Guild Wars 2

I just noticed the forums are online, and I’m just making this thread, because it will be something I’ll be saying a lot.
The Scepter is boring.
The worst part is that it’s not bad, so it doesn’t actually ?eed¸change.
What would make the Scepter more interesting?
1. Make the first skill a combo of some kind.
2. Make Smite either a Symbol or a combo field.
There are probably other ways of making the Scepter more interesting.

If only there were other weapons for you to use!

I really like the scepter. But I think the hammer and staff are incredibly boring. I know people who love them, though.

It’s playstyle, dude. Not every weapon will suit you, and that’s okay. But unless a lot of people hate the weapon [they don’t, the Scepter is crazy-popular], it’s a bit rude to want to change it.

I think when they add more attack skills you can swap around like you could in the original game all the weapons will have more of a personal touch to them.

Disastersaurus.3146:

If only there were other weapons for you to use!

I really like the scepter. But I think the hammer and staff are incredibly boring. I know people who love them, though.

It’s playstyle, dude. Not every weapon will suit you, and that’s okay. But unless a lot of people hate the weapon [they don’t, the Scepter is crazy-popular], it’s a bit rude to want to change it.

Yeah, it might be playstyle, and I also don’t really enjoy the Focus (and I used to dislike the Hammer as well), but I can appreciate it and the abilities are interesting.
The Scepter isn’t bad, but the abilities are incredibly bland.
And I don’t know about the popularity of the weapons, because I don’t have any metrics on it, but couldn’t it be that the Scepter is popular despite it being boring? Like I said, it’s an efficient weapon, just boring. Or maybe it’s popular because it’s our only ranged option.

And the main purpose of making the thread was putting the idea out there, because I’ll probably be saying it a lot on the forum.

I like the Scepter but I do agree that the auto-attack skill needs more combos, I mean other classes have Scepter combo skills but Guardian doesn’t? Pssh. :L

I like the scepter, especially the 2nd and 3rd skill

Scepter is effective, there’s no denying that. Especially with torch. I personally greatly dislike it due to its visuals. I’m bouncing tennis balls at people, and raining tiny little fists down lol. I hops the visuals are reworked and that smite gets symbol status.

I dig the scepter after a fight with the Fire Elemental in Metrica Province. At the time I was only carrying a shield/scepter, but after nearly clearing Wayfarer Foothills (including the main fight against the Champion Svanir Shaman Chief) with a scepter+torch? It’s always gonna be in my inventory.

Skill 1 Chain:

Orb of Wrath- Slow moving orb
Orb of Justice- Slow moving orb, with 2s burn
Judging Strike- Instant single target damage. 2 stacks of vulnerability, for 5 seconds.

Something like this could work.

I remember when the necro scepter was reworked into something with a chain. Made it much better.

The 1-skill on the scepter reminds me of The Whip Master skit with Bill Murray. Tell me this isn’t exactly what you think about when auto-attacking.

I think that a combo…at least with a couple different animations and sounds, even if all three skills do the same thing…would be really great. It would at least make my character look like a bit less of a complete spaz.

Aye, boring but effective. Would like to see smite create an electrical field, even if it doesn’t become a symbol. Turning it into a symbol might conflict with the staff too much, but giving guardians another field to play with would help our utility. Btw, what is the effect when using a blast finisher in an electrical field? I know water heals, and fire gives might, but what about electricity?

Banewrath.5107:

when they add more attack skills you can swap around

Wait… WHY has no one called this out yet? is this confirmed as something they are doing? Or are you just making stuff up to make me depressed? Cus i would LOVE if this were true…

and on the original topic, i have found that using the same weapon repeatedly can make it somewhat boring… so I have switched between swrd/foc scep/shld and gs/ham sets… something about the static skills is getting kinda stale a little too quickly imo. If you just think the weapon as a whole is boring… idk what to say, I love it.

Scepter could use a more interesting Auto-attack. It’s slow and tedious and feels like I’m blowing bubbles. Smite is great, though, and the Immob can be pretty handy.

Ynna.8769:

The Scepter is boring.

Nah

Vaeyrune.6804:

Ynna.8769:

The Scepter is boring.

Nah

It’s beyond boring.

shedim.8504:

Vaeyrune.6804:

Ynna.8769:

The Scepter is boring.

Nah

It’s beyond boring.

I like the slow moving tennis balls and the chains is satisfying to use.
If anything, the visuals of the 2nd skill could be improved, but I like the skill itself.

I don’t know. They made the guardian a heavily armored brute and give them awkward caster weapons. It’s like a knight, who’s proudly wearing his heavy battle armor, the shield with his family’s crest in one hand and a wet towel in the other.

I expected him to wield some real weapons and to be capable of ranged combat, just like any other class in this game. A knight shooting magical tennis balls in slow motion is…I don’t know how they failed to realize how ridiculous that actually is!

See, I don’t like picturing my guardian as a ‘heavily armored brute’. I understand others do, and I have no problem with the massive number of over-sized Norns running around with hammers and great swords.

I, on the other hand, prefer more of a holy caster, smiting foes, cleansing their sins with blue flames of purity.

Different styles, but I’m glad GW2 allows for this. I don’t want to eliminate options or pigeonhole the class into only one box.

I think you made a point and I am glad GW2 allowed you to pick your holy caster, but it offers no alternatives for people, who wanted a defensive heavy armored guy, who is neither a paladin nor wielding a wand or a staff.

I’d love Longbow for Guardians. Honestly. I think it fits the theme well enough, and it’d spread Longbow use to a third class.

Eveningstar.6940:

I’d love Longbow for Guardians.

Not I.

No longbows, shortbows, rifles, or pistols please. I really think the Dev team got it right.

Vaeyrune.6804:

Eveningstar.6940:

I’d love Longbow for Guardians.

Not I.

No longbows, shortbows, rifles, or pistols please. I really think the Dev team got it right.

I do not share your opinion and do not see the point in a heavy armor class using wands and staves only. If I wanted a caster, I’d had rolled one.

I bet if we have had a choice, nobody would have picked a wand over a real weapon. Well, nobody but you.

Vaeyrune.6804:

I, on the other hand, prefer more of a holy caster, smiting foes, cleansing their sins with blue flames of purity.

Different styles, but I’m glad GW2 allows for this. I don’t want to eliminate options or pigeonhole the class into only one box.

I didn’t actually want to eliminate options at all. I wanted you the have the exact same options only less boring.

shedim.8504:

I think you made a point and I am glad GW2 allowed you to pick your holy caster, but it offers no alternatives for people, who wanted a defensive heavy armored guy, who is neither a paladin nor wielding a wand or a staff.

How about a defensive Warrior?

Not I.
No longbows, shortbows, rifles, or pistols please. I really think the Dev team got it right.

Why not, exactly? Just curious.

Well, i’m using Hammer and Scepter + Focus, because it’s good to have an alternative ranged weapon. But it would be more “Guardian-like” if we could use Axes…

Every single Guardian weapon set should have a Symbol, much like Mesmers have phantasms. So you don’t totally neglect or ignore some of the Zeal and Honor traits that are symbol related. It wouldn’t even be that hard to implement, something like Symbol of Smite on scepter 2 that applies fury/might or some other boon, or you place a symbol where you teleport to with the sword, something like that would create new little sinergies and possibilities with the respective traits.

Also, I agree the Scepter should have a 3 chain combo.

Some people seem to miss the benefit of a slow projectile… it clumps damage to a more sustainable group.

For theory-crafters, it works something like this:
1. You cannot, in theory, straight up tank
2. You cannot draw aggro forcibly
3. one of the likely factor of aggro is “proximity”
4. another factor which is “sure fire” is damage (as in it priorities units attacking) although i’ve seen one that prioritizes revivers and another for downed units, annoying as heck.
5. slow orbs means leaving a trail if bread crumbs leading to you.
6. ohnoes! boss CC! don’t worry, while knocked down or such, your orbs are in the air.
7. you pick up the hits after you get up.
8. run around and auto attack.
9. Better “sustained” prescence = boss thinks it has to chase YOU instead of others further units hitting it.

TESTED this impromptu on a boss. me, an archer and an elementalist. i recognized my inability to tank the champion mob so i switch to scepted/focus and run around. the other two DPS it down while i do all the aggro pulling (i’m a pow/prec build so not much survivability either). Worked out great! after a while… at the very least, there were no scrubs drawing unwanted aggro who’d soon be revive bait since i know how to run like a headless chicken.

the scepter is NOT bad. the attack 1 COULD add a little more oomph though. even if it’s just the animation or the sound, and you can color me satisfied. it just feels so fluffy. lol, so even if it does do dmg.. though i use it from time to time. the bind is decent and then i drop a 2 under them and whack away or go with torch.

and what gabo illustrated above is pretty good too! never heard of it that way before but it works.

@gabo: I’ve tanked Champion-mobs. It’s not that hard.
@akamon: For me, that’s part of the problem. If the Scepter was actually bad, it would be easier to improve it.

Eveningstar.6940:

Scepter could use a more interesting Auto-attack. It’s slow and tedious and feels like I’m blowing bubbles. Smite is great, though, and the Immob can be pretty handy.

Yeah, it also looks like you’re either throwing bubbles or helium balloons at the enemy. Ideally, I think Scepter auto-attack should look something like Ray of Judgment style ray attack or a “holy” lightning bolt. Something with a little more oomph.

Ketill.5218:

Eveningstar.6940:

Scepter could use a more interesting Auto-attack. It’s slow and tedious and feels like I’m blowing bubbles. Smite is great, though, and the Immob can be pretty handy.

Yeah, it also looks like you’re either throwing bubbles or helium balloons at the enemy. Ideally, I think Scepter auto-attack should look something like Ray of Judgment style ray attack or a “holy” lightning bolt. Something with a little more oomph.

And proper projectile speed that is on par with other profession’s ranged attacks. In their current state the scepter’s autoattacks are simply frustrating and the definition of anti-fun. You can’t even hit enemies in events properly if there are a lot of ranged players there, since your projectiles are so incredibly slow compared to theirs. A lot if times minions die before your projectiles even hit them, making it a unsatisfying situation for the guardian and negtive,y impacting his contribution score. This is incredibly frustrating.

Seriously, that tennis autoattack animation and the ridiculous tennis ball projectiles…it looks so incredibly stupid! The slow motion speed of the projectiles needs to be changed ASAP!

1) For the love of Dwayna, speed up the projectiles
2) Make a chain. Perhaps keep a third strike as a slow moving, higher damage projectile, that would be fine.
3) I look like the furriest kitten when my hulking Norn starts chucking pea-sized orbs of light and happiness.

Disastersaurus.3146:

It’s playstyle, dude. Not every weapon will suit you, and that’s okay. But unless a lot of people hate the weapon [they don’t, the Scepter is crazy-popular], it’s a bit rude to want to change it.

Scepter isn’t crazy popular. I’ve seen one Guardian that I can remember using it. Most use GS.

I’m not sure how someone could say it is anything but terrible. Traits don’t even support it. If Smite was a Symbol, at least there would be a handful of traits that change the way it works. The only real purpose it serves at the moment is actually being ranged, the staff has horrible range.

Khenzy.9348:

Every single Guardian weapon set should have a Symbol

This +100

Feels dumb using a weapon set without a Symbol. Its a large part of the reason that I avoid sword and scepter like plagues.

Guardian ranged weapon = crossbow. That’d be awesome.

I disagree wholeheartedly. I am level 30 and using a Scepter/Torch combo and I have decided to go with lots of Precision and +Condition damage, which makes me do an insane amount of damage. Generally I will auto attack till in melee drop a Smite and then breathe fire and the mob is dead before the fire breath timer is up.

Scepter to me is far more fun than anything else I have tried and I have tried all of it.

I like the scepter but wish it has a longer range. It’s the only reason I have it equipped over the staff for WvW. I pair it with the torch.

Are you talking PvE? Becauese In PvP scepter rocks.

Scepter is nice. The orbs of the auto attack however need to be faster. Anyone worth anything can almost dodge every orb which quickly makes the scepter fing useless unless people arnt paying attention to you.

Guardians could use a short bow in my opinion. Consider we have a bow spirit weapon and out of all our spirit weapons, its the only weapon we cant actually use (seems odd).

Basically though the options for Guardians in ranged damage is really minimal. Staff is all support and mild aoe, and scepter is insanely easy to avoid aoe damage that it almost entirely used for its root and aoe, then quickly swapped out of.

Basically no one uses the scepter for its actual ranged capabilities unless you are fighting someone that has fallen asleep or simply does not realize what you are doing.

I just use the scepter to hit people on fort walls with the are skill, it is weak but enough to make some of them move away for while… but for any other situation it is quite useless.

I totally agree. After playing a number of the other classes range options the scepter is about the most boring option. The scepter itself is effective but the “gameplay”, or lack there of, involved with its use is quite dull.

I’m sure it would not be high priority, but it would be nice to see some changes that spice up the use of this weapon a bit.

Ynna.8769

Or maybe it’s popular because it’s our only ranged option.

albotelho.2931:

I just use the scepter to hit people on fort walls with the are skill, it is weak but enough to make some of them move away for while… but for any other situation it is quite useless.

Ding Ding Ding…we have a winner(s)

Scepter sucks..
all skills seems like it cant be used on long range and it is weak

Orb of Wrath(pretty blue slow moving bubble): Slow attack, no combo

Smite: Small radius, it´s not a symbol

Chains of Light: Good effect but its range is shorter than 2 and 1 and when it miss because the enemy is too far away it goes into full cooldown

Give the guardian a bow Anet, fixed?

conner da munas.4583:

Give the guardian a bow Anet, fixed?

cough Pistol and shield cough

shedim.8504:

I think you made a point and I am glad GW2 allowed you to pick your holy caster, but it offers no alternatives for people, who wanted a defensive heavy armored guy, who is neither a paladin nor wielding a wand or a staff.

They did make such an alternative, its called a ‘warrior’.

I never use it, it’s horribly boring and using it in general PvE is just press 1 once, then immobilize, then press 2 and 1 again until your target is dead. Rinse and repeat for every single mob out there. At least others are more bearable with their combo and skills that actually require attention from your part (blocking, gap closer, symbol).

Other weapons are fun because they move your position, or the position of your target, or have an interesting mechanic (the blocks on mace and sword are very neat). Scepter is very soulless with it’s immobilize. I think the immobilize should remain, but Smite and 1 should be redesigned. This weapon is supposed to be the Guardian’s high range weapon, and even if it does have 1200 range it doesn’t look or feel like a high range weapon. I’m stuck with using this crappy weapon in WvW and that annoys me to no end. It does indeed feel like a peashooter.

If you’re going to make a chain, I suggest making the 3rd attack slower (as in, longer cast time, not slower projectile) and burn the enemy. This way we’d have stacking burns from the weapon and Virtue of Justice (both active and passive). The scepter used to be the go-to weapon for condition damage on Guardian, but since 1 was redesigned that was gone. Maybe it’s time to bring it back

To everyone suggesting “other classes” or “other weapons”, you’re useless. We’re talking about the scepter. Thank God you were here to tell us we can switch to other weapons, we couldn’t figure that one out for ourselves.

I agree somewhat, the scepter is boring. It’s not terrible, it’s not whatever, but it is… not too distinct maybe, it’s just there. Now, I’ve used it almost since hitting lvl 7 as my secondary (up until yesterday, where I got a staff that had slightly better attributes for what I want, and that wasn’t 20 levels below my own. Once I find a decent scepter though, I’ll go back mind you).

1. At first I thought, #1 needs to be a 20% projectile combo like any other self respecting projectile looking #1 skill. That way we’d have at least one projectile combo finisher. However, after more thought, I realized, “maybe it isn’t even a projectile (mechanics wise)!” and as far as my testing goes, it isn’t. I’m now of the mind of what a few people recently posted about a chain that just has a nifty 3rd effect, like a non-exploding trident #2, or inflicts another condition we don’t have yet/much of (like a 1sec chill?). The speed is a toss up, as both faster and it’s current slow both have advantages for different situations. The traits seem to make scepter as majorly a damage dealer (scepter +5% dmg, +15% crit for pow/prec based builds), so any effects would probably have to be along those lines. I haven’t tried traiting for scepter main yet, so I’ll have to see what that looks like.

1. Smite. This should definitely become a symbol imo. After dropping my GS before level 10 at least, I’ve been 50 levels without any sort of combo making or finishing (sword+torch / Scepter+sheild. I’m not really counting sheild #5 or my utes (no one combos off my sheild #5 anyway)) I’m not sure what flavor the Symbol should have, but something that either exemplifies the scepter’s purpose, or adds to its effectiveness.

1. This one seems kind of meh, as I don’t get much use from any of the effects. The immobilize seems too short (though any longer and it would be op no doubt, I’m just not a fan of short duration anything). The vulnerability also seems not to really do much, and drops off before too many orbs hit (maybe it would work better if I traited to add vuln.). I don’t really have any ideas on what to do with this. It could be redesigned completely since they just use a generic chain animation.

I wouldn’t mind seeing the Guardian with a longbow (long over short, and guns seem quite out of place. They could even make us Cpt. America with a throwing shield, that would be fun) however, I don’t think they’ll implement new weapons any time soon. And then again, suggesting something like that would make me useless, as per vydia.

The problem is that people don’t pick the Scepter because they love it, they pick it because they need a ranged weapon in many cases.

Of course it’s boring when you’re forced into taking it, and when it’s a weapon with little variety. It’s basically spam ‘1’ and hit ‘2’ on cooldown, with little visual effectiveness.

I’d not say no to Longbow on a Guardian, if for no other reason than it’s the only weapon he has a Spirit Weapon of that he can’t use himself.

scepter 3 is nice, scepter 2 is meh, scepter 1 I hate. The thing I really dislike is it’s our only long range option and it’s a terrible long range option at that, it just feels incredibly weak, I only really like it for the immobilize then port on them and swap to greatsword so i can whirl them to death. Personally I prefer the staff as a ranged option mostly because the number 4 skill is a nice force multiplier but that weapon needs some serious work as well.

Overall our ranged options are incredibly lacking, top that off with melee opportunities not being very often, and our incredibly low survivability in melee range, at least in WvW, it just is such a shame our ranged options are so… pathetic.

I would really love to see some reworking of the scepter/staff, atm they just aren’t good weapons but we are forced into using them in many situations. the number 1 skills on them need the most help. I would really like it if the staff had longer range like the scepter does, so at least there’s some more variety in our long ranged capabilities.