Guild Wars 2

I’ve been running D/W for months in a Wellomancer build, had huge success in PvP and PvE…but i just hate Warhorns asthetically. I can’t stand them. I’ve recently discovered a focus called “The Anomaly” on the TP, think it looks epic on my toon and decided to try out D/F just because i like the look of it so much. I’ve had some wins in PvP but i feel a lot more vulnerable and slower.

I’ve lost a lot of decent stuff my getting rid of the WH:
-swiftness
-#5 for tagging enemies
-#5 for crippling to keep enemies in the wells
-#4 for daze
-#4 for also keeping enemies in wells
-#5 for easy life force

Now is there any way i can make up for this with the Focus? Spinal Shivers is useful for slowing enemies in the wells, but that cast time is…ugh. And Reapers Touch sounds good but is the vulnerability and heal worth a kitten ?

I prefer wh because the siphon on hit trait has no cooldown. The 5 skill will proc a siphon as well as your normal attacks on top of wells. WH just works better because the perma cripple slows people down enough to hit them with your auto.

Completely fogot about #5 procing life siphon…

I think i’m just going to have to face the fact that focus is absolute garbage on a power dagger build.

Verdis.8472:

Completely fogot about #5 procing life siphon…

I think i’m just going to have to face the fact that focus is absolute garbage on a power dagger build.

its not bad if you use it with axe. will help you in fights vs eles, warriors and guardians. I prefer dagger oh for the condition transfer and weakness vs thieves though.

You should really reconsider. When you take focus you ofcourse lose everything a warhorn would get you, but it does give:
-awesome ‘burst’ LF regen
-regen (not too useful)
-lots more damage than warhorn
-boon removal and chill, always useful
-vuln stacking (12 stacks)

But nothing explains things better than a vid (:P),
Here I just some random soloQ killing with focus:
http://youtu.be/5JiHJiQMxO4

I still use a focus in pvp if the enemy team has a lot of elementalists and/or engineers because the boon strip and chill really hurts them. The damage is actually higher than warhorn, but it has less utility and is more easily dodged.

But when you land reapers touch for every bounce, then move into a standard burst rotation and it all lands, it’s pretty devastating. It’s just slow and not reliable.

Well, our MH weapons usually have enough offence, so you usually need some defensive abilities from your offhand. Which focus isn’t great at. It might not have been if melee classes weren’t basically immune to chill (warriors can get Dogged March to cleanse it, thieves can shadowstep without it affecting their range and aren’t affected by the cooldown reduction, and eles have infinite cleansing).

Roe.3679:

I still use a focus in pvp if the enemy team has a lot of elementalists and/or engineers because the boon strip and chill really hurts them.

Could you elaborate more on the build you use. Ive been using Well of Corruption for my boon strip and i have chilling darkness which causes chill with Well of Darkness. That plus Locust Swarm and my dagger #3 are good for keeping people in the wells. I could keep WoC with a focus build, but it makes me feel like focus #5 is near useless if I do that.

I just use a basic power necro build, 6/0/2/0/6, usually dagger warhorn and staff, plus WoS, WoC, and SA. Which is my go to set up. But if the other team has a lot of eles who tend to not like being in melee range, I can switch to focus specifically to counter them a little more, which also works on engineers, but if the other team is engi heavy I usually just go condi.

How viable is D/F in PvE?

I really like D/F. I think Axe/Focus is a slightly stronger setup, provided you’re using D/W or D/D in the other set, at least for power. That said D/F I still find quite effective.

I’ve been experimenting with my hybrid builds (Zerker/Rampagers PvE, Celestial PvP) and have actually been dropping axe in favor for D/F and S/D.

Axe 3 is one of my favorite necro abilities, but I can live without it.

Holl.3109:

But nothing explains things better than a vid (:P),
Here I just some random soloQ killing with focus:
http://youtu.be/5JiHJiQMxO4

I really like the look of this build. It’s going to be hard to break away from the survivability WoD and Blood traits give me, but the power of DS looks like it could make up for it. I’m guessing this build works well in PvE as well, just without the Spectral skills?

Focus needs a better boon than regen, and it needs a slightly shorter cast time on the 5 skill. Other than that, Warhorn is just a really well designed off-hand weapon for use with dagger.

Verdis.8472:

Holl.3109:

But nothing explains things better than a vid (:P),
Here I just some random soloQ killing with focus:
http://youtu.be/5JiHJiQMxO4

I really like the look of this build. It’s going to be hard to break away from the survivability WoD and Blood traits give me, but the power of DS looks like it could make up for it. I’m guessing this build works well in PvE as well, just without the Spectral skills?

Yea just a standaard power build.
Just use WoC and WoS. 3rd is optional. And you might want axe/Warhorn instead of staff…

Holl.3109:

Yea just a standaard power build.
Just use WoC and WoS. 3rd is optional. And you might want axe/Warhorn instead of staff…

I absolutely LOVE this build. I haven’t played any other classes to lvl80 but my god this feels borderline OP in PvE. Haven’t tried it in PvP yet. I went with WoS, Signet of Spite and Blood is Power. BiP is great because you can stack your might much higher as well as having instant might when you enter a fight.

My only gripe with it is that my dagger feels like complete trash now because Life Blast is so ridiculously powerful. Heck i think it’s more powerful than Lich forms auto!

Verdis.8472:

Holl.3109:

Yea just a standaard power build.
Just use WoC and WoS. 3rd is optional. And you might want axe/Warhorn instead of staff…

I absolutely LOVE this build. I haven’t played any other classes to lvl80 but my god this feels borderline OP in PvE. Haven’t tried it in PvP yet.

My only gripe with it is that my dagger feels like complete trash now because Life Blast is so ridiculously powerful. Heck i think it’s more powerful than Lich forms auto!

its a one trick pony in pvp really.

I like D/W because it gives me bags just by walking.

I could see myself using d/f on a mm build.

You can’t really afford it on MM.