Does anybody really think the Sceptre is a good weapon?

[Proletariat Warrior]

From all these years, I basically see nobody use this kind of weapon (I used to use it for some time after realizing that I was just too powerful). It is almost like the bow, but it costs mana greatly and thus making it no better than bows with elemental effects. Of course, when the hero is strong enough, the mana costs can be neglected; but at the same time, the bows and the stronger abilities are still better than this weapon. So what are the real benefits of this weapon, then?

[The Tempted Man]

None, really. Bows and sceptres, aka the ranged weapons, are worthless in comparison to even the slowest melee weaponry.

[Boboscus]

Originally posted by The Tempted Man:

None, really. Bows and sceptres, aka the ranged weapons, are worthless in comparison to even the slowest melee weaponry.

*laughs in "shotgun" bow build*

[imryll]

Guzzles mana and hits like a wet noodle in my experience. In the original game I used it only when my sorc needed ranged physical damage, i.e. against trolls and at Mel Senshir. To me its a high investment niche use weapon. I'm hoping that dipping into Finesse for bow will be more satisfying this time.

[marsHm311oW]

The bow is much better compared to the scepter.

[SolaScientia]

The bow is actually pretty decent once you invest the points in it. I hate the scepter. I tried it once in my first run of the original game years ago. In all my hundreds of hours in the original, I've never spent the time or points on it. Every single scepter I find, no matter if it's a purple one or what, I sell. Weak af and uses all your mana in 1-2 uses. Perhaps it's improved with added points, but it's not worth the time and effort, imo. The bow is worth it. Most of the other weapons are worth it (not really the hammer, but it's because it's way too slow for how I play. I'll use the great sword first.), but not the scepter.

[InsertAwesomeNameHere]

They're okay later on if you invest at least one point in each of the Arcane Weaponry ability series to reduce the cost to 2% per shot and slap on a mana-stealing handle. Complete suck-age otherwise.

[tmaddox]

Originally posted by The Tempted Man:

None, really. Bows and sceptres, aka the ranged weapons, are worthless in comparison to even the slowest melee weaponry.

I like my finesse build. I use the bow a lot! It can do some massive damage.

[devSin]

Sceptres are pure elemental with a focus on DoT status effects (burn, freeze, or shock).

You can't really compare them to other weapons.

[ggsnake]

Bows are an excellent weapon because of the shotgun skill. Scepters sadly do not have this. The mana cost can be completely neglated with the right gear, then you can shoot infinitely. Sadly the damage is lacking.

I've used scepters for some time just to have some fun with it and to test how good they are. They are... alright I guess, but outshined by other weapon types. After about ten hours I couldn't bear it anymore :)

[Awakened Gamer]

Originally posted by devSin:

Sceptres are pure elemental with a focus on DoT status effects (burn, freeze, or shock).

You can't really compare them to other weapons.

Exactly people do not understand that the point of it is to have the extra damage over time while you whip out other weapons and some of its cc ability.

[Revengeance]

Sceptres aren't really meant to be used as a primary weapon. Remember that they're Sorcery weapons, so they should be used as secondaries to your abilities or weapons from other trees. The main use of a sceptre is to apply status effects with the charged shot. Each shot, charged or not, costs the same amount of mana, and sceptres are always elemental typed. So, if you craft a sceptre, you can get 3 of 5 (fire, frost, shock, poison, bleeding). If you're specced sorcery, the elemental DoTs last longer and the shots take only 2% of your mana pool. Notably, sceptres are the *only* weapon that can always get 3 status effects at range - while other abilities give bleed and poison to bows, they're % based.

As an example use, say you're fighting a Troll, and you're specced full sorcery. You're squishy, so you want to not get hit hard. And the Troll has resistances to all your spells. So you throw a poison and frost component into a Primal Dowel. The frost is very helpful for reducing the speed and making it easier to dodge, primal increases your magical damage, and poison reduces the Troll's damage if you do happen to get hit. While at range, you can charge up the shot, then follow with spells. Similarly, you might use frost+bleeding if you want to follow up with a hammer, since the bleed vastly increases physical damage against armored opponents.

General consensus is that bows are more useful since their charged attacks also deliver status effects, but that might mean you'd have to go deep into Finesse to get the most out of them. I personally prefer the finesse route, since you can get a reliable bleed from Shadow Flare. But sceptres let you go deeper in Sorcery at a very low opportunity cost.

Edit: JK you can't get 3 status effects on sceptres.

[Keldrath]

I want to like it, and I even used it as my secondary in my first playthrough 8 years ago, though I never actually used it because it's just complete garbage. I guess the attack from guard skill is pretty good for it but that's it.

Can't get myself to like bow either tbh, neither of them do any damage really.

Weapons can be a struggle in this game though I find. Chakrams pretty much just outshine everything else which can be disappointing.

[Filthy Cur]

Great swords, daggers, bows, and chuckle rams are how I roll.

[Proletariat Warrior]

Originally posted by The Tempted Man:

None, really. Bows and sceptres, aka the ranged weapons, are worthless in comparison to even the slowest melee weaponry.

Bows are still useful, especially that they can apply the effects (assuming that they do have effects, of course) most easily: just do a charged attack.

[Proletariat Warrior]

Originally posted by SolaScientia:

The bow is actually pretty decent once you invest the points in it. I hate the scepter. I tried it once in my first run of the original game years ago. In all my hundreds of hours in the original, I've never spent the time or points on it. Every single scepter I find, no matter if it's a purple one or what, I sell. Weak af and uses all your mana in 1-2 uses. Perhaps it's improved with added points, but it's not worth the time and effort, imo. The bow is worth it. Most of the other weapons are worth it (not really the hammer, but it's because it's way too slow for how I play. I'll use the great sword first.), but not the scepter.

In my opinion, the hammer's advantage, compared to the greatsword, is that the "shortly charged attack" finishes quite quickly (only one blow, while the shortly charged attack for greatsword has four blows), thus making the hero safer.