Oh sweet Moamander, it's TWO more Weaver montages !?

Hi GW2 forum elementalists! I am not perfect but I've gained some traction in the past few months and am happy to share my latest two montages with you all, hope you can find something useful within - cheers o/

Very inspiring plays showcasing splendid Meteor and AoE positionings and how useful Weaver can be in squads not as win-more role but an actual team-carry.Great positioning to free-cast big damage while NOT BEING GREEDY. He's aware of incoming damage and cooldowns to back off from initial bombs before going back in to free-cast when he can.

A part of me wishes more people saw this so more players and commanders realize the potential of eles not as a win-more position but an actual team carry BUT at the same time it makes things look easy and gets nerfed when it shouldn't as it takes alot of preparation from the squad to support this as well as practice as the ele to not be a free rally for the enemy team.

I wanna make a video now

I wanna kill stuff now

Very impressive play. Sometime my ele can do the same (but not always). However, 80% of my death is becoz of one shot (usually by power rev or power necro), zero reaction time, no matter how well you play. Any so-called safe position is actually a gamble since when you can reach opponents, they can reach you too. Eventually I change trait to fire/earth, and always tune to earth on main when I am exposed (offhand fire so I still get the big hit), then there is no more one short anymore, but unfortunately can't see 10k+ damage anymore....

@zencow.3651 said:Very inspiring plays showcasing splendid Meteor and AoE positionings and how useful Weaver can be in squads not as win-more role but an actual team-carry.Great positioning to free-cast big damage while NOT BEING GREEDY. He's aware of incoming damage and cooldowns to back off from initial bombs before going back in to free-cast when he can.

A part of me wishes more people saw this so more players and commanders realize the potential of eles not as a win-more position but an actual team carry BUT at the same time it makes things look easy and gets nerfed when it shouldn't as it takes alot of preparation from the squad to support this as well as practice as the ele to not be a free rally for the enemy team.

Thanks for the great comment! Yes, I've been trying to get people to recognize ele as the true fight-winner that it is when performed with a little bit of grace, but there are still many who would disagree sadly.

@"Dahir.4158" said:I wanna make a video now

@MyPuppy.8970 said:I wanna kill stuff now

Lmao

@"CRrabbit.1284" said:Very impressive play. Sometime my ele can do the same (but not always). However, 80% of my death is becoz of one shot (usually by power rev or power necro), zero reaction time, no matter how well you play. Any so-called safe position is actually a gamble since when you can reach opponents, they can reach you too. Eventually I change trait to fire/earth, and always tune to earth on main when I am exposed (offhand fire so I still get the big hit), then there is no more one short anymore, but unfortunately can't see 10k+ damage anymore....

It happens to all of us every now and then regardless of build, no worries. I run approximately 100 toughness and 200 vitality in armour/trinket stats plus the 3rd minor weaver trait for an extra 1500 health, so I usually sit around 16k. 16k is still in the rev one-shot range - it's risky, but again, it's just gonna happen man, it's almost unavoidable haha. Better to retain your damage and bite the bullet imo.

I have a weaver tutorial that can be viewed here if you're interested:

for any Weaver who has not tried fire/earth trait combo, I suggest you to try it. you will lose about 10~15% damage overall from dropping air trait, but you get immune to critical damage (which is the key reason why we get one shot)from earth. even with 2000 armor you are still extremely tanky when tuned to earth, usually you can eat at least 4 COR and still alive (coz armor activate at 50% HP too). Personally I feel my survivability greatly improved after I switch, almost every time I am the last one standing besides FB when we get wiped which is impossible no matter how well I play when trained air. deadman don't do damage, 15% damage vs 400% survivability, your choice.

@CRrabbit.1284 said:for any Weaver who has not tried fire/earth trait combo, I suggest you to try it. you will lose about 10~15% damage overall from dropping air trait, but you get immune to critical damage (which is the key reason why we get one shot)from earth. even with 2000 armor you are still extremely tanky when tuned to earth, usually you can eat at least 4 COR and still alive (coz armor activate at 50% HP too). Personally I feel my survivability greatly improved after I switch, almost every time I am the last one standing besides FB when we get wiped which is impossible no matter how well I play when trained air. deadman don't do damage, 15% damage vs 400% survivability, your choice.

I can see that being very useful in organized guild vs guild scenarios. That's very interesting thank you for the input, I often forget about the earth traitline.

Being in a party with a firebrand and positioning yourself well in fights is better

@"Dahir.4158" said:Being in a party with a firebrand and positioning yourself well in fights is better

Agreed, stone heart for when you want to take a stroll around the borderlands to hard-counter the popular 'one-shot' power builds without fear of dying (and then getting angry whispers for being 'carried' by stone heart)

Do you got your guide in written form?

@zencow.3651 said:

@"Dahir.4158" said:Being in a party with a firebrand and positioning yourself well in fights is better

I don't buy it. How can ele be carried by stone heart when almost fully geared for damage?Every profession have this option and in case of ele, you can't camp earth. You can still be one shot in other attunements.But you have a safety belt on demand, which is still a nice thing.

Proper positioning and awareness is not given to everybody. Not talking about reflexes and ping.Not saying I would use it but I would definitely consider it.

My problem is that you have to camp earth, or suddenly you will get hit from the shadows...So just as you said, it is a strange option.

@Aigleborgne.2981 said:

@zencow.3651 said:

@"Dahir.4158" said:Being in a party with a firebrand and positioning yourself well in fights is better

Yep that's why it's ironic when coming from the 1-shot mirage/deadeyes. Nothing about ele lets you get carried by it as a profession.

I meant on roaming builds either with Sword or Scepter of course. With the latter, you can 'outplay' the glassy one-shot builds pretty hard by swapping to earth/being on earth while they're stealth to tank the bulk of the bursts then zapping them to death (and if you use the vision sigil to allow a generous helping of toughness and healing power from crusader gear you can out sustain their damage between bursts). Repeat a few times and they will go down faster than you will and they'll be like waa huuuuhh?

@zencow.3651 said:

@Aigleborgne.2981 said:

@zencow.3651 said:

@"Dahir.4158" said:Being in a party with a firebrand and positioning yourself well in fights is better

While having better defense is a good point, ele can barely get them down in full offensive build/gear. Don't forget that they can always disengage if they fail burst, you cant magically get more damage.

@steki.1478 said:While having better defense is a good point, ele can barely get them down in full offensive build/gear. Don't forget that they can always disengage if they fail burst, you cant magically get more damage.

That's the sad part, if they don't die to the Arcane Blast zappity zap zap then you have to settle for a stalemate if they don't make a fatal mistake.

I feel like our attunements and focus on this becomes more of a disadvantage than an advantage at this point.Still super fun and flashy.. less effective.

Also as suggested let us use Conjure weapons as kits. That would give us versitility on the go that we otherwise lose from not having weapon swap ;)

@zencow.3651 said:

@steki.1478 said:While having better defense is a good point, ele can barely get them down in full offensive build/gear. Don't forget that they can always disengage if they fail burst, you cant magically get more damage.

That sad moment when traited arcane blast (blind) can save you more than the whole defensive specialization. Lets not forget the protection you get in arcane.

@steki.1478 said:

@zencow.3651 said:

@steki.1478 said:While having better defense is a good point, ele can barely get them down in full offensive build/gear. Don't forget that they can always disengage if they fail burst, you cant magically get more damage.

This is why I like arcane trait, it gives you options. Plus, I love arcane armor (skill and trait), so reduced cooldown is always welcome.

@steki.1478 said:That sad moment when traited arcane blast (blind) can save you more than the whole defensive specialization. Lets not forget the protection you get in arcane.Sadly nothing help you catch them when they shadowstep/blink/spam mobility skills into the horizon and stealth away even with traited immob on arcane hits.

@Phoenix the One.4071 said:Do you got your guide in written form?

Yes, here it is.

! I've split it up into 4 categories:!! 1. Gameplay analysis! 2. General gameplay concepts! 3. Overall weaver concepts! 4. Traits, Utilities, & Build! -----------------------------------! 1. GAMEPLAY ANALYSIS:! -----------------------------------!! ------------------------------------------------! 2. GENERAL GAMEPLAY CONCEPTS:! ------------------------------------------------!! Try to keep this in mind: Prediction, Procedure, Adjustment. (PPA)!! prediction is looking at the enemy group as a single entity and paying attention to it's movement, OR as multiple entities and keeping track of each. Always watch your enemy closesly. Eventually you will become intuitive in knowing what the enemy is going to do next. For example, when you see one member of the opposing zerg do a U-turn and head your direction, followed by everyone behind that person making the same U-turn, not only do you now know who their commander is but you also know there is a higher likelihood that they are about to push in your direction. Being able to differentiate between fake pushes and real pushes takes time, but if you pay close attention, you will eventually gain a sense for it.!! Procedure entails asking yourself: what is the next skill I can use that serves the greatest function? This is the simplest of the three concepts but also probably the hardest to master. This will take time, but eventually you will gain a sense of what skill is most appropriate, or what combination of skills is most appropriate.!! And adjustment can be thought of like this: of the situations I've predicted in the first step, what are! my plans if shit hits the fan. Do I still have a stunbreak available, and how should I change my gameplay to account for that?!! Being able to back-cast is a good skill to have. If you can back-cast as well as you can cast forward, you can use your strafe left/right keys to run away from a target while precision bombing behind you. This is extremely useful as a weaver, in fact there probably isn't any other situation in the game where this technique is more useful. Back-casting while an enemy is on your tail can win fights by keeping constant pressure on the enemy, as opposed to allowing them to essentially reset.!! Next, you should consider whether or not the keybinding and mouse/keyboard setup you're using is optimal. If you can't press all of your skills with one hand, or if you can't press a weapon skill and a utility skill at the same time, then it may not be optimal for weaver. Take a look at this video I released awhile ago showing how I have my keybinds set up for weaver. It may be true that I have large hands, but it really comes down more to the way you move your hands than how large they are [lol]. Pay attention to how I'm pivoting my entire hand off of individual fingers to increase the distance I can reach. This helps me switch between attunements very effectively. Again, I can almost guarentee that regardless of your hand shape, complicated finger movements are possible with practice, and you should start by practising slowly and gradually increasing speed. Muscle memory is important.!! Know how and when to use aggression. Sometimes it's actually very appropriate to be highly aggressive, even as a squishy build such as DPS weaver. If everything around you dies when you touch it you probably don't need to worry about being too aggressive ... until you do. Eventually you'll squirrel or do something stupid and get owned but don't worry, it happens to us all every now and then.!! Things you can do when you keep getting owned. Every once and awhile you're going to come across a group that is way bigger, possibly better, or targets glassy builds such as DPS weavers and revenants often. As a weaver there are a few things you can do; 1) switch arcane power to arcane shield, mist form, or stone resonance. 2) focus up. A lot of the time, if you keep dying, it's actually just because you're not thinking straight, or you're not thinking fast enough. So focus up, get your shit together. 3) position yourself roughly between the midline and the backline, so that you're still getting boons and have a decent range for casting, but are also not being beat up in the front-line so much. Oh, did I mention that you should usually be playing in the front line? yeah, this is a front-line weaver build, it's glassy, but if you play it well you should actually be in the front line most of the time. This also means that if you're hit with any skill that depletes half your health bar or more, you need to heal immediately or fall back a bit. And that's how you do it, most of the time. But sometimes you will have to play defensively.!! -------------------------------------------! 3. OVERALL WEAVER CONCEPTS:! -------------------------------------------!! Cast as many skills as needed before swapping attunements, often this is only 2 skills, occasionally 3 or 4, and then switch attunements without any delay to keep your rotation fluid. There are some situations where you may want to stay in the same attunement such as after casting meteor shower to keep the fire attunement power buff, or to stay in fire to spam autocast, or if the situation truly calls for it.!! Use burning retreat often. This skill is one of the few keys to playing weaver in WvW effectively, and can be paired with other skills such as meteor shower and lightning flash in useful ways. Watch how I use burning retreat and lightning flash to safely cast meteor shower from a distance. You can do this by pressing the burning retreat key, casting meteor while you're rolling back, then quickly using lightning flash. Mobility skill utilization is one of the core concepts of DPS weaver and if you are planning on playing this build you must be able to do this in order to survive. So be very familiar with these techniques.!! Twist of fate - this is probably one of the greatest skills in the entire game. Use this to break stun and to gain super-speed. Try to always have at least one charge of this available unless you absolutely have to use both, and sometimes you will.!! Arcane Wave - this skill, if used effectively, can be a large source of your dps. It hits 5 targets with a guarenteed critical hit and has 2 charges.!! Fiery Greatsword - in addition to offering 2 mobility skills, skills 3 and 5 of the fiery greatsword can be used as a burst when a large zerg is pushing through a small choke. Skill 5 may not hit hard, but it hits 10 targets and remains in place for 8 seconds.!! ----------------------------------------! 4. APPENDIX: TRAITS, BUILD! ----------------------------------------!! First of all, this build is designed for small to large World vs World groups, and is not a roaming build. let's go over the traits you need to be aware of in order to play this build effectively.!! 1. Sunspot & Electric Discharge. Be aware of how switching to air will cast a 900 range single-target spell, and how switching to fire will cast a 180 radius multi-target spell.!! 2. Raging Storm; every 3 seconds you have a chance to gain fury for 2 seconds if you critically hit, and your ferocity is increased significantly while you have fury. This is partly why in my build I run a commanders amulet and backpiece; the added 1/4th of a second added to the fury granted by this trait theoretically adds up to an extra 5 seconds of fury per minute, which is useful when you do not have a hammer revenant in your party.!! 3. Pyromancer's Puissance - some people prefer to use the top trait here, Persisting flames, which is better used in situations such as raids or fractals where you have a reliable source of might stacks. In most situations, your damage will be higher if you run the middle trait, Pyromancer's Puissance, especially if you also run Strength runes.!! 4. Tempest Defense vs Aeromancer's Training - it's up to you whichever trait you want to run here, either bottom or middle, but I personally recommend running bottom for the overall increase of DPS when striking CC'd opponents. The extra damage kicks in only when the enemy is especially vulnerable, and this, in my opinion, is very useful. This doubles as a DPS increase vs tower lords whenever the bar is broken.!! 5. Bolt to the heart vs Fresh air - again, it's up to you whichever trait you want to run, but I prefer the top trait because once again it gives you a damage increase when the enemy is in a highly vulnerable state, and generally results in overall higher damage per second.!! 6. Pyromancer's training & Elemental Polyphony; both of these traits will increase your power while attuned to fire. In WvW, you can only receive both bonuses simultaneously when fully attuned.!! 7. Burning rage - you deal more damage to burning foes, which synergizes with Burning Precision which gives you a chance to burn foes you critically strike. Don't be tempted to run Lesser Cleansing Fire, you will have more than enough condi cleanse by using your heal skill.!! 8. Master's Fortitude - even if you're not wielding a sword, you will still gain around 1500 vitality, which helps a lot. The other traits available in this slot haven't been as useful to me as the added vitality has.!! 9. Swift Revenge - You deal more damage when you have swiftness, and gain swiftness from using dual attacks. This means whenever you are trying to catch up to your zerg, you can simply practice your rotations and cast dual attacks to gain swiftness. It may go without saying that you should probably be aware of your surroundings while doing this.!! 10. Finally, there is Elements of Rage which will give you a 10% damage increase after fully attuning to an element. You also gain precision based on a percentage of your vitality, which is why running half marauders is currently as effective as it is.!! I strongly recommend running Ether Renewal as a heal skill, as it provides 8 condition cleanses and 5304 health every 18 seconds. In addition to this I highly recommend running at least twist of fate and lightning flash, and optimally arcane wave as well. I have tried many different setups for utilities and this is the one setup that I always come back to because it's very effective.!! The sigils I use for staff are Sigil of Force and sigil of bloodlust for maximum damage. I prefer to run runes of strength over runes of the scholar because strength runes are more consistent and allow better might stacking which is important for this build.

Good stuff.

Ele is super strong is huge blob fights. Anything smaller and they just get picked off or interrupted before they can do any meaningful damage, or just get out positioned.

@"SoulSlavocracy.4902" said:

@Phoenix the One.4071 said:Do you got your guide in written form?

That is awesome! Thanks a lot :)

I actually like squeesing frostbow into my utilities rofl, spamming my heavy hitters from all elements then frostbow AoE, Greatsword AoE and back to regular rotation.

Probably not THAT great but i feel like i do quite a bit more deeps :) also frostbows multishot can add up at times

I would like Masters fortitude benefit from either power OR condition dmg which ever is highst and 10%:)Hybrid is a lie xD