Elite Skill Request

We are all limited to one Elite skill and have one Elite Skill Slot due to them being stronger than non elite ones. But what if I don't want to use any of my elite skills?What if I want to use some normal skill instead of Elite one?What if my build would benefit more from a normal skill than an elite option that I have?I understand reasons why you can't choose more than one elite, but why are we forced to pick one at all cost? You can't not pick one at all. You are forced to have one Elite skill. You don't have option to use normal one instead.

Why cant normal skills be put into normal AND elite slos? And Elite skill can only be placed into Elite slot.

Why are we limited both ways?

Cause build diversity is a potential balance issue. To prevent this the skills are grouped together. altough an eliteskill is more powerfull, the effect can be less. for example a build using mesmerclones. Having the option to add another mesmerclone would cause additional issue with balancing such a build.

But it is balanced as that build sacrifices a stonger spell for other option.Generally you can always build your character around your normal and elite skills.Usually stacking one mechanic too much gets a negative impact on your build.For example 1+ 1 is 100% increase. 2+1 is 50% increase, 3+1 is 33%. Etc....

Because many utilities would be better than elites and that would change builds massively, I'm not saying its a bad thing but ANet would never do it.

And then you have Revenants who don't have any other skill to choose from to replace the elite. Not that I'm complaining, just pointing it out.

Now, if you wanted an idea I could get behind - let me switch which slot my elite skill goes into. That would help the people that want per-toon key binds, but instead they'd get static key binds, but the ability to change which skills are activated by that key. So if I had an elite that I wanted to use off-cool down on one character, but on another I wanted to use my heal off-cool down (for explanation purposes only), then I could switch those both to say the '7' key instead of the '0' and '6', respectively.

@"Rukia.4802" said:Because many utilities would be better than elites and that would change builds massively, I'm not saying its a bad thing but ANet would never do it.

And now we got to the core of the problem. Since its global everyone would benefit from it so I doubt that one spec could benefit from it more than the rest. All in all, its a very needed change because right now, some specs have WAY STRONGER elite spells than other ones which is really dull and umbalanced.Also this one change would bring so many innovative builds to this stale meta and remove the "best in slot" kings that rule for years now in many specs. Where one elite spell is used in every build as its just better than the others.Its as if you are afraid of people having options to play multiple builds and options and not just spam one or two metas that everyone knows how to play with and against?

I'd love to put a regular skill into the 10th skill slot instead of having to use an Elite skill on multiple professions.

Same reason, why we have tonuse a heal skill for the 6th Skill... Same reason, why the first 5 Skills are bound by weapons.... Anet may not change this structure, it would not be gw2 anymore... Dont change it pls!

Elementalists have been asking this same question for years. The real question we should be asking is why are some utility skills more powerful than so called elite skills.

The skill system is a core gameplay mechanic of Gw2 since day 1. Changing it now would be really jarring and horrible. Not to mention a nightmare to balance.Just look at what happened to Mirage when they removed 1 dodge in WvW.Mirage is now useless in big WvW fights because you can't dodge more than once to avoid damage, and you need to slot some utility specifically for dodges like Blink and waste an utility slot just to get what other professions have by default.It's never a good idea to mess with core gameplay mechanic that the rest of the game is balanced around.

Think about it. The entirety of the game is balanced around you having 1-5 weapons kills, 1 heal skill, 3 utility and 1 elite.Now, let players just add a 4th utility instead of an elite, and calculate how much options that adds for builds.Now balance all of it, or at least put yourself in their shoes.

Even PvE is balanced around the 5 weapon skill, 1 heal 3 utility 1 ultimate and 2 dodges mechanic.But PvE is not everything in the game, now imagine having to balance it for every game type.

Too much work for not really any benefit.

There's some builds I'd want to change up if I could replace the tenth slot with a utility, but I've got no problem with them having this limitation.

I think the real question is why so many elite skills are so weak. In many games the elite or ultimate skills are class defining and huge factors to a character's strength, but many in GW2 are just a utility skill with a larger cooldown.

After playing Guild Wars for 7 years, I found the overall skill implementation in GW2 (including Elite Skills and the "locked to a slot" mechanic) to be an enormous letdown.

I get the whole "but game balance" desire which was used to justify the skill setup in GW2, but frankly I'd rather have had the smaller imbalances I saw in Guild Wars than the ludicrous "optimal build/player does 10x the damage of an average build/player" we see in GW2.

Regardless, neither the skill setup nor the effectiveness gap is going to change. ANet may not see these things as issues, and they probably don't have either the resources or the will to engage in what would be a large undertaking.

Exactly because its easier to have 1-2 builds that are 10x stronger than the rest, for each class, and than you just tune those builds to be in line, so neither class can complain vs other a lot without the argument "but you can play XXX build of yours and be good. Your class is fine" the rest of the builds are plain disappointment to the top one or two, thus its a cut of balance work for Arena.net. It is truly sad.

Because after GW1, where you could slot anything anywhere -- but were still limited to one whole elite skill, if at all -- and the advent of "High Design," you get a dedicated skillbar.

Mostly because the existence of weapon skills (as opposed to skills which use weapons) forced this layout.

Lots of elites are highly situational, or downright useless. Some specs only have these worthless skills as their elites, but have insanely powerful non-elites.The entire system needs reworking. This would just add to the enormous balance issues.

They could at least revise/buff CC-centric elite skills, such as Basilisk Venom and Signet of Humility; while undeniably useful in PvP and against breakbars, they become immediately useless against defiant enemies with no breakbar.

@Rukia.4802 said:Because many utilities would be better than elites and that would change builds massively, I'm not saying its a bad thing but ANet would never do it.

I'mma say it. It's a bad thing.