Guild Wars 2

One of the big drawbacks to guardians is their range damage, and a lot of that comes from the weak auto attack of scepter (you all know what I’m talking about)

PvPing today I got this fantastic idea. They symbol they throw down has a bunch of fists falling in the animation. Why isn’t the scepter auto attack changed to a 3 hit chain with the same fist/punching animation?

Have the first hit be slightly weaker than the current AA, the second hit be equal to the current AA, and the third hit harder. The third hit can also have either a soft CC or a boon on it (either cripple or might).

While I believe this alone would boost the scepter, even more possibilities open up. The scepter trait we have could cause the auto attack to trigger an explosion that hits 3 surrounding enemies for a slightly less amount of damage. This would help with ranged cleaving.

This was a very impromptu post, just wanted to know what you guys think.

To be fair, the guardian scepter is actually one of the highest damage ranged weapons in the game, especially against targets with big hit boxes, and even competes with the damage of our melee weapons. It’s main issues are not damage numbers, but rather the slow projectile speed on auto attacks and the more limited range in comparison to longbow or other long ranged weapons that other classes have. This makes it less useful on moving/distant targets.

Ranged cleaving isn’t really an issue, because there needs to be some downside to using a ranged weapon that has comparable damage to many melee weapons, and you do have the symbol for some aoe.

I just hate the auto animation, it looks weird, and even worse with quickness. I would be more than happy to get an auto chain that does the same attack x3, only to get different animation on each swing.

Ranged cleaving isn’t really an issue, because there needs to be some downside to using a ranged weapon that has comparable damage to many melee weapons, and you do have the symbol for some aoe.

The lack of cleave isn’t the issue, but I don’t like that scepter is actually worse against multiple targets, because the little fists that come with the symbol are not piercing and so the damage is split randomly on multiple foes.

So, while a weapon like mesmer’s greatsword has limited cleave and a single target auto, at least they don’t lose single-target damage when fighting multiple opponents.

RabbitUp.8294:

The lack of cleave isn’t the issue, but I don’t like that scepter is actually worse against multiple targets, because the little fists that come with the symbol are not piercing and so the damage is split randomly on multiple foes.

So, while a weapon like mesmer’s greatsword has limited cleave and a single target auto, at least they don’t lose single-target damage when fighting multiple opponents.

In this respect I do agree with you. Our damage should not get worse against more targets and the fist hits could have a small aoe or piercing mechanic implemented to them, even if that has a limited amount of targets per first.

I wouldn’t mind seeing the scepter 1 orbs doing a small splash damage around the target it hits.

phokus.8934:

I wouldn’t mind seeing the scepter 1 orbs doing a small splash damage around the target it hits.

lol.. u can only cleave(AOE) with other weapons like… bows(trait that make arrows aoe) ANet trade off’s logic…

1 arrow…5 targets.
https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Lead_the_Wind

1 magical orb does not even cleave

Aeolus.3615:

phokus.8934:

I wouldn’t mind seeing the scepter 1 orbs doing a small splash damage around the target it hits.

lol.. u can only cleave(AOE) with other weapons like… bows(trait that make arrows aoe) ANet trade off’s logic…

1 arrow…5 targets.
https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Lead_the_Wind

1 magical orb does not even cleave

One utilizes a trait to be able to hit extra targets, the other does not.

That being said, Ranger longbow has less dps than scepter. And I’d gladly trade piercing on longbow, where you have to hope that targets conveniently line up for you, for more damage per hit.

phokus.8934:

I wouldn’t mind seeing the scepter 1 orbs doing a small splash damage around the target it hits.

-laughs in permeating wrath-

Of all weapons that require a buff scepter is not one of them…

And no, scepter auto should not do AOE damage. That would be ridiculous.

So let’s change staff 1 to be 1200 range 360 radius.

That sounds reasonable to me.

Yeah my only real issue with scepter is the painfully slow projectile speed. An update to the animation would also be nice but I would put both of these pretty low on priority lists considering the plethora of other Guardian issues that need attention.

I must have missed the change that made scepter “weak”. It’s boring, mainly because the autoattack is so…vanilla…and is the same animation repeatedly, but it’s certainly not weak.

Thats a very good idea dude, I totally agree. Although the scepter has very good damage. its A. not very reliable (symbol based and orbs can easily be evaded) and B. just doesnt feel like a good weapon to use imo