Guild Wars 2

Hi whats some needed changes to Focus?

Mainly casttime reduction to focus 5.

Focus 4:
Now a Projectile Finisher
Regeneration replaced with Might/Fury or some other better boon than regen

Focus 5:
Cast time to 1s

That’s pretty much all it needs to be much better.

It would be nice if focus 5 converted boons to conditions like axe 3 rather than just stripping them.

Bhawb.7408:

Focus 4:
Now a Projectile Finisher
Regeneration replaced with Might/Fury or some other better boon than regen

Focus 5:
Cast time to 1s

That’s pretty much all it needs to be much better.

I’d like to see Focus 4 get a cast time reduction to 1/2 second from 3/4.

What i would like to see

Reaper’s Touch – replace the regeneration with retaliation or fury

Spinal Shivers – decrease the cast time to 1 second

Similar to what others have said

Reaper’s Touch – give an offensive boon, projectile finisher, cast time or travel time reduction, even a damage boost would be nice (compare to mirror blade and you’ll see why I say that)

Spinal Shivers – I want them to make this instant or at least 1/2 second cast and remove chill of death because auto proc 5k damage is cheap.

Plexxing.2978:

It would be nice if focus 5 converted boons to conditions like axe 3 rather than just stripping them.

Turn all necro boon removal into corruption it’s thematic \o/!!!

Bhawb.7408:

Focus 4:
Now a Projectile Finisher
Regeneration replaced with Might/Fury or some other better boon than regen

Focus 5:
Cast time to 1s

That’s pretty much all it needs to be much better.

+homing ala guard focus #4

Bhawb.7408:

Focus 4:
Now a Projectile Finisher
Regeneration replaced with Might/Fury or some other better boon than regen

Focus 5:
Cast time to 1s

That’s pretty much all it needs to be much better.

^ This. Small but subtle changes that will go a long way.

Also focus 4 unblockable pretty please…

Currently, I think if it bounces off your enemy onto a different enemy with aegis on, then the bounces stop.

The concept of the focus is a weapon to weaken you enemy to that the team can spike them down. The focus has a chill/boon rip on 5 to weaken the enemy and a (theoretically) big damage skill on 4.

However, spiking down enemies isn’t a thing in Guild Wars 2 (Dodging, no dedicated healer class, etc), so the focus is a tool for a situation that never arises.

Focus 4: the projectile is slow and easily sidestepped. It has 1500 range, but if cast a range, you will not get a “bounce” which means that the damage and effect of the skill is pathetic. At the end of the day the only way to get it to work properly is to use it in melee range, but if you are casting this in melee range, you would be better off with Warhorn (WH does better damage).

Also regeneration as a boon is offensive if it regeneration doesn’t work in shroud.

(Compare the focus to the very similar skill mirror blade, which always gets full bounce effects, is a projectile finisher, does more damage, and has a much lower cooldown).

FIX: faster projectile speed, bigger bounce radius, damage increase, lower cool-down, vigor instead of regeneration.

Focus 5: This skill has too little effect for too much cast time and cooldown. It is uncastable in a pvp game with its long cast time. Even if the cast time were fixed, It provides no real boon control with that long cooldown either. (Boon hate needs to be super buffed because boon control has not kept up with boon spam.

At the same time that the skill focus 5 is super weak because of cast time/cool down issues, the trait that mimics the skill is super strong. The damage is big in ideal boon situations and the proc instantly hits when it’s valuable. The trait benefits from the +25% downed damage trait, and this trait was already responsible for getting the downed trait nerfed.

The skill almost deserves a bad cast time cooldown for the “perfect situation” where you hit the enemy with the right three boons and get triple damage, but that perfect situation is rarer that it should be.

FIX: Reduce cast to .25. reduce cooldown to 10 seconds. Reduce chill duration to 4 seconds. Eliminate bonus damage. Reduce boon rips to 2, but they are now boon corruptions.

I don’t know if focus really needs this much improvement, but if #4 really doesn’t bounce at max range, then it’s a problem that has to be fixed. I hardly ever use #4 if the enemy is too far. I just cast #5 to slow them down and close the gap, then #4 works perfectly, so I haven’t really noticed the bug.

Burjis.3087:

I don’t know if focus really needs this much improvement, but if #4 really doesn’t bounce at max range, then it’s a problem that has to be fixed. I hardly ever use #4 if the enemy is too far. I just cast #5 to slow them down and close the gap, then #4 works perfectly, so I haven’t really noticed the bug.

It’s not something that’s unique to Focus 4 on Necro, GS2 on Mes is the same. All bounces only bounce back 600 range even if the skill range is higher.

Focus 4: now applies protection instead of regeneration.
Focus 5: spiteful talisman trait changed to also include: spinal shivers now corrupts boons instead of removing them.

Those two alone should do it.