Guild Wars 2

People want swords for elementalists, so I decided to try my hands at an E. Spec design using just swords. Built around the now almost archaic term of “Attunement Dancing”, I decided to incorporate that theme both figuratively and literally in the Spellweaver.

Elementalist – Spellweaver
Weapon: Sword Main-hand
Skills: Physical
Mechanic: A new F5 skill called Spellweaving, which is powered by Spell Charges gained whenever the Spellweaver Attunes to an element while in combat.

Mechanic: Spellweaving and Spell Charges
Can you feel the rythm of magic? The Spellweaver sure can, weaving it into deadly elemental dances that simultaneously entrance and terrify those who bear witness to it. As they dance through their attunements, they accumulate the magical power into powerful “Spellweaving” techniques.

Whenever the Spellweaver Attunes to an element while in Combat, they empower a new F5 skill with the respective Spell Charge of the attunement they left, so for Instance if you Attune from to Water you’d gain a Water Charge. You can only have 1 charge of each Element at any time. The Spellweave becomes available once 3 unique Spell Charges have been “added” to it, resulting in 1 of 4 different forms:

• Elemental Surge (Fire/Water/Air) – Combine scorching fire, biting ice and surging lightning into a single, Unblockable beam that pierces through enemies and deals massive damage.
• Elemental Annihilation (Fire/Air/Earth) – Stomp the ground, pulling your target towards you with a shockwave that Cripples them, followed by raising a Pillar of Fire upwards that Launches the target upwards, then finish off with a Lightning strike that inflicts massive damage and Finishes the target if they’re Downed.
• Elemental Calamity (Fire/Water/Earth) –Trap enemies you in frozen rock Prisons, Immobilizing and Chilling them. Follow up with a massive explosion that Launches all enemies struck, Burning them. Acts as a Blast Finisher.
• Elemental Sanctuary (Water/Air/Earth) – Surround yourself with rocks that pushes back enemies, winds that destroy projectiles and pouring water that Heals allies and removes Conditions. Acts as a Water Field.

Now, in order to have a little more control and allow the Spellweaver to swap attunements as they need rather than be forced into a specific Pattern, they have access to a Chain Skill that occupies the Attunement Slot for 3s after attuning, called Elemental Siphon. For example, after Attuning to Water, you have 3s to decide on wether you want to have a Water Charge or not. Using Elemental Siphon will remove the Charge.

Spellweaving is extremely powerful, so all 4 different versions of it share a relatively lengthy cooldown. The Spellweaver can still generate and siphon Spellcharges while Spellweaving is on cooldown, however.

Weapon: Sword Main-hand
The sword acts as the centre piece for the Spellweaver’s fighting style, incorporating a tireless precision and dance-like agility into their casting.
Unlike other weapons in the Elementalist’s armory, the Sword shifts focus away from the traditional elemental roles and instead introduces a weapon that works at different ranges, depending on which Attunement is currently in use. This gives the Spellweaver unparallelled mobility, able to weave in and out of melee combat fluently through Attunement Dancing.

Fire – While attuned to fire, the Spellweaver gains a set of destructive and relentless melee attacks with a high Damage, AoE and means to stick to an enemy. There is no room for defense here, as fire merely consumes.

• Blazing Blade -> Trailblazer -> Immolation – Coat your blade in flames, striking your target with a chain of high damage attacks. The last strike in the Combo will set the primary target ablaze, causing them to stack Burning for a very brief time.
• Flashfire – Teleport to your target’s position, striking them and releasing a scorching wave of fire around you that damages and Burns all nearby enemies.
• Cauterize – Charge up a powerful strike that deals increased damage and grants you 1 stack of Might for each stack of Burning on the target enemy, up to a certain threshold. Acts as a Blast Finisher.

Water – While attuned to water, the Spellweaver gains access to a wide array of ranged attacks meant to slow down pursuers, keeping them at a distance and away from themselves. It has no access to self-healing, in return having better CC and Damage than other Water frameworks.

• Beam of Cold – Channeled Skill. Fire a stream of water from your blade that pulses several hits, freezing over the course of the maintain and Chilling the enemy briefly on the last hit.
• Frozen Tide – Send a cascade of icicles forwards that cause Vulnerability on enemies struck, before shattering and leaving behind an Ice Field that Chills enemies within. Acts as an Ice Field.
• Dancing Ice Blades -> Bombardment – Surround yourself with 5 swords of ice that circle around you, damaging nearby enemies and destroying projectiles. Activate the skill again to send your blades at the target enemy, causing Vulnerability for each blade that strikes them.

Air – While attuned to air, the Spellweaver becomes like the wind itself: Fleeting and unpredictable, moving as he desires. Another ranged set, Air is much more focused on Offense and Mobility than Water is, giving the Spellweaver the means to dictate the flow of battle and disengage from enemies at their leisure.

• Windcutter -> Thin Air -> Rolling Thunder – Cut through the air itself, sending deceptively fast and sharp ripples of wind at the target enemy. The last strike flurries with your blade, forming orbs around the target that strike them several times with Lightning.
• Gale Stride – Leap in the target direction on a gust of wind while evading attacks. Combo Finisher: Leap.
• Lightning Wall – Raise your blade skywards, sending 3 pillars of lightning racing in the target Direction that Daze enemies and grant Swiftness to Allies they pass through.

Earth – While attuned to earth, the Spellweaver gains access to a highly defensive melee set that focuses a lot on active defenses and CC. They gain access to Blocks, Protection, Blinds, Cripple and a Smoke Field, giving them a good fighting chance while up close and personal.

• Dust Slice -> Dust Slash -> Twisting Sands – Bleeds your target with whipping sand, before wreaking up a small dust devil that remains in place for a short time and Weakens enemies it strikes.
• Sand Veil – Spin around, surrounding yourself with a dust storm that Blinds nearby enemies and pulses Protection to Allies, becoming a mobile Smoke Field for a brief duration.
• Petrification -> Stone Shower – Turn yourself to stone, becoming immobile and Blocking all incoming attacks. When activated again, or at the end of the duration, shatter the stone shield and send out sharp debris that Cripples and Bleeds enemies struck. Stone Shower Acts as a Blast Finisher.

Utility Skills
The Spellweaver is all about dance and rythm. Obviously, their Physical Skills aren’t the brutal CC moves of a Warrior or the Lethal precision strikes of a Daredevil, but instead takes the form of mostly channeled skills focusing heavily on AoE Damage and Denial, all somehow graceful and awe-inspiring like a proper wardancer’s skills should be.

• Crashing Waves – Healing Skill; Channeled Skill. Enter into a prepatory stance, Healing yourself, before releasing a flurry of quick kicks that sends forth a cascade of Wave Projectiles at enemies in front of you. Each Wave Knocks back enemies and Heals allies in the Splash Radius.
• Lightning Rain – Channeled Skill. Transform into a bolt of Lightning, striking down several times at random at the target area while Evading attacks. The final strike Stuns all nearby enemies and grants Quickness to Allies.
• Winterstride – Channeled Skill. Gracefully step forwards, surrounding yourself with an expanding Ice Field that Chill nearby enemies. The final Pulse of this skill will Freeze solid all nearby enemies.
• Trial by Fire – Channeled Skill. Surround yourself with Dancing wisps of fire, becoming a Firefield that grows in size as you dance and pulses Burning to enemies. At the end of the Channel, Damage and Launch all enemies within.
• Dunesong – Channeled Skill. Wreak up a massive Sandstorm around yourself as you dance, Blinding, Crippling and Bleeding enemies around you. Enemy projectiles fired at you are destroyed, and clusters of Blinding Sand are fired back at the aggressor.
• Harmonic Convergance – Elite Skill. Break out of Stun, Convert all Conditions on yourself into Stability and Recharge all Attunements and Spellweaving.

Specialization Line
The Specialization line for the Spellweaver are focused around three different routes. The upper set of traits focus around Physical Skills and the use of Sword as a weapon, the middle set of traits focus on Attunement Dancing and Evasion, while the last set of traits focus on Spellweaving and Elemental Siphon.

Minor Traits

• Wardancer – Gain Access to Spellweaving, Spell Charges, Elemental Siphon and Physical Skills.
• Elemental Infusion – Activating Elemental Siphon grants you a Boon depending on which Attunement Charge it had.
  • Fire: Might (3 Stacks, 5s)
  • Water: Regeneration (3s)
  • Air: Quickness (2s)
  • Earth: Stability (1 Stack, 3s)
• Spellpower – Increases your Damage and Condition Damage by 3% for each Spell charge you’ve accumulated.

Adept Traits

• Invigorating Performance – You and nearby Allies restore Endurance 50% faster while you’re channeling a Physical Skill. Radius: 600.
• Evasive Empowerment – Gain a Boon when evading Attacks, depending on Attunement. ICD: 10s.
  • Fire: Retaliation (3s)
  • Water: Vigor (3s)
  • Air: Swiftness (4s)
  • Earth: Protection (2s)
• Awe of the Power – When you activate Spellweaving, all nearby enemies are Weakened (6s) and Allies gain Might (5 Stacks, 6s).

Master Traits

• Master Performer – Gain Stability (1 Stack) when you first Activate a Physical Skill. Physical Skills recharge 20% Faster.
• Quickening Surge – Gain Quickness (1s) when you swap Attunements while in Combat. ICD: 5s.
• Cleansing Infusion – Remove a Condition when you activate Elemental Siphon. ICD: 3s.

Grandmaster Traits

• Bladedancer – Gain charges when you score a Critical Hit with a Sword Skill. When you hit 5 Charges, you will Evade the Next attack. ICD on Charge gain: 1/2s.
• Flow like Water – Heal yourself and Recharge Water Attunement whenever you Evade an attack. ICD: 5s.
• True Ultimate Power – Spellweaving is 15% Stronger and recharges 33% Faster.

- The special mechanism is good, reminding me of the warden in LOTRO.
- For the weapon skills, Gale stride would gain being a retraet instead of a gap closer.
- I’d change the healing waves of the heal skill to condition cleanse just to not step onto tempest’s toes.
- Invigorating performance might be a tiny bit to strong, bringing it to 50% might be more balanced.

Well… I like it, that’s a pretty well thought idea.

Wow! This is one of the best ESpec ideas I’ve seen in a while. It looks balanced while feeling impactful, it has nice utility, it can sustain itself with its traits and has reasonable synergies with existing trait lines, especially Arcane, which seems a bit overlooked these days.
Also is has an incredibly high skill ceiling and would require a lot of training for some high risk – high reward plays. I dig that.
I like how you solved the problem of unwanted charges with Elemental Siphon. Since this is an Elite Spec there will be no Overload sitting in the attunement since you can’t be a Tempest at the same time.
I’d love to see this ingame.
Cheers

Hi

Greast one … But some very powerful things in it like Sand Veil which will allow easy stealth access ;-). I would change earth skills on sword to have poision in the autochain and have weakness on number 2 but well i would like that smoke field ^^.

Thanks for all the input! Gonna adress any concerns one-by-one here.

Dadnir.5038:

- The special mechanism is good, reminding me of the warden in LOTRO.
- For the weapon skills, Gale stride would gain being a retraet instead of a gap closer.
- I’d change the healing waves of the heal skill to condition cleanse just to not step onto tempest’s toes.
- Invigorating performance might be a tiny bit to strong, bringing it to 50% might be more balanced.

Well… I like it, that’s a pretty well thought idea.

• Gale Stride might be a bit confusingly worded. Basically, you choose direction entirely on your own, similar to how Deflecting Shot works for Guardian. This means it works as both Engagement and Disengagement tool, depending on what you need at the moment.
• Crashing Waves would be very distinct from Wash the Pain away! in a few ways: First, they’re all projectiles aimed in front of you rather than waves cascading out from you. Second would be that there are about 5-6 of them. Third would be that each of them knocks back the target a short bit, making it a very useful CC tool but less useful for Party Support.
• Invigorating Presence might be a tad bit too strong, I agree. Although, that depends on how long the channel for the Physical Skills are. I myself imagine them being closer to 1-2s, myself.

Glad you liked it!

Wolfric.9380:

Hi

Greast one … But some very powerful things in it like Sand Veil which will allow easy stealth access ;-). I would change earth skills on sword to have poision in the autochain and have weakness on number 2 but well i would like that smoke field ^^.

• Sand Veil is indeed a multi-faceted and very powerful skill, however this is made up for by having a very short duration (Think 2s or so, with 1 1/2s Protection with each pulse) so that the player must know why they activated it in the first place in order to use it, adding to the High-risk/High-reward factor.

As for Poison, I feel like it not being present on Elementalists is by design and I’m sure it’d be great on an Elite Spec for sure, but it should be one focusing primarily on adding Condition and Attrition playstyle to Eles, rather than baking it into Spellweaver which primarily is designed to allow Eles to be agile bruisers in the vein of Daredevil.
Weakness on the other hand is very thematic, hence why it can be found on the AA, yepyep!

hornswroggle.8023:

Wow! This is one of the best ESpec ideas I’ve seen in a while. It looks balanced while feeling impactful, it has nice utility, it can sustain itself with its traits and has reasonable synergies with existing trait lines, especially Arcane, which seems a bit overlooked these days.
Also is has an incredibly high skill ceiling and would require a lot of training for some high risk – high reward plays. I dig that.
I like how you solved the problem of unwanted charges with Elemental Siphon. Since this is an Elite Spec there will be no Overload sitting in the attunement since you can’t be a Tempest at the same time.
I’d love to see this ingame.
Cheers

You’ve got it! Elementalists had notoriously good sustain when specced for it even before HoT, but if not specced for sustain they get steamrolled instantly. It was a bit of a challenge to balance something that’d add Sustain without having to require pidgeon-holding eles into certain stats, and I figured the best way to do that was through giving them access to a skill-based system and a weapon that had inherent Bruiser-esque qualities. Hence the Sword is designed to have good Non-healing and Skill-based sustain with high Spike capability, in exchange for having virtually no Support and Healing.