Build:Weaver - Condi Weaver

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

Focused on: Condition damage

Designed for: Open World, Open World General, [[|]] and [[|]]

Expansions required:

Difficulty:

Hard

This build was last updated on August 20, 2023 and is up to date for the October 8, 2024 patch.

Overview

A very powerful condition-based weaver build for open world. This build offers very high DPS and defense with an active, skill-based playstyle. Condition Weaver can be very difficult to master, but is one of the strongest options for solo play.

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Skill Bar

Scepter/Focus

Utility

Weapon Variants

This build can work with all of the weapons available to Weaver with a similar damage rotation for each. Note that Primordial Stance and Sunspot require you to be in close range to deal damage.

• Sword: Strong melee burst and more defensive options for solo play, good for brawling against tougher enemies when sustain and evasion are needed.
• Main-hand Dagger: Melee option with heavy cleave but more challenging damage rotation and you will be constantly dashing around.
• Off-hand Dagger: Less defensive utility and single target damage than focus but good cleave and mobility.
• Staff: Long range cleave weapon with high AoE damage potential but can be somewhat awkward to use.

Skill Variants

Healing

• Glyph of Elemental Harmony - burst healing

Utility

Glyph of Elemental Power can be replaced by:

• Stone Resonance - stability and huge barrier.
• Twist of Fate - stunbreak with 2 charges and extra evasion.
• Glyph of Storms - AoE burst damage from Firestorm (Glyph of Storms) or pulsing blind with Sandstorm and a replacement for Primordial Stance if playing purely at range.
• Glyph of Lesser Elementals - summons multiple weak elementals. Can be awkward to use due to setup delay and the summons disappearing upon mounting up or entering water. Fire elemental deals good burning damage, while Water and Earth are moderately tanky.
• Lightning Flash - mobility.
• Signet of Air - low CD stunbreak that also passively improves movement speed.

Elite

• Glyph of Elementals - sacrifices the very large burst damage increase from Weave Self in exchange for a pet. The Flame elemental provides high DPS (be sure to use the command skill on CD where possible) while Water and Earth give you a reliable front line.

Specializations

Trait Variants

• Pyromancer's Puissance - extra might generation when solo (although some of this might is lost when you leave fire).
• Bolstered Elements and/or Invigorating Strikes - more barrier but less damage.

Arcane

• The Arcane specialisation can be taken when soloing instead of Earth to improve sustain and self sufficiency
  • Generally, Earth performs better in groups and arcane is stronger when solo.
  • Be aware that signets no longer retain their passives when using this specialisation to replace Earth.

Equipment

• Ascended gear is not required for Open world, Exotic is fine
• The Open World equipment loadouts listed are more like guidelines, feel free to experiment with different combinations

Default DPS

This option uses gear similar to that of Build:Weaver_-_Condi_DPS. This makes it a great option for general PVE.  

Head
Viper

Shoulders
Viper

Chest
Viper

Hands
Viper

Legs
Viper

Feet
Viper

Backpiece
Viper

Accessory
Viper

Accessory
Viper

Amulet
Viper

Ring
Viper

Ring
Viper

Scepter
Viper

Focus
Viper

Sigil

Sigil

Rune
x6

Solo Luxury

A more defensive option for open world play providing a good mix of offensive stats, improved defense, sustain and boon uptime

Head
Celestial

Shoulders
Celestial

Chest
Celestial

Hands
Celestial

Legs
Celestial

Feet
Celestial

Backpiece
Celestial

Accessory
Celestial

Accessory
Celestial

Amulet
Celestial

Ring
Celestial

Ring
Celestial

Scepter
Celestial

Focus
Celestial

Sigil

Sigil

Rune
x6

Other Gear Variants

Stats

• Dire - a cost effective defensive set. Swap runes to Rune of Superior Rune of Balthazar
• Trailblazer - an alternative luxury DPS set which trades about 15-20% DPS for +300% effective HP through vitality and toughness for a massive boost to your survivality.

Runes

• Rune of Superior Rune of the Undead - Good mix of defence and damage on toughness stats like Trailblazer or Celestial.
• Rune of Superior Rune of Balthazar - Damage rune for gear sets without expertise.

Sigils

• Sigil of Superior Sigil of Cleansing - more condition cleanse.
• Sigil of Superior Sigil of Energy - extra dodges, great Synergy with Evasive Arcana and Invigorating Strikes.
• Sigil of Superior Sigil of Strength - improved Might generation for longer fights.

Consumables

Budget consumables are acceptable for use in open world.

DPS

• Prioritize Flatbread Ascended food.
• /
• /

Farming

• Prioritize Flatbread Ascended food.
• /
• (and variants)

Usage

This build primarily relies on Fire Attunement and Earth Attunement. It is not particularly difficult to play, but has a lot of options to respond to different situations and requires a bit of game knowledge to take advantage of.

Damage

• Generally for DPS you should be rotating through the following Attunement loop:

1. Fire Attunement
2. Fire Attunement
3. Earth Attunement

• Spam all of your fire and earth skills as they are available.
• You can combine Lava Skin, Glyph of Elemental Power, and Primordial Stance with Obsidian Flesh for a large burst of damage while you are invulnerable.
• For a more detailed rotation breakdown, see the similar endgame build guide: Build:Weaver_-_Condi_DPS

Utilities

Primordial Stance and Glyph of Elemental Power change drastically depending on your current attunement, and its important to consider what attunement is best to use them in

• Primordial Stance considers the element on your mainhand and the element on your offhand to determine what condition to pulse, and updates every second. As such, for the highest damage, use it right before double attuning to Earth for high Bleeding damage, or in Air for Vulnerability.
• Glyph of Elemental Power changes its effect depending on your mainhand attunement, and is best used in Air for Vulnerability or in Fire for high Burning damage.
• Signet of Fire is your highest damage skill, spam it off cooldown, even when not using Written in Stone.

Defense

Mitigation

• Magnetic Wave, Swirling Winds - projectile hate.
• Obsidian Flesh - invulnerability.
• Using a Dual Attack gives Vigor, and dodging gives barrier, thanks to Invigorating Strikes.
• (Sword only) Riptide and Earthen Vortex both make you evade for 1 second.

Sustain

• Signet of Restoration heals you for every single skill you cast.
• (Sword only) Riptide creates a water field where you can use your combo finishers to heal, such as Polaric Leap, Magnetic Wave, Earthen Vortex, Flame Uprising.

Crowd Control

• Gale
• Polaric Leap (Sword)
• Gale Strike
• Weave Self ⇒ Tailored Victory

Video Examples

• Video guide by renowned elementalist player Roul: Gw2: Elementalist Build Guide for Open World, Fractals and Dungeons

The following examples were provided courtesy of Hardcore Casual on Youtube. Videos are listed with permission.

• Fire Weaver vs Champion Forged Lieutenant Bounty
  • This is a great example of how powerful Sigil of Superior Sigil of Energy can be, and demonstrates the full kit of condi weaver. Note how often Evasive Arcana comes into play here.
• Fire Weaver vs Champion Avatar of Balthazar
  • This is one of the hardest hero points in the game due to the insane incoming damage and one-shot mechanic. In this video, they use a variant similar to the heal variant listed above along with to reach 100% burn duration.
• Fire Weaver Positioning
  • A good example of how to abuse weaver's many evades and positioning for proper blast and field usage.
• Fire Weaver vs VB Boss Trio
  • Super impressive clip that demonstrates how much of a difference a few trait and skill swaps can make. This variant uses the power of weaver stances to avoid damage and CC.
• Condi Weaver vs Champion Avatar of Balthazer 2: No dodges!
  • This is a super impressive example of the type of DPS that condi weaver can output.
• Bounty Solo: Cele Weaver vs Forged Maverick