Guild Wars 2

To make these two MH weapons comparable to each other? OR do you feel like these weapons are pretty evenly matched in usefulness?

I run a condition damage Mes (I know, I know…) in both PvE and sPvP. In either realm I would never dream of running a scepter: the damage and utility of the sword and sword clones are too useful to do without. Heck, it even seems like the bleeds it generates through clones/sigils out-performs the condition damage the scepter can do.

I feel like the scepter could still use more love. Even with the addition or torment on block it is still a weak weapon. Conversely, I don’t the sword can handle any more nerfs without making it suck (which would admittedly make it comparable to the scepter imo )

A number of the following additions (all?) to the scepter would make me consider it as an alternate weapon to the MH Sword:

*Changing Scepter 1 to an “invoke” type skill like Flamestrike OR speeding up Scepter 1 attack speed

*Adding 1-2 seconds of confusion to 2-3 attacks of the Scepter attack chain

*Allow Scepter clones to use the “full” auto-attack (with a Modified “Ether Clone” that doesn’t summon anything)

*Adding a short stealth OR random short teleport upon successful block by Scepter 2

*Changing Confusion Images to work like Lightning Surge: a build up cast time that when complete does a lump sum of raw damage and 5 stacks of confusion in a small area around the target. (Scaling back Confusing Image’s raw damage by 25-33% would be justified/necessary in this instance).

What are your thoughts concerning the current state of Scepter vs. Sword?

The simple answer to the simple question: Scepter is a pro weapon that when used by pro’s kills people good.

Sword is a simple weapon often used by pros which also kills people good.

Sword, unlike scepter, has the benefit of it’s cooldown trait existing in the adept tier of the dueling trait line. The more uses of sword cooldowns per minute, the more people dun killed good by sword.

You don’t need to be a pro to grasp the simplicity of it.

Scepter could imo use a couple things that would make it better:

1. Confusion on scepter auto attack chain. Since the confusion nerf I really see no reason why scepter aa chain could not apply 2 stacks of confusion (2 seconds) on attack chain part 2.

Maintaining a low level amount of confusion on your opponent would be a welcome addition to an aa chain which seems out of place on a condition oriented weapon with a short enough duration that it can’t be stacked too high, even with 100% cond duration.

2. Shorten the pre-animation on skill 3. The channel with the bright purple beam is bloody long enough without the 2 second wind up.

dandamanno.4136:

3. Shorten the pre-animation on skill 3. The channel with the bright purple beam is bloody long enough without the 2 second wind up.

Or better yet get rid of the purple beam entirely, since it’s such a big tell for enemy to dodge. Make it like mantra, hit out of nowhere, fits the confusion theme.

Make scepter auto-attack for the first two a tiny bit faster. That would make it feel less clumsy.

The block seems to have a casting time (or maybe the auto-attack has an aftercast?) before it’s actually active…get rid of that. It needs to be a reaction skill, but with a casting time, I get attacked, I see it coming, I hit block, I get hit anyway, and now I stand there looking dumb for 2 seconds…this happens too often. I’ve also been interrupted by short bow rangers while blocking…their interrupt skill is an attack, that is not unblockable…so why is it interrupting the block? It shouldn’t require a pro to use the scepter adequately. The difference between pros and noobs with the scepter shouldn’t be whether they can land the block, but whether they use it to block an important attack.

Make the three skill a bit more forgiving for people kiting to the side mid-cast, and if people dodge have it continue to damage afterwards, like other channeled skills. Somehow it seems to miss a lot. At the very least, make it so that if it’s channeling, and you are not facing the right direction/obstructed at first, you can move to fix it, and get partial damage…just like a thief’s unload. That would make it feel like a normal skill. Again, the difference between a pro and noob would be whether the skill hits multiple targets, and whether they take the full confusion stacks…not whether the skill is wasted entirely.

Each of the scepter skills are actually pretty good, but as others mentioned, it takes a pro to use them adequately. Fixing it so that it’s accessible to noobs doesn’t have to make it OP’d for pros. It will just make the weapon more fun to use, and less clumsy.

Anet needs to decide on what the Scepter should be, to me they seem a little confused as to its role.

Auto Attack – This chain needs to to be faster, its to long and to slow. speed up the Clone spawn, add a condition to the chain, i would prefer Torment over Confusion myself but anything would Get.

Skill 2 – Change it to an Aura, instant cast Aura. Make it so that EVERYONE that attacks during its short duration gets Torment. This would allow us to continue using skills rather then having to channel it.

Skill 3 – Replace it. I find it to easy to be dodged unless used from stealth with the target busy attacking clones. Make it so thakittens instant.

I like both weapons. I want scepter clones to do something, one second chill would be nice.

Scepter is great for condition builds and it allows you to take another strong phantasm for phantasm builds. It has its uses.

The problem i have with the sword – its range. We aren’t the most durable class and sure it has Blurred Frenzy but i just prefer to be at range as much as possible.

Scepter is fun, and a wery good wep used correct. I often use it on my roaming or in spvp.

Enjoy my latest vid, and yes its scepter time:

Find the cat

/Osicat

Actually , I would love if they reimplemented the 2 clone bug on scepter aa again. It makes it attractive for on clone death specs and more attracted for shatter specs as well, perhaps alleviating the need for deceptive evasion in those builds.

I think it’s funny that after several buffs to scepter (torment, aa projectile speed) and several nerfs to sword (bf cd, bf invuln—>evade) sword is still considered more desirable in most situations.

What about changes like these (not all at once, just some ideas):

Make the autoattack a projectile finisher: Roundabout way of adding confusion, adds more options for group play and expands upon a very limited arsenal (iDuelist and Sword/Staff leap basically, others exist but are neither spammable nor reliable). Something like standard 20% combined with a speed increase on hits 2+3 (i.e. not for clones) or 100% proc on hits 2+3 (so clones never proc it)

Switch Confusion and Torment: Make the block apply confusion as that’s more of a bursty control effect, what you would want on someone trying to kill you. Keep the slow channel on #3 but make it apply torment instead, possibly with a Cripple on the final hit. Make the beam continue to hit up to 1200 range as long as the wind-up and initial hit succeeded. Basically make it a tool to hurt fleeing opponents that heavily punishes them for failing to evade/interrupt.

Obviously the exact numbers (especially the durations on the conditions) would need some tweaking and shouldn’t just be carried over from the current layout.

I have some thoughts for scepter. Been using it a lot lately in tPvP and wish it was just tweaked a bit to make it more fluid and fun to use.

a) Reduce cast time of Ether Clone to 1/2 second so auto attack chain feels fluid. That 1 second cast time is just soooo long and clunky.

b) Improve speed of Counter Spell (and Counter Blade for that matter) to equal the speed of the scepter auto attacks – currently that thing misses like every time since its in a straight line and nothing stands still in PvP.

c) During the animation of Illusionary Counter (and Illusionary Riposte) the block should continue or a short evade should be added. It is super frustrating to use these abilities while under fire because you block one attack then have to remain vulnerable while the animation finishes in order to get the damage and clone. It is heartbreaking that you can successfully block the attack but then if you dodge soon after you interrupt the actual spell. I mean, Blurred Frenzy gets 2 1/2 sec evade, I’m sure you can add like a 1/4 sec evade to these spells without breaking balance.

d) Confusing Images windup is way too long, and the spell cancels if people run behind you. A couple options for this spell
-Reduce windup from 1 second to 1/2 second
-Make it non-directional so it continues the channel if your target runs behind you, or if you want to run away from target. (maybe hold scepter straight up like Mirror animation?)
-Another idea that would be cool is if this spell worked more like Tainted Shackles (1/4 second cast, creates beam of confusion between you and enemy, ticks every 1/2 second x5, if enemy runs out of range it ends. Could also make it so it just does damage every 1/2 second, applies 5 confusion stacks if enemy still in range at end like the immobilize on Tainted Shackles)

I like how this weapon is hybrid power and condi. It fits in with either spec. I think the damage numbers on these abilities are fine, they just need usability tweaks because the weapon feels very clunky to use. I think you make it more user friendly you will see a lot more people choosing this.

The scepter has it’s uses, and so does the sword. The scepter is great for PvE.

I personally carry a scepter for my alternate weapon instead of a greatsword or staff.

i havent changed my sceper even after the overnerf of confusion. it could use some love though, but i love it. the block is pretty nice and 3 still inflicts confusion eventhough not much anymore. but i have gotten so used and attached to it that i dont want to give it up.

I enjoy scepter but I have to admit I often feel like I’m using an incomplete weapon. The fact that neither Ether bolt or the scepter clones apply conditions means most people don’t even use the Scepter auto-attack at the risk of over-writing useful staff or sword clones. I highly doubt anyone uses scepter for clone generation as the auto chain is so long and arduous, plus mirror images and deceptive evasion has clone generation covered.

Illusionary counter is fine, but I do think it would be cool if Counterspell activated automatically at the end of the channel if no block occurs.

Confusing Images is satisfying to use, especially if you manage to get the beam effect off, but there’s no denying that the cast time is far too long for only 5 stacks of confusion, especially when you consider that Engineers can stack up the same amount of confusion unchanelled with a single hit of the Prybar.

Simonoly.4352:

I enjoy scepter but I have to admit I often feel like I’m using an incomplete weapon. The fact that neither Ether bolt or the scepter clones apply conditions means most people don’t even use the Scepter auto-attack at the risk of over-writing useful staff or sword clones. I highly doubt anyone uses scepter for clone generation as the auto chain is so long and arduous, plus mirror images and deceptive evasion has clone generation covered.

Illusionary counter is fine, but I do think it would be cool if Counterspell activated automatically at the end of the channel if no block occurs.

Confusing Images is satisfying to use, especially if you manage to get the beam effect off, but there’s no denying that the cast time is far too long for only 5 stacks of confusion, especially when you consider that Engineers can stack up the same amount of confusion unchanelled with a single hit of the Prybar.

I use the scepter to generate clones, but mostly to kill them.

I usually run scepter/pistol for general PvE, geared for cond damage and precision. I have it traited so that the illusions cripple, confuse and apply a random condition to all nearby enemies when they die (not on shatter), and I usually try to have at least one (two if I can) phantasmal duelists from pistols to apply bleeds on the target (each duelist attack with 50+ crit chance + vigor means 6 or 7 stacks of bleeding), and the scepter autoattack keep spawning clones next to the targets and killing them soon afterwards when a new clone is generated so they keep applying cripples. So far seems to work good, and at least veterans (that live long enough to get two duelists out) usually hover around 12-20 stacks of bleeding on them.

I do use mirror images (actually, I usually open fights with phantasmal duelist and mirror images, and if the target is near I dodge backwards to kill one of the mirror images clones and apply the first cripple), but since I’m creating the clones to kill them haven’t found a weapon that keeps generating them constantly and consistently faster than the scepter.

I actually love the scepter and think its way better than people realize.

Scepter is a great weapon. I totally love it in WvW. I would love to see the auto-attack either add a condition to it (confusion probably because Torment was meant to be a Necro thing and giving Mesmers two ways to apply it over the Necros one would just never stop the QQn) OR speed up the auto-attack. Everything else is fine for me.