Mystery of Weaving

Trublz

Ok I need yalls help here. I've been playing a while now and I determined that weaving is the one thing I'm missing to get my DPS on par with the other elites out there... But I don't understand how I should be doing it.
Highest I've been able to get on a bloodspawn test is 23k (unbuffed) and that's with 2 vMSA daggers and vMSA bow.
I'll just give a brief explanation of my character and how I use the skills now...
Stam DK
Start: endless hail, caltrops, poison inject, noxious breath---switch weapons----trap beast,rapid strikes, venom claw, rapid strikes, rending slash, rapid strike----switch weaps--- poison inject, endless hail, noxious breathe----switch weapons---- rapid strikes, dot, Rapids, dot,.... So on and so forth....
Pretty sure my rotation is sound and I'm just not weaving
Now I know I should be light attackin at some point but I don't know when or how often. Or really how weaving works in general. I'd like to know specifically for my main character listed here but I want to know how it works exactly so I can apply to my other characters and do OP DPS.
I just don't see how light attacks can bring my DPS up to 30k+
Been playing 6 months and I can't get anyone to explain it in a way that makes sense...
Can anyone help a brotha out??

Altima_Primus

You should be light attacking between every skill. The only time you don't light attack is when you bar swap to cancel your long animation like endless hail.

RajinPVP

Not sure whats the problem here... 23k dps on a single target with only self buff is decent enough for every pve content. to answer the question .. do a light attack before you use rapid strike or just keep doing light attack before you even use an ability ... whatever that can cancel your light/medium/heavy attacks is basically weaving.

Lashiing

practice by spamming light attacks and then try using rapid strikes at the right times so the light attack wastes no time
you'll see there's a rhythm of when to use rapids
free dps
profit

WuffyCerulei

Weaving can be harder for some people, while being easier for others. Also the kind of weapon you have can make it easier or harder to weave. Dual wield and bow are easier to weave with, as well as fire staves. I haven't used ice staves yet. However, 2handers and lightning staves are hard to weave with. It will take some practice, but after awhile, weaving will be easier for ya.

Asmael

I'll shamelessly reformat your rotation to my own, just more readable to me
Abbreviating Rapid Strikes => RS

Endless hail > Caltrops > Poison Inject > Noxious Breath (swap) > Rearming Trap > RS > Venomous claw > RS > Rending slashes > RS (swap) > Poison injection > Endless hail > Noxious breath (swap) > RS > ....

From that I suppose your bars look something like this (abilities order irrelevant):

DW
1. Rearming Trap
2. Rapid Strikes
3. Venomous Claw
4. Rending Slashes
5. ?
R. Flawless Dawnbreaker (?)

Bow
1. Endless Hail
2. Caltrops
3. Poison Injection
4. Noxious Breath
5. ?
R. Standard of might (?)

First thing: make sure to separate your initial rotation (the one including caltrops) from your basic rotation. As a stam DK, there is no specific rotation for execute phase, since we rely on Poison Injection and DW, which are both in the normal rotation. Your normal rotation should be this one:

Endless hail > Poison Inject > Noxious Breath (swap) > Rearming Trap > RS > Venomous claw > RS > Rending slashes > RS (swap)

Small note about stamina rotations: most DoTs last 10 seconds, including weaving / swapping, we can fit 9 abilities in there. We have the right count, so now let's take a look at the order: You do not empower your Rearming Trap. Yes, it can be empowered, and doesn't consume the Cruel Flurry proc, but you need to wait for the trap to arm before using a DoT that will consume the proc. Endless Hail is the perfect filler for this, so if we move the order of Rearming trap, we get to this:

Endless hail > Poison Inject > Noxious Breath (swap) > RS > Venomous claw > RS > Rending slashes > RS > Rearming Trap (swap)

Now that would be better to benefit from Minor Force as soon as possible, so we'll actually change where we start the rotation a little bit:

RS > Rearming Trap (swap) > Endless hail > Poison Inject > Noxious Breath (swap) > RS > Venomous claw > RS > Rending slashes

We're pretty much there. What we notice is that Noxious Breath acts as a flexible slot, so it's going to be Caltrops instead every 30 seconds (3 rotations), so when we refresh caltrops, we do not refresh Noxious Breath.

If you have a Standard ready at the beginning of a fight, make sure to do a whole rotation first, that way you'll empower all DoTs already on your target, so it'll look like this:

Caltrops (swap) > RS > Rearming Trap (swap) > Endless hail > Poison Inject > Noxious Breath (swap) > RS > Venomous claw > RS > Rending slashes (swap) > Standard of Might (swap) > ((R))

((R)) being the usual rotation.

"What about light attacks and weaving?" - There's basically a light attack between every single ability, they are usually not mentioned, simply because they clutter a rotation. If we were to add the light attacks (LA), it would look like this:

LA > RS > LA > Rearming Trap (swap) > LA > Endless hail > LA* > Poison Inject > LA > Noxious Breath (swap) > LA > RS > LA > Venomous claw > LA > RS > LA > Rending slashes

* If you have issues using a LA right after Endless Hail, you can either block cancel the animation of Hail, or use a medium attack (heavy attack released as soon as the heavy attack animation starts).

• Weaving will account for approximately 10%~ of your total DPS, so that alone won't kick your DPS to 30k, but that'll help a bit.
• If you expect the fight to be very short (less than 10 seconds), but can prepare the ground with a Rearming Trap, Caltrops and Endless Hail, start the rotation with RS > Venomous Claw > RS > Rending Slashes, then spam RS.

Trublz

[quote="Asmael;3497204

From that I suppose your bars look something like this (abilities order irrelevant):

DW
1. Rearming Trap
2. Rapid Strikes
3. Venomous Claw
4. Rending Slashes
5. ? (Expert hunter or steel tornado)
R. Flawless Dawnbreaker (?) YEP

Bow
1. Endless Hail
2. Caltrops
3. Poison Injection
4. Noxious Breath
5. ?(flames of oblivion or vigor)
R. Standard of might (?) YEP

You do not empower your Rearming Trap. Yes, it can be empowered, and doesn't consume the Cruel Flurry proc, but you need to wait for the trap to arm before using a DoT that will consume the proc. Endless Hail is the perfect filler for this, so if we move the order of Rearming trap, we get to this.

^^i wasn't sure if rearming trap was procced of RS.. That'll make a considerable DPS difference on its own.

Endless hail > Poison Inject > Noxious Breath (swap) > RS > Venomous claw > RS > Rending slashes > RS > Rearming Trap (swap)

Now that would be better to benefit from Minor Force as soon as possible, so we'll actually change where we start the rotation a little bit:

RS > Rearming Trap (swap) > Endless hail > Poison Inject > Noxious Breath (swap) > RS > Venomous claw > RS > Rending slashes

We're pretty much there. What we notice is that Noxious Breath acts as a flexible slot, so it's going to be Caltrops instead every 30 seconds (3 rotations), so when we refresh caltrops, we do not refresh Noxious Breath.

^^^^I had been using caltrops every 2 rotations so you're saying k can move it to 3 and ignore noxious on that 3rd. I always thought it took too much time to reapply every single dot every single rotation.. I think this will help a lot as well!


"What about light attacks and weaving?" - There's basically a light attack between every single ability, they are usually not mentioned, simply because they clutter a rotation. If we were to add the light attacks (LA), it would look like this:

LA > RS > LA > Rearming Trap (swap) > LA > Endless hail > LA* > Poison Inject > LA > Noxious Breath (swap) > LA > RS > LA > Venomous claw > LA > RS > LA > Rending slashes

* If you have issues using a LA right after Endless Hail, you can either block cancel the animation of Hail, or use a medium attack (heavy attack released as soon as the heavy attack animation starts).
[/quote]

that was exactly what I was looking for. I'm going to get on and do a DPS test asap and see what happens. Thank you for taking the time to explain it all out for me like that! I know it took a while to write, I appreciate it : )

Nestor

Trublz wrote: »

that was exactly what I was looking for. I'm going to get on and do a DPS test asap and see what happens. Thank you for taking the time to explain it all out for me like that! I know it took a while to write, I appreciate it : )

You have been given some excellent advice in this thread on how to weave attacks for most benefit. Well, more set up your rotations for most benefit. Once you get this figured out, then come back so we can explain Animation Canceling to you to get even more DPS out of this.

Kutsuu

Weaving light attacks and using your bar swaps to animation cancel abilities will probably be a pretty solid increase in DPS once you get a feel for it.

darthsithis

Im a magicka character, but ive heard that weaving with a sword is different than bow or staff as you have to wait to hear the 'clink' of the sword making contact before pressing the skill.

also, block timing is different for every skill...very subtly but learn all the timing requirements for each move. ex: i can block cancel hardened ward immediately, but have to wait a split second longer when cancelling surge or boundless storm. most for liquid lightning.

GL!