Focus Guardian was "Nerfed into the ground?"

[Marqhill]

What are you crazy? I've been playing Vigilance since about February (end of january beginning of february it's tough to rememeber because it was pretty much right after I hit 50). I truly love the Vigilance spec but with ranked war zones coming out 2 days ago I decided to give Focus a chance because I wanted to make sure that I was familiar with all 3 Guardian specs in case my premade needs me to switch specs around based on the needs of the group. Yesterday was my first time using Focus. I never used it before the "Nerf" but as it stands if you're one of the people who believes that this spec is somehow "nerfed into the ground," as many have said, then you're crazy. I'm currently fully warhero geared and being able to go into a ranked war zone and hit other war hero geared players for anywhere from 4k (on tanks) to 5k (on heavy armored DPS) to 6 or 7k (on everyone else) is pretty powerful anyway you cut it. These are other players with War Hero gear as well so it's not like I'm beating on low geared players either. The rotation is also incredibly easy. I was actually even shocked to discover that the rotation is easier than Vigilance. You don't have to keep an eye on whether or not Zen Strike is proc'ed, you don't even need riposte, Force Exhaustion will turn your target into a punching bag, and oh the LoL-Sweeps...

 

What a lot of people refuse to understand is that as I guessed while you do slightly less damage and Force Sweep is on a slightly longer cool down all the way they've added singularity generation to Cobmat Focus you now have the ability to make ALL of your Force Sweeps the massive Sweep Bombs that you see on teh interwebz. So you may not be able to sweep as often, but when you do on average you're hitting harder than ever. Which is incredibly important in PvP. So yeah... stop complaining. Focus is still ridiculously good.

Edited June 28, 2012 by Marqhill
spelling & grammar

[Noxenus]

I've really enjoyed focus these past few days and that's coming from someone in Battlemaster gear, and I actually feel like the survivability has improved since the patch (could be just imaging things though haha). I think all Guardian specs are viable in PvP it's just up to the player to utilize their strengths.

[Marqhill]

I've really enjoyed focus these past few days and that's coming from someone in Battlemaster gear, and I actually feel like the survivability has improved since the patch (could be just imaging things though haha). I think all Guardian specs are viable in PvP it's just up to the player to utilize their strengths.

 

Agreed.

[Safgril]

What are you crazy? I've been playing Vigilance since about February (end of january beginning of february it's tough to rememeber because it was pretty much right after I hit 50). I truly love the Vigilance spec but with ranked war zones coming out 2 days ago I decided to give Focus a chance because I wanted to make sure that I was familiar with all 3 Guardian specs in case my premade needs me to switch specs around based on the needs of the group. Yesterday was my first time using Focus. I never used it before the "Nerf" but as it stands if you're one of the people who believes that this spec is somehow "nerfed into the ground," as many have said, then you're crazy. I'm currently fully warhero geared and being able to go into a ranked war zone and hit other war hero geared players for anywhere from 4k (on tanks) to 5k (on heavy armored DPS) to 6 or 7k (on everyone else) is pretty powerful anyway you cut it. These are other players with War Hero gear as well so it's not like I'm beating on low geared players either. The rotation is also incredibly easy. I was actually even shocked to discover that the rotation is easier than Vigilance. You don't have to keep an eye on whether or not Zen Strike is proc'ed, you don't even need riposte, Force Exhaustion will turn your target into a punching bag, and oh the LoL-Sweeps...

 

What a lot of people refuse to understand is that as I guessed while you do slightly less damage and Force Sweep is on a slightly longer cool down all the way they've added singularity generation to Cobmat Focus you now have the ability to make ALL of your Force Sweeps the massive Sweep Bombs that you see on teh interwebz. So you may not be able to sweep as often, but when you do on average you're hitting harder than ever. Which is incredibly important in PvP. So yeah... stop complaining. Focus is still ridiculously good.

 

nah its not nerfed... the tank spec is though.. TTK is up and tank spec is pretty useless in pvp.

 

if you do sweep spec in focus you still do TONS of damage.

[Jageera]

I could barely stand it after 1.2. I was Vig or Hybrid Vig for most of 1.2 and the few times I went back to Focus, it made me sick. Then just a couple weeks ago I went back to get the best use out of adrenals/relics while I could. For some reason, after a lot of time as Vig, Focus seemed much less sluggish and clunky as it did when 1.2 first came out.

 

Now, after 1.3 with all this extra power available, I don't miss the temporary buffs at all. Focus is hitting harder than it ever has. Topped my pre-1.2 top damage just yesterday.

 

http://img84.imageshack.us/img84/2551/6272l.jpg

[Marqhill]

I don't really see how it's clunky at all though. I have never really found myself in a situation where I didn't have a series of attacks that I could throw out, leading into a massive sweep bomb. Now I will say that I'm not throwing out the unrelenting hellstorm of attacks that I throw out there when I'm Vigilance spec'ed. But every move I make is carefully considered to set up the next massive sweep. I've only been playing it since Wednesday and I find it to be very smooth and playable.

[Jageera]

I don't really see how it's clunky at all though.

Force Sweep went from 9 second CD to 12 second CD, Force Stasis went from 47 sec CD to 60 sec CD, Blade Storm went from 9 sec CD to 12 sec CD, as well as a slew of other abilities had their CDs increased by at least 3 seconds. The immediate impact was obviously noticeable, just in having to wait 25% longer to Sweep.

 

Now, it's not nearly as apparent.

Edited June 29, 2012 by Jageera

[StDogbert]

In mostly battlemaster with a few war hero was playing focus before and after the patch and all i can say is wow before the patch if i popped my relics i hit for around 5K with sweep now its doing 6K.

 

I also noticed force push now doing around 2.5K damage, i think people really underestimated the change to single saber mastery when combined with the other force talents in the focus tree. Focus is an absolute monster now.

[Hyryu]

Focus kindof got the nerf in 1.2, tank spec is the 1.3 nerf. The only thing I miss is popping adrenals and relics for massive sweep bombs or being able to run an entire WZ in Soresu form and not be able to tell a huge difference. I agree that Focus is pretty fun.

[KiranK]

The only thing I miss from vigilance is unremitting. I hate getting immediately knocked back after a leap. They really should just put it lower in the tree so everyone can get it.

[chritie]

The only thing I miss from vigilance is unremitting. I hate getting immediately knocked back after a leap. They really should just put it lower in the tree so everyone can get it.

 

Meh. It's actually funnier this way. Make sure you have a Rakata stim or something active and you're in Vindicator Gear. Then try this on a sorc:

 

Sabre Throw->Zealous Leap -> Master Strike->Get Knocked Back->Pop Combat Focus->Force Leap->Sweep->Blade Storm-> Dispatch

 

It's funny because:

1. Zealous Leap is close range.

2. A Master Strike fake is good because if they eat it, cool, if not, the fun is not over .

3. You get a second to pop Combat Focus.

4. Force Leap with Vindicator Gear causes a 10% increase in damage...

5. Sweep will hit ridiculously hard with an auto-crit, a powerful stim, 10% damage increase, and the 6% Shi-Cho increase.

6. Blade Storm is a free cast(if you speced it).

7. Dispatch will wreck them if it lasts this long.

 

Ah, the fun of playing things that people aren't familiar with and totally don't expect.

[Sir-Coffee]

The fact that Focus is amazing in Rateds shows how bad people are.

 

Stun/knockback a Jugg/Guardian on force charge. That is all you have to do....

Edited July 4, 2012 by SithEBM

[Bare-Giin]

The fact that Focus is amazing in Rateds shows how bad people are.

 

Stun/knockback a Jugg/Guardian on force charge. That is all you have to do....

 

Cant speak for all focus/rage specced dudes out there but at this rate at least some of us has learned not to smash right after a leap.. espeacially if u leaps at a sorc/sage cuz the knockback animation is yelling "do not smash now" .. BUT the fact that focus/rage is amazing in rateds dont show have bad ppl are it just shows that the shared warrior/knight tree is damn effective in pvp..

[KiranK]

No one sweeps/smashes right after a leap. Everyone has their knockback practically on auto-press as soon as someone pounces them. Just wait patiently and strike when you're in range. The fact that ppl think that tactic works only shows how bad they are.

[Upurss]

I was doing some calculations in my head....

 

Pre 1.2 we were able to sweep 6 times in a minute (6.5 if you want to get technical)

 

Post 1.2 we're now able to sweep 5 times in a minute

 

HOWEVER

 

Pre 1.2 you could only build up singularity 4 times in a minute

 

Post 1.2 you can build it up 5 times in a minute

 

so basically not only were we not "nerfed into the ground" but actually got buffed

[Jageera]

so basically not only were we not "nerfed into the ground" but actually got buffed

That's not a buff. They made it more manageable, but made the burst a little further apart. Beside that, we lost 10% in Sweep damage from talents, lots 3-13 seconds increases in CDs other than Sweep, and had shit talents replace the ones that were moved out of the tree or cut. Though, I suppose the Inner Focus change makes up for the Zephyrean Slash and Through Peace garbage.

[Upurss]

That's not a buff. They made it more manageable, but made the burst a little further apart. Beside that, we lost 10% in Sweep damage from talents, lots 3-13 seconds increases in CDs other than Sweep, and had shit talents replace the ones that were moved out of the tree or cut. Though, I suppose the Inner Focus change makes up for the Zephyrean Slash and Through Peace garbage.

 

Actually the burst is closer together, you can do a full singularity stack sweep every 12 seconds, where as pre 1.2 you would run into gaps between your x4 singularity sweeps, not to mention post 1.2 offers an instant 4 stack which basically enables you to do 2 full stack sweeps in a 12 second period

 

I'm willing to bet that people weren't even sweeping nearly as often as they are now because of this

 

As far as swelling winds getting nerfed by 10%, you have to also remember that it was moved into the focus tree which gave us extra talent points, they also gave cyclone slash 20% boost which helps make up for a little bit of the damage, and they've now put a 6% force damage bonus into the vig tree, there was also a boost to expertise

 

Also post 1.2 offers the ability of viable focus hybrid builds where you can pick up tier 3 talents and still do max damage sweeps, and up until 1.3 you could actually pick up purifying sweep and do even more damage

 

That doesn't include the buffs we were given along with these so called "nerfs"

 

I also agree that zeph slash is kinda redundant it would be a lot nicer if they removed the stance restriction from it

Edited July 10, 2012 by Upurss

[Jageera]

Actually the burst is closer together, you can do a full singularity stack sweep every 12 seconds, where as pre 1.2 you would run into gaps between your x4 singularity sweeps, not to mention post 1.2 offers an instant 4 stack which basically enables you to do 2 full stack sweeps in a 12 second period

 

I'm willing to bet that people weren't even sweeping nearly as often as they are now because of this

 

As far as swelling winds getting nerfed by 10%, you have to also remember that it was moved into the focus tree which gave us extra talent points, they also gave cyclone slash 20% boost which helps make up for a little bit of the damage, and they've now put a 6% force damage bonus into the vig tree, there was also a boost to expertise

 

Also post 1.2 offers the ability of viable focus hybrid builds where you can pick up tier 3 talents and still do max damage sweeps, and up until 1.3 you could actually pick up purifying sweep and do even more damage

 

That doesn't include the buffs we were given along with these so called "nerfs"

 

I also agree that zeph slash is kinda redundant it would be a lot nicer if they removed the stance restriction from it

Yeah, it was a buff for the long term. 1.2 also came with Expertise redesign, where DPS across the board became glass. Long fights aren't nearly as frequent as they were pre-1.2, these days. So for the short term, it was a hard hit. But the worst part came that it also affected any force ability's cooldown. That's Sweep, Stasis (by 13!!!!!! seconds), Blade Storm, Exhaustion, and Force Push that all became that much less accessible. Focused Defense, which is a garbage PVE CD unless you spec Vig (though it's still mediocre as Vig), didn't answer the survivability problem that they said they were addressing.

 

I understand there were a few neat new things they did to help our QoL, but I can't possibly think that it was a buff in any way. All things considered, with the gear that's available now, Focus would be way OP if they didn't nerf Focus.

[Nyo-Than]

question, i have recently started a focus guardian and i'm unsure what form is best for use in a wz? i use soresu since i seem to last longer in wz's. also what should i have in my offhand, shield or focus?

[MimicUnleashed]

question, i have recently started a focus guardian and i'm unsure what form is best for use in a wz? i use soresu since i seem to last longer in wz's. also what should i have in my offhand, shield or focus?

 

Shi-Cho form. Always. And a focus since a shield is worthless outside Soresu.