Is it just me?

I love my weaver. S/D for me is so much fun to play. I wish it could be my main, but even as early as LW season 2 I just die almost none stop. I know its probably that I am not dodging when I should, or switching how I should, but while its fun to play normally, the massive death count has put me off my Elementalist I am sad to say. Anyone else find that in Central Tyria they are fine as an Elementalist, but once they get to Dry Top and later its just not cutting it?

Nah, you can run full glass ele in any spec everywhere in PvE.

I'm with you. Weaver S/D in incredibly fun to play and deals very satisfying damage even if you sacrifice some of it for defensive stats, but it offers very little survivability even in that case. Taken that S/D weaver is supposed to be a melee fighter, the skills should offer more boons like regeneration and protection as well as condition removal, while magnetic shield should also be added for sword earth skills. All of this could be achieved via weaver traits.Also weavers barrier seems very lackluster. It get's so little of it, it does pretty much nothing to help you stay alive in close combat. :/

All of this can be achieved with traits, for example like this. It's not worth running in the open world, there isn't nearly as much pressure there to justify running that much sustain, but it is possible. You get mad cleanse, lots of superspeed which is super useful for a melee fighter, mobility, blasts, fields... what more do you need?

wish sword weaver would have the survavability like mesmers have, but they dont, hence why i dont main a sword weaver, even thou i like her a lot.

My S/d weaver sat on the shelf because she was getting smoked everywhere in PvE. I tried lots of fixes, changing build, weapons, armor. Tried everything I could to mitigate damage just to stay alive. Finally had this moment where everything came together and realized that I was playing the same gear/build as when I started.
Don't want to say it's an L2P issue for you. But for me it definitely was.Go and complete a few mid level maps (Iron Marches, Sparkly Fen ect) and really just play it. That's what worked for me.

I rock in anything Tyria.. its really just in HoT where I start to die.. anything with the whipping vines really.. they knock you down and I am all but dead before I can stand up. With out being knocked down, I can do ok, providing I don't get too many condition stacks.. but that knock down.

I actually left Mesmer/Mirage for Sword Weaver. Mind you I Main’d Mesmer since 2012. And it’s easily still one of my favorite classes out of any MMO for its uniqueness.

However once I tried out Sword Weaver I fell in love. I was confused and mystified at the same time. It really wasn’t until I watched Celofrags (A Master Weaver) YouTube video

I have solo’d champions in PvE (The enraged priestess in Brisbane Wildlands for example) with ease. Mind you it does take practice first as a Weaver. A Spellblade must be aware of the elemental combos he/she must utilize correctly in order to stay alive and still do dmg.

After watching the above video, I spent an hour just practicing my rotations on PvP test golems. Once you understand how the combos and rotations work, then you will see the ease of playing a Weaver, and how amazing it’s survivability truly is.

[P.S: Weaver still could use a few Quality of Life buffs. Specifically DMG and a bit more survivability. Not saying it’s not already decent and good. But I feel like I’m playing the Piano at super speed just to get the job done lol. Regardless though the Weaver specialization flows nicely and ANET did a good job at creating a magical swordsman profession.]

@Purecura.1795 said:[P.S: Weaver still could use a few Quality of Life buffs. Specifically DMG and a bit more survivability. Not saying it’s not already decent and good. But I feel like I’m playing the Piano at super speed just to get the job done lol. Regardless though the Weaver specialization flows nicely and ANET did a good job at creating a magical swordsman profession.]

Weaver damage is just absurd. You oneshot so much staff in living story before it has even the chance to fight back. Glyph of storm in earth makes you basically immune to everything without a breakbar for 10sec on a 32sec cd with trait. If anything weaver needs damage nerfs.

@Nephalem.8921 said:

@Purecura.1795 said:[P.S: Weaver still could use a few Quality of Life buffs. Specifically DMG and a bit more survivability. Not saying it’s not already decent and good. But I feel like I’m playing the Piano at super speed just to get the job done lol. Regardless though the Weaver specialization flows nicely and ANET did a good job at creating a magical swordsman profession.]

Nah, you sacrifice everything else for that damage. Sandstorm? Awesome utility, but immense dps loss. CC? Guess what, dps loss because you need to go in attunements where you have no real damage skills. Boons? Nope. Straying out of the dps rotation? Huge dps loss. Getting interrupted on MS? You guessed it, dps loss.

With all these ways to lose your damage potential, it frankly needs to be that high. Otherwise what's the point to not just take mirage and spam dodge? Superspeed on demand, crazy evade frames. If the damage was on par, it would be outright silly to pick ele.

I actually spent some time messing around trying to learn mine last night sword weaver has a crap ton of potential and sword does feel very fun to use but my god im not use to so many f buttons. Im thinking i might look into some sort of hybrid condi/power build with a pinch of vitally so i dont die instantly

@ZDragon.3046 said:I actually spent some time messing around trying to learn mine last night sword weaver has a crap ton of potential and sword does feel very fun to use but my god im not use to so many f buttons. Im thinking i might look into some sort of hybrid condi/power build with a pinch of vitally so i dont die instantly

I'm using 100% Sinister gear on it and having a ton of fun.

@Feanor.2358 said:

@Nephalem.8921 said:

@Purecura.1795 said:[P.S: Weaver still could use a few Quality of Life buffs. Specifically DMG and a bit more survivability. Not saying it’s not already decent and good. But I feel like I’m playing the Piano at super speed just to get the job done lol. Regardless though the Weaver specialization flows nicely and ANET did a good job at creating a magical swordsman profession.]

And because weaver is that weak it is the fastest for dungeon solos. It also blasts quite a lot of firefields with earth 2 and lh so you have perma fury on your own. And traits like tempest defense shouldn't exist in the first place. Condi engi is way harder to play than Weaver and does like 60% of what a weaver can do.Glyph in air is really just needed on bosses or high health champions. So not really a huge dps loss for clearing trash.

But back to topic. For open world sandstorm is your best friend. If you have trouble surviving with Sw/d you can try staff. Easier to kite for beginners because of longer range and higher damage. If you really want to play sword you can test focus instead of dagger offhand. You lose some damage but gain a lot of utility in exchange.Especially with all the high damage projectile attacks in hot maps.

Of course weaver is fastest for dungeon solos, because that measures performance near its potential. See the image of the average weaver in pure t4 pugs though...

@Nephalem.8921 said:

But back to topic. For open world sandstorm is your best friend. If you have trouble surviving with Sw/d you can try staff. Easier to kite for beginners because of longer range and higher damage. If you really want to play sword you can test focus instead of dagger offhand. You lose some damage but gain a lot of utility in exchange.Especially with all the high damage projectile attacks in hot maps.

I don't like playing staff, mainly because I don't like having to aim my skills. things move, I place them in the wrong spots.. in groups I don't mind because enemies don't move, but solo, I suck at it. I was running focus for a while, I can't remember now what made me switch.I know I am in the minority there though.

@mindcircus.1506 said:

@ZDragon.3046 said:I actually spent some time messing around trying to learn mine last night sword weaver has a crap ton of potential and sword does feel very fun to use but my god im not use to so many f buttons. Im thinking i might look into some sort of hybrid condi/power build with a pinch of vitally so i dont die instantly

are you using fire or water with arcane? Just curious im wondering how badly the condi clear is needed in most pve situations. or if the extra burn duration/damage is worth it in fire over waters extra sustain.

I started with grieving armor and celestial trinkets on my weaver in PVE, the cele trinkets are more forgiving until you master the class. Running water is necessary for the condi cleanse. Combine the weaver trait where swiftness/superspeed gives regen, and the water trait where regen clears a condi, they pair together so well. I prefer running air over arcane for the better movement speed, especially with the trait where you get superspeed when you swap to air. Healing signet is probably your best choice, and do not forget your autoattack in water heals on hit. The stance heal can be a solid choice too, especially if you swap to water when you use it. If you do use that heal, I would probably trait to get stability when activating a stance skill.

@ZDragon.3046 said:

@mindcircus.1506 said:

@ZDragon.3046 said:I actually spent some time messing around trying to learn mine last night sword weaver has a crap ton of potential and sword does feel very fun to use but my god im not use to so many f buttons. Im thinking i might look into some sort of hybrid condi/power build with a pinch of vitally so i dont die instantly

I am running:Fire 1 3 2Earth 2 2 3And Weaver 3 1 1Condi Clear I am getting from Ether Renewal as the Heal. If I am facing Condi heavy enemies like Awakened I swap my Earth to 2 2 1 for Diamond Skin. The main reason Sinister works is Master's Fortitude in Weaver with the extra Vit and Elements of Rage.Sword/Dagger. Utilitiies are Signet of Fire, Lightning Flash and Weave Self. The other is situational.I spend most of my time swapping between various combos of Earth and Fire.It's really a "Kill first" build. It doesn't have tons of sustain but it does decent damage and is sturdy enough for PoF open world shenanigans..

@mindcircus.1506 said:

@ZDragon.3046 said:

@mindcircus.1506 said:

@ZDragon.3046 said:I actually spent some time messing around trying to learn mine last night sword weaver has a crap ton of potential and sword does feel very fun to use but my god im not use to so many f buttons. Im thinking i might look into some sort of hybrid condi/power build with a pinch of vitally so i dont die instantly

Ive been using arcane for the boons but i do like occasionally swapping earth for arcane the difference in bleed duration and damage is nice. Also being able to pop sigents and keep them the passives is nice too:)

I run fire / arcane / weaver when I feel like going S/D.

You have so many evades and heal finishers you can't die.

@Razor.6392 said:I run fire / arcane / weaver when I feel like going S/D.

You have so many evades and heal finishers you can't die.

Maybe I just don't understand the rotations skills well enough. Can you elaborate on these extra evades and heal finshers?

@schmots.6803 said:

@Razor.6392 said:I run fire / arcane / weaver when I feel like going S/D.

You have so many evades and heal finishers you can't die.

Wait, first let me verify. You mean sword dagger right? and not scepter dagger weaver?

In case you mean sword, then you have riptide, and earthen vortex along with evasive arcana trait if you spec into it. I also use the arcane heal arcane wave. Additionally you have earthquake and churning earth for more finishers.