Address the inherent issues that come with skills that require 'ally targeting'
While I do appreciate the past adjustments to Shadestep and Shadow Sap, the other Scepter skills (most notably Sc/P 3) and Specter's profession mechanics still suffer from its ally target mechanics.
In that sense:
DO NOT PUT DIFFERENT FUNCTIONALITY ON THE SAME SKILL DEPENDING ON WHETHER YOU TARGET ALLY OR FOE!
The UI simply do not provide a framework where such a distinction should make an impactful difference on gameplay, as target selection is finicky at times and thus often causes the waste of time or cooldowns.
The struggle is caused by the idea of a 'single target support' that was established in early development and what I believe to be an unreasonable aversion towards the idea of Specter being too good at cleaving, despite most of the Shroud and by concept the Wells playing into that on a fundamental level anyways.
There's a lot of possibilities of addressing this, but here are my suggestions for potential implementations:
1 Shadow / Double / Triple Bolt
For the auto attack chain, ground targeting is not really an option. My first thought was having attacks on an enemy target splash barrier to nearby allies. Dealing damage directly while also applying small amounts barrier to allies might be a considerable DPS increase towards offensive Specter Builds due to the Dark Sentry trait, but if too impactful, this could be balanced by lessening the initial Torment application.
1 (stealth) (Malicious) Shadowsquall
Considering how much this skill heals without stat investment, it might be overtuned for hybrid/solo builds to have it deal damage and self sustain simultaneously. I'd still recommend this route, but tune down the base healing. It would be a nerf to dedicated heal builds, but those tend to rely on the other support tools Specter offers far more anyways. It probably should remain targeted to not interrput the flow of players relying on their 1 skill being set on autocast.
In addition to the above, the Deadeye version of the skill should should have its numerous amounts of bugs fixed to have the infamous 'Med-Eye' at least have a chance at not being fundamentally dysfunctional.
3 (Sc/-) Triple Threat
Being the 'offhand empty' attack, you'll probably never see this one used seriously, but to be thorough, I'd give it the same treatment as Shadow Sap: Ground target AoE with 240 unit radius (simply firing thrice).
3 (Sc/D) Twilight Combo
Being the main damage source of most Scepter builds, I believe it's justified to have this one be mainly a single target attack. However, at least providing swiftness around the caster upon a successful enemy hit for the cases where it matters. (On another note: it would be nice if the 'ally target'-projectile couldn't be interrupted by allies other than the selected one; would make it much more convenient to apply swiftness to certain NPCs). Otherwise, I'd even be okay with the entire secondary component of this skill to be removed for the sake of simplicity.
3 (Sc/P) Measured Shot / Endless Night
This is a rough one to retain the core of its current functionality, but also the biggest offender in terms of what 'required' ally targeting the hassle it is. Thus, I suggest the following:
Measured Shot is renamed and reworked into 'Mesured Step', being a small 300 unit range ground targeted shadow step that both heals allies and damages/immobilizes enemies in a 240 unit radius.
Endless Night now fires its beam at the ground (range: 900), creating an area (radius: 240) that applies its current supporting effects per each of its 7 ticks, while the beam retains its damaging component.
This would allow for both offensive an supportive use, while being challenging to benefit from both aspects simultanously. The admittedly biggest loss here would be for PvP/WvW duelists who value the current reliability of hitting with the targeted beam, but I don't see that niche being compatible with my goal.
F1 Siphon
One last time I'd like to see a ground targeted AoE. Due to the resulting chance of missing, I'd give it a baseline amount of Shadow Force generated with a small increase per enemy hit. The improved trait interactions like the boon strip provided through Bountiful Theft or the condition removal/transfer of Shallow Grave should be monitored (especially in WvW) and rebalanced accordingly.
F2 Enter Shadow Shroud
Instead of tethering to the ['Shrouded Ally' > player you currently select > random ally], I'd rather have either 4 allies in range be selected with the normal priority of [party > squad > other player > NPC] to be linked to the Specter at once (might need to reduce the visual indicator for clarity), or none at all (respective support effects simply happening in the skill area).
On a last note, reduction of effectiveness of skills on targets other than the primary one should be removed for all remaining skills still affected.
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This is a crosspost from the official forums, but I'd like to hear your opinions and suggestions here, too.