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[Videos] Phantaram's Post Season Elementalist and Weaver pvp guides


Phantaram.1265

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During the last season I played a lot of builds and I've settled on these 3 being the best builds in ranked queues for core elementalist and weaver. I don't really play Tempest as it's pretty much only a support so I can't speak to it's strength in ranked queues with certainty.

During last season Core Fresh Air Elementalist was probably the strongest it has ever been. Spellbreaker and Scourge made a lot of builds that are strong against FA ele a lot less prevalent while FA ele was very good against both Spellbreaker and Scourge. FA beats Spellbreakers in 1v1s and ignores the risky nature of standing next to a scourge for even a millisecond. After experimenting with weaver most of the second half of the season some time before the season ended I try harded and went 25-2 with FA ele on stream with no shenanigans like late night queueing. Went from 1630 to 1816 and it felt so easy. The only thing I could see being a problem in the future is maybe a small increase in s/d condi/power thieves and possibly the rise of condi mirage. If condi mirage connects it could mean danger for FA ele but I'm pretty sure FA ele is very lethal vs the mirage as well.

At first Sages amulet didn't feel that strong to me especially with spellbreaker (nearly infinite resistance) and the insane pressure scourge could do to it in melee range regardless of the crazy condi clear you can gain by having water + weaver. However through out the season and especially near the end I tried out everything I could to make Sages work and landed on the build in the video. Post season it feels even stronger with the nerfs to scourge and and with the rise of other very mobile condition builds like Mirage this build could rise in power where FA ele and Lightning Rod Weaver will struggle with low condi clear. Very promising future for this build. This build is the new D/D cele ele.

Lightning Rod Weaver was something I revisited after playing it in the beta for fun after not finding much success with tanky water trait line weaver builds at the beginning of the expansion and with just a few changes became a build I thought was just for fun and too squishy to run to something that felt quite viable. It is extremely weak against spellbreaker with the Huge 15s stability passive stability + blocks + dodges + gs3 + ignore pains = nearly impossible to kill it outside of 2v1s. Lightning Rod is very strong against every other squishy power build I could fight in the game it seemed. Power thieves, power revs... if it was power and not tanky you name it and Lightning Rod seemed to just do work. Against scourge I had to learn to never go in unless I knew I could get the kill which wasn't hard if you knew they had no stun breaker or were even just under pressure from an ally. Scourge is no joke with this little of condi removal though even being vulnerable for a split second while in melee range of them could mean kiting out of the fight for an extended period of time or in a lot of cases death. This build is an absolute blast though and the mobility is great. This is the kind of gameplay I wanted to see out of Weaver I just wish it could get a little condi clear that a melee build desperately needs. With the inevitable rise of condi mirage this build seems iffy next season but I want to believe.

As a side note I look forward to trying out the new amulet additions to spvp. They could open up some build options for weaver and... maybe core elementalist? We'll just have to wait and see.

I hope you guys enjoy thanks for reading and watching :)

Lightning Rod Sword Weaver Guide

Core Elementalist Scepter/Focus Fresh Air Guide

Sword/Dagger Sages Weaver Guide

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Out of these builds the sage sword/dagger weaver offers the best allround package. For new players, it's important to learn two things:

1) The optimal or main rotation: In the beginning of the game, switch between water/air and air/water to gain swiftness. If you encounter foes, go to air/water. From here it is earth/air -> fire/earth -> earth/fire -> water/earth -> air/water

Go to a golem and check out every attunement while practicising, the skills have incredible synergies. For example, earth/air has a gap closer and two stuns to set up your burst.

These are your main attunements. They basically offer strong cc and burst between earth/air und earth/fire and then you retreat with water #2. Try to keep this rotation up and use the blast finishers in your fire fields (up to 4) if possible. Use primordial stance in fire/earth and earth/fire, it's a very strong burst.

2) You will also find yourself in situations where you switch into a different attunement, for example fire/water, which I call seconary attunement because they are not part of the main rotation. Managing to get back into your main rotation is the main issue if you are new to weaver. What you need to do is to learn how to get into a main attunement again with 1 more switch. So say you are in water/fire because you had to break up your burst and retreat with water #2. You now have to think for one second what attunment you need to chose to get into your rotation again. In this case, attuning to air is the correct answer, because it gets you into air/water which is the beginning of the main rotation.

I think this kind of structured thinking and attunement switching is how you have to play to get the most out of weaver. I think just randomly attuning and spamming skills is not the way to go, instead you should use the synergies that the main rotation offers. Learn the main rotation, then learn how to get back into it from any point and you're good to go.

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With your Lightning Rod build, did you try using Water instead of Arcane with a Dagger off hand? In regards to condition removals, it's what I use but I'm no top tier player and haven't had the opportunity to use said build against another top tier player.

side request: Can you use this build and post a video please http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vFAQJAsIncMA94idOAsSgFJA7+RPpz0E9gUQNQYBEAOhA-jJRSABafCAq9BA0aZAA2fAAI'll even give you 50g if you do :)(I know the tornado is a little weird but I wanna see ya wreck stuff in it with lightning rod traits)

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@sephiroth.4217 said:With your Lightning Rod build, did you try using Water instead of Arcane with a Dagger off hand? In regards to condition removals, it's what I use but I'm no top tier player and haven't had the opportunity to use said build against another top tier player.

side request: Can you use this build and post a video please http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vFAQJAsIncMA94idOAsSgFJA7+RPpz0E9gUQNQYBEAOhA-jJRSABafCAq9BA0aZAA2fAAI'll even give you 50g if you do :)(I know the tornado is a little weird but I wanna see ya wreck stuff in it with lightning rod traits)

Yeah water/air/arcane solves the condi removal problem but makes you pretty bad in too many other aspects. Arcane giving tons of useful stuff > water solving only the condi removal problem. They need to just make the weaver traitline give condi removal without water. It's something every ele everywhere has always wanted. It wouldn't even be overpowered in the slightest. You'd give up a huge damage modifier to remove some condis instead. With something like the new 1050 power 1050 precision 560 healing power 560 vitality amulet + lightning rod + not needing to take water for condi removal you'd have yourself a power version of the sages build in terms of survivability but with the fun of the air traitline with all the super speed.

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Cele doesn't quite bring the necessary damage punch needed in WvW in my experience. This has been working well for me, leaning heavy on interrupts, severance sigil procs, and lightning rod. If a Scourge is super toxic toss on a scepter or staff for kiting.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vFAQJAsYnMMAF5i94CeOAM5ilGATIQGAih3Z6PdouILcDnCA-jFSjABx+AA4UJ4jKHAQPwinAgIVyN3+DSr+TAgDAnf+5nf+518MPzP/8kBQfMA-w

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@Asuna.6591 I find that it's just too damn hard to balance all the stats necessary for Weaver, especially for a close range bruiser like sw/d. I tried a more Celestial focused build and it just becomes an attrition build, relatively incapable of killing anything. I'm by no means an expert, but I like to test and share what I find so discussions and improvements can be had.

My experience is that while we have a nice condition application rate, we just don't have much covering conditions. It's rare, in this meta, to come across anyone not carrying some condi cleanse and then you're just left with low power stats and an under performing power weapon. If you go Water line over Air line I would definitely focus more condition damage, because you're not benefiting from Air and you're probably going to drop Elements of Rage for Woven Stride, effectively neutering swords power damage. Whether or not you focus more healing, I dunno. As I said this already becomes sort of an attrition build and even more sustain doesn't seem to be what's needed (potential party comp aside). For PvP purposes I can see why you'd go with Water in more of a sustain build.

As I said this build is meant to play off of interrupts to boost your power burst, vulnerability stacks, and Lightning Rod. You can chain together a lot of cc and set up big bursts from Fire Grab, Rust Frenzy, Earthquake, and Churning Earth. Without Water line I feel Ether Renewal is necessary making Stability necessary to maintain it, making me take Bolstered Elements over Weaver's Prowess. Elemental Polyphony pushes my healing over 600 when it's relevant (don't forget this isn't main hand exclusive, you get both bonuses, powerful in Air/Fire attunes and Water/Earth attunes, so just looking at the stats in the editor isn't a clear picture unless you cycle the attunements). The build seems to have enough condition damage to add some covering pressure still and with might and vulnerability stacks you can still get decent damage ticks. I'm still completely sold on Primordial Stance in almost all builds, which most others don't seem to be. One thing I wish I could have is more energy for Evasive Arcana usage.

What I really am liking is that my stats seem to sit where I can easily throw on a scepter or staff and still be pretty effective, especially on Scourges. I can also pretty easily emphasize my condition damage or healing stats with my food choice and take Water line if I'm with a few more people. I also still carry full Celestial, Minstrel, and Marauder/Zerk trinket sets a lot of the time.

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