Elite skill

An elite skill is a special type of skill that is generally more powerful than normal skills. Elite skills can be identified by a golden border surrounding their icon. Elite skills cannot be purchased from skill trainers like normal skills can and are not available at all until late in the game for the Prophecies campaign. A character may only place one elite skill in his skill bar at a time; putting a second one will cause the first to be automatically removed.

Acquiring elite skills
Elite skills are more difficult to acquire than standard skills are. The only way of obtaining them in PvE is to do the following:


 * Purchase a Signet of Capture from a skill trainer (first available in the quest Malaquire's Test in Lion's Arch).
 * Put the Signet of Capture in one of the skill slots on his Skill Bar.
 * Find and kill a boss who has the desired elite skill (see locations link below).
 * Use the Signet of Capture near the dead boss, causing a list of its skills to appear.
 * Select the elite skill from a list of the boss's skills and click capture.

When a character captures an elite skill, he gains 250 * his level in experience, his Signet of Capture is used up, and he must purchase another one if more elite skills are desired. The character can have as many of these signets on his skill bar at one time as desired.

You may only capture elite skills that belong to your primary and secondary professions. If you use Signet of Capture on a boss that doesn't share a profession with you, you will not be able to choose a skill to capture.

Alternatively, you may also unlock elite skills for PvP by spending 3,000 faction each at a Priest of Balthazar, for example in the Great Temple of Balthazar.

Also, you can now purchase skill packs through the Guild Wars online store.

Lists of elite skills

 * For an alphabetical listing of all elite skills, see: Category:Elite skills
 * For a list of elite skills by profession, see: Elite skills list
 * For a list of elite skill locations, see: Elite skill locations or Skills by capture location

Related skills
These skills operate on elite skills though not elite themselves:
 * Arcane Mimicry
 * Signet of Humility
 * Arcane Echo