I loved Jedi Knight Guardain Focus spec till 1.2

[xXSpikeSpiegelXx]

@ all game devs i dont know what u thought, but u completely destroyed the fun gameplay of a focus speced guardian.

 

I just can tell for my gameplay its at least 35% less dmg output overall and 30% lower singel hit with force sweep<--- that was the main attacck.

 

For me u totally ruined the game!

 

Pls at all other come with your experience

[Fiveskin]

With around 900 expertise, you'll hit for the same you did before the patch in pvp. Some skills will hit for a lot more: Master Strike, Slash.

 

In pvp, my Focus guardian is even deadlier than before the patch... I cannot speak to pve, however. I have no pve gear and am told that pvp gear doesn't stack up well against pve mobs after the patch.

[WaywardOne]

Doing dailies on ilum my guardian died a couple times (new key binds/ rotations and semi-distracted play). That hasn't happened in months.

 

In pvp with 1k expertise i was fine. Sweep bombs are a little weaker - maybe 20 perc - but everything else was the same or better. More importantly I wasn't seeing enemy healthbars regenerating superfast. I'm perfectly fine with my guardian.

[wispersixty]

Dunno what your doing wrong but in PvP my Focus Guardian *****. Bigger Force Sweep Crits than I've ever seen. Stack expertise = win. Just for testing purposes i put on all that new blue gear instead of my BM gear and I can crit full BM's for over 3.5k in **** blue gear. Plus with the new spec your opener is SO much stronger without having to wait for stacks to build. Masterstrike is now actually viable in PvP. it hits like a battleship. I've seen 2k 2k 3.5k from my Master Strike Crits. Dunno what your doing, but the patch was hella good to me.

[heckam]

I have a lvl 48 Focus spec'd Guardian, and since update 1.2 rolled in I'm having a harder time surviving the mobs in PvE. I'm using Doc as a healer and he's well equipped (orange gear with blue mods/armoring/enhancements, as well as blue earpice/implants/waist/wrists).

It was a bit difficult before patch 1.2 if I pulled 3 or 4 mobs on me, but I could manage. Now I'm barely making it out alive from a 3 mob fight, and most of the times I have to use a medpack.

Any of you guys with focus-spec'd guardians have survivability issues since update 1.2 was implemented?

[Dee-Jay]

I too really hate Focus DPS since 1.2.

 

It was the funnest spec before but the 12 second CD on Sweep just ruins it. And the fact that everyone is now a glass cannon doesn't help. More often then not I'll be dead before I can get off my 2nd Sweep.

 

Vigilance is dull as hell, so yeah....not much fun to be had there either.

 

Overall I've really come to detest 1.2 on my Guardian.

Edited April 18, 2012 by Dee-Jay

[CapuchinSeven]

Do you ever get tired of making these non-constructive, juvenile style posts dude? I seriously doubt that anyone on these forums are impressed. Seriously, all you do is make two sentence posts bragging about how you have no trouble with X when someone else posts about having trouble with X.

 

Talk about a one track mind.

 

However abrasive he might have been he sound spot on to me, the OP whines his face roll focus bombs deal less damage and ignores that focus deals more damage now you just have to work slightly harder for it.

 

Plus, I'm starting to think those doing less damage with their bombs are probably wearing old BM gear with less expertise or even worse Champion or Centurion.

Edited April 18, 2012 by CapuchinSeven

[durhame]

Since 1.2 my dps has actually increased as a focus guard. just takes a few respecs to find your groove and knowing what button to press and when.

[Upurss]

I personally enjoy my Focus Guardian...for me personally 1.2 made it a lot more enjoyable

 

I noticed that many people were complaining about the spec before it even came out...some just a couple hours after. A lot of people seem to be complaining for absolutely no reason.

 

Although it is strange with a slightly longer cool down on sweep, I've found myself having more time to use my support abilities and my new and improved master strike , also I love being able to drop an instant sweep bomb with cyclone slash

 

Its a great improvement and I noticed die hard Guardians all seem to be enjoying it (at least the ones who gave it a chance)

[lordkhouri]

i sincerely disagree with the op.

 

i am a focus guardian, and i always will be. i could never respec and be as effective.

 

before 1.2 i was in mostly BM gear and i always topped wz damage (1,2, or 3 unless solo defending a node) with my max damage in a wz being 596k in a voidstar, and my biggest hit was 5.8k. Since the patch, i've added a few more attacks to my rotation, but i still do consistently over 300k and my hits are just as hard, if not harder. i hit a fresh 50 for 6012 one time without a relic or adrenal.

 

My expertise is at 1075 and i've remodded my gear for power and surge, so my surge is up to 79.4% on normal attacks and 109% on force attacks.

[Sickboy_]

focus is not viable in pvp anymore in 1.2, for those people lying about "doing as well" or "better" than 1.1 focus guardians, that's because you're hitting people that suck, have no pvp gear, or both. in 1.1 focus was a force to be reckoned with, now its a joke.

[Purgo]

Can someone post their new 1.2 focus spec?

[Cygneso]

I really don't understand why people are saying Focus turned into a useless spec in PvP after 1.2

 

I've played both Vigilance and Focus extensively so my opinions are not biased. I consistently get top damage done as both specs.

 

Vigilance, imo, still does pretty weak damage, especially to armored targets, the DoT damage is laughable. I think the only reason why Vigilance seems "overpowered" or "decent" now is because of the expertise changes they made. The TTK an opponent is alot shorter now due to it, throw in the 30% requirement and guaranteed critical on dispatch added with the master strike buffs..need I say more?

 

Focus has been my primary spec for about 1.5 months now. On bad games I still net about 500k damage done and my most damage done has been 750k in Voidstar, pre-1.2. Now in 1.2, I still do about 500k on average. Most people complaining about the nerfs, in all honesty, it was needed. For those of you crying about how you only get 3k-4k crits, probably still have an excess of crit/accuracy in your gear. Focus is all about surge and power attributes, I'm still adjusting currently because they completely destroyed the itemization for Focus with the expertise change; however, with about 450 bonus damage now I'm still consistently hitting targets for 5k-6k on properly geared opponents(without relics or adrenals)

 

Most people fail to see that the TTK someone now also benefits Focus, maybe even more. Singularity DoT damage plus a full-stacked sweep and a full master strike is about 13K damage AT least.

 

Focus-spec is fine in 1.2. Learn to adjust.

Edited April 19, 2012 by Cygneso

[bobadiiq]

vigilance hipsters...lol

 

i too ran focus until 1.2 - what made me switch to vig was having to waste skill points in the 2nd tier of focus on SLASH? seriously...what is worse than white melee damage in pvp? add in vig tree giving cc immunity, auto blade/dispatch crits PLUS 15% damage reduction on new defense ability ... seriously, i'm still in mostly champ gear and when i pop enure and focused defense it adds precious seconds in pvp.

 

not saying focus isn't good anymore, but slash perks are WEAK

[Marqhill]

vigilance hipsters...lol

 

i too ran focus until 1.2 - what made me switch to vig was having to waste skill points in the 2nd tier of focus on SLASH? seriously...what is worse than white melee damage in pvp? add in vig tree giving cc immunity, auto blade/dispatch crits PLUS 15% damage reduction on new defense ability ... seriously, i'm still in mostly champ gear and when i pop enure and focused defense it adds precious seconds in pvp.

 

not saying focus isn't good anymore, but slash perks are WEAK

 

ACTUALLY, you can totally dance around those. This is a basic template of what most people are doing with their 1.2 Focus Builds.

 

http://www.torhead.com/skill-calc#500MMZcMzZGrobdfRrcz.1

 

As you can see you don't have to put points into the abilities on the second Tier of the Focus tree if you don't want to. You also get a 6% buff to all your melee abilities as well. And you get a a 3% increase in strength. You still get your free Blade Storm after a force leap and the extra focus and extra stack of sundering from Sundering Strike.

 

This is the general Focus Build that most people are running now and the focus guardians who stuck with it on my server are noticing very similar over all damage output since 1.2 hit.

[Smashbrother]

ACTUALLY, you can totally dance around those. This is a basic template of what most people are doing with their 1.2 Focus Builds.

 

http://www.torhead.com/skill-calc#500MMZcMzZGrobdfRrcz.1

 

As you can see you don't have to put points into the abilities on the second Tier of the Focus tree if you don't want to. You also get a 6% buff to all your melee abilities as well. And you get a a 3% increase in strength. You still get your free Blade Storm after a force leap and the extra focus and extra stack of sundering from Sundering Strike.

 

This is the general Focus Build that most people are running now and the focus guardians who stuck with it on my server are noticing very similar over all damage output since 1.2 hit.

 

There is no reason to take single saber mastery (+6% melee dam) when you don't even bother taking the talents to buff up slash which is now focus' core melee ability. Sweeps, force exhaustion, and blade storm aren't affect by SSM. With the 12 sec cd on sweeps, you pretty much have to use slash, so you need to take the talents to buff it. Unless you enjoy standing there doing no dps. Second wind is crap. A 10% heal every 2 mins is not worth it. It was only useful before when we could use it to get the 2.5k heal medal, but there's no point for that anymore.

 

Like one guy said earlier, the people who are saying "omg focus spec is the same" need to stop fighting bads with pve gear. The focus sweep damage is lower. There's no ifs, ands, or buts about it. It needed to be lowered, and BW lowered it. I'm fine with that. However, BW did not fix focus' other issue which is survivability. The reason why vigilance is better than focus now is because vigilance has nearly the same damage output but with much better survivability.

 

Almost forgot this. Another reason I don't like focus in 1.2 is because of gear. Pre 1.2, focus builds stacked power and surge (at the cost of crit) to maximize sweep damage since they are autocrits and don't require crit on our gear. Now, we have to get some crit to make slash not suck so much.

Edited April 19, 2012 by Smashbrother

[Goretzu]

I personally enjoy my Focus Guardian...for me personally 1.2 made it a lot more enjoyable

 

I noticed that many people were complaining about the spec before it even came out...some just a couple hours after. A lot of people seem to be complaining for absolutely no reason.

 

Although it is strange with a slightly longer cool down on sweep, I've found myself having more time to use my support abilities and my new and improved master strike , also I love being able to drop an instant sweep bomb with cyclone slash

 

Its a great improvement and I noticed die hard Guardians all seem to be enjoying it (at least the ones who gave it a chance)

 

That is a great improvement, but imagine that with the old pre-1.2 build.

 

Insta-bomb is handy too.

 

But still there was a dps nerf and still the current set-up doesn't flow very well (you end up with filler that lowers DPS).

[CapuchinSeven]

Like one guy said earlier, the people who are saying "omg focus spec is the same" need to stop fighting bads with pve gear. The focus sweep damage is lower. There's no ifs, ands, or buts about it. It needed to be lowered, and BW lowered it. I.

 

What utter junk, as usual.

 

Like for some reason everyone on my server just suddenly lost all their Battlemaster gear and all the people we're used to fighting are suddenly different people. L O L.

 

A number of classes took reductions to damage but hit for the same or more because of reductions to mitigation, stamina and expertise scaling.

 

But oops sorry, you pretended to put me on rage ignore didn't you because you have it so deep in your head that we're broken and that I was talking about a talent in Focus that you couldn't see out of the box and figure out that you were wrong.

 

The level of competence for this class is just horrific. The age old Guardian excuse, it doesn't matter how many servers you play on, how well other Guardians do, how many other classes you play if you do fine with Guardian then your server is totally full of bads in PVE greens.

 

But still there was a dps nerf and still the current set-up doesn't flow very well (you end up with filler that lowers DPS).

 

White damage hits MUCH harder in 1.2, MUCH harder. If anything Focus deals more DPS just less burst and those that are incapable of altering their play style to deal with the longer cooldown are the ones with the issue.

Edited April 19, 2012 by CapuchinSeven

[Upurss]

There is no reason to take single saber mastery (+6% melee dam) when you don't even bother taking the talents to buff up slash which is now focus' core melee ability. Sweeps, force exhaustion, and blade storm aren't affect by SSM. With the 12 sec cd on sweeps, you pretty much have to use slash, so you need to take the talents to buff it. Unless you enjoy standing there doing no dps. Second wind is crap. A 10% heal every 2 mins is not worth it. It was only useful before when we could use it to get the 2.5k heal medal, but there's no point for that anymore.

 

Like one guy said earlier, the people who are saying "omg focus spec is the same" need to stop fighting bads with pve gear. The focus sweep damage is lower. There's no ifs, ands, or buts about it. It needed to be lowered, and BW lowered it. I'm fine with that. However, BW did not fix focus' other issue which is survivability. The reason why vigilance is better than focus now is because vigilance has nearly the same damage output but with much better survivability.

 

Almost forgot this. Another reason I don't like focus in 1.2 is because of gear. Pre 1.2, focus builds stacked power and surge (at the cost of crit) to maximize sweep damage since they are autocrits and don't require crit on our gear. Now, we have to get some crit to make slash not suck so much.

 

Saber mastery buffs master strike, cyclone slash, and zealous leap, which are abilities that should be used way more often than slash.

 

I use slash maybe once or twice in a battleground, it doesn't make sense to put 4 points into buffing it for me....there's no way I would ever call it my primary melee attack

 

IMO the slash boxes are more for PVE guardians who use slash as a rage dump

[Goretzu]

White damage hits MUCH harder in 1.2, MUCH harder. If anything Focus deals more DPS just less burst and those that are incapable of altering their play style to deal with the longer cooldown are the ones with the issue.

 

I've altered my play style all over the place, and there just doesn't seem to be a rotation that doesn't plain stall out.

 

There's simply no real way to accommodate the longer CD without doing some daft filler (and even then it still stalls out at some point).

 

If you want to produce a spec and rotation for me to try that you've tried and doesn't do the above, then by all means do so.

Edited April 19, 2012 by Goretzu

[Upurss]

I've altered my play style all over the place, and there just doesn't seem to be a rotation that doesn't plain stall out.

 

There's simply no real way to accommodate the longer CD without doing some daft filler (and even then it still stalls out at some point).

 

If you want to produce a spec and rotation for me to try that you've tried and doesn't do the above, then by all means do so.

 

I never really have a rotation in PVP just a priority of moves I use in certain situations

 

when my main cooldowns are all down I usually try to build up focus, if i'm already full, i'll dump some of it with slash, or i'll use some of my defensive moves and play support for a bit....if i'm being attacked i'll usually los and reheal

 

either way there's usually only 1 maybe 2 gcds before my moves come back up

[Smashbrother]

Saber mastery buffs master strike, cyclone slash, and zealous leap, which are abilities that should be used way more often than slash.

 

I use slash maybe once or twice in a battleground, it doesn't make sense to put 4 points into buffing it for me....there's no way I would ever call it my primary melee attack

 

IMO the slash boxes are more for PVE guardians who use slash as a rage dump

 

MS has a 27s cd, z leap 15, and cyclone slash blows. Slash does equal or better dam than z leap and cyclone slash. Those moves are situational too. If you're not using slash now than *** are you doing in between sweep bombs? Twiddling your thumb?

 

If you're gonna pick up SSM, get the talents to buff slash since it's the most used melee ability for focus now.

Edited April 20, 2012 by Smashbrother

[Carcarah]

I dunno why ppl don't like to use slash in Focus spec, if properly spec'ed it deals between 1.5 and 2.5K dmg and when crits I've done 3-3.4K. If your focus bar is 1/3 full you can saber throw (1.5K), focus, force leap (0.8K), focus, sweep (5K), 3 x slash (7.0K) and dispatch (3K) = 17K+ dmg and I'm not considering crits, all this in 7 GCD and still have a few focus remaining for the next bomb followed by MS or focused defence (yes I do like this ability, just use it under fire and force leap/guardian leap away from the zerg).

[nanohana]

There is no reason to take single saber mastery (+6% melee dam) when you don't even bother taking the talents to buff up slash which is now focus' core melee ability. Sweeps, force exhaustion, and blade storm aren't affect by SSM. With the 12 sec cd on sweeps, you pretty much have to use slash, so you need to take the talents to buff it. Unless you enjoy standing there doing no dps. Second wind is crap. A 10% heal every 2 mins is not worth it. It was only useful before when we could use it to get the 2.5k heal medal, but there's no point for that anymore.

 

Like one guy said earlier, the people who are saying "omg focus spec is the same" need to stop fighting bads with pve gear. The focus sweep damage is lower. There's no ifs, ands, or buts about it. It needed to be lowered, and BW lowered it. I'm fine with that. However, BW did not fix focus' other issue which is survivability. The reason why vigilance is better than focus now is because vigilance has nearly the same damage output but with much better survivability.

 

Almost forgot this. Another reason I don't like focus in 1.2 is because of gear. Pre 1.2, focus builds stacked power and surge (at the cost of crit) to maximize sweep damage since they are autocrits and don't require crit on our gear. Now, we have to get some crit to make slash not suck so much.

 

The single most meaningful post in this thread.

[Upurss]

MS has a 27s cd, z leap 15, and cyclone slash blows. Slash does equal or better dam than z leap and cyclone slash. Those moves are situational too. If you're not using slash now than *** are you doing in between sweep bombs? Twiddling your thumb?

 

If you're gonna pick up SSM, get the talents to buff slash since it's the most used melee ability for focus now.

 

To each their own man, as seen in this post there are many other focus guardians who dont use slash but as a filler

 

and saying cyclone slash sucks is just pure blasphemy, it stacks very nicely with sweeps

Edited April 20, 2012 by Upurss