Guild Wars 2

i sometimes feel like the Gaurdian is really limited because of the weak range issue though i feel that the scepter has potential and the staff is great if your looking for that extra healing support role, his range is lacking alot of the outbursts he has with his melee weapons.

does it even worth using a scepter a focus and staff?

Our range is pretty pathetic, when compared to every other class. Scepter has a lot of potential but overall it feels wasted, would be nice if they added something to the autoattack.

Staff I don’t mind it’s “range” being semi bad damage, it provides more than enough support abilities to make up for it in that weapon.

I use scepter/shield in sPvP and a staff for PvE as my second weapons, but other than that, I agree – our range is lacking.

I use scepter/shield for keep offense/defense (shield allies, fire back) and then staff to support in close-action battles. It doesn’t match the ranged abilities of say, Ranger, but it’s quite adequate

Well, in my opinion it’s not a bad idea to use scepter and shield or focus (I prefer the shield) in WvW when you are defending or against a high number of enemies. But it’s true that it’s not as much damage as a melee weapon, but that’s normal. Guardian are melee characters, not ranged ones.

About the staff, it can be useful but i don’t really like it. It can be good to defend, but in general, it’s better another weapon.

The scepter is decent enough and I like using it a lot, but overall yeah range is definitely not a strength for this class.

I like scepter/torch when I’m soloing PvE as it seems to give me a decent mix of mid-range to close-range skills. But yeah, don’t go guardian for ranged skills.

I love the Scepter/shield combo. The immobilize is nice in pvp for chasing down or running away, and it helps against tough enemies in pve.

The #2 skill is also nice to throw down on a bunch of grouped up mobs for some decent aoe damage.

The guardian is far and away more effective in melee range, but I think the scepter does a nice job of offering us a ranged option when we need it.

i actualy use scepter in WvW and focus because of the ray of judgement as a secodary
and mace and shield as primary(i love the combo of both them it just feels better like that).
but sometimes i just feel that the projectile is very problem with auto attack with the scepter and the staff is not range at all infact its semi range. would be nice if they gave abit more range to the staff atleast and made a scepter abit more faster because lets compare Warrior ranged and Gaurdian Ranged who has better shots?

Scepter/Shield became my saving grace last night during a Fire Elemental fight in Metrica Province. I became a believer in Ranged Guardians as a result, and will never leave town without a scepter again.

Sad that we dont get bows or guns, but I’ve been enjoying the 1200 range on scepters so far.

I run a scepter/torch and hammer build. I like the range of the scepter/torch, and I like the immobilize a lot. I normally open with scepter then switch to hammer and focus on immobility. The guardian has very low base HP, so I find the combination of scepter range with the immobility skills on hammer and scepter to be very effective. The burning with the torch helps drop opponents quicker too before you take too many hits.

I think your right,scepters and staffs are weak weapons for a guardian.I think they should let us use at least a pistol as an offhand

For sPvp and WvW I use the scepter/focus mainly. With the right traits, runes, and sigil my auto attack with scepter crits for around 1k-2k depending on targets toughness. For ranged auto attack, that’s pretty great. I use a focus offhand because the focus skills have unbelievable defensive properties albeit long cooldowns. For my offhand in WvW I use a staff for swiftness/road blocking and in sPvP I use a sword/shield. In sPvp I can pretty much root with scepter, area dot under them, hit my regen, hit my shield, switch to sword, TP in (blinding them), and then #3 (I’m forgetting all the ability names) and finish with shield #4 and if they’re still alive I use Judge’s Intervention followed by Smite Condition. They’re dead. If they’re not switch back to scepter and root and dance for awhile.

in terms of pve i find the scepter more than useless (there is something wrong when i can literally outrun my OWN projectile) with how slow it attacks and how little damage it feels it does i find it more useful on ranged fights to just stand back with a mace and whack down healing symbols and spam protection on the rest of the group

The range only matters in WvW. In sPvP and PVE, use close combat and learn how to roll.

In WvW, guardian place is under the gate, bashing the door and keeping the repairers out. I’ve Finished quite a few heros trying to repair a gate.

Otherwise, keep the range players safe on the ground and pick off the stragglers or bring a Batista.

They need to make the staff #1 skill 1200 range to match the staff 2 skill
And they also need to add a bleed or something else to the scepter 1 ability.

Both specs would be pretty viable if this was the case.

Psy.6153:

They need to make the staff #1 skill 1200 range to match the staff 2 skill
And they also need to add a bleed or something else to the scepter 1 ability.

Both specs would be pretty viable if this was the case.

Would LOVE to see 1200 range on a staff!

A 1200 range on Wave of Wrath would make it a bit OP considering how many targets it can hit. Guardians just aren’t meant to hang back that far as a whole. WoW is fine as it is if you’re using it right.

I wouldn’t mind with the range of the scepter range… But we can’t even hit people on top of walls in WvW (And sometimes even hitting the oil cauldrons is hard with the auto attack) I’ve been only doing some support while everyone else is trying to take down the walls, but I’d love to help as well :\

I wouldn’t mind if scepter’s 2nd ability did more damage…

ya, we kinda suck in wvw, no range to manage wall def or offense , we cant even jump down let alone getting slauterd, the shield in this game lacks block rate and defence, so not much point using one… were great for picking off stragglers tho lol.. sigh*

play style:
great sword
scepter/shield but use torch

The problem with scepter is the auto attack is sokittenslow. Your opponent can easily LOS or get out of range from the projectiles. Also, the staff is practically useless except in WvW and the only 2 good skills are Symbol of Swiftness and Line of Warding (which doesnt last long enough to be that useful). The heals for staff is laughable and the skill Empower gives Might, which isn’t that great in PvP.

The staff is strange since it has partly good usefulness at close range, and then the rest is long-range support.

The Scepter is actually pretty good, but it fails in two severe ways. One, the orb can be easily avoided, and often enemies do without trying. Secondly, Smite does not pulse or hit more than 1-2 enemies at a time. It even misses enemies when you place it on them as the ‘fists’ are random.

If the scepter’s orb was faster moving and Smite pulsed, it would be much, much more viable.

i see most of the responses are based around pvp. i use scepter/focus combo paired with the greatsword in almost anything i do. i find that the scepter damage isn’t terrible and in pvp you just have to pick your targets wisely so that you’re not wasting scepter shots.

in dungeons i find the scepter a must. it allows me to kite mobs and bosses when i need a short respite and to let my great sword skills cool down. i have a lot of traits in precision and critical and at lvl 80, i hit for 1k with my scepter quite often. i know its not huge but it beats staring at the battle :P

Alarox.4590:

The staff is strange since it has partly good usefulness at close range, and then the rest is long-range support.

The Scepter is actually pretty good, but it fails in two severe ways. One, the orb can be easily avoided, and often enemies do without trying. Secondly, Smite does not pulse or hit more than 1-2 enemies at a time. It even misses enemies when you place it on them as the ‘fists’ are random.

If the scepter’s orb was faster moving and Smite pulsed, it would be much, much more viable.

i wish the smite would be turned into a Symbol it would be more useful
other and than that and making the orb faster i think nothing else about it should be fixed.
but making the smite a symbol would be fair

I feel the same as you guys. Guardians do lack a decent ranged option. When I’m in WvW and say a building is under attack I feel we’re really useless in ranged weapon department and there’s just so little we can do compared to other professions.

When I see fellow thieves and warriors pulling out their ranged weapons and having an option to really put out some aoe devastation or snipe someone down (I’m not expecting to see THAT much damage output on a guardian, doh) I’d really just swap my scepter for a some sort of a bow.. no wait, I’d swap my scepter for a bow weapon for every situation there is..

.. elementalist’s conjure Frost Bow skill anyone? Now that would be nice to see as one of the guardian’s weapons, even if it meant getting rid of a scepter forever. Of course the last 3 skills would be altered not to be so OP with unlimited usage, but I really like the idea.

I do have hopes we’ll get a nice ranged option in the first expansion if not earlier.
And if we do keep the current scepter.. please change the #1 skill – make the orbs at least twice as big as they are now; and #2 skill needs bigger fists and both need a bit more reliable hit rates, that is for sure.

Also, fellow guardians in “Brainstorming: future Guardian weapon combinations” thread have already presented some amazing ideas.

In WvW, use those gates to your advantage when defending walls. Pop out, down a few guys wailing on the gate, duck back in before you draw the attention of the whole crowd. Skirting the edge with Whirlwind Wrath (Greatsword #3) does wonders for this. I tend to kill enough attackers this way by myself to really curb the assault on a wall if we’re outnumbered on defense.

Scepters are no joke. You can attack from a great distance with a scepter and when you throw down your ground damage and if you have alot of precision and you will do a ton of damage. I can throw out more dps with a scepter then I can with a sword or mace. It`s pretty funny because i love using melee weapons but there really isn`t a reason to unless you have to.

Banewrath.5107:

Scepters are no joke. You can attack from a great distance with a scepter and when you throw down your ground damage and if you have alot of precision and you will do a ton of damage. I can throw out more dps with a scepter then I can with a sword or mace. It`s pretty funny because i love using melee weapons but there really isn`t a reason to unless you have to.

the scepter is powerful but its auto attack projectile is amazingly easy to dodge unlike other scepter Proffesions