Elite skill

Elite skills are especially powerful skills designed to be used infrequently and have a dramatic effect on the tide of a battle. The last slot on the skill bar is reserved for elite skills. Elite skills typically have much longer recharge times compared to normal utility skills — very few recharge in less than 60 seconds, and some can take up to 4 minutes.
Acquisition[edit]
Elite skills become available when a character reaches level 31. Elite skills associated with an elite specialization become available when a character reaches level 80 and has access to Heart of Thorns or Path of Fire content. Most characters will have access to seven or more elite skills, three of them determined by profession, three determined by race and the remaining one by elite specialization. Some races (e.g. norn) have more elite skills than others, balanced by a smaller pool of racial utility skills. Racial elite skills are only usable in PvE and World versus World, and not in Structured PvP.
Characters must unlock Healing skills and Utility skills of a determined skill type before unlocking elite skills. Racial elite skills and Mistfire Wolf unlock automatically at level 31.
While in Heart of the Mists, all characters have access to all skills excluding racial elite skills and Mistfire Wolf. This allows lower level characters to experiment with different skills and see which elite skills they want to unlock first. Some professions only have one elite skill which can be used while in underwater mode. None of the racial elite skills can be used underwater. While it is possible to equip two different elite skills, one during underwater mode and one on the ground, using an elite skill will still cause the slot to be in recharge for the elite skill used, even if using a different elite skill underwater or while on land.
Profession elite skills[edit]
Skill | ![]() |
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Description | ||
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"Feel My Wrath!" | ¼ | 30 | Shout. Grant fury and quickness to nearby allies. The duration of the quickness you grant yourself is doubled. | |||
Renewed Focus | 2 | 90 | Meditation. Focus, making yourself invulnerable and recharging your virtues. | |||
Signet of Courage | 2 | ½90 | Signet Passive: Periodically heal allies in an area around you while in combat. Signet Active: Fully heal nearby allies. | |||
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Dragon's Maw | ![]() |
½ | 75 | Trap. Lay a trap that pulls enemies and creates a barrier that holds them in. | ||
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Mantra of Liberation | 2 | ¾40 | Mantra. Echo remnants of an ancient pamphlet from Vabbi that urged Elonians to freedom. Grant stability and swiftness to allies while breaking stun. The final charge of this ability is more powerful. | |||
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1 | Hints of freedom echo around, stabilizing and breaking stuns on you and your allies. | ||||
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1 | Final Charge. Your whispers guard your allies, stabilizing and breaking stuns on them while weakening enemies. | ||||
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Embrace the Darkness | ½ | 3 | Legendary Demon. Summon the power of the legendary demon to transform into a powerful avatar. Pulse torment to nearby foes. Using skills that cost energy increases the torment applied on the next pulse. | |||
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Legendary Demon. End Embrace the Darkness early. | |||||
Energy Expulsion | ![]() |
2 | Legendary Centaur. Force energy to erupt from the tablet, knocking back nearby foes and leaving behind healing fragments that heal allies who pick them up. Lose all remaining energy and remove conditions from allies based on the amount of energy lost. | |||
Jade Winds | 1 | 5 | Legendary Assassin. Call upon the Jade Wind to turn nearby enemies into jade, stunning them for a short duration. | |||
Rite of the Great Dwarf | 1 | ¼Legendary Dwarf. Channel the power of the Rite of the Great Dwarf to turn yourself and nearby allies to stone to reduce incoming damage. | ||||
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Facet of Chaos | Legendary Dragon. Facet. Place the Facet of Chaos on yourself to grant nearby allies protection every few seconds. | |||||
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¾ | 20 | Legendary Dragon. Consume. Consume Facet of Chaos, releasing chaotic winds damaging and knocking back foes while granting superspeed to allies. Facet of Chaos will be disabled while this skill is recharging. | |||
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Soulcleave's Summit | ![]() |
1 | 3 | Legendary Renegade. Summon Lieutenant Ofela Soulcleave to grant your allies' strikes incredible bloodthirst, inflicting damage and restoring health. Lieutenant Soulcleave can only empower players. | ||
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Order Ofela Soulcleave to leave the field. | |||||
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Battle Standard | 2 | 180 | Banner. Place a battle standard that revives fallen allies and finishes downed foes. Once placed, the banner periodically grants boons to allies. Picking up the banner reduces the recharge of this skill. | |||
Rampage | ![]() |
1 | 120 | Physical. Take the form of a massive juggernaut, reducing the damage you take and the duration of incoming movement-impeding conditions. | ||
Signet of Rage | 1 | 60 | Signet Passive: Grants adrenaline. Signet Active: Gain fury, might, and swiftness. | |||
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Head Butt | ![]() |
¾ | 20 | Rage. Stun your target and stun yourself. Gain adrenaline and extend berserk duration if you hit. This skill removes all stability and deals increased damage if stability was removed. | ||
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Winds of Disenchantment | 1 | ½90 | Meditation. Create an area of calm where foes cannot receive boons and lose boons every interval. Enemy missiles entering this area are blocked. | |||
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Elite Mortar Kit | ![]() |
Engineering Kit. Equip the mortar kit. | ||||
Elixir X | ![]() |
1 | 105 | Elixir. Drink Elixir X to become a rampaging brute or whirling tornado. Underwater, become either a withering plague or a whirlpool. | ||
Supply Crate | ![]() |
1 | 120 | Turret. Request a supply drop of turrets. Turrets overcharge when they are first dropped. | ||
Supply Crate | ![]() |
1 | 120 | Turret. Request a supply drop of turrets. Turrets overcharge when they are first dropped. | ||
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Sneak Gyro | ¾ | 45 | Well. Deploy a sneak gyro to provide stealth to nearby allies. | |||
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Prime Light Beam | ![]() |
1 | ¼60 | Exceed. Charge up and fire an explosive beam of light in front of you. When activated above the heat threshold, this attack leaves behind a burning holographic field. | ||
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Entangle | ![]() |
¾ | 60 | Survival. Entangle foes around you with vines. Entangled foes bleed and are immobilized until the vines are destroyed. | ||
"Strength of the Pack!" | 1 | 75 | Command. Rampage with your pet, gaining stability, fury, and swiftness. You and your pet also grant might to each other when you attack. | |||
Spirit of Nature | 1 | ½120 | Spirit. Summon a spirit that heals allies. Command the spirit to revive and cure conditions on nearby allies. Spirits lose health when their passive activates and die if the summoner moves out of range. | |||
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¼ | 40 | Your spirit of nature teleports to your location and then sacrifices its health to revive and cure the conditions of nearby downed allies. Health is only sacrificed if an ally is revived. | |||
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Glyph of the Stars | ![]() |
60 | Glyph. Channel the power of the stars to prevent harm to your allies. | |||
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One Wolf Pack | ¼ | 60 | Stance. Your successful attacks will trigger a second strike while in this stance. This effect can occur once per interval. | |||
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Basilisk Venom | 1 | 40 | Venom. Your attacks are unblockable and turn foes to stone. | |||
Dagger Storm | ![]() |
2 | ¾90 | Trick. Spin around, reflecting projectiles and throwing daggers that cripple and bleed nearby foes. You can move while spinning. | ||
Thieves Guild | 1 | ½120 | Deception. Call more thieves to support you in combat. | |||
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Impact Strike | ![]() |
½ | 40 | Physical. Strike your enemy and stun[sic] them. | ||
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¾ | Deal a heavy blow with your fist, sending enemies flying. | |||
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1 | ½Deal a downward strike on your foe. Downed enemies struck with this ability are finished. | |||
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Shadow Meld | ½ | 5 | Cantrip. Remove revealed and stealth yourself. | |||
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Conjure Fiery Greatsword | ![]() |
1 | 180 | Conjure. Manifest a fiery greatsword in your hands and at the target location. When it lands, it damages and burns foes. Wielders of this weapon gain increased power and condition damage and cast Lesser Fiery Eruption at regular intervals on random enemies. | ||
Glyph of Elementals | ![]() |
1 | ¼40 | Glyph. Summon an elemental based on your attunement. | ||
Tornado | ![]() |
1 | 150 | Cantrip. Gain stability and shape-shift into a tornado that damages and launches foes. | ||
Whirlpool | ![]() |
1 | ¼180 | Cantrip. Shape-shift into a swirling maelstrom that pulls foes into its destructive vortex. | ||
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"Rebound!" | ¼ | 75 | Shout. Shout and infuse your allies with arcane energy. Allies who would take lethal damage while this is active ignore the deathblow and are healed instead. If the effect expires naturally, grant an aura based on your current attunement. | |||
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Weave Self | ¾ | 90 | Stance. Temporarily reduce the recharge time of attunements while gaining bonuses for attuning to new elements. Successfully attuning to all elements ends this stance and grants Perfect Weave. | |||
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¾ | Release all of your woven elements and end your Weave Self stance, causing gravity itself to unravel around you. | ||||
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Mass Invisibility | 1 | ¼60 | Manipulation. You and all your allies gain stealth for a short time. | |||
Signet of Humility | 1 | 120 | Signet Passive: Reduces duration of incoming stuns, dazes, fears, and taunts. Signet Active: Transform your foe into a moa bird. (Defiant foes will have their defiant bar reduced instead.) | |||
Time Warp | ¼ | 180 | Glamour. Create an area that warps time, granting you and your allies quickness. Enemies in the field are slowed. | |||
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Gravity Well | ![]() |
1 | 90 | Well. Create a powerful well that warps space in an area, knocking down, floating, and pulling foes caught in its event horizon. When it expires, foes still inside the well take heavy damage. | ||
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Jaunt | ![]() |
½ | Deception. Shadowstep to a target location and confuse nearby foes. | |||
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Lich Form | ![]() |
1 | 150 | Spectral. Assume the form of a lich for a brief time. Entering this form removes all other spectral effects. Gain life force when this skill ends. | ||
Plaguelands | 1 | 90 | Corruption. Create a virulent cloud that inflicts conditions on foes in its area. This plague inflicts additional conditions every second it persists. Inflict bleeding on yourself. | |||
Summon Flesh Golem | 1 | ½48 | Minion. Summon a flesh golem to attack foes with crippling claws. | |||
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¾ | 40 | Command your flesh golem to gain stability and charge a foe, knocking down or launching enemies in its path. | |||
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"Chilled to the Bone!" | 1 | ¼90 | Shout. Freeze all enemies around you, inflicting conditions on them. Gain boons for each foe you freeze. | |||
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Ghastly Breach | ¾ | 75 | Punishment. Breach into the realm of torment for a brief time, granting might to allies and slowing enemies. Convert a boon on enemies into torment and cripple each pulse. |
Racial elite skills[edit]
Skill | ![]() |
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Description | ||
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Summon 7-Series Golem | ![]() |
2 | 180 | Summon a 7-Series attacking golem to fight for you. | ||
Summon D-Series Golem | ![]() |
2 | 180 | Summon a D-Series defensive golem. | ||
Summon Power Suit | ![]() |
2 | 240 | Summon a Power Suit which you or your allies can enter and use to combat foes. | ||
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Artillery Barrage | ![]() |
2 | 240 | Call down an artillery barrage at target location, damaging foes. | ||
Charrzooka | ![]() |
½ | 180 | Pull out a powerful charrzooka that shoots rockets. | ||
Warband Support | ![]() |
1 | ½240 | Call in members of your warband to assist you. | ||
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Avatar of Melandru | ![]() |
180 | Transform into an Avatar of Melandru. | |||
Hounds of Balthazar | ![]() |
1 | 240 | Summon two Hounds of Balthazar to fight at your side. | ||
Reaper of Grenth | ![]() |
1 | 180 | Become a Reaper of Grenth, chilling and poisoning nearby foes. | ||
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Become the Bear | ![]() |
¼ | 240 | Shape-shift into norn bear form. | ||
Become the Raven | ![]() |
½ | 240 | Shape-shift into norn raven form. | ||
Become the Snow Leopard | ![]() |
½ | 240 | Shape-shift into norn snow leopard form. | ||
Become the Wolf | ![]() |
½ | 240 | Shape-shift into norn wolf form. | ||
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Summon Druid Spirit | ![]() |
2 | ¾240 | Summon a Druid Spirit to fight at your side. | ||
Summon Sylvan Hound | ![]() |
2 | 180 | Summon a sylvan hound to fight at your side. | ||
Take Root | ![]() |
3 | 150 | Take root at your current location, becoming immobile, but causing several turrets to grow nearby. |
Common elite skills[edit]
Skill | ![]() |
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Description |
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Mistfire Wolf | ![]() |
1 | 150 | Summon a Mistfire Wolf to fight at your side. |
Mistfire Wolf is available to any character on any pre-purchased Digital Deluxe or Collector's Edition account.
Related traits[edit]
Spiritual Reckoning (Retribution) — Gain retaliation when you use an elite skill.
Expose Defenses (Devastation) — Your first attack when entering combat applies vulnerability. This ability is refreshed when you use an elite skill.
Notoriety (Devastation) — Might grants you more power and less condition damage. Gain might when using a legendary stance skill.
Power Wrench (Tools) — Reduces recharge of your tool-kit skills. Reduce the recharge of your elite skill when you dodge.
Payback (Deadeye) — When Renewing Gaze triggers, this trait restores a portion of the recharge time needed by your healing, utility, and elite skills. Excludes racial skills.
Related equipment[edit]
Runes[edit]
- Superior Rune of Altruism - transfer a condition from nearby allies to yourself
- Superior Rune of the Citadel - call an Artillery Barrage at your position
- Superior Rune of the Firebrand - inflict Burning to nearby enemies
- Superior Rune of the Ice - inflict Chill to nearby enemies
- Superior Rune of the Krait - inflict Bleeding, Poison, and Torment to nearby enemies
- Superior Rune of Leadership - convert conditions to boons on nearby allies
- Superior Rune of Lyssa - convert conditions to boons on yourself
- Superior Rune of the Mad King - cast Hunter's Call on nearby enemies
- Superior Rune of the Nightmare - inflict Blind and transfer a condition to nearby enemies
- Superior Rune of Resistance - gain Resistance
- Superior Rune of the Sunless - inflict Poison and Fear on nearby enemies
- Superior Rune of Surging - gain Shocking Aura