Guild Wars 2

Trying new weapons and was put off a bit by the way the Scepter seems to operate in game.

Had been using a GS w/ Staff and could maneuver while shooting bolts of energy. With the Scepter half the time I see no bolt of energy going to the foe nor do I see any damage being done.

The second scepter skill (counter strike) doesn’t seem to go off at all. My character goes into the animation but no bolt shoots to the enemy.

The Third and fourth skills (Confusing Images) – beam and (forget the name of #4 Grater Blade or something) – bolt only seem to work when I’m standing still or backing away from a target. circling a foe, I get my character (crouch) animation , but no bolt or beam or damage to the target.

Sorry if the question sounds stupid, but this one is a puzzler for me. The GS works great with the animations and effects all seeming to work properly. I’m really disappointed with the Scepter/ Sword combo as I wanted something that would create more clones and do some damage at the same time.

At least 70% of the time in combat, the skills I refer to above are doing nothing in the way of damage or even showing a beam or bolt heading towards the enemy.

If I’m missing something, can some please explain what it is. I do realize that some of these attacks won’t trigger properly if you are not facing the foe, but I’ve walked up to a target, stopped and hit the # 2 skill and get nothing other than my character crouching down and glowing purple. Zero damage taken by the foe (watching his health bar) until my character starts spamming the #1 skill (ether clone).

Thanks to any who take the time to respond.

For scepter/sword, the 2 and 4 are counter attacks. The enemy needs to hit you for them to proc. The counter attacks can be very powerful if timed well: I used to hit upwards of 5-7k crits with both of those hits. The scepter 2 has been “nerfed” in the sense that half of that is now condition damage but it’s still decent damage. The other thing is that your target needs to be the one that procs the block (might be a problem with combat mod). So depending on your timing it can be anywhere between 20k dmg in 1 second (2 clones for mindwrack) or 0 damage over 4 seconds.

The alternative is that you double tab 2 or 4. Double tapping 2 is a wave of blind while double tapping 4 is a wave of daze.

Scepter 3 does require you to be looking at your target the whole time.

My impression is that the counter attacks (Scepter 2, Off-Hand Sword 4) are most useful in PvP, mostly due to the slow attack rate of PvE enemies. You’ll find that sometimes the scenario you described will happen – you’ll set up the block, but the opponent attacks so slowly that by the time they hit you, your block/riposte duration has expired.

That said, PvE enemies’ slow attacks can be pretty easy to recognize and riposte since big hits are typically telegraphed, but the impact is most noticeable in duels etc.

One thing you can watch for in case the animation isn’t clear, if your opponent has Torment on them and you’re the only person attacking, then your Scepter 2 skill has landed. (It’s the only means we have of applying Torment without using a special rune set or being tricky with Arcane Thievery)

Thanks very much for the explanation. I was accustom to seeing results with the GS regardless of what I activated. I was rather disappointed with the Scepter/Sword combo and even more so now knowing that so much is dependent on what the enemy does.

I play my character as very mobile, Shooting, circling, generating clones and phantasms as I go. (often switching targets to have multiple enemies engaged in one fashion or another).

I will experiment a bit more and see if I can find a sweet spot for my play style and the Scepter/sword. Unfortunately I doubt I will be as comfortable with it as I am with the Staff/GS combo.

Again many thanks for the informative answer

Out of curiosity, do you focus more on condition damage or power (power, precision, critical damage)?