Guild Wars 2

Since there is a post out there that claims scepter needs more damage, I thought I’d put my word in for something a little different.

Yes, it is almost universally agreed upon that scepter skills need to be sped up because as of now, the clunkiness of MANY of its skills makes scepter DPS low and unreliable.

But bringing up the DPS is just a first step, a small one. If scepter is to be brought up to par, we look to look also at its utility, which is lacking severely. It has no auras, basically no hard or soft cc (blind hardly counts anymore), and it lacks active defensive abilities.

To that end, I’d like to highlight some of the ideas that have been brought up to improve scepter’s utility (NOTE that this is obviously not an exhaustive list):

Shatterstone (Water 2): Should pulse chill while it is building towards its explosion- this both benefiting the ability itself to make it easer to land and useful in general as soft cc.

Rock Barrier (Earth 2): The 2nd activated portion of this skill changed to be a block, the block ends either after 2 seconds, or after 5 attacks

Dust Devil (Earth 3): Instead of blinding, this skill instead knocks back enemies (doesn’t have to be in a line, maybe knockback like mesmer GS 5) .

These are suggestions that I’ve seen that I believe has some merit. Again, this isn’t an exhaustive list, as these suggestions don’t address direct group support.

However, the point here in TL;DR: Scepter needs more than just damage buffs, it also needs more utility.

ele has very little in the way of reliable ranged damage. fixing scepter could fix this

Air needs to do more damage. straight up. that’s it. scrap arc lightning for something useful

fire’s damage is fine but will only hit players very situationally, so it needs increased usability

reikken.4961:

ele has very little in the way of reliable ranged damage. fixing scepter could fix this

quipping staff too!

scepter is by no means a range weapon as u have in mind. just that.

scepter is mid to close range and thats actually the exciting part about it.

mid to close?
the skills are all 900 range

GL hitting something at 900 range with a scepter, liking the changes had the same ideas as well.

I would like so much the shatterstone change.
For earth 3 I really prefere if it will work in the same way of war horn 4, but insted pulling it will knok back people in the line.
For earth 2 I doubt a block will be ever a thing, maybe is more easy ask for a toughness improve of the barrier than a block for the attack.
Btw I agree with you that scepter need really something more than damage. Your change could actually be helpfull for it

I had a cool idea I thought of recently for the Water Scepter get something a bit unique:

Change the Piercing Shards trait to in the water line to also grant 50 Healing Power for 6 seconds each time you apply Vulnerability, capping at 10 stacks.

Move the vulnerability stacking to the Water Scepter’s Ice Shards auto attack, applying 3 Vulnerability per use for 8 seconds. Increase the damage, but make them slightly easier to avoid against non-movement impaired foes, somewhat similar to the Scepter for Guardian but still a good bit faster.

Change Shatter Stone to no longer apply Vulnerability, and to instead apply a very brief Chill on the initial cast and a longer Chill and higher damage on the detonation if the target remains in range. Makes this a competitively good damage option to give Water builds some bite.

Lastly, for Water Trident, lower the base healing significantly, but also significantly improve the Healing Power scaling and add a Knock Down effect for 1 second, maybe even consider adding in a “partial revive %” for Downed allies so it can be used to interrupt stomps and partially help get a downed ally up.

This would allow scepter to provide a “supportive healing option” for the other off-hands and would pair well with Tempest’s Overload and Wash The Pain Away, but only after the Elementalist/Tempest has used the auto attacks enough to build up the healing power stacks.

I’m still a huge proponent of a lot of the Elementalist/Tempest healing options getting lower base values and better heal scaling, and this would be an interesting way to go about it for some builds. It would also allow “Glassy” Maurader builds to have a reason to try to use some of the Water Scepter abilities in situations where they want to offer a bit of healing support to an ally or sustain themselves slightly better if they commit to Water attunement for a bit to build the stacks.