Weaver - Fire Weaver

The community gave this build a rating, making it top-tier: Great

Focused on: Condition damage and Sustain

Designed for: PvP Conquest

This build was last updated on January 15, 2023 and is up to date for the November 29, 2022 game patch.

Overview

A condition damage based Weaver build for PvP with plenty of burst damage. Primarily serves as a duelist.

Skill Bar

Sword/Focus

Utility

Slot Changes

Utility

• over - a different type of stunbreak. Some prefer the signet, others like ToF, both are fine.

• over - great defensive tool if you're fine with sacrificing some mobility. While Stone Resonance could help you stay in the fight longer, ultimately Lightning Flash's versatility and ability to disengage if you're in serious trouble makes LF the more popular utility.

• over - a versatile conjure with CC, barrier, blocking and even an invulnerability. Could serve as a time out button while under pressure and waiting for CDs to come back up. Take on Fire.

Template Code

[&DQYfKSUeOD90AHQAHAEAAJAAAAA1FwAAEhcAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA=]

Copy Template Code

Specializations

Variants

• is also a viable option in case you'd need more condition removal.

Equipment

Sword

Focus

Sigil

Sigil

Rune

Amulet

Equipment Variants

Sigils

• or over - if you can afford to give up condition removal for more damage.

Runes

• - higher damage, lower sustain against condition specs.

• - better boon duration.

• - if you're playing with at least 2 utility stances, the barrier from this rune could provide a good amount of extra sustain.

Usage

Elite specialization basics

• Weaver allows the Elementalist to attune to 2 elements at the same time, and skills 1-5 are decided based on both. Let's call them primary and secondary attunements.

• If you swap to then fire becomes your primary attunement and weapon skills 1-2 will be fire skills. Afterwards if you switch to for example then water is now your primary attunement and fire's moved to secondary - now skills 1-2 are water and 4-5 are fire. Skill 3 is a dual skill influenced by both active attunements ⇒ fire + water for example is .

• The order of the attunements doesn't matter here, water primary with fire secondary has the same dual attack as fire primary and water secondary. Attuning to the same element twice has its own dual skill.

General

• should seldom be touched, as the passive is extremely valuable. Note that several trait procs also count as skill activations and will benefit from the passive of this signet.
  • Unless you either have a high amount of Confusion on you, or you're already at maximum health, you should always be casting something (autoattacks will do too). This is to get the most out of this signet's passive.

• Cycle Fire ⇒ Air ⇒ Fire ⇒ Air to maintain Swiftness while roaming between capture points.

• Dual attuning (having the same primary and secondary element) in general isn't recommended, but there are a few niche uses for it. One example would be attuning to Fire twice in order to squeeze more condition cleansing out of it in a limited time frame.

• Might stacking happens passively through . It's yet another reason for spamming autoattacks as much as possible when in combat (and attuned to Fire) even if you're not in range.

Damage

• This build is all about stacking Burning.

• can instantly add burst to any attack sequence:
  • has the highest raw damage output.
  • is also a good choice because of the Vulnerability stacking, but this condition's effectivenes severely depends on how pressured your target already is. If the target doesn't have any damaging conditions and isn't being focused by your team, Vulnerability doesn't do much, in that case Earth is superior.
  • does not directly help with damage, but the snare and CD increase can still be valuable - especially in mirror matchups, as Chill is one of Elementalist's greatest weaknesses.

• As for weapon skills, your heavy hitters are , , and . The latter two also pulse damage each second for a period of time, making them synergize well with .

• doesn't do much in duels because it's so easy to avoid just by not stepping on it, but it's a rather decent skill for downed cleave if dropped directly below the target.

Burst combo examples

primary, secondary

4. Swap to

primary, secondary

3. Swap to

Sustain and how to dealing with conditions

• The trait provides a steady stream of cleansing:
  • Swapping to applies , cleansing one condition. Swapping to another attunement from fire gives you access to which cleanses another 2 conditions by detonating the aura.
  • can be combo'd by using a leap finisher such as or in a .

• When auras no longer suffice is what you should use. This is the best anti-condition skill in the build, instantly removing 3 conditions upon being used.

• The trait grants a steady stream of barriers. Dodging on Water and Earth attunements has even more defensive benefits thanks to - the first dodge after attuning to Water acts as an AoE heal / cleanse while the first dodge on Earth is a blast finisher which can be combo'd into the field left behind by .

• Most of the sustain comes from combining with :
  • The order doesn't always matter. Going from Earth to Water lets you blast immediately with for extra healing whilst cleansing conditions and reflecting projectiles. Going from Water to Earth allows for blasting Riptide's water field through an empowered dodge + .
  • Skill #2 of both attunements has an evade frame in case you'd want to avoid incoming damage.
  • Attuning to Earth serves as an instant source of AoE Protection application which is quite handy especially if you're CC'd and can't cast anything else.

• is the best defensive skill in the build, making you immortal for its duration (except for fall damage).

Basic healing combo

1. Dodge in to proc the relevant effect of .
2. Use .
3. Swap to for or use if you were in Earth prior to switching to Water. Use them in the field created by Riptide. You could also go Earth ⇒ Water ⇒ Earth and do both.
4. Swap to for the + combo.
5. for the barrier.
6. Optional: when you swap out of Fire, use if cleansing is needed.

Top Streamers

• Twitch: Blamthrax

• Twitch: Grimjack

Related Builds

• Starfire Roamer - WvW roaming version.