I want to like weaver

So before I begin I'm going to start with this; I'm not bashing the class/spec, it's simply a case of "git gud".

I've been playing gw2 off and on since open beta. I've tried many classes, but elementalist is the only true caster (I haven't tried mesmer, but I'm not sure how I feel about it). In core I mastered the rotation and was a force in dungeons.

When HoT released I picked up on tempest pretty easily and really enjoyed the spec. Fresh air was great to play and felt very smooth and fluid.

Now comes HoT... weaver is hard. Simple as that. I'm struggling to survive when fighting in open world (using sword/dagger atm) and I gave in and went back to tempest. So far it's been really smooth. The problem is unlike other classes, all the specs have the same purpose. They maximize damage. In order to keep this system afloat every new elite specs has to out perform its predecessor. I'm not saying this is good or bad, just that I'm clearly hurting myself by not being able to play weaver.

Now that the backstory is there let me get down to my problem. I haven't tried fractals since release (I know they are more friendly now) and never even attempted a raid. I would love to give them a try but not of I'm going to bring down my group. How do you guys manage the rotation? Metabattle is over 40 steps and its soooo daunting to look at. Is it actually more fluid then it seems at first glance? I dont want to suck, but weaver makes me feel like I do. I need to get down the rotation so I can learn how to survive.

Also, should I go staff instead of sword/dagger?

To be honest, weaver is just plain bad for open world and regular solo stuff. Sword has basically no range and the evades you get arent particularly useful when you still die to every single attack. Staff is strong, but requires you to kite constantly which means that mobs get out of your aoes unless there are players around to take aggro or you're fighting some immobile boss, otherwise its whole damage comes from auto attacks. Other weapons are just a lot better with tempest. You can take tanky traits in weaver, but you can also just take water spec instead of weaver and have better sustain and more reliable weapon skills.

Tempest on the other hand gives you strong melee aoe pressure with air/fire overload, good protection uptime, stability and stunbreaks as well as some minor healing. Dagger range makes it perfect for kiting mobs, scepter gets additional aoes with overload/feel the burn/warhorn. Staff works a lot better in melee range due to easier access to static field/line and is just tankier due to protection. Tempest is in general the best option (in pve of course) for any melee combat on ele.

Survivability in group content usually isnt problem since you're protected by supports and you mostly focus on your damage there. That's why weaver excels in such content since your main flaws are covered by other classes. It just takes some time and practice on training golem (LA aerodrome) to master the rotation.

It's great to know that the spec itself is why I struggled with solo/open world stuff as weaver. So going back to tempest for it was the right choice.

As for group content not requiring anything else besides following the rotation helps a bit.

@steki.1478 said:To be honest, weaver is just plain bad for open world and regular solo stuff. Sword has basically no range and the evades you get arent particularly useful when you still die to every single attack. Staff is strong, but requires you to kite constantly which means that mobs get out of your aoes unless there are players around to take aggro or you're fighting some immobile boss, otherwise its whole damage comes from auto attacks. Other weapons are just a lot better with tempest. You can take tanky traits in weaver, but you can also just take water spec instead of weaver and have better sustain and more reliable weapon skills.

Tempest on the other hand gives you strong melee aoe pressure with air/fire overload, good protection uptime, stability and stunbreaks as well as some minor healing. Dagger range makes it perfect for kiting mobs, scepter gets additional aoes with overload/feel the burn/warhorn. Staff works a lot better in melee range due to easier access to static field/line and is just tankier due to protection. Tempest is in general the best option (in pve of course) for any melee combat on ele.

Survivability in group content usually isnt problem since you're protected by supports and you mostly focus on your damage there. That's why weaver excels in such content since your main flaws are covered by other classes. It just takes some time and practice on training golem (LA aerodrome) to master the rotation.

Pretty accurate. I also have to add that tempest is better at giving might, fury and vulnerability to your build. This is irrelevant in group content because these are incredibly easy to max out permanently. However, the additional access to these basically renders the extra damage modifiers of weaver irrelevant in open world and solo play. I just can't figure out what advantages weaver is supposed to have here.

Weaver seems to have ended up being the most group reliant spec in the game. If you are not with team mates supporting you properly all the time, don't even bother with it. I hope the next spec is finally the self-sufficient one. Tempest is more self-sufficient than weaver, but it's not as much as it could be because it was designed to support allies. This inevitably makes some effects weaker for selfish applications because you are expected to share them with allies.

I want to like tempest but I find it underwhelming in uniqueness and fun factor, weaver I have yet to unlock but looks way more fun to play.

Tempest was never given any effects that was that much different from the core ele and weaver is only a dmg + from the core ele.

Anet did not realty do a good job making elite spec for the ele class and they know it watch the video on the different elite spec from pof and what they say about weaver.

"Weaver its cool."

Added note about the video: Of cores no one knows what your going to do because it was new and no one had the skill effects down in there mind one of the foolish things to say about a class like weaver. (sry for the rant on the video i just realized they realty though this way back then)

Weaver is not at all bad at open world...You just need to learn its rotations a bit more to be able to deal with mobs.Sword has some good on-demand dodge skills in water and earth. And the teleport in Air can get you away from danger if you can target something else away from combat.If you trait it well enough you can do anything...

I love weaver, but only because it is the "improved" d/d ele."Improved" as in, not as good as the old one, but better than what was left of it.

The main problem I have with sword is that it is too close to dagger gameplay. Add chain autos and one target teleport...I think ANet missed a big opportunity with sword by not adding parry-riposte attacks chains to it. That would it make it feel more distinct to d/d play.

The #3 skills on sword could have been a series of evade-attack and parry-riposte that could persist across attunments to make an amazing combo system where you could block/evade with one attunement and riposte with another...

@"lLobo.7960" said:Weaver is not at all bad at open world...You just need to learn its rotations a bit more to be able to deal with mobs.Sword has some good on-demand dodge skills in water and earth. And the teleport in Air can get you away from danger if you can target something else away from combat.If you trait it well enough you can do anything...

I love weaver, but only because it is the "improved" d/d ele."Improved" as in, not as good as the old one, but better than what was left of it.

The main problem I have with sword is that it is too close to dagger gameplay. Add chain autos and one target teleport...I think ANet missed a big opportunity with sword by not adding parry-riposte attacks chains to it. That would it make it feel more distinct to d/d play.

The #3 skills on sword could have been a series of evade-attack and parry-riposte that could persist across attunments to make an amazing combo system where you could block/evade with one attunement and riposte with another...

Go to The raid lobby with dps Golem, train ur rotation step by step slowly. I mean really slowly. After sometime, add little more speed to it. Basically thats how you learn it.

Soon you can do it SLOWLY without looking from quide what skills comes next, when you are at this phase try to add more speed again. Sooner or later you see that 30k dps on ur screen :)

@Phasendrache.1320 said:Also, should I go staff instead of sword/dagger?

Yes.

Look, I know. New flashy weapon, and all. People want to be cool. But Sword is a PvP weapon. It is versatile, but its range is very limited and it just doesn't have the same power as staff. I've tried it multiple times, only to find out I end up doing exactly the same stuff I do on staff, only worse. The staff is just the perfect PvE weapon. Excellent burst damage, which you can deal from safe distance. Often times I'll just Lava Font -> Plasma Blast -> Attune Fire to one-shot the enemies. Excellent cleave. Just tag up multiple enemies, then Lava Font -> Pyro Blast -> F1 -> Meteor Shower on yourself. You don't really have sustain, since you don't really want to end up in Water, but you don't need it either. For active defences I use either Sandstorm or Arcane Shield, and it's just good enough.

I am running arcane(vigor on crit, boon on struck, 2% damage per boon) /fire(burn on crit,Power > condition, persisting flames) /weaver(3-1-any are good, i use 2 normally).

Zerker/Grieving armor/weapon mix (traveler, just for cheap boon duration). Celestial trinkets. 33% boon duration and 50% endurance on swap on sw/dagger.

Try starting off fire/air to engage. 4>2>3>5 if you need to interrupt otherwise > earth > 3 > 4 > 5 > earth > 4 > 5 > 2 > if you need hp go water, if you need an interrupt go air, if you need more damage go fire. Try to double attune often (if #1 gm trait in weaver) and swap often. If you're ever unsure start leaning into earth, then water and alternate them until you're not needing to kite/okay on hp.

I keep twist of fate, the barrier stance, flash, andthe elite stance amd use them all liberally. Between the 2 defensive attunements, the utilities and the boon uptime I dont have issues in open world unless it's a bunch of ranged spaced out picking me off from all directions, or i need range (keep a stick or two in your bags).

I'm just a scrub but it's fun as crap.

Strange. Weaver is actually the ONLY profession I can solo HoT content on (not all of it ofc). I mean the suitability is just awesome! And I'm a newb to ele.Edit: try a bit talkier gear?

@FyzE.3472 said:Strange. Weaver is actually the ONLY profession I can solo HoT content on

what build do you use?

@reikken.4961 said:

@FyzE.3472 said:Strange. Weaver is actually the ONLY profession I can solo HoT content on

Celestial ammy, back, accessories and rings. And then a mix of marauder and berserker gear for everything else. Just because that was I can actually kill stuff faster. I sometines mix and add more defensive stats gear just to survive a hit or two, but that's pretty rare because the build has more than enough heals and active defense skills. Regarding utilities - I pretty much use the PvP mender weaver utilities and masteries.

Also, I've started with full celestial gear and added more damage up to the point that I was durable enough and doing decent damage for my taste. So just experiment is my general advice. As I see it, ele is versatile enough to fit pretty much any play stile.

im running sword+dagger non-piano Lightning/earth Lightning Rod/Glyph build weaver with half marauder gear and diff stat combo gear other half and doing fine in open world pve even Pof/Hot and such. Perma regen and diamond skin for constant condi cleanse. It eats defiance bar for breakfast. It does enough damage do get the job done in decent amount of time even against champs. And has quite high survivability even in prolonged fights

And if you go Fire main element, then you'll be doing a lot more damage even with pure power gear. But i don't like sword fire and absolutely love Lightning and Gale force.

Im pretty much playing in the most non-meta build possible emphasizing of visual combat awesomeness over dps and i do stuff just fine. There have been a few cases i have been sort of accused of hacking, cuz my build/gamestyle is supposed to be super mega "go kill yourself in real life"(yes someone actually literally said this) not viable in any way.

In the end everything works just fine, if you actually try to make it work and experiement around with stats etc.

Staff rotation is basically all about cycling from Earth/Fire, to Fire/Earth, to Fire/Fire/ back to Earth/Fire:

Start out in Earth/Fire. If you're fighting regular enemies, use Glyph of Storms to blind them all. If not, save the glyph. Either way, use Eruption, then swap to Fire.In Fire/Earth, Use Lava Font, then use Pyroclastic Blast. From here, use a conjure (either lightning hammer or ice bow).In Fire/Fire, use Conjure skill 4, then drop the conjure and follow up with flame blast and meteor shower. Then swap to Earth while casting meteor shower.

Repeat. The hard part to doing good DPS is learning to switch in the middle of casting skills. Now, if you want to unload a lot of damage in a short amount of time on a large object, the rotation is slightly different.

Start in Fire/Earth. Use Lava Font and Pyroclastic Blast. While firing off Pyroclastic, swap to Air.In Air/Fire, use Glyph of Storms then follow up with Meteor Shower. While Meteor Shower is casting, swap to fire.In Fire/Air, use Lava Font, then Plasma Blast, then use a conjure. Swap to Fire/Fire immediately after using Plasma BlastIn Fire/Fire, use conjure skill 4. Swap to Earth as soon as possible, but stay in the conjure for a second or two using other skills.

This leaves you in Earth/Fire, in which you will repeat the first process above. Do that until glyph of storm recharges, in which case you swap to air again.

But yes, overall I prefer tempest to weaver. Tempest is far easier to play and it comes with innate defensive traits that make surviving much easier.

I gotta disagree with weaver sword/x being weak in open world. It works wonderfully with a bit of healing power to scale both heals and barriers. Trait a bit defensively and learn your combos for evades, heals and dmg. It works great for me, I have a lot of fun. The moment I sacrificed defensive stats/traits (going full berserker w/ scholar runes and offensive traits) is when I really struggled with being too squishy and lacking any sustain.

Currently building a defensive suit specifically for open world and WvW because I enjoy the sword weaver play style a lot.

Give us arcane fury back with fury!!!! Speed up sword 2 launch attacks or increase damage or add more condi types. Give us some sword leap skills with 900 distance. Give us a Parry.

@Sinful.2165 said:I gotta disagree with weaver sword/x being weak in open world. It works wonderfully with a bit of healing power to scale both heals and barriers. Trait a bit defensively and learn your combos for evades, heals and dmg. It works great for me, I have a lot of fun. The moment I sacrificed defensive stats/traits (going full berserker w/ scholar runes and offensive traits) is when I really struggled with being too squishy and lacking any sustain.

Currently building a defensive suit specifically for open world and WvW because I enjoy the sword weaver play style a lot.

This. I did the exact same but instead of increasing healing power I went Soldiers gear with Zerk weapons n trinkets.

I trait aggressively with Fire, Air and Weaver, with defensive utilities and FGS as the elite. Working a charm. To the point where im holding aggro on Bounties, when there isn’t a Chrono tank or similar ofc, and it’s easy peasy. This while still blowing things up pretty fast too.

Loving it.