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:

TBD

This build was last updated on April 14, 2022 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

Sword/Focus

Utility

Weapon Variants

• Mainhand dagger has about the same damage of sword but you will be dashing all over the place.

Skill Variants

Healing

• Glyph of Elemental Harmony - burst healing

Utilities

Glyph of Elemental Power can be replaced by:

• Stone Resonance - stability and huge barrier.
• Twist of Fate - stunbreak with 2 charges.
• Glyph of Storms - AoE burst damage from Firestorm or pulsing blind with Sandstorm.
• 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.

Elites

• Glyph of Elementals - sacrifices the very large 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

Variants

• Bolstered Elements - more barrier but less damage.
• Elements of Rage - sacrifices defense for a large damage increase.

Earth

Earth can be taken instead of Arcane to sacrifice boons and sustain in exchange for more damage. Generally speaking, Arcane is better when soloing, and Earth is better with groups, specially if the group is giving you boons.

Equipment

Feel free to use Exotic in place of Ascended. 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

Sword
Viper

Focus
Viper

Sigil

Sigil

Rune
x6

Gear Variants

• If you can afford the luxury of a gear set tailored for open world, use full Trailblazer gear, which trades about 15-20% DPS for +300% effective HP through vitality and toughness for a massive boost to your survivality. Use Rune of Superior Rune of the Undead, Sigil of Superior Sigil of Malice and either Sigil of Superior Sigil of Energy or Sigil of Superior Sigil of Strength or Sigil of Superior Sigil of Smoldering.

Budget

• Dire - budget Trailblazer; this should be used with Rune of Superior Rune of Balthazar and Sigil of Superior Sigil of Smoldering to increase burning duration since Dire doesn't have Expertise.

Sigils

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

Consumables

Food

• Any ascended food is superior to any other food you could use. Steak for power, flatbread for conditions. Budget versions of these foods exist and are acceptable.
• - farming
• - DPS
• - defense

Utility

• (and variants) - farming
• , - dps
• - dps if using gear with high toughness

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

General DPS

• Spam all of your fire and earth skills.
• 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.
• If you start an auto attack chain in Fire Attunement, try to finish it. With all the skills at your disposal with frequent attunement swapping, you won't be auto attacking much either way.

Skill Priority

This build follows a generic skill priority depending on your current attunements. Fill any empty space with auto-attacks, only delaying attunement swaps for Fire autos. You should start in Air/Fire or Earth/Fire so you can rapidly get to Fire/Fire for the dual attunement buff.

Fire/Fire

1. Flamewall
2. Flame Uprising
3. Cauterizing Strike
4. Fire Shield
5. Transmute Fire - use only against single targets; against groups it is better to keep fire aura unless you need Might

Fire/Earth

1. Flame Uprising
2. Magnetic Wave (to blast might)
3. Lava Skin

Earth/Fire

1. Flamewall
2. Lava Skin (if not used in F/E)
3. Earthen Vortex
4. Fire Shield
5. Transmute Fire - use only against single targets; against groups it is better to keep fire aura unless you need Might

Earth/Earth

1. Rust Frenzy
2. Earthen Vortex
3. Get out of earth/earth as fast as possible. It is sometimes even better to skip this if Earthen Vortex is already on cooldown before you would swap.

Air/Fire

1. Pyro Vortex
2. Flamewall
3. Fire Shield
4. Transmute Fire - use only against single targets; against groups it is better to keep fire aura unless you need Might
5. Polaric Leap inside Flamewall or Flame Uprising for Fire Aura

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

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

Sustain

• Signet of Restoration heals you for every single skill you cast.
• 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
• 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