Guild Wars 2

First week run at Dagger/Focus. Not the greatest fights in the world, so hard to remember to hit record. Also threw in some zerg fights and an underwater fight as well.
Hope you enjoy.

Build: 0-10-10-30-20

I stoped watching after you used focus air#4 against melee. What the hell is your point?

Props for trying something new but I gotta say, that first fight is really unimpressive. The Air 4 was pretty pointless (the Guardian’s greatsword 2 spell is projectiles but you used Air 4 seemingly at random, not to counter it, and Earth 4 would’ve been a substantially better counter anyway), then later you popped Air 3 but wasted almost the whole duration (you popped it early, then dodged around a lot when you could’ve used it as a god mode button against that guardian). You keep trying to kite him but end up missing almost all of your spells due to overkiting. D/F is incredibly tanky and has a lot of tools to use against a melee character. Plus you end up losing the duel… why include it at all?

It was put in to show progression in the other fights. That was the first guardian I had fought with Dagger/Focus and had only been using it a few hours. Compared to 600+ hours of D/D. Like I said this was footage of my first week as D/F, so I wasn’t trying to show how much I can own with it. Only to show that there is some potential in other weapons. Thanks for watching Blaine Tog.
I’m sorry that you are the best elementalist out there and couldn’t watch past first 2 mins innocent ouarior, next time I will make a video better to your liking. It was just to show another side of the Elementalist that is rarely seen.
Anyway I will make another video when I get better footage and remember to hit the record button.

Ye it is slightly confusing, like clearly you move and are very active with the camera, so it’s not matter of bad player and prolly had great success with D/D. Just the rotation is very much off, result of not being used to the weapon set and not knowing how to deal damage properly with it.

I would prolly rock that greatsword more, try to get that into the normal play. When having hard time to push real punch with just one dagger.
You gotto get that fire attunument rocking much more often. To keep burning rolling and work for air stun into burning speed for example. Many fights you played like this was the last thing you would do, while this should prolly be the first thing to do for damage.

Sadly not many or at all projectile enemies in the vid, so your weapon set couldn’t shine too much.

D/F is much better in sPvP where the capture points force close quartered combat. That being said, I’ve been a fan of focus over offhand dagger since launch and I’m glad to see someone else trying it!

Focus tends to be overlooked because it’s not as flashy as offhand dagger, but it’s skills are just as useful in their own right (except Fire #4, that one’s some sort of cruel joke). I’d say the biggest challenge to overcome is understanding that a lot of your skills work best if you allow your opponent to score “free” hits on you (Fire #5 to build might, Air #3 for stuns, Earth #4 & 5).

Also, remember that regardless of your current attunement, Earth #5 can be accessed while stunned, and it works better than Mist Form for stomps. Keep at it and focus on using your new skills to their fullest!

Thanks you two. I was trying to figure out which elite was going to pair with it best . It is really hit or miss with the great-sword, was noticing it missed a lot when people were running. I switched back to the summon an elemental and try to get either the ice or earth one out. As of lately I have been able to pull out more dps by using the retaliation and confusion utility better and working on stacking might with the fire #4 + earth #4. A lot of the time though I find it better to start out in earth with fights vs ranged and let them damage themselves with earth #4. Its a lot different and a lot of fun I found vs each class. Anyway I’ll keep at it and make more videos as I get better.

You’ve done good though, showing losses makes you learn way more then showing just wins.

Thanks Gully. Your guild is quite fun to fight out in the ruins of jq bl. At least that is where i find them most of the time. Looking froward to more battles.

I would have destroyed that guardian 7 times over with dagger dagger. I got bored halfway through. Stop limiting yourself for no reason with dagger focus.

Been there done that. D/D is very boring these days, which is why I made a switch to D/F. At least for now, most fights I have are fun and a new challenge.

Dagger Focus is a great idea. My only recomendation is to grab a long range conjure. The main reasion is that dagger focus lacks any range. Whilst dealing good spike, and you gain the best survivability offered in the ele’s arsonal, your lack of damage in a distance could be dangerous. I don’t recomend full cantrip, mainly becuase you already have heavy control and defense from the focus. Mistform, Icebow, a summonable elite, and something of your choice.

The elite grants you dps, and something for your oppoenet to go after when you need that safety net. Mistform is just too good to pass up, and Icebow gives you fatnastic range, heavy control, and decend dps. It also lets you support at a range when your not in the position to jump head deep into combat. Quick example, your hurt badly, and smothered in conditions. You do no one any good dead. Take a step back, conjure your bow, unleash hell, heal up, get back into the fray. By the time you have used up the bow, youll have it recharged. The recharges go fast, so you always have that option.

Morderger.6298:

Been there done that. D/D is very boring these days, which is why I made a switch to D/F. At least for now, most fights I have are fun and a new challenge.

I heard that losing to nub guardians was boring too tho right?

Actually no. I had plenty of fun dueling him and some of his guild mates. I actually don’t mind losing cause I can learn from it. But I’m sure in all your greatness you’ve never lost at anything in life, so I humbly bow before you.

The difference in rotation/strategy between d/d and d/f is actually pretty significant. I’ve been playing d/f for a few months now and I’ve had a lot of success with it. It does about 75% of the damage d/d can do but it has so much more active defense. Your only weakness is trying to damage people at range since the only real gap closer is Earth 3, but the ranged defense more than makes up for it imo.

Hey ! Watched your video and I can only encourage you to try out the Focus. It is still not a very good weapon compared to a dagger, but it offers quite a load of utility. I think it is more a team/zerg oriented weapon (swirling winds, comet), and can replace cleansing fire (magnetic wave). I would prefer the scepter in case of fighting with a zerg.
If you are going with D/F, why not take more offensive abilities (arcane blast/wave) and more mobility (lightning flash, greatsword), it would make up for some loss of not using the dagger. You could then start a rotation from earth 3 → water 5 → fire 3 + 5 → arcane wave for a nice burst on a immobilized/dazed target.
Thanks for your work.

Morderger.6298:

It was put in to show progression in the other fights. That was the first guardian I had fought with Dagger/Focus and had only been using it a few hours. Compared to 600+ hours of D/D. Like I said this was footage of my first week as D/F, so I wasn’t trying to show how much I can own with it. Only to show that there is some potential in other weapons. Thanks for watching Blaine Tog.

Ahh, I see. I think the video would be better served by notation specifically informing the viewer that you’re showing a progression. These kinds of videos are typically “Best Of” compilations. The expectation from someone who’s seen these before is for a highlights reel of you pwning over and over again. It’s cool that you’re trying to do something different, but some overlay text “First try against a guardian… whoops, better try that again” or something like that, if your own words, would go a long way towards helping manage expectations.

I tried out the dagger/focus in PvP last night. Build was 0/0/20(3-10)/20(2-5)/30(1-4-11). I was also fumbling a lot and it is not a forgiving build. The lightest mistake in my defense rotation would get me killed.
I started with the following utilities : ether renewal, lightning flash, arcane wave and arcane shield, and greatsword. After being killed in a few matches I switched to glyph of harmony, mist form, arcane wave and arcane shield. I also started with a zerker amulet thinking that my defensive abilities would be enough…I switched back to soldier !
Here are my conclusions,
Cons :
- Because you have no heals using this set up, you need even more defense, going all out in offense is not a good option.
- You have nearly no access to a good mobility skill (RTL).
- You never land comet … such a small aoe only works on a immobilized/dazed target.
- You are weak against knockbacks (it seems I got bumped around all evening).
- You have no good aoe skills that would really let you fight against an invisible thief (and you can’t save a friend being downed from a thief).
- Alone you are not very frightening …

Pros :
- You have good control skills (cripples, chilled).
- You have good defenses, and survivability (if you do not mess up), against projectiles earth 4 is great (I loved to see some confusion ticks going back to an engineer).
- You can outpout some reasonable damage…
- You can easily rez someone (earth 5 and air 4 help a lot).
- Works well with a friend (played with an engineer and landing comet on a stunned target is much easier)

Overall the non cantrip d/f is good but lacks access to a regen will the defenses are up and some burst skills to quickly fear the enemy. I will change it a bit to see were I can go with it.
How are you doing WvW wise ?

HikariNoTen try out my build. I use 0/10/10/30/20

Air I
Earth III
Water III , V , XI
Arcane V , VI or IV if want more bubble

I use PVT gear with 1 Berserk and superior runes of earth
and mix between Beryl and Emerald jewelry and soldiers back.
weapons have superior sigil of perception and superior sigil of energy.

You are right about the mobility and its hard to get use to. But I have made it out of some sticky situation anyway with focus. I have 20k hp and 2.5k armor. Base 19% crit chance and with stacks + fury goes to 50%. WvWvW is great fun so far missing RTL sucks but its just like playing anyother alt class. When I want to hit with Comet I try to use the water #4 Freezing gust and it will usually land. I use mist form/ pain inverter / armor of earth for my utilities and elite is Glyph of Elementals. I really am liking pain inverter over anything else so far, it gives me that little extra damage from retaliation and I have had many mesmers and thieves almost kill themselves from it. Anyway best of luck out there.