Guardian Focus 4 and 5 need to be nerfed

[Skary.8956]

Willbender/Core + the trait for 40% crit when using virtue skills
Focus 4 With Valk Amulet deals between 5k on the low end and 7.3k if you crit all hits or get fury(smby you run save yourself)
Focus 4 With Berserker deals 6.3k up to 7.6k more often

This skill hits you every 3/4 seconds for the next 6 seconds.
It's not a condition that you can remove and you cannot dodge because you will pay later
It's 1200 range and is on 20 sec cd
It applies even few stacks of burning which give you additional 500 dmg
On Core guardian it deals even more absurd damage because you apply a lot more stacks of burning

Focus 5 With Valk Amulet deals 5k AOE on crit
Focus 5 With Berserkers Amulet deals 6.5k AOE on crit

On top of this it's an instant cast block that takes up to 3 hits
Combo Field that works amazingly with Sword 2

So on couple of specs I'm at 13k-14k hp and a single Focus 4 can take up to 50% of my health are you kidding me.

If you waste your dodges to mitigate Focus 4 you are never going to survive the rest of the combo that he has at his disposal
It's kinda unreal how such safe skills like Sword 3, Focus 4 and Focus 5 deal this absurd amount of dmg
Even with Valk Amulet

 

[Vinny.7260]

Sooooo.

Focus 4 has a wind-up that is fairly obvious to dodge. It just takes a little practice! Don't nerf it.

Focus 5 only blocks 3 attacks, and when it blocks 3 attacks, it breaks and no longer does the explosion effect. It's fairly easy to prevent from range or melee by auto attacking.

 

There's some anomalies in your statistics provided, such as with Valk doing 1.5k less damage with Focus 5... Yet has identical Power and Ferocity....

 

Overall, no don't do anything to Focus offhand. It's ... fine? It could be better honestly, but it's just showing its age if anything.

Edited May 15 by Vinny.7260

[Skary.8956]

17 minutes ago, Vinny.7260 said:

Sooooo.

Focus 4 has a wind-up that is fairly obvious to dodge. It just takes a little practice! Don't nerf it.

Focus 5 only blocks 3 attacks, and when it blocks 3 attacks, it breaks and no longer does the explosion effect. It's fairly easy to prevent from range or melee by auto attacking.

 

There's some anomalies in your statistics provided, such as with Valk doing 1.5k less damage... Yet has identical Power and Ferocity....

 

Overall, no don't do anything to Focus offhand. It's ... fine? It could be better honestly, but it's just showing its age if anything.

Dodging a 1200 range skill with no projectile and really quick animation????
If I dodge this Focus 4 skill I'm left with only one dodge to somehow survive Sword 2, Focus 5 Explosion, Sword 3(Deals like 7.4k dmg), V1, Judge, GS 2, GS3 and 2 and just in case I run away v2 and v3 don't you think that this advice is kinda unrealistic.
About Valk and Berserkers and their similar DMG it's kinda unfair because just a single talent gives you 40% passive crit with cheap access to Fury it becomes like 70% crit on a 20.5k HP guardian with all the boons in the world excluding Alacrity.

Last thing The guardian Pre pops the Focus 5 so It explodes when he blinks. When do I exactly hit him to prevent it from exploding?
Are you maining Guardian by any chance?

 

Edited May 15 by Skary.8956

[Vinny.7260]

6 minutes ago, Skary.8956 said:

Dodging a 1200 range skill with no projectile and really quick animation????
If I dodge this Focus 4 skill I'm left with only one dodge to somehow survive Sword 2, Focus 5 Explosion, Sword 3(Deals like 7.4k dmg), V1, Judge, GS 2, GS3 and 2 and just in case I run away v2 and v3 don't you think that this advice is kinda unrealistic.
About Valk and Berserkers and their similar DMG it's kinda unfair because just a single talent gives you 40% passive crit with cheap access to Fury it becomes like 70% crit on a 20.5k HP guardian with all the boons in the world excluding Alacrity.

Last thing The guardian Pre pops the Focus 5 so It explodes when he blinks. When do I exactly hit him to prevent it from exploding?
Are you playing Guardian by any chance?

 

If the skill is significantly hindering your ability to survive, you dodge it. That's the purpose of dodging to prevent taking damage. It has the initial glow before it lands. The very second it starts, you want to dodge. It's imperative if it's also chunking you down enough to be making a post about it ruining your sustain.

 

As for what I would do in the situation in a profession-by-profession basis:

• Thief (any variety):
  • Dodge. Thief has a lot of dodge access.
  • You could blind too.
• Elementalist (most varieties):
  • Dodge. You have other buttons that can dodge or block too.
  • You could blind too.
• Mesmer (Power):
  • GS beam the Focus 5, one auto will remove it.
  • Time your Sword 2 to dodge the burst or Focus 4.
  • Dodge. You have other buttons that can dodge or even negate attacks entirely.
• Necromancer (Non-Harb):
  • Scourge, you just put some barrier up to soak the damage.
  • Dodge.
  • Pop shroud to eat some damage and engage while they're trying to attack.
• Warrior (Spellbreaker):
  • Focus 4 landed? Free Full Counter procs!
  • Dodge.
  • Interrupt it?

Perhaps I'm jaded and I'm used to these sort of interactions, and knowing when to dodge them most times. I just accept I messed up if they land Focus 5 on me with a full crit and everything. Same with Focus 4. When it lands, that just means I need to hold my heal until it's done. Or dodge at some point to negate 2 ticks.

I actually play Elementalist, Mesmer, Necromancer, and Warrior. I mess around with Guardian occasionally but mostly stick to Mesmer or Elementalist.

If you're NA I'd love to duel sometime! : >

Edited May 15 by Vinny.7260

[Skary.8956]

33 minutes ago, Vinny.7260 said:

If the skill is significantly hindering your ability to survive, you dodge it. That's the purpose of dodging to prevent taking damage. It has the initial glow before it lands. The very second it starts, you want to dodge. It's imperative if it's also chunking you down enough to be making a post about it ruining your sustain.

 

As for what I would do in the situation in a profession-by-profession basis:

• Thief (any variety):
  • Dodge. Thief has a lot of dodge access.
  • You could blind too.
• Elementalist (most varieties):
  • Dodge. You have other buttons that can dodge or block too.
  • You could blind too.

Perhaps I'm jaded and I'm used to these sort of interactions, and knowing when to dodge them most times. I just accept I messed up if they land Focus 5 on me with a full crit and everything. Same with Focus 4. When it lands, that just means I need to hold my heal until it's done. Or dodge at some point to negate 2 ticks.

I actually play Elementalist, Mesmer, Necromancer, and Warrior. I mess around with Guardian occasionally but mostly stick to Mesmer or Elementalist.

If you're NA I'd love to duel sometime! 😆

Yeah just a single skill F4 can tic 50% of my HP from 1200 range remotely if I don't waste resources on it.
Wasting resources on it also makes me more vulnerable to his other toolset
It's a really simple concept for a big boy NA duel me 1vs1 bro should be able to understand this

Edited May 15 by Skary.8956

[Kuya.6495]

Is this a serious post?

[Skary.8956]

2 minutes ago, Kuya.6495 said:

Is this a serious post?

Is this a serious response? SJW? I don't see anything wrong with my post
It's expained quite well with plenty of examples

[Azure The Heartless.3261]

The cast time for ray of judgement is 3/4s second, and the animation is on you.

This is no harder to dodge than snap pull. 

Why are we pretending that you can't evade or block the initial tick of the skill on reaction? 

Quote

Last thing The guardian Pre pops the Focus 5 so It explodes when he blinks. When do I exactly hit him to prevent it from exploding?

I feel like you're being obtuse on purpose so people tell you how to fight the class. You should be able to figure out what question you should ask instead based on the bolded.

Edited May 15 by Azure The Heartless.3261

[Skary.8956]

2 minutes ago, Azure The Heartless.3261 said:

The cast time for ray of judgement is 3/4s second, and the animation is on you.

This is no harder to dodge than snap pull. 

Why are we pretending that you can't evade or block the initial tick of the skill on reaction? 

I feel like you're being obtuse on purpose so people tell you how to fight the class. You should be able to figure out what question you should ask instead based on the bolded.

You can evade and block but also it opens you up for the rest of the combo because you waste resources on this skill.
How do I know this? I play Guardian and this build feels really strong

By the way it seems like you need to change something in your life having 6.1k comments in the forum of a dead game Jesus Christ

[Azure The Heartless.3261]

9 minutes ago, Skary.8956 said:

By the way it seems like you need to change something in your life having 6.1k comments in the forum of a dead game Jesus Christ

I'm going for 6.9, its a pet project of mine, like not getting hit by Ray of Judgement

Quote

You can evade and block but also it opens you up for the rest of the combo because you waste resources on this skill.
How do I know this? I play Guardian and this build feels really strong

Just say you wanna eat damage it's ok

[Kuya.6495]

1 hour ago, Skary.8956 said:

Is this a serious response? SJW? I don't see anything wrong with my post
It's expained quite well with plenty of examples

I'm just surprised you even ran into a guardian running focus now a days

[Skary.8956]

20 minutes ago, Kuya.6495 said:

I'm just surprised you even ran into a guardian running focus now a days

I swear its viable
Make a Core G, Knockdown Signed, Save Yourself/Stand Your Ground, Valk Amulet, Ranger Rune, Relic of the Fighter(prot grants you 10% dmg), Click V1 and click F4 on a light armor target dummy or enemy thief.

[Skary.8956]

1 hour ago, Azure The Heartless.3261 said:

Just say you wanna eat damage it's ok

Alternative is you click dodge or block for this skill then you have 1 less defensive utility for the next 30k dmg that are comming your way. You kinda ignore this point.
You still get cooked

[Azure The Heartless.3261]

17 minutes ago, Skary.8956 said:

Alternative is you click dodge or block for this skill then you have 1 less defensive utility for the next 30k dmg that are comming your way. You kinda ignore this point.
You still get cooked

That's how every fight goes

You dodge backbreaker, but don't mitigate earthshaker, you will still get cooked.

You dodge gale but don't dodge phoenix or scepter setup, you will still get cooked.

You dodge drop the hammer but not coalescence, still cooked. 

You dodge hunters call but not the unrelenting follow up, cooked. 

Your mitigation strategy should involve the whole chain of potential damage, not just the one skill you think is the main thing preventing you from doing that. If you don't have the build to do that, change your build or change your playstyle. If you can't because theres no options, your problem is with the spec you're using being incapable of dealing with mitigating burst, and you're projecting that onto skills that don't have anything to do with the issue.

Edited May 15 by Azure The Heartless.3261

[Saiyan.1704]

1 hour ago, Skary.8956 said:

Make a Core G, Knockdown Signed, Save Yourself/Stand Your Ground, Valk Amulet, Ranger Rune, Relic of the Fighter(prot grants you 10% dmg), Click V1 and click F4 on a light armor target dummy or enemy thief.

A Core meme Guard burst build, let me guess, the Guard was also using Mace/Shield too I bet? Man. How can we possibly counter this extremely slow core spec that only has 1 port utility outside of swords...? If only there was a way.
 

1 hour ago, Skary.8956 said:

I swear its viable

You got owned by Guardian's Focus and swears there's no counter play to it. At this point, i'll have to say that anything is viable when you're rating is Gold1.

[Codename T.2847]

My brother in Christ, focus 4 on guardian is probably the least intimidating weapon skill that the class has. (ok maybe after torch 5) 

As others said, there is a wind-up you can dodge/block/blind whatever so it doesn't continue to hit you at all. Focus 5 can be pretty AIDS if some willbender precasts it and then teleports on your āss with either true shot or Hammer 2,but that's really only an inconvenience in WvW

[Supernova Starr.2069]

There it is, the weekly nerf willbender topic

[arazoth.7290]

Guardian focus 4,5 are fine and willbender too (no sarcasm, because previously someone thought that).

It's a l2p issue whoever thinks this is a problem 

[Lan Deathrider.5910]

On 5/15/2024 at 4:45 PM, Skary.8956 said:

By the way it seems like you need to change something in your life having 6.1k comments in the forum of a dead game Jesus Christ

Ah yes, I love it when they lose the argument and have nothing left to attack but someone's post count. 

[Skary.8956]

4 hours ago, Lan Deathrider.5910 said:

Ah yes, I love it when they lose the argument and have nothing left to attack but someone's post count. 

I kinda forgot about you guys really just like all other people that met you 😄 there is no point of arguing with anyone of you because this is a dead game and this is a dead forum where oddly enough all most nerdy and useless individuals like you gather to have some sense of community. I can see you got hurt because you have 13k comments 😄 you must have nothing in your life for sure

For me it feels like focus 4 and focus 5 might not be the best skills that G has access to but I feel like they deal quite a bit of dmg combined with V1.
That was my forum post and I gave an example. Everything else like just dodge it not dodge it is irrelevant 7.4k offhand weapon with additional 5k it's quite good especially when you have sword in the main hand.
If you don't see the point I'm making I really feel sorry for you buddy 😞
 

[Skary.8956]

To the rest of the commenters that started adding their convoluted scenarios and wishful thinking.
I pointed out that this skill combo deals 12k dmg when done properly for very little risk involved.
People mention things like blind but you have cheap stability on G.
Some people mentioned rank and things like that the highest rank I ever was was low g2 without spamming any meta builds Untamed Mace, Chrono Support, Spellbreaker nonsense
Getting high rank in this is not a priority for me because I have more important things in my life then to spam just meta specs on a duo que 😞

[Vinny.7260]

Aite, definitely time to just close this post.

Nuffin' productive going on here. GG.

[Eddbopkins.2630]

I do agree it is an overpowered skill. It doesn't need to do the damage over time since it's not a condition.

[Skary.8956]

11 minutes ago, Eddbopkins.2630 said:

I do agree it is an overpowered skill. It doesn't need to do the damage over time since it's not a condition.

Finally someone gets it!
A skill that behaves like a condition that cannot be removed and scales from power.
 

[shion.2084]

On 5/15/2024 at 4:28 PM, Skary.8956 said:

Yeah just a single skill F4 can tic 50% of my HP from 1200 range remotely if I don't waste resources on it.
Wasting resources on it also makes me more vulnerable to his other toolset
It's a really simple concept for a big boy NA duel me 1vs1 bro should be able to understand this

if Vinny is buckets (mooooO)... I think you probably don't want to duel him unless you're very good.

Edited May 21 by shion.2084