Guild Wars 2

Personally I’m a Sword/Focus kind of guy, but with the severe nerf to the iWarden it seems much harder to make the focus viable. Still, the projectile reflection trait works wonders when you have two iWardens out and a portal beneath both of them. I feel you just have to be a bit more creative with this particular offhand, but I’m curious to see what others use and the philosophy behind them.

I hear pistol rocks. Any dual swordsmen out there?

My iWarden does the samething as it did before the fix(not nerf). I wasn’t using Phantasmal Haste anyway, thus I don’t get to rage at a fix like everyone do.

Kinda a hard choice to choose a favorite one. I like Focus a lot, especially Into The Void from Temporal Curtain. Sword is nice, though the block is kinda.. I don’t know, I just don’t feel it too much, kinda the same feeling as iMage from Torch, except it can be somewhat useful if well used. Torch, I love the look, I like the additional stealth, but Prestige being channel is a let down and I’m not going to comment about iMage. Pistol is nice overall, both skills are nice.

For me:
Focus: 2/2
Pistol: 2/2
Sword: 1.5/2
Torch: 1/2

So, I guess my favorites are Focus and Pistol.

I get an 8 second count before the Warden does his attack. Either that, or the animation doesn’t match the cool down time. I figured it got nerfed since the patch says “5-second” cooldown rate. How do you incorporate your warden?

Focus in my primary, Pistol in secondary. Focus is too good to pass on.

I sometimes use torch as a support off-hand simply for the blast finisher, giving my team aoe Chaos Armor and the like. I think the retaliation from iMage could be a bit longer, but latest update notes shows they are looking to rework retaliation. I have been working on a retaliation build, so I really do hope they fix the Vengeful Phantoms trait. xD

The focus used to be my least favorite offhand. I always gravitated towards pistol. At lvl 80 I picked up the focus again for fun. Now I can’t put it down. The utility with it is amazing. The temporal curtain + into the void for speed boosts and positioning, combined with the nice damage output from the warden.

For me, the warden needs some assistance with set up, but once he gets going, the damage is nice. I have my glamour skills traited to blind and inflict confusion. To set up the warden, I usually drop a glamour field/bubble over him or use scepter 2 to blind. This give my warden enough time to set up.

I’d have to say sword for the time being. S/S works great with GS and I am starting to get used to using Sword #4. I like the scaling and damage of iSwordsman as well. However, I also enjoy pistol for Magic Bullet.

Still learning how to effectively use the Focus though…

Focus for PvE. Pistol for PvP. The longer cooldown isn’t really bothering me too much.

Passive Aggressive.3154:

Focus for PvE. Pistol for PvP. The longer cooldown isn’t really bothering me too much.

Wrong.
Focus with it’s Temporal Curtain shines in WvW. Speed up not only u, but all the zerg, and in combat – Temporal Curtain → Into the Void – knock down enemies.
And even more – Temporal Curtain is a combo field starter.

Pistol is good too, but not so good for WvW.

Sword for defense/single targets. iRiposte is a decent block ability and adds the benefit of being a clone generator; and iSwordsman is still great damage.

Pistol is a second fave…duelist is very powerful, and magic bullt can be a fight-changer when used properly.

I dislike focus…I don’t like “line” type aoe effects because offensive placement requires such fine timing to get right. As a runspeed buff it’s nice. Warden has never really done it for me.

Torch would be awesome if it had more than one ablity. I’ll never understand how that weapon has only one, because offhands usually have two. Don’t get me wrong Prestige is great…what? Phantasmal Mage? Never heard of it.

Except for the torch, i love all of them.
Pistol is just great and both, pistol and focus, are awesome in WvW. Too bad that you need a long range weapon and you cant take both of them in WvW.

Offhand Sword is interesting too, but most of the time i just stick with pistol since the duelist stays safer and applies more bleeds.

Torch looks weak. Maybe its good in groups with the blast finisher and the AoE-blind, but besides that it has nothing useful to offer. Was fun when Prestige hat a recharge of 3secs tho.

I must be the only person who actually enjoys torch. I do think focus traited right is amazing, and pistol is extremely effective, but I more often than not use sword/torch effectively. I get 1 invulnerability, 1 invisibility, and now the mage grants retaliation, effective in melee combat. add in the clones, and a shattering build, and torch does work.

Focus is god mode in wvw.

Off-hands are useless after the recent nerf to the phantasms

Yezus.2849:

Off-hands are useless after the recent nerf to the phantasms

Except it barely hurt us….

Off-hands are not useless after the Oct 7th patch.

The part I’ve been angry about is the fact ANets been throwing out Nerfs after Nerfs, and focusing on bug fixes which also Nerf classes, without even addressing the existing bugs that kills some builds and usually weakens the effect/power of the class. Even our class condition, Confusion, still needs work. And its already giving different results in sPvP and PvE >.>;
(Sorta like trying to kill the Blossoms in TA with a Staff. Obstacle, Obstacle, Obstacle …. I’m almost standing on top of the blasted thing without anything between me and it, and I’m still getting an OBSTACLE! Kitten it. Or the fact the Staff Clones are still using the old Winds of Chaos.)

Note in the above statement, I am not limiting that to just the Mesmer. I just focus on the Mesmer, as thats the class I look to immediately each update. That, and wondering when they will get to working on our class for a proper balancing/polishing which they’ve stated was one of the classes in dire need of it in the BWEs, and still haven’t even so much as made a comment about since. >.<

Favorite off-hand is still the focus for me, but I’ve made sure to have an Exotic of each type of Off-hand except the Torch so far.

That, and my Sylvari holding a flower (Verdant Focus) for a focus is just nice touch. Calling that rose by any other name, means getting ripped apart by its thorns.

I love the pistol, but in WvW focus is too useful to not use it. So focus I really like in WvW.

Sword is also a great option over pistol, though is also overshadowed by focus in WvW.

But for sPvP and PvE, sword and pistol are great options.

Torch is just terrible in all respects, useless offhand.

I use the Torch as my Off-hand of choice for SPvP. Having Decoy and Prestige is great for resetting a fight. I use a Confusion/Shatter build though.

I take Pistol as my secondary for the range. So I will set up from afar then switch to Torch if I am engaged or need to maneuver while the fight is going on.