armor vs Fire, and 25 Armor vs other damage. This may sound ok, but it is an elite skill. This means you have to devote your elite skill to a spell that could just be called ward againist fire. This is ok for the campaign where you can choose your enemies, but in PvP the chances of facing a significant number of fire eles is pretty darn low. It should be made a earth spell since all other wards are earth, there are 3 water elites and only one earth, and in order to cast the spell you have expose your ele to the front lines of battle where earth protection spells would really help. Secondly, to make it more effective in PvP the spell should give around 50 armor vs fire, and 35 vs other damage.

Originally Posted by Rico Carridan

Look up the ranger skill called "Greater Conflagration." Now ward vs harm is +63 al vs all physical attacks. Not too shabby for PvP IMHO, if you set up your build to take advantage of it.

Rico

Originally Posted by Rico Carridan

I'd like to have some opinions on what people think are the worst skills in the game for each class. These are skills, that, for whatever reason, have probably never found their way into any player's skill bar, pretty much ever. Maybe their effect just doesn't make sense. Maybe the energy cost is just too high to justify the effect. Maybe the spell is just too situation to ever be used. Whatever the case, I'd love to hear what people think about these skills. Also, if you have ever found an effective use for any of the skills that people claim to be the game's bottom of the barrel, I'd love to hear it.

Here's my 6:

Warrior: Deflect arrows. In principle this skill looks like it could be nice, except for the part that says "this skill ends if you attack"

Ranger: Otyugh's cry. There aren't enough random animals in any area that I can think of to make this spell worth using. If it worked on pets, I can see a lot of good things coming from this.

Elementalist: Rust. There are a few builds that *technically* would be gimped beyond any recovery if this skill was used. But nobody would ever bother bringing this skill on the off-chance that they will run into one of those builds.

Necromancer: Dary fury. If I'm reading the description correctly, this spell gives *one character* one strike of adrenaline. For 10 energy. Makes sense to me.

Monk: Vital Blessing. I don't know of any builds that benefit from -1 energy regeneration for a bit of extra health.

Mesmer: Signet of Humility. Disabling an elite skill is a nice idea, but let's be honest here, you're a mesmer. If you want to disable the enemy's elite skill, use diversion or something. Frankly, I don't think there are any elite skills in the game that are dangerous enough to warrant bringing something like this along. Maybe before ER was nerfed there might have been some advantage to this.

Rico

Originally Posted by Sum1

most of these make sense but wital blessing is very usefull for a W/Mo- they can reach over 1k hp with a few hp skills and the skill i find most useless in the game is the rangers elite quick shot-big deal in exchange for 5 energy shoot twice as fast-like geeze take barrage and anniihilate-+15 damage 5 energy cost no recharge-i didnt even bother with quick shot

Originally Posted by Neutron Star

I think you don't quite understand what the skill does. It gives one bonus strike of adrenaline on each attack for 5 seconds on all party members within radar range. How is that not good? Next time, test the skill before you decide it's crap.

Originally Posted by Too Hot Fo You

erm ...

I like it to play my Ranger, and I must say that for a damage RAnger, Quickshot is the best elite ingame!!!

Go and test the elites first, barrage sucks if you don't have the right conditions to use it.

Originally Posted by Peewee

if u really dont like drok runs then u could always sabotage a runners efforts, and put one near the avicari, or worms. that would piss em off