Talk:Elite Tome

That's just sooo cool! I wonder what the price is going to be at the traders?! ^^--JP 14:40, 19 April 2007 (CDT)
 * I highly doubt you can get them from traders.--SBR 15:19, 19 April 2007 (CDT)
 * I was thinking from rare scroll traders would probably take them and sell them on. ;o) --JP 16:10, 19 April 2007 (CDT)
 * I wouldn't be surprised if traders don't buy them.BigAstro 16:17, 19 April 2007 (CDT)

Huh drops em ?
What will drop Elite Tome's in hard mode ?
 * Wait and see. BigAstro 14:37, 19 April 2007 (CDT)
 * I wonder if learning the elite will count towards skill hunter? Lord of all tyria 14:39, 19 April 2007 (CDT)
 * I clearly wasted my time for skill hunter :p--Blade [[Image:smallscout.png]] (talk|contribs) 14:41, 19 April 2007 (CDT)
 * It might not, and the cynic in me says it'll be easier to just go cap it anyway. Lord of all tyria 14:43, 19 April 2007 (CDT)
 * We really don't know yet, but just like everything else, I bet they're going to be ridiculous expensive for a few months.. then someone figures out how to farm them and they plummet to a reasonable price. Then it becomes, "Do I want to take my Paragon half-way through factions to get a skill or do I just wanna pay a few plat and buy the skill tome?" BigAstro 14:51, 19 April 2007 (CDT)
 * I think their most important use might be to let a new PVE char learn a good Elite or 2 early on. And yes, Elites learned that way will certainly count towards Skill Hunter. If they wouldn't, just using 2 of these would make it impossible to attain max skill hunter, counting Junundu Siege. --[[Image:Roland_icon.png]]Roland of Gilead (talk) 16:53, 19 April 2007 (CDT)
 * Perhaps they will be semi-common, but cost extra gold (say 3-5k) or multiple skills points per use. Kind of like a skill trainer in your pocket.
 * I think an important thing to realize is that by using one of these, you lose out on the 5,000 xp from an Elite capture. On very easily capped Elites like Word of Healing, Palm Strike, Burning Arrow, etc. using an Elite Tome is silliness.
 * It's not silliness if a new lvl 1 character gets an Elite before even doing the first mission on the beginner's isle. You will be hard pressed to cap an Elite of your choice in the first explorable area, no? --[[Image:Roland_icon.png]]Roland of Gilead (talk) 04:42, 20 April 2007 (CDT)


 * An Elite tome costs you: Some platinum.
 * A Capture costs you: Time, 1k, and a Skillpoint.
 * Unless you are very hard-pressed for Skillpoints (Factions or NF characters...Prophecies not so much), it is therefore usually in your favor to just capture a skill. The big exceptions will be things like the Avatar skills (runners to cap those ALL the time), Feast of Corruption, Shadow Prison, and also very popular Elites like Moebius Strike and Searing Flames...not necessarily a hard or long cap, but just wanted for new characters immediately for Pwnage. So, the Elite Tome does bring some new options to the table, but by and large (unless they are really common drops) I would always take SoC instead. Besides - buying SoC and actually capping gets you out into the world, so you can work on Quests, Explorer title, Survivor title (sometimes), Treasure Hunter...etc, all at the same time. Simply buying and using a Tome won't do that. [[Image:Entropy Sig.jpg]] (T/C) 21:56, 19 April 2007 (CDT)
 * I hate the Factions campaign. I've completed it with my ranger(and I really do mean completed it, protector, all elites capped, all quests done except 1, maybe 2), and I have NO intention of ever playing though that awful campaign again. I don't want to quest there, I don't want to exlore there(my ranger's at 91.7%, that's really all of Cantha I need to see), and I certainly don't wanna play through Vizunah, Nahpui, Arborstone, all the primary quests required to ACCESS those missions, etc. Now, here's the problem, there are elites I want in late game factions for my rit, and there are a couple of elites I want for my assassin. Now, I could play those characters through the entire boring campaign again, or I could shell out a few plat and get the skills I want without ever having to go to Cantha again. So for me, there's really no contest there at all, in this instance, tomes>>>>>capping. DKS01 09:23, 21 April 2007 (CDT)


 * and paragons have no elites in factions :P--71.195.42.77 22:21, 20 April 2007 (CDT)

To stop indenting (:P), I am so using this on my ele for savanna heat, bsurge, and invoke lightning.--Nog64Talk 22:02, 19 April 2007 (CDT)

A question...
According the the GW web site it states "to learn any elite profession skill already unlocked on your account", my question is this, if you've got one character highly advanced on the Skill Hunter title, won't this effectively "copy" that title across to another character when they use this tome? --Wolfie (talk|contribs) 22:18, 19 April 2007 (CDT)
 * If you have 90 of these, and a cahracter with every profession unlocked, then yes.--Nog64Talk [[Image:Yaaaay.png|19px]] 22:22, 19 April 2007 (CDT)
 * Was more thinking of those that have managed to reach the Expert Skill Hunter rank or above. If that is the case, might inflate the price of these Tomes above what the "average" player could afford. --Wolfie [[Image:Wolfie_sig.jpg|19px]] (talk|contribs) 22:44, 19 April 2007 (CDT)
 * EDIT: - Just read the Games Update page on the GW web site, the tomes are "profession specific", so one tome will NOT "copy" all the available elites. This is a much better approach, and resolves my concerns. --Wolfie [[Image:Wolfie_sig.jpg|19px]] (talk|contribs) 22:56, 19 April 2007 (CDT)
 * Eh, what will happen is that to "copy" a Title like that you need craploads of these, over 150 (I think). Assuming a low cost of 3k, that is still a staggering total cost of three times more what it costs on SoC captures alone. Sure, rich folks out there can afford such extravagence. But really in the end, what it means is that (A) Demand goes through the roof. (B) Hard Mode gains huge popularity for farming these, if possible. (C) Prices necessarily stay high, like with Black Dye and Superior Vigor, because even though there's a healthy supply, they will be hard to get due to randomness...and because like rare mods, players can sell for whatever they want. (D) Eventually prices stabilize because enough will have been used by the very rich, and the novelty wears off. (E) Many players will still use SoC, either because they are first-time aquirers of rare skills like BSurge, or because they are poor. [[Image:Entropy Sig.jpg]] (T/C) 22:49, 19 April 2007 (CDT)
 * I don't think the prices will stay high like black dye/sup vigor, because there is more than one way to acquire the elite skills, and if the price gets too high, then most people are likely to opt for just spending the 1k+skill point on the SoCRiveted 13:25, 21 April 2007 (CDT)

Uses and title track
One dropped in Great Northern Wall for a guildie. He's confirmed that it adds to the title of the campaign of the skill you choose, with core adding 1 point for each title. He's also confirmed the one use. --Destillat 02:26, 20 April 2007 (CDT)


 * Did using it cost him a skill point? --Heurist 05:01, 20 April 2007 (CDT)

Stacking
Has anyone collected enough Tomes to know if they stack? And if so, how? For example, do two Ranger Elite Tomes stack? -- AnticDevices 09:31, 20 April 2007 (CDT)
 * The non-elite tomes stack, so I would assume the elites do too. --Theeth (talk)   11:22, 20 April 2007 (CDT)
 * Cool, thanks! -- AnticDevices 11:38, 20 April 2007 (CDT)

Capturing elites vs Elite tome
The value of tomes might only be that it doesnt cost a skill point, when you consider:

1. The toning down of 'normal mode' will make it easier to cap skills. Simply switch over to normal mode when you want an elite. 2. Its still only possible to get these tones as drops from bosses and chests, therefore it will be rare so acquiring a mass of these will be difficult even if you had enough money.

If you spent a lot of time and effort capping every elite in the game, how can we begrudge you using a few of these to give your other characters some of those elites?

So I think 'copying' a skill hunter title to a lvl 1 char will be extremely difficult and a complete waste of money and xp in my opinion. So fear of this happening is a bit premature. There are always ways to get around hard graft but lets stop worrying about what other are doing and just enjoy the great new features of hard mode. 196.25.255.214 11:19, 20 April 2007 (CDT) ZAM
 * Well, ANet doesn't like it when people instantaneously give their chars stuff, so my guess this is for people who have unlocked a skill on another char or with Balth faction and need it on another char (for an example I already gave, I need Savannah Heat for my ele, and she is not far enough in Nightfall to get it. So, a tome is a very good option).--Nog64Talk [[Image:Yaaaay.png|19px]] 16:47, 20 April 2007 (CDT)

Basically an easy way to obtain elites advanced in campaigns, very useful. Solus  19:33, 20 April 2007 (CDT)
 * It comes down to an easy (but expensive) method and a hard (but cheaper) method. I know I'd certainly rather pay 30-40k instead of getting my monk to droks, run to the granite citadel, find a group, and cap Shield of Judgement. ~Avatarian 86 01:01, 21 April 2007 (CDT)
 * I need Warriors Endurance, but thats a boss who appears only somtimes, and only after I've already beaten half the mission. 3,000 Balthazar, Elite Skill Tome, POOF! Urock 12:51, 21 April 2007 (CDT)

What if I find like 7 Ritualist Non-elite Tomes and 1 Ritualist Elite Tome? Can I make full Ritualist build even if he is level 2? That would be so cool... - &mdash; Abedeus   03:39, 21 April 2007 (CDT)
 * You don't really need the non-elite tomes. Just buy the skills from the beginner town trainer after you have unlocked them. You only need the elite tome. --[[Image:Roland_icon.png]]Roland of Gilead (talk) 03:46, 21 April 2007 (CDT)
 * Well, I guess they non-elite tomes would also be needed if the skills in question are Nightfall skills. (Also low level chars would lack skillpoints to buy the skills anyway.) -Taala 05:36, 21 April 2007 (CDT)
 * You won't find any tomes when low lvl... You can't kill the monsters in hard mode, and then they won't drop anything! ~ DriXiLB 05:42, 21 April 2007 (CDT)
 * No, but you could buy em off other players, or as Solus says below, get as drops while using other chars in HM. --Wolfie [[Image:Wolfie_sig.jpg|19px]] (talk|contribs) 06:24, 21 April 2007 (CDT)
 * I'm figuring that the non-elite tomes will cost something close to 1k Riveted 13:21, 21 April 2007 (CDT)
 * probebly because: how would buy an non-elite tome for 2k while you can buy your skills from skill trainer for just 1k. but elite tomes are worth a lot more i think maybe you think SoC is also 1k your right but most plp are to lazy to travel from factions to prophecies then do the Thunderhead keep mission just to get to ring of fire isle to cap Echo or something like thatFox007 15:41, 22 April 2007 (CDT)
 * By the way, if you unlock skills on a character/account that doesn't have the campaign in question (your statement seems to imply that you can get Nightfall skills for characters that do no thave Nightfall), you gain the skill but it is greyed out and unusable until you purchase Nightfall. -Scyfer 21:51, 28 April 2007 (CDT)

Get on other accounts... Solus  06:11, 21 April 2007 (CDT)

i'd really like to help making this wiki better, but the only thing i can do atm is giving you this picture of an monk elite tome: http://img223.imageshack.us/img223/1344/karteab7.jpg cya

Wow. Now I can finally have RC and Fevered Dreams without having to go through all that stupid Ring of Fire-random-bosses-keke-proph-hates-you crap. 08:36, 22 April 2007 (CDT)

People are selling these for 15k, which to me seems like a total rip.--Bloo Kazoo 23:50, 22 April 2007 (CDT)
 * i donno, i might pay 15k to not have to go out to taska's demise and cap again. --Honorable Sarah [[image:Honorable_Icon.gif]] 23:53, 22 April 2007 (CDT)

Tomes are another bad "good idea". It just makes the Skill Hunter track useless. Any rich guy who has no skill at the game but has a lot of time to farm will eventually get the title. Before these tomes arrived, you HAD to send a character over there and actually capture the skill. And some of them are not THAT easy to get... Now, all you have to do is spend 3000 balthazar points (easy enough to get them even with no skill), and some cash. pfff... Anet would have done a better job if the tomes would unlock only captured (as opposed to unlocked) skill. Easy to make the difference : if the skill belongs to any of your PvE character, it has been captured... Just like one of your PvE character acting as a tutor to another... oh well... Will display legendary cartographer instead now ; at least this title is still clean! Yves 08:16, 23 April 2007 (CDT)
 * The equivalent here to capping 290 skills, is to spend at least 3mil gold, and up to 1mil balth faction. yeah, it's partially buyable, but it is still an impressive effort. some would even say that I, who capped all of the skills, have chosen the easy way out. Foo 08:42, 23 April 2007 (CDT)
 * Actually, nobody would spend that much money and balt points, I agree ; but now you can easily cap those easy 80 first skills (say you're in Tyria), and buy those last 10 which you were unable to get before, either because you could not complete a mission, or because you found the boss too difficult to reach or defeat. So, You'll easily get the last 10% difficult elite by paying 300k (oh well! how much is that ?) and 100000 balt (yeah ; can takes some time, but no skill at all!). Yves 05:36, 24 April 2007 (CDT)


 * If I had that much money, I can just pay a 7-man team to kill everything between me and the boss, and capture that last 10% of the skills I'm missing. Heck, if someone is willing to pay me 10k, I'd go do Mineral Springs with 3 heroes and 3 henchies with him and kill the boss for him to cap, all he has to do is die when all my folks die so we can respawn at the res shrine.  That's probably easier AND faster for him than getting the Bal factions (unless there is an overabundence of Flame of Balthazar. -User:PanSola (talk to the [[Image:follower of Lyssa.png]]) 06:22, 24 April 2007 (CDT)
 * Right ; but such a transaction may take some time, and you're not even sure the other guy will keep his promise (he could be incompetent, he could take your money and run, he could have to disconnect before the completion, name it...) Just see the Droknar runs troubles... Better to do it on your own if you can! Gaining 3000 balt should be done within less than 2 hours of arena play, even if you're really incompetent! The time to find the right guy, negociatiting, getting there etc... and maybe retrying should something go amiss is likely to be much more! I've done arena for the sole reason to unlock some (20, 30 ?) basic skills for heroes! People WILL do it to put their hands on a title... Yves 08:20, 24 April 2007 (CDT)
 * I never thought much of the skill hunter title at all, often you're acquiring skills that make NO sense on a single character. This is one title I always thought should be account based, if you have every skill in the game unlocked and thus likely more applicable characters to boot.  Though I suppose GW ruins that model with the ability to buy the pvp skill pack for a chapter.  Still I'm always more about functional, so why one is capping the primary elites from another class they can never effectively use... eh whatever.  You already have survivor 3 for patting someone on the back for over-capping lol --CKaz 16:50, 24 April 2007 (CDT)

Gallery format
Is it just me or do others feel that using the gallery code makes the page kinda... big? &mdash; kyrasantae   23:44, 21 April 2007 (CDT)
 * It looked big to start with >_> -- Xeon 23:46, 21 April 2007 (CDT)
 * It feels like a lot of wasted whitespace right now, since the images use up only a quarter of the size of the gallery box. Maybe we could whip up something like the icons gallery in the Miniatures page.  &mdash; [[Image:Fin_sig.gif|User:Kyrasantae]] kyrasantae   23:50, 21 April 2007 (CDT)
 * Well, once MW 1.10 is released (and out for a couple weeks) I can upgrade us and then you can set image height and width for galleries. But that might not be for a while.  --Fyren 00:00, 22 April 2007 (CDT)

Skill Hunter
Well, I've used 2 of these now(1 rit, 1 assn), and neither character had his skill hunter track go up. Is it not working like it's supposed to or what? I'm not aiming for the title on either character so I don't care, just wondered if I'd found a bug or something. DKS01 19:29, 25 April 2007 (CDT)
 * Just a wild guess, but I'd imagine its a bug and the title will increase by to include skills acquired via the elite tomes the next time you capture one from a boss using an SoC. That was the case for the LB signet, so it seems likely that a similar bug arose.  Mechasoupx 20:04, 25 April 2007 (CDT)
 * When I used a Mesmer one a few days ago it did update my title progression. RossMM 06:21, 27 April 2007 (CDT)
 * Maybe it acts like Lightbringer Signet and isn't counted until you capture another skill?--Devils Apprentice 11:53, 29 April 2007 (CDT)
 * Well now I don't know what's going on. The first rit tome I used(to get Ritual Lord) didn't start me on the Canthan elite track(I have capped 0 elites with my rit). I used a second one to get Spirit's Strength though, now it shows me as being on both Elonian and Canthan Skill Hunter tracks. Still haven't capped any elites with him either.

Combine with Non-Elite Tome
seems liek most people will be going to skill tomes to figure out what they are.. I'd rather see the Elite Tome page and Non-Elite Tome pages redirect to a common page with general info and then just both tables of pics. This isn't a topic that is likely to grow so I don't see the value in two seprate pages, in fact it seems more confusing. But, I'm guessing I will be in the minority on that so I am simply posting it as a sugestion.
 * /agree --Soulflame 03:21, 29 April 2007 (CDT)

Elite Tomes restricted to your own profession?
Are Elite (and non, but I've only heard of elite) tomes usable by any profession, or are you, say, restricted to using a monk tome if you are a monk, etc? Forum posts indicate yes, but I have not had this confirmed, first hand or on here. --Scyfer 21:53, 28 April 2007 (CDT)
 * As long as either your primary or secondary profession is that of the tome, you can use it. &mdash; [[Image:Fin_sig.gif|User:Kyrasantae]] kyrasantae   22:20, 28 April 2007 (CDT)

What do people feel as being the hardest elite to cap in the game?
Nominations:
 * Feast of Corruption

It totally surprised me how much somebody was willing to pay for a necro elite tome. -User:PanSola (talk to the ) 08:38, 29 April 2007 (CDT)

You can easily hench you way there and cap it, it's location used to be the only problem :) Ritty elite tomes for VWK seems to be at high demand. Solus   08:40, 29 April 2007 (CDT)


 * I personally agree with you, but then, I personally don't think any elite tome is worth 1 plat. Can you wikify VWK please? -User:PanSola (talk to the [[Image:follower of Lyssa.png]]) 08:41, 29 April 2007 (CDT)

FoC is easy as hell, its not what is the hardest to cap, but what requires the most effort. To get Restore Condition and Shield of Deflection I had to get my canthan monk a run to beacons and droks and then do all the chain of missions and then wait for random spawns inside the missions themselves to get my elites. Moebius and vengeful ashes are similarly annoying, got to play all the way through cantha to get to them. &mdash; Skuld 08:43, 29 April 2007 (CDT)

VWK. It's quite fare into the campaign, while used for UW quite often which is easily reached. Solus  08:47, 29 April 2007 (CDT)

Feast of Corruption isn't hard to cap, it just takes awhile to go out and get it. IMO, the very worst ones are several of the endgame Prophecies ones that only spawn in missions, and that AREN'T guaranteed spawns. I'm talking for example Restore Conditions, Fevered Dreams, and Soul Leech...to cap the three of those I must have had to play through most of Abbadon's Mouth a dozen or more times. Getting late game Factions ones can be a bit of a hassle as well, since you have to practically beat the entire boring campaign to get to them. I certainly didn't mind paying 10k to get my rit Ritual Lord, since it means I don't have to play through Factions again... Price wise, I routinely see warrior tomes being sold for high prices, not sure what highly desired war elites they're being used for though. DKS01 00:58, 30 April 2007 (CDT)


 * Backbreaker, Earth Shaker (to a lesser extent) &mdash; Skuld 02:39, 30 April 2007 (CDT)

I think the biggest draw of these is not getting an elite that is 'hard' to cap, but one you would have to wait ages to get to. These include the Dryder ones in the Abaddon's Mouth mission that have already been mentioned, and the elites in the Depths of Madness which you can only reach right before the final fight in Nightfall (and so relatively useless for quest-based PvE for a char who has done the previous two campaigns). RossMM 05:14, 30 April 2007 (CDT)

I agree with everything three posts up. Endgame ones are hard to cap, especially proph just because they may not spwwn, and u have mobs of 8 lvl 22-28s (Mahgo Hydra+Flesh Golems anyone?). Nhnowell 17:16, 1 May 2007 (CDT)

If you want a real clue as to why the Necromancer tomes are so expensive, I think I can shed some light on this. I'm not aware of a level requirement to use these and I'm sure low level Necromancers would love to get their hands on SS or Flesh Golem as Early as possible. -67.172.14.127 20:19, 4 May 2007 (CDT)