Weaver - fully attune at will, replace that awful skill

[Narrrz.7532]

hey that rhymes.

What i'd like to see for weaver is for switching attunements to only put OTHER attunements on cooldown, not the attunement you just switched to. So for example, i'm Fire/Air and i attune to Water. My new attunement is Water/Fire, and Fire, Air and Earth attunements go on cooldown, but i can immediately fully attune to water to gain access to the 4th & 5th skills (and also the pure water #3 skill).

Fully attuning also should not put ANY attunements on cooldown, so that i can go from, in example, F/A to W/F to W/W, and then as soon as the first attunement cooldown finishes, i can switch to F/W. So in the space of one attunement cooldown, i have switched only my3rd, 4th & 5th skills.

This would also be useful if you want to only keep the 4th and 5th skills. So say i am A/F, i can attune back to primary Fire (not triggering a cooldown as i am only fully attuning) and then attune to Earth, so i have gone from A/F to E/F without the need to wait through a full attunement cooldown.

I can't predict what effect this change would have on balance, in any game mode, but i think it will make the intended weaver playstyle feel a lot more comfortable.

[Feanor.2358]

Useful? It will be overpowered AF.

[Narrrz.7532]

how so? regular eles can fully attune with one action... how is it OP to allow an elite spec to retain the classes base mechanic? As it stands, if you want to access the 4th or 5th skills of another attunement, you need to wait out a full attunement cooldown to do so, and if you want to use those offhand skills with the MH skills of a different attunement (you know... the whole idea of this 'elite' spec), you need to wait out TWO full cooldown cycles.

I mean, weaver is so bad that there actually exists a skill to make it function like a base ele, and that skill is actually useful.

[K THEN.5162]

As much as I like the dual attunement, I'd prefer that when you switch attunements, you have access to all skills in that element with your dual skill being determined by what element you were in previously and the one you changed in

[Narrrz.7532]

That would mean it's totally impossible to access your normal #3 skill. Also, dual attunements allows for some easier skill combos, which i get the impression is the entire idea behind the spec.

[MyPuppy.8970]

@Narrrz.7532 said:how so? regular eles can fully attune with one action... how is it OP to allow an elite spec to retain the classes base mechanic? As it stands, if you want to access the 4th or 5th skills of another attunement, you need to wait out a full attunement cooldown to do so, and if you want to use those offhand skills with the MH skills of a different attunement (you know... the whole idea of this 'elite' spec), you need to wait out TWO full cooldown cycles.

I mean, weaver is so bad that there actually exists a skill to make it function like a base ele, and that skill is actually useful.

Because that's the tradeoff for having 4s gcd, dual attunements, dual skills, and the benefits from dual attuning. Elite specs are not meant to be an upgrade of core specs, but a different gameplay. Many players are ok with that. Nonetheless, I regret the traits or specific skill activations only apply on mainhand attunement.

[Emberheart.8426]

@MyPuppy.8970 said:

@Narrrz.7532 said:how so? regular eles can fully attune with one action... how is it OP to allow an elite spec to retain the classes base mechanic? As it stands, if you want to access the 4th or 5th skills of another attunement, you need to wait out a full attunement cooldown to do so, and if you want to use those offhand skills with the MH skills of a different attunement (you know... the whole idea of this 'elite' spec), you need to wait out TWO full cooldown cycles.

I mean, weaver is so bad that there actually exists a skill to make it function like a base ele, and that skill is actually

useful

.

Because that's the tradeoff for having 4s gcd, dual attunements, dual skills, and the benefits from dual attuning. Elite specs are not meant to be an upgrade of core specs, but a different gameplay. Many players are ok with that. Nonetheless, I regret the traits or specific skill activations only apply on mainhand attunement.

They weren't initially meant to be upgrades over core specs, but they did end up being better overall. At this point if an elite spec is not an upgrade over core specs it's simply not worth taking. That being said I do agree that having trade-offs is not a bad thing. For example, even though scourge is considered OP these days it completely gave up its death shroud in order to access shades. Having a trade-off does not make an elite spec inherently bad.

The problem with weaver is that the squishiest profession is expected to delay its most important defensive skills (#4 and #5) for all weapon sets except for sword which has more inbuilt defenses in skills #2. In addition you completely lose access to skills #3 unless you fully attune, which provides very little benefit against other players. Fully attuning only seems to have decent use in perfect PvE rotations and the Elements of Rage trait is a huge part of that. I'd also argue that the 4s cooldown is not inherently good. You trade 10s cooldown on your previous attunement for 4s cooldown on all attunements, it's just a different way to play. 4s cooldown is not a benefit at all, it's actually one of the trade-offs.

What the spec does give you for all of these trade-offs is dual skills and they are the main problem of the spec. Most of them are barely good enough to replace the single-attunement #3 skills. They are most definitely not good enough to also justify the price of delayed #4 and #5 skills and the drawbacks that the 4 sec gcd has. This is why the spec feels like it is mostly underperforming. All you really get is a huge amount of damage on static targets if everything goes perfectly and that's because of the traits, not the dual skills. However, you lose so much. They really need to look at the dual skills in my opinion, and I don't mean just the damage. They either need to bite the bullet and give us more defense in these dual skills even though they don't want to or they have to give us significant pressure to make up for the squishiness of the spec. The pressure of sword is just not there. I am starting to think that this spec was too much for the developers, which is why we are stuck with lame dual skills that don't do much good. Making such a complex spec was an enormous undertaking. I don't think they should try making anything this complex ever again. This spec is going to be a nightmare to balance.

[MyPuppy.8970]

I agree with you, and that is why I play sword, because it has more in-built defensive skills. I don't think the problem is the complexity of the class or the rotations, but the effectiveness of the damage, utility skills and traits.Main downsides of any ele:Lowest armor/hpNo safe burst from stealth or through evade/immunity frames.Highly telegraphed skills with long cast times/animationsReliance on boons/traits to sustain.But yet, speccing into close melee range doesn't remove any of that. Barrier was meant to compensate somewhat, but as it is now, it is a failed attempt. My point is that -at equal skillplay - the gcd mechanic and locked traditionnal defensive skills are not a problem if you can pressure the ennemy enough to force him blow his defensive skills or step back a bit. Weaver was meant to be a dangerous close melee bruiser, but just doesn't have the tools to do that, except damage modifiers, but even a spam1 d/p thief can do that better.