Scepter Only Good if running Fresh Air trait?

[Felix Pantherae.1425]

Pretty much as title says. Is scepter only good if running fresh air trait? I haven't played around with it too much myself. It seems like there are a lot of traits in various traitlines that would beneft scepter, both dps and support-wise, however the only time i ever feel like i see scepter being run is if using the stereotypical famous Fresh Air build.

[fuzzyp.6295]

What game mode are you looking at playing? Fresh Air is strong on Scepter in competitive modes, but there a few condi variations of Tempest out there that use Scepter for open world/end game PvE. If you're looking to play competitive PvP/WvW, Fresh Air is just much better than anything else the scepter offers, Dagger is honestly a better condi focused weapon than Scepter for those modes.

(EDIT: Should also add in PvP/WvW  you can also run traits like Lightening Rod with Scepter and be very successful as well, it doesn't have to be Fresh Air, but Scepter in PvP/WvW is absolutely best used as a power focused weapon)

Edited April 15, 2022 by fuzzyp.6295

[Felix Pantherae.1425]

18 minutes ago, fuzzyp.6295 said:

What game mode are you looking at playing? Fresh Air is strong on Scepter in competitive modes, but there a few condi variations of Tempest out there that use Scepter for open world/end game PvE. If you're looking to play competitive PvP/WvW, Fresh Air is just much better than anything else the scepter offers, Dagger is honestly a better condi focused weapon than Scepter for those modes.

(EDIT: Should also add in PvP/WvW  you can also run traits like Lightening Rod with Scepter and be very successful as well, it doesn't have to be Fresh Air, but Scepter in PvP/WvW is absolutely best used as a power focused weapon)

Sorry for not clarifying. I primarily play and am focused on the Pvp/wvw side of things (though I do also engage in pve, but for the purpose of this... I'm not concerned with PvE so much). 

 

And I guess also what I am getting at is, is scepter ready only good or considered by most, good when focused on the air attunement/traitline? Is fire damage and fire traits, for instance not considered as viable for damage to be used as the focus in the rotation? Or water/earth not as viable for support/control/damage?

[Serephen.3420]

12 minutes ago, Felix Pantherae.1425 said:

Sorry for not clarifying. I primarily play and am focused on the Pvp/wvw side of things (though I do also engage in pve, but for the purpose of this... I'm not concerned with PvE so much). 

 

And I guess also what I am getting at is, is scepter ready only good or considered by most, good when focused on the air attunement/traitline? Is fire damage and fire traits, for instance not considered as viable for damage to be used as the focus in the rotation? Or water/earth not as viable for support/control/damage?

In those game modes yeah, fire has some burst potential but requires a bit of setup and luck to land it all. Most damage and utility comes from air in that case.

[fuzzyp.6295]

19 minutes ago, Felix Pantherae.1425 said:

Sorry for not clarifying. I primarily play and am focused on the Pvp/wvw side of things (though I do also engage in pve, but for the purpose of this... I'm not concerned with PvE so much). 

 

And I guess also what I am getting at is, is scepter ready only good or considered by most, good when focused on the air attunement/traitline? Is fire damage and fire traits, for instance not considered as viable for damage to be used as the focus in the rotation? Or water/earth not as viable for support/control/damage?

Yes. Scepter has a lot of high burst potential with its skills which is why the crictal hit focused line Air works so nicely with it. While there is damage on the condi side now, its just not really enough in WvW/PvP to merit taking Scepter over Dagger, Sword or even Hammer. Can you make a build that uses condi scepter? Sure, but it would probably be a Fire/Earth/Tempest who wins more so with Signet of Fire and Overload Earth rather than anything scepter brings to the table.

Earth on Scepter is bad. Auto attack is bad, Dust devil is bad. Rock Barrier is 'okay' in the sense  that you press it and forget it and its a projectial finishers so, you know, combos, but otherwises, Earth is garbage. Water auto attack is bad and Water Trident is  a solid 'meh', it really needs to heal for more or cleanse a condition to be viable. Shatterstone has been meme'd to death by the Ele community but is actually a good skill now. Problem is there is a delay so you gotta time it right. Good pay off for a good step up. Same issues with Fire: while the AA is okay now, Phoenix and Dragon Tooth are both fairly slow attacks that pack a punch. This is why Scepter works better on power: if you chain your abilities together you can basically one shot people. Weaver Scepters take that up to 11 with stuff like Plasma Beam.

Fire can work with Core Elementalist if you want to run a Fire/Arcane/Air build. Water also works with Core. But for Weaver, which Scepter is really strong for, you're usually running Air/Weaver/Arcane.  Can you use Scepter with a support? Sure, but like with condi, the question of why you're using it over other options is odd. Dagger offers more for support than Scepter: Heal (W2), Blast for healings (W3), Shocking Aura (A3), Block Projectiles (E2), Mobility (F3, E3). Scepter on the other hand offers in terms of support: One Heal (W3), 2 Blinds (A3, E3) and we can throw in the toughness from Rock Barrier as well. If you want to support, honestly, just taking Dagger for the Aura is better since Tempest is the support Elementalist class and having that aura is useful.

(EDIT: Oh, forgot Scepter also has a blasts for healing (F2, F3) oops)

Edited April 15, 2022 by fuzzyp.6295

[pallas.8150]

I love Sceptre/ Focus and play a lot in WvW and PvP - both I can handle myself pretty well in.

[Downstate.4697]

Scepter has mostly been a mediocre weapon made worse by damage nerfs. Its only good on weaver and thats because anet made dual skills overtuned. Fresh air is mostly run on it for superspeed and burst rotation so its not required if you have enough sustain, but at that point dagger offers easier damage and better deffensives. Scepter also has trouble counter pressuring in melee range so you will almost certainly die to a +1 scenerio without the range and superspeed. 

[Zhaid Zhem.6508]

The Fresh air weaver  could actually be a curb to learn scepter.

I have the issue when I swap to, you want to spam F3 (or you may double attune by mistake) for electric discharge and so fresh. But the dps from the trait and from Air scepter skills is trash. You better want to learn rotation: chain dual attacks, sustain from focus skills ... without Fresh Air first, then with Fresh Air to speed up and get fast access to Comet, Obsidien flesh, etc.

[Clownmug.8357]

Without Fresh Air it's still decent as a hybrid weapon for Weaver. You get already low attunement cooldowns and can use Unravel to instant refresh for certain combos. Besides Plasma Beam some of the other dual attacks are pretty good just that they lean more into condi damage.

[Poelala.2830]

Fire/air is really strong for fresh air both as weaver and core (with arcane). Outside of this scepter isn’t a good option for any role in pvp/wvw. It also has no synergy with catalyst it seems.

[Sporks.4395]

catalyst has scepter build potential abusing fire aura spam and transmuting focus 4 for a ranged condi dps option. Seems to to pretty well in PvE. Other than that, yea, it's best to use fresh air for spike damage in a pvp setting. 

[TheQuickFox.3826]

I run scepter tempest all the time, scepter gives a nice more range than sword/dagger preventing you from being kited while allowing for faster attacks than staff.

[lLobo.7960]

Its not that scepter is only good for FA, but that on a PvP mode, if you want to be a burst ele, you most likely need range and fast casting. Dagger has some burst but no range, Staff has range but no burst. So scepter is the go-to weapon for a burst ele. FA is taken so you can rely on superspeed to keep the range, while using all the crit bonuses of air attunement on your burst combos.

 

Scepter is also used for condi builds (there is a 39k dps condi weaver build with scepter, and a condi tempest build also with scepter) but those are mostly used in PvE, as they lack the mobility of FA to disengage and reset fights in a PvP mode. That being said, I've seen the occasional scepter condi tempest in PvP.