Guild Wars 2

I was wondering if anyone has any thoughts on the dagger/focus combination in PVE play? I took quick look around and didn’t see much (or missed) discussion on this combination.

I’ve played primarily with the staff and – as much as I like to kid that I die all the time – have had fairly decent PVE results with it through about level 48. But even running madly through attunements like a meth addict playing piano, the staff still puts me in deeply uncomfortable (read: fatal) situations, depending on mob density, available movement space, etc. Plus, with the variety available to players, it seems a waste to not try to master more weapon choices.

The dagger/focus seems to have some nice abilities, if lacking the AOE punch that I’ve become quite used to using staff, and it fared well enough when I scaled down to run it through some lower level mobs to learn the abilities. But I’d be interested in opinions, before committing to it whole heartedly.

Thoughts?

You loose some mobility (RtL) and AoE CC to get more defense. Especially if something with range is tearing you up it can be quite nice. I prefer dagger though as killing things faster works as defense too

Gotta be honest, I don’t think I’ve tried D/F.
Totally forgot about that weaponset and i’m level 76 LOL!
<runs off to get D/F>

I like Scepter/Dagger. I’ve actually only just started posting here but feel like I’ve said that in every post today, so apologies if you’ve seen it

I’d like Focus more if Flame Wall was much wider. It’s pretty narrow and I don’t think Earth projectiles are strong enough to have a build around that combo (fire field, projectile finisher). Instead I use Ring of Fire, Dragon Tooth and Phoenix (and then Ring of Fire, Dragon Tooth and Arcane Wave) for the +Might stacking duration.

Also, Scepter is more mid-range than Dagger so you’re not getting beat down as much. And because a few of the abilities are either AOE (Ring of Fire, Earthquake, some of the Ice and Airs) a cone-type effect (Phoenix, Dust, some Air) or splash damage (Dragon Tooth), you’ve got a mini-Staff effect there.

I don’t solo much with Staff though because I prefer not to have the battle get too outta control. What AOEing does happen (bandits, risen, centaurs) are usually 2-3 unless I’m in a DE, which then I’m Staff anyway to swap from Fire AOE to CC and Heal.

But I’m only at 57.

I solo mostly with Scepter/Dagger. It has good range, good single target damage which the staff does not and is very useful when out solo, and a few good heals/cc/combos to make it feel like a good all around choice for soloing – I can get through a lot of situations with it. Staff I use for group content mostly – DE’s, WvW, dungeons.

The only time I use staff while solo is if I know I’m going to encounter large groups of mobs so I bring the staff because it deals with that better (some story quests for example). I do try to keep one updated weapon of every type in my bag (and 2 daggers should I want to go D/D for anything) but I rarely feel the need to use anything aside from the above 2 combos.

I’ve been considering D/F for sPvP, not so much for PvE. The defensive abilities add a lot, whereas the offhand dagger skills are of questionable utility in sPvP. RTL is buggy, Churning Earth is easily interrupted/dodged and makes you vulnerable, Frost Aura is questionably useful, Fire Grab has problems with targeting, etc., etc. You lose Ring of Fire, Updraft, and Earthquake, but gain some really awesome defensive abilities.

Cure 3 conditions and reflect projectiles on a 25 second cooldown instead of one condition with a small heal on a 40 second cooldown? Yes, please. Invulnerability? Sure! Knockdown, projectile destruction, fire aura, ranged chill? Yes, yes, yes, and yes. These are all great options for sPvP.

Now unless you’re having lots of difficulty with PvE content, the D/D skills seem to serve you better. It’s easy to pull off RTL or Churning Earth, and Frost Aura may matter more when you’re trying to escape from creatures instead of players. Kiting isn’t very useful for a D mainhand in sPvP. You need to be close to do damage. The opposite is sometimes true for PvE, where getting away often takes priority.

Churning Earth + Lightning Flash + Earthquake

Thanks for the input. As I kind of suspected, for one reason or another, there aren’t a ton of people playing this weapon combination. I’ve been playing around with it a bit more, and abilities and stats aside – as important as they may be – it has some particularly satisfying animations and a nice “feel” to it, especially in air.

I use it for PvE (I’ve rarely done and PvP yet. I actually only did it in the beta).

I don’t know why but I like those defensive abilities that I don’t have playing D/D. They just seem to have come in quite useful at points when I’m playing and I’m pretty sure I otherwise would have died. I especially like the 2 earth abilities that come with the focus. But then there’s times I’m sure if I’d just killed something faster I’d have been better off….

D/F has some nice synergies once you get used to it. I leveled cookie-cutter S/D from 1 to 50, but started experimenting after that. The problem with D/D in PVE content is one false step and its over. But Focus adds some amazing utility.

The 5s invulnerability is just disgusting good. This beats your defensive utility skills, but without wasting a utility slot.

Two Block Projectile skills means all those pesky ranged attacks miss when you’re flirting with bigger groups of mobs.

For Might Stack Junkies: Burning Speed> Evasive Arcana forward roll> backward roll> arcane wave> Comet (Water 5 skill) = yummy might

Two of my most common rotations:

From Fire: Burning Speed>EV forward, back> Arcane Wave> Drakes Breath > then auto attack or Flame Wall if you need that second fire field for longer combat >Evasive>Comet> Vapor Blades/Cone of cold

From Air: Lightning whip, lightning touch, Gale (god I love that knockdown/interrupt)> Shocking Aura > Burning Speed… Insert Fire rotation here

I always want to use and like the focus, but I am hopeless adicted to my off-hand dagger. I almost wish I could main-hand a focus and off-hand a dagger.

I find the focus’ fire skills to be terrible, water is blah at best, but air and earth are fantastic. On the other hand, the off-hand dagger skills are awesome for all four traits.

I just started playing Dagger/Focus this week and it’s pretty fantastic. You of course loose the offhand dagger’s extra damage (fire), ice shield/heal/Condition Removal (water), mobility/control (air), and knockdown/damage (earth). But you make up for those with some pretty amazing defensive skills, a different interrupts, some long range skills, and two combo finisher options.

Obviously there’s a few ways to build around it, such as an excellent condition removal/support build: http://goo.gl/WJWn2

Or even that amazing Signet & Group Aura Build: http://goo.gl/zBJid

But I’m currently experimenting with a Glyph build that has amazing long lasting boons and really nice damage output: http://goo.gl/NJlu4

And here’s a summary of the Focus skills for you:

Fire & Focus gets an Flame Wall that lasts for 8s, can be placed up to 900’ away, can be used with your Earth/Dagger Magnetic Leap to apply Fire Shield to yourself, or in a Blast Combo Finisher to gain AOE Might from your other Focus skills. Fire shield is the second ability and a great way to return damage to your enemies, and if you build your character around auras, you can use this spell to gain long lasting Swiftness & Fury buffs (electricity I).

Water & Focus gets Freezing Gust, which does a little damage, has a 3s chill, and can be cast 900’ away. It’s fantastic when you want to extend the chill duration from Frozen Blast, catch up to another player, or if you just want to slow enemy cooldowns from a safe range. The second ability is Comet which comes with an amazing 2s AOE Daze and a Blast Finisher!

Air & Focus has Swirling Winds, which destroys all missiles in a 450’ radius for a whopping 6s! And Gale which is a 2s knockdown castable from 900’ away.

Earth & Focus has Magnetic Wave which damages enemies, cures 3 conditions, reflects projectiles for 3s, is a Blast Finisher, and only on a 25s cooldown! And finally there’s Obsidian Flesh which makes you completely invulnerable for 4s!

wheelercub.8214:

I just started playing Dagger/Focus this week and it’s pretty fantastic. You of course loose the offhand dagger’s extra damage (fire), ice shield/heal/Condition Removal (water), mobility/control (air), and knockdown/damage (earth). But you make up for those with some pretty amazing defensive skills, a different interrupts, some long range skills, and two combo finisher options.

Obviously there’s a few ways to build around it, such as an excellent condition removal/support build: http://goo.gl/WJWn2

Or even that amazing Signet & Group Aura Build: http://goo.gl/zBJid

But I’m currently experimenting with a Glyph build that has amazing long lasting boons and really nice damage output: http://goo.gl/NJlu4

And here’s a summary of the Focus skills for you:

Fire & Focus gets an Flame Wall that lasts for 8s, can be placed up to 900’ away, can be used with your Earth/Dagger Magnetic Leap to apply Fire Shield to yourself, or in a Blast Combo Finisher to gain AOE Might from your other Focus skills. Fire shield is the second ability and a great way to return damage to your enemies, and if you build your character around auras, you can use this spell to gain long lasting Swiftness & Fury buffs (electricity I).

Water & Focus gets Freezing Gust, which does a little damage, has a 3s chill, and can be cast 900’ away. It’s fantastic when you want to extend the chill duration from Frozen Blast, catch up to another player, or if you just want to slow enemy cooldowns from a safe range. The second ability is Comet which comes with an amazing 2s AOE Daze and a Blast Finisher!

Air & Focus has Swirling Winds, which destroys all missiles in a 450’ radius for a whopping 6s! And Gale which is a 2s knockdown castable from 900’ away.

Earth & Focus has Magnetic Wave which damages enemies, cures 3 conditions, reflects projectiles for 3s, is a Blast Finisher, and only on a 25s cooldown! And finally there’s Obsidian Flesh which makes you completely invulnerable for 4s!

d/f s/d s/f have nothing on D/D its fun to toy around with it but if u really wanna be serious about pvp then u go d/d as that is the best set up for 1. dmg and 2. defense and 3. buffs