Survival Tools as Weaver

[Chyro.1462]

Hey there.I'm a long-time ele player, though overall mostly casual rather than end-game content focused.I recently came back to the game to play the new expansion, also been trying out weaver.So far couldn't really get comfortable enough with it to keep playing on it, so went on with tempest for most of the PoF story / open world content.

My biggest issue is the lack of readily available 'reactions' to bad situations.Most defense / survival / sustain skills I know to rely on with core or tempest ele are in 3rd, 4th or 5th skillslot.Stuff like earth invulnerability, projectile reflect, wind projectile destruction - on focus. Or water condi removal, or earth aoe knockdown, or air knockdown + evade on offhand dagger.On weaver all of that is locked behind having to attune twice to get to any desired 3rd 4th or 5th slot skill.So while I'm doing fine bursting down weaker enemies without them scratching me much, if I'm facing something stronger or multiple enemies that get my health low or drag me down with annoying conditions, I always feel like I'm lacking all the direct access to 'solution' skills when playing weaver. Sure, I can get the skills after the attunement cooldown - but by then I might already be dead cause I couldn't react in time.

I should also mention that I mainly play with melee weapon combos, so D/D, S/D, D/F, S/F (D/W on tempest). Sword seems very strong and fun, and I often wish I could use it without weaver's attunement complexity - but it requires me to be in very close melee. Even dagger gives some wiggle room to keep enough distance for avoiding some simple damage hits from melee attacks, while sword pretty much forces me to facetank anything I can't burst down quickly.

So.. how does weaver deal with survival? Any tips? I may not know weaver's skills well enough and there may be some 1st 2nd or 3rd slot skills on weaver that can help but that I've overlooked as survival tools.

My utility skills are usually Arcane Blast for the versatile blast finishers (mainly might, sometimes swiftness or heal), Sigil of Fire (...is this still 'mandatory' for decent crit chance?) and Arcane Shield or Earth Armor. Not sure what trait lines to use with weaver, I mostly stuck to Fire + Air as with my tempest. Experimented some by swapping Earth, Water or Arcane in. Experimented with boons and auras (though tempest works better for that). Couldn't quite get a mix where I felt confident in my weaver's survivability.

[steki.1478]

First of all, sword weaver doesnt have as high direct damage as dagger, a good part of your damage comes from burning on fire skills, so it's not a bad idea to get some condi/hybrid focused stats/runes/sigils.

Both sword and dagger weaver have access to 2 evades on skills 2 or 3. Sword also comes with water field which can be blasted easily by earth skills. Arcane blast can easily be replaced by twist of fate which is another evade. If you're not using glyph heal you should really get it, it's very strong heal (especially traited) and gives good boons. Lifesteal food is also a good choice.

In the end, you can always take water spec and defensive weaver traits at the cost of dps.

[reikken.4961]

@steki.1478 said:First of all, sword weaver doesnt have as high direct damage as dagger

This isn't true. Sword has more power damage than dagger has.it doesn't hit as large of an area, but it has more damage

Anyway, on weaver I always take twist of fate if I want to be able to not die. It's weaver's best move. And your main defense is on sword is water and earth 2. Instead of swapping to earth and using focus 5, you swap to water and use sword 2, which is a long evade that heals you, or swap to earth and use earth 2, which is an evade that does damage. OR you swap to water and use sword 2, then swap to earth and use earth 2 to blast the water field created by sword 2 for an extra heal. And air 2 is a fast interrupt.

Unfortunately this makes sword really the only viable weapon for weaver if you want good access to defense.

[Ario.8964]

Arcane with water and sword provides a ton of strong sustain. You will find as a weaver that most of your defense comes from evading damage and healing through whatever you take. Utilizing signet of restoration and arcane's fall trait you will have solid healing just by swapping through attunements constantly (also lots of healing from just using skills). If you use evasive arcana and the water tree, swapping into water and dodge rolling will be a huge heal by itself. Adding on sword 2 in water and then earth 2 when you swap into it for a blast finisher gives you the ability to heal to almost full hp. Use earth and fire's dual skill for barrier and self centered aoe (very good for anti melee defense style and primordial stance can help a great deal with this as well plus giving you extra stability if you use the trait) Arcane shield gives you some stunbreaks amd blocks which is good and twist of fate finishes your set with stability (traited) and stunbreaks with evades attatched.

[Velimere.7685]

@"Chyro.1462" said:Hey there.I'm a long-time ele player, though overall mostly casual rather than end-game content focused.I recently came back to the game to play the new expansion, also been trying out weaver.So far couldn't really get comfortable enough with it to keep playing on it, so went on with tempest for most of the PoF story / open world content.

My biggest issue is the lack of readily available 'reactions' to bad situations.Most defense / survival / sustain skills I know to rely on with core or tempest ele are in 3rd, 4th or 5th skillslot.Stuff like earth invulnerability, projectile reflect, wind projectile destruction - on focus. Or water condi removal, or earth aoe knockdown, or air knockdown + evade on offhand dagger.On weaver all of that is locked behind having to attune twice to get to any desired 3rd 4th or 5th slot skill.So while I'm doing fine bursting down weaker enemies without them scratching me much, if I'm facing something stronger or multiple enemies that get my health low or drag me down with annoying conditions, I always feel like I'm lacking all the direct access to 'solution' skills when playing weaver. Sure, I can get the skills after the attunement cooldown - but by then I might already be dead cause I couldn't react in time.

I should also mention that I mainly play with melee weapon combos, so D/D, S/D, D/F, S/F (D/W on tempest). Sword seems very strong and fun, and I often wish I could use it without weaver's attunement complexity - but it requires me to be in very close melee. Even dagger gives some wiggle room to keep enough distance for avoiding some simple damage hits from melee attacks, while sword pretty much forces me to facetank anything I can't burst down quickly.

So.. how does weaver deal with survival? Any tips? I may not know weaver's skills well enough and there may be some 1st 2nd or 3rd slot skills on weaver that can help but that I've overlooked as survival tools.

My utility skills are usually Arcane Blast for the versatile blast finishers (mainly might, sometimes swiftness or heal), Sigil of Fire (...is this still 'mandatory' for decent crit chance?) and Arcane Shield or Earth Armor. Not sure what trait lines to use with weaver, I mostly stuck to Fire + Air as with my tempest. Experimented some by swapping Earth, Water or Arcane in. Experimented with boons and auras (though tempest works better for that). Couldn't quite get a mix where I felt confident in my weaver's survivability.

Your defensive rotation as a Weaver using sword is to attune to water to proc Healing Ripple, then dodge roll for the Evasive Arcana proc (Cleansing Wave), then activate Riptide, then attune to earth, then activate Earthen Vortex, then attune to fire, then activate Lava Skin. You repeat this process every 10 seconds as necessary with that last part every other defensive rotation. I only play PvP, and this is the build I use. Coming out of topping yourself off with your defensive rotation is the best time to go on the offensive especially after getting Lava Skin off and having a charge of Primordial Stance ready to go.

[Chyro.1462]

Okay, so summarized.. Water 2 into Earth 2. Earth + Fire dual skill (since fire is often attuned, its quickly accessible by just attuning earth when already in fire). Using arcane traits with the extra boons from swapping attunements + using evasive arcana. Using water traits for overall more sustain + condi removal. Air 2 is an interrupt (always thought its just teleport / gap closer). And twist of fate utility. I'll try it out next time I'm ingame and play around with these options, thanks.

Also, I take it off-hand focus isn't a very good option for weaver? Since most focus skills are mostly reactive and weaver makes it hard to have them ready at the right time. While dagger off-hand is mostly damaging skills that can be used at any time for at least part of their usefullness.

Other question: Blasting fields. Aside from utilities, which weapon slots have reliable access to blast finishers? I noticed earth 2 from sword is easy and fast. I know earth 4 and 5 from off-hand dagger, though 5 is too slow for most short-lived fields. Are there others?

[Velimere.7685]

@"Chyro.1462" said:Okay, so summarized.. Water 2 into Earth 2. Earth + Fire dual skill (since fire is often attuned, its quickly accessible by just attuning earth when already in fire). Using arcane traits with the extra boons from swapping attunements + using evasive arcana. Using water traits for overall more sustain + condi removal. Air 2 is an interrupt (always thought its just teleport / gap closer). And twist of fate utility. I'll try it out next time I'm ingame and play around with these options, thanks.

Also, I take it off-hand focus isn't a very good option for weaver? Since most focus skills are mostly reactive and weaver makes it hard to have them ready at the right time. While dagger off-hand is mostly damaging skills that can be used at any time for at least part of their usefullness.

Other question: Blasting fields. Aside from utilities, which weapon slots have reliable access to blast finishers? I noticed earth 2 from sword is easy and fast. I know earth 4 and 5 from off-hand dagger, though 5 is too slow for most short-lived fields. Are there others?

While attuned to earth, Evasive Arcana can proc Shockwave which is a blast finisher.

After attuning from earth to fire, if you attune from fire to air (assuming you're not too pressured to do so), you can cast Ring of Fire and then Polaric Leap to grant yourself a fire shield. If you're going full offensive and double attune fire for double burning stacks from Primordial Stance, Flame Uprising is another leap finisher.

[MyPuppy.8970]

@Chyro.1462 said:

Other question: Blasting fields. Aside from utilities, which weapon slots have reliable access to blast finishers? I noticed earth 2 from sword is easy and fast. I know earth 4 and 5 from off-hand dagger, though 5 is too slow for most short-lived fields. Are there others?

The blast finisher occurs at the start of the channel with Earth Dagger 5.

[Xillllix.3485]

Weaver is too complicated for the benefits.> @Velimere.7685 said:

@"Chyro.1462" said:Okay, so summarized.. Water 2 into Earth 2. Earth + Fire dual skill (since fire is often attuned, its quickly accessible by just attuning earth when already in fire). Using arcane traits with the extra boons from swapping attunements + using evasive arcana. Using water traits for overall more sustain + condi removal. Air 2 is an interrupt (always thought its just teleport / gap closer). And twist of fate utility. I'll try it out next time I'm ingame and play around with these options, thanks.

Also, I take it off-hand focus isn't a very good option for weaver? Since most focus skills are mostly reactive and weaver makes it hard to have them ready at the right time. While dagger off-hand is mostly damaging skills that can be used at any time for at least part of their usefullness.

Other question: Blasting fields. Aside from utilities, which weapon slots have reliable access to blast finishers? I noticed earth 2 from sword is easy and fast. I know earth 4 and 5 from off-hand dagger, though 5 is too slow for most short-lived fields. Are there others?

While attuned to earth,

Evasive Arcana

can proc

Shockwave

which is a blast finisher.

After attuning from earth to fire, if you attune from fire to air (assuming you're not too pressured to do so), you can cast

Ring of Fire

and then

Polaric Leap

to grant yourself a

fire shield

. If you're going full offensive and double attune fire for double burning stacks from

Primordial Stance

,

Flame Uprising

is another leap finisher.

A good thief can kill you twice during that rotation... Pressing 1 and 2.

[Ario.8964]

@Chyro.1462 said:Okay, so summarized.. Water 2 into Earth 2. Earth + Fire dual skill (since fire is often attuned, its quickly accessible by just attuning earth when already in fire). Using arcane traits with the extra boons from swapping attunements + using evasive arcana. Using water traits for overall more sustain + condi removal. Air 2 is an interrupt (always thought its just teleport / gap closer). And twist of fate utility. I'll try it out next time I'm ingame and play around with these options, thanks.

Also, I take it off-hand focus isn't a very good option for weaver? Since most focus skills are mostly reactive and weaver makes it hard to have them ready at the right time. While dagger off-hand is mostly damaging skills that can be used at any time for at least part of their usefullness.

Other question: Blasting fields. Aside from utilities, which weapon slots have reliable access to blast finishers? I noticed earth 2 from sword is easy and fast. I know earth 4 and 5 from off-hand dagger, though 5 is too slow for most short-lived fields. Are there others?

I played around with off hand focus for awhile and personally I loved it. It works really well but you lose a lot of mobility and pressure to give yourself more defense. If weaver had better damage on sword and a bit more mobility not tied to dag OH and fgs I'd consider it a good swap to make consistently when expecting to go against a more dps heavy comp. Right now it still works but the mobiltiy loss hurts so much that sometimes it doesn't feel like it's worth it. If you like focus it will work just be prepared to be slow, that being said it does make it quite hard for the enemy to evict you from a point when you have all the evades available to weaver plus sword sustain plus focus defense.

Note: Earth 5 on dagger will blast whatever you started the cast in even if the field disappears. (I.E I use riptide while attunement swap is off cd I can earth 2, 4, then 5 and I'll get all three blasts even if the field disappears after I started 5's cast)

[ghettogenius.9174]

@Xillllix.3485 said:Weaver is too complicated for the benefits.> @Velimere.7685 said:

@"Chyro.1462" said:Okay, so summarized.. Water 2 into Earth 2. Earth + Fire dual skill (since fire is often attuned, its quickly accessible by just attuning earth when already in fire). Using arcane traits with the extra boons from swapping attunements + using evasive arcana. Using water traits for overall more sustain + condi removal. Air 2 is an interrupt (always thought its just teleport / gap closer). And twist of fate utility. I'll try it out next time I'm ingame and play around with these options, thanks.

Also, I take it off-hand focus isn't a very good option for weaver? Since most focus skills are mostly reactive and weaver makes it hard to have them ready at the right time. While dagger off-hand is mostly damaging skills that can be used at any time for at least part of their usefullness.

Other question: Blasting fields. Aside from utilities, which weapon slots have reliable access to blast finishers? I noticed earth 2 from sword is easy and fast. I know earth 4 and 5 from off-hand dagger, though 5 is too slow for most short-lived fields. Are there others?

While attuned to earth,

Evasive Arcana

can proc

Shockwave

which is a blast finisher.

After attuning from earth to fire, if you attune from fire to air (assuming you're not too pressured to do so), you can cast

Ring of Fire

and then

Polaric Leap

to grant yourself a

fire shield

. If you're going full offensive and double attune fire for double burning stacks from

Primordial Stance

,

Flame Uprising

is another leap finisher.

A good thief can kill you twice during that rotation... Pressing 1 and 2.

Thief will be dazed and rotation shot after Polaric Leap and need to deal with the conditions on him from Primordial Stance ... he'll need to reset, THEN he can kill you with 1 and 2 because you'll be on cooldowns lol.

[ghettogenius.9174]

To OP, for utility skills I usually follow a pattern of 1 mobility skill (lightning flash - cant live without it), 1 dps skill (either arcane wave/blast/primordial stance) and 1 defensive (either armor of earth/arcane shield/twist of fate).

[Velimere.7685]

@Xillllix.3485 said:Weaver is too complicated for the benefits.A good thief can kill you twice during that rotation... Pressing 1 and 2.

@ghettogenius.9174 said:Thief will be dazed and rotation shot after Polaric Leap and need to deal with the conditions on him from Primordial Stance ... he'll need to reset, THEN he can kill you with 1 and 2 because you'll be on cooldowns lol.

Granted my rating is only 1615 as of typing this, but I haven't ever had any issue versus any Thief in the 1v1 match-up while playing Weaver. Frostball gave me a harder time last night on his Spellbreaker but even he couldn't kill me let alone force me off of the node during our long minutes of dueling. My hardest match-up is Holosmith.