Curse

Victim · Jul 04, 2006, 04:00 AM // 04:00

I've seen focus swapping mentioned a number of times here and on the wiki, and I'd apprepriate it if people could explain it to me. Quite obviously, it's about changing the character's weapon and/or focus item to fit the circumstances. But how can this be used effectively?

When trying stuff out, I had one set with fairly normal focuses, and then another which gave a massive energy boost at the expense of regen. The idea was that if I ran out of energy, I could switch to the second set for a big energy boost, and then switch back to regain energy. However, in practice, my energy evidently went negative (although the display stopped at zero) given the time it took to regen, which removes most of the benefit.

So obviously swapping isn't that simple. What kind of tactics and items are used?

Apple · Jul 04, 2006, 04:28 AM // 04:28

Well, firstly versus Energy Denial, you'd ideally want a LOW energy set, as they cant take any more when you have 0 energy!
Most people will use a -5 energy sword or axe and a shield (with an inherent defensive mod as you wont meet the req) or a -5 energy offhand to "hide" their energy while not casting, then switch to a regular energy set to cast spells before quickly switching back to a low energy set. (this tactic is also good to use versus the effects of wither & malaise, which ends when you have 0 energy, so it's easy to end those hexes)
Experienced energy denial mesmers will be able to realise when you are unhidden, as they will be watching your character to see the weapon skins changing, so they'll steal your energy when you're exposed. To counter this, ideally you should have two swords/axes with the same skin (a +5 energy and a 15%/-5 energy) so it doesnt show when you're switching as obviously.

Another reason for focus swapping is if you come up against a particular type of enemy. For instance : if you come up against Bring Back The Rifts or Rus Corp, chances are they'll be using Fast Cast Airspike Mesmers, and so, you'd want as much Defence against Lightning Damage as possible, so you'd switch (assuming you're monking) from your "received damage -2 while enchanted/+45 health" shield to your "Armour +10 Versus Lightning/+30 Health" Shield, which gives you an extra +10 armour versus that particular type of damage. (well, not really, due to the 25% armour penetration, but you get the idea :P)
The same applies versus IWAY : You'd take out your "+10 armour versus slashing/30health" shield, and you'd have more basic protection versus the warriors.
etc etc for different builds.

Versus a SPIKE guild, you'd immediately realise that you need as much as health as possible, so you'd switch to as high health as possible, to ease the strain on the monks. If you're uber pimped out, then you can switch to your +55 health HoD Axe and +45/-2 enchanted shield for a health bonus of 100 over your standard health, but that's not within the range of the regular player, so simply removing the armour piece with a superior rune and switching to a +60 health staff or a +30 health sword/axe/+45/-2 enchanted shield combo which does the job pretty well.

Say you get forced into a situation where you're forced to kill yourself : say you get stuck in the level and are unable to move, you'd switch to your Vampiric Weapon (which should be gold and have an inherent -1 health regeneration/xx% Damage, for additional degen), then you can be resurrected from the res. portal (assuming there is one).

The reason people use shields is the fact that even if you dont meet the req, you still gain the benefits of the bonuses. (And you also get +8 directional AL rather than the +16 directional AL you'd get if you met the req, and that's the ONLY bonus to meeting the requirement of a shield, which is very limited).

There are probably more uses that i've forgotten about, but these are all i can think of at the moment...

Wasteland Squidget · Jul 04, 2006, 04:38 AM // 04:38

Focus swapping has a number of uses, but most of them come down to hiding your energy.

Figure that whatever you normally have equipped gives you a certain energy bonus. A staff gives +10, a focus item gives +12, and a +energy weapon gives another +5. So when you've got your normal items equipped you're getting 10-17 energy from your items.

As a result, un-equipping those items gives you a 0 energy pool, with that 10-17 that you can get any time by switching back. This is mainly useful against enemy skills which drain energy - if you're sitting at 0 energy with 17 in your items, you're immune to energy denial until you need to swap back up. This is also great for skills like Purge Signet which come with a 'lose all energy' tag, since you can hide a bunch of your energy and avoid losing it to the skill use.

There is an excellent article that goes into more detail here. It may be a bit old, but should have the info you need.

Apple · Jul 04, 2006, 04:56 AM // 04:56

Way to waste my time Squidget :P

Victim · Jul 04, 2006, 07:35 AM // 07:35

Ah, thank you both.

zola · Jul 04, 2006, 08:29 AM // 08:29

An idea I got from this forum is that if you know you are about to die, you should switch to the low energy set.

--zola

Wasteland Squidget · Jul 04, 2006, 08:33 AM // 08:33

Quote:

Originally Posted by zola

An idea I got from this forum is that if you know you are about to die, you should switch to the low energy set.

Agreed. Resses always restore a certain percentage of your current energy pool, so anything you would recieve from re-equipping a focus comes as 'free' energy after you get ressed.

It's even possible to exhaust out your dual +15s, then switch back to your negative energy when you're about to die and get all that energy back with a signet. This is generally not recommended though, since getting suddenly spiked and dying in your +15s is a very bad thing for your energy after the res.

romO · Jul 05, 2006, 05:10 PM // 17:10

Wasteland and Apple do a good job with the basics of focus swapping. Shield swapping is popular and effective to counter different types of damage and goes along with armor swapping. Hiding energy is generally used for one weapon set in order to not get drained. A couple of other weapon sets that I use are the 32/4 recharge set (20% recharge wand and 20% recharge offhand) when casting energy management skills such as drain enchantment or energy drain in order to maximize the efficiency of those skills. One may equip a +armor sword and a shield the whole game, but should swap to the recharge set when casting skills that require faster recharge (generally energy management, but there are others). The other prevalent set is the +energy/-regen set, which is used in desperate situations. This is a wand with +15 energy/-1 regen and offhand with +15 energy/-1 regen, and can be swapped to for an addition to one's energy pool when it is absolutely necessary. For casters, it can be used when the opposing team is wiping and one needs some additional energy to finish them off. For monks, when one's own team is going down quickly, it can provide the save that one needs. Of course, it will be difficult to recover from delving deeply into this set, but with proper energy management and efficient healing, it is not too detrimental. Dying when you are under the effects of your +energy/-regen set is one of the worst fates one can reach, because however you are resurrected (assuming that it is not by the shrine), you will actually start with negative energy (counting from a basic sword/shield combination or a wand/offhand set).