Guild Wars 2

I’m running a Soldier/Berserker mix of gear which relies on crits and power (right-handed strength build) for damage. I currently use the Sword mainhand along with a Torch offhand, but recently found out that the torches abilities are rather weak (weaker than just spamming the basic sword attack) and don’t provide much utility.

I was considering Focus as it’s been mentioned as an excellent Dungeon/Fractal weapon or Shield with the Honourable Shield trait for extra mitigation.

Any advice?

Greatsword + Hammer is what I usually roll, why worry about offhand weapon.

In fractals scepter + focus is really good when fighting something that’s too powerful to melee, like the flame shaman. You want to go ranged on that guy anyways, so it’s almost mandatory. In the harpy fractal the focus shield can save you from falling and that my friend is frikkin’ awesome.

I keep one of each weapon in my inventory, so I can swap to whatever suits the situation. I recommend doing that if you don’t already.

Torch best DPS offhand
Focus best survival
Shield support

I don’t really fancy carrying around exotic versions of every weapon, well not the Hammer and Mace anyway as I hate their playstyle.

How do you mean shield is for “support”? My Guardian is largely a hybrid Offence/Boons on crit/shouts etc but I’ve been told the Torch is just weak compared to the others for anything (I was only using cleansing flame for Onom procs, sigil procs and EM stacks).
When dealing with Fractals at 10 or more is it worth it then or is the Focus a must have due to its shield ability? Does the Shield provide more overall mitigation during a long fight with its Protection boon and passive 61 defence + 90 Toughness from trait?

Shield is an awesome weapon for its knock back and heal, plus protection. Focus is an awesome weapon for its blind and blocking. Torch is a terrible weapon for what it is supposed to do. Don’t use it in PvE.

It really just depends on your traits and whatnot, but Focus is probably a better bet for you because of its synergy with Radiance. Get the vuln on blind trait and you’ve got 3 sources of blinding – Flashing Blade, whatever focus 4 is called, and Justice spam. You can contribute a lot of vuln that way and all those AOE blinds really help mitigate damage, especially from enemies with slow attacks. Sadly, focus 5 is a little iffy in terms of how much it actually helps you because of its 5 charges. It’s not like Warrior shield which makes you practically invulnerable for 3 seconds. But it does still work as a get-out-of-jail card in some boss fights.

Personally I use shield on my DPS builds though because it’s a source of protection and the knock back + heal is quite nice. Not to mention in projectile heavy fights you can completely save a teammate from getting killed with it. Thinking of Grawl fractal here.