Which caracters should i NOT use on Elite difficulty?

[Cerbrosyn]

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[Robob]

Very late response,but ivanski is pretty much obsolete with how much damage enemies deal from my experience,DPS is much more important than sustainability

[DanTheTerrible]

Offense is definitely more important than defense. I favor Sally and Beatrix, other characters are kind of optional, I tend to pick some combination of Payroll, Billy, or Piper. Seabass and Ivanski are pretty much defense oriented and thus undesirable. Dora's special abilities just aren't as useful as doing more damage. I'll admit I haven't ever levelled up Valentine, but his abilities seem partly defense oriented and lame in general. Fen isn't terrible, but she just isn't as good as Beatrix and having two heavy weapons in the squad isn't all that practical, it gets too hard to use both without catching someone in the area effect.

Good luck with elite. I tried it for awhile and eventually gave it up as impossible for a full playthrough. In my current playthrough, I have been playing on elite as much as possible, but after failing a mission several times with not much hope of improving things by grinding lower missions I just reset to veteran for a mission then go back to elite.

[Robob]

Originally posted by DanTheTerrible:

I'll admit I haven't ever levelled up Valentine, but his abilities seem partly defense oriented and lame in general.

Valentine is actually an excellent damage dealer with sniper rifles,while he isn't that mobile,he definitely makes up for that with the amount of cheesy ricochets and piercing shot multikills he can pull off

Additionally,try to avoid explosive primaries ("heavy weapons"),their damage output is very unpredictable and you're much more likely to accidentally deal damage to your own squad than get multikills. If you need AOE just equip a grenade or two in your item slots,accidental friendly fire is almost impossible with those.

[DanTheTerrible]

The advantage of explosive heavy weapons is much less the ability to get multikills and more about getting around shielding obstacles. Enemy hiding behind an armor plate? Fine, shoot the plate with an explosive heavy weapon and catch the enemy in the area effect. Beatrix's ability to fire a double shot anytime she stands still ("loose cannon" at level 5) is way more useful to me than Velentine's sniper ability. I routinely use Beatrix as my "doorkicker", I position her next to a door on one turn, then have her open the door on the next turn and blast away with a double shot before anyone else goes in the room. It takes some practice to use explosive heavies effectively, but it is well worth it at high difficulty levels.

Some notes:
1) Avoid explosive heavies with "large" area effect. They are harder to avoid catching friendlies in the explosion.
2) I usually find the straight firing "RPG" type weapons easier to aim than the arcing weapons. Occasionally you do want an arc -- Bea's launcher comes in handy for that.
3) Bea's launcher does not work properly with loose cannon. You get two half strength shots instead of two full strength shots like you get with her main weapon.

[peremptor]

Piper Sally and Beatrix all are the best at what they do and what they do makes Elite a lot more manageable.

The fourth character depends on your preferences but Dora combination of flanker/sharpshooter with a mobility special plus her free use of a stun gun with two charges and showing you where the swag is so you can optimize your 'heisting' (a huge deal later on when missions have timers that increasingly add more enemies/hazards as they count down) is probably my favorite though Valentine (for his penetrating super sniper shots and the cover ability is a nice bonus) and Payroll for his unmatched mobility and good single target damage due to double shot and his flanking bonus are viable as well.

I'm sure you could also make Ivan work but Beatrix is far better at helping you eliminate treats so you dont have to bother with tanking in the first place.

Oh check out the great guide for getting the hardest achievement in the game that involves beating Elite without failing once in the guide section. It's invaluable.