Guild Wars 2

Focus needs a buff or reworked, anyone else agree and have any ideas?

The community agrees with you but is sick and tired of pleading for noticeable improvement on focus and other weapon sets of the ele aside from d/d we all stopped asking for it.

But hey, they did make “some” improvements on the focus skills on the last patch and guess what? It still isn’t used outside of treb blocking in WvW. It’s THAT BAD.

I use focus for tanking.

I really like the earth spells with the focus, and swirling winds but everything else is just meh : / i would like to see a bit more offensive output in the focus imo

To be fair, treb blocking is pretty impressive, lol

Yeah, Fire Wall could be made into a neat high damage spell, and the water skills could use a solid damage increase. Then I could see myself use it, even though it lacks mobility.

I think the Focus is pretty good. It’s not the best choice because it’s a defensive weapon and the norm for practically all professions is offense.

As is, Earth Focus is already too good so leave it be.
Air Focus is also pretty nice with Swirling Winds. Gale could be improved by either lowering its cooldown (35sec seems fair) or making it a moderate 180 radius AoE (same as updraft, except Gale would be ranged knockdown instead of blowout and on a longer cooldown)
Water Focus is a bit weak namely due to freezing gust. It’s a rather short single target chill. Just improve its duration some and I think it’d be fine.
Fire is quite weak but was made a bit better with the last patch. As a defensive weapon, Fire focus offers no defense and little to no offense. I’ve suggesting adding a chain skill to Flame Wall so you could detonate the wall like Mesmer’s curtain. Either for damage or control, it needs to do something other than pitch out a fire field.

This was my take on it: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/elementalist/WvW-discussion-The-Focus/first#post1415574

I compared it to /Dagger specifically with pros and cons. Mind you, it’s targeted for WvW, but the general point of the thread remains the same.

Fire shield only gives you might if you are hit, and lords know an ele would try to avoid that. It’s usefulness is very limited, although evading all damage is impossible, at least for an ele.

Malcastus.6240:

Fire shield only gives you might if you are hit, and lords know an ele would try to avoid that. It’s usefulness is very limited, although evading all damage is impossible, at least for an ele.

Fire Shield + Obsidian Flesh + Kiiiiiiiiiiiiillroooooooy Stooooonekin = 25 stacks of might and no damage taken, enjoy my eles brethren.

@OP I think that freezing gust and gale need to become AoEs or have shorter CDs/ longer chill/KD duration (doubt KD will get buffed) and it’d be in a good spot, earth is already amazing, fire is in a fairly good spot, swirling winds and comet are both good after the comet buff.

That being said, if they make it so i could detonate my fire wall and just have a huge eruption of flames that scorches everything around out or maybe even a KB added to it i’d be VERY happy with the focus even if they don’t buff gale/icy wind.

Durzlla.6295:

Malcastus.6240:

Fire shield only gives you might if you are hit, and lords know an ele would try to avoid that. It’s usefulness is very limited, although evading all damage is impossible, at least for an ele.

Fire Shield + Obsidian Flesh + Kiiiiiiiiiiiiillroooooooy Stooooonekin = 25 stacks of might and no damage taken, enjoy my eles brethren.

@OP I think that freezing gust and gale need to become AoEs or have shorter CDs/ longer chill/KD duration (doubt KD will get buffed) and it’d be in a good spot, earth is already amazing, fire is in a fairly good spot, swirling winds and comet are both good after the comet buff.

That being said, if they make it so i could detonate my fire wall and just have a huge eruption of flames that scorches everything around out or maybe even a KB added to it i’d be VERY happy with the focus even if they don’t buff gale/icy wind.

I think Firewall exists purely to buff other people’s ranged damage through projectile finishers. It’s too niche and situational, but has a few combo uses.

Durzlla.6295:

Malcastus.6240:

Fire shield only gives you might if you are hit, and lords know an ele would try to avoid that. It’s usefulness is very limited, although evading all damage is impossible, at least for an ele.

Fire Shield + Obsidian Flesh + Kiiiiiiiiiiiiillroooooooy Stooooonekin = 25 stacks of might and no damage taken, enjoy my eles brethren.

@OP I think that freezing gust and gale need to become AoEs or have shorter CDs/ longer chill/KD duration (doubt KD will get buffed) and it’d be in a good spot, earth is already amazing, fire is in a fairly good spot, swirling winds and comet are both good after the comet buff.

That being said, if they make it so i could detonate my fire wall and just have a huge eruption of flames that scorches everything around out or maybe even a KB added to it i’d be VERY happy with the focus even if they don’t buff gale/icy wind.

Flame Aura: In addition to the burning condition, this aura now grants 10 seconds of might each time the player is struck. This aura can activate only once per second. This change affects all flame auras.

You can get 4x might on a stoneskin without taking damage, tops. Nothing fancy about it. Suppose the aura is much more beneficial for melee folks that can take hits, if they use a leap attack through a fire field, or you share your auras with them. A focus ele lacks healing skills in general, so you should not aim at being hit. Hmm, unless you use it in PvE and you got things under control, I suppose.

So it’s fine for fire aura in general, but Fire Shield shields against nothing. It only burns people briefly and gives you 5x might, if you let your opponent pound on you. Sort of like a Flamewall that is stuck to you. Pretty lame if you ask me.

Malcastus.6240:

Flame Aura: In addition to the burning condition, this aura now grants 10 seconds of might each time the player is struck. This aura can activate only once per second. This change affects all flame auras.

You can get 4x might on a stoneskin without taking damage, tops. Nothing fancy about it. Suppose the aura is much more beneficial for melee folks that can take hits, if they use a leap attack through a fire field, or you share your auras with them. A focus ele lacks healing skills in general, so you should not aim at being hit. Hmm, unless you use it in PvE and you got things under control, I suppose.

So it’s fine for fire aura in general, but Fire Shield shields against nothing. It only burns people briefly and gives you 5x might, if you let your opponent pound on you. Sort of like a Flamewall that is stuck to you. Pretty lame if you ask me.

I was about to comment on that post about the obsidian flesh + fire shield deal. I was quite sure it had a cooldown so yeah, only 5 stacks of might at most. Not bad but when you consider the fact you have to be hit and simultaneous hits don’t grant more, it’s dangerous to attempt to capitalize on fire shield and only getting max 5 might to show for it.

I think Fire Shield could use a bit more. Could either last longer (10sec minimum!) or maybe add a bit more…like maybe immunity to burning, or converting burning into some sort of boon. Or maybe just let it grant a lot of might stacks per-hit but they only last a short time.

that CD is per attacker guys, if you charge into a huge team fight you’ll see the might stacks jump up like crazy.

For example running head on into an enemy zerg, and then lightning flashing out before your obsidian flesh completely runs out and leaves you dead.

PS: Scepter + Focus combo has a ton of blast finishers they can combo with that fire wall to give a nice burst of aoe Might.

Durzlla.6295:

that CD is per attacker guys, if you charge into a huge team fight you’ll see the might stacks jump up like crazy.

For example running head on into an enemy zerg, and then lightning flashing out before your obsidian flesh completely runs out and leaves you dead.

PS: Scepter + Focus combo has a ton of blast finishers they can combo with that fire wall to give a nice burst of aoe Might.

I’ve been toying with Scepter/Focus lately, and I think the primary issue with the Focus is that you lose so much mobility and versatility with both weapons. Scepter sacrifices a lot of on-the-fly, target-free damage in exchange for single-target control/conditions. Focus does the same. Dagger/Dagger moves also are highly mobile, so you can use them for multiple things.

One thing the slow, deliberate style that both S/F and Staff have going for them is that they allow a lot of spike damage IF (big if) someone hangs around for all your slow stuff to hit them at once.

Or you can use D/D and stay alive longer while still doing respectable dps and spike. No wonder most people don’t bother with S/F!

PinCushion.7390:

Durzlla.6295:

that CD is per attacker guys, if you charge into a huge team fight you’ll see the might stacks jump up like crazy.

For example running head on into an enemy zerg, and then lightning flashing out before your obsidian flesh completely runs out and leaves you dead.

PS: Scepter + Focus combo has a ton of blast finishers they can combo with that fire wall to give a nice burst of aoe Might.

I’ve been toying with Scepter/Focus lately, and I think the primary issue with the Focus is that you lose so much mobility and versatility with both weapons. Scepter sacrifices a lot of on-the-fly, target-free damage in exchange for single-target control/conditions. Focus does the same. Dagger/Dagger moves also are highly mobile, so you can use them for multiple things.

One thing the slow, deliberate style that both S/F and Staff have going for them is that they allow a lot of spike damage IF (big if) someone hangs around for all your slow stuff to hit them at once.

Or you can use D/D and stay alive longer while still doing respectable dps and spike. No wonder most people don’t bother with S/F!

I personally can’t stand D/D it’s so much weaker compared to staff and focus (i’ve perfected the art of forcing my enemies into either eating the attacks or not doing much), it does have mobility though, i’ll give it that, but the lack of range and raw power upsets me…

And scepter -does- have a lot of AoE damage, it’s just all based around one persons location with a few exceptions (shatterstone, phoenix, and water trident), so what you really wanna do is just throw a few short CD skills that scare people (like dragons tooth) into the heart of their little team group and then throw other stuff into their escape and make them decide which they want to be hit by, they -normally- will run into the shatterstones, which is amazing for me because that makes me deal 24% more damage to them, make them eat a few more of those and then some Arcana Burst and they’re down for the count.

Durzlla.6295:

PinCushion.7390:

Durzlla.6295:

that CD is per attacker guys, if you charge into a huge team fight you’ll see the might stacks jump up like crazy.

For example running head on into an enemy zerg, and then lightning flashing out before your obsidian flesh completely runs out and leaves you dead.

PS: Scepter + Focus combo has a ton of blast finishers they can combo with that fire wall to give a nice burst of aoe Might.

I’ve been toying with Scepter/Focus lately, and I think the primary issue with the Focus is that you lose so much mobility and versatility with both weapons. Scepter sacrifices a lot of on-the-fly, target-free damage in exchange for single-target control/conditions. Focus does the same. Dagger/Dagger moves also are highly mobile, so you can use them for multiple things.

One thing the slow, deliberate style that both S/F and Staff have going for them is that they allow a lot of spike damage IF (big if) someone hangs around for all your slow stuff to hit them at once.

Or you can use D/D and stay alive longer while still doing respectable dps and spike. No wonder most people don’t bother with S/F!

I personally can’t stand D/D it’s so much weaker compared to staff and focus (i’ve perfected the art of forcing my enemies into either eating the attacks or not doing much), it does have mobility though, i’ll give it that, but the lack of range and raw power upsets me…

And scepter -does- have a lot of AoE damage, it’s just all based around one persons location with a few exceptions (shatterstone, phoenix, and water trident), so what you really wanna do is just throw a few short CD skills that scare people (like dragons tooth) into the heart of their little team group and then throw other stuff into their escape and make them decide which they want to be hit by, they -normally- will run into the shatterstones, which is amazing for me because that makes me deal 24% more damage to them, make them eat a few more of those and then some Arcana Burst and they’re down for the count.

I’ve been trying to run Sigil of Earth to immobilize right before DT/Phoenix/Lightning Strike/Arcane Blast fast enough so that DT hits while my Water attunement is still up (hooray for Lingering Attunement). It currently doesn’t last long enough to guarantee a hit, but I haven’t tried runing for condi duration yet. I’m hoping that makes the timing a little less impossible.

The idea behind the build is to toss my water auto attack at someone while applying chill to keep them at range, and when they hit 75% health unloading enough spike to kill them instantly. Shatterstone might be just the trick to eat up their dodges beforehand, though. The cooldown is short enough that spamming it could work.

Or I might try to squeeze Arcane Precision into my current build for the Air Attunement Weakness procs.

Thanks for the tips. Very helpful!

PinCushion.7390:

Durzlla.6295:

PinCushion.7390:

Durzlla.6295:

that CD is per attacker guys, if you charge into a huge team fight you’ll see the might stacks jump up like crazy.

For example running head on into an enemy zerg, and then lightning flashing out before your obsidian flesh completely runs out and leaves you dead.

PS: Scepter + Focus combo has a ton of blast finishers they can combo with that fire wall to give a nice burst of aoe Might.

I’ve been toying with Scepter/Focus lately, and I think the primary issue with the Focus is that you lose so much mobility and versatility with both weapons. Scepter sacrifices a lot of on-the-fly, target-free damage in exchange for single-target control/conditions. Focus does the same. Dagger/Dagger moves also are highly mobile, so you can use them for multiple things.

One thing the slow, deliberate style that both S/F and Staff have going for them is that they allow a lot of spike damage IF (big if) someone hangs around for all your slow stuff to hit them at once.

Or you can use D/D and stay alive longer while still doing respectable dps and spike. No wonder most people don’t bother with S/F!

I personally can’t stand D/D it’s so much weaker compared to staff and focus (i’ve perfected the art of forcing my enemies into either eating the attacks or not doing much), it does have mobility though, i’ll give it that, but the lack of range and raw power upsets me…

And scepter -does- have a lot of AoE damage, it’s just all based around one persons location with a few exceptions (shatterstone, phoenix, and water trident), so what you really wanna do is just throw a few short CD skills that scare people (like dragons tooth) into the heart of their little team group and then throw other stuff into their escape and make them decide which they want to be hit by, they -normally- will run into the shatterstones, which is amazing for me because that makes me deal 24% more damage to them, make them eat a few more of those and then some Arcana Burst and they’re down for the count.

I’ve been trying to run Sigil of Earth to immobilize right before DT/Phoenix/Lightning Strike/Arcane Blast fast enough so that DT hits while my Water attunement is still up (hooray for Lingering Attunement). It currently doesn’t last long enough to guarantee a hit, but I haven’t tried runing for condi duration yet. I’m hoping that makes the timing a little less impossible.

The idea behind the build is to toss my water auto attack at someone while applying chill to keep them at range, and when they hit 75% health unloading enough spike to kill them instantly. Shatterstone might be just the trick to eat up their dodges beforehand, though. The cooldown is short enough that spamming it could work.

Or I might try to squeeze Arcane Precision into my current build for the Air Attunement Weakness procs.

Thanks for the tips. Very helpful!

What i really like to do for a more bursty build is to take the signets cause vuln trait, and then the lingering attunements 20% damage while they’re vulned and i’m water and go dragons tooth + phoenix + sig of earth —→ air + gale --→ water attunement + shatterstone, and the dragons tooth normally lands right as i get over into the water attunement for the wopping 23% dmg boost on the dragons tooth leaving them in a world of hurt.

I -really- like being able to turn water attunement into the strongest attunement just by putting a single stack of vuln onto them xD

Durzlla.6295:

PinCushion.7390:

Durzlla.6295:

PinCushion.7390:

Durzlla.6295:

that CD is per attacker guys, if you charge into a huge team fight you’ll see the might stacks jump up like crazy.

For example running head on into an enemy zerg, and then lightning flashing out before your obsidian flesh completely runs out and leaves you dead.

PS: Scepter + Focus combo has a ton of blast finishers they can combo with that fire wall to give a nice burst of aoe Might.

I’ve been toying with Scepter/Focus lately, and I think the primary issue with the Focus is that you lose so much mobility and versatility with both weapons. Scepter sacrifices a lot of on-the-fly, target-free damage in exchange for single-target control/conditions. Focus does the same. Dagger/Dagger moves also are highly mobile, so you can use them for multiple things.

One thing the slow, deliberate style that both S/F and Staff have going for them is that they allow a lot of spike damage IF (big if) someone hangs around for all your slow stuff to hit them at once.

Or you can use D/D and stay alive longer while still doing respectable dps and spike. No wonder most people don’t bother with S/F!

I personally can’t stand D/D it’s so much weaker compared to staff and focus (i’ve perfected the art of forcing my enemies into either eating the attacks or not doing much), it does have mobility though, i’ll give it that, but the lack of range and raw power upsets me…

And scepter -does- have a lot of AoE damage, it’s just all based around one persons location with a few exceptions (shatterstone, phoenix, and water trident), so what you really wanna do is just throw a few short CD skills that scare people (like dragons tooth) into the heart of their little team group and then throw other stuff into their escape and make them decide which they want to be hit by, they -normally- will run into the shatterstones, which is amazing for me because that makes me deal 24% more damage to them, make them eat a few more of those and then some Arcana Burst and they’re down for the count.

I’ve been trying to run Sigil of Earth to immobilize right before DT/Phoenix/Lightning Strike/Arcane Blast fast enough so that DT hits while my Water attunement is still up (hooray for Lingering Attunement). It currently doesn’t last long enough to guarantee a hit, but I haven’t tried runing for condi duration yet. I’m hoping that makes the timing a little less impossible.

The idea behind the build is to toss my water auto attack at someone while applying chill to keep them at range, and when they hit 75% health unloading enough spike to kill them instantly. Shatterstone might be just the trick to eat up their dodges beforehand, though. The cooldown is short enough that spamming it could work.

Or I might try to squeeze Arcane Precision into my current build for the Air Attunement Weakness procs.

Thanks for the tips. Very helpful!

What i really like to do for a more bursty build is to take the signets cause vuln trait, and then the lingering attunements 20% damage while they’re vulned and i’m water and go dragons tooth + phoenix + sig of earth —-> air + gale —-> water attunement + shatterstone, and the dragons tooth normally lands right as i get over into the water attunement for the wopping 23% dmg boost on the dragons tooth leaving them in a world of hurt.

I -really- like being able to turn water attunement into the strongest attunement just by putting a single stack of vuln onto them xD

That combo sounded fun, but also impossible to land (especially in PvP/WvW). How often do you actually connect with it?

I haven’t had a problem with focus yet. My only issue is the mediocre damage from flame wall and recharge on gale in comparison to updraft. It stacks might rather well considering it doesn’t seem like a specialty set (especially with evasive arcana), has great CC, and amazing point control. Considering maybe 75% of d/d’s damage comes from the mainhand, the only thing you’re really missing out on with d/f is the mobility from RtL.

I feel even more OP running d/f than d/d, to be honest. It’s absolutely brutal 1v1; that range advantage people have over d/d is something d/f can simply laugh at.

PinCushion.7390:

Durzlla.6295:

PinCushion.7390:

Durzlla.6295:

PinCushion.7390:

Durzlla.6295:

that CD is per attacker guys, if you charge into a huge team fight you’ll see the might stacks jump up like crazy.

For example running head on into an enemy zerg, and then lightning flashing out before your obsidian flesh completely runs out and leaves you dead.

PS: Scepter + Focus combo has a ton of blast finishers they can combo with that fire wall to give a nice burst of aoe Might.

I’ve been toying with Scepter/Focus lately, and I think the primary issue with the Focus is that you lose so much mobility and versatility with both weapons. Scepter sacrifices a lot of on-the-fly, target-free damage in exchange for single-target control/conditions. Focus does the same. Dagger/Dagger moves also are highly mobile, so you can use them for multiple things.

One thing the slow, deliberate style that both S/F and Staff have going for them is that they allow a lot of spike damage IF (big if) someone hangs around for all your slow stuff to hit them at once.

Or you can use D/D and stay alive longer while still doing respectable dps and spike. No wonder most people don’t bother with S/F!

I personally can’t stand D/D it’s so much weaker compared to staff and focus (i’ve perfected the art of forcing my enemies into either eating the attacks or not doing much), it does have mobility though, i’ll give it that, but the lack of range and raw power upsets me…

And scepter -does- have a lot of AoE damage, it’s just all based around one persons location with a few exceptions (shatterstone, phoenix, and water trident), so what you really wanna do is just throw a few short CD skills that scare people (like dragons tooth) into the heart of their little team group and then throw other stuff into their escape and make them decide which they want to be hit by, they -normally- will run into the shatterstones, which is amazing for me because that makes me deal 24% more damage to them, make them eat a few more of those and then some Arcana Burst and they’re down for the count.

I’ve been trying to run Sigil of Earth to immobilize right before DT/Phoenix/Lightning Strike/Arcane Blast fast enough so that DT hits while my Water attunement is still up (hooray for Lingering Attunement). It currently doesn’t last long enough to guarantee a hit, but I haven’t tried runing for condi duration yet. I’m hoping that makes the timing a little less impossible.

The idea behind the build is to toss my water auto attack at someone while applying chill to keep them at range, and when they hit 75% health unloading enough spike to kill them instantly. Shatterstone might be just the trick to eat up their dodges beforehand, though. The cooldown is short enough that spamming it could work.

Or I might try to squeeze Arcane Precision into my current build for the Air Attunement Weakness procs.

Thanks for the tips. Very helpful!

What i really like to do for a more bursty build is to take the signets cause vuln trait, and then the lingering attunements 20% damage while they’re vulned and i’m water and go dragons tooth + phoenix + sig of earth —-> air + gale —-> water attunement + shatterstone, and the dragons tooth normally lands right as i get over into the water attunement for the wopping 23% dmg boost on the dragons tooth leaving them in a world of hurt.

I -really- like being able to turn water attunement into the strongest attunement just by putting a single stack of vuln onto them xD

That combo sounded fun, but also impossible to land (especially in PvP/WvW). How often do you actually connect with it?

Pretty often, just gotta bait them out of their dodges, it’s really easy to land because you immobilize them and then knock them down and once you get into water attunement the tooth should be crashing down on their KD body.

On the subject of Fire Shield + Obsidian Flesh: You have to actually get hit by an attack and take damage to gain the might. So yeah, nope.

As a S/F might-sharing ele I love the focus and its utilities. Combined with all the combo finishers the elementalist has add the fire aura to it… Its sweet! Did you know you can give perma fire aura to your team with a signet-aura build with 20 in fire and 30 in water.

gandlethorpe.2641:

On the subject of Fire Shield + Obsidian Flesh: You have to actually get hit by an attack and take damage to gain the might. So yeah, nope.

Obsidian Flesh works like Endure Pain, you are not “immune” you take “0” damage, it procs, i just did it in WvW a few days ago, that or there was someone following the downleveled ele into a zerg, which i don’t think happened.

Nope: http://i.imgur.com/ZilZOfb.jpg

Even if it could stack 25 imba stacks of might, what could you do with it versus a zerg? Do some OP single target damage with your scepter or rush in with your daggers?

No, this change was mostly inconsequential, and likely made by a dev who doesn’t understand or play elementalist. Probably the same person who designed the 5-point fire trait, who seems to think elementalist should be getting hit a lot.

The change to Fire Shield happened in order to buff Guild Bounties. Just check how many of them are using a Fire Shield of some sort and how painful it is now. Also, golems in CoE got a nice buff with the Fire Shield although that doesn’t make it much more difficult.

Professions with leap skills, for example a Guardian using Leap of Faith can make the most out of the Fire Shield because they can take lots of hits.

Elementalists didn’t gain much with the Fire Shield buff and the latest Focus changes didn’t improve the weapon at all.

Idk why focus is so looked down upon, its better in every aspect (in PvE) than /d except mobility which is largely wasted in dungeons, and technically healing, but Obby flesh is greater then a 1.2k heal on a 45 sec Cd. If you compare the two side by side its pretty obvious.

Fire-

Fire wall = Ring of Fire-

Fire wall lasts two seconds longer then then ring which makes it a better combo finisher as long as your team is smart enough to stand on it. Both skills do negligible damage, although in a PvE setting its much easier to get all 6 ticks on a fire wall then 4 on the ring on an enemy. Ring excels in pugs compared to the wall thanks to its larger radius means its more likely to share your might.

Fire Aura = Flame Grab

Depending on your build this one could be a toss up. The might is fantastic thanks to the recent buff (Although D/F can stack 25 might without it already but w/e) especially if you share it. Without Aura share and or Aura traits its a pretty subpar skill no doubt about it. Flame Grab imo is a pretty shoddy skill. Sure it hits hard but its LOOOONG CD keeps it from being that good. IT has its niche uses of course like the CoE destroyer or CoF speed runs, but other then that a Focus will have higher DPS durring a 45 second fight compared to /d

Water-

Freezing Gust < Frost Aura

Freezing gust is pretty much the only subpar skill the focus has, however in a 1v1 situation your going to get as much use out of the gust as u will the frost aura assuming 1 attack per second, however the aura can give u several boons even if it is on a long Cd. And the 10% dmg reduction is just icing (assuming it stacks with protection, if it doesn’t then its a pretty terrible skill as well)

Comet> Cleansing Wave

Comet is a fantastic skill in PvE, Its an AoE interrupt that has a fast cast time, and a low CD AND is a blast finisher. Cleansing wave is good and all but its CD much like fire grab really hinder its uses.

Air-
Swirling Winds> RtL

RtL grants mobility its damage is subpar and its uses few and far between outside of that. Swirling Winds is a FANTASTIC skill. exceptionally useful in a ton of circumstances especially dungeons. It stops everything that feedback or wall of reflection wont. Whether u need help on Lupi, or Old Tom, or Harpy Kb’s in FoTm or Fire shaman’s arrows and the tars immob, or maybe AC’s spider queen, or Arah’s pirate chick (cant remember her name) Swirling winds saves lives and makes for some clutch reses where it would other wise be next to impossible.

Gust= Updraft.

Again from a pure pve perspective Gust is just as good as Updraft. Gust is the longest CC in the game as far as i know 3 second KD even tho the tooltip says two. Updraft is prolly equally as long if u you count the time where u are also going backwards. However in PvE updraft causes a lot of problems for your team. Knocking foes out of HB, or seperating packs. KB’s are just annoying 3/4ths the time. These are both great skills tho as long as u use them properly.

Earth

Magnetic Aura>Earthquake

Mag aura is epic nothing more needs to be said. Con removal, blast finisher, good dmg on an instant cast and projectile reflection on a low cd…yes pls. Earthquake is good, but has a long CD which is a growing theme of /d. And this being one of your key might stackers its long CD makes u subpar at might stacks compared to /f

Obby flesh> churning earth

Obby flesh is incredible. Churning earth is overrated. Long cast, subpar dmg for its cast time unless used as an opener, and again a long CD for its blast finisher.

If people were’t so biased and took everything they heard with a grain of salt, they would realize the focus is OP compared to /d in pve especially dungeons. Try it for yourself if you dont believe me.

SwickHobo.5096:

snip

I’ve played scepter/focus extensively – it’s kitten outside of PvE (which I don’t really play anyway), and even in PvE the staff outclasses it. ’Cept against ranged enemies, I guess.

I want to like the focus, but its lack of mobility, offense, and control just makes it a poor choice. (Might be different with a mainhand dagger, but I don’t like using a mainhand dagger, so I wouldn’t know.)

Durzlla.6295:

gandlethorpe.2641:

On the subject of Fire Shield + Obsidian Flesh: You have to actually get hit by an attack and take damage to gain the might. So yeah, nope.

Obsidian Flesh works like Endure Pain, you are not “immune” you take “0” damage, it procs, i just did it in WvW a few days ago, that or there was someone following the downleveled ele into a zerg, which i don’t think happened.

Not sure about the might stacks as I haven’t tried it yet, but Obsidian Flesh is definitely not like Endure Pain. With EP on, an attack that can knock you back or stun you will still knock/stun you but you take 0 damage, or an attack that also stacks bleed on you will still stack its bleeds and do damage to you but the initial attack will do 0 damage.

With Obsidian Flesh, you literally are invulnerable. Nothing can put conditions on you (but conditions you had before using this are still affecting you), nothing can CC you and you take no damage.

Chaosky.5276:

SwickHobo.5096:

snip

I’ve played scepter/focus extensively – it’s kitten outside of PvE (which I don’t really play anyway), and even in PvE the staff outclasses it. ’Cept against ranged enemies, I guess.

I want to like the focus, but its lack of mobility, offense, and control just makes it a poor choice. (Might be different with a mainhand dagger, but I don’t like using a mainhand dagger, so I wouldn’t know.)

Did you try using S/F with offensive utilities? Glyph of Storms, Arcane Wave + Blast, a conjure, Arcane Power, etc. One thing liberating about Focus (especially with scepter’s mid-range) is you can use and trait those offensive utilities to be pretty nice. Arcane Blast itself is quite underrated considering its damage/cooldown (and its range!!!!!11! 1500 range!!) You can trait the arcane skills to do some pretty nasty stuff that I wasn’t even aware of.

The earth skills in focus alone give you much more freedom than anything in dagger, at least from a PvE perspective.

Chaosky.5276:

SwickHobo.5096:

snip

I’ve played scepter/focus extensively – it’s kitten outside of PvE (which I don’t really play anyway), and even in PvE the staff outclasses it. ’Cept against ranged enemies, I guess.

I want to like the focus, but its lack of mobility, offense, and control just makes it a poor choice. (Might be different with a mainhand dagger, but I don’t like using a mainhand dagger, so I wouldn’t know.)

I can’t really comment on this as i don’t like the scepter myself? Have u tried S/D? Cause if u dislike that perhaps the weapon you dislike it the scepter and not the focus.

SwickHobo.5096:

I can’t really comment on this as i don’t like the scepter myself? Have u tried S/D? Cause if u dislike that perhaps the weapon you dislike it the scepter and not the focus.

Well, truthfully I don’t really like any of the weapons available to the elementalist (Why can’t we just get a decent long range single-target oriented option?), but in my experience s/d is far superior to s/f unless you’re dealing with a massive number of projectile attacks.

Chaosky.5276:

SwickHobo.5096:

I can’t really comment on this as i don’t like the scepter myself? Have u tried S/D? Cause if u dislike that perhaps the weapon you dislike it the scepter and not the focus.

Well, truthfully I don’t really like any of the weapons available to the elementalist (Why can’t we just get a decent long range single-target oriented option?), but in my experience s/d is far superior to s/f unless you’re dealing with a massive number of projectile attacks.

Well to each their own i suppose. lol

Chaosky.5276:

(Why can’t we just get a decent long range single-target oriented option?)

I’m still holding hope that A-net will proliferate the Longbow to Elementalist for that option

Everyone wants Greatswords on everything but frankly, I hate the way mesmer wields it. It’d be hard to screw up an elemental longbow that shoots flaming/ice/lightning/rock arrows

S/D is for killing staff crazy fast at medium to close range.
S/F is for surviving against 5 wvw players indefinite when played correctly.
Staff is great for dungeon support.
D/D is Aang the last airbender on steroids.
D/F is…. I don’t know. Haven’t tried it yet.

I use focus in favor of taking more offensive utilities. I use D/F in PvP for the close range attack so I can use shocking aura when I need 2. Also, the 2 skills that stop projectiles, 2 CC skills, 1 chill, and 1 invuln is very nice.

Leo G.4501:

Did you try using S/F with offensive utilities? Glyph of Storms, Arcane Wave + Blast, a conjure, Arcane Power, etc. One thing liberating about Focus (especially with scepter’s mid-range) is you can use and trait those offensive utilities to be pretty nice. Arcane Blast itself is quite underrated considering its damage/cooldown (and its range!!!!!11! 1500 range!!) You can trait the arcane skills to do some pretty nasty stuff that I wasn’t even aware of.

The earth skills in focus alone give you much more freedom than anything in dagger, at least from a PvE perspective.

I’ve started using Scepter/Focus in PvE, and while the Focus did take some getting used to I found that it was nice to use something besides Cantrips for my utilities. With all the control and defense in Focus I can finally slot those low-cooldown Arcane skills I’ve always liked. And with Vigor on Crit, Vigor from Phoenix, and Arcane Skills Give Endurance I can dodge 2-3 times more than I could with my D/D build. More control, more defense, more endurance, decent damage….how can I complain?

Ok, let me complain. I love the weapon set except for 1 thing. The AoE is pretty bad.

But, that’s what Daggers and Staff are there for.

Focus is definately my least favorite of all the Elementalist weapons. Lack of healing on Water attune sucks, many of the skills seem like lackluster / more limited versions of other Elementalist skills (Freezing Gust is meh compared to Frozen Ground / Chilling Burst, Fire Wall is meh compared to Ring of Fire or Lava Font, and Air #5 is meh compared to Dagger Air #5), the whole weapon being largely single-target is annoying, and overall it just seems mediocre. The only amazing skill Focus are the Earth attune skills, which are pretty nice.

I’d definately like to see some Focus improvement. For starters, maybe a Focus-boosting trait, since its the only Ele weapon that doesn’t have one (though technically Dagger’s trait doesn’t work). All Focus skills have a duration of some sort attached to them whether it be a self-buff or a debuff, so maybe the Focus trait could be something like “Increases duration of attacks by 50%” or whatever number wouldn’t be overpowered. They could maybe combine Comet and Freezing Gust, making Comet inflict AoE chill, to make room for a healing ability. Fire Wall cast time needs to be sped up. Maybe have Air #5 knockdown enemies in a small radius around the target.

Electro.4173:

Focus is definately my least favorite of all the Elementalist weapons. Lack of healing on Water attune sucks, many of the skills seem like lackluster / more limited versions of other Elementalist skills (Freezing Gust is meh compared to Frozen Ground / Chilling Burst, Fire Wall is meh compared to Ring of Fire or Lava Font, and Air #5 is meh compared to Dagger Air #5), the whole weapon being largely single-target is annoying, and overall it just seems mediocre. The only amazing skill Focus are the Earth attune skills, which are pretty nice.

I’d definately like to see some Focus improvement. For starters, maybe a Focus-boosting trait, since its the only Ele weapon that doesn’t have one (though technically Dagger’s trait doesn’t work). All Focus skills have a duration of some sort attached to them whether it be a self-buff or a debuff, so maybe the Focus trait could be something like “Increases duration of attacks by 50%” or whatever number wouldn’t be overpowered. They could maybe combine Comet and Freezing Gust, making Comet inflict AoE chill, to make room for a healing ability. Fire Wall cast time needs to be sped up. Maybe have Air #5 knockdown enemies in a small radius around the target.

I’m torn. I like it, but it does need work. So, yes I can now use my Utilities for damage….but I also have to because Focus has no great damaging abilities.

I think it’s a great utility off-hand, but I’d tweak the Fire skills to make them not awful. It wouldn’t take much, honestly. I’d lower the cast time on Flame Wall a bit and add a low AoE damage effect (and blast finisher if my dreams came true) to Flame Aura.

Flame Wall is irritating to place, and the current cast time on it makes it difficult to weave into a rotation.

Adding damage to Flame Aura (even if it’s just 1 damage) would allow it to apply On-Crit effects. Adding a blast finisher to it might make it OP, but would really add to the amount of utility that Focus brought to the table.

Yes, give us a long for long range (mostly) single target dps. Would be incredible to a new weapon. We barely have any, and even fewer viable builds, which sucks greatly.

Swimsasa Stoon.8936:

D/F is…. I don’t know. Haven’t tried it yet.

D/F is the last airbender when he achieves spiritual perfection. It’s absolute balance between the weapon sets.