My weaver build for unranked/ranked

[Ario.8964]

Hey all! So I've been playing a good amount of weaver recently just to have some fun and see what builds I could make out of the class. After a long time of playing this build, I think it's ready to be posted as an alternative to the typical mender's setup.

Why do I prefer this build?This build is significantly stronger in the burst heavy meta we are in (compared to mender's using water). The higher stability uptime and insane amounts of barrier available allow you to tank an incredible amount of damage while dealing a significant amount of your own. Your condi removal is still incredibly potent as the barriers allow you to maintain DS easily. The only place I've really ntocied this suffers is in it's mobility. The spec is fairly slow but that won't really matter if you win all your fights anyways as you can become so disruptive as a side noder that you force the enemy team to focus you hard which gives your team a better chance of winning.

The build:http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vFAQJAsdncMAt4i94CG5CM5ilQAbIAUAyfFfxH4K4OOfn7zA-jJxHQBib/BA8AAC4JAQelBAA

Variants:Avatar amulet over mender's for dueling or more aggressive playSage amulet for hybrid damageGeomancer's training over rock solid for more use of earth's defensive skills if you don't feel you need the stabilityOH Dagger over Focus for higher mobility at the cost of survivability

Enjoy and let me know what you think

[Megametzler.5729]

I'm a bit worried about regen uptime, higher CD on water S2 and condi bursts. But when you avoid scourges and the few other condi classes...

Two things:

1. Did you try S/D? Especially with Sages I guess the damage potential would make up for the slightly lower defense. Projectile hate is not as important these days.
2. What rating did you play this on?

I might give it a try anyways, thanks for sharing!

[LazySummer.2568]

this sort of pure, immobile bunkers can be good but it's also highly reliant on teammates similar to supports. If your teammates are all dying elsewhere (worst case) or just being stupid like coming to plus you against other high sustain side noders (eg. spellbreaker/holo), especially when they're not highly mobile like thief, or making it 2v2 etc when fights are not won elsewhere there's very little you can do other than waiting for the eventual loss

[Ario.8964]

@Megametzler.5729 said:I'm a bit worried about regen uptime, higher CD on water S2 and condi bursts. But when you avoid scourges and the few other condi classes...

Two things:

1. Did you try S/D? Especially with Sages I guess the damage potential would make up for the slightly lower defense. Projectile hate is not as important these days.
2. What rating did you play this on?

I might give it a try anyways, thanks for sharing!

I was worried about that too but what I found was that with all the barrier available you end up offsetting the need for those heals over time and you still maintain the ability to burst heal through water 2, earth 2 and 4, and dodging in water. I have so far not had any trouble fighting condi builds (including standing on point with the scourge and facetanking their stuff but I'm not going to make guarantees on it because matchmaking is volatile enough to give me bad players even at a 1650+ rating). I did a bunch of 1v1's with condi mirages as well to test the sustainability against condi and all of my opponents said there was no way they'd be able to kill me. They'd go through their full rotation for damage and DS would remove most of it, then all that's left is healing up if they damaged you or cleansing what's left with earth 4. Given how many evades you have available you can avoid many of those spikes as well.

I tried S/D but I ended up not liking it as much due to the fact that focus provides you with better survivability against burst builds (both condi and power) The projectile hate isn't needed but it never hurts especially with the increasing amount of soulbeasts and the large amount of holo's running around. S/D works but imo it's not as effective. That being said, the difference is marginal enough to allow you to swap weapons based on preference so if you like S/D then by all means go for it, it should work fine.

The rating this was played at in ranked was 1620-1700. I also did a bunch of testing in unranked to see how well it could adapt to fighting off meta builds and it succeeded at that. Separate testing for 1v1 showed it will stalemate or win a fight. I haven't lost a straight 1v1 on this build yet.

Hopefully that addresses your questions, if I wasn't clear enough let me know and I'll see if I can explain it better.

I'd make a video showcasing gameplay but sadly I'll be away for a while so I won't have the time or ability to do that.

[Ario.8964]

@LazySummer.2568 said:this sort of pure, immobile bunkers can be good but it's also highly reliant on teammates similar to supports. If your teammates are all dying elsewhere (worst case) or just being stupid like coming to plus you against other high sustain side noders (eg. spellbreaker/holo), especially when they're not highly mobile like thief, or making it 2v2 etc when fights are not won elsewhere there's very little you can do other than waiting for the eventual loss

That was a problem I noticed in general for weaver. It's overall fairly slow so bad teammates will always be a ridiculous problem to deal with. Swapping focus to dagger helps to alleviate the problem at the cost of of some survivability. Both versions work though so you should experiment and see what you end up preferring. I've also found the insane survivability allows me to stall 1v2's and 1v3's fairly consistently if I kite and cycle my cds properly which can help alleviate the struggle of trying to win with bad teammates.

[Megametzler.5729]

I messed around a bit today. Played a S/D variant with sages amulet. Three things so far:

1. It is a lot better in pressuring 1on1s. I smashed warriors, mesmers (mostly mirages, didnt encounter a chrono in a duel yet), thieves, unkillable for engis and stuff.
2. If I got into a 1on2 against 1 direct and 1 condi damage class, I was fucked. I only had to hit 75% once and I was pretty much done. I could stall a while, but I was unable to disengage.
3. The team support is worse. Less cleanses, as said the combination of direct and condition damage is very dangerous... all this.

So far: Still great, but very situational. If I see a lot of direct damage on the sides on the enemy team (warriors, thieves), this is the way to go. But I very often have to tank some condi classes on mid point or have to play more mobile... so this really depends. I do take this as a great second build though and will keep having a look at it. :)

Where are official build templates again?

[Ario.8964]

@Megametzler.5729 said:I messed around a bit today. Played a S/D variant with sages amulet. Three things so far:

1. It is a lot better in pressuring 1on1s. I smashed warriors, mesmers (mostly mirages, didnt encounter a chrono in a duel yet), thieves, unkillable for engis and stuff.
2. If I got into a 1on2 against 1 direct and 1 condi damage class, I was kitten. I only had to hit 75% once and I was pretty much done. I could stall a while, but I was unable to disengage.
3. The team support is worse. Less cleanses, as said the combination of direct and condition damage is very dangerous... all this.

So far: Still great, but very situational. If I see a lot of direct damage on the sides on the enemy team (warriors, thieves), this is the way to go. But I very often have to tank some condi classes on mid point or have to play more mobile... so this really depends. I do take this as a great second build though and will keep having a look at it. :)

Where are official build templates again?

Just fall asleep for the next 6 years and maybe when you wake up they'll be in the UI :anguished:

In all seriousness though, glad you enjoyed it. I found that most of the issues can be solved (except the cleanses, that's just gonna have to be a drawback for this setup) by shifting around your style a bit as you play. I find myself panning around often to make sure I don't get caught often in scenarios where I can't disengage. It's not flawless but it helps. My general rule is I go water if I have to play more with my team and earth if I am going to have a more solo oriented role in that match/comp.

[Mladen.6425]

Tried this build. VERY VERY nice :)Tho, i like my weaver s/d, and focused on condition dmg.... :)