Guild Wars 2

Is there a viable build for focus for WvW/PvP for elementalists? The only common things that I can find are staff, d/d, s/d. Thanks!

The focus can be used in any game mode and also with as good as any build to add some defense to you and/or your allies. It’s also good for freeing up the “Mist Form” slot, since you have the better version of that skill in Earth 5. However, Focus might not be viable for any situation – you just need to know, when to switch to Focus.

It’s just important to know, what benefits you can expect of a weapon in a given situation. It makes sense to switch to Focus when you know you will encounter enemies which are using projectiles a lot. These can be bosses like e.g. the Hello Kitty Asura or the Grawl Shaman in Fractals, or just nasty ranged players attacking your fellow WvW allies when they try to build a ram – you name it. Popping a Focus Air 4 can be a life saver in such situations. It won’t make sense to switch to Focus if you need mobility (off hand dagger), or CC and AoE (Staff) though.

As for PvP – I tend to play D/F or S/F Fresh Air every now and then, depending on who my opponents are and how much I can rely on my team, just to add some defensive skills to my otherwise glassy build.

So what does the focus have? Two interrupt attacks on it, there go make a perplexity build, gogogo! :P

Rocketmist.5436:

So what does the focus have? Two interrupt attacks on it, there go make a perplexity build, gogogo! :P

xD

I actually am playing a condition build in my “free time” (when I’m not playing a direct dmg build that is). It’s quite fun when you are an Asura and also have confusion and poison in your racial skills. Still – with the new CDs on the perplexity rune you don’t need that many interrupts… And the rune is still bugged and applies 5 stacks of confusion to yourself every now and then ;(

However, I’d say the main benefits of the focus are:

• Projectile blocks and reflects
• Additional condition cleanse
• Invulnerability (very nice for picking up party members, opening chests undisturbed, etc.)
• Interrupts (knock down, daze)

If you don’t need any of those, take a different weapon. Running around with a focus just for the sake of running around with a focus is not worth it. I’d say it’s a situational weapon and very valuable as such.

Thank you very much for the replies. I am just a newbie elementalist. I am quite curious about the weapon choices. I don’t have a general idea on how they affect the Elementalist gameplay. Based from the replies, I guess Focus is never really a good choice for PvP/WvW

The focus is an amazing ele weapon for pve in every possible way.

In PvP S/F is a useful glass build that requires more team support to function well than glass S/D or celestial D/D but it is still very much viable with a fresh air set up. Glass staff outshines it a bit right now though, but many of the focus skills give very clutch support that are super nice! Focus builds just aren’t the “meta” right now, but that in no way means that they are bad. S/F in WvW is an alternative to staff in less coordianted zerg fights since dragon’s tooth is essentially a low cooldown bomb. But if you’re in a coordinated group you might as well go play well necro for much stronger and easier to use bombs and more survivability, and guild groups will probably want you on staff in a water rotation unless they already have at least 3 or 4 staff eles.