Guild Wars 2

Yesterday i tried to play with focus (dagger and scepter) for the first time in a dungeon. I have always played with dagger/dagger or staff where dagger seemed to mee unusable but i discovered that dagger focus or scepter focus are very viable in some situation in primis in dungeon part where u have to recive damages ( I think for example to AC spiders , burrows and so on) . Has someone tried a glass cannon build with focus ? (to see if with it u can have dps and long surv) What are your opinions ?

I really like D/F but it’s just not as viable as D/D in most WvW scenarios. I’m hoping that this month’s patch buffs, amongst other things, elementalist’s focus.

S/F in dungeons is huge….
Makes fotm and lupicus a cakewalk…

You lack any CC skills and mobility with it unfortunately so its only a pve thing.

yes infact i was thinking at pve . @TimeBomb why do u think D/F is not viable as D/D ? I have always used DD but see that there are place where i can live with D/F and i have much difficult with D/D but i never find place which i can do with D/D and not with D/F, with D/F it take me only a little more time to kill …

I think what TimeBomb means is, D/D you got such high mobility to escape from any aoe, 1 hit kill,…

while as far as I know focus got only 2 defencive skill: earth 5, air 4.

I quit agree with LordByron, when I go to arah, I also use s/f.
The funny thing is, in arah you got way more openspace to walk, yet D/D isn’t very viable. :-)

1 hit kill … I don’t see elementalist has soo much DPS …

PierPiero.9142:

yes infact i was thinking at pve . @TimeBomb why do u think D/F is not viable as D/D ? I have always used DD but see that there are place where i can live with D/F and i have much difficult with D/D but i never find place which i can do with D/D and not with D/F, with D/F it take me only a little more time to kill …

Ah, I’m thinking from a WvW aspect more than anything. I just modified my original post to clarify this.
That being said, I can definitely see how D/F is a lot more viable in PvE than WvW.

@turkashi
swirling wind is one of the strongest skills in the game….

So lets think to lava shaman in fotm…

You have S/F

earth 2-4-5
air 4

mistform
arcane shield
armor of earth

I don t really know how you can die considering while you cicled all those most will have already cooled down.

The downsides is having to hit mostly with fire 2-3 that works only on stupid AI.
Fire 2 does lot of damage…and imho staff damage is already so unreliable that you end up doing the same….

Dagger/focus instead is not good imho.
Short range low damage is a bad combination

Scepter/dagger is great to stack might as D/D, while having better healing but you does less damage while you try to adapt short and mid range skills.

Staff is the worst weapon that just is good in www and when you need 1200 range…
It could have the numbers but hitting is a lottery.

@LordByron.8369 i agree with u. I realize now that Dagger Focus put you in meele in any case instead scepter focus, with combo field of focus permit u to stack might from distance. If u use scepter dagger instead, you have to use ring of fire and so u have to be “meele” in any case

Actually, focus was buffed just a while back in the February update, though not enough to make most people consider regularly using it. I recall that Anet has a team that collects metrics on how often weapons, utilities, and traits are used. If any of what they said is true, we can definitely expect further buffs seeing all the D/D eles running around even though that may be several months later… I don’t expect any changes to focus this month. Hoping I’m wrong

Turkashi.4502:

while as far as I know focus got only 2 defencive skill: earth 5, air 4.

You forget air4 which is imo the best out of all of them.

Also something some people might not know is that the knockdown for air5 is actually a single target knockdown for 3 seconds instead of 2 as shown in the tooltip, which makes it enough to guarantee a dragon’s tooth or a stunbreak cd. You can easily verify this on the moving golem in the mists comparing it with earth4 on the dagger.

Ok, so I love the Scepter but the reason I don’t use a Focus is because it’s hard to let go of the major CC, damage, and mobility of the offhand dagger. In open-world PvE, it takes way too long to kill stuff with a Focus in your offhand. Way too long. In dungeons, I’d still rather have the AoE CC of the dagger. A near-instant wide AoE knockdown can be huge against tough groups. And of course while Obsidian Flesh makes you immune to damage, so does Ride the Lightning, basically, except it also either gets you away from danger or can be used to deal damage and set up for your second AoE knockdown (Updraft). And of course there’s Firegrab, one of our hardest-hitting skills, period.

I keep a Focus on me for blocking treb shots in WvW but I feel crippled when I get into any sort of fight with it. Dagger offhand skills are just so darn good.

Why is focus so ignored?

As far as i know, dagger offhand does much of what focus does, but better.

The only time i use focus is either in WvW for swirling winds, or if for whatever reason i’m getting dropped really quickly and i need that few seconds of earth invincibility.

The only other thing i can think of that stands out is that the water 5 is a blast finisher. I’ve never really utilized it but i’d be interested to hear from someone that has, haha.

LordByron.8369:

You lack any CC skills and mobility with it unfortunately so its only a pve thing.

Mobility yes, but CC…no.

Focus has a ranged stun, a ranged daze and a ranged chill. How much more cc do you want in just 8 skills?

You only need the defense for difficult PvE content (which means only a few dungeons + high Fractals). The rest of PvE is way easier if you just kill your enemies really fast. You simply don’t need the abilities a focus offers there.

For PvP I would say the focus lacks damage and mobility which means you can’t properly engage/disengage and most likely kill your opponent. That’s why most players prefer x/D.

Besides that it is pretty useful in huge WvW fights. You can’t roam alone but as long as you stay with your group it really is a strong weapon.

PierPiero.9142:

1 hit kill … I don’t see elementalist has soo much DPS …

I mean enemy 1 hit kill skill, with higher mobility, you can easier to escape

Adastra.9821:

You forget air4 which is imo the best out of all of them.

I did!

I definitely do not ignore the focus, swirling winds in particular is one of our best abilities and there are situations where it is invaluable. However, the focus has a smaller fire field than the dagger making it more difficult to get my combos off and it doesn’t do as much damage, so I tend to use dagger off hand as a default.

I use dagger/focus since 4 month (still using dual dagger when i have to move fast) because i find it funnier to play.
You mostly lose mobility, but i only attack people who are alone or groups of 3 players. If i can’t run away because they are too many people (6~15), i can kill at least one of them if they are just a bunch of random who wont try to heal the guy on the floor all together our hide him with a thief.

For dueling or fighting 1-3 people, it’s a lot better than dual dagger, but for “general situation” in roaming, it’s not.

Focus, the only time i use it is when i have to apply swirling winds to protect siege.

Aside from things like Lupi or Grawl FOTM there’s no real need for focus’ defensive skills. Unless it synergizes more with other weapons I doubt it’ll become a primary weapon.

Fuzzion.2504:

Focus, the only time i use it is when i have to apply swirling winds to protect siege.

That ^ and when I try to catch shots with obsidian flesh :>. (Which works by the way, I’ve blocked a cata shot but you have to get that shot right in your character’s face.)

ThiBash.5634:

Focus has a ranged stun, a ranged daze and a ranged chill. How much more cc do you want in just 8 skills?

Not to sound flippant, but how about a massive-AoE knockdown, a massive-AoE cripple, AoE knockback, and a chilling aura?

The problem with the focus is that it’s almost exclusively CC and defenses, but the dagger can at least match it on CC while not falling very far behind on defense and adding mobility (which is a very strong form of defense) and damage (Firegrab and Churning Earth are our two hardest-hitting abilities, as far as I can tell, and they’re both on the offhand dagger).

Blaine Tog.8304:

ThiBash.5634:

Focus has a ranged stun, a ranged daze and a ranged chill. How much more cc do you want in just 8 skills?

Not to sound flippant, but how about a massive-AoE knockdown, a massive-AoE cripple, AoE knockback, and a chilling aura?

The problem with the focus is that it’s almost exclusively CC and defenses, but the dagger can at least match it on CC while not falling very far behind on defense and adding mobility (which is a very strong form of defense) and damage (Firegrab and Churning Earth are our two hardest-hitting abilities, as far as I can tell, and they’re both on the offhand dagger).

Firegrab hits for an easy 3 to 6k and e5 hits for around 6 to 10k and if you have Lightning flash, e5 can do major damage to zerg groups.

@Tog&Fuzz:
True. I’m not saying that dagger off-hand doesn’t perform better in most cases. But stating that the focus has no CC as LordByron suggested…that’s just plain nonsense.

In general PvE play it’s awful. The skills are way too defensively orientated….

Really, (in PvE) I want mobility and the ability to kill quickly. Focus brings neither of these to general PvE. Instead it brings long cooldown defensive and single target cc skills, which are pretty poor in this format. It brings no benefit in an area where mobs would die quickly anyway and aoe would be more valued. It feels like I’m pulling teeth when using the focus for sure.

However, I think the focus is pretty cool in dungeons where the mobs last long enough for these skills to make a difference. I think it also has interesting use in WvW?