Open World Domination: Fire Weaver

[AliamRationem.5172]

I always wanted to get this one in under a minute with weaver, but she's just so dangerous at melee range.  I gave up on it.  However, with the condi breakbar buff and a little help from electro-magical pulse, it was time to give it another shot!

 

 

[Eraden.8740]

22 hours ago, AliamRationem.5172 said:

I always wanted to get this one in under a minute with weaver, but she's just so dangerous at melee range.  I gave up on it.  However, with the condi breakbar buff and a little help from electro-magical pulse, it was time to give it another shot!

 

 

I seriously almost can't believe you did that. She is an absolute beast. I've seen people die by the half dozen trying to fight her. Good show there!

[AliamRationem.5172]

I get a lot of questions about which variant of condi weaver I would recommend most.  So, let's start with a brief description encompassing the relative strengths and weaknesses of the two basic variants I use myself in open world.

 

Fire/Arcane - This variant has strong passive sustain, but less than Fire/Earth.  It is a more flexible build with better evasion and recovery, but lower damage than Fire/Earth.  It is a bit harder to play on account of relying more on active avoidance, combos, and evasive arcana dodge effects.  Recommended for a fun and frenetic play style that can handle practically anything!

 

Fire/Earth - This variant is more straightforward.  It has extreme passive sustain and big, bursty damage, but not a whole lot else in the defensive toolkit.  It is relatively easy to play because it can stand toe-to-toe even with hard-hitting champions and burn them down quickly.  However, it does not do as well under heavy pressure and does not recover as easily as Fire/Arcane.

 

As I said, I use both of these builds.  However, if I had to recommend just one, the Fire/Earth build is just going to perform better in most situations and players new to the class should have an easier time picking it up.

 

For the WvW (roaming) variant, I have been experimenting with this build.  It's okay.  The sustain is fantastic, of course.  The damage potential is certainly there with 2k power and easy might stacking on top of rapid burn stacking.  But the usual problem for sword weaver exists of it's impossible to maintain any kind of consistent pressure outside of CC windows.  Sword is just too easily kited.

[Obtena.7952]

1 hour ago, AliamRationem.5172 said:

I get a lot of questions about which variant of condi weaver I would recommend most.  So, let's start with a brief description encompassing the relative strengths and weaknesses of the two basic variants I use myself in open world.

 

Fire/Arcane - This variant has strong passive sustain, but less than Fire/Earth.  It is a more flexible build with better evasion and recovery, but lower damage than Fire/Earth.  It is a bit harder to play on account of relying more on active avoidance, combos, and evasive arcana dodge effects.  Recommended for a fun and frenetic play style that can handle practically anything!

 

Fire/Earth - This variant is more straightforward.  It has extreme passive sustain and big, bursty damage, but not a whole lot else in the defensive toolkit.  It is relatively easy to play because it can stand toe-to-toe even with hard-hitting champions and burn them down quickly.  However, it does not do as well under heavy pressure and does not recover as easily as Fire/Arcane.

 

As I said, I use both of these builds.  However, if I had to recommend just one, the Fire/Earth build is just going to perform better in most situations and players new to the class should have an easier time picking it up.

 

For the WvW (roaming) variant, I have been experimenting with this build.  It's okay.  The sustain is fantastic, of course.  The damage potential is certainly there with 2k power and easy might stacking on top of rapid burn stacking.  But the usual problem for sword weaver exists of it's impossible to maintain any kind of consistent pressure outside of CC windows.  Sword is just too easily kited.

Just want to say thanks for the work and ...

 

any chance you are going to expand your work on OWD builds into other classes?

[AliamRationem.5172]

1 hour ago, Obtena.7952 said:

Just want to say thanks for the work and ...

 

any chance you are going to expand your work on OWD builds into other classes?

 

If I find anything I like!  I guess I am picky.  I find something that feels good and I stick with it!

[Eraden.8740]

 

I did some thinking about why I love the original build that AliamRationem presented to us. It allows me to function decently using a single element. Because of my health condition, weaving multiple elements is nearly impossible. With his original build, I can stay in fire and am able to manage working with the skills that are given. I believe he is a real asset to the Elementalist community in this game because he's been able to make all sorts of helpful builds and suggestions for the rest of us.

[Zhaid Zhem.6508]

Then you should try Tempest. Same build, same gear, but tempest.

 

Weaver is still about ... weaving elements... main skills are dual skills with fire-air, fire-earth and combos with air#2 earth #2 etc.

Fire-tempest essentially camp fire and don't really need others elements except sometime for sustain, crowd control, but can be a big dps loss.

[AliamRationem.5172]

5 minutes ago, Zhaid Zhem.6508 said:

Then you should try Tempest. Same build, same gear, but tempest.

 

Weaver is still about ... weaving elements... main skills are dual skills with fire-air, fire-earth and combos with air#2 earth #2 etc.

Fire-tempest essentially camp fire and don't really need others elements except sometime for sustain, crowd control, but can be a big dps loss.

 

While I'm sure weaver can perform adequately for open world this way, I think this is good advice. Weaver really pushes the attunement swapping where Tempest has those long overload cooldowns built in. It's definitely a better spec for camping attunements!

 

Either way, play what you enjoy! Thanks for the comments!

[Eraden.8740]

I might consider it but for now, I am too addicted to Primordial Stance to give up playing Weaver, even though I might not be getting maximum use out of the spec. Primordial Stance allows me to clear a bunch of critters in a single go. It's an amazingly powerful ability.

Edited June 10, 2021 by Eraden.8740

[Eraden.8740]

For fights where I know I will have a bunch of critters, I basically go: Fire Shield, Signet of Fire, Glyph of Elemental Power, Weave Self, Primordial Stance. Net result is that nothing is left standing unless it's a Champion. For Champions I just repeat as cooldowns finish. It may not be an efficient use of Weaver but it has made my life in Open World a LOT easier.

[AliamRationem.5172]

3 hours ago, Eraden.8740 said:

For fights where I know I will have a bunch of critters, I basically go: Fire Shield, Signet of Fire, Glyph of Elemental Power, Weave Self, Primordial Stance. Net result is that nothing is left standing unless it's a Champion. For Champions I just repeat as cooldowns finish. It may not be an efficient use of Weaver but it has made my life in Open World a LOT easier.

 

I wonder how many people end up never trying weaver because of its reputation as the ultimate piano class?  Do you think if they knew you don't need to play it like a pro to win they might give it more of a chance?

 

 

[AliamRationem.5172]

A little update for those who follow my youtube channel.  I've finally gotten around to giving myself a proper channel name.  So, instead of "Not Sure" with Luke Wilson's head as my icon, you'll now see the channel name "Hardcore Casual" with my favorite little Asuran as the icon!

 

The name "Hardcore Casual" is meant to counter the perception that players who mostly stick to themselves or just play with a friend in an MMO are bad at the game.  Maybe we don't know anything about raid compositions or how to fit into an organized WvW group, but we can still kick butt and have fun doing it with our class of choice!  Meta be damned!

 

Thanks for watching!

[AliamRationem.5172]

Here's a bounty solo using Celestial stats.  Build Link

 

 

[SoundWave.9154]

Hi again,

 

I'm running your fire/earth Trailblazer build. I was thinking to try arcane with sigil of energy but I am unsure which sigil to swap for that one, smoldering or bursting ?

What do you reckon will be the lost DMG ? 

[AliamRationem.5172]

8 hours ago, SoundWave.9154 said:

Hi again,

 

I'm running your fire/earth Trailblazer build. I was thinking to try arcane with sigil of energy but I am unsure which sigil to swap for that one, smoldering or bursting ?

What do you reckon will be the lost DMG ? 

 

Hi! I'm not a number cruncher, so I'm not sure.  However, if you drop smoldering you'll want to make up the lost burn duration somewhere else, likely food buff.  The question is does that loss of damage exceed the contribution of bursting sigil?  I don't know the answer to that, but I suspect the difference between these two options is negligible.  So, I just don't worry about it and I drop bursting sigil in favor of energy when I need extra evasion (comes in handy on the really tough stuff!).

 

For myself, I switch between builds fire/earth and fire/arcane, trailblazer with undead rune, celestial with aristocracy rune (mostly for WvW), and I carry sigils of bursting, cleansing, energy, and smoldering.  However, I realize that not everyone has legendary gear to freely swap stats, sigils, and runes, so if I had to recommend a "do everything" setup for convenience this would be the build.

 

Since it includes the energy sigil and doesn't require the burn duration food buff due to smoldering sigil, you can freely switch between the earth and arcane variants.  It works great either way!  The only thing missing for the arcane variant is cleansing, but this is rarely a major issue in PvE and you could run a second weapon set with cleansing sigil for that if you like.

[AliamRationem.5172]

Here's a clip of celestial sword weaver performing the Kingslayer achievement, defeating Turai Ossa in the Queen's Gauntlet event.  If you're new and haven't checked it out, be sure to visit both festival maps.  The Queen's Gauntlet is located in the scaffolding suspended above the crown pavillion.

 

 

[SoundWave.9154]

What do you think about this build ? Gravitating back to Waver 😄

 

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?PGgAw2lZwmYXMJmJOqOXvKA-zRRYchCQGNl/lRlJQHFgezCPPbA-e

[AliamRationem.5172]

2 hours ago, SoundWave.9154 said:

What do you think about this build ? Gravitating back to Waver 😄

 

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?PGgAw2lZwmYXMJmJOqOXvKA-zRRYchCQGNl/lRlJQHFgezCPPbA-e

 

Pretty standard fire/earth trailblazer setup.  It'll work great!

[SoundWave.9154]

What do you think about this build ( Lord Hizen's ) ? 

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?PGgAw2lJwmYSsLGJOKPXvbA-zRRYcRBPZkAhgzsAznG-e

It looks  like it has 10% less DMG reduction than trailblazer but gains a lot of health which makes the trade worth it.

 

Have you experimented with any other builds ? Viper has been a complete dud in my view, the loss of defense compared to the dmg gained is ridiculous. 

[AliamRationem.5172]

4 hours ago, SoundWave.9154 said:

What do you think about this build ( Lord Hizen's ) ? 

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?PGgAw2lJwmYSsLGJOKPXvbA-zRRYcRBPZkAhgzsAznG-e

It looks  like it has 10% less DMG reduction than trailblazer but gains a lot of health which makes the trade worth it.

 

Have you experimented with any other builds ? Viper has been a complete dud in my view, the loss of defense compared to the dmg gained is ridiculous. 

Agree on Viper. It's fine, but any damage you gain is lost by playing defense under pressure.

Hizen is a good source.  In fact, his videos got me started doing this sort of thing.  But don't overthink it.  Fire weaver is very versatile.  You can really play it your way.  As long as you take stats with condition damage your third trait line can be whatever you want.  Want a fire/air celestial hybrid? That works but so does earth or arcane.

Utilities are the same way.  I'd always run primordial stance but everything else can be whatever.

My current favorite is celestial fire/arcane.  The sustain is ridiculous, burst is good, although sustained damage output could be better.  Still it's good enough to take down HoT champs in about a minute and its just fun to play! As a bonus you can easily share 25 might with allies!

Check out the burst. It's not bad! Build link in comments and I have some champ solos up on the channel.  Celestial weaver

But remember there is plenty of room to do what you want with fire weaver. It's just a strong build for solo play in any game mode.

 

[AliamRationem.5172]

I love this build.

Edit: Here's the version where I don't use masteries for the instant breakbar opener and the stonehead goes AWOL!  Get back here, you!

Edited December 14, 2021 by AliamRationem.5172

[AliamRationem.5172]

Here's a build guide by one of the best weavers to play the game, Roul! Weaver Build for Open World.

He's using a blend of the same builds I favor for open world here (fire/arcane with Trailblazer + Undead rune in this one) and as you can see it works out great!  I am not even a little jealous that he beat my Balthazar kill time by 4 seconds (okay, maybe a little!).

[Infusion.7149]

2 hours ago, AliamRationem.5172 said:

Here's a build guide by one of the best weavers to play the game, Roul! Weaver Build for Open World.

He's using a blend of the same builds I favor for open world here (fire/arcane with Trailblazer + Undead rune in this one) and as you can see it works out great!  I am not even a little jealous that he beat my Balthazar kill time by 4 seconds (okay, maybe a little!).

I don't agree with his idea that sword is good for openworld everywhere , phase shifted is a hard no for this. I would pack a scepter at the least for those scenarios ; he's not running earth on this build so the bleeding on sword isn't great anyway (60% condition duration) and scepter can do burning on every auto rather than on the final hit of the auto chain.

For most people if in solo or in groups tempest is just a far easier build to play than weaver because swapping to a particular attunement means definitively you have the skills of that attunement (without resorting to unravel). That's why fast farming eu has two variants of tempest and zero weaver builds. The only exception would be if you are camping auto, in which sword is better on weaver albeit only cleaving 3. His statement about tempest being "vulnerable in overload" is kind of misleading since you have 40% damage reduction from protection as well as ability to move around during the cast. The build has zero base healing power per the link and zero stunbreaks so your build in first post is actually more robust http://en.gw2skills.net/editor/?PGwAw2jlJweYXMJmJOqWfvbA-zRJYkRDfZEaCESBo3ss1zG-e

P.S. Sounds like Cellofrag 

Edited December 20, 2021 by Infusion.7149

[AliamRationem.5172]

11 minutes ago, Infusion.7149 said:

I don't agree with his idea that sword is good for openworld everywhere , phase shifted is a hard no for this. I would pack a scepter at the least for those scenarios ; he's not running earth on this build so the bleeding on sword isn't great anyway (60% condition duration) and scepter can do burning on every auto rather than on the final hit of the auto chain.

For most people if in solo or in groups tempest is just a far easier build to play than weaver because swapping to a particular attunement means definitively you have the skills of that attunement (without resorting to unravel). That's why fast farming eu has two variants of tempest and zero weaver builds. The only exception would be if you are camping auto, in which sword is better on weaver albeit only cleaving 3. His statement about tempest being "vulnerable in overload" is kind of misleading since you have 40% damage reduction from protection as well as ability to move around during the cast. The build has zero base healing power per the link and zero stunbreaks so your build in first post is actually more robust http://en.gw2skills.net/editor/?PGwAw2jlJweYXMJmJOqWfvbA-zRJYkRDfZEaCESBo3ss1zG-e

P.S. Sounds like Cellofrag 

All valid criticisms.  As class limitations go, no weapon swap is a big one and poorly designed mechanics like phase shifted are really punishing that way.

I also think tempest works great for open world and its generally easier to play as well.  But that doesn't make weaver a bad choice. I mean, we're still soloing legendaries on builds with no stunbreak, right? How bad can it be!

Thanks for the input!

[SoundWave.9154]

Does anyone know if Superior Rune of the Revenant procs with the passive of Signet of Restoration ?