Guild Wars 2

Since most people in suggestion forums don’t care about my problem, I felt that this post would be more beneficial here.

Hey Arenanet and fellow GW2 fanatics! Hope you all are enjoying this game as much as I am… obviously, duh. Why wouldn’t you be?!

Anyway, I wanted to discuss the scepter and torch weapon options for the mesmers. Why in the world would you EVER want to pick those two weapons as a mesmer? I have been constantly battling myself over the scepter. I want to believe it’s a good weapon, but overall I find it awful compared to our other mh weapon, the sword. I personally would love a better #1 attack. Change it, please! I really want to use it in dungeons where it is difficult to use my sword.

The torch is at a whole different level. It is absolutely awful. Its stealth is the only reason it should be considered a part of existence. The iMage is where the true problem resides. I would suggest changing the iMage. A personal favorite and a great idea would be to change the iMages attack to the guardian equivalent torch attack, cleansing flames. Not exactly like cleansing flames, but a similar animation that burns foes. It doesn’t have to cleanse conditions.

Here are my suggestions:

Scepter #1 attacks and projectiles are faster. They apply confusion on 2nd and 3rd hit. Remove clone generation on third attack.

Torch iMage uses a “cleansing flame” equivalent. Doesn’t remove conditions. Apply fire debuff and deals damage over a short time.

I wouldn’t mind other suggestions and opinions. I also don’t care if the changes are not what I offered, but I would still like to see a change regardless.

Prestige blind and burn should be reversed. Common suggestion.

EasymodeX.4062:

Prestige blind and burn should be reversed. Common suggestion.

I like the idea O.o Didn’t think of it.

I’ve only played six PvP games since the betas ended, but I’ve won and topped the leaderboard on all but one. And I had a much larger win streak during the betas (I was at 25ish games lead/win streak out of only 30 or so games played) Not a huge PvPer, but when I PvP, I do pretty well.

Weapon of choice? Scepter/torch every single game. Best PvP build in my opinion. I rarely even have to switch over to my sword/sword. Last game I won a 1v2 against a guardian and ranger on point from half life and then capped for the win.

The Mesmer needs help, in fact all the scholar classes need help in some way or another. The class all-around needs more confusion, and disrupt builds need to be entirely seperated from confusion builds in the traits since they completely cancel each other out. But gutting the basic premise (and principle strategy) behind the scepter and the torch isn’t the way to fix the mesmers problems.

I wished they allowed Mesmers to use pistols for both hands rather than just off-hand. A clone gets to use two pistols and so I don’t see why a mesmer can’t.

Conncept.7638:

I’ve only played six PvP games since the betas ended, but I’ve won and topped the leaderboard on all but one. And I had a much larger win streak during the betas (I was at 25ish games lead/win streak out of only 30 or so games played) Not a huge PvPer, but when I PvP, I do pretty well.

Weapon of choice? Scepter/torch every single game. Best PvP build in my opinion. I rarely even have to switch over to my sword/sword. Last game I won a 1v2 against a guardian and ranger on point from half life and then capped for the win.

The Mesmer needs help, in fact all the scholar classes need help in some way or another. The class all-around needs more confusion, and disrupt builds need to be entirely seperated from confusion builds in the traits since they completely cancel each other out. But gutting the basic premise (and principle strategy) behind the scepter and the torch isn’t the way to fix the mesmers problems.

I agree with you about the traits and builds needing to be separated. It’s odd that they mixed it up. However, I bet you could be a lot more effective if you went with a different off-hand weapon. Torch is awful as it stands. The stealth is the only useful skill it has. You have to admit the iMage is bad compared to the iDuelist and iSwordsman.

Lady Mimic.3247:

I wished they allowed Mesmers to use pistols for both hands rather than just off-hand. A clone gets to use two pistols and so I don’t see why a mesmer can’t.

I agree that mesmers should have a pistol MH. :P

Scepter is the most underrated weapon in the game, I use Scepter / OH and Staff. Why do I use Scepter?

Scepter #3 is mean, and even meaner if you trait for +33% Confusion duration. Even without the Confusion damage it still does pretty nice direct damage as well.

Scepter #2 is underrated and underutilized. It is a block that works on melee and ranged attacks, allows you to move while blocking, and better yet the riposte strike from it deals damage (significant damage) at range AND it drops a clone in their lap, which combined with the Scepter #1 spewing clones leaves you with a nice big bomb to shove down their throats. Combine the block damage + clone shatter that hits hard.

The other reason I use the Scepter? It has pretty good synergy with the Staff (condition build) whereas Staff/GS or Staff/Sword are at odds with each other.

The only thing I’d like to see on the Scepter is maybe a slight increase to the attack rate of the autoattack, or give it some sort of Condition effect on the 3rd strike (I know it used to do Confusion back in the day).

The Torch, on the other hand… I want to use it on my OH (again, Condition build) but dear lord that weapon is just… not up to par. The Mage is awful, just awful, and the Prestige would be much better if burn/blind were swapped like was suggested above.

Yeah honestly the Scepter is perfectly fine from a power standpoint. The part that pisses me off is that the block will teleport you to a random spot next to you. I find the jarring effect super annoying.

EasymodeX.4062:

Yeah honestly the Scepter is perfectly fine from a power standpoint. The part that pisses me off is that the block will teleport you to a random spot next to you. I find the jarring effect super annoying.

Perhaps the little teleport thing is a legacy effect. I wonder if at some point in the past it spawned the clone at your location instead of the enemy location, so the teleport was useful as a confusion (little ‘c’) mechanic or something.

Probably, or it’s just a holdover to move a bad player out of the way of the next attack after the one that was blocked. Either way that’s basically the #1 reason I can’t stand using Scepter. Meh. I am QQQQQQQQQQQ.

The main problem with the scepter is that it’s the only ranged 1h option, although the #1 attack needs more damage (confusion makes sense) and the clones need to do the entire attack chain.

In solo questing I use sword/pistol + staff, in pvp (WvWvW) I use staff + scepter/sword, I find it easier to stay alive and cast my abilities when I have the defense from staff and scepter/sword abilities (2 block abilities in that). Greatsword isn’t all that great in pvp, but rocks against bosses in events.

Greatsword is actually great in PvP, and for a variety of reasons is basically the best WvW weapon in the game, tied with imba-Focus.

But opinions are opinions …