Guild Wars 2

with the recent Ready up it seems that the devs are showing attention to silly unclassified things, Healing breeze is becoming a shout, Shelter becoming a Consecration etc,
so i think it would be a perfect time for Anet to FINALLY make Smite the symbol it was born to be!

what is Smite?
Smite is the 2nd Scepter skill it places a blue AoE on the ground that damages foes.

why should Smite be a symbol?
most other guardian weapons (with the exception of sword) have a symbol attached to them, Mace, Hammer, Greatsword, Staff, they all have a symbol!
Scepter is missing a symbol, yet has a ground targeted AoE that is unaffected by symbol traits!

i just feel it would make so much sense for smite to become a symbol

Actually, I really like this! The spell would possibly have to be reworked slightly, since you have to an enemy targeted to use it….

Since symbols do aoe damage, I imagine it’d do 1/3’rd the damage to compensate for not only hitting 5 people but also symbol traits.

For sword/scepter users not traiting for symbol duration, symbol burns, etc, they’ll get the short end of the stick. Unless they actually keep Smite’s original damage, i’m not for this at all

Yeah I was suggesting the same thing but for the scepter trait to initiate it. Someone pointed out how it could be OP though, or moreover the synergy with the new Symbolic Avenger could be. The reason 20% isn’t unreasonable in PVP for that trait is because it’s tough to get a symbol in place where the enemy wouldn’t just walk out of it before your big hits. Scepter would make it far easier beinga ble to toss it on a node from range.

Not sure what I think about it with that in mind, I do think it could be neat, but /shrug.

someone needs to re watch the preview from last week. i feel like one of them almost said the word scepter when they were talking about the symbol traits.

any one got the time to kill? i could have just imagined it because it does make too sense to be a symbol

Jaxom.7310:

someone needs to re watch the preview from last week. i feel like one of them almost said the word scepter when they were talking about the symbol traits.

any one got the time to kill? i could have just imagined it because it does make too sense to be a symbol

Yeah, I noticed when they were talking about symbol traits I swore one of them said something to the effect of “that’s gonna be nice with scepter” I though he misspoke, no one corrected him but they also never explicitly said scepter 2 would become a symbol.

along the same lines as that sword 3 also needs to become a block like the tooltip says instead of an absorb.

I took it as, they were referring to Scepter’s immobilize #3 since you’d want to use it in combination with symbols. :O

+1 they should think of increasing projectile speed of AA in the process.

Smite really needs to be a symbol though. It wouldn’t be difficult at all to consolidate the damage into 3, 4, or 5 seconds of pulses. For a weapon with no symbols being in a traitline that is based around symbols, it makes it very difficult to see where the synergy lies.

Been suggesting it since launch.

The question is what symbol would actually work for it ?

Symbol of protection or mercy are the only ones that could really work unless they make a new one.

Prior to the info I would have agreed 100%. But with the new scepter trait that gives might for Justice procs while wielding a Scepter I’m not sure if I’d actually want this change or not. Smite + AA will proc Justice twice in a couple of seconds even with one target. If Smite became a symbol, then you’d only get that level of Might gain from at least two targets, and even then you’d be getting them much slower since Symbols only hit once a second.

I do think maybe the Scepter trait should be in a different traitline, though. Perhaps the Virtues traitline to synergize with more frequent Justice procs?

Electro.4173:

Prior to the info I would have agreed 100%. But with the new scepter trait that gives might for Justice procs while wielding a Scepter I’m not sure if I’d actually want this change or not. Smite + AA will proc Justice twice in a couple of seconds even with one target. If Smite became a symbol, then you’d only get that level of Might gain from at least two targets, and even then you’d be getting them much slower since Symbols only hit once a second.

I do think maybe the Scepter trait should be in a different traitline, though. Perhaps the Virtues traitline to synergize with more frequent Justice procs?

I doubt anyone will want that trait anyway given that it’s in the same slot as the +10% damage to burning targets trait.
That means your choices are +10% damage to all burning targets or a couple of might stacks when using a scepter. That’s not much of a choice

Condition damage builds wouldn’t get that much from the trait, and symbols are true aoe skills, which means it could proc that might once per pulse if you’re hitting 5 targets.

Both Smite becoming a symbol and the scepter trait have potential, but what we get at launch will actually determine what happens.

+1 op

With smite being a symbol Guardians can potentially run Scepter/Focus and Staff taking advantage on the new Symbol Grandmaster Trait. While at the same time Stacking might with Staff and lots of blocks (might on block trait) : P