S/D Weaver Roaming

Hey guys,

trying out Elementalist for the first time, I started using a core D/D full cele ele build and it was pretty fun, now working on unlocking the full weaver and i'm trying out sword/dagger.

I know s/d weaver is not at the level of noobeast or condi noobrage for solo roaming, but i do encountered sometimes crazy good s/d weaver who completely blew me up without a chance, good burst and good sustain.

I have a full ascended celestial gear, i can swap stats on trinkets and backpack easily...

What runes are the best?

So far i am running rune of the pack for boon dutation power and for the precision lost running full cele,

i heard even aristocrazy runes are good?

If there are some good s/d weaver roamers can you let me see your build?

P.S. I don't wanna run fresh air oneshot builds...

You should start by PvP to learn how to play weaver.There is a HUGE gap between pvp and WvW for the gear/stats, and specifically elem, armor particulary, but also power precision etc; some builds/classes will OS you while you have impression they take no dmg.Otherwise, my build : http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vFAQJAsYncMAdOg94CGOAM5ilTA7uMnmfzFTxB4HgYCEAWAA-jFSGQBtVZAZ0Dcu9HAk6P5RJIAeAAG4EAEFleAA-w No particular "theory craft" just the feeling.

@"Zhaid Zhem.6508" said:You should start by PvP to learn how to play weaver.There is a HUGE gap between pvp and WvW for the gear/stats, and specifically elem, armor particulary, but also power precision etc; some builds/classes will OS you while you have impression they take no dmg.Otherwise, my build : http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vFAQJAsYncMAdOg94CGOAM5ilTA7uMnmfzFTxB4HgYCEAWAA-jFSGQBtVZAZ0Dcu9HAk6P5RJIAeAAG4EAEFleAA-w No particular "theory craft" just the feeling.

I don't like pvp combat much, I prefer WvW 100 times...I am already getting the hand on how to play it, the problem is how other sustain builds like holo or soulbeast without investing zero healing power stats they have more sustain than me on top on damage...

But the problem is giving up toughness and healing power my sustain will dramatically go down...

Well, I was like you, trying to be a better roamer by engaging in duels in WvW maps as much as I could and trying to figure out the most efficient weaver build as a roamer after playing PVE only. Needless to say that I was constantly beaten to the point I was disgusted playing WvW and decided to play some PVP instead when i am not a PVP guy at all. While it can be very frustrating to learn Weaver in PVP, I can only confirm what Zhaid said, it is a very good school to improve your skill level, rotations mechanics and understanding what gear synergies well with what playstyle.An example: when trying roaming in WvW initially I used to play a Sw/D FA build with high healing power and toughness and the more I was being beaten, the more I would put in healing power... Today, I would switch that to Sw/F LR build with good precision and ferocity for a high burst dueling playstyle. Not saying it is the best build for roaming but it will score me at least some kills :)

@Ivarian.9018 said:Well, I was like you, trying to be a better roamer by engaging in duels in WvW maps as much as I could and trying to figure out the most efficient weaver build as a roamer after playing PVE only. Needless to say that I was constantly beaten to the point I was disgusted playing WvW and decided to play some PVP instead when i am not a PVP guy at all. While it can be very frustrating to learn Weaver in PVP, I can only confirm what Zhaid said, it is a very good school to improve your skill level, rotations mechanics and understanding what gear synergies well with what playstyle.An example: when trying roaming in WvW initially I used to play a Sw/D FA build with high healing power and toughness and the more I was being beaten, the more I would put in healing power... Today, I would switch that to Sw/F LR build with good precision and ferocity for a high burst dueling playstyle. Not saying it is the best build for roaming but it will score me at least some kills :)

Well i am already trying out lighting rod as well xD

So am.completely this process in wvw, as i said pvp combat is so laggy and not real for me like the one in wvw so i prefer stick to wvw but thanks for the advices.

Another thing... just theorycrafting im trying out a water air weaver lighting rod build, why everyone take arcane in every build? It doesn't feel that crucial or must have trait to survive or just for a 15 attunement recharge, so far water air combo works best for me... can you enlight me?Going arcane air weaver i lose too much sustain and healing from the water because im.not running a zerk mara heavy build, i still have some healing power stats..

@whoknocks.4935 said:Another thing... just theorycrafting im trying out a water air weaver lighting rod build, why everyone take arcane in every build? It doesn't feel that crucial or must have trait to survive or just for a 15 attunement recharge, so far water air combo works best for me... can you enlight me?Going arcane air weaver i lose too much sustain and healing from the water because im.not running a zerk mara heavy build, i still have some healing power stats..

In fact Arcane synergies so well with all areas of Weaver playstyle (evade, sustain, fast execution of skills combo) that not using it potentially reduces the overall efficiency of Weaver by a lot and in my opinion no other trait line can really do better on the versatility side for Weaver.In term of sustain, using Water over Arcane is going to offer more healing, maybe more condition cleanse but it is not going to be a dramatic increase compared to Arcane traited 3 2 1. On the other hand, you are going to lose all the boons generation coming from Elemental Attunement and Elemental Contingency (Fury, Might, Protection, Swiftness (perma swiftness and might stacking by switching Air to Fire to Air...)) and the skills provided by Evasive Arcana on dodge (dealing or providing blind, fire, cripple or healing wave) plus the 15% reduction of attunment recharge time. Arcane reveals itself when you chain skills and atunments. For example, chaining an offensive combo over the following attunements: Air/Water then Fire then Earth and back to Air will keep providing/stacking boons. The following healing combo will be quite effective with Arcane (healing wave, regeneration and protection): switching to Water, dodge for healing wave, water 2 (for some healing, evade & water field), switching to Earth, earth 2 for blast finisher in water field (+ some protection boon uptime).

With Water, specialization, you will have to go into Water regularly to benefit from the specialization traits and you will lose pressure capability and pressuring your opponent is much more important as a melee Weaver than high healing capability. Indeed, if you can force the other player to play defensively rather than offensively, it will reduce the amount of damage to heal. If you stick to healing only, well your opponents is left with one option only, a very easy one: CC and damage.

@Ivarian.9018 said:

@"whoknocks.4935" said:Another thing... just theorycrafting im trying out a water air weaver lighting rod build, why everyone take arcane in every build? It doesn't feel that crucial or must have trait to survive or just for a 15 attunement recharge, so far water air combo works best for me... can you enlight me?Going arcane air weaver i lose too much sustain and healing from the water because im.not running a zerk mara heavy build, i still have some healing power stats..

Tell me what you think of this build i am currently running while roaming.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vFEQJAsdncMAt4i94CG5CM5iFWA7eLHmHzFJx8XFgIBcACAA-j1xHQBPVJIAOBAJS9H3oHAePAAVs/gSV+FAIBYmaeAw5Zemn5ZemHNPzz8MPzz8MPzz8MPSBUlWL-w

Going full celestial is nice and all, but the damage is meh, so i am currently using full marshal trinkets and back as you can see, i lose toughness to gain lot of healing power, power and condi stats.

The choice of focus off hand over dagger is because i love stun my enemy and get their boons with sigil of absorption which has no icd, dagger offhand maybe gives more damage but lose the utilities and you become so weak to ranged pressure, magnetic aura and focus air4 saved me lot of times against rangers.

I tried a variant air water weaver using lighting rod, it works but the attunement swap become clunkier as you said in your post...

so what you think? air water weaver is not viable at all?

Here's my experience on sw/d weaver roaming buildI tried a lot of the variants out there but could never deal enough damage for it to compete with other classes/builds effectively. I thought you needed at least 600 healing power to sustain. Sw/d weaver is not the same as d/d where you HAVE to tank up, or at least, not nearly as much.

Turns out all I needed was around ~350 healing power, very little toughness, and run water+arcane traitlines to be able to sustain JUST AS WELL as I would with 600 healing power, because a lot of your damage mitigation comes from evades and movement/positioning/putting pressure on your enemy(s).

So, take a look at this build and notice how high the power is and how many damage modifiers there are: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vFAQJAsYncMAdOg9MA+4C8RglUA7OMXmXzFPxPQUkIA0AOAA-j1SBQBA4BCgSlgpSdiEqyyV2fUidRlB4RPxCOQAlRJBFOBAkVpw6gDAjN2YjN2YNgYjN2YjN2YjN2YlCQQlRA-w

The only thing I will say is that this is not a training-wheels sw/d weaver build, you have to be confident in your own evasive/offensive abilities for it to work. You don't start with this build, you end with something like this :) keep in mind though that some choices stat-wise are somewhat arbitrary, anything similar within ~50 stats of each will do. Like do I really need that commanders amulet? nah probably not but it's what I've been using

@"whoknocks.4935" said:Tell me what you think of this build i am currently running while roaming.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vFEQJAsdncMAt4i94CG5CM5iFWA7eLHmHzFJx8XFgIBcACAA-j1xHQBPVJIAOBAJS9H3oHAePAAVs/gSV+FAIBYmaeAw5Zemn5ZemHNPzz8MPzz8MPzz8MPSBUlWL-w

Going full celestial is nice and all, but the damage is meh, so i am currently using full marshal trinkets and back as you can see, i lose toughness to gain lot of healing power, power and condi stats.

The choice of focus off hand over dagger is because i love stun my enemy and get their boons with sigil of absorption which has no icd, dagger offhand maybe gives more damage but lose the utilities and you become so weak to ranged pressure, magnetic aura and focus air4 saved me lot of times against rangers.

I tried a variant air water weaver using lighting rod, it works but the attunement swap become clunkier as you said in your post...

so what you think? air water weaver is not viable at all?

If you want to play with Water trait line that is fine and it is a safer option than going with a more offensive build. Therefore, I have slightly adjusted your build to deal more damage but still having reasonable sustain (a bit less healing power, more condi damage & might generation and more condi cleanse). I have replaced focus with dagger (focus provides some good cc and damage mitigation and is better suited for offensive build in my opinion). You have the option to replace Woven Stride with Element of Rage for more damage and crit chance to the detriment of sustain and mobility.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vFEQJAsYncMAt4i94CG5CM5iFWA7eLHmLzFJx8XFgIBcACAA-jVyHQBPVJ4AeAAuRPgSVCBgTAgK2fIpKdSk6PLRZQAgEgZqMFAnn5Zemn5Ze08MPzz8MPzz8MPzz8IFQVatA-w

The build provided by SoulSlavocracy.4902 is fine as well but because it lacks toughness and healing power it will require more skill to land your hits and burst combo and not ending up chaining evades, dodges and heals only.