Finally!
I’ve yet to see any mention anywhere of the Scepter/Sword combo.
Until now, I thought maybe I was the only one to have stumbled upon its usefulness. Or to at least recognize its potential and its survivability.
With Scepter/Sword, 4 of your 5 skills generate clones/illusions… and all are on relatively short cooldowns. This, combined with traits that enhance shattering have made this build extremely potent. Many times, I have “3 dots” back up before my shatter is off cooldown (that’s just how fast this weapon combo generates illusions). The only non-illusion-generating skill we have is #3 from Scepter which adds confusion and damage, and is amazing to use on its own.
Next, the survivability of this combo is great. You have two blocks on very short cooldowns. They DO work on ranged attacks too (at least arrows/projectiles… not sure about magic). Two short-cooldown blocks, amazing illusion-generation, and double-tap evade and you rarely get hit. Even if you get aggro from a 2nd or 3rd enemy, the blocks will work on their attacks even if you aren’t targeting that enemy, so no crazy target switching is necessary.
The blocks also second as a disable of some sort, as mentioned before. The Scepter block can blind for 5s, and the Sword block dazes. Sometimes I’ll send in my Illusionary Swordsman, then double tap #2 to blind the enemy, wait a bit, then double tap #4 to interrupt their next attack. The Swordsman already leaps to attack his enemies, so if in the middle of leaping, he evades naturally. All this amounts to the ability to keep your phantasm survivability high while you wait for a cooldown or whatever.
While the Scepter’s auto-attack isn’t as high damage as the Sword (main hand), it does spawn clones, which when shattered more than compensates for this. Also the sword requires melee range, and even with Blurred Frenzy which provides invulnerability, its 10s cooldown means that for the next 8 seconds you are within melee range and squishy. I loved the theme of sword main hand, but couldn’t stand how quickly my health went down. So Scepter has its advantages in my opinion.
I attempted Scepter/Pistol for a while, but found the block/clone/daze of the Sword off hand was more useful than the Magic Bullet (the cooldown of which is way too long, and has an annoying tendency to aggro neutral creatures nearby). I also found that the Illusionary Swordsman does more damage than the Duelist (which attacks so infrequently its annoying). The Swordsman also moves towards the enemy and tends to distract blows from the enemy more often than the Duelist, who stands still and seems less likely to get aggro (to some that may be a good thing, but I enjoy when the enemies go for my illusions).
I have a staff as my second weapon for groups/dynamic events.
Ultimately it comes down to personal playstyle, but I’m glad others have recognized the utility of Scepter/Sword. At the same time, I feel like we’ve let the cat out of the bag, and now more will be running with that combo, making me feel less unique 
(edited by Protokletos.9043)