Guild Wars 2

Everyone (well, mostly everyone) usually considers the Scepter to be the inferior of the two Mesmer main-hand weapons, generally acknowledging that the Sword main-hand is far more useful. When I first made my Mesmer, I went along with this notion and ditched the Scepter the game gives you in the beginning right when I got a Sword.

However, with the 6/25 patch and the nerf to one of my favorite skills, Blurred Frenzy, and the addition of the new Torment condition to the Scepter, I gave the ol’ thing a try. It didn’t turn out as bad as I remembered… my question is, what makes the Scepter generally less sought-after than the Sword main-hand? It seems okay for a Shatter-heavy build due to clone generation on the auto-attack. After 6/25, are there builds in which I could utilize the Scepter for shatter-heavy builds, and make use of the Torment condition, or is Sword still superior? Also, what off-hand pairs well with Scepter?

The sword has better danage, better defense, better options to follow up with combos… Scepter just has range and a high danage single target hlock, the confusing images can do high danage in a power build but t takes a lot of time to use.

As a not so new shatter mesmer, id say staff is superior over scepter! What im doing here is, im choosing a second weaponset, because my sword is set in stone. The staff has more defensive and supportive capabilities (aoe aswel), the defense is the mos important reason for me to take staff, i can easily use swap and phase retreat after i finished my offensive combo etc…

I do have a condition buikd utilising the scepter, id say it works nicely.
I used to have 5 points in illusion for the celerity, but yea, sad face.
After i make some changes i may post the build here, just for fun!

well for me… mostly because it look ugly.. it have block and little bit of control.. also more clone which are fit for shatter build..

I like the scepter, but there are one or two things that bother me which invariably means I end up going for sword.
- casting animation and travel time as well as lack of “impact” of #1
- casting animation and sound effect of #3

Both animations look silly on an asura; they are much too extended (for want of a better word).
Sound effect of #3 could do with some higher frequencies.
Bolts of #1 could do with being “tightened” together with the travel time and sound on impact.

Alright, I guess I’ll stick with S/F or S/P.

The problem with Scepter is that Skill 3 (Confusing Images) is terrible. It’s just way too easy to avoid. The first second of the skill is just a charge, with a very obvious animation. Then you have two seconds during which a rapid fire happens of five hits.

This is the only skill in the game which is both a charge up attack, a channel after, while not being an AoE. When you start doing damage there’s no guarantee your target will not be obscured by then, and even if the target is still hittable they can still dodge most of channel hits due to how long it takes this skill to work.

Add to that the fact that now Scepter is forced to be condition centric, yet can’t hit more than a single target with any of it’s attacks, and has an auto-attack that does direct damage, terrible direct damage at that, with clones that offer no extra benefits (and condition builds rely on staff clones), and the clone spawning auto attack which is pretty terrible, and the weapon is pretty useless.

I think it was actually more viable when the block skill did 100% more direct damage. The Torment change was a nerf since the rest of the Scepter’s skills weren’t changed to fit with it.

if only could cause confusion again… or maybe bleeding? or something condition related?

How do we inflict Torment with Scepter #2 skill? Do we have to successfully block an attack in order to do so?

yep, i tryed it against a lot of mob in low level area. the last time i had some space to make the mob running was in the zhul jp against the champion.
you are lv 50 there and the condition on the running mob for me was 43/sec for 8 secs.

I use scepter exclusively in all of my builds… Honestly it’s about play style and the pace you want it to be at. Most players go for the flashy damage at your finger tips style of Sword. The way people find it easy to use I actually found it very clunky and gimmicky which would be shocking to the vast majority of Mesmer’s but again. It’s about your play style. I like coax and beckon you in like siren and then feed you a stake. It takes finesse and patience with the right timing you’ll land every hit of confusing images.

The number 1 skill has too many avenues by adding a DPS conditions that will cause it to be broken if you then try to add a control condition along with off-hand capabilities scepter again becomes too much. I was there in beta when it applied confusion if you added the confusing combatants and Illusionary Retribution you became a severe broken mess…in PvP testing of course. Beta was too short for me to max to 80.

So basically my Mesmer family, Scepter is honestly one buff away from being broken especially with the addition of torment in it’s current form adding a buff to the #1 skill on a 1 handed weapon is overkill…