Caster weapons. Help?

I have an Ele, Mesmer, and Necro who are all in need of some new weapon sets. I'm tired of staves and wands. I've heard that they usually come as follows:

Martial wep with +5e and +30hp
Shield with +30hp and +10 armor vs. X type dmg
OR Focus with an HCT/HRT mod and "Forget me not" insc

So I was wondering a few things regarding Mesmer, Ele, and Necro casting weapons.
- What do you think of caster weapons?
- Preference for a caster set (martial wep, shield and stats)

If anyone has pictures or recommendations of good casting wep sets, feel free to post them!

Edit: Thanks for answering my question about a focus and correcting the stats.
This is for PVE.

Are you talking PvP or PvE or both?

I'd have to admit I don't have much experience with PvP or the "martial" weapon sets for casters. Near as I can tell though, they are more useful in PvP than PvE (although they work, or course)

That.

If you use them in PvE, it's mostly for looks. You have the stats right though.



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your pretty much spot on, expect for shields, you caant get max AP shields with a +5energy inscrip.

Personally though i like caster weps, they usually compliment armour better and more protection from beasties in HM = good. Usually focuses are used when your running low on energy (if casting inyour defensive set EG.sword and shield) as they give a nice +12 energy and if you so choose a +15 -1 inscrip for even more.

Personally i wouldnt recomend a caster set for an ele unless you use a low energy req build, but others may disagree

hope that helps

Thanks for clearing that up for me, much appreciated! :3
Any good sets someone can mention?

I'm gonna say those are the ones he needs info for.



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Specific choices come down to exactly what your build and attributes are.

For example, a general BSurge ele would use...

1 - dual 20/20 wand/offhand for air magic
2 - 20/20/20 air staff with +20% enchants
3 - 10% HCT sword of fortitude, +10 al vs. X shield of fortitude
4 - high energy (15/-1) wand and offhand

However, if that same ele decided to spec for [[ward against melee] or [[splinter weapon], his staff would be swapped for a dual 20/20 set for his support attribute.

Generally, though, your main casting set (1) is dual 20/20 for your main attribute; and you've got defensive sets (martial + shield, high hp) and high-energy (15/-1 wand/offhand) on switch too - essentially, the staff set in 2 is your build-dependant wildcard.

Also, the 20/20/20 staff with +enchants is the best set for casting enchants. Except in specific situations (55 monks), swords/axes/spears are actually rather bad by comparison.

As another example, a standard dom guy (running dom shutdown w/ inspiration stuff) would have sets like...

1 - dual 20/20 wand/offhand for domination magic
2 - dual 20/20 wand/offhand for inspiration magic
3 - +5e sword of fortitude, +10 al vs. X shield of fortitude
4 - high energy (15/-1) wand and offhand

Switch to 1 for Diversion/ESurge/Shame, switch to 2 for PDrain/Drain Enchant.