Guild Wars 2

Ross Biddle.2367:

This is a mistake. The sceptre replaces clones only, and not phantasms. Even if the phantasm is technically the next up in terms of order of creation “queue”.

I don’t know if you misunderstood what I wrote or you just don’t know how illusions work. If you have 3 illusions summoned and at least one of them is a clone then every clone skill you use will replace the clone, that includes scepter #1. However if all three are phantasms then the clone skill will replace a phantasm with a clone, including scepter #1. Subsequent uses of a clone skill will keep replacing the clone leaving your two phantasms alone. However this limits you to two phantasms as the third gets replaced by a clone if you use scepter #1.

I just tasted it on the training dummies in LA just to be sure I’m not mistaken.

It has started and it is worse than expected. The current discount is 40% and 60% for two useless items and only 50% for Black Lion Keys and only if you buy 25 of them.

I feel like a fool now for buying all those gems, especially since prices will probably drop after the weekend. I know something like this was to be expected but what can I say? I bought the carrot.

Now I hope tomorrow or on Sunday there will be at least one useful item on sale. I would buy character slot or bank slot even at a 30% discount but I doubt I would buy any of the other very few interesting items on offer for less than the maximum 70% discount.

I am a PvE player and I recently started using Scepter in dungeons. I want to make a couple of observations.

First of all, all the mainhand mesmer weapons can produce a clone. That is, Scepter and Sword.
All offhand weapons can produce phantasms. Focus, Sword, Pistol and Torch. Phantasms do a lot of damage.
Greatsword and Staff produce both a clone and a phantasm each.

I play a phantasm build with berserker’s stats. It may not be the best mesmer build around but I like the big numbers of the criticals and overall my damage isn’t so bad. I used to play Sword/Sword or Sword/Focus and Greatsword. However after the GS nerf I had to change my ranged weapon. Staff phantasms can do amazing damage if your team does conditions. 10k criticals aren’t rare. The problem is that the staff itself does very little damage so in situations were clones died fast my damage fell to almost 0. So I tried the scepter.

It’s direct damage is comparable to GS and the block ability on 2 is nice. My main problem is the clone that spawns from the main attack. When you have 3 illusions already and you spawn a clone it replaces one of your existing illusions. If you have a clone out it replaces the clone, othewise it can replace phantasms. That is a problem in dungeons cause even in situations where your phantasms don’t die, you’ll have 2 max and a clone if you use scepter.

I won’t suggest to remove the clone completely since it can be useful and it follows the pattern of other mesmer weapons. However it would be great if Anet could find a solution so we can summon it only when it is needed. Maybe move it to the second scepter skill or something.

There is also a request from some people to give the mesmer a pistol mainhand. I don’t think that’s ever gonna happen but it would be a solutions for those who’d like to use offhand on pve at range, without the clone problem.

Obviously bank slots and inventory slots are what most people hope for. I’d also like character slot discounts. Of course I don’t have 5 lvl 80 characters, it’s just that I’d like the option to have a character from each class.

However I too believe the discount will be for useless vanity items and boosts. The only non-upgrade items that I would buy if they were discounted are the mystic stones and the black lion salvage kits. Right now gems cost a lot of gold so the salvage ktis aren’t worth it but with a 70% discount I would buy one or two.