Scepter and scepter ambush don't feel that useful

[Sodeni.6041]

Scepter and especially the scepter ambush feel very week right now compared to other weapons. No current meta build in pvp, pve and wvw uses it either (which doesn't have to mean a lot but I still wanted to mention it).

 

In pve, axe does way more damage than scepter although they apply the same conditions.

In pvp staff is a way better ranged and defensive weapon than scepter and does also more damage. The staff ambush is also prefered because of the boons.

 

Scepter is a very niche weapon and should be more useful in more situations than it is now.

 

What do you think?

 

 

[Veprovina.4876]

I use it all the time. Especially in WvW when someone is escaping. You hit them with scepter 3 and scepter ambush and on top of whatever confusion axes applied, they now have some additional confusion, torment and bleed. It's quite handy, especially if you make all your clones do the ambush with you. Additionally, if you already have 3 clones, auto attack will apply torment instead of generating another clone. Good for "poke" fights where neither of you want to get close to one another. Also, scepter 2 is a block. A literal lifesaver if applied correctly, on top of what mesmers already have for survivability.

 

It's not meta but not everything needs to be meta to be effective or have its use. This meta business needs to die, just because qtfy or metabattle didn't put it up in their builds it doesn't mean a certain weapon is suddenly useless and Anet made a horrible design decision, or that anet sucks because they made a scepter do certain things.

 

Learn to use it, and it'll serve you well. It's not your primary DPS weapon, but it certainly has its uses.

[Wandering Mist.2973]

> @"Sodeni.6041" said:

> Scepter and especially the scepter ambush feel very week right now compared to other weapons. No current meta build in pvp, pve and wvw uses it either (which doesn't have to mean a lot but I still wanted to mention it).

>

> In pve, axe does way more damage than scepter although they apply the same conditions.

> In pvp staff is a way better ranged and defensive weapon than scepter and does also more damage. The staff ambush is also prefered because of the boons.

>

> So I can't think of any situation where the scepter would actually be useful. It clearly needs a dedicated theme and should be more useful than it is now.

>

> What do you think?

>

>

 

Scepter does have a dedicated theme and purpose, which is to apply lots of torment stacks to a single target and then kite that target around to do extra damage to them. The problem is there are very few situations in either pve or pvp where this is an optimal strategy. Not only that but torment itself is a pretty weak condition compared to others. Even if your target is moving, poison and burning deal more damage per stack than torment, plus unlike most other classes we don't have any traits that benefit from our target being tormented, making it even weaker.

[Sodeni.6041]

> @"Wandering Mist.2973" said:

> > @"Sodeni.6041" said:

> > Scepter and especially the scepter ambush feel very week right now compared to other weapons. No current meta build in pvp, pve and wvw uses it either (which doesn't have to mean a lot but I still wanted to mention it).

> >

> > In pve, axe does way more damage than scepter although they apply the same conditions.

> > In pvp staff is a way better ranged and defensive weapon than scepter and does also more damage. The staff ambush is also prefered because of the boons.

> >

> > So I can't think of any situation where the scepter would actually be useful. It clearly needs a dedicated theme and should be more useful than it is now.

> >

> > What do you think?

> >

> >

>

> Scepter does have a dedicated theme and purpose, which is to apply lots of torment stacks to a single target and then kite that target around to do extra damage to them. The problem is there are very few situations in either pve or pvp where this is an optimal strategy. Not only that but torment itself is a pretty weak condition compared to others. Even if your target is moving, poison and burning deal more damage per stack than torment, plus unlike most other classes we don't have any traits that benefit from our target being tormented, making it even weaker.

 

> @"Wandering Mist.2973" said:

> > @"Sodeni.6041" said:

> > Scepter and especially the scepter ambush feel very week right now compared to other weapons. No current meta build in pvp, pve and wvw uses it either (which doesn't have to mean a lot but I still wanted to mention it).

> >

> > In pve, axe does way more damage than scepter although they apply the same conditions.

> > In pvp staff is a way better ranged and defensive weapon than scepter and does also more damage. The staff ambush is also prefered because of the boons.

> >

> > So I can't think of any situation where the scepter would actually be useful. It clearly needs a dedicated theme and should be more useful than it is now.

> >

> > What do you think?

> >

> >

>

> Scepter does have a dedicated theme and purpose, which is to apply lots of torment stacks to a single target and then kite that target around to do extra damage to them. The problem is there are very few situations in either pve or pvp where this is an optimal strategy. Not only that but torment itself is a pretty weak condition compared to others. Even if your target is moving, poison and burning deal more damage per stack than torment, plus unlike most other classes we don't have any traits that benefit from our target being tormented, making it even weaker.

 

Yeah that is what I mean! :) It's a very situational weapon and it should be more beneficial in other situations.

[bart.3687]

> @"Sodeni.6041" said:

> > @"Wandering Mist.2973" said:

> > > @"Sodeni.6041" said:

> > > Scepter and especially the scepter ambush feel very week right now compared to other weapons. No current meta build in pvp, pve and wvw uses it either (which doesn't have to mean a lot but I still wanted to mention it).

> > >

> > > In pve, axe does way more damage than scepter although they apply the same conditions.

> > > In pvp staff is a way better ranged and defensive weapon than scepter and does also more damage. The staff ambush is also prefered because of the boons.

> > >

> > > So I can't think of any situation where the scepter would actually be useful. It clearly needs a dedicated theme and should be more useful than it is now.

> > >

> > > What do you think?

> > >

> > >

> >

> > Scepter does have a dedicated theme and purpose, which is to apply lots of torment stacks to a single target and then kite that target around to do extra damage to them. The problem is there are very few situations in either pve or pvp where this is an optimal strategy. Not only that but torment itself is a pretty weak condition compared to others. Even if your target is moving, poison and burning deal more damage per stack than torment, plus unlike most other classes we don't have any traits that benefit from our target being tormented, making it even weaker.

>

> > @"Wandering Mist.2973" said:

> > > @"Sodeni.6041" said:

> > > Scepter and especially the scepter ambush feel very week right now compared to other weapons. No current meta build in pvp, pve and wvw uses it either (which doesn't have to mean a lot but I still wanted to mention it).

> > >

> > > In pve, axe does way more damage than scepter although they apply the same conditions.

> > > In pvp staff is a way better ranged and defensive weapon than scepter and does also more damage. The staff ambush is also prefered because of the boons.

> > >

> > > So I can't think of any situation where the scepter would actually be useful. It clearly needs a dedicated theme and should be more useful than it is now.

> > >

> > > What do you think?

> > >

> > >

> >

> > Scepter does have a dedicated theme and purpose, which is to apply lots of torment stacks to a single target and then kite that target around to do extra damage to them. The problem is there are very few situations in either pve or pvp where this is an optimal strategy. Not only that but torment itself is a pretty weak condition compared to others. Even if your target is moving, poison and burning deal more damage per stack than torment, plus unlike most other classes we don't have any traits that benefit from our target being tormented, making it even weaker.

>

> Yeah that is what I mean! :) It's a very situational weapon and it should be more beneficial in other situations.

 

I agree. If I ever see a mesmer using a scepter, they usually only use it for Confusing Images, and then they immediately switch to whatever they wield in their 2nd weapon set. It's quite upsetting.

Scepter is in a bad spot, mostly PvE wise. The buffs it got in the past were alright, but they were not enough to help the weapon. Hopefully, we'll see some more buffs/redesigning done to it (and to Staff too, please. Meh, my 2 favourite weapon types in this game, yet so disappointing on mesmer in PvE :anguished: ).

 

 

[Sodeni.6041]

> @"bart.3687" said:

> I agree. If I ever see a mesmer using a scepter, they usually only use it for Confusing Images, and then they immediately switch to whatever they wield in their 2nd weapon set. It's quite upsetting.

> Scepter is in a bad spot, mostly PvE wise. The buffs it got in the past were alright, but they were not enough to help the weapon. Hopefully, we'll see some more buffs/redesigning done to it (and to Staff too, please. Meh, my 2 favourite weapon types in this game, yet so disappointing on mesmer in PvE :anguished: ).

 

I think that scepter should be reworked into a defensive / support weapon. We already have staff for ranged condi. I agree that staff should also be looked into. I just don't think we need 2 ranged condi weapons.

 

 

[Wandering Mist.2973]

> @"Sodeni.6041" said:

> > @"bart.3687" said:

> > I agree. If I ever see a mesmer using a scepter, they usually only use it for Confusing Images, and then they immediately switch to whatever they wield in their 2nd weapon set. It's quite upsetting.

> > Scepter is in a bad spot, mostly PvE wise. The buffs it got in the past were alright, but they were not enough to help the weapon. Hopefully, we'll see some more buffs/redesigning done to it (and to Staff too, please. Meh, my 2 favourite weapon types in this game, yet so disappointing on mesmer in PvE :anguished: ).

>

> I think that scepter should be reworked into a defensive / support weapon. We already have staff for ranged condi. I agree that staff should also be looked into. I just don't think we need 2 ranged condi weapons.

>

>

 

Agreed. In terms of damaging weapons we have all the bases covered, which makes the scepter a redundant weapon. What we need is a defensive/support main hand, because right now pretty much all our support and utility comes from off-hand weapons.

[Alpha.1308]

> @"Sodeni.6041" said:

>We already have staff for ranged condi.

 

i'm always disappointed when people say this

 

i use power staff in spvp/wvw and it's such a powerful defensive tool, plus that warlock can hit like a bus (IF IT FINALLY HITS) and Winds of Chaos would be so much better if it wasn't so bad with the same issue of tracking, and the bouncing being so hilariously useless...

 

critting 9k-10k Confusing Images is also really silly when people think you're condi, then blow their cleanse and think they're safe, which they are, because of the dumb auto attacks of scepter, and Illusionary Counter/Counterspell being nearly worthless for capitalizing on a Confusing Images spike

 

> @"bart.3687" said:

>Hopefully, we'll see some more buffs/redesigning done to it (and to Staff too, please. Meh, my 2 favourite weapon types in this game, yet so disappointing on mesmer in PvE)

 

same, honestly

but in pvp, as well

i've always wanted to use power scepter/staff, but you get doodied on if you get rid of sword because of how ridiculously powerful it is, it's a huge disappointment, sword is too bloated for power builds, we just can't break off from it, and greatsword's ability to spike is our only way of being able to get targets down because our autos are always trash, because they thought phantasms were going to be worth our lack of auto damage

it's depressing, really, this class mechanic is not only a joke to deal with, but it hurts us in every aspect of the game because they fear giving us anything anywhere else due to POTENTIAL capability with them

 

> @"Wandering Mist.2973" said:

> Agreed. In terms of damaging weapons we have all the bases covered, which makes the scepter a redundant weapon. What we need is a defensive/support main hand, because right now pretty much all our support and utility comes from off-hand weapons.

 

i'd actually be okay with this and i definitely agree, rather than them trying to continue making it a... what ever weapon they currently tried to make it

i'll miss Confusing Images and the idea of auto attacking to generate clones, but considering how much it just plain doesn't work...... i'd be glad to get rid of all of it (glares at skill 2) and make it be useful as an entirely utility-based weapon

 

though, to be fair, i'm pretty sure typically all classes have their 4 and 5 skills (kits/new hotbar skills like tomes included) always be the utility and support section of their weapons/hotbars in general, the exception being maybe guardian mace, which, of course, is perfectly fine, because, well, it IS a guardian....