Guild Wars 2

Symbol of Fury/Glory/Reckoning/Divinity:

- Inscribe a mystic symbol onto the target area, damaging foes and granting Fury to allies.

I know people want one with Chill/Cripple but Symbols, by design, are supposed to provide some benefit to allies so I don’t see that working. Fury is a good fit in my opinion because it’s one of the more difficult Boons for Guardians to apply and it goes with Scepter’s theme of being a damage focused weapon.

Thoughts?

I love the idea! I was thinking the other day when using the scepter that it is not a symbol which is a shame because it would create some interesting choices, do you buff yourself and others around you or damage your target and buff the melee. Or… do you melee with the scepter and stand in it to gain the benefit.

Good idea to increase the usefulness of the aoe.

I agree. I see no reason for Smite not being a Symbol. The only problem is that it’s hard to decide which boon it should grant: all Symbols give protective/defensive boons , and only Vigor is left, which I don’t feel should be on a Symbol.

Somoe.3621:

Symbol of Fury/Glory/Reckoning/Divinity:

- Inscribe a mystic symbol onto the target area, damaging foes and granting Fury to allies.

I know people want one with Chill/Cripple but Symbols, by design, are supposed to provide some benefit to allies so I don’t see that working. Fury is a good fit in my opinion because it’s one of the more difficult Boons for Guardians to apply and it goes with Scepter’s theme of being a damage focused weapon.

Thoughts?

I agree, smite have to be a simbol, i really dont know why its not.

I know people want one with Chill/Cripple but Symbols, by design, are supposed to provide some benefit to allies so I don’t see that working

Simply because guardian have a problem, and its the lack of ranged attack and mobility, when all the other classes have theese 2 bonus. now to be competitive we have 2 choices,

1)speed up guardians and give them a good ranged option (and this is against the class ideology)
2)slow the enemy to keep him on melee range.

What about Smite dealing slightly less damage than the other symbols, but its secondary effect is it strips buffs off of enemies to deal damage to them? That way it helps allies, but gains access to our symbol traits. The scepter already has a control ability, no reason to give it another if the symbol was introduced and the tennis ball modified to actually be useful.

Ganzo.5079:

Somoe.3621:

Symbol of Fury/Glory/Reckoning/Divinity:

- Inscribe a mystic symbol onto the target area, damaging foes and granting Fury to allies.

I know people want one with Chill/Cripple but Symbols, by design, are supposed to provide some benefit to allies so I don’t see that working. Fury is a good fit in my opinion because it’s one of the more difficult Boons for Guardians to apply and it goes with Scepter’s theme of being a damage focused weapon.

Thoughts?

I agree, smite have to be a simbol, i really dont know why its not.

I know people want one with Chill/Cripple but Symbols, by design, are supposed to provide some benefit to allies so I don’t see that working

Simply because guardian have a problem, and its the lack of ranged attack and mobility, when all the other classes have theese 2 bonus. now to be competitive we have 2 choices,

1)speed up guardians and give them a good ranged option (and this is against the class ideology)
2)slow the enemy to keep him on melee range.

I know why people want it but a Symbol that does damage to foes and applies Chill/Cripple to them wouldn’t be a Symbol. It would be better if, for example, we had a trait or something that caused Symbols to inflict Chill/Cripple when they pulse.

Somoe.3621:

I know why people want it but a Symbol that does damage to foes and applies Chill/Cripple to them wouldn’t be a Symbol. It would be better if, for example, we had a trait or something that caused Symbols to inflict Chill/Cripple when they pulse.

IF they apply a solution like this, a will be really, really , REALLY happy! And they can use trait to improve the rest of our mechanics to compensate the lack of ranged attack or mobility.

Turning Smite into a symbol, or at least adding a symbol component, is an elegant solution to a few persistent Guardian issues.

• Scepter doesn’t have much (if any) real Trait support, despite being our only real ranged weapon. Giving it a Symbol solves that by opening up trait synergies in the Honor and Zeal line.

• Zeal is a difficult line to justify. It’s good for Spirit Weapons, one or two Adept traits and the Minor traits, and that’s about it. Adding a Symbol to Scepter helps fix this issue by making Zeal a more widely applicable line.

• Scepter is our only ranged option, and even then, it’s a 1-hand, which means we only get three skills. Of those three skills, two deal direct damage. Adding a Symbol helps alleviate this issue by giving the Scepter a little more tactical “muscle.”

It’s an elegant solution to so many little problems. I hope ANet looks into it.

But if Smite was a symbol, it would be affected by the symbol traits.

Increased symbol size, increased symbol duration, and symbols heal allies.

A huge, long-lasting, healing, ground target-able Smite, might be a bit OP. Plus adding a defensive boon to it? Sure I’d love it, but don’t see it happening.

Darx.9842:

But if Smite was a symbol, it would be affected by the symbol traits.

This is more or less the point. And I don’t think it would be overpowered, even when traited. If you look at the Symbol on the Staff, you’ll notice that a long-lasting ranged Symbol isn’t that strong and there is nothing on the Scepter (or any of our off-hands) that could make for incredibly powerful synergy.

@Eveningstar: Well said.

I don’t understand the scepter hate. Fast attack speed autoattack, low cooldown AE that isn’t channeled, and an immobilize. You get 2 extra abilities for an off-hand, seems pretty great to me. If the autoattack balls hit 100% of the time instead of missing on moving targets, scepter would be almost perfect.

I’m worried that if they change it to a symbol it will have a smaller AE radius and longer cooldown, basically nerfing the EM proc goodness of scepter to provide some buff that won’t even be used much of the time except in PvE.

Also, a symbol with fury is a little too much to ask for imo…unless they make it 20s cooldown with 5s duration of fury in which case, no thanks.

Anything as long as they change the animation. I hate the current one. It looks like a bunch of condoms got caught in a gale.

I totally agree with smite needing to be a symbol. I’d also like to see the Ring of Warding made into a symbol since as it is right now, its on a really long CD and is highly situational (not very versatile) . Also…

Anything as long as they change the animation. I hate the current one. It looks like a bunch of condoms got caught in a gale.

Lol =)

If they increased the default radius of symbols to the Writ of Exaltation size I wouldn’t see any reason to not make Smite a symbol. Also, it’d be nice if Smite hit more than one thing at a time, which, presumably, making it a symbol would fix.

FWB.1704:

I totally agree with smite needing to be a symbol. I’d also like to see the Ring of Warding made into a symbol since as it is right now, its on a really long CD and is highly situational (not very versatile) . Also…

Anything as long as they change the animation. I hate the current one. It looks like a bunch of condoms got caught in a gale.

Lol =)

Hehe, turn RoW into Symbol of Eternity: sucks in all enemies within range 100 of the symbol and roots them…..muahaha!

I second this. It would a big answer to those who bad-mouth the scepter.

It also would make the scepter a very versatile weapon that could be used to compliment many builds. GS, Hammer, Mace and Staff all have symbols and are used in in vastly different builds. A scepter with symbol would be a nice compliment to most of them.

If Smite were Chill, then I can see Sceptre/Torch possibly being viable.

I think smite should be a light symbol (+1 combo field), but with no extra effects. It does more damage than other symbols and has only 6s cooldown, would be almost 100% active with the +symbol duration trait.

Making it a symbol would be a nice change. The symbol can give swiftness and the staff gets and overhaul = win.

Razor.9132:

Making it a symbol would be a nice change. The symbol can give swiftness and the staff gets and overhaul = win.

I like this. Although Stability would be a nice one to have on Smite if it were to be changed to a Symbol.

However, should they apply a symbol on this, we would winge about how the sword would be the ONLY weapon without a symbol!

Additionally: They could add a symbol on the sword #2 skill which leaves a symbol where you was and grants swiftness to allies (and applying the buff to you as well)
but I’m derailing…

I already do whinge about that!

All the scepter needs is it’s projectiles to home in on targets, it doesn’t need anything else changed.

JoshuaRAWR.4653:

All the scepter needs is it’s projectiles to home in on targets, it doesn’t need anything else changed.

I agree, but there are people who don’t understand that a) ranged weapons are intentionally inferior to melee weapons in damage and b) scepter only uses up 3 ability slots leaving 2 for shield or focus.

JoshuaRAWR.4653:

All the scepter needs is it’s projectiles to home in on targets, it doesn’t need anything else changed.

That would actually require a not-so-small damage nerf for #1, while #2 would still be very unreliable compared to a symbol.

honestly a symbol would be perfect.. but I would be happy if they just changed the animation or how the skill works in general. It’s very unreliable damage and it looks absolutely ridiculous and weak.

Wow great idea. Really. I dont belive smite needs any buffs atm besides being turned into a symbol that just deals x damage over time (same damage as it is now). Its already nice as it is, altthough in general since scepter is “underpowered”, i guess, a buff wouldnt hurt.

Benefits of smite in FoTm:
- Does 15 hits! This is amazing for breaking the grawl lava shamans shield bubble
- Is excellent for pulling grawl around the LOS cliff and is recommended to pull like this

if Smite were a symbol it should not grant a boons, but apply weakness instead, IMO.

I don’t think smite needs to grant any boons,but it needs to be turned into a symbol.
Make it an aoe symbol that can benefit from traits and we are good to go.
Well we could use some projectile speed increase to our scepter autoattack as well.

Yaki.9563:

Scepter is only underpowered because you expect it to be as good as a melee weapon, at range.

Mmm no, scepter is only underpowered because it couldn’t hit a sloth. Search your feelings, you know it to be true.

It would be nice if scepter were at least brought up to the level of functionality other profession’s scepters are. Even Necromancer’s scepter is far more functional.

If smite was a symbol, the buff should be 1s quickness.

Who was talking about OP ? :p

OneManArmy.5617:

I don’t think Smite needs to grant any boons,but it needs to be turned into a symbol.
Make it an aoe symbol that can benefit from traits and we are good to go.
Well we could use some projectile speed increase to our scepter autoattack as well.

If Smite becomes a Symbol, it needs a boon and preferably a defensive one. Because that’s what Symbols are: Ground-targeted AoE attacks that pulse damage and (defensive) boons. This is part of the problem in the suggested solution, apart from Vigor or Aegis, there aren’t really a defensive boons left, and I’m not sure if Vigor or Aegis on a relatively short cooldown is such a good idea. What I’d like to see is Swiftness on the Scepter and Regeneration on the Staff, but this leaves the Mace without Regeneration and it fits the Mace really well. And I also wouldn’t want to see the same symbol on the weapons if at all possible.

Well there is also stability, a 1s pulsing stab on smite could be, well, really funny XD.

It isn’t a symbol? Yah, it really should be a symbol then >.< The suggestion sounds good enough for me.