Guild Wars 2

I normally play D/D and carry a staff for WvW support. I tried out scepter while leveling a while back but didn’t stick with it as it seemed weak compared to our other weapons. During my first FOTM run I pulled an exotic scepter by chance and swore I would learn how it works. Though compared to D/D or staff, it feels misplaced in some aspects, particularly with how slow some of the attacks are. So I ask all ele’s, what are you thoughts on the scepter? Also, if you have any strategies or tips you want to share please do.

I’ll start; I can’t help but feel it is more balanced for PvP than WvW/PvE. Granted I don’t play PvP so won’t claim to any expertise, just observation from what others have written and watching playbacks on Youtube. I love the idea of the scepter though, similar to staff but one hand allowing versatility in the build.

Fire:

1 – Flamestrike
Cast time seems a little slow, but not bad overall.

2- Dragon’s Tooth
Why is this so slow to cast/take effect? It looses a lot of effect as a result – against single targets, unless they are standing still it seems to have little impact. Even AI mobs move around quite frequently so it’s easy to miss – especially if your character then auto casts 1, distracts them and they run out of AOE… If it hits the damage is decent, but it feels so awkward to use. I can see it being useful in PvP where people are trying to defend a point, but outside this it seems awkward to use and time correctly…

3 – Phoenix
This is an interesting skill… not sure what else to say.

Water:

1 – Ice Shards
Decent auto attack for water. Surprised it doesn’t have an additional function like the same position skills on staff and dagger, otherwise not bad for an auto attack.

2 – Shatterstone
Similar to Fire 2, this feel so slow and awkward. Also seems like it’s tailored for PvP (hitting a point constantly, small AOE). Why is the explosion time so slow for a small impact? It doesn’t do a huge amount of damage, 4 stacks of Vulnerability is nice but not worth it for that sort of effect time.

3 – Water Trident
Great heal. I am surprised this isn’t a water field though, seems suitable but may be too powerful?

Air:

1 – Arc Lightning
Firstly, I love this skill. The idea of a ranged channel that keeps growing in effect. But it needs some work as it constantly bugs out:

- At times the beam doesn’t connect in short range and you have this strange orb of electricity around your hand…
- Often once the target is dead the beam continues indefinitely, even after switching attunments and using other auto attacks!
- If the target is outside of range, the beam often connects yet an error is shown saying it is outside range… This is confusing as you are theoretically hitting the opponent based on a visual reference point, but the skill does nothing.

Also the damage seems low… For effectively a 4 second attack this is pretty weak. Instead of 9 stages, how about 7 – 2 weak, 2 medium and 3 strong? This wouldn’t reduce the overall power too much and would bring it in line with other auto attacks? Or make the channeling faster?

I love using this on mesmers who pop out their clones – the constant beam means they can’t hide. :P

2 – Lightning Strike
Great idea.

3 – Blinding Flash
Another great idea, works so well with other air skills.

continued

Earth:

1 – Stone Shards

For an auto attack this seems powerful. However.. the audio for the attack seems louder than other attacks? I may be hearing things but it seemed immediately apparent.

2 – Stone Shards

Another interesting skill.

3 – Dust Devil

10 second blind is useful.

Trait – Vigorous Scepter

Unsure why the scepter trait gives a boost to endurance recharge, 25% isn’t significant, especially with how easy Vigor is to maintain with Soothing Disruption. I keep thinking while playing scepter how interesting it would be to have this skill give a slightly larger range on attacks, such as 1200 to bring it in line with the staff – but without the AOE that the staff has.

I love how many of the skills are interesting and not so conventional, really works with some of the hybrid aspects of the scepter. I wish the 2 skills in fire and water were a little smoother for PvE/WvW though, sure they may be powerful in PvP due to the nature of their range, AOE and CD but they feel weak and misplaced, IMO anyway. A couple of the skills could do with damage increases, if only slightly to bring them more in line the other ele skills (naturally taking into account the mid range weaker aspect of the scepter). Also ANET if you read this, please consider looking into the oddities in Lighting 1, happy to provide screenshots if this helps.

Not trying to make a complaint thread, apologies if it comes off that way. Just would like to hear other ele’s opinions on the scepter, it’s weakness/things that could be buffed or made a little smoother. There are many skilled players on this forum so constructive discussion is most welcome. Any tips or strategies you wish to share would be much appreciated!

Cheers.

I played Scepter full time. The biggest problem I have with it is that most skills are too slow. For a med range weapon we need more targeted spells rather than ground target spells. Arc lighting is my bread and butter but it starts out way to low on damage and ramps up to way too much damage. It would be nicer if the damage was normalized rather than ramping up from 200ish to over 2.5k.

Fire

Flamestrike: it is the only fire skill that can apply burning with every attack. The animation is kinda bugged because the damage and condition are applied a few miliseconds AFTER your character raises his hand.

Dragon’s Tooth: usually used after Updraft with the “typical” Ride the Lightning – Updraft – Fire Attunement – Dragon’s Tooth – Ring of Fire – Phoenix – Fire Grab combo. It deals a lot of damage but it requires some preparations before usage.

Phoenix: This skill removes all conditions AND applies vigor, it’s a very powerful skill. My only complaint is that it stops you mid-dodge for some reason…

Air

1 – Arc Lightning

This skill is one of my favorites. Not only it deals respectable damage, but it hits so many times that it is very easy to proc “on-critical” sigils/traits.

2 – Lightning Strike
Great damage and it can be used while channeling Arc Lightning! There is no reason not to use this every time is off cd as it will not interrupt the auto-attack. Also usable when using “Ride the Lightning” which is also a plus

3 – Blinding Flash
Same as the above really, only instead of damage it applies blindness.

Water

All Scepter Water skills are underpowered, in fact Scepter has the worst Water skills of any other skills. Low damage and very limited heal, with long cooldowns, I never liked Scepter Water.

Earth

1 – Stone Shards
Very good auto-attack, I think all Earth auto-attacks are strong

2 – Stone Shards
Buff to defense is always useful. I’m only puzzled why the damage of this skill is soooo pathetic low, as if telling you “never break your stone barrier” :P

3 – Dust Devil
Useful and combined with Blinding Flash you can keep a mob perma-blind. Only complaint I have is that it is a projectile (so it can miss) but it does have a longer cooldown than Blinding Flash (which is insta cast)

maddoctor.2738:

2 – Lightning Strike
Great damage and it can be used while channeling Arc Lightning! There is no reason not to use this every time is off cd as it will not interrupt the auto-attack. Also usable when using “Ride the Lightning” which is also a plus

This is no longer true. Your action bar is disabled during RtL as of the last patch, not sure why. Maybe they figured it was easier to disable any spells being cast during RtL than to fix the bug with Shocking Aura not giving Boons if used during RtL?

It’s pretty annoying and a small nerf to S/D in general (since both Strike + Flash were usable during RtL).

Mogar.9216:

I played Scepter full time. The biggest problem I have with it is that most skills are too slow. For a med range weapon we need more targeted spells rather than ground target spells. Arc lighting is my bread and butter but it starts out way to low on damage and ramps up to way too much damage. It would be nicer if the damage was normalized rather than ramping up from 200ish to over 2.5k.

The damage you see is cumulative so it will add up the previous damage, so for example it may hit for 200 per hit but each tick you will see it as 200, 400, 600, ect.

I use S/D almost exclusively in open-world PvE. I like it more than D/D because it’s easier to kite with, has better potential burst, and has more damage mitigation techniques (which are also more consistent).

Fire
1. The burning is key. It makes it dead-easy to ensure the double-damage from #5 in Dagger.

2. I actually don’t have much problem hitting with this against mobs. They’re pretty predictable in their movements, so you just fire it when they’re not likely to move in the future. In PvP, you can use Signet of Earth to pin someone under it, but that’s not really necessary in PvE. A good (if complex) rotation is Air 5 4, Earth 4, Fire 4 2 3 5, which should keep them disabled long enough for Fire 2 to land, in addition to giving you 6 stacks of might and massive burst.

3. This can actually hit three times if you aim it right: once on its way out, once when it explodes, and once on its way back. Land Fire 2 and 3 (all three times) and you’re looking at a serious chunk of damage.

Water
1. This is actually one the Scepter’s weakest autoattacks. It’s just damage, and not very much of it. I only every use it if both the rest of my Water skills and all my other attunements are on cooldown.

2. Largely pointless. You actually lose DPS by casting it. I’ve tried spamming it to stack vulnerability and it’s just not worth it, even in big groups.

3. Especially combined with Water 5 on the Dagger, this gives a lot of spike healing. It makes you seriously difficult to take down, and it works on your summoned Elementals as well!

Air
1. Buggy but decent. You can cancel the animation by putting away your weapons; I actually keybound that to a special key on my mouse specifically to deal with this bug.

2. Fast damage with no cast time. The Air 4523 combo is a very decent amount of damage with a lot of safety built in (the near-invulnerability from Ride the Lightning, blowout, and then a follow-up blind).

3. Instant blind, what’s not to love? Very good for clutch situations when you see a boss winding up for a big attack.

Earth
1. So good it can even sometimes be worth it to stay in Earth just to spam bleeds.

2. A toughness buff to offset our insane squishiness. Plus you can have almost 100% uptime.

3. AoE blind is quite strong.

Whether you have a focus or a dagger in your off-hand, your Fire 4 skill is a Fire Field.
The scepter offers you a number of finishers to combo with this:

• Fire 2 Dragon’s Tooth: Blast Finisher
  (The combo triggers on moment and location of the tooth’s impact since the most recent patch. It causes Area Might.)

• Fire 3 Phoenix: Blast Finisher
  (Nothing interesting to say here. Area Might is nice.)

• Earth 2 Throw Rocks: Projectile Finisher
  (Note that this is one of the few Projectile Finishers available to the elementalist, and combining it with a Fire Field causes burning on the target.)

Also, if you are using off-hand dagger, consider that Earth 4 and Earth 5 are also Blast Finishers. (Although Earth 5 has a long channel time, it will still trigger the combo if you start channeling while the Combo Field is still up.)

To play scepter effectively you really need to combine with focus. While D/D is set to do quick hard damage, the scepter is best used for conditions. The secret is to live long enough for the conditions to kill the enemy. This is why I prefer the focus instead of dagger offhand.

Fire-I don’t spend a lot of time here as not a lot of defensive ability. Flamewall from focus does give some you ability to blast finish with dragontooth and phoenix and then to earth to cause burning and bleed with stone shards and another blast with magnetic wave. If they try to walk rather than dodge the tooth try and trap them with either focus comet(2sec daze) or focus Gale(2sec knockdown) in its effect. They know its slow so often don’t try to dodge. That phoenix is going to add vigor AND remove conditions even if misses, so don’t leave fire without tossing it (hopefully hitting the enemy.)

Water-Probably should use more but usually pop in to water right after I hit my glyph heal or if air on cd. Hate the 2 sec proc on Shatterstone? Place it then drop a comet on their head for 2 sec daze and you got them and the vulnerability stacks on too.

Air-One of the 2 attunements I’m in most of the time. Arc lightening does nice damage and strike them when its up. Blind if see a big attack coming instead of dodge. Once more by using focus I can take away ALL of their projectile attacks with swirling winds for 6 whole seconds! I also have a knockdown here for 2 seconds.

Earth-My other main attunement and one I spend most time in during a fight. Stone shards does nice damage and bleeds and if can use with firewall you get burning also. Dust devil hard to use on opponents so best to use to make them dodge or in combo with your daze or knockdown if want to insure a hit.

Overcap-You have so many condition removals in this build that you want toughness as a main trait with a little vitality. Phoenix, magnetic wave and utility cleansing fire to clean yourself and lots of opportunity for regeneration. Add to this Obsidian flesh, mist form and swirling winds along with blinds and they won’t be connecting hits often. Remember, its stay alive until your conditions can take them down so you are looking at a long fight. The drawback is that its not very good if having to fight 2 or more at same time but I’m still tweaking to see if I can overcome that.

Scepter focus and staff got the nerf bat back in early beta. I found some footage on youtube before the nerf and yes its was a diferent beast back then i will try find and link it.

Spvp
Scepter around 6k+ on no2. skill in air
Staff min 1k dmg on auto no1. skill in fire

My favourite weapon set is the scepter/focus so hopefully it will get some luv and make a revival

Update: Found the link on youtube with scepter doing its magic. So everyone now can see the scepter wasnt crap like it is now. anet what did you do to the scepter we want it fixed plz.

Take particular note of the dmg from the no.2 skill in lightning around 4:07.

Enjoy

I used d/d and decided I wanted some more range and switched to sceptre some time ago. Its not quite as powerful as d/d imo but it removes a lot of risk and gives much greater flexibility. The advantages seem more to do with wvwvw however as staying back from the zerg can mean life or death quite often.

1. The best advantage of range isnt in the aoes, its in the autoattacks all being 900 range. You can kite quite well with something like signet of water or earth too.

2. The advantage in fire is with building might. You lay down ring of fire (or wall if focus offhand) and quickly call phoenix and tooth. If you have dagger offhand you can switch to earth and carry on. The phoenix has vigor buff and cleansing too so good way to start a fight. Off course you have to be close to make it work this way, but at least you can still use the skills if farther too.

3. Use aoes on people that are channeling or otherwise dont look like they will want to give up and move, or just so crowded that you’re going to catch people regardless. This applies more to wvwvw of course, but in pve you can control where the mob is usually anyway.

4. Air is great to start with sceptre, its all instant fire so blow your load and move on to start. Also with offhand dagger you can do a push back and still be nuking them because range works for you.

5. Earth is very tough with a blind and great toughness buff. Add to that the autoattack is really good esp. if your condition damage is high. This is a good attunement to spend some time in until you think the cooldowns are back in other lines.

6. Water is a bit meh for offense but the trident heal is quite decent. Its where I go after the fight unless maybe to use my off hand dagger skills (frost armor and cleansing water)

The dps is lower than dagger, so my feeling is you MUST pair it with offhand dagger, since there are a lot of nice high dps close range skills to balance things out when the enemy closes ranks. Offhand focus will cause your dps to be intolerably low.

Ele Scepter is one of the only weapons in the game I actually dislike. I hate that its a ranged weapon yet has almost no utilities to keep enemies away from you or get yourself away from enemies (if you take Focus you get a bad chill and a knockdown, take Dagger and you get one blowback). I hate that half the attacks will miss any moving enemy at range (and miss even in melee unless you’re facetanking stationary or move around specifically to keep enemies in the area). I hate that the Fire and Air auto-attacks get screwed up by dodging. I dislike the lack of combo fields compared to Staff.

Its a ranged weapon that basically needs to be played as a melee weapon (due to attacks missing except at close range and lack of ability to keep enemies away in the first place, in addition to the fact that you can only benefit from the few combos you do have at melee range). Not really a fan of that type of thing at all, I want to use my ranged weapons as ranged weapons, not stand there and facetank hits so that my attacks might actually connect. Especially on a weapon with slow attack speed.

I keep trying to force myself to use it simply for the fact that I like to use every weapon for variety (especially on a profession with only 3 choices to begin with) but it really doesn’t do it for me at all.

None of this is to say the Scepter is a “bad” weapon. It just really doesn’t fit for me.

Arc Lightning is trash. The combat log is bugged, so people incorrectly think it hits hard. The skill itself is bugged, so it drags you into combat when you don’t want to be.

Scepter/Dagger worked well pre-11/15 in PvE if you were willing to view it as primarily a point-blank-range weapon set, with the key skills being RtL, the fire field, and a lot of blast finishers. I would guess that it’s pretty much the same thing after the Dragon’s Tooth bug fix. Play style was to have a scripted attunement dance for the ideal burst, and a more scrambling/ad hoc attunement dance the rest of time. The big difference vs. D/D was that with all the PBAoE it made sense to play standstill.

Scepter/Focus makes sense vs. shooter/archer enemies and/or for single-target condition damage. I actually leveled with it for a while, before switching to scepter/dagger.

As has been said, Phoenix removes all conditions and grants vigor. In addition it hits for damage everything on the way to your ground target, explodes for damage, and hits everything again on the way back. For the object at the target area that is three hits for decent damage.

Range is good and that is key. The scepter skills have great range, 900 range vs the 400 range on dagger. In PvE the range is very useful and I still get the dagger 4 and 5 skills that are very effective.

Electro.4173:

Ele Scepter is one of the only weapons in the game I actually dislike. I hate that its a ranged weapon yet has almost no utilities to keep enemies away from you or get yourself away from enemies (if you take Focus you get a bad chill and a knockdown, take Dagger and you get one blowback).

Well, it has condition removal, Vigor, instant Blind, AoE blind, a Toughness perma-buff, and an AoE heal, plus you can stack bleeds while kiting and easily set someone on Fire to set up for Dagger’s Fire 5. This doesn’t strictly speaking keep enemies from approaching you, but it severely mitigates what they can do to you once they get there.

Electro.4173:

Its a ranged weapon that basically needs to be played as a melee weapon (due to attacks missing except at close range and lack of ability to keep enemies away in the first place, in addition to the fact that you can only benefit from the few combos you do have at melee range).

The big reason I like Scepter/Dagger so much in PvE is because it’s a switch-hitter of a weapon set. It gives you good options for ranged attack and control, but it’s not possible to keep enemies at a distance all the time so you need good melee-range damage and damage mitigation as well. Fire 2 and 3 can indeed be difficult to land at a distance sometimes, but once you get used to their timing it’s not so bad. Air 2, Water 3, Fire 3, and Earth 2 and 3 all help keep you safe, and with your dagger, Air 4 and 5, Water 4 and 5, and Earth 4 and 5 all keep you safe, as well as dealing crazy damage.

I totally respect that it’s not a weapon set for everyone. I like it for its particular mix of range, damage, and control.