[sPvP] - Sword vs. Scepter
The main thing scepter has over sword is the 2s imob that is pretty much not dodgeable. If you think that scepter was underwhelming you probably wasted your imob a lot and just used it to hit smite or something.
The imob is basicly your only way besides pull and teammates CCing stuff of hitting decent players with whirling wrath. It’s also a good way to secure hitting smite condi, leap of faith or telegraphed stuff from your teammates.
Also having two melee weapons means that you either go all in on somebody or you’re doing no damage at all.
That being said in some situations/matchups sword can be better than scepter, there is some stuff that doesn’t really care about the imob (warriors with dogged march, rangers with s/d) and stuff where range won’t really help you and you want to stay close to them all the time anyways (mesmers, s/f eles) and sometimes having one port more can really help to get on a point before it’s decapped or to stay on a kiting target in a teamfight or just for general mobility if your team gives you targets to port to.
If scepter wouldn’t have this sik imob I would probably play GS sw/f aswell.
Inb4 Mooobs disagrees with everything I said. Aparently writing his name with three Os works.
Bullet Punch
(edited by Keksmuffin.1450)
I was gonna write this big response, then I read Keksmuffin’s post, he sums it up nicely.
The imob is strong, and without range certain builds will eat you alive.
I’m not sure, can you, umm…. do that again? ROM – 2015
#allisvain
#allisvain
Why not run both?
Pretty much what Keksmuffin said.
As an average joe level guardian, I really appreciate Scepter. It allows me to keep pressure on my enemies while I back out of melee for some breathing room during a teamfight.
Why not run both?
Most people use Greatsword, which only leaves room for one one-handed weapon. The Greatsword does a lot in the Medi build, so people aren’t really eager to ditch it.
“Come on, hit me!”
Cool, thanks for the replies.
I’ll give Scepter another shot, haha.
I dislike sword so much that now my warrior holds it. =p
The teleport is okay but then they just walk away and I feel like I’m futilely swinging away. Smite guarantees you’ll hit something even if they sidestep away your regular shots.
The immobo from scepter is amazing in any kind of team fight.
I am new to pvp and run scepter/focus/hammer though, so they just go well together with 2 immobolizes that would have been trivial on their own to deal with.
For once you have tasted flight you will walk the earth with your eyes turned skywards,
for there you have been and there you will long to return.
for there you have been and there you will long to return.
The main thing scepter has over sword is the 2s imob that is pretty much not dodgeable. If you think that scepter was underwhelming you probably wasted your imob a lot and just used it to hit smite or something.
The imob is basicly your only way besides pull and teammates CCing stuff of hitting decent players with whirling wrath. It’s also a good way to secure hitting smite condi, leap of faith or telegraphed stuff from your teammates.
Also having two melee weapons means that you either go all in on somebody or you’re doing no damage at all.
That being said in some situations/matchups sword can be better than scepter, there is some stuff that doesn’t really care about the imob (warriors with dogged march, rangers with s/d) and stuff where range won’t really help you and you want to stay close to them all the time anyways (mesmers, s/f eles) and sometimes having one port more can really help to get on a point before it’s decapped or to stay on a kiting target in a teamfight or just for general mobility if your team gives you targets to port to.
If scepter wouldn’t have this sik imob I would probably play GS sw/f aswell.
Inb4 Mooobs disagrees with everything I said. Aparently writing his name with three Os works.
nah bra scepter is better in teamq setting overall, the only time I run sword is if Im on duty for hunting down a squishy class that I counter (s/f ele, necro, mesmer, thief etc) since sword trains better and counters their vertical teleports (or just carrying soloq).
its just that if I play scepter I might as well run the hammer spec since theres a lot more team fight oriented kitten on that build
#1 gerdian na
0 counterplay
0 counterplay
on a medi guard, i find that if I cant kite effectively, I need to play much more carefully. Staying in melee range all the time if a good way to get your HP whittled away IMO.
Why not run both?
Most people use Greatsword, which only leaves room for one one-handed weapon. The Greatsword does a lot in the Medi build, so people aren’t really eager to ditch it.
Greatsword is alright in sPvP when you’re fighting on point, but other than that it’s really not that great and pretty overrated. Any decent player will know how to dodge or interrupt it.
Don’t play dps in rated pvp as a guard. There are very few good ones. I personally would say no good ones so its really more that med guards is bettered by many other classes glass builds then people aren’t good at playing them. Too hard to stay on target and burst is easy to dodge. The slightly better sustain is fairly meaningless against good players they will still spike you down easily if you make any mistakes just like any other glass.
I really like using Sw/F Sc/T with a 2/6/6/0/0 build. You get the utility and AoE of scepter for team fights and the pressure of sword.
Whirling Wrath on greatsword might be a good burst in damage but it’s hard to get a full one in. On the other hand, you can still get a good burst in with scepter/sword with more success. Torch throw can do some good damage on top of an immob smite. Sword can do some great sustained damage with the multipliers 2/6/6/0/0 offers on a very high crit chance.
The one thing I really miss though when I take it is that greatsword is a thief killer. Binding Blades tracks target in stealth allowing a pull out of a shadow refuge or anywhere else, and WW can be useful inside a SR. Great cleave too when the target goes down in a team fight.
As for sword or scepter, it’s all preference imo. I like the pressure that sword offers and the extra gap closer/blind. It’s tough losing the immob on scepter, but I think Smite isn’t completely reliable.
“AoE of scepter”
hahahah what?
#1 gerdian na
0 counterplay
0 counterplay
“AoE of scepter”
hahahah what?
Smite isn’t as strong as GS symbol or WW, but it’s harder to see, is ground targeted up to 1200 range, and has much less downtime. People often underestimate it.
“AoE of scepter”
hahahah what?Smite isn’t as strong as GS symbol or WW, but it’s harder to see, is ground targeted up to 1200 range, and has much less downtime. People often underestimate it.
Smite is not an AoE. Each of the 16 hits that go down in the target area can only hit one target so it basicly becomes less effective the more targets there are. :<
Bullet Punch
“AoE of scepter”
hahahah what?
I believe I said it’s unreliable in the post but it is a circle on the ground, no? Whether it is or not seems like semantics to me.
(edited by Shanks.2907)
“AoE of scepter”
hahahah what?Smite isn’t as strong as GS symbol or WW, but it’s harder to see, is ground targeted up to 1200 range, and has much less downtime. People often underestimate it.
Smite is not an AoE. Each of the 16 hits that go down in the target area can only hit one target so it basicly becomes less effective the more targets there are. :<
#1 gerdian na
0 counterplay
0 counterplay
“AoE of scepter”
hahahah what?Smite isn’t as strong as GS symbol or WW, but it’s harder to see, is ground targeted up to 1200 range, and has much less downtime. People often underestimate it.
Smite is not an AoE. Each of the 16 hits that go down in the target area can only hit one target so it basicly becomes less effective the more targets there are. :<
AoE = Area of effect. It may not hit multiple targets simultaneously, but technically it still is an AoE attack.
Both are useful. On the paper, sword auto attack is stronger, but scepter can compensate it a bit thanx to Smite, due you can keep doing auto attacks while Smite is hitting. The burst from sword, Zealot’s Defense, cuts your auto attacks, roots you in a place (which is risky) and despite the tooltip (which says “600”) no way in hell is reliable to consistently hit targets outside a range of 200-300.
But the scepter has his own handicaps; most of the ranged weapons in the game have auto attacks which hits the target almost instantly, so the only way to prevent the damage is either coverin behind a physical obstacle, using evade or a skill capable to prevent the hit or negate the damage. But using a evade or utility skill just to prevent auto attacks is highly ill-advised, due evades and utilities are a few, whereas auto attacks can be spammed.
And this is when the problems with the scepter arise: the auto attacks from Warrior’s longbow and rifle, Thieve’s pistol and shortbow, Ranger’s long and shortbow… Always hit, as long as a line of sight exist. Orb of Wrath, instead, is more tricky: they move slowly -despite their speed was patched and enhanced-, so at medium range a target running in circles can “evade” some of them, and at max range (1200) walking sideways of their axis can just negate most of the hits. The more close you fight, the more attacks hits.
So, albeit scepter is a great weapon in PvE, where it works consistently at a sustained pace, using it against players has some drawbacks. Their best asset is probably the Chains of Light, due in team works is a blast to nuke a target focusing damage.
Sword has his own appeals; despite using it we are at risk of being kitted, and being particulary tricky to use when a foe starts to run in circles around the perimeter of the cap nodes in Conquest (specially annoying if our antagonist has interruptions or drops AoE damage or conditions) the sword does sustantially more damage per hit, and instead od one inmobilization each 20 seconds it provides a teleport each 10 seconds witha an AoE blind.
Personally, after using both for a while, my choice is moving more towards the sword because 1) I usally play in random teams, so the Chain of Light from scepter isn’t always taken in advantage and 2) scepter isn’t the best ranged weapon in the game, whereas sword dps packs well against other melee weapons.