Difference between revisions of "Weaver - Earth Hammerweaver"
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==Usage== | ==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. | *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. | ||
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'''General''' | '''General''' | ||
+ | |||
+ | * Skill #3 on each attunement is an orb skill, consider this your secondary profession mechanic. Air and Fire grant offensive bonuses while Water and Earth supply you with defensive ones. All 4 orbs also pulse damage and apply conditions around you while active, and as a Weaver you can activate up to 2 new orbs at once thanks to the dual attuning mechanic: | ||
+ | ** {{Skill|Flame Wheel}} on Fire increases your damage. | ||
+ | ** {{Skill|Icy Coil}} on Water grants condition damage reduction. | ||
+ | ** {{Skill|Crescent Wind}} on Air increases crit chance. | ||
+ | ** {{Skill|Rocky Loop}} on Earth reduces direct damage. | ||
+ | |||
+ | * Each orb has a duration of 8 seconds, but whenever you add a new orb to the mix the duration of all previous orbs is refreshed. Once you've rotated through all 4 attunements the orbs will inevitably fall off - this is when you should use the chain skill {{Skill|Grand Finale}} which shoots them at your target for damage. | ||
+ | |||
+ | * Whenever you swap to a new attunement you should always start with activating its dual orb skill. | ||
+ | |||
+ | * {{Skill|Immutable Stone}} is a channeled block - the aura is applied after you block something. This gives you a little bit of time to swap attunements before that happens and get an aura of your choice as the aura is granted based on your '''current''' attunement. | ||
+ | ** On Weaver it's already easy to get whatever aura you want since it's based on your primary attunement, but let's say you're on Fire/Earth, if you activate {{Skill|Immutable Stone}} and immediately swap to Air you can still get a {{Tooltip|Shocking Aura}} if you time it right. | ||
'''Damage''' | '''Damage''' | ||
+ | * Try to have {{Skill|Flame Wheel}} and {{Skill|Crescent Wind}} active before beginning to unload your harder hitting skills. | ||
+ | |||
+ | * {{Skill|Fire Attunement}} has the most damage, followed by Earth. | ||
+ | |||
+ | * {{Skill|Air Attunement}} is more about CC than damage. | ||
+ | |||
+ | * {{Skill|Water Attunement}} can do quite a bit of damage on Hammer but it has no damaging conditions which sets it back a bit on Sage amulet. While it's primarily a defensive attunement the damage is fine and it has {{Skill|Crashing Font}}, which is the only gapcloser in the build. | ||
+ | |||
+ | * Skill #2 on every attunement is a decent offensive ability, so you can keep pressuring targets regardless of which attunement you're swapping to next. | ||
+ | |||
+ | * Skill #5 becomes {{Skill|Ground Pound}} after you swap out of Earth primary. Not only does this do heavy damage but also applies {{Tooltip|Immobilize}} which can then be used to set up skills with long cast times such as {{Skill|Hurricane of Pain}} or {{Skill|Rain of Blows}}. It's also good for forcing enemies to tank multiple ticks of {{Skill|Primordial Stance}} which is one of your most important offensive skills. | ||
+ | |||
+ | * Swapping out of Air can be used in a similar way to set up burst, as skills #4 and #5 on Air CC targets. | ||
+ | |||
+ | * {{Skill|Primordial Stance}} can instantly add burst to any attack sequence: | ||
+ | ** {{Skill|Fire Attunement}} has the highest raw damage output. | ||
+ | ** {{Skill|Air Attunement}} is also a good choice because of the {{Tooltip|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. | ||
+ | ** {{Skill|Water Attunement}} does not directly help with damage, but the snare and CD increase can still be valuable - especially in mirror matchups, as {{Tooltip|Chill}} is one of Elementalist's greatest weaknesses. | ||
+ | |||
+ | * You can obtain up to 47% extra crit chance through traits and skills: | ||
+ | ** Swapping attunements gives you {{Tooltip|Fury}} for 20%. | ||
+ | ** You have another 15% crit against targets with {{Tooltip|Weakness}} when playing with {{Trait|Superior Elements}} - the main source of Weakness in the build is the passive of the Air orb {{Skill|Crescent Wind}}. | ||
+ | ** Coincidentally the same orb also gives +12% crit chance while active. | ||
+ | |||
+ | * {{Skill|Surging Flames}} is a cone attack best used in melee range to make sure all 3 projectiles hit the target. | ||
+ | |||
+ | * {{Skill|Triple Sear}} creates 3 AoEs on the ground - try to position this in a way that your opponent is in the center of this skill so they get hit by all 3. | ||
+ | |||
+ | * {{Skill|Molten End}} is rather straightforward, just a big smash you should aim to land when the target has {{Tooltip|Burning}}. All the other Fire skills apply Burning so that shouldn't be hard. | ||
+ | |||
+ | |||
+ | ''Burst combo example'' | ||
+ | :# Let's assume you're on Earth/Air. | ||
+ | :# {{Skill|Whirling Stones}} | ||
+ | :# {{Skill|Primordial Stance}} to stack some {{Tooltip|Vulnerability}} (for 1-2 seconds) before you're completely out of Air. You can activate this while casting Whirling Stones. | ||
+ | :# Swap to Fire. | ||
+ | :# Immediately activate the orb skill {{Skill|Dual Orbits: Fire and Earth}} | ||
+ | :# {{Skill|Ground Pound}} | ||
+ | :# {{Skill|Surging Flames}} in point-blank range. | ||
+ | |||
'''Survival''' | '''Survival''' | ||
* Swap to {{Skill|Earth Attunement}} whenever you're getting pressured. This will give you barrier, {{Tooltip|Stability}}, damage reduction and immunity to critical hits via {{Trait|Stone Heart}}. | * Swap to {{Skill|Earth Attunement}} whenever you're getting pressured. This will give you barrier, {{Tooltip|Stability}}, damage reduction and immunity to critical hits via {{Trait|Stone Heart}}. | ||
+ | ** Stone Heart briefly reactivates when you leave Earth! | ||
* Keep attuning to Earth every second time you swap if you want to play things extra safe. For example: Water {{to}} Earth {{to}} Air {{to}} Earth {{to}} Fire {{to}} Earth, repeat. | * Keep attuning to Earth every second time you swap if you want to play things extra safe. For example: Water {{to}} Earth {{to}} Air {{to}} Earth {{to}} Fire {{to}} Earth, repeat. | ||
− | * Most of your condition cleansing will come from Water and Air attunement. | + | * Most of your condition cleansing will come from Water and Air attunement. |
+ | |||
+ | * On {{Skill|Water Attunement}} the first dodge you perform heals and cleanses 1 condition from you and nearby allies. On Water secondary you also have access to {{Skill|Cleansing Typhoon}} which is the closest thing this build has a mass cleanse and its effectiveness scales with the number of enemies struck, much like the healing of {{Skill|Crashing Font}}. | ||
+ | |||
+ | * Another important tool for fighting conditions is {{Trait|Woven Stride}}, which makes you lose 1 condition when you gain {{Tooltip|Swiftness}} or {{Tooltip|Superspeed}} (once every 5 seconds). Several Air skills provide these buffs: | ||
+ | ** Swapping to {{Skill|Air Attunement}}. | ||
+ | ** Using {{Tooltip|Wind Storm}}. | ||
+ | |||
+ | * {{Skill|Immutable Stone}} on Earth is one of your best defensive skills. It blocks an attack and grants a huge amount of barrier + an aura based on your current primary attunement. | ||
+ | ** Air's Shocking Aura can deal with melee attackers, Earth's Magnetic Aura shuts down projectiles, and Water's Frost Aura offers direct damage mitigation. |
Revision as of 15:54, 10 May 2024
This is a test build. You may comment and rate it.
Focused on: Condition damage and Sustain
Designed for: PvP Conquest
Difficulty:
Normal
This build was last updated on May 10, 2024.
Overview
A condition damage-based Weaver build for PvP with medium damage and high survivability. Primarily serves as a duelist.
Skill Bar
Hammer
Utility
Template Code
[&DQYaOSUeOC0AFnUATwFPAfUVkAA1F+sAEheWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACWQBWAAA=]
Specializations
Variants
- is also a viable option, adding more passive survivability to the build.
Equipment
Hammer
Sigil
Sigil
Rune
Amulet
Relic
Equipment Variants
Sigils
- or over - if you can afford to give up condition removal for more damage.
Relics
- - provides extra healing much like Nayos.
- - better cleansing via synergy.
- - adds a new cover condition to the build for slightly higher damage and to make it harder to cleanse your more important conditions.
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.
- Hammer trivializes the dual attack mechanic quite a bit, since every dual attack does the same thing: activates a swirling orb with passive bonuses. The attunements will determine the bonuses. You don't really have to learn new skills if you were already familiar with Hammer.
- 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.
General
- Skill #3 on each attunement is an orb skill, consider this your secondary profession mechanic. Air and Fire grant offensive bonuses while Water and Earth supply you with defensive ones. All 4 orbs also pulse damage and apply conditions around you while active, and as a Weaver you can activate up to 2 new orbs at once thanks to the dual attuning mechanic:
- on Fire increases your damage.
- on Water grants condition damage reduction.
- on Air increases crit chance.
- on Earth reduces direct damage.
- Each orb has a duration of 8 seconds, but whenever you add a new orb to the mix the duration of all previous orbs is refreshed. Once you've rotated through all 4 attunements the orbs will inevitably fall off - this is when you should use the chain skill which shoots them at your target for damage.
- Whenever you swap to a new attunement you should always start with activating its dual orb skill.
- On Weaver it's already easy to get whatever aura you want since it's based on your primary attunement, but let's say you're on Fire/Earth, if you activate Shocking Aura if you time it right. and immediately swap to Air you can still get a
is a channeled block - the aura is applied after you block something. This gives you a little bit of time to swap attunements before that happens and get an aura of your choice as the aura is granted based on your current attunement.
Damage
- Try to have and active before beginning to unload your harder hitting skills.
- has the most damage, followed by Earth.
- is more about CC than damage.
- can do quite a bit of damage on Hammer but it has no damaging conditions which sets it back a bit on Sage amulet. While it's primarily a defensive attunement the damage is fine and it has , which is the only gapcloser in the build.
- Skill #2 on every attunement is a decent offensive ability, so you can keep pressuring targets regardless of which attunement you're swapping to next.
- Skill #5 becomes Immobilize which can then be used to set up skills with long cast times such as or . It's also good for forcing enemies to tank multiple ticks of which is one of your most important offensive skills. after you swap out of Earth primary. Not only does this do heavy damage but also applies
- Swapping out of Air can be used in a similar way to set up burst, as skills #4 and #5 on Air CC targets.
- has the highest raw damage output.
- 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. is also a good choice because of the
- Chill is one of Elementalist's greatest weaknesses. does not directly help with damage, but the snare and CD increase can still be valuable - especially in mirror matchups, as
can instantly add burst to any attack sequence:
- You can obtain up to 47% extra crit chance through traits and skills:
- is a cone attack best used in melee range to make sure all 3 projectiles hit the target.
- creates 3 AoEs on the ground - try to position this in a way that your opponent is in the center of this skill so they get hit by all 3.
- Burning. All the other Fire skills apply Burning so that shouldn't be hard. is rather straightforward, just a big smash you should aim to land when the target has
Burst combo example
- Let's assume you're on Earth/Air.
- Vulnerability (for 1-2 seconds) before you're completely out of Air. You can activate this while casting Whirling Stones. to stack some
- Swap to Fire.
- Immediately activate the orb skill
- in point-blank range.
Survival
- Swap to Stability, damage reduction and immunity to critical hits via .
- Stone Heart briefly reactivates when you leave Earth!
whenever you're getting pressured. This will give you barrier,
- Keep attuning to Earth every second time you swap if you want to play things extra safe. For example: Water ⇒ Earth ⇒ Air ⇒ Earth ⇒ Fire ⇒ Earth, repeat.
- Most of your condition cleansing will come from Water and Air attunement.
- On the first dodge you perform heals and cleanses 1 condition from you and nearby allies. On Water secondary you also have access to which is the closest thing this build has a mass cleanse and its effectiveness scales with the number of enemies struck, much like the healing of .
- Another important tool for fighting conditions is Swiftness or Superspeed (once every 5 seconds). Several Air skills provide these buffs:
- Swapping to .
- Using 24px Wind Storm.
, which makes you lose 1 condition when you gain
- Air's Shocking Aura can deal with melee attackers, Earth's Magnetic Aura shuts down projectiles, and Water's Frost Aura offers direct damage mitigation.
on Earth is one of your best defensive skills. It blocks an attack and grants a huge amount of barrier + an aura based on your current primary attunement.
Ratings
Slow and can't always get a kill, but bunkers great, can hold it's own 1v2, and it's very easy to play
It definitely works, I'll say that, but there are too many weaknesses to ignore here:
Weak cleanse, making condi duelists a nightmare. Lack of aggressive traits results in common cases of stalling a duelist until someone from either team rotates into the node, lack of defense against cc, lack of range, lack of projectile denial, lack of speed. If you are dead set on playing a duelist elementalist, the condi sword weaver is by far the superior choice. And if you are dead set on hammer as a weapon, play catalyst.
I've found the damage lacking. Don't get me wrong this is enough for 1v1s and the sustain's good enough to stall outnumbered especially against power builds. But it really falls off in 2v2 and above, the damage becomes negligible compared to some other sidenoders especially once Primordial stance runs out. Therefore it's heavily reliant on the team making good rotations which is always a gamble in soloq. If Anet ever adds 1v1 tournys I'm defo playing this build, but in conquest there are better alternatives including hammer Catalyst even if that's harder to play.
The idea isn't completely new but no build has managed to make it viable in the past because not having Fire meant the damage or cleansing were too low. That is where Hammer comes into play. This weapon coupled with Primordial Stance has all the damage you'd ever need without any further investment. 5/5 damage and sustain against power builds, but the cleansing aspect remains unsolved. If Woven Stride ever gets a CD reduction this will be unstoppable, but as things currently stand the build has a defined weakness which is holding it back in some games. For now I'll have to detract 1 point for that since it falls behind the Cata version in that regard.
Very unique and surprisingly effective build. Extremely tanky thanks to all the Earth traits which add a bunch of instant procs. High Stone Heart uptime is especially great and can be a huge help when you're trying to survive a 1v2. Weaver's considered to be one of the hardest elite specs to play but Hammer removes much of the initial learning curve too since there are no dual attacks to memorize and work into your combos (all the dual attacks are just passive orbs). Several important survival tools are available right on attunement swap which means you don't have to stress too much about planning ahead with skill 4-5 access for defensive purposes either (although on water and earth there are still some powerful ones). Damage is good both in 1v1s and teamfights, but killing high cleansing specs can take a while.
Comments
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