Phantasmal Warden

First I want to say before anyone gets on a high horse that some of the suggestions below would be overpowered in pvp due to the current Chrono and Mirage strength - I'm considering the state of Focus after these elite specs get balanced - ie everything below is with the assumption of balance changes having occurred in the future.

This poor thing is suffering behind the smokescreen of powerful phantasms. Regardless of the state of other phantasms or the current cheese chrono play, the iWarden is arguably in a worse state than ever before (meaning Focus in general is in a sad state - nevermind the continued problem since specialisations of Warden's Feedback competing with Restorative Illusions in the same tier) and in desperate need of a buff.

How would you like to see it improved?

Personally as Anet seem to want to make it a defensive phantasm - which makes sense given the skill icon of the iWarden protecting a player - the fact that it spawns at your location is acceptable and I'm not going to suggest to change that - but of course if anyone feels strongly about it being spawned at range or ground targeted then feel free to express that.

Problems are the damage application is so unreliable outside of a 1v1 due to the random spreading of the thrown axes, and the defence is quite frankly useless against anything that isn't a projectile - ie in a situation where you are pushed in melee range it does sod all - nevermind if you get outnumbered.

Possibilities:

• it could push out and prevent opponent's from entering the attack bubble for a short duration? (ie Guardian's Sanctuary)
• it could aoe block attacks for allies within the bubble for a short duration
• it could be changed back to cleave foes in melee range
• it could aoe blur for 2s in the bubble radius
• can't think of any more right now

So in my opinion it would be nice to see iWarden be a strong defensive/support phantasm - something you could cast over downed to secure a res, or to aoe safeguard allies not just from projectiles but from all attacks.

Remember iWarden is not like Shield 4 - you only get one and no personal damage protection unless you stay in the bubble.

Possibilities of being strong with Chrono - but again they'll be nerfing all of that so it might not be relevant. In any case it would be good to see Focus back in the limelight and stand up for itself in both Core and Mirage builds as well.

Projectile reflecting bubble.

I would make two changes:The warden applies protection if you stay in the bubble range. That would make it a safe shelter vs prjectiles and would also give you some damage mitigation when fighting on point/melee range.The other thing is when placing the curtain it breaks enemy targeting. And while I think of it, it would make sense, because being a cluncky weapon, it is the only one (except pistol, which is primarly a damage weapon) that does not have an immediate defensive "oshit button". Think about it... torch lets you blind and disappear with the press of a button, sword lets you block and we all know what shield does. So focus is the only one that requires you to place the curtain AND activate it in order to defende yourself. When being chased, this is the last thing you need and one if not the main reason why focus has fallen in to oblivion in pvp: anyone with stability will laugh at your "pull" or cripple.If both things are too OP togehter (I doubt it, few seconds of protection will change nothing in reality) I would keep the break-targeting things.

The best improvement for focus at this point would be to merge Warden's Feedback with Evasive Mirror in the dueling line.

Evasive Mirror:Reflected Projectiles deal +20% damage.Focus Skills have -20% reduced recharge and reflect.

I've tried experimenting with different build ideas using focus, but it just doesn't seem to ever fill a valuable enough niche.

Part of the issue is that "Warden's Feedback" competes with Restorative Illusions. I wonder if Warden's Feedback did something like 15% chance to transfer a condition on you to opponent on hit and make the curtain remove one movement-related condition (cripple, chill, torment) would make both the weapon and the trait more viable.

I'd like a larger "push out" bubble. That in combination with it's projectile breaking and now spawning next to us would make it better value.

@"eldenbri.1059" said:I've tried experimenting with different build ideas using focus, but it just doesn't seem to ever fill a valuable enough niche.

Part of the issue is that "Warden's Feedback" competes with Restorative Illusions. I wonder if Warden's Feedback did something like 15% chance to transfer a condition on you to opponent on hit and make the curtain remove one movement-related condition (cripple, chill, torment) would make both the weapon and the trait more viable.

My problem is that the trait making focus reflect (damage) is in the inspiration line (support).

Focus has its niche in pve as a damage weapon and the utility of the pull. The first change I would do is make the axes explode when they hit a target, dealing aoe damage. And maybe speed it up so it finishes in 4sec instead of 5.

@OriOri.8724 said:Projectile reflecting bubble.As default? Would be nice, although in addition to things like Evasive Mirror and traited Manipulations I'm not sure if it would be too punishing against projectile opponents as you wouldn't have to trait for it.

@"trooper.2650" said:I would make two changes:The warden applies protection if you stay in the bubble range. That would make it a safe shelter vs prjectiles and would also give you some damage mitigation when fighting on point/melee range.The other thing is when placing the curtain it breaks enemy targeting. And while I think of it, it would make sense, because being a cluncky weapon, it is the only one (except pistol, which is primarly a damage weapon) that does not have an immediate defensive "oshit button". Think about it... torch lets you blind and disappear with the press of a button, sword lets you block and we all know what shield does. So focus is the only one that requires you to place the curtain AND activate it in order to defende yourself. When being chased, this is the last thing you need and one if not the main reason why focus has fallen in to oblivion in pvp: anyone with stability will laugh at your "pull" or cripple.If both things are too OP togehter (I doubt it, few seconds of protection will change nothing in reality) I would keep the break-targeting things.Yeah I agree the lack of "oh kitten" button is a problem in the current state of pvp - torch has the stealth, sword has the block, shield has blocks, and even magic bullet can be used to cc much quicker than curtain (though neither of them are reliable in the current state of the game with easy access to stunbreak or stability on every class).

Would be interesting if curtian broke target, but not sure if that would be useful - because all current target breaking skills (not stealth) change the player's position to provide some difficulty in the opponent retargeting (ie axe 3 ports you random location, same with IA, Mirror Images moves you slightly while spawning two clones close together and Mirage Retreat moves you leaving a clone in front so the opponent has some effort to retarget). With curtain you still stay where you are so would be easy to retarget.

@Justine.6351 said:The best improvement for focus at this point would be to merge Warden's Feedback with Evasive Mirror in the dueling line.

Evasive Mirror:Reflected Projectiles deal +20% damage.Focus Skills have -20% reduced recharge and reflect.@Justine.6351 said:

@"eldenbri.1059" said:I've tried experimenting with different build ideas using focus, but it just doesn't seem to ever fill a valuable enough niche.

Part of the issue is that "Warden's Feedback" competes with Restorative Illusions. I wonder if Warden's Feedback did something like 15% chance to transfer a condition on you to opponent on hit and make the curtain remove one movement-related condition (cripple, chill, torment) would make both the weapon and the trait more viable.

@Curunen.8729 Yea, the reflect projectiles should be made baseline on the iWarden imo. Yes, this would make wardens feedback partially redundant as a trait, and we wouldn't have to trait for the reflect. But also realize that right now warden is single cast. Previously, you could get 3 wardens out, and have really high uptime on reflects without being bothered to actually do anything yourself outside of renew them every so often to keep them from being killed. Now, assuming that CP and sotE are addressed properly of course, we can only get 1 warden to attack once, and then its gone. Despite being baseline, its far less than what we used to be able to get.

Plus, with redesigning wardens feedback, we would also lose reflect on focus4, which would help compensate some.

I miss my throw skill it use to do that immobilised people and gave me a projectile for my Binding of Ipos. I really would like that back please, the pistol got keep its player launched skill.

Focus Trait: Focus Skills are greatly enhanced, no cooldown bonus.Temporal Curtain becomes a circle like Guardian Hammer 5, pulsing slow and quickness like a mini Time Warp. It's like Grav Well and Time Warp in 1 skill but less potency.Phantasmal Warden: Generates its own Feedback on top of itself, comboing with its already built in whirl finisher.

@Nightmare.1234 said:I miss my throw skill it use to do that immobilised people and gave me a projectile for my Binding of Ipos. I really would like that back please, the pistol got keep its player launched skill.

They added this crap to reveal mesmer and prevent from casting them being invisible ,so consider thats a nerf . Focus 5 they probs thought like OH NO SUCH TRASH WEAPON AND IMMOB? OP REMOVE xD

I prefer almost everything about the way the old warden operated. I preferred the 5 target cleave, which gave it a certain niche the old single target sword phantasm didn't have. I also liked that it would start casting it's attack right in the opponent's face so you could projectile hate while doing as much damage in melee as possible. Focus doesn't make much sense when pulling a target into an attack that's ranged anyway. It makes me hate running focus for the pulls when before I always liked the kit.

I'd honestly be okay if they cut the damage on it and made it target 5 nearby enemies with axes rather than this randomly assigned nonsense. And they could stand to make the bubble much bigger if they're going to make it painfully difficult to actually projectile block with it.

Warden is pretty weak. It was better then it could immobilise and at least start to do damage. Now with full might 25 it does just over 600 damage per hit, but the damage is split to random players which sucks and is ineffective as an AoE. We lost a lot of damage because of the SoE nerf. Too much.