Took some time to make the best reference videos to show just how bad Vile Scepter is, especially in comparison to its cousin the Abomination Totem.
you keep saying it's better than vile then have you tried using abomination against those archers? instead of water nova? water nova is downright broken as it's the only spell without inherent problems once you dump enough wis points, I'm very well aware you could just do nova run only at high wis and kill everything in the vicinity, instead of buffing vile how about we nerf nova instead? every other spells even at high wis has inherent weakness only the nova doesn't.
fire staff - slow cast, targets needs to be slow/ not moving
fire heavy - water tiles/blood hit removes DOT
fire control - slow targeting at range, weak damage even at high wis, high stamina cost
thunder staff - slow output, easy interruption
thunder heavy - slow targeting at range, targets needs to stay put on the tile, fast moving targets
thunder control - slow targeting at range, easy to hit yourself with
water staff - poor DPS compare to others
water heavy - needs decent WIS to start dealing decent damage(fixable)
water control - slow targeting at range, weak damage
vile scepter - leech one hit, aggro to lona
vile heavy - immovable, weak to range
vile control - weak damage, needs target to stay on poison tile
at high wis every spell still has it's cons, while water nova has it's removed, is just instant cast, large AOE, high damage, slow/stun, 3 stamina only. I say nerf water nova instead.