Guild Wars 2

skcamow.3527:

First, I love the idea of making all ether bolts (from you or clone) projectile finishers. The name of the attack fits perfect with ethereal fields anyway – they should have some kind of reaction.

Second, I absolutely love the blast finisher idea, but would it be too OP being able to spam them so quickly?

If they kept the clone on 3rd attack, I think having both of the above is probably too much, but maybe add one (dat blast finisher!) It would really go along with what Jon Peters was saying about making scepter more supportive. Lots of AoE Chaos Armor would do just that.

Wasbunny.6531:

I was also a little concerned about how OP the blast finisher would be as it would encourage spamming 1 in group fights and with scepter/torch we already have 1 blast finisher. Part of the elegance of this idea though is how simple it would be for the devs to dial in exactly the right strength via percentages. Even replacing the blast finisher on second attack with another projectile finisher at whatever percentage would still be amazing.

Thanks Esquire for this suggestion, hope it gets seen.

I had the same concerns and I’m not married to the idea. However,I felt that “on paper” it had enough mitigating factors to avoid being overpowered.

• I think that without the blast finisher, scepter is still the least desirable weapon in PvE. Even then, adding a blast finisher probably won’t displace current options, but does present an attractive alternative, especially for support focused builds.
• I envisioned the blast finisher to proc upon hitting an enemy, at the enemy’s location (similar to Dragon’s Tooth, but a projectile). In other words, you’d have to (i) hit your target (ii) while it’s standing in a combo field (iii) with the 2nd part of your auto-attack chain.
• For large scale fights in WvW, I think the mitigating factor is the 900 range. I think there’s sufficient risk there to offset the benefit.
• For large scale PvE, I suppose I’m OK with “spamming” the #1 skill on scepter. The other 2 skills offer very little for large scale PvE encounters and you’re most likely waiting for your offhand phantasm to come off cooldown.
• I think there’s a concern for sPvP in being able to bunker really hard with another bunker character. Instead of petting zoos, we have Blue Man Group.
• I’m not really sure how fast you could spam Ether Blast. The whole chain takes approx. 4 seconds. That’s slightly faster than Mighty Blow (5 secs) and Dragon’s Tooth (6 seconds), but probably slower than Cluster Bomb. At the very least, it’s not disproportionate to other existing blast finishers.

I omitted this analysis from my original post because a lot of people just want to know the time, not how the gears work.

A suggestion for scepter auto-attack:

1. Make Ether Bolt a projectile finisher.
2. Make Ether Blast a blast finisher.
3. The Ether Bolt cast by clones would also be a projectile finisher.

• Scepter is the only mesmer weapon without a finisher. Even our underwater weapons have finishers.
• Creates interesting possibilities with glamors, which synergizes well with the Inspiration trait line.
• Adds potential for both AoE and support capabilities in groups.
• Enhances conditions builds without creating a spammy quality to it.
• Gives an alternative (or compliment) to staff as a defensive weapon in holding points in PvP
• The projectile speed needs to be increased or the pre-cast animation reduced, or both.