Guild Wars 2

This is more just a plea, in hopes that someone from the development team will see it…
PLEASE make the mesmer Scepter Auto-attack, not so…well useless. Scepters have some of the cooler looking skins around, and I love how they look on my mesmer, yet besides skill 3…There is no use for it in PvE. The auto attack needs to be fixed, and made more viable.
Here are some idea’s I came up with for the auto attack:

-Remove the clone generation, as it messes up alot of our other phantasm summon rotations, and give it:
Etherblast: Standard damage attack
Etherchoke: Poisen target (or the illusion of choking as mesmer do)
Etherburn: Burn the target (once again the illusion of burning)
I leave out bleeding as it doesnt really fit as an illusion of bleeding in my opinion, also it would be to similar to necromancer scepter then.

Or if the clone generation is kept, remove the projectile, and make it more instant attack, as with the attack speed of the auto attack, and the projectile speed, its worthless -_-

Anyway, just my thoughts, let the constructive posts commence, or the rage filled hateposts if that’s your thing :P

ANet already reacted to the problem with scepter auto attack.

By buffing scepter #2 and #3

ANet logics ftw!

I find #2 to be very useful in pve as it can save a dodge plus torment is an awesome condition because mobs are too stupid to stop moving when affected by it.

Now it does take time to get use to the skill as you have to learn when mobs attack. If they don’t hit me within 1.2 seconds, I just hit the skill again to blind them and there are some mesmers traits that work off of blinds.

The auto-attack on the other hand… I can’t find a place for it. It’s too slow for direct damage and generating clones with it feels clunky. Sometimes I even stop auto attacking or switch weapons because I don’t want the clone to overwrite a phantasm.

Changing scepter was one of the things the devs mentioned a few months back a possible goal to include in the balance patch. At the time, I think they mentioned wanting to keep in the nature of it being a “tricksy” weapon.

I think making the auto-attack go a bit faster would help a lot.

One “tricksy” thing I think you could do with the auto-attack is a little mini-teleport. Suppose that the last clone gets created pretty close to the caster, and when it gets created the caster and the clone swap spots. It’s not a huge change, and you still have to wait a fair amount of time before you get through the whole clone chain. But it would break targeting on you, and it does seem tricksy.

I like the Scepter as a clone-generating machine, so I can’t support any changes to that aspect of the weapon. At the same time, I would like to see the attack speed upped juuust a bit, or the 3rd chain changed so it doesn’t have the wind-up time.

Zaxares.5419:

I like the Scepter as a clone-generating machine

A weapon that generates clones almost slower than dodge rolling with vigor?

yeah…..

Lol you’re using scepter in PvE? wut?

Scepter is not, I repeat NOT a good PvE weapon. It is clearly intended for WvW/PvP and I can assure you it’s pretty decent there.

I’m sorry, but from your post it is pretty obvious that you don’t really know what you’re talking about.

Pyroatheist.9031:

Zaxares.5419:

I like the Scepter as a clone-generating machine

A weapon that generates clones almost slower than dodge rolling with vigor?

yeah…..

Not all of us go with Deceptive Evasion.

Zaxares.5419:

Pyroatheist.9031:

Zaxares.5419:

I like the Scepter as a clone-generating machine

A weapon that generates clones almost slower than dodge rolling with vigor?

yeah…..

Not all of us go with Deceptive Evasion.

I understand that, but the fact that it generates at a comparable rate is a statement about how horrible it is for that purpose.

Pyroatheist.9031:

Zaxares.5419:

Pyroatheist.9031:

Zaxares.5419:

I like the Scepter as a clone-generating machine

A weapon that generates clones almost slower than dodge rolling with vigor?

yeah…..

Not all of us go with Deceptive Evasion.

I understand that, but the fact that it generates at a comparable rate is a statement about how horrible it is for that purpose.

Don’t worry Pyro, the coming vigor nerf should remove any comparisons :p

This idea sounds like you are trying to make a mesmer into a necromancer to me. But however here is my opinion about the Scepter AA.

I do not aggree with the your opinion that the clone summon in the sequence is annoying or useless. I personally run a condition build, where if my clones die (not by shattering, but by replacing or being killed) they leave certain condition(s). The scepter AA is really useful combined with the clone on evasion trait.

On the other side I do aggree that the first 2 attack of the chain are really boring and time consuming (one chain is ~3,9s). Giving Ether Blast an extra effect could already buff this weapon enough to make it actually very well but definetly not overpowered.

An idea for Ether blast (2nd attack in the chain):
When the attack hits you gain distortion for one second.
This creates the same effect as with the 3rd chain skill in rangers greatwsword skill. The Distortion will occur on the end of skill 2 on mesmer, so it can be used to finisher skill 3, or to use it while casting something else.

I run scepter all the time in PvE and can solo most champs and all veterans with ease. Just like dude above me stated about the replacing clones to keep conditions on, I don’t want to see much of a change to scepter.

I always wanted this, Scepter last hit is a random teleport.

When the clone is generated, there is a 50% chance to swap position with the Mesmer (use the same code as SW#3 alternate action).

I feel it’s crazy enough that it just might work.

Pyroatheist.9031:

Zaxares.5419:

I like the Scepter as a clone-generating machine

A weapon that generates clones almost slower than dodge rolling with vigor?

yeah…..

Now that you point out that the vigor nerf is a scepter buff im completely content with it.

Nerfing vigor makes Scepter clone generation look good. Good job Anet!

Both Scepter auto-attack and Confusing Images could do with some cast time reductions and/or after-cast adjustments. I also feel like Confusing Images and Illusionary Counter should have their cooldowns swapped, bearing in mind how powerful that torment stack is compared to a super-duper obvious channelled pink beam that will rarely be able to land all 5 stacks in most encounters.

What about adding confusion/torment to subsequent scepter AA? Which kind of justify the long AA chain and those two conditions rarely occur compare to bleeding/vulnerability/poisoning etc as in AA from other class. Plus those condition seems more mesmer-ish. However they could be less useful in PvE situation.

NICENIKESHOE.7128:

What about adding confusion/torment to subsequent scepter AA? Which kind of justify the long AA chain and those two conditions rarely occur compare to bleeding/vulnerability/poisoning etc as in AA from other class. Plus those condition seems more mesmer-ish. However they could be less useful in PvE situation.

Conditions will not be getting added to the autoattack. The devs have flat out said this, and I agree with them completely, at least in this. The less condition spam, the better.

What if they moved the clone spawning effect on the second attack in the chain. Wouldnt that be an improvement especially for those who skillfully break the chain and repeat?

I like scepter because of 2 & 3. 1 seems to be quite slow for only generating a clone. What about giving proc 2 of skill 1 a condition like poison, bleed or confusion?

Hmm i thought 3 was the slowest.

2 & 3: block & confusion skill in my assumption.

oh i thought you meant 2 and 3 in first skills chain sequence. What i meant was moving clone generation effect up the first skills chain so you won thave to complete the chain to get it.

Then the 2 other parts of the skill will be useless.

They just should get rid of part 2 or add a condition component.