Elite creature



An elite creature or elite is an extra-difficult mob or NPC. Elite creatures benefit from various integrated buffs, increasing their power and survivability, and sometimes possess additional abilities. Elites should usually only be tackled by groups, or higher level players.

The role of elite mobs depends on their location in the game world. Elite mobs encountered in questing areas and most outside zones are usually the focus of specific group quests requiring players to kill them, often as the culmination of a storyline. These are fairly rare and are often unique, named mobs. In contrast, almost all mobs inside dungeons and raids are elites, with multiple players required to defeat even small groups, ensuring adventurers don't try to tackle group content alone. Elite NPCs include many guards, flight masters and key lore characters, serving to protect key areas and functions and deter against unwanted player vs player combat.

Elite creatures can be recognized by golden-winged dragons set around their portrait. "Rare elite" mobs, also known as silver elites, are rare mobs with elite status, featuring a silver dragon instead of gold. Note that only dragons with wings indicate elite status: non-winged dragons merely indicate a non-elite rare mob.

In the RPG
Some monsters are especially tough. Adventurers call these creatures "elite". Whereas a normal specimen of a certain breed might fall easily to a lone hero, to defeat an elite creature of the same type requires careful planning, a group of heroes, excellent tactics, or all three. Elite creatures often look different than their non-elite counterparts, being larger, having barbs on their horns and claws, possessing glowing eyes, or evincing other such indication of their power. Some elites, however, look just like normal creatures of their kind, and it is not until a hero engages it that he realizes — perhaps too late — that it is far tougher than he expected. While elite creatures are decidedly stronger and faster than non-elites, they are infamous not for size and speed but for their durability. They are able to withstand the punishment that would kill non-elites several times over. Elite specimens appear in every creature type.

Trivia

 * Group quests would previously have (Elite) in parentheses to the right of the quest name in the Quest Log. These were changed to (Group), (Dungeon), or (Raid) quests in patch 2.0.3.
 * Patch 2.3 also changed a lot of mobs that were previously elite to normal mobs, making many of the related quests significantly easier. The concept of outdoor elite areas which housed such mobs disappeared over time.