Long Time Ele Here, Should I

play a weaver? I am a long time Ele, and I play PvE / Some PvP / a lot of WvW. I love tempest support staff. I used to play D/D. My question is, I seem to see more negative comments then positive ones for weaver. Should I even bother unlocking weaver or give it a try.

I like big hit boxes, and being I roll zerk armor I see big numbers and I like what I see.

I know it don't cost anything and I know it would probably be worth a try, but again, I see better builds and setups for both core and tempest.

Really depends what you're after. I like the gameplay of the Weaver. I currently play staff weaver in both all PvE and WvW. It makes for a fine backliner with tons of damage, but there especially it shows very fast how much more restricted it is than Tempest. You're slower to get any utility or CC, and if you do you lose substantial dps. If that's OK for you, go for it.

Wvw point of view!

Weaver is not worth for roam atm. Can be done, but clasic DD is still better.

For blob with staff, weaver is great, your survability is similar to clasic but you dps is bigger. To solve what Feanor mentioned, I use sigil of frenzy so your CDs (attunements included) are reduced. And if you need something ASAP you can still use the elite to get it quick. U still need to read better than before the flow of the battle to be just at one step about what you need buf as soon a U get to, is great and can outdps clasic and tempest.

honestly weaver has its issues especially using sword, however ive been having fun playing the spec having so many skills/combos at your finger tips is quite awesome. I'm sure buffs are on the way so if you enjoyed d/d core ele I would say just go for it.

You will most like hate weaver if your an long time ele player the level of disruption of atument swaps to get to skills is way to much for a lot of ppl. If your use to playing ele slow and sitting in a atument for a long time weaver is for you.

Short answer: No.

Long answer: Wait for the next balance patch.

Yeah right now, Weaver isn't in the best spot. It's usable sure but it is also very undertuned when it comes to sword damage and since Spellbreaker and Scourge are a little OP right now, it just makes you feel bad when you're fighting them. That being said, there are some buffs incoming for sword so if that's what you were looking to use, it might become a much better weapon soon. If you were looking to play staff or d/d though, I'd recommend staying Tempest or base Elementalist instead.

it really depends for me. Sword is really fun for me, although I recognize it has some drawbacks. But when it comes to staff, I've always been put asleep by the vanilla ele staff, because it's so boring. Tempest is okay, but weaver staff for some reason feels more interactive than both prior iterations, and I quite like it. I never play Scepter so i don't know there, and when it comes to Dagger, i think i prefer non-weaver, even if the dagger skills are cool. I think the weaver attunement style gels the worst with Dagger MH, but that's just my perception.

On raids: Yes

• Condi weaver is great with d/d (and even decent with Sw/d if you can time you auto chains right, and since most of your dps comes from FGS anyway). I find it more fun than tempest as you get to attune swap a bit instead of overload and that gives you a bit more versatility to help with cc.
• Staff weaver has great dps potential if you have a group that can hold the boss on spot and invul/block/heal you on every mechanic.

On fractal: maybe

• If you have a good group (PSWar, Druid, Chrono) then its great and you can go all out with power staff and not worry much about anything
• If you are on a random pug with a bunch of scourges, power reapers and other more selfish specs, you will be better off with tempest for AoE blinds and the sustain of overloads (protection, aura heal)

On WvW: Maybe

• If your roam it can be really fun to go Sw/d weaver. The increased swiftness speed and all the mobility and evades can make it a fun roaming build. You will need to relearn combos for might, cc and heals, as it is quite different from old D/D. Some people still prefer the core D/D or tempest for roaming.
• If you zerg it will depend on how reliant your zerg is on your water fields or water overloads. Weaver gets some great skills with staff but in the current meta, Spellbreakers Bubbles (boom rip and projectile block) and Scourges shades (boom corruption and condi bomb) are just making everything else not really effective

TL/DR: It has its good and bad uses, some people love, some hate, you should try

it only takes me a few minutes to unlock a specialization after the first run through POF ,,,, I just used all the mounts I had allready and ran straight to all the hero challenges for my characters ,, so don't wory about unlocking a spec to much it can be pretty easy after u get the bunny high jump

I think weaver could be a extremely fun spec if it gets all the buffs it needs ,,, I have loads of fun with it and it has been tough to put down even tough it is super weak,,,, for the time being I am finally giving it a rest, I don't want to get burnt out on the spec feeling so useless ,, going to try to play some war and necro and join the pain train for the time being

Yes absolutely! weaver gives you the best defensive weapon on ele : sword - nothing beats this beauty when it comes to self-preservation with water 2 and earth 2, you're set for some nice dmg avoidance that ele always requested since launch.

-The weaver traits are some of the best ele has ( at least superior to fire/earth and tempest xd)-Not the best duellist out there when it comes to dmg but if you aim to be a real pain in the back..then look no further than weaver-takes a while to get used to it ( memorise every spell, effects and range )-the dmg is on the lower end unless you play : lightning rod sword , arcane/air scepter burst or condi sword/focus ( this one ..let's say will show up soon)

@Jski.6180 said:You will most like hate weaver if your an long time ele player the level of disruption of atument swaps to get to skills is way to much for a lot of ppl. If your use to playing ele slow and sitting in a atument for a long time weaver is for you.

If you're sitting on an attunement for a long time with Weaver, then you're playing it wrong. Weaver is all about switching to a new attunement as soon as you're finished using all your dmging skills. The time it takes to cast these spells are usually close to the amount it takes to recharge attunements (especially with the arcane traitline), allowing you to continually barrage the enemy with a plethora of skills.

Big scale wvw (zerg/blobfights) staff weaver is amaze. I like playing support temp the most, but as a pure mellee sword/focus could do the trick too. For roaming i suggest you use Sword/Dagger. traited with air /fire/arcane + water +weaver(obv) and use cantrips like in the old days!

The condi sustain is amazing, especially encountering all the cancer from the scourge or mesmers/condi thieves and you still have a lot of mobility. As far as i know, fighting outnumbered might be a bit harder, but everything can work out if you know what to do!

@Jski.6180 said:You will most like hate weaver if your an long time ele player the level of disruption of atument swaps to get to skills is way to much for a lot of ppl. If your use to playing ele slow and sitting in a atument for a long time weaver is for you.

Really? I feel the opposite to that. For me weaver is all about spamming attunement swaps. I cycle through my attunements and get out a spell or two in between as fast as I can. Especially when the Weaver Elite skill is in play for me.

@Kichwas.7152 said:

@Jski.6180 said:You will most like hate weaver if your an long time ele player the level of disruption of atument swaps to get to skills is way to much for a lot of ppl. If your use to playing ele slow and sitting in a atument for a long time weaver is for you.

The gobble cd makes you sit in an atument longer then the core and tempest so you got to get use to the ideal that your going to have your 1-3 skills locked as well as your 4-5 but with a longer delay.

Its on the lines of if you need a hard cc you may need to wait 4 sec before you can do it or if you need a clear your going to have to wait. Weaver is a plan out class rotation but in practices in an action combat game like gw2 it just dose not work moment to moment.

I think sw/d is a blast personally. Sure you have to work for it, but if you wanna drool on your keyboard and win with no skill or effort play crap necro, condi mirage, or soulbeast or something.

I've settled into a hybrid build in WvW that does quite well against all but the cheesiest of condi bombs (necro, mirage). Sword could indeed use some love and forget about chasing much of anything, but in a defined range you have a ton of options at your disposal. You're like a little Tasmanian devil, wreaking havoc all over that space.

To me primordial stance and the elite are key parts of playing it effectively. Great bonuses across the board from those two. Primordial stance brings condi pressure, max vuln stacks, or pulsing chill (traited to superspeed/regen/condi clear). Elite brings stat modifiers and a float cc.

It's not spellbreaker that plays exactly like warrior always did with one extra button. This one is taking work to figure out and make productive.

@Jski.6180 said:

@Kichwas.7152 said:

@Jski.6180 said:You will most like hate weaver if your an long time ele player the level of disruption of atument swaps to get to skills is way to much for a lot of ppl. If your use to playing ele slow and sitting in a atument for a long time weaver is for you.

If you didn't wait/overload with Tempest, you weren't playing it right. So Weaver is something of a middle ground - it makes you sit in one attunement a bit longer than a vanilla ele, but generally less than Tempest. Considering it takes some time to fire your skills, it isn't much of an issue. The only thing you don't have, compared to both core and a Tempest, is availability. Some skills you just can't access as fast. That's the tradeoff, like the initial wait for, and the long CD after, overload was the tradeoff for Tempest.

If I wanted to give weaver a try, can you recommend a build? I have played d/d and support staff so I can pretty much play any build.

You can go sword dagger zerk / hybrid dps, or staff zerk.

For pvp scepter can pull ridiculous burst numbers, considerably higher than core, however it also has less survivability in many ways.

dagger... apparently it's good in raids as condi (got no info on that), but other than that, it seems to be flying under the radar in pvp situations. I have not seen ONE dagger weaver since launch in pvp.