Weaver Survivability Help

[Necalli.4753]

Hello everyone!

I hope you're all doing well. I wanted to reach out and ask for a bit of help with melee weaver survivability. Before I continue I do want to say that I've only loosely followed GW2 over the years and this is the first time I've found a class/build that really kept me hooked in the game (weaver that is) and I really like how the class functions. I've been catching up on all the story content and was just notified about how both Primodius and Jormag are active. My problem is that I am getting taken to town anytime I jump into combat. I'm staying out of the fire as best I can and am trying to cycle through to water and earth to try to keep myself resilient and healing.

As far as character goes, I'm running Fresh Air build with berserker stats as was suggested online. Gear is orange quality and I rarely run into gear that is an upgrade. What can I do to keep playing melee weaver but not die every five seconds in combat? I feel like I'm missing something but I don't know what it is.

[Downstate.4697]

https://en-forum.guildwars2.com/discussion/107218/open-world-domination-fire-weaver/p1

[Blood Red Arachnid.2493]

The first tip is this: the raid build assumes maximum healing with no mistakes, and teammates who will always maintain permanent weakness. Since the only place this happens is raids, you'll want to take the trait Master's Fortitude over Superior Elements everywhere else. That gives you enough extra health to survive a few extra weak hits, or one additional strong hit.

The second is the utilities. Personally, I run Arcane Shield over Arcane Blast. This is both because the damage contribution of Arcane Blast is minimal, and because the stun break and shield are a life saver. If you still have trouble surviving, the third utility to take for PVE is Stone Resonance over Primordial Stance. It effectively acts like a second and third heal. Though the only places I've ever had to take it were Dragonfall and Lake Doric. For the healing skill, take the Glyph of Elemental Harmony. The raid build recommends the signet as supplement to a dedicated healer and under quickness, and without being a healer yourself the bonus it gives it minimal. No matter what, you'll want to take Glyph of Storms.

The final part is how you start out with your attunements. For maximum survival against anything without a break bar, you'll want to sit in Earth/Fire (that is, Earth Primary and Fire secondary). The reason you want to do this is twofold: first is the dual skill Lava Skin. This will give you stability and around 3,347 barrier eventually. The second reason is it transforms Glyph of Storms into Sandstorm. Now, Sandstorm pulses 3 seconds of blind every second for 11 seconds, which is a lot of ways to say that anything caught in that Sandstorm will miss you over and over again for 11 seconds. On a berserker build, that is more than enough time to kill anything that is attacking you. So, against multiple enemies that do not have a break bar, you'll want to go like this:

Start in Earth/FireSandstorm + Primordial Stance(swap to Fire)Lava SkinFlame UprisingEarthquakeAuto until attunement swap is off recharge(Double attune to fire)go into the standard DPS rotation from there.

Finally, there's what to do when fighting an enemy with a breakbar. You can forgo the sandstorm, and instead go for the CC chain. It looks like this:

Start in Earth/FireLava SkinSwap to Air (Fresh Air)Polaric LeapGale StrikeEarthquakeSwap to Air (Fresh Air)Updraft

This will do 757 breakbar damage, stunning most things with a bar. This will also leave you in Air/Air, which will then let you begin the DPS rotation again.

Unless you have healing power on your build, going into water is largely useless. It doesn't give enough health to matter in the long run. The only reason why you'll want to go into water is if you need an evade skill, but you can't go into earth for Earthen Vortex.

[Necalli.4753]

Thank you both! I'm going to give both of these a try and see what pans out better. Thank you so much!

[TheAgedGnome.7520]

I'm currently rather happy with this build:http://gw2skills.net/editor/?PGxAYxjlZwuYZsI2JOqOmvNA-zRZYBREnXVQguRJKoMioC6NF0YaEwMA-e

Written in Stone allows use of the signets without losing their passives, so you can get an emergency heal and AoE blind.Cleansing sigils for condi removal upon attunement swaps.

Some other builds are in this thread:https://en-forum.guildwars2.com/discussion/123169/open-world-weaver-builds

[Necalli.4753]

Thank you everyone! I ended up actually taking a bit of all the suggestions. Kept the berserker gear but switched from fire/lighting to earth/water for my traits then modified which skills I had selected for more survivability. Much, much smoother. A bit of a damage loss but I can keep playing without issue.

[Zuras.5394]

@Necalli.4753 said:Thank you everyone! I ended up actually taking a bit of all the suggestions. Kept the berserker gear but switched from fire/lighting to earth/water for my traits then modified which skills I had selected for more survivability. Much, much smoother. A bit of a damage loss but I can keep playing without issue.

A late reply however....If your following a metabattle build then that is your first problem! Full Berserker gear is bad! You need more health and some toughness to better survive in pve land. Look on Youtube for CelloFrag, He mains an elementalist/weaver/tempest for many years and knows the profession really well. He even has a discord for fans of the profession.

[Infusion.7149]

If it's for PVE you really don't want toughness unless it is only for solo content. Marauder armor stat is a much better idea, since you can use it everywhere with less damage loss than other combinations.

[TheAgedGnome.7520]

@Infusion.7149 said:If it's for PVE you really don't want toughness unless it is only for solo content. Marauder armor stat is a much better idea, since you can use it everywhere with less damage loss than other combinations.

The OP was having problems doing story content, so it is soloing (albeit with a smidge of NPC help).