Stats for Weaver Sword+Dagger/Staff focusing on Fire+Earth?

I finally got my new main toon to 80, finished the Personal Story, and am starting LWS2 story. As base Elementalist, I went through the entire 1-80 story/leveling focused on Fire since it matches my character from a role-playing perspective, only switching to other elements when necessary. Been playing as a Weaver since the Orr chapters in the Personal Story, and am absolutely loving it. I have played around with the element combos, but for now I am pretty happy with Fire+Earth. So as I continue going through the LW stories and expacs on this toon, I would like to know what stats I should be focusing on. For now I happen to have mostly Berserker gear, and would be more than happy to change that out as the opportunity for new gear/crafting comes up (as in, if I get the choice between gear as a reward for finishing a story chapter, or get enough mats to craft better clothing). Again, I am keeping fire as my main element for role-playing purposes, so that's not going to change.

Also, with my build, the three "trees" I currently have "equipped" are Fire, Earth, and, of course, Weaver. Please be aware that I currently don't have many Weaver skills unlocked because I didn't go crazy with going through vanilla maps to pick up skill points, so I will be discovering more of the Weaver skill tree and what I like as I go. For now, my main question is about the stats I should focus on for clothing and weapons as I go forward (again, I mostly have Berserker gear at this moment in time. This toon is still a "fresh" 80 so there's plenty of time to build her up to what I want).

Hi! I have played a build similar to this one before and it will absolutely wreck open world/story content. It's also perfectly adequate for strikes and fractals up to and including T4, although it is not optimal. I've also designed this build to be accessible to new players, with inexpensive stats/runes/sigils. You can also use dagger offhand with this build, but it's more of a power weapon.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?PGgAw2lZwmYXMJmJOKPnvaA-zxIU8ohfQYz5KgEJgjB-e

I typically use a fire/arcane variant, but this build should actually deal better damage while also being more passively tanky. Here's a sample video of what the fire/arcane version can do:

First of all, expansion maps give you 10 HPs per challenge so you don't need to walk around Tyria collecting them 1 by 1.

Now, when it comes to weapons, both staff and sw/d combinations are mostly power based (sword can be both power and condi, but condi uses focus as offhand) so berserker gear is fine, but if you play mostly open world you'll get more value from marauder.

The thing is, fire spec is used in both power and condi builds, but earth spec is only good on condi builds, which you aren't using. Playing power build without air specialization is a huge dps loss since it gives you quite big damage modifiers, especially if you're running sword which has strong air skills and auto attacks on power builds. Playing staff with earth spec is also very contradictory since staff provides no condi damage, staff (or any weapon really) has very weak earth skills and staff is a ranged weapon, while earth traits favor melee gameplay.

If you want to follow the fire/earth theme I'd suggest following the build that's posted in the comment above, but if you want to use mentioned weapons effectively I'd suggest a fire/air build which can be found on snowcrows (raids), discretize (fractals) or metabattle (open world), based on the content you're doing.

@steki.1478 said:First of all, expansion maps give you 10 HPs per challenge so you don't need to walk around Tyria collecting them 1 by 1.

Now, when it comes to weapons, both staff and sw/d combinations are mostly power based (sword can be both power and condi, but condi uses focus as offhand) so berserker gear is fine, but if you play mostly open world you'll get more value from marauder.

The thing is, fire spec is used in both power and condi builds, but earth spec is only good on condi builds, which you aren't using. Playing power build without air specialization is a huge dps loss since it gives you quite big damage modifiers, especially if you're running sword which has strong air skills and auto attacks on power builds. Playing staff with earth spec is also very contradictory since staff provides no condi damage, staff (or any weapon really) has very weak earth skills and staff is a ranged weapon, while earth traits favor melee gameplay.

If you want to follow the fire/earth theme I'd suggest following the build that's posted in the comment above, but if you want to use mentioned weapons effectively I'd suggest a fire/air build which can be found on snowcrows (raids), discretize (fractals) or metabattle (open world), based on the content you're doing.

The main reason why I'm using Earth instead of Air in my build choices is because it wasn't until this Ele toon when I fell in love with the elemental and storm glyphs. And the Earth build has a passive talent that reduces the cooldown for glyphs. Before I got Weaver, I was doing Fire/Earth/Air, but had to dump one to make room for Weaver.

Also, I did mention in my OP that I use Fire as main and Earth as secondary with Weaver, so Fire is the main focus with my staff and my dual wielding. I love the fiery rock you can launch at enemies for AOE with Fire+Earth on staff, and the 2 dagger offhand skills with Earth are really helpful for me for area damage and CC. And with staff, that's my backup weapon for when there are big clumps of enemies, which happens a lot in the personal story. The skill 5 earth ability cripples enemies, with skill 4 earth ability locking some enemies in place, which gives me the ability to then use the AOE fire skills 2-3, coupled with using the fire storm glyph.

So I know exactly which element combos I like, it's just a question of whether I should be having my armor and weapons be something other than Berserker in the future.

@"AliamRationem.5172" said:Hi! I have played a build similar to this one before and it will absolutely wreck open world/story content. It's also perfectly adequate for strikes and fractals up to and including T4, although it is not optimal. I've also designed this build to be accessible to new players, with inexpensive stats/runes/sigils. You can also use dagger offhand with this build, but it's more of a power weapon.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?PGgAw2lZwmYXMJmJOKPnvaA-zxIU8ohfQYz5KgEJgjB-e

I typically use a fire/arcane variant, but this build should actually deal better damage while also being more passively tanky. Here's a sample video of what the fire/arcane version can do:

Based on what I see in the link, you suggest I go with Dire gear, which doesn't improve my Power at all but instead gives a boost to Condi Damage? I do understand that Eles/Weavers are squishy, so I odn't question the boost to Vitality and Toughness that comes with Dire. Though, I do realize this build is with offhand Focus in mind, which I never really have gotten the hang of. I've always been a way more offensive player. Which, if I keep dagger offhand as I've been doing, the consensus is that Earth talents should be replaced with Air or Arcane instead?

Final thoughts: Based on the two people who commented, it's suggested that for my stats I either A) stick with Beserker as I have been, B) switch to Dire, or C) use Marauder. I'll have to look at the other two more closely when I next get the chance to craft my own clothing.

@Moyayuki.3619 said:

@steki.1478 said:First of all, expansion maps give you 10 HPs per challenge so you don't need to walk around Tyria collecting them 1 by 1.

Now, when it comes to weapons, both staff and sw/d combinations are mostly power based (sword can be both power and condi, but condi uses focus as offhand) so berserker gear is fine, but if you play mostly open world you'll get more value from marauder.

The thing is, fire spec is used in both power and condi builds, but earth spec is only good on condi builds, which you aren't using. Playing power build without air specialization is a huge dps loss since it gives you quite big damage modifiers, especially if you're running sword which has strong air skills and auto attacks on power builds. Playing staff with earth spec is also very contradictory since staff provides no condi damage, staff (or any weapon really) has very weak earth skills and staff is a ranged weapon, while earth traits favor melee gameplay.

If you want to follow the fire/earth theme I'd suggest following the build that's posted in the comment above, but if you want to use mentioned weapons effectively I'd suggest a fire/air build which can be found on snowcrows (raids), discretize (fractals) or metabattle (open world), based on the content you're doing.

Aaaand...I now see that the Air talent tree ALSO has a passive that reduces Glyph cooldowns, so...that's good to know!

Earth one reduces signet cd, air has the glyph one. The trait isnt worth using anyway, you have free ferocity from the middle one.

Also, just because you like earth skills, doesnt make earth spec useful to you. Earth spec is focused on melee defense and condi damage, while air improves your damage in general so you benefit from it a lot more on both of your builds. CC and aoe damage from 2 earth skills is pointless since they have long cast times and you can get much better dmg and cc elsewhere and much faster, especially with FA.

@Moyayuki.3619 said:

@"AliamRationem.5172" said:Hi! I have played a build similar to this one before and it will absolutely wreck open world/story content. It's also perfectly adequate for strikes and fractals up to and including T4, although it is not optimal. I've also designed this build to be accessible to new players, with inexpensive stats/runes/sigils. You can also use dagger offhand with this build, but it's more of a power weapon.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?PGgAw2lZwmYXMJmJOKPnvaA-zxIU8ohfQYz5KgEJgjB-e

I typically use a fire/arcane variant, but this build should actually deal better damage while also being more passively tanky. Here's a sample video of what the fire/arcane version can do:

Focus doesn't really add much in the way of offense, but neither does dagger if you're running dire. You can instead try a hybrid setup perhaps fire/air sword/dagger with stats including power and condi.

The problem I run into is that fire/x builds that try to run condi cut too deeply into power damage to offset the loss of dps when pressured in solo play as power weaver seems not great without support.

You can see the dps readout in my boss solos. Power builds can absolutely do more damage under the right conditions. I don't feel solo play offers that, however.

@Moyayuki.3619 said:Final thoughts: Based on the two people who commented, it's suggested that for my stats I either A) stick with Beserker as I have been, B) switch to Dire, or C) use Marauder. I'll have to look at the other two more closely when I next get the chance to craft my own clothing.

Ok, your focus is on Staff + Sword/Dagger, Power stats, Fire and Earth atunement.Staff is pure Power dmg and it sucks as condi weapon. Staff main dmg comes from Fire, while Earth is a support only atunement.Sword/Dagger could be used as power or condition. If you go Power your main focus is Air and Fire. For condi you wanna stay in Fire and Earth most of the time.

If you really insist on Fire and Earth, i am afraid condi stats are your only options here: Viper (squishy but provides great condi and power dmg), Trailblaizer (the most expensive gear by far, provides condi and superior survivability), Dire, Carion, Sinister or whatever you feel comfortable with.

If you wanna focus on Power dmg than pick up either Berserker (squishy) or Marauder (a little dmg loss, huge boost to survivability). But keep in mind that Earth doesn't work well with Power stats.

If you like fire and earth grieving and vipers would be a stat choice I'd recommend looking at. Sword/dagger could go either way for condi or power damage but staff is pretty power heavy, so grieving could be a decent mix. Throw is balthazar or flame legion runes and you got a pretty serviceable open world build.

Update: I have been playing around with my weapon choices while going through the HoT story, and am currently trying out Sword/Focus with Fire/Air being my elements of choice. This way I can us the Air offhand skills that deflect projectiles and interrupt enemies' attacks, which seems very useful for HoT mobs. So for my offhand element, I am still torn between Air and Earth, and having focus or dagger in offhand. Either way, it does still mean that Power would be my main damage stat to focus on. Marauder seems like a good gear choice at this moment, while I am being given new armor pieces as story rewards that allow me to choose which stat combo to apply.

@Moyayuki.3619 said:Update: I have been playing around with my weapon choices while going through the HoT story, and am currently trying out Sword/Focus with Fire/Air being my elements of choice. This way I can us the Air offhand skills that deflect projectiles and interrupt enemies' attacks, which seems very useful for HoT mobs. So for my offhand element, I am still torn between Air and Earth, and having focus or dagger in offhand. Either way, it does still mean that Power would be my main damage stat to focus on. Marauder seems like a good gear choice at this moment, while I am being given new armor pieces as story rewards that allow me to choose which stat combo to apply.

If running marauder you will do much better with dagger offhand and air traits as these have good power synergy. Focus with earth is a better match for condi.