Guild Wars 2

Hello fellow Mesmers,

so the past few days I have been wondering about which focus should I choose. But first things first… My main weapon is Staff, I run a condition build and I recently got Whisperblade as my secondary weapon, I know because of my build and selection of items that the sword damage is next to nothing, but I just love the utility it offers.
So anyway, I find the focus quite a versatile choice, and to be honest I couldn’t live without Temporal Curtain now that I got used to it. Now, I am between Spirit Links and The Anomaly as potential choices. The answer seems pretty clear to me, Spirit Links offer CD while The Anomaly is more of a direct damage choice which fits the sword main hand… But maybe I am missing something and Spirit Links could end up being a viable option after all. So, am I missing something, should I go Spirit Links or The Anomaly, what would you choose?

Don’t pick your stats based on skins… If you want X stats, get X stats. If you want Y looks, get Y looks. Transmutation stones are your friend.

Now, as for your dilemma, Condition Damage would probably be better unless you’re running Scepter Mainhand since the Confusion will benefit from fractions of seconds whereas other conditions do not (so the Condition Duration will have to be very finely created and balanced out).

That’s the thing, I like both skins, and I think the stats on those items are ideal, I just can’t decide what goes best with a Sword main hand…

If you’re wondering based on the skins, you shouldn’t really come to the forums, as that’s a dilemma of your own personal tastes. If you’re wondering based off the stats, again, don’t even list Named Exotics as reference, there are item nomenclatures for that reason. The stats you will want/need are based on your build, not based on your other hands’ weapon.

In regards to your condition damage build and what stats an offhand will give you to benefit, in conjunction with a Sword they will give you no bonus to condition damage unless you have the trait that gives you bleeding when your illusions crit, but even that is so minor that it’s not really beneficial to use this item combination with a condition damage build. You can use Scepter/Focus, Scepter/Sword, Scepter/Pistol, but Sword/X is somewhat weak for a Condition Damage build, unless of course you expect Vulnerability to benefit from Condition Damage in which case you shouldn’t really be making your own builds.

Wow, I really didn’t expect all that bashing… Anyway, to clean things up I named the items because I assumed everyone knows their stats by now and it was easier to name the item than the stats (less words – lazy person).

To get back on subject, I find the Scepter kinda lacking, it might not be true for some people, but it just don’t suit me. That’s why I picked the sword as a secondary weapon, I think the utility it offers with Distortion and mobility outshine the Scepter it terms of survivability even though its damage potential is low. If I was misunderstood my main question was if it’s even worth it to pick a power focus as an off-hand to give that little extra damage boost when switcing to sword.

Item nomenclatures are still shorter than naming an item, and even then it’s the same dilemma on forums as people saying “I got this trait, this trait, and this trait” versus just making a link or naming and giving #’s to help people cross-reference.

Well, the thing is… you’re running a condition build and you want your off-weapon set to be power focused.

I understand seeing Scepter as being weak, and I agree, it is weak in PvE (Confusion doesn’t hit a lot in PvE as opposed to WvW), but all I’m saying is that running Sword/Focus in PvE with a condition damage build is like running Power/Toughness/Vitality (Soldier’s) and staying at 1200 range in every fight. The stats from your weapons if you do something like that really don’t make a difference since you’re using your stats wrong to try and do that in the first place.

I can’t stop you from running a contradictory weapon set.

So, you’re suggesting that with a condition build a sword is generally a a bad choice as a secondary weapon or that it should have different stats on it and not power?

There are a few points being made here, I’ll clarify them.

Firstly: when you want to take about stats, talk about stats. Noone knows the normal stats of level 80 exotics, because it doesn’t matter. You make your build based on stats, and then you get the anomaly because it looks twice as awesome as spirit links.

Second: The point is being made that sword/focus is not a strong condition damage weaponset. This is possibly true, but not always.

There are 2 things here: sword and focus. The only thing that the scepter brings over sword is increased clone generation and a horribly implemented confusion attack. This means that it brings absolutely nothing in pve, but does have differences from the sword in pvp.

The focus is not a condition damage weapon. If you aren’t going to trait it (we haven’t seen your build) then don’t take it. However, if you can trait it, then the utility it provides makes the fact that it does poor condition damage inconsequential.

Anomaly will get you singled out in WvW, but is arguably cooler.

My suggestion would be to think long and hard about which skin you like better. Then, I would recommend transmuting that skin onto a weapon with Carrion stats (Power, Vitality, Condition Damage). This will allow your clones to keep putting out condition damage while you’re using the sword, but also give you a little power to boost your sword’s damage. Also, vitality is useful in helping you be a little more durable, since as a condition mesmer you will need to outlast the opponent rather than quickly burst them down, especially if you aren’t using lots of confusion. I would also recommend transmuting your Whisperblade to have the same stats for the above reasons. Rabid stats (Condition damage, toughness, precision) could also work well, but you miss out on the power which is useful considering both sword and focus are power-based weapons.

The Focus is a decent condition weapon in PvE, where mobs stand still and let your iWarden whirl (bleed) them to death. In PvP however iWarden is pretty much utility only as no one would be stupid enough to stand near it (for long).

Thank you all very much! You’ve been extremely helpful. And sorry for not making my question easily understandable at the begining…