Guild Wars 2

From what I heard, Focus is the best in dungeon because it can pull all the mobs together and mobs are stupid so iWarden can do a lot of damage, plus it does damage in an AoE. But a lot of ppl said that iSwordman does better sustained damage than iWarden ( single target wise ). So i’m kinda confused here

For WvW, i am pretty sure if you are running with a Zerg, Focus is the best no question ask, but when roaming pistol is better, is it true?

And what about PvP? The pull and swiftness from Focus are invaluable but iWarden just doesnt do enough damage compare to iSword and iDuelist.

Need some help

Try to keep a focus with you when you need the swiftness from it, and switch to pistol or sword before combat. In pvp or wvw, iWarden is not very useful damage wise because of the fact thakittens attacks hardly hit, in highly mobile environments.

Pistol is better given that all of its hits hit, and most of them crit (if you have Sharper Images) that and Duelist’s Discipline in the Dueling trait line has a bug that gives the Duelist 100% projectile combo finisher, allowing you to potentially get 8 stacks of confusion when used on your own fields.

It’s situational.

I find that if I’m running with a zerg there’s generally enough swiftness that the focus is a waste (the focus cannot extend swiftness for someone who already has it but can only give it to someone who doesn’t have it.) But in WvW I run centuar runes, so I get swiftness there.

Focus is great for pulling people off of walls or over cliffs (always a laugh), it is also good for absorbing / reflecting projectiles. It can be used to pull people around in a fight. The phantasm is great for attacking stationary targets (for example, you can use it on cannons and burning oil). But any person is going to just move out of range.

The pistol off hand and the swordsman tend to be better phantasms for actual combat situations.

focus is better for pve. pistol is better for pvp. sword offhand is better for pvp. but that’s not to say sword as offhand or pistol is bad in pve. i would take these two over focus against none rooted bosses any day. focus is just better for general pve when killing multiple enemies.

The focus is the main weapon in PvE. He has a good “burst” but crappy DpS, but the iWarden has an aoe that hits up to 5 targets, pretty amazing. Also it’s able to reflect projectile if traited – and boy, you WILL trait it. Also you can pull mobs together, go with main weapon sword 3, cast iWarden, 3 again for hold, ensure the damage of the warden. Focus is the main weapon you should go.

Pistol and Sword both are single target and bring less utility. They are – however – much better against a few taff mobs or against bosses.

The pistol is great against enemies with damaging auras or aoes around him. It has a good range. However the projectiles will be blocked by adds if they meatshield the enemy maintarget. 20% combofinisher – traited hiddenop (bug?) 100%. Also its 5 is a great stun, wich is very useful against mobs like in Twilight Arbor to interrupt the vines.

The sword is great against enemies with a single target nuke or high damage. The iSwordsman deals about the same DpS as the iDuellist (pistol) but has no combo finisher. However it can NOT be meatshielded (sniper). It also has a high damage reflecting block on 4 with a low cd.

TL;DR: general go focus, against bosses or some situations pistol or sword. As for me, I got them all ready in my inventory.

Xyonon.3987:

The sword is great against enemies with a single target nuke or high damage. The iSwordsman deals about the same DpS as the iDuellist (pistol) but has no combo finisher. However it can NOT be meatshielded (sniper). It also has a high damage reflecting block on 4 with a low cd.

TL;DR: general go focus, against bosses or some situations pistol or sword. As for me, I got them all ready in my inventory.

wrong. iSwordsman has a leap finisher .

blutstein.2468:

Xyonon.3987:

The sword is great against enemies with a single target nuke or high damage. The iSwordsman deals about the same DpS as the iDuellist (pistol) but has no combo finisher. However it can NOT be meatshielded (sniper). It also has a high damage reflecting block on 4 with a low cd.

TL;DR: general go focus, against bosses or some situations pistol or sword. As for me, I got them all ready in my inventory.

wrong. iSwordsman has a leap finisher .

Thx! Totally forgot about that – I was focusing on offensive finishers, but you’re totally right and this is very important. If you (happens often) cast etheral combo fields you will grant the phantasm chaos armor. If he gets attacks it procs → awesome.

Focus is not very usefull when you fighting small groups. The warden is very easy to dodge and almost never connects. The duelist imo connects way more and when you immediately use magic bullet it almost never fails to hit. I’m talking wvw here. I have not tried the sword ofhand yet.

tought ot asks for dungeon guide :o if you cast 3, 5, 3 with sword focus you wont miss

Traited focus is rather impressive the the “reflect”. It allows you to drop feedback if desired.

I wish we had a 3rd main hand weapon or a buffed scepter (one that actually does condition damage with auto atk, i’d love it causing confusion :P) so we could use 2 offhands without having to use 2 swords main hand.

I love focus for damage & reflects. Especially in dungeons.
I love Pistol for single target damage but honestly I prefer a sword over a pistol.

Sword block is nice and phantasm is my fav, leap finisher, pretty good (single target) damage, highest atk speed of all phantasms, invulnerable when attacking and leaping back after hit (makes it hard to kill.)