[Video] Weaver Sword Dagger | My Take

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AHFY0YzLTvI

first of all i'd like to say how cool it is to see so many people being invested in making weaver a better spec. dedicated and articulate voices over improvement was what was missing in the past.that said i propose if anet doesnt listen this time right from the start to those it will go downwards again pretty fast. as the saying goes: fool me once shame's on you. fool me twice shame's on me. no customer wants to slip in that shoe in his sparetime.

as for my take - wvw perspectiveweaver has a huge identety problem which was allready shown in the betas. if anets take will only be like pushing numbers (again) it will only be a short term succes as weaver problems are core problems.

1.)weaver gives the impression of being a fast pace spec when in reality it is the oposite and even kills of fast pace specs like fresh air.dps specs are forced into arcane line to reduce their global cd. meaning they get unwhillingly boons they dont need that are the foundation of their downfall meaning corruption.as you are in arcane line you try to make the best out of it for your dps spec and go for arcane surge.

reduced global cooldown and a slight damage buff by 250 ferocity taking up a whole line and utility spot on cost of no condi cleanse at all. thats a death sentence in wvw.BUTthe global cd opened up lightning rod builds aswell that compete with fresh air in a fair way again. thats good.

why not when we have those dps specs in arcana give them a purpose and the tools to land their dps by reducing the cost of danger coming with it?

• make elemental atunement minor a master trait CHOICE for bruiser
• introduce weakness and blind immunity as a competition for dps specs

2.)woven stride is currently borderline op for bruiser specs but out of reach for dps specs. instead of creating regen on swift or superspeed it should just cleanse on swift or superspeed.

it would weaken the double cleanse bruiser specs got and strengthen dps line users.

3.)everyone and their mother have easy access either on the fly passiv or while bursting to 25 might.ele the former mightbot (place firefield/stack might) is since might nerv and its in general outdated mechanic on stacking it the worst doin it since 2 years now.

talking about identety crisis and looking at unused fire line.

4.)once (and its hard) weaver catches up melee it lacks every possible ability to maintain the range.on the one hand you force weaver to go max melee range on the other hand when you are there it needs to act like: nuh.. uh.. not today. get me outta here.

what is the purpose of being in melee?

as weaver kind of has the tools to get in and out of melee range and leave those nasty aoe's it's biggest concern is stability. armor of earth is a useless spot in a meta of corruption and stances are not quiet there yet.

• give stone resonance a pulsing stability (5x)
• give sword aa a viable form of cc to be able to stick on a target

5.)outdated mechanics are all over the place but as im talking sword/dagger here i gonna force myself to stick on topic.

• firegrabone of the hardest to land skills in the game. needs a setup (burn) needs to be close range and is only a line in facing direction, needs to be aimed and on top of it SLOW.as this was allready talked about numerous times i dont expect anet to make the skill facing towards a target automaticly right now. but atleast make the casttime faster.

ontop

• gale strikesame mechanic. what was so impressive about firegrab that kept your imagination to reproduce this skill in its current shape and form? FASTER

but as far away of meta level sword weaver is it's not all bad. and people hold on to its current flowy style and keep believing. a lot of merlins and gandalfs roleplaying lord of the weav and praying for a future sauron doesnt come along and full counter every 6 sec in aoe, no target required and instant.

keep it real and flowy o/

I agree with the overall analysis. IMO, the major factors that are limiting the Weaver options/potential are:

• Sword power damage too low.
• Woven Stride being OP with Water but useless without it, leaving no condition clear options for dps builds.
• Arcana being semi-mandatory due to Elemental Attunement and the attunement cooldown reduction.
• State of the overall balance and other OP specs.

While the first and last points are easier for ANET to fix, the other factors may require much more time.

Also, the state of the other classes has a huge impact on the melee Weaver and making it look weaker then it really is, so we have to wait for balances on both Weaver and other classes to really taste a bruiser build capabilities. In the current state, Scourges and Spellbreakers are dominating the melee scene and hard countering the sword Weaver.

@Xunleashed.5271 said:

• Woven Stride being OP with Water but useless without it, leaving no condition clear options for dps builds.
• Arcana being semi-mandatory due to Elemental Attunement and the attunement cooldown reduction.

This is the basic problem, I think. You need at least one of those trait lines; in my own (filthy casual) experience, they're both practically mandatory.

Which means no Fire or Air traits. Which makes it harder even to help out, much less do real damage.

I mean, even geared and traited for damage, I struggle to hit 100k damage in unranked. Now, I have no doubt that's partly a L2P thing, not a balance thing--but in the same match, I'll do 30%-50% of my team's healing. (Most of which I really do need to avoid getting facefucked by Scourges and Spellbreakers.) I've been playing Ele for years, and I've never seen that before. Not with a DPS build.

Cannot comment on the sword from my own experience as I have not really tried it yet, but the damage definitely seems a bit low.

Considering the weaver in general I agree with the Woven stride needing a change, and would pick it and/or the global cd reduction up as the most important of the needed changes in order to make broader scope of weaver builds viable in WvW. Like you say, I don't see anyone being effective as dps in melee range without having arcana, and without condi cleanses even less. Forcing main hand dagger and sword to take both water and arc at the moment. Range builds with staff/scepter I can see effective just by taking water for cleanses and the air/fire for damage. But if you could either get the cleanses without water, or have lower global cd, this would let you take air/fire for damage also with melee builds.

Excellent vid Lu. I agree on pretty much all fronts, mostly sword pressure and lower global cd. I still think sword weaver's kit is too defensive to ever be allowed to do good damage, but maybe I'm wrong there.

Seriously good production and music though

hi elem, i'm completly with you and all for a fair risk/reward balance. what i fear the most though is the rumor about barrier buffed conjures such as earthshield without ever getting conjures viable beforehand.

yeah thats actually another point..

yo karlwe kinda all tried lightning hammer and earthshield allready cause its an obvious shot when you run lightning rod.

its bollux with the casttime and cd on it! the core foundation that you kept so sincerely in this pit since before HoT is the problem of weaver! what are we supposed to be? unless there is some stability on barrier magic going on this new child is dead allready.