Guild Wars 2

Is anyone else really annoyed by the focus 4, not stacking swiftness if you already have the boon? It’s driving me insane. It’s so annoying that I just can’t use it in WvW anymore. And since the 5 ability is pretty kittenty being stationary and not target area based that makes me hate the focus even more.

Why do u can`t use it in WvW? I put the 4 into enemy lines, reflect projectiles, activate it to Interrupt them. Put my 5 in them and it will do nice Dmg and Reflection.

How hard is it to stick the focus in your off-hand, cast curtain then swap it back out again? Sure it’s inconvenient, but then you have to ask yourself how much you really want that swiftness. Focus pulls are great for pulling guys off of towers or in to your melee train, and then there’s the PVE use of pulling mobs in to walls, throwing mobs around while skipping them in dungeons and the traited phantasmal warden can be insanely powerful.

There was a problem with people stacking swiftness by just going back and forth through it, thats why it was changed to be its own special swiftness. I personally dont see the problem but w/e

When traited the focus has its uses, pretty good uses. But I personally hate how its mandatory that all mesmers, no matter the build, have it on standby for swiftness.
I really want our swiftness to be moved to a utility, its alot easer to switch a utility skill than change out your offhand. I know, I switch from healing turret to medkit on my engi all the time for the swiftness when traveling.
Sure sometimes I get caught in a fight with out my healing turret but unlike using the focus instead of my sword offhand it doesnt throw off my entire build.

So in short my reason to hate the focus is because I dont want to use it in combat yet I have to have it to keep up with any group im with.

Oh god, yes. It’s especially irritating when signet of inspiration procs without me noticing, focus 4 goes away, and I end up with like 4 seconds of swiftness.

Also, does anyone else have the issue of walking over the field and not getting the boon? A lot of the time I have the backtrack over the field again to get the swiftness boon.

That swiftness is probably the only reason why i’m still carrying a focus around…oh, and placing a warden on top of a wall is always fun, too ^^

Also, does anyone else have the issue of walking over the field and not getting the boon?

Only happens when i try to cast the line directly in front of me while running and already am past that point when the cast finishes.

Sure it’s nice when it’s traited but I rarely play any builds with it traited. The aoe pull is also very nice, but there’s just these things about it that I just hate. The stupid warden and the swiftness boon kittene, it’s enough to make me never want to use it.

Other than not giving swiftness if you alreay have it, i love the focus and its by far my favourite off hand in most builds.

Maybe they could make the Signet of Inspiration grant only swiftness while out of combat but for only 5 seconds instead of 10. But function as normal while in combat.
Or somthing like that. Any thing so I can toss my focus in the trash and never pick it up again.

Supertramp.5430:

Sure it’s nice when it’s traited but I rarely play any builds with it traited. The aoe pull is also very nice, but there’s just these things about it that I just hate. The stupid warden and the swiftness boon kittene, it’s enough to make me never want to use it.

I hope you at least use it in PvE, it’s too good not to.

i love my focus!great to reflect and cc and the phantasm is not bad at all.

It could be worse. The Phantasm could be as ill-omened as IMage.

Focus is really awesome if you trait it for reflec. I agree with the swiftness not stacking, it should atleast work like the guardian swiftness field.
Also the phantasm not moving to the enemy before attacking is a known bug (that hasn’t been fixed for months -.-)

I agree that the swiftness issue needs to be fixed. Many people have stated an easy fix too. Just have the swiftness refresh to its highest possible application. Mine gives 14.4 seconds so, if I run over it while I have 5 seconds left, it should go back to 14.4 seconds.

However, as many times as this has been suggested, Anet continues to ignore us.

The iWarden matter is a different beast. If you’re just using it to attack, you’re only using half its potential. It makes a great shield, especially against a ranged attacker. Just make sure it is between you and your enemy. If they constantly move, you can stand inside its swinging arc. This only gets better when its traited. Even moreso with lots of crit and Sharper Images.

It should stack, and is annoying when I catch 6 seconds of swiftness off some guardian or warrior instead of my 24 just as I lay the curtain, but this tends to only happen around zerg travel, in which case the zerg can carry me easily. Mostly this can all be avoided with good boon management. Simply being aware.

iWarden is awesome, especially in a fixed position. Having them up creates a sanctuary for to hide in both from ranged attacks, and melee who don’t want to enter it to catch the damage.

Refreshing back to its ceiling is a perfect fix. I do wish that we had a more reliable way of acquiring speed outside of focus however.

The Focus is the best off hand weapon we have, hate it or love it, it’s either use it or your performance is sub par. I agree though, the switftness stacking is an issue that should be addressed.

It’s a good offhand weapon, yes, but i wouldn’t say it’s the best. Despite all its weaknesses i lately learned to like the traited torch in my shatter-build, providing me with cleanses and stealth on quite a good cd.

iMage is still crap, though. But at least he cleanses when traited.

It’s one of the main reasons I run my Mesmer in Arah exp.

Feedback + Curtain + Warden = dead Risen Elementalist/Hunter – esp. in path 1 and 4.

Focus is good, it really it is. Tho my personally beef with it as a wvw roamer, is it dominate over the other offhand weapons way to hard because its our only access swiftness. Without it your relying on a rune heal/5s swiftness or a random boon now and then, and thats just not good enough.

So i never end up trying any other loadouts (love to give pistol etc a try one day).

XelNigma.6315:

There was a problem with people stacking swiftness by just going back and forth through it, thats why it was changed to be its own special swiftness. I personally dont see the problem but w/e

When traited the focus has its uses, pretty good uses. But I personally hate how its mandatory that all mesmers, no matter the build, have it on standby for swiftness.
I really want our swiftness to be moved to a utility, its alot easer to switch a utility skill than change out your offhand. I know, I switch from healing turret to medkit on my engi all the time for the swiftness when traveling.
Sure sometimes I get caught in a fight with out my healing turret but unlike using the focus instead of my sword offhand it doesnt throw off my entire build.

So in short my reason to hate the focus is because I dont want to use it in combat yet I have to have it to keep up with any group im with.

Don’t you (or anet) touch the focus. Especially not skill 4.

My main reason to dislike the focus is: “y u no hav focus mesmer?”

It’s not so much that it’s so good that I should want to use it. Rather, it’s so good people frequently demand that I use it in WvW, and will not leave me alone about it. Apparently if I’m not pulling people off walls, I should just throw myself onto my off-hand sword.

But that’s not exclusive to focus, since I could make a similar rant about portals.

While I get that people want me to contribute to the best of my capacity, I’ve decided to side-step the whole affair and WvW with professions others won’t try to play for me.

Crossplay.2067:

I agree that the swiftness issue needs to be fixed. Many people have stated an easy fix too. Just have the swiftness refresh to its highest possible application. Mine gives 14.4 seconds so, if I run over it while I have 5 seconds left, it should go back to 14.4 seconds.

However, as many times as this has been suggested, Anet continues to ignore us.

Hmmm....

The code for this might look like:

RunOverTemporalCurtain()
{
	if (SwiftnessBoon == 0)
	{
		ApplyFocusSwiftness()
	}
	else
	{
		LaughAtMesmer()
	}
}

ApplyFocusSwiftness()
{
	SwiftnessBoon += FocusSwiftness;
}

Whereas your suggestion would look like:

RunOverTemporalCurtain()
{
	if (FocusSwiftness > SwiftnessBoon)
	{
		ApplyFocusSwiftness()
	}
	else
	{
		GiveMesmerAwesomeBuffsNextPatch()
	}
}

ApplyFocusSwiftness()
{
	SwiftnessBoon = FocusSwiftness;
}

GiveMesmerAwesomeBuffsNextPatch()
{
	// lol
	LaughAtMesmer()
}