Guild Wars 2

Enough with the pistol, let’s get a proper MANLY weapon!

And to those who say focus is only an OH weapon I say, why not! We have a ranged GS, we’re the most suitable class to wield dual foci.

It should be almost a pure cc weapon with a mixture of additional condition/direct damage and slightly longer cooldowns than usual, to carve out its own niche.

Skill #1: Throw focus
- toss out an illusionary version of the focus, like a frisbee (with a short trail of butterflies?), which bounces between allies/enemies the same number of times as winds of chaos or siren’s call, granting boons and conditions.
Cast time ~3/4s
Allies get – swiftness/fury/vigour (up for debate)
Enemies get – bleeding/vulnerability (or just direct damage?)

Skill #2: Flutterby (clone)
- Twirl on the spot and blink in a direction determined by the movement key you are holding at the time, leaving a clone in your place which casts Throw focus – so forwards, backwards, left OR right, each the same fixed distance.
Blind enemies where you appear for 3s.
Blind radius: 180
Cast time: 1/2s?
Combo finisher: Leap
CD ~10s

Skill #3: Singularity (ground targeted)
- essentially a land based version of Spear #5 vortex.
- deals minor damage at target location? (say a few hundred points per second?)
Duration ~5s
Combo field: ethereal
Pull radius ~400 (as vortex)
Any time while active: Explode
- detonate your singularity dealing damage to all in the area
Combo finisher: Blast (cannot self finish with the ethereal field!)
CD – undetonated ~15s
– detonated ~25s

Cooldowns and abilities up for debate, I’m only giving an example above. #2 could be ground targeted for example, and it could have a short cast time of around 1/2 a second.

Finally we need two fan skins and with F/F we’re good to go!

Double Anomaly.

I’m sold.

^Yeah I must admit dual Anomaly or dual fans… very tough decision there!

Mainhand focus!? Brilliant!

I also agree on having the Focus become a main-hand weapon option as well.
Double Anomaly
Double Spirit Links
Double Ambrosia (More BEER!)
Double Meatoberfest Chalices (Long mist trail x2!)
Double Bells as well.

The skills mentioned … not so much.

Redux on the first skill
Skill #1 Overload: Tosses an illusionary copy of the Focus at the enemy (not just a fan). Who doesn’t want to see throwing The Anomaly, Ambrosia, or Adam at somebody? No homing capability, but instead of bouncing between targets it explodes hitting up to three enemies and three allies in the radius to give the damage, conditions, and boons too. Combo Finisher: Blast (20% chance)
Ally effect possibilities: Might x1 (5s), Vigor (5s), Regeneration (5s), , or “Clear 1x Conditions” (1x Random of these 4)
Enemy effect possibilities: Chilled (2s), Bleeding (5s), Burning(1s), or “Boon Removal” (1x Random of these 4)
Note: Throwing the Bell in this fashion, should cause a random soft ring of a note instead of an Explosion sound. See Pistol/Rifle Christmas skin in how they replace the Bang of a Gun with a Pop. Throwing The Minstrel causes a trio of notes at a louder volume to place, along with an explosion of sheet music notes because hey, its a Legendary.

Skill #2 looks good, but missing something along with a Targetable Leap would be wonderous instead of relying on which way you are moving. Distortion (Or Evading) during the Leap animation would be a good idea. Phase retreat works around this by being a teleport, instantly moving, and instant cast (teleport) that can break stuns. A Leap can still get hit during the movement. A decent trade off, considering it doesn’t have any damage itself.
AoE Random Boon on landing to nearby allies as well? Aegis (5s), Swiftness (5s), Protection (2s)?

Skill #3? Looks like a great idea. Probably needs removal of either the Combo Field or the Blast Finisher, as it would be near impossible NOT to have it self-combo that way (Take how you can still combo with the Temporal Curtain even AFTER you collapse it for Into the Void). That or sadly just remove the Explode secondary part of the skill.
(Remember, this skill becomes a REFLECT Skill when traited!)

^Sounds good.

The skills in the OP are just an example off the top of my head, and I’m not set on them in any case.

I like the idea of an illusionary copy of whatever you’re holding. Not sure about the blast finisher chance though, if anything it could be a projectile finisher.

I like the random boon on allies with #2, and yes maybe some sort of evade is necessary. I think it could have a short cast time given it’s utility (while your character spins on the spot or something), before leaping/blinking.

Skill #3 – while it would make more sense to absorb projectiles, traited it would have to reflect them as you say. Maybe it could explode without being a finisher, so just keep the ethereal field?

Keep up the feedback, more ideas all welcome!

OP, shut up and take my money!

And now devs steal the skills and put it on a dagger or pistol MH xD

Since it’s supposed to be an offhand weapon, why not try something completely different? Instead something for 30 Domination, rather for 30 Illusion.

• #1 1.5s casttime; 0s CD; creates a clone with a random weapon; grants 2 random buffs to allies within 600 range; causes 2 random conditions to enemies within 600 range; no direct damage
• #2 0s casttime; 10s CD; creates a clone and transfers 2~3 of your conditions to it; 2s blinds opponents within 300 range; stunbreaker
• #3 .75s casttime; 20s CD; aoe heal by ~2000; 10s aoe swiftness; 4s aoe aegis

A Fan Focus main hand? Sold!

Except it seems like the Focus is meant to be a “full set” with the Sceptre, i.e. the Sceptre is the “main hand version” of the Focus. I doubt Anet would even consider a main hand Focus.

As for the skill ideas, #1 overlaps with Winds of Chaos, #2 shares many similarities with Phase Retreat, and #3, in terms of combat, is similar to Temporal Curtain.

Way I see it sceptre is counterpart to the torch.

Yes I admit the skills in the OP are quite biased in favour of my favourites from other weapons and making use of the elasticity trait, but I am open to completely unique ideas.

Nretep.2564:

Since it’s supposed to be an offhand weapon, why not try something completely different? Instead something for 30 Domination, rather for 30 Illusion.

• #1 1.5s casttime; 0s CD; creates a clone with a random weapon; grants 2 random buffs to allies within 600 range; causes 2 random conditions to enemies within 600 range; no direct damage
• #2 0s casttime; 10s CD; creates a clone and transfers 2~3 of your conditions to it; 2s blinds opponents within 300 range; stunbreaker
• #3 .75s casttime; 20s CD; aoe heal by ~2000; 10s aoe swiftness; 4s aoe aegis

Now this is interesting!

Well scepter was the counterpart to the focus in GW1 (for all casters)

@Nretep, that is a very interesting and very awesome idea, I’ve always been a bit of a gambling man, so the RNG would be good in my book!!

If you take a look, every profession that uses the Sceptre uses the Focus, and vice versa. There is no such correlation between Sceptre and Torch or any other off-hand.

…They could add a main hand Focus, and perhaps offhand Scepter?

I think the Focus would have a nice shot at being an AoE weapon. I’d personally like to see a move that creates a random combo field (something like lava font perhaps) that lasts maybe 6 second and shifts field-types every 2 secs.

… A man can dream. =/

Oooooo double Spirit Links would be bawwwsssssss

Embolism.8106:

If you take a look, every profession that uses the Sceptre uses the Focus, and vice versa. There is no such correlation between Sceptre and Torch or any other off-hand.

Yeah, fair point.

I think we just have too many good offhands and not enough mainhands – if sceptre auto attack was 3 rapid fire pink bolts rather than lazy arcing blobs I would use it more often.

Curunen.8729:

Embolism.8106:

If you take a look, every profession that uses the Sceptre uses the Focus, and vice versa. There is no such correlation between Sceptre and Torch or any other off-hand.

Yeah, fair point.

I think we just have too many good offhands and not enough mainhands – if sceptre auto attack was 3 rapid fire pink bolts rather than lazy arcing blobs I would use it more often.

Omg yes, make the scepter be the “Fast Casting” weapon from GW1 where you just throw spells out at break neck speeds with low CDs, i would love it forever!

Durzlla.6295:

Omg yes, make the scepter be the “Fast Casting” weapon from GW1 where you just throw spells out at break neck speeds with low CDs, i would love it forever!

I agree with this. I’d consider using it if it had the Ranger shortbow’s attack speed and every third shot did one stack of confusion. The clone can be integrated with the block. One clone if you use the next chain, two if you successfully block with it.

Ether Bolt and Ether Blast already have the same cast time as Crossfire (according to the tooltips at least), it’s Ether Clone’s doubled cast time that makes the whole chain sluggish. Halving Ether Clone’s cast time and making it inflict one stack of 2s Confusion sounds pretty good to me. Reduce direct damage if necessary.

Embolism.8106:

Ether Bolt and Ether Blast already have the same cast time as Crossfire (according to the tooltips at least), it’s Ether Clone’s doubled cast time that makes the whole chain sluggish. Halving Ether Clone’s cast time and making it inflict one stack of 2s Confusion sounds pretty good to me. Reduce direct damage if necessary.

Correction: if they had the same projectile speed. Actually, at this point I say screw it and give us a mainhand pistol.