Guild Wars 2

For those of you using d/f what is your build?

The Game Slayer.7632:

Truebanana.5936:

The Game Slayer.7632:

Avead.5760:

ensoriki.5789:

Comet is fine I’m surprised people still see it in a poor light.
Gale is also fine, and it be clearer if fire flame wall, freezing gust and fire shield were up to par.

People here dont understand the difference on reach of every spell and their range
A ranged knockdown that lasts so much is a pretty good skill.If half of people here tried an actual competitive game lika a moba in their life they would understand things better.
Personally im trying to get the max out of the kit.Flame wall is at least a very long fire field,comet is great on stoping rezzers or stompers and fire shield really really works great when you are getting damage from many smaller sources of damage like pets ,clones,minions etc

Im not saying focus is bad. I’m just saying, compare it to dagger. why would you ever say water for focus is better than water for dagger. same with air. updraft is a million times better than gale anyday. RTL and winds have their places. Ring of fire is also a million times better than flamewall and fire grab a million times better than fire shield. dont assume stuff, please.

It’s not better, it’s a different gameplay.

With a dagger your mostly rely on your dps with a bit of very close range control, while with focus you rely on interupt to win.

In a 1vs1 situation, you have 0% chance to win as a d/d against a d/f at equal skill, because the d/f can cover his heal and interupt your 2 times, 3 (without any cast at 1200 range) if he’s an asura.

Scrap that asura crap, that has nothing to do with focus and dagger. Gale and comet are very unreliable to be used as an interrupt on an ele who is healing unless its ER. they are both a 3/4s cast. one heal you cant even interrupt since its a signet. you seem to forget dagger has two interrupts as well, and while they may be melee distance, since the only heal that you can rupt is ER you will have time to run up to that other ele and do said rupt.
Not to mention the massive damage and much better mobility dagger has to focus. Fire grab? CE? quake? frost aura? cleanse and heal? If youre saying two ranged interrupts trump two melee interrupts, cleanse+heal, mobility, massive damage, (highest for ele in one shot) and a much larger fire field, then sure thats on you. you can say that. but you look just silly when you do. Dagger is so much more versatile than focus. and yes, its a play style. but when given to players of equal skill the dagger will win every day.

Sorry but you’re wrong. If you face 2 eles of equal skill, 1 with dagger and 1 with focus. The focus ele will win every time. All you’ll be able to do with your dagger is run away.

The focis’ defense, invulnerability, condi cleanse, slow, 2 knockdowns, range negation, reflect… All trump the dagger in a fight of equal skill.

On topic… Focus fire needs a total revamp. And it would be nice is comet was an instant cast and stun instead of dropping a circle. But it still works. Will it ever happen, probably not.

Bluespit.9421:

For those of you using d/f what is your build?

Here’s mine:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fEAQJAodhEmabnR9wjEA0DmMPIi4xDWIRpwMA-ToAg0CnI8S1lrLjXyisFNMYCC

Treborlavok.3504:

Sorry but you’re wrong. If you face 2 eles of equal skill, 1 with dagger and 1 with focus. The focus ele will win every time. All you’ll be able to do with your dagger is run away.

The focis’ defense, invulnerability, condi cleanse, slow, 2 knockdowns, range negation, reflect… All trump the dagger in a fight of equal skill.

On topic… Focus fire needs a total revamp. And it would be nice is comet was an instant cast and stun instead of dropping a circle. But it still works. Will it ever happen, probably not.

D/D doesn’t particularly rely on condition damage or negate-able ranged attacks, which are D/F’s main strong points in terms of defense. D/F has only one KD on an absurdly long CD and only one reliable burst skill. A D/F ele simply lacks the damage to take out a skilled D/D ele; they will most likely stalemate.

Leuca.5732:

Treborlavok.3504:

Sorry but you’re wrong. If you face 2 eles of equal skill, 1 with dagger and 1 with focus. The focus ele will win every time. All you’ll be able to do with your dagger is run away.

The focis’ defense, invulnerability, condi cleanse, slow, 2 knockdowns, range negation, reflect… All trump the dagger in a fight of equal skill.

On topic… Focus fire needs a total revamp. And it would be nice is comet was an instant cast and stun instead of dropping a circle. But it still works. Will it ever happen, probably not.

D/D doesn’t particularly rely on condition damage or negate-able ranged attacks, which are D/F’s main strong points in terms of defense. D/F has only one KD on an absurdly long CD and only one reliable burst skill. A D/F ele simply lacks the damage to take out a skilled D/D ele; they will most likely stalemate.

I wasn’t taking about the mainhand choice. If youre running dagger main hand then it’s kind of pointless to run focus offhand. I think focus offhand is only viable with a scepter main hand. That being said, a d/d ele vs a s/f ele in an evenly matched fight… The s:f ele wins.

Stalemate (without asura racial skill) or win, but it’s impossible to lose agaisnt a d/d at equal skill .

Treborlavok.3504:

I wasn’t taking about the mainhand choice. If youre running dagger main hand then it’s kind of pointless to run focus offhand. I think focus offhand is only viable with a scepter main hand. That being said, a d/d ele vs a s/f ele in an evenly matched fight… The s:f ele wins.

Focus actually has great theoretical synergy with dagger mainhand, and the person you responded to was speaking about dagger mainhand, which leaves me confused as to how you managed to switch weapon context. A D/D ele bypasses most of focus’ defense because of melee damage, regardless of the mainhand the latter uses.

Treborlavok.3504:

The Game Slayer.7632:

Truebanana.5936:

The Game Slayer.7632:

Avead.5760:

ensoriki.5789:

Comet is fine I’m surprised people still see it in a poor light.
Gale is also fine, and it be clearer if fire flame wall, freezing gust and fire shield were up to par.

People here dont understand the difference on reach of every spell and their range
A ranged knockdown that lasts so much is a pretty good skill.If half of people here tried an actual competitive game lika a moba in their life they would understand things better.
Personally im trying to get the max out of the kit.Flame wall is at least a very long fire field,comet is great on stoping rezzers or stompers and fire shield really really works great when you are getting damage from many smaller sources of damage like pets ,clones,minions etc

Im not saying focus is bad. I’m just saying, compare it to dagger. why would you ever say water for focus is better than water for dagger. same with air. updraft is a million times better than gale anyday. RTL and winds have their places. Ring of fire is also a million times better than flamewall and fire grab a million times better than fire shield. dont assume stuff, please.

It’s not better, it’s a different gameplay.

With a dagger your mostly rely on your dps with a bit of very close range control, while with focus you rely on interupt to win.

In a 1vs1 situation, you have 0% chance to win as a d/d against a d/f at equal skill, because the d/f can cover his heal and interupt your 2 times, 3 (without any cast at 1200 range) if he’s an asura.

Scrap that asura crap, that has nothing to do with focus and dagger. Gale and comet are very unreliable to be used as an interrupt on an ele who is healing unless its ER. they are both a 3/4s cast. one heal you cant even interrupt since its a signet. you seem to forget dagger has two interrupts as well, and while they may be melee distance, since the only heal that you can rupt is ER you will have time to run up to that other ele and do said rupt.
Not to mention the massive damage and much better mobility dagger has to focus. Fire grab? CE? quake? frost aura? cleanse and heal? If youre saying two ranged interrupts trump two melee interrupts, cleanse+heal, mobility, massive damage, (highest for ele in one shot) and a much larger fire field, then sure thats on you. you can say that. but you look just silly when you do. Dagger is so much more versatile than focus. and yes, its a play style. but when given to players of equal skill the dagger will win every day.

Sorry but you’re wrong. If you face 2 eles of equal skill, 1 with dagger and 1 with focus. The focus ele will win every time. All you’ll be able to do with your dagger is run away.

The focis’ defense, invulnerability, condi cleanse, slow, 2 knockdowns, range negation, reflect… All trump the dagger in a fight of equal skill.

What? It wouldn’t even be close. Offhand dagger has superior heals, superior dps and superior mobility. The only things focus is good for is fighting heavy condi users and ranged projectile spammers (ie: not another Ele).

I have run D/F for the last couple of months and this is my build. It works fairly well as a sustain dps and hybrid bunker. Also makes for a great stomper if your guard cannot get there or is running a dps/support role.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fEAQJAodhEmkblR4gjEAkHnYCLjChIK8QRxM0A-TsAA1CmI2RtjbHzOyds7MK48xEEA

If focus lacks soooooooo much compared to dagger offhand then how come im finding a lot easier to have a teamfight presence and win 1vs1 with s/f isntead of s/d ??

ive ran very bursty d/f builds and they do kitten d/d eles unless they are complete bunker then you will stalemate but d/f is very strong for duels

Avead.5760:

If focus lacks soooooooo much compared to dagger offhand then how come im finding a lot easier to have a teamfight presence and win 1vs1 with s/f isntead of s/d ??

1- its playstyle
2- everyone plays different and is better/worse with each different play style
3- focus has aoe projectile denying, and an absurdly long invuln. everything else is single target. how could you possibly match up gale to updraft in a team fight? or fire grab to fire aura? or ring of fire to flamewall? or churning earth for a selfish invuln?
Dagger is much better for a team fight due to high damage pbaoe skills instead of selfish skills that keeps only you alive, except for swirling winds.

Fishbones.6914:

ive ran very bursty d/f builds and they do kitten d/d eles unless they are complete bunker then you will stalemate but d/f is very strong for duels

im not saying focus is completely horrible at all though, im saying dagger is much better, and that focus should be brought up to par with dagger. focus can be useful in 1v1’s but unfortunately, spvp AND wvw do NOT comprise of mainly 1v1’s. focus lacks some much needed team play skills

The Game Slayer.7632:

Fishbones.6914:

ive ran very bursty d/f builds and they do kitten d/d eles unless they are complete bunker then you will stalemate but d/f is very strong for duels

im not saying focus is completely horrible at all though, im saying dagger is much better, and that focus should be brought up to par with dagger. focus can be useful in 1v1’s but unfortunately, spvp AND wvw do NOT comprise of mainly 1v1’s. focus lacks some much needed team play skills

yea i definatley agree with you, updraft is way better than the air knockdown on focus…. swirling winds is amazing but other than that dagger is way better for team play

Fishbones.6914:

The Game Slayer.7632:

Fishbones.6914:

ive ran very bursty d/f builds and they do kitten d/d eles unless they are complete bunker then you will stalemate but d/f is very strong for duels

im not saying focus is completely horrible at all though, im saying dagger is much better, and that focus should be brought up to par with dagger. focus can be useful in 1v1’s but unfortunately, spvp AND wvw do NOT comprise of mainly 1v1’s. focus lacks some much needed team play skills

yea i definatley agree with you, updraft is way better than the air knockdown on focus…. swirling winds is amazing but other than that dagger is way better for team play

I feel that the real problem is inherent in these 5 skills- Water attunement, fire attunement, and Gale. They all need serious improvement.

Fishbones.6914:

The Game Slayer.7632:

Fishbones.6914:

ive ran very bursty d/f builds and they do kitten d/d eles unless they are complete bunker then you will stalemate but d/f is very strong for duels

im not saying focus is completely horrible at all though, im saying dagger is much better, and that focus should be brought up to par with dagger. focus can be useful in 1v1’s but unfortunately, spvp AND wvw do NOT comprise of mainly 1v1’s. focus lacks some much needed team play skills

yea i definatley agree with you, updraft is way better than the air knockdown on focus…. swirling winds is amazing but other than that dagger is way better for team play

Yea without a doubt dagger is best suited for team play over focus and like slayer said focus is more suited for 1v1 or small groups.

They need to rework everything on focus aside from earth. They did earth perfectly making it extremely defensive but also offensive. Now keeping all the cast ranges the same as the current focus skills. I was thinking something like this.

It feels like they forgot to add in another effect with SW and forgot to make gale an AoE KD(launch) like updraft.
- SW, “create a swirling wind around yourself to protect you and your allies reflecting projectiles. Cripples and weakens foes entering and within the winds.” Instant cast. Radius 300. 6 second cripple/weakness. 35 sec recast.
- Gale, “create a blast of wind to knockdown your foes” instant cast. Radius 180. KD 2 secs. 40 sec recast

Also with water the same things seemed to have been over looked with both the slow and comet. The slow being too short and too small, needs to be an AoE and the comets cast is too long. And bigger. Comet needs to be instant cast and the red circle needs to go or the skill needs to land faster and have a bigger Circle.
– Maybe even change the slow(water 4) to something like “super cool the water around your foes and freeze them in a block of ice. Super heat the ice to violently destroy it around your foes. Heal allies in the area upon detonation.” Freeze duration 2 secs. 1 second cast. 30 second recast. Radius 240. Dmg 248. Explosion dmg 740. Heal 550
- Make comets circle larger and an AoE KD. Also heal allies in the blast zone. Instant cast. Takes 1/2 second to land. Radius 360. Heal 1,220. Dmg 680. 35 sec recast.

Fire, o fire… Lol
- remove flame wall, change for, Pyromancers fury " set yourself on fire granting regeneration and cure 2 conditions on yourself and allies near you. Burn foes in the area and that strike you." Instant cast. Radius 240. Regen/Pyromancers fury 4 sec duration. Burning(5seconds) 11,220 dmg(look at zealots flame on guardian torch) 15 sec recast.
- remove flame shield, change for, Burning Leap" jump at your foe and land in a fiery explosion." Instant cast. Range 900. Radius 340. Dmg 678. Dmg vs burning 1084.( just like fire grab but with a gap closer. )

Give focus some good utility and support. I think mixing it up with some good Kds and dmg and reflects, slow… Just tweaking the current skills a little I think could make focus into an amazing team support and make the choice to go with dagger or focus a lot harder of a decision.

I wonder how long it will take or if we will get any input what so ever from a dev on this topic… Even a simple. " we’re looking into possible ideas." Would be enough for me…

I’ve been playing with staff a lot lately, since I’ve running about with the Labyrinth zerg for Halloween.

Staff is a little clunky, but whenever I go back to D/F, I feel truly aggravated. I love D/F and I don’t want to give it up, but the cooldowns on Focus are just ridiculous compared to the cooldowns on staff.

Imagi.4561:

I’ve been playing with staff a lot lately, since I’ve running about with the Labyrinth zerg for Halloween.

Staff is a little clunky, but whenever I go back to D/F, I feel truly aggravated. I love D/F and I don’t want to give it up, but the cooldowns on Focus are just ridiculous compared to the cooldowns on staff.

I agree. With the latest patch and finally being able to get I to wvw and roam/Zerg. Focus has been thrown out the window for me, atleast atm. It’s only valuable skills are in earth. But with the insane CDs it’s not worth it.

Even staff is better than focus, like you said. But I only throw the staff on if I’m alone on a wall or in a lords room standing in the back bombing ppl.

Any other time im now running S/D full time. With my FA build (same as pre patch) I still beat ppl down and have no problems. Only classes that I would consider a hard counter to me are the new and even more improved hammer wars. And maybe stealth/condi mes, but only for the sake that they’re stealth for 75% of the fight so it’s harder to land bursts on them so the fight just takes longer to get that opening.

I swear if they buff wars even more I’m going to scream.
I’ve literally seen more wars in wvw than ever the past 2 nights, up leveled and 80’s. It’s ridiculous.

But on a lighter note… I’m absolutely still in love with my ele and my build. I just hope they don’t mess with FA or else I’m done and rolling one of my other toons I have locked away. Also, staff is truely amazing for zergs. The water fields and aoes are second to none.

So with that, good job for once anet, the staff is a much better weapon to be used with multiple builds now. Now please fix focus, and don’t screw up our traits anymore.

Treborlavok.3504:

I wonder how long it will take or if we will get any input what so ever from a dev on this topic… Even a simple. " we’re looking into possible ideas." Would be enough for me…

“We’ll read this topic when we know eles have a focus”

MyPuppy.8970:

Treborlavok.3504:

I wonder how long it will take or if we will get any input what so ever from a dev on this topic… Even a simple. " we’re looking into possible ideas." Would be enough for me…

“We’ll read this topic when we know eles have a focus”

Lmao yea really.

Reposting some ideas.

FOCUS
Flamewall

• Now chains into another skill: [Heat Wave]

Heat Wave

• Cast-time: 0
• Recharge: 20 seconds
• Your Flamewall riles up and damages and knocks back foes attempting to cross it.
• Damage: 256
• Knock-back: 100
• Duration: 1 second

Fire Shield

• Recharge reduced from 40 to 30 seconds.
• Now counts as a Blast Finisher.
• Now creates a [Lava Font] at your location if you combo this skill with a Fire Field.

Freezing Gust

• FUNCTIONALITY CHANGED
• Cast-time: 2¼ seconds
• Recharge: 25 seconds
• Channel a freezing gust over target location that chills foes. The final gust of wind immobilizes foes if they are already chilled.
• Damage (4x): 336
• Chill (4): 1 second
• Immobilize: 2 seconds
• Radius: 240
• Range: 900
  • Movement interrupts channeling.

Gale

• FUNCTIONALITY CHANGED
• Cast-time: 1½ seconds
• Recharge: 40 seconds
• Channel a cone of wind in front of you that blinds and cripples foes before knocking them down.
• Damage (4x): 336
• Blind (4): 1 second
• Cripple (4): 1 second
• Knock-down: 2 seconds
• Range: 600
  • This skill hits up to 3 targets.
  • The final damage tick is the tick that inflicts knock-down.
  • [Healing Breeze] cone

Obsidian Flesh

• FUNCTIONALITY CHANGED
• Recharge reduced from 50 to 40 seconds.
• Cast-time increased from 0 to 2¼ seconds.
• Rip stones from the ground around you, damaging and crippling nearby foes while enveloping yourself in stony armor. This spell’s strength is determined by how long you channeled it.
• Damage (4x): 672
• Cripple (4): 1 second
• Armor duration: 15 seconds
• 0 – 1 second channel: +50 toughness (15 seconds); -25% incoming condition duration (2 seconds)
• 1 – 2 second channel: +100 toughness (15 seconds); -25% incoming condition duration (3 seconds)
• Full channel: +200 toughness (15 seconds); -25% incoming condition duration (6 seconds); Protection (3 seconds)
• Radius: 180
  • Now chains into another skill: [Obsidian Flame].
  • Caster only gains bonuses upon releasing this spell’s channel; bonuses do not accumulate during the channel.

Obsidian Flame

• Rend your obsidian flesh, damaging and bleeding nearby foes while creating a ring of obsidian in the ground. After 2 seconds, your ring flares up, damaging foes within it with power derived from the strength of your Obsidian Flesh armor.
• Cast-time: 1 second
• Rend damage: 229
• Bleeding (5): 5 seconds
• Radius: 240
• Ring (stage 1): Damage: 256; Burning: 1 second
• Ring (stage 2): Damage: 408; Burning: 2 seconds; Blind 2 seconds
• Ring (stage 3): Damage: 571; Burning: 3 seconds; Blind: 5 seconds; Launch (100 range)
• Ring radius: 240
  • Using this skill preemptively removes a user’s Obsidian Flesh toughness bonus. This skill becomes unavailable when a user’s Obsidian Flesh bonus fades.

Swagg.9236:

-snippity-

I think you have some interesting ideas, but to be honest I’d rather have Obsidian Flesh the way it is now. I think it’s a wonderful and invaluable skill; I just wish the cooldown weren’t quite so long.

Imagi.4561:

Swagg.9236:

-snippity-

I think you have some interesting ideas, but to be honest I’d rather have Obsidian Flesh the way it is now. I think it’s a wonderful and invaluable skill; I just wish the cooldown weren’t quite so long.

But it’s so booooring.

It’s a PANIC button shoved into a skill set that is supposed to be composed of rotational skills. It makes no sense and it does very little—if nothing at all—for defining battle field space. No zoning capabilities; no damage whatsoever; not even any movement. You can use it to revive a downed ally, but outside of that situation, it’s rather poorly used within a rotation. Furthermore, reviving someone is something that doesn’t typically happen at the beginning of combat. What this means is that Obsidian Skin is just going to sit there until somebody goes down or you decide to blow it as part of a rotation (which wouldn’t add any damage or CC to said rotation). In the end, [Obsidian Skin] falls flat when it comes to battle presence (and I know that it’s going to be hard to convince people that 5 seconds of invulnerability can fall flat), and its bland, shallow nature is evidence of maybe someone/a team giving up when designing skills towards the approaching betas and release.

Ele focus’ real issue is its lack of battlefield presence. All skills outside of [Flame Wall] and [Swirling Winds] are single-target or self-target. Ele focus needs more ability to shape a battlefield.

Swagg.9236:

Reposting some ideas.

FOCUS
Flamewall

• Now chains into another skill: [Heat Wave]

Heat Wave

• Cast-time: 0
• Recharge: 20 seconds
• Your Flamewall riles up and damages and knocks back foes attempting to cross it.
• Damage: 256
• Knock-back: 100
• Duration: 1 second

Fire Shield

• Recharge reduced from 40 to 30 seconds.
• Now counts as a Blast Finisher.
• Now creates a [Lava Font] at your location if you combo this skill with a Fire Field.

Freezing Gust

• FUNCTIONALITY CHANGED
• Cast-time: 2¼ seconds
• Recharge: 25 seconds
• Channel a freezing gust over target location that chills foes. The final gust of wind immobilizes foes if they are already chilled.
• Damage (4x): 336
• Chill (4): 1 second
• Immobilize: 2 seconds
• Radius: 240
• Range: 900
  • Movement interrupts channeling.

Gale

• FUNCTIONALITY CHANGED
• Cast-time: 1½ seconds
• Recharge: 40 seconds
• Channel a cone of wind in front of you that blinds and cripples foes before knocking them down.
• Damage (4x): 336
• Blind (4): 1 second
• Cripple (4): 1 second
• Knock-down: 2 seconds
• Range: 600
  • This skill hits up to 3 targets.
  • The final damage tick is the tick that inflicts knock-down.
  • [Healing Breeze] cone

Obsidian Flesh

• FUNCTIONALITY CHANGED
• Recharge reduced from 50 to 40 seconds.
• Cast-time increased from 0 to 2¼ seconds.
• Rip stones from the ground around you, damaging and crippling nearby foes while enveloping yourself in stony armor. This spell’s strength is determined by how long you channeled it.
• Damage (4x): 672
• Cripple (4): 1 second
• Armor duration: 15 seconds
• 0 – 1 second channel: +50 toughness (15 seconds); -25% incoming condition duration (2 seconds)
• 1 – 2 second channel: +100 toughness (15 seconds); -25% incoming condition duration (3 seconds)
• Full channel: +200 toughness (15 seconds); -25% incoming condition duration (6 seconds); Protection (3 seconds)
• Radius: 180
  • Now chains into another skill: [Obsidian Flame].
  • Caster only gains bonuses upon releasing this spell’s channel; bonuses do not accumulate during the channel.

Obsidian Flame

• Rend your obsidian flesh, damaging and bleeding nearby foes while creating a ring of obsidian in the ground. After 2 seconds, your ring flares up, damaging foes within it with power derived from the strength of your Obsidian Flesh armor.
• Cast-time: 1 second
• Rend damage: 229
• Bleeding (5): 5 seconds
• Radius: 240
• Ring (stage 1): Damage: 256; Burning: 1 second
• Ring (stage 2): Damage: 408; Burning: 2 seconds; Blind 2 seconds
• Ring (stage 3): Damage: 571; Burning: 3 seconds; Blind: 5 seconds; Launch (100 range)
• Ring radius: 240
  • Using this skill preemptively removes a user’s Obsidian Flesh toughness bonus. This skill becomes unavailable when a user’s Obsidian Flesh bonus fades.

Why weren’t you hired into a-nets balance team… They need you. Matta’ a fact, get your cat in there. A-net needs people like you. Now wheres that +1000 button?

Swagg.9236:

But it’s so booooring.

It’s a PANIC button shoved into a skill set that is supposed to be composed of rotational skills. It makes no sense and it does very little—if nothing at all—for defining battle field space. No zoning capabilities; no damage whatsoever; not even any movement. You can use it to revive a downed ally, but outside of that situation, it’s rather poorly used within a rotation. Furthermore, reviving someone is something that doesn’t typically happen at the beginning of combat. What this means is that Obsidian Skin is just going to sit there until somebody goes down or you decide to blow it as part of a rotation (which wouldn’t add any damage or CC to said rotation). In the end, [Obsidian Skin] falls flat when it comes to battle presence (and I know that it’s going to be hard to convince people that 5 seconds of invulnerability can fall flat), and its bland, shallow nature is evidence of maybe someone/a team giving up when designing skills towards the approaching betas and release.

Ele focus’ real issue is its lack of battlefield presence. All skills outside of [Flame Wall] and [Swirling Winds] are single-target or self-target. Ele focus needs more ability to shape a battlefield.

You might consider it boring, but I love it. Every skill doesn’t have to be dynamic or “define battlefield space,” and I use it in my rotation to give me breathing room, if need be—like in cases where I’m outnumbered—or save it for emergencies.

As a side note, if I want to “shape the battlefield,” I use staff. I enjoy the self-sufficiency of D/F. To me it’s designed with the intention of being a tankier set that doesn’t have the burst capacity or mobility of D/D or S/D, but it has more staying power. I’m fine with it staying that way.

Imagi.4561:

You might consider it boring, but I love it. Every skill doesn’t have to be dynamic or “define battlefield space,” and I use it in my rotation to give me breathing room, if need be—like in cases where I’m outnumbered—or save it for emergencies.

As a side note, if I want to “shape the battlefield,” I use staff. I enjoy the self-sufficiency of D/F. To me it’s designed with the intention of being a tankier set that doesn’t have the burst capacity or mobility of D/D or S/D, but it has more staying power. I’m fine with it staying that way.

All I’m saying is that having a self-target panic button on an enormous cool-down in a place where one typically encounters damage rotation skills seems like a wasted slot, no matter how good the panic button might be. It’s fundamentally goofed. Also, you’re saying that running S/D with +450 toughness for 15 seconds with a PBAoE bomb in reserve that baits dodges and/or forces opponents to break off close attacks wouldn’t be tanky?

Fire 4: Complete redo. Takes too long to cast as well.
Fire 5: Could be changed to something unique. We don’t want to get hit, Anet.

Air 5: Lower CD please. At least 10 secs.

Water 4: Much longer duration, AoE effect, or a redo entirely.

Swagg.9236:

Imagi.4561:

You might consider it boring, but I love it. Every skill doesn’t have to be dynamic or “define battlefield space,” and I use it in my rotation to give me breathing room, if need be—like in cases where I’m outnumbered—or save it for emergencies.

As a side note, if I want to “shape the battlefield,” I use staff. I enjoy the self-sufficiency of D/F. To me it’s designed with the intention of being a tankier set that doesn’t have the burst capacity or mobility of D/D or S/D, but it has more staying power. I’m fine with it staying that way.

All I’m saying is that having a self-target panic button on an enormous cool-down in a place where one typically encounters damage rotation skills seems like a wasted slot, no matter how good the panic button might be. It’s fundamentally goofed. Also, you’re saying that running S/D with +450 toughness for 15 seconds with a PBAoE bomb in reserve that baits dodges and/or forces opponents to break off close attacks wouldn’t be tanky?

Well, you can think whatever you like, but I think it’s clear we have two very different opinions about the skill.

I never said S/D couldn’t be tanky. Please reread my comment.

The only thing I missed going from s/d to s/f was the burst but nowdays I take teleport instead of arcane shield.

The phoenix burst is very capable.
http://youtu.be/yQqDnHxzh4E

Azunai.5974:

Reduce cooldown on air 5, earth 5, change the skills on fire, and modify the water skills to function better.

Modify the water skills to actually provide healing?

Since condition removal is currently within earth.

As a d/d Ele, the only Ele I could not defeat was a full bunker s/f. We fought a few matches. It was funny because everyone that came between us died. He went undefeated. I died only to him. They were memorable fights. He was close to dying many times, but focus has enough defense to allow heals to win by attrition. Most of his hits did not make contact, but eventually my dodges and heals ran out every time.

mjharrison.3209:

Imagi.4561:

I run D/F, and I don’t find earth and air #4 redundant at all. Earth #4 requires impeccable timing to reflect and has a very small area of reflection, so it only works against single-target projectiles. Air doesn’t have those limitations.

They’re both pretty redundant when fighting a melee warrior…

I think it’s poor design to double up on anti-projectile when focus completely lacks heals and mobility.

I agree, I feel like god against rangers and engies, but then two of my best skills are completely useless against full melee. I don’t understand why offhand dagger couldn’t have gotten one of those anti-projectile skills, and give focus a minor mobility skill in place of one (preferably swirling winds because magnetic wave is problem our single best skill in the game with how many roles it plays).

The Primary.6371:

Azunai.5974:

Reduce cooldown on air 5, earth 5, change the skills on fire, and modify the water skills to function better.

Modify the water skills to actually provide healing?

Since condition removal is currently within earth.

That would be convenient. I didn’t notice that particular discrepancy until I used staff for a while, and then switched back to D/F and found that my water skills didn’t provide much self-sufficiency by comparison.

Imagi.4561:

The Primary.6371:

Azunai.5974:

Reduce cooldown on air 5, earth 5, change the skills on fire, and modify the water skills to function better.

Modify the water skills to actually provide healing?

Since condition removal is currently within earth.

That would be convenient. I didn’t notice that particular discrepancy until I used staff for a while, and then switched back to D/F and found that my water skills didn’t provide much self-sufficiency by comparison.

yea, Cone of cold isnt really the best healing skill around and that is literally the only healing skill to be had in that setup. its pretty bad when you look at the bigger picture. a jack of all trades roll needs a little more healing in water than a pitiful 800.

Swagg.9236:

Reposting some ideas.

FOCUS
Flamewall

• Now chains into another skill: [Heat Wave]

Heat Wave

• Cast-time: 0
• Recharge: 20 seconds
• Your Flamewall riles up and damages and knocks back foes attempting to cross it.
• Damage: 256
• Knock-back: 100
• Duration: 1 second

Fire Shield

• Recharge reduced from 40 to 30 seconds.
• Now counts as a Blast Finisher.
• Now creates a [Lava Font] at your location if you combo this skill with a Fire Field.

Freezing Gust

• FUNCTIONALITY CHANGED
• Cast-time: 2¼ seconds
• Recharge: 25 seconds
• Channel a freezing gust over target location that chills foes. The final gust of wind immobilizes foes if they are already chilled.
• Damage (4x): 336
• Chill (4): 1 second
• Immobilize: 2 seconds
• Radius: 240
• Range: 900
  • Movement interrupts channeling.

Gale

• FUNCTIONALITY CHANGED
• Cast-time: 1½ seconds
• Recharge: 40 seconds
• Channel a cone of wind in front of you that blinds and cripples foes before knocking them down.
• Damage (4x): 336
• Blind (4): 1 second
• Cripple (4): 1 second
• Knock-down: 2 seconds
• Range: 600
  • This skill hits up to 3 targets.
  • The final damage tick is the tick that inflicts knock-down.
  • [Healing Breeze] cone

Obsidian Flesh

• FUNCTIONALITY CHANGED
• Recharge reduced from 50 to 40 seconds.
• Cast-time increased from 0 to 2¼ seconds.
• Rip stones from the ground around you, damaging and crippling nearby foes while enveloping yourself in stony armor. This spell’s strength is determined by how long you channeled it.
• Damage (4x): 672
• Cripple (4): 1 second
• Armor duration: 15 seconds
• 0 – 1 second channel: +50 toughness (15 seconds); -25% incoming condition duration (2 seconds)
• 1 – 2 second channel: +100 toughness (15 seconds); -25% incoming condition duration (3 seconds)
• Full channel: +200 toughness (15 seconds); -25% incoming condition duration (6 seconds); Protection (3 seconds)
• Radius: 180
  • Now chains into another skill: [Obsidian Flame].
  • Caster only gains bonuses upon releasing this spell’s channel; bonuses do not accumulate during the channel.

Obsidian Flame

• Rend your obsidian flesh, damaging and bleeding nearby foes while creating a ring of obsidian in the ground. After 2 seconds, your ring flares up, damaging foes within it with power derived from the strength of your Obsidian Flesh armor.
• Cast-time: 1 second
• Rend damage: 229
• Bleeding (5): 5 seconds
• Radius: 240
• Ring (stage 1): Damage: 256; Burning: 1 second
• Ring (stage 2): Damage: 408; Burning: 2 seconds; Blind 2 seconds
• Ring (stage 3): Damage: 571; Burning: 3 seconds; Blind: 5 seconds; Launch (100 range)
• Ring radius: 240
  • Using this skill preemptively removes a user’s Obsidian Flesh toughness bonus. This skill becomes unavailable when a user’s Obsidian Flesh bonus fades.

I’ve been playing only scepter/focus ele in pvp for about 6 months now. At the moment I’m pretty capable of doing 2-3 v 1 and comming out on top most of the time (depending what im facing and how good they are)

In my opinion these ideas are ok, Particularly freezing gust and the firewall idea. But to much channeling will kill us. We are already to squishy staying on the move and consistent healing is the only thing that keeps us alive. If we have to focus on channeling abilities to much while kiting around it leaves us to open to being interupted or finding ourselves in a situation where we have to stop channeling because of to much pressure (how often do you get off a full arc lightning?)

Battle is always in motion and so are we and without obsidian flesh invuln i would not be able to win half as many fights as i do now (also a good escape, Obsidian flesh + firegey gs = unstoppable escape) Obsidian flesh + ether renewal is the main reason i manage to come back from a below 10% hp situation.

What Anet needs to do in my opinion is along with your flamewall idea, freezing gust idea and fire shield idea.
-Reduce the cooldown on Gale, it’s already a very nice ability especially since you don’t need to be facing your foe and it’s a very fast knockdown good for escaping, fighting and interupting.
-Reduce dragons tooth drop time by 1 second, increase the cooldown by 4 seconds.
-Make sandstorm travel faster

In the Dec. 10 updates proposal, offhand focus didn’t get any changes, or even so much as a mention.

Perhaps we need to be louder?

Imagi.4561:

In the Dec. 10 updates proposal, offhand focus didn’t get any changes, or even so much as a mention.

Perhaps we need to be louder?

I think we have gotten as loud as we can get. I have no doubt in my mind anet saw this post. It’s just a matter of time now before they do something. It seems tho that this patch was focused entirely on traits for us, which was a huge thing. the new baseline CD on attunements will make for more build diversity and new traits will be fun to mess around with. They are listening, just give them time i hope.

The Game Slayer.7632:

I think we have gotten as loud as we can get. I have no doubt in my mind anet saw this post. It’s just a matter of time now before they do something. It seems tho that this patch was focused entirely on traits for us, which was a huge thing. the new baseline CD on attunements will make for more build diversity and new traits will be fun to mess around with. They are listening, just give them time i hope.

If most of the changes they have proposed go through, they will actually hurt the ele more than help it.

Leuca.5732:

The Game Slayer.7632:

I think we have gotten as loud as we can get. I have no doubt in my mind anet saw this post. It’s just a matter of time now before they do something. It seems tho that this patch was focused entirely on traits for us, which was a huge thing. the new baseline CD on attunements will make for more build diversity and new traits will be fun to mess around with. They are listening, just give them time i hope.

If most of the changes they have proposed go through, they will actually hurt the ele more than help it.

I will disagree, therefore no one will really know. We can definitely agree on focus tho

ImProVocateur.5189:

As a d/d Ele, the only Ele I could not defeat was a full bunker s/f. We fought a few matches. It was funny because everyone that came between us died. He went undefeated. I died only to him. They were memorable fights. He was close to dying many times, but focus has enough defense to allow heals to win by attrition. Most of his hits did not make contact, but eventually my dodges and heals ran out every time.

On what server was this on? I still haven’t met a single good s/f Ele that my burst s/d Ele can’t defeat. I really would like to encounter them

LightningBlaze.4913:

ImProVocateur.5189:

As a d/d Ele, the only Ele I could not defeat was a full bunker s/f. We fought a few matches. It was funny because everyone that came between us died. He went undefeated. I died only to him. They were memorable fights. He was close to dying many times, but focus has enough defense to allow heals to win by attrition. Most of his hits did not make contact, but eventually my dodges and heals ran out every time.

On what server was this on? I still haven’t met a single good s/f Ele that my burst s/d Ele can’t defeat. I really would like to encounter them

I fought a good s/f ele two days ago. I still beat him on my condi d/d spec, but he surprised me.

When you find an ele using a focus, you may as well have won the lottery.

The Game Slayer.7632:

LightningBlaze.4913:

ImProVocateur.5189:

As a d/d Ele, the only Ele I could not defeat was a full bunker s/f. We fought a few matches. It was funny because everyone that came between us died. He went undefeated. I died only to him. They were memorable fights. He was close to dying many times, but focus has enough defense to allow heals to win by attrition. Most of his hits did not make contact, but eventually my dodges and heals ran out every time.

On what server was this on? I still haven’t met a single good s/f Ele that my burst s/d Ele can’t defeat. I really would like to encounter them

I fought a good s/f ele two days ago. I still beat him on my condi d/d spec, but he surprised me.

When you find an ele using a focus, you may as well have won the lottery.

I really love D/F and I’d like to start experimenting with it in PvP, but I’m not nearly confident enough with my skill. I feel like if I make a single mistake on my Ele I’ll instantaneously keel over dead.

Imagi.4561:

The Game Slayer.7632:

LightningBlaze.4913:

ImProVocateur.5189:

As a d/d Ele, the only Ele I could not defeat was a full bunker s/f. We fought a few matches. It was funny because everyone that came between us died. He went undefeated. I died only to him. They were memorable fights. He was close to dying many times, but focus has enough defense to allow heals to win by attrition. Most of his hits did not make contact, but eventually my dodges and heals ran out every time.

On what server was this on? I still haven’t met a single good s/f Ele that my burst s/d Ele can’t defeat. I really would like to encounter them

I fought a good s/f ele two days ago. I still beat him on my condi d/d spec, but he surprised me.

When you find an ele using a focus, you may as well have won the lottery.

I really love D/F and I’d like to start experimenting with it in PvP, but I’m not nearly confident enough with my skill. I feel like if I make a single mistake on my Ele I’ll instantaneously keel over dead.

Unfortunately thats how it is with focus. The CD’s are so long, and that’s one reason for your issue.

focus is so underused i dont even think arenanet knows they programmed those 8 skills when they were making the game. kidding ofc, but actions speak louder than words. A-net how do you allow such horrible skills to exist in a game?
cough flamewall cough

Scrap that skill please and just add a new one. the aura is horrible too.

bumping for the legions of Eles who would like focus to be a viable WVW weapon choice.

exec summary: needs mobility and/or healing. fire #4, #5, water #4 are all crappy. air #4 should probably grant swiftness.

I’m trying a build for D/F in PvP now that I’m really enjoying. Hooray for progress!

Now if only the cooldowns weren’t so long.

Imagi.4561:

I’m trying a build for D/F in PvP now that I’m really enjoying. Hooray for progress!

Now if only the cooldowns weren’t so long.

Yea, im in completel agreement. focus can be really good, but the sustainability is so horrible that its only good for first 20-30s of a fight. Its more on the defensive side, which is fine, but it has the longest weapon cd’s in the entire game. the only skill with such justified cool down is obsidian flesh, and only to an extent.

fire skills need a huge buff, but the others are mostly fine

reikken.4961:

fire skills need a huge buff, but the others are mostly fine

I dunno, Flamewall isn’t too bad because it’s a fire field on which you can blast for might. Fire Shield also allows for more might stacking.
Can’t ask for much more than that considering focus is meant to be more defensive : /