state of scepters

since 'caster mods are more likely to roll along other caster rolls' update ive been checking on how market and builds have reacted to this - sounding nicely - news.

it seems - nothing changed

the SIGNIFICANT buffs to Sambar sceptres (+ele penetration) and to sceptres in general resulted in noone noticing.

i see two reasons:

1)
i pick up most rares (not only good bases - but pretty much all rares if im looking for a particular item) and my experience is that this 'caster mods go with caster mods' effect is VERY minor. if i pick up a 6 property items it is as it has always been - mixed roll of thrash.

there being a pre-rolled Catalyst does not help. rare sceptre has to be pretty nuts to outperform Catalyst with its cast speed, crit and bonkers ele damage

2)
whirling blades. this skill alone makes sceptres less than desirable and makes loot filter makers (that have too big of an influence on playerbase btw) simply remove these.

top roll sceptre will be outperformed in real life clear speed by a mediocre dagger. just because of WB. not gutting it to the ground was a mistake.


the best sceptre ive found this league (on my 4th char right now)

and i have kept it just because it was really the best - fully aware that ill never use it as there are just flat out better options available for few c around the corner


i wont even talk about ele melee sceptres - even with 3xT1 ele rolls + aspd these are still too slow to seriously make any sense compared to swords/daggers/claws. and if one wants ele mace build - Converted Catalyst says 'hi'

so - are there any builds/tricks/rolls i do not know about that make sceptres a viable (As in - making sense to use) choice? anyone made a build that works (or works better) because of using a sceptre instead of working 'despite' using a sceptre?

I see this a lot also , spell damage, elemental damage, stun, +phys +fire damage to spells etc...

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sidtherat wrote:

i wont even talk about ele melee sceptres - even with 3xT1 ele rolls + aspd these are still too slow to seriously make any sense compared to swords/daggers/claws.

Here's my ele melee sceptre:

Like chest armours, nobody loots sceptres mate.

I dont see a lot of people running around with rare clubs or one handed axes either.
Doesnt stop me from stockpiling though:

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Like chest armours, nobody loots sceptres mate.

Chest armors? Not all, but Ancestrals or Vaal Regalia. But that is mostly because there is no really good Armor Unique or ES chestpiece and it is very easy to them, exspecially with mastercrafting to be at least decent.

But hybrid weapons... I don't actually see a change in their mods. They roll exactly the same, at least it feels like this. They wouldn't be too bad a Karui Sceptre rocks 1,5 APS with 6% Critchance, which is something that could compete... exspecially since the actual 1h maces are terrible, but they are so much easier to roll. Honestly Sceptres aren't that bad, just compare them to a 1h mace, those things suck. Best APS is 1,4 with just 3dps more than the sceptre at 1,5 APS that also has 1% more base crit.

I would say the Karui Sceptre even compares decently to 1h axes and is likely also en par with 1h swords. The only thing that beats it is a foil, claws and daggers, but those weapons use mostly different skillsets.

So sceptres wouldn't be as bad if it would actually be possible to roll them decently. But right now getting a better sceptre than Doryanis or even Deaths Hand is really hard, which is the reason that there is a 400 dps 1h mace for sale, but nothing better than doryanis for sceptres.

Scepters are by all means viable, but they are just worse than everything else in game. Worse for spells than wands. Worse for crit builds than daggers or swords. They suck for ele attack builds because of bad base speed. Worse for 1h rt builds than axes or swords, but noone makes 1h rt builds anyway
Only builds that use rare scepters are crit eq and coc groundslam, and only because they are forced to

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raxleberne wrote:

Only builds that use rare scepters are crit eq and coc groundslam, and only because they are forced to

Youve forgotten RF, DD, and trappers.

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SkyCore wrote:

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raxleberne wrote:

Only builds that use rare scepters are crit eq and coc groundslam, and only because they are forced to

Youve forgotten RF, DD, and trappers.

last time I checked doryanis catalyst wasnt a rare scepter

A sceptre is good for builds that want fortify or caster builds that profit from ele dam, like burning.

But as others have posted, a dagger is better for fortify and doryani's is the obvious choice for ele builds.

I'd say sceptres are fine in a selffound environment but with trading there are often cheap daggers who do a better job, at least in HC.