Sword/focus build for PvE ?

[Scar.1793]

Hello everyone, new to Ele. Played mostly Warrior & Revenant when I used to play.

I’m considering playing again but I wanted to play with sword & focus (mainly due to fashion). I forgot that Elementalists don’t have or need to weapon swap with their elemental class system. Which now I find great because if you love your weapons, why change ?

I’ve read a few topics saying since Elementalist has low HP and light armor, it would be best to play as condition. I wouldn’t be so against it but I always preferred power for raw damage.

I’ve seen a player making it work (apparently), here’s the video :

 

This looks really nice but I wanted to check with players who have more knowledge of the class if weaver is the only way or if there are specs that could also fit the bill.

My only fear is that I’m used to play plate classes and I may get stomped pretty often since Elementalist is weaker compared to them (defense/survivability). I’d be happy to be proven wrong though.

Edited August 20, 2023 by Scar.1793

[soulknight.9620]

The guy in the vid is using sw/dagger not focus. 

Focus is generaly bad as a power weapon. So if you want to use sw/focus go for either hybrid or condi build. Although a scepter focus condi build will do far better than sw/focus. 

https://snowcrows.com/builds/elementalist/weaver/hybrid-weaver a link to hybrid build. But it will be lacking in dps a bit (not much though) compared to power sw/dagger. 

And yes, you will be squishy. Even myself an ele main for 7 years now occasionally die due to "forgot to dodge" thing. And if i go onto any of my heavy armor alts i kinda feel immortal lol. 

Edited August 20, 2023 by soulknight.9620

[Chyro.1462]

Once the expac drops, you'll also have the option of trying sword/focus tempest or sword/focus catalyst (though likely requires the expac to unlock the elite spec weapons for all specs). No idea how well those will do for either power or condi or hybrid build, but may be worth a try. If you're still new to the game and don't plan on diving right into hardcore content where big dps numbers matter, feel free to experiment. Celestial (all-stats) gear is often recommended for new ele players, since ele is quite good at making use of all the stats and rounds out your build with a bit of tanky stats - it's even good enough for certain condi or support builds to be doing harder content with (t4 fractals, strikes, the easier raids - though for raids you should check with your squad if there's a toughness-based aggro boss). It's easiest to get through the lv80 boost (if you got a free one along with an expac purchase) as that just straight up gives your char a complete set of exotic celestial gear, else it can take some effort and investment to farm, craft or buy compared to something like berserker stat gear with super cheap exotics on the trading post.

As far as I know, focus has its main value in its defensive utilities (invulnerability and projectile reflect in earth, projectile destruction in air) and high defiance bar damage (water 5 daze and water 4 chill, air 5 very strong knockdown) and its primary offensive value is in fire with the fire walls' high condi damage and bursting fire aura on 5. I haven't played sword much myself cause weaver is too complicated for me (it just always felt bad to me that I can't directly acces the off-hand 4/5 skills of an element by swapping to that element, cause I rely on those for survival) but from what I've read it's primarily a power weapon but can also be used in a hybrid build, while for a pure condi build scepter is a bit superior. In PvP or WvW I think it may be more common to use the sword/focus combo due to the skills of focus being quite valuable in player vs player combat, while in harder PvE instanced content the survivability tools have little value since you usually have a dedicated support in your party to keep you alive.

In the end, it comes down to what content you play and how much you care about your performance in that content. There's big parts of the game that don't require an optimal build, and oftentimes it matters more how well you know your class and how well you play it. Weapons can always be swapped out when going into harder content if the strength of a meta build is required there, while you can always enjoy and try out other builds in open world and story gameplay, or even in lower to mid-level fractals. Do what's fun to you, cause that's the main reason to play a game.

Edited August 20, 2023 by Chyro.1462

[AliamRationem.5172]

What are you using this build for?  For group content sword/focus builds are viable, but not meta.  They're relatively higher effort/difficulty with lower performance.  

For open world solo play and story content, however, sword/focus condi builds are a great option.  They have strong sustain the solid damage.  Celestial stats are a popular option for such builds, but you shouldn't take these builds into group content like fractals, strikes, or raids.

Here's a sample of a solo build using sword/focus:

 

[Noodle Ant.1605]

its more than ok to play sword/focus as power (sword makes up a huge majority of sword/dagger), its just not optimal. focus will likely end up being entirely delegated to defensive/utility use only though

ele usually always has the tools to offset its low innate survivability (regardless of weaponset) but unfortunately for most power builds (bar catalyst), it means needing to use some rather suboptimal skill combinations when other classes dont need to. condi ele is not affected as much which is why it seems to simply work better in a solo environment, but a glassy power ele usually ends up always having to weigh up between trying to deal damage and trying to survive

this is likely where many players are turned off because a glassy power anything else will rarely struggle as much (#downstate meme). its just something thats not taken into balance considerations and other classes will just seemingly play better when played in this rather specific way

[manu.7539]

Soulknight was right, its a sw/d weaver. Nice vid but a practice dummy isnt what you are going to fight in the game. You better have a good support to play glassy and know what you are doing. I would start with a celestial gear instead or anything that give you a decent sustain.

[Scar.1793]

My bad guys, I’m really clueless with elementalist ! Thought it was sw/f since it was one of the first results on google lol

Guess I’ll have time to see if the weapons could work better on other specs since I still need to unlock the special ops armor set