Overview

The weaver is the CC class of the creeps with a series of debuffs, slows, daze,  a single and AoE target root. 

Skills

Skill	Effect	Cost	Duration	Cooldown
Entangling Web (R0)	+30% attack duration	68	30s	15s
Hatchlings (R6)	196 Common, -458 to max power, summons 3 Hatchlings	58	10s	2m
Latent Poison (R1)	-458 to max power, 10s stun	89	15s	1m
Lie in Wait (R0)	Cannot be attacked, +10 stealth level	68	15m	30s
Piercing Attack (R0)	204 Common, 151 Common every 3s	58	9s	4s
Poison Spray (R2)	-285 Agility	58	3m	15s
Smothering Web (R3)	5s stun, starts warband manoeuvre	58	5s	5m
Snaring Web (R0)	30s root	89	30s	30s
Tainted Kiss (R0)	305 acid damage, 141 Common every 3s	58	30s	6s
Trapdoor Sanctuary (R0)	Cannot be attacked	68	1m	5m
Web the Earth (R5)	40% hinder for 10s	62	10s	1m
Grasping Web (R9)	30s root	146	30s	2m
Necrosis (R8)	-2860 poison resist rating, -488 shadow defence	89	2m	2m
Paralytic Venom (R6)	30s daze	146	30s	30s
Lethal Kiss (R0)	318 common	53		8s
Toxin (R4)	197 common, 131 power every 3s	106	30s	15s
Mephitic Kiss (R12)	305 acid, 141 acid every 3s	106	30s	20s
Shadow's Bite (R13)	237 shadow, -245 power, +87 power, 10s fear	106		10s
Catch Prey (R7)	-1200 block rating, -1200 evade rating, -1200 parry rating	81		30s
Venomous Haze (R3)	-10m All skills range	89	30s	2m

Traits

Class Traits

Trait	Effect	Rating
Armour Boost (R1)	+1073 armor	2/5
Clinging Webs (R5)	-15% parry and evade for 30s	4/5
Enhanced Skill:  Piercing Attack	+20% Piercing Attack damage	3/5
Enhanced Skill:  Tainted Kiss (R2)	+30% Tainted Bite damage	5/5
Health Boost	+10% morale	5/5
Regeneration	+2 in-combat morale regeneration	2/5
Steelweave Webs (R4)	25% web break chance, 45s Clinging/Entangling Web duration	2/5
Swift Weave (R2)	-0.25s induction time	1/5

Recommended Corruption Traits

Balanced:  Light mitigation, Tactical Resistance, Physical Resistance, Damage for Power, Stealth Detection Boost

Survival:  Health for Power, Health for Damage, Light Mitigation, Physical Resistance, Tactical Resistance

Tactics

05/04/2009 (Post-Moria)

Solo

• Crowd Control:  In a solo fight, crowd control (CC) is your primary defensive skill.  Your lack of morale and armor means you must limit the number of incoming hits.  Do this by chaining your crowd control skills.  The rank 6 mezz Paralytic Venom is a great opener to get debuffs up.  Combine it with Latent Poison for a 10s stun soon after the mezz wears off.  If your opponent is melee class, Snaring Web will root stop a charging opponent and give you some breathing space without wasting a longer cooldown.  Save Smothering Web for an emergency knockdown, when they get too close and start pounding on you.  If your opponent pots out of your first mezz before you can debuff, use Smothering Web to buy you time to get debuffs on.
• Stacking Poisons:  Expect your opponent to have potions.  Stack poisons to ensure that the important ones (LP, Hatchlings) will take effect.  Poison Spray is a great skill to use as a buffer, especially right after a mezz, when closing into melee range will not hurt you.
• Debuff:  Debuffs will limit the amount of damage you take during the fight, while your opponent isn't CC'd.  It's important to get these on as soon as possible to give you control of the fight.  Entangling Web/Clinging Web/Catch Prey (r7)/Poison Spray/Necrosis (r8)/Latent Poison do no damage, and will not break a mezz.  Get as many--or all--on the target as soon as you can.  The 15s of your mezz gives you plenty of time to debuff.
• Power Drain:  This goes hand-in-hand with debuffs and CC.  Against ministrels, your ultimate goal is to power drain.  Against other classes, it is good to keep up, but often is not as important.  Your drain skills are: Latent Poison, Hatchlings (r6), Toxin, and Shadow's Bite (r13).  LP and Hatchlings will only reduce maximum power.  So it is essential that both are on at the same time.
• Trapdoor Sanctuary:  Against some classes, Trapdoor Sanctuary provides a necessary time-out to get out of combat.  This is especially true when fighting Champions in Controlled Burn, Hunters popping Burn Hot or Champs/Guards sprinting while your CC skills are in cooldown, Runekeepers in full attunement, and possibly Loremasters after Wisdom of the Council.  Try to place Toxin and Tainted Kiss before you burrow, to minimize their out-of-combat regeneration.
• My preferred skill chain at r7 is as follows:  Mezz--Catch Prey--Entangling Web--Poison Spray (poison buffer)--Latent Poison--Toxin (breaks mezz)--Hatchlings--TK.  This will debuff, set up a future 10 second stun, pop hatchlings, and optimally power drain... before any damage has been exchanged!  This is not always a possible skill combination, however.  Plan for them to use a mezz pot.  If I don't need to kite, and am at risk of being CC'd after I break mezz, I will use Hatchlings to break it instead of Toxin.  Against an LM, I will wait a few seconds for LP to tick before I break mezz with Hatchlings, so if I have to root to remove SoP:R, it will not bug the hatchlings.  A similar chain at r4 (without the mezz) is: Root--Clinging Web--Smothering Web--Poison Spray (poison buffer)--Latent Poison--Entangling Web--Toxin--TK.  At r4, however, soloing is extremely difficult.  You can't leave any of your CC skills as backup and they get used up quickly.
• In fights that require you to power drain your opponent, a tactic that I've found to help is to use your Trapdoor Sanctuary early in the fight.  Open with the CC/debuff/drain combo above, then burrow after your Toxin has landed.  Wait your opponent out until the Latent Poison and Hatchlings take effect, then re-emerge and reapply Toxin, starting your damage chain.  Doing so will reduce the amount of damage you take at the beginning of the fight, when your opponent is at full power and not being conservative with his high damage skills.  This has worked great for me against Minstrels and Runekeepers.
• Melee Combat:  Full melee combat in necessary for classes that are powerful at range and have no distinct advantage in melee combat:  Hunters, Loremasters, Minstrels, and Runekeepers(?),  Use Piercing Attack whenever available and Tainted Kiss when giving chase.  Cut back and forth through them and jump to break inductions.  Don't stop moving unless you are using an induction knockout (Paralytic/Smothering) to buy time, interrupt, and halt their movement.  Against tactical classes like the Runekeeper, Minstrel, and Loremaster, Catch Prey is secondary in priority to Entangling Webs, when you apply debuffs.
  • Hunters:  If you know the hunter uses his Purge Poison skill regularly, there's a special skill combination you'll want to use against him.  Root--buffer Poison Spray--Hatchlings--mezz--Latent--debuff, etc.  This gives Hatchlings time to tick down while he's disabled. You will want to try to stay in melee range and behind them most of the time in this fight.  Don't chain-CC if you don't have to.  Save the mezz and knockdown for when they root or hinder you and are getting away.  Use your fear pots if necessary (only bard's arrow will affect you, so there is no harm in potting out of the first fear).  Don't give them time to build up inductions if possible.  Force them to run, so they can't build up focus.  Hatchlings are useful to break triple traps for you and interrupt their inductions, but don't rely on them to kill the hunter for you.  They aren't even necessary in most cases.  If you lose him, use a short mezz to interrupt him and catch up.  If you need to burrow, make sure Toxin is on him before you do.
  • Minstrels:  Power drain is key in this fight.  Chain-CC to buy time for Toxin to take effect.  Try to keep them close to you, because their damage output is basically the same whether you are in their face or 20ft from them.  It also gives you more options, such as a second Latent Poison halfway into the fight.  If you pop TS right after your Toxin, you can usually save yourself a bunch of damage, but you'll want to be fighting while your hatchlings are out.  I'll typically be around 3/5 of my morale pool by the time their power is out.  From then on, it's a matter of keeping them in range, keeping Toxin up, and killing them before they can run away.
  • Loremasters:  Tricky fight here, if you don't have a Brand.  Your first action is to root (mezz if you need to root the LM or the pet is too close) the pet, if it's visible (if it's a Bog Lurker, I recommend running like hell).  If possible, debuff at range with Entangling Web/Clinging Web.  You probably won't have the time to debuff with a mezz, because SoP:R will block mezz and knockdown.  Focus on getting your Hatchlings out and starting the power drain combo, debuffing when you can.  Get in his face: it's a good opportunity to practice induction breaking, keeping his pet away from you with WtE/root/mezz.  If you have good control over his pet, you have a good chance of winning the fight.  Use a tactical pot as soon as he gets his first debuff on you;  there's no point saving it, because you'll likely have a number of debuffs on you throughout the fight and the high priority ones will likely be on the bottom of the stack.  Use vendor root pots for mezzes if necessary (many are traited for the 2s mezz), and stun/mezz pots for stuns.  You absolutely do not want to be caught in a lengthy stun.  If he stuns you enough times for DR to kick in, then stay on him even if he pops WotC.  Otherwise, find a tree or burrow.
  • Runekeepers:  (WIP) If the RK has his poison prevention buff on at the start of the fight, remove it with Tainted Kiss.  Start your CC/debuff/drain combo.  It's important that you DoT the runestone early with another Tainted Kiss.  Otherwise, it will tank your Hatchlings while mitigating your meager damage on the RK.  I like to try a power drain tactic with them, but be aware that they have a power restore skill.  At high damage attunement, it will be very difficult to defeat them.  The most dangerous thing about them is the frequency at which they can chain stuns and mezzes on you.  When the new stun/mezz pots come out, it may favor us.  Popping a brand on them might also help, but I have yet to try it.
  • Wardens:  A significant portion of their damage is done via javelin skills.  I will try to focus on power draining him and staying at range, never turning my back to him for Wages of Fear.
• Kiting:  Kiting isn't simply DoTing and running around in circles.  It's gaining breathing room to pop inductions and delaying for your CC cooldowns to reset.  Having Swift Weave traited will help you greatly.  Knowing how much of distance you need is important.  Turning off auto-attack unless you're chasing is also important, so that your inductions start instantaneously.  Practice moving through enemies, moving erratically to throw off your opponent, and side strafing while pulling off skills--facing perpendicular to your target.  Use CC to gain more room and pull off inductions.  If your opponent closes in on you, try to move into him at an angle to get behind him and away.  Your optimal range is 20m.  Enough distance to root him if he sprints to escape, and far enough to never let him hit you.
  
  • Champions:  Get your debuffs up as soon as you can.  Catch Prey helps a lot.  Watch for the sprint, and root/mezz if you have the distance, strafe through him, or TS if you can't take the hits.  When popping from TS, make sure to attempt Latent Poison on him while he's in melee range.  Keep your DoT on him and move it.  If possible, save your knockdown to buy extra time for your hatchlings--he can burn them down pretty quickly otherwise.  If you need the distance to root/mezz, WtE will give it to you.
  • Captains:  Good timing with Latent Poison might take him out before he has a chance to Last Stand.  His melee skills hurt, so after the hatchlings have finished beating on him, you can go for broke with chain CC's and/or kite him around to get your skills back up.  Don't let him get on top of you or you will have problems.
  • Guardians:  You may want to slot Clinging Webs for this fight, as most of their offensive skills come from parry reactions.  Catch Prey is also great.  If you stun or mezz him, be sure to stay at a fair distance so he can't Turn the Tables on you.  Depending on how he specs, this may be a long fight, so it's important to have patience.  Most of your offensive skills are tactical skills, however, so you won't really have too much of an issue getting through his b/p/e.  What's more important is keeping your distance and being vigilant with CC before he can get to you.  If he closes into melee range, be sure to always be facing him.  Don't give him a free stagger.
  • Burglars:  Similar to a Guardian fight, but potentially more dangerous if he gets into your melee range.  He does not, however, have any ranged attacks, so if you can stick him with a root he's a sitting duck (provided he has no root pots).  Your root can be evaded, so you shouldn't waste it if he has Touch and Go (50% evade) up.  I personally like to start this fight with a mezz, to see how he reacts.  If he pops Find Footing, just TK and kite him around until the evade bonus is gone.  That should give your mezz time to reset and you can restart the fight with one of his cooldowns burned and 30s wasted.  Kite, kite, kite.  Don't be afraid to use your mezzes/stuns/kds early in the fight.  The sooner you can pull out his 2 Find Footings, the better.  If he does manage to catch up and get Blinding Dust on you, you should counter with WtE and a root, or just burrow.  If he gets a stun on you, check if it's a stun or a knockdown before you use your pots.  The only one you can break out of is Startling Twist.  Never let a burg into melee range.  Even if you have to travel over half the map to kill him, don't give him the opportunity to stun you.

1 vs 1 tactics in detail

[Yicky, Elendilmir]

[Semirage, Elendilmir]

• Corruptions: I find I am most successful with damage for power rank 1, Damage for power Rank 2, Cry resistance rank 2, Lightning resistance, rank 2, Tactical resistance rank 2
• Racial traits: Eight-Legged Menace, born of Shadow, Swallower of Light, Ancient of the Stars
• Class traits: The ones i use are Health Boost, Swift Weave, Clinging Webs, Armor boost, Peircing attack, Tainted kiss.  

As you can see with my trait setup, I am built mostly for damage.  You can switch and swap builds a bit of course for your own playstyle.  I find the damage build works best for me.

This build gives me Morale 6028, and Power 1735

Basics:

Weavers are a kiting class.  especially regarding melee.  We are squishy, so staying out of range for melee classes is vital in your survival.  against ranged and tactical it is a matter of strategy and outliving your opponent as well as tactfully placing your skills at vital times.  Debuffs and drains are vital against tactical classes being that they eat through power.  Hunters are a bit tougher but we will get into that later. for a list of your skills available you may check out the monster manual weaver section to get info on that.  So without further delay, lets get into the classes. I will use the guide with skills that are limited at Rank 8.

Champions

High DPS melee class that specializes in AOE dps.  This can play as an advantage to you being that most champs will slot for AOE which can gimp their single target dps.

 I will always start out with a mez or root on them.  this can play on two advantages. 1st he will allow the duration and you can place your debuffs.  If he chooses to use continuous bloodrage to break the mez he will burn around 1k of his health giving you an upper hand on morale.  If he chooses to let the CC take effect pop your poison spray on him, Necrosis, and your catch prey for your buff.

Iif he pops his charge off the bat,  root or mez him again until its down.  If he is dumb, he will blow continuous bloodrage again and he will be down a considerable amount of health. Keep your distance from him(around 30m) and hit your web the earth if he is too close and start with your attacks (tainted kiss, lethal kiss) at that point turn into him, hit latent poison and hatchlings and throw a mez on him.  break it with lethal kiss right before the stun and watch him go down. At this point join your hatchlings in the damage and burn him down for a while. If he hasnt already i would assume he will blow his horn to stop your hatchlings and do some damage. if its up either mez him again or if he is low enough and you have high morale run in and hit your smothering web on him knocking him down so your hatchlings can do more damage. If he gets your hatchlings down, web the earth on him again if its up and start kiting to get some distance while hitting him with lethal kiss every time its up. At that point he will be on the brink of death and you can finish him off.

 Things to watch out for:

•  Charge (speedy boots) stop him at all cost
•  Horn (stun) if he gets to close this can devistate you
•  Hamstring (slow) if he is smart he will hit you with this. Root him, stun him, do anything to keep him away from you

Captains

All melee buffer class

These guys are heavy armor so prepare for a long fight. But they can hit pretty hard at times so watch it.

Again kiting is key here. They have no ranged unless they use their archer herald.

Start off with your mez and throw your debuffs (clinging webs, catch prey, necrosis, and poison spray)  take your steps back and hit him with your lethal kiss and tainted kiss. If he kits his charge root him or mez him as you dont want him too close yet. Once that is down hit your web the earth to slow him down and get ready to turn.  Spin on him and hit him with lethal kiss + toxin and run right at him and hit him with latent poison and hatchlings. Once latent poison hits head in and hit your peircing attack and let your hatchings beat on him while you are damaging and replacing your debuffs. Once he is back up start kiting again and you may have burned down between 1/4 to 1/2 of his/her morale. Start kiting again placing your drains on him as you move while every once in a while running into him to hit mephitic kiss. When web the earth is back up hit it again to slow him back down and gain distance on him.

It is highly possible that your latent poison and hatchlings will be back up so feel free to get those onto him again and rinse and repeat until he's dead. Its a good possibility that he will burn his in harms way/ last stand. Web the earth or mez him and kite him till it wears off.  

Exceptions:  If you feel you need some extra time with him disabled, you can use your smothering web for a knockdown. Best to be used with hatchlings out so you can get the extra damage

Things to watch out for:

• Heralds (pet) this can make the fight very different. Archers can be especially difficult. Most captains will use a banner but if a herald is out make sure you keep him mezzed at all times.
• Make haste (run speed buff) mez, or root will counter act this quite well.
• Rallying cry (heal)  if he crits on you with certain skills it will open his defeat response skills. With that he can heal himself and heal over time which can make the fight last longer. This CAN be an advanage to you if played right as your long cooldowns are very devistating and allow them to be used again.

Guardian

Tank class/ Single target DPS

This fight can go two different ways depending on his traits and stance and there are advantages and disavantages to both.

Block Stance fight:

If he is running sword and shield then his DPS is going to be very low with his weapon but his shield can cause you some issues being that if he gets his reactive bash off he could hit you pretty hard and it comes with a stun.

So to start it off MAKE SURE YOU ARE AT A DISTANCE and mez him or root him (if you mez him within 5 meters he will turn the table on you and it is 360 degrees which knocks you down for at least 5 seconds.  so mez him and start tossing your debuffs. You can severly gimp this fighting with catch prey and clinging webs so make sure you get those off. Necrosis can help add some DPS to yourself for the poison resist.  if he is in block stance this is going to be a looooong fight due to his mitigations and he could burn you down so kite kite kite kite kite.  Dont get bored or frustrated.  throw you web the earth to gain distance and start your ranged attacks. Toxin can play a big part here as they can burn power pretty quick  after you have a little bit of a drain on him turn and charge him landing your latent poison. Hatchlings is your choice here. If your hatchlings are up when he gets stunned, most likely he will use Turn the tables on one of them. If he does, you may use Smothering web to knock him back down or just keep going with the fight. Keep catch prey and clinging webs on him as they reduce his reactives forcing him to use his basic attacks. If he charges you with speedy boots root or mez him until it wears off. You are going to have a huge morale pool to deal through which can range from 7k upwards of 9k so you may have time to throw your latent and hatchlings again.  If he starts getting the upper hand on you, throw your bleeds on him and burrow for a bit. as soon as you pop hit your web the earth to get your distance. Eventually just burn him down.

Things to watch out for:

• Guardian's Pledge(b/p/e buff) This will show up as a white ball buff above his head. you see this, MOVE and DO NOT ATTACK!  this adds 50% to all block, parry, and evade.  But its a short duration.  you attack him one time and I can garuntee you are going to open up a devistating chain either ending in a shield bash and stun, or even worse it will open his parry chain which will end in a LOT of damage and a possible CJ lock at the end. FYI he can hit this two times for 15 seconds each if he's geared
• Warriors heart: This can be annoying.  its going to heal upwards of 1k morale and add 1k to their morale pool. Some guardians will hit this twice back to back for a large heal. If you see this, prepare for a longer fight and keep throwing debuffs to burn through it.

Overpower stance fight

This fight will be a bit faster but can have disadvantages due to the higher DPS. Being that they are single target they can hit really hard and really fast. so..

Fight starts off the same way. Mez or root(again stay far away when you mez), throw catch prey, and clinging webs. Clinging is vital for the same reason as he cannot parry or evade which removes his reactives and makes him easier to hit. Then Poison spray and necrosis.  Start getting your bleeds up on him with lethal kiss and toxin(but stay out of melee range for now).  Kite him around to get the upper hand on him and then turn and hit latent poison. WATCH THE TIMER!!! If you are next to him when the stun hits he can Turn the Tables on you.  Again you can throw hatchlings if you want. I usually throw them when the stun goes off so they can poke at him right when it wears off. While he is down re-apply your debuffs and gain some distance. Start with the kiting again and lay web the earth if he gets too close. Same rules apply with his guardian's pledge and warriors heart. If you keep the debuffs up you can gimp him a lot which puts the fight in your favour.  It will be a long fight but keep your distance and debuffs up and you will be fine.

Things to watch out for:

• Force opening skill(melee skill + reactive opener) This skill sounds like a sonic boom going of and the animation looks like  he just did a golf swing with his weapon.  You hear and see this,  GET AWAY FROM HIM!  this skill opens up his parry chain(DPS chain) if you keep him debuffed this is the only way he can open it. this can end very poorly in your favor if you dont have poison spray up(-113 agility) due to the chain having high dps and can hit you for 3k or more in about 2.5 seconds.

Burglar

Debuffer/CC

This is not a fun fight for spiders.  probably one of the hardest you will have.  STAY OUT OF MELEE RANGE!!!!! Kiting is EVERYTHING

 If you have a brand...pop it as soon as he goes stealth!

The start of this fight can be tricky.  If he stars the fight in stealth there isnt much you can do.  have a stun pot ready if you use them.  If you dont you are going to take quite a beating.  after the initial attack you can do one of two things.  Mez him or root him.  rooting him can make landing the debuffs easy where as a mez can cause him to burn his Find Footing or Touch and go.  get your debuffs on him. Catch prey, poison spray, necrosis,  and clinging webs. venemous haze can really help you with riddle range.  once those are up KEEP YOUR DISTANCE.  He is all melee so stay away.  Depending on the burg, your latent poison wont do much good as he will again blow his touch and go or find footing.  Stuns for them are fee heals so DONT DO IT. Just kite. after you get him to about 1/2 throw your hatchlings.  As soon as the hatchlings pop, hit web the earth and burrow.  Let your hatchlings deal the damage.  once your burrow gets low, pop up and hit smothering web on him.  your babies will do the damage and allow you to move away from him.  re-apply debuffs and kite the rest of the way.  If he hits HIPS, keep moving.  You wont know where he is but dont wait for him.  Try to out flank him till it comes back up.

Things to look out for:

• Riddle(stun) this is a 30 second stun that will end you if you dont find a way out of it.  POT!
• Dust in the eyes(debuff/slow)  If he gets this on you, root him or web the earth to keep him away from you.

Warden

Tank/DPS

This fight is similar to the guardian with a couple of changes.  1.) he has ranged as well and it can hurt.  2.) He has a rear attack but at a long cooldown 3.) He can regen if you are close so keep your distance.

Start off with your mez, then add your debuffs.  catch prey, and clinging webs are vital here.  Venemous haze for his javelin range. Then poison spray and necrosis.  Kiting can work well since the warden must close distance to use his shield and spear trait to build conjunctions. Beside to keep kiting and spinning around to his back side. A circle strafe around them is the best way to go. 

Keeping Toxin on him is critical, make it a point to burn through their power before dropping morale too much. They have a skill that allows them to recharge power but only at 1/2 health or less (Darkest before Dawn is the skill and it has a 3 m range - so if your outside of that - he cannot activate it)

Range damage the warden as much as possible after his power has been pretty deleted. If you stay far enough away from him - he cannot use his morale regen gambits. You will take dmg from his javelin but that's a fair trade off for restricting most of his gambits.

When you put cj lock, or mezzzes on him - run in and put Piercing attack on him - Keep toxin and venomous haze on him as  much as you can safely do so.

Things to look out for:

• Stealth Ambush(knockdown) - This is easy to eliminate, If you see him crouch down and move around like he's searching the ground- he's activated it. Just throw a stun on him and it's over - it's an out of combat only. The induction depends on how it's traited. I can pull mine off in less than 4 seconds with my legendaries that are traited.
• Wages of Fear(DPS) DONT TURN YOUR BACK ON A WARDEN if you can help it.  this skill is spacifically designed for a rear attack.  Dont say i didnt warn you ;) It's a bonus multiplier (for positional damage) Just keep yourself facing your target - the good news is it has a 45 s cool down (unless they slot their javelin CD reduction) But I would take the javelin skills over giving them the opportunity to pull off gambits.

Loremaster

Crowd Control

CC vs CC is an interesting fight.  But a Loremaster's CC is much more efficiant than yours.  Most likely you will see him fire his Stun dot.  So...your mez is useless.  I recommend saving your mez for the pet.  DISABLE THE PET!  Especially if it's a bog Lurker.

 Again pop your brand if you have it!

So to start the fight, most likely he will start with a mez or stun. either his 30s mez, or one of his stuns and move his pet in.  get that thing out of the way.  use your mez on the pet then debuff the LM. Clinging webs and necrosis cause you will need to hit him hard and fast. as soon as you can, put entangling webs on him to slow his inductions.  He doesnt have a chain stun/Cj like a burg does, but mostly roots, a breakable mez, and a lot of stuns that can do serious damage.  so.

Debuff with clinging webs and necrosis.  Mostly likely he wont be moving around too much so kiting is not your friend here.  The best thing to do is get close to him.  Try to sneak behind him and keep him moving.  His stuns are all inductions except for storm lore, so he will have to rely on his roots and Ent stun.  If he stands in his Tar/Gourd, Stay back!  wait to throw your hatchlings until he uses his Herb-lore(AoE root)  its on a 2m cooldown and he can use it on your hatchlings disabling them.  wait for him to use it on you.  So try to stay behind him and keep lethal kiss on him.  Toxin should always be up and use Latent poison to lower his power(the stun does nothing due to his stun dot).  If its traited he will probably try to fire off his Ents..Long induction so Smothing web him and move back.  IMPORTANT:  If you see him use his ancient craft(looks like a yellow debuff with a magnet on it, watch for him to raise his staff and start a lightning animation.  That is known as lightning storm.  when you see this BURROW until that debuff is gone.  if he hits you with that you are DONE.

At this point throw hatchlings and re mez the pet, re apply debuffs, and keep pew pewing him.  If he is getting the upper hand on you, throw venemous haze, and root him and move about 30 meters out.  If you need some time to chill to regain yourself, hit smothering web and back off.  This is probably one of the toughest fights you will have due to all the stuns.  you will have to blow everything you have to keep a fight going.  try not to get frustrated with all the CC.  Power drains and disables on the pet can make a good difference.  But if you try to spend your time kiting or gaining distance you will just die faster. You will be stunned, mezed, or rooted.  If you get rooted, turn and fire on him.  Dont wait for the next move.  If he rooted you, re mez the pet every time and keep hitting him.  As soon as he hits you it breaks. Timing is a large factor in this fight. 

Things to watch out for:

Pets:

• These are the major DPS for a loremaster fight.  Disable them with your mez. (if you have a dumb Loremaster that doesnt use a stun dot, root the pet 1st time, and mez the LM.  bottom line, keep the pet out of the fight.  DONT FORGET ABOUT IT!
• Lightning Storm:
• This hits you, Goodbye.  If it crits, even worse bye bye.  He needs to have ancient craft on you to use it.  Pray he doesnt mez you to use it.  if he does, POT! and burrow it off.  
• March of the Ents: this is pretty obvious when it goes off...giant tree behind the LM.  this is an AOE stun.  I try to mez or CJ him with Smothering web to get him out of this. 

 

Hunter

Single Target nuker

This fight is 1/2 technical and 1/2 straight forward.  The outcome of this fight depends greatly on the hunter.  This fight is done no more than 2 inches from the hunter.  This fight can take longer but can play an advantage.  majority of your skills are poisons so a hunter can remove them with poison removal.  This makes your damage pretty much all spike damage and no dots. but the more time he spends removing poison, the less damage he does to you.

Start out with a mez.  GET RIGHT BEHIND HIM. throw latent poison and hatchlings. wait till right before latent poison goes off for the stun and hit him with your skills.  apply poison spray, clinging webs and necrosis. once the cooldown is up, put entagling webs on him to slow his inductions.  get toxin on him as well. your hatchlings will do damage for you. right before he comes back up, hit venemous haze to lower his range. if he roots your hatchlings, Root him and move to him.  spin spin spin. try to stay with his back.  you see his face, bad bad bad.  if he tries to kite you, Web the earth and slow him allowing your hatchlings to catch up.  continue at his back and keep your toxin and bleed up. His major attack is typically distratcting shot then heart seeker.  Counter this with a pot and either get behind him or burrow.  After you get past this, keep at his back and burn him down. 

Things to watch out for:

• Traps(root)  make note of where he put it and try to move around it. make a wide angle as it could be a 3 trap.
• Rain of Thorns: AOE root.  he will probably use this to keep you away from him.  Counter it with a root and pot it if you can.  root him, mez him, just stop him.  mez would be ideal so he cant pew pew you.

Minstrel

Healer/DPS

 This fight would be one where if you have crit protection slotted, you are pretty unbeatable.

This fight can go two ways.  he will either stay in warspeech the full fight, or switch out of it to heal.  This fight is a fun one.

Start off with a mez.  Apply poison spray, necrosis, catch prey, and venemous haze.  head right in with lethal kiss, latent poison and hatchlings.  Apply your toxin and start burning into him. once your hatchlings are up, join them in the burn.  when he gets you to a point where you dont feel too comfortable(for me around 2/3 health,  Burrow and let your hatchlings beat on him a bit more.  If he stays in warspeech, pop and hit your smothering webs and start the DPS race.  If he drops to start healing, pop out and just start DPSing. this will make the fight go a bit longer, but he wont be hitting you except for a gimped peircing cry.  keep toxin on him while he heals so he burns power and just tear him down.

Things to watch out for:

• Warspeech:  Watch that buff.  if he drops it, the fight is yours.  He cant get back into it and you can just burn through his healing.

Runekeeper

dps/heals

This fight is short on both sides of the spectrum.  He's either going to kill you, or you will kill him very fast.  These guys are tough due to being able to use high hitting skills on the fly with no cooldown.

Start with a mez.  1st order of business. dot up the healing stone.  Hit it with Lethal kiss and piercing Attack and move to the RK.  if he has his do not fall to poison up, use poison spray to remove it.  then apply necrosis, venemous haze(important) and clinging webs.  Move as far back as you can!.  start your DPS.  poison dots hit latent poison and hatchlings right away!.  as soon as your Paralytic venom is back up, mez or root him and move wayyy out of the way.  as soon as latent goes off and hatchlings are up, hit him with everything you got.  all attacks.  When he comes up, make sure you are at a distance. dot him and Burrow.  when the dot gets low, pop up and hit smothering Web to CJ him.  at this point hopefully he is very low on health that you can burn him down.

Things to watch out for:

• Shocking words(Dps + possible stun) watch out for this. Looks like a lightning bolt coming from the sky.  This means the heavy attacks are incoming (IE epic conclusion) this is the point where you need to keep him disabled.
• Epic conclusion(dps) if he hits you with this and you still have health,  Toxin toxin toxin.  His power has just boosted to +50% All skills so burn his power while you can.

 

Tips and Tricks

Brand:  If you have one of these, It changes the fight in a whole different way.  I would recommend using a brand on a burg, Lore-master, and Runekeeper.  After your brand wears off continue the fight from the guide above. 

Pots:  Stun pots, Root pots.  These can get you out of a tough situation.  use them at your discresion.

I left some situations with skills open because there are situations where they should always be up. Skills that you should always have placed on the Freep are:

Catch Prey, Entangling web, necrosis.

I mentioned these skills above in some specifics such as Guardians for catch prey, and Entangling webs for Lore-masters due to having a significant importance in the fight.

Tip:  Dont get discouraged if after a couple seconds you dont see a huge health drop ont he Freep.  Remember a spider uses Dots more than spike damage.  So just keep punching and you will notice you suddenly have the upper hand on the freep.

I hope this guide Helps some of the new spiders get an idea on what to expect against certain classes.  This is in no way meant to be the only way to conduct a fight. Or even the best way.  these spacifics having given me the most success so far in 1v1s.  Good luck to all the spiders out there :)

 

 

Small Group/Raid

• • Weavers in a group/raid
    
    some raid leaders have specifics to what they want their members to do.  However, a spider can be a very powerful 
    demoralizer for a Freep raid if you use your skills effectively.
    
    
    
    Know your skill and what they do:
    
    The key to a good spiders is knowing when, how, and where to place your skills that will cause the most problems to a freep raid.  Putting Latent Poison on a Loremaster with full power and their stun dot up will do you no good at all.  Or throwing a mez or stun on a burglar that is 3/4 dead is probably not your best choice of actions. Clinging Webs on a Fervour champ is a waste of a skill, and so on and so on.  Knowing what skills will cause major problems on certain classes is what makes you a good spider.
    
    Know the functions of the freep raid.
    
    What is the freep raid doing?  are the full DPSing?  are they removing wounds and poisons?  Are their healers RK's or Minstrels? What are they focusing on?  Where are their hunters in reference to their targets?  Are their burgs following target assist, or harassing healers?  Is the freep raid mainly Melee or Ranged?  Tactical or physical?  These can be vital pieces of information that i will get into in a bit.
    
    Know the functions of YOUR raid.
    
    Who has the larger force?  Creeps or Freeps? Is your raid primarily ranged or melee?  How many healers? Where they are positioned, etc.
    
    Re-Evaluate the raid's situations throughout the fight.  Does it look like the freeps are going to use a fallback point? Are they advancing forward or staying back?
    
    With all this in mind we can go into some detail on these fights.
    
    Open Field:
    
    Outside of a keep, You can have a broad area to move around in which can add some advantages to you.  During this time, take a quick moment to assess the situation of your raid.  Were are you healers?  Are there trees or areas to Line of Sight.  If there are,  dont be afraid to use them if you get hit.  Keep an eye on your healers.  make sure that they are protected.  Wargs and yourselves can be vital tools to save a healer from issues such as a burg coming and harassing them.  if you find a melee class all over one,  communicate with the healer,  quickly let them know where you are.  
    After that, If its a melee class(even a burg)  check their buff. make sure there is no LM stun dot on them, and if not, Toss a mez on them and have the healer move at least 30 meters away. [note: if they DO have a LM dot on them, use a root instead].  At this point, move in, and get a slow on the harasser and start working on them with some DPS to get them to move back into the Freep lines and out of the way of the healer.
    
    If your healers are ok, you get to have some fun with freeps.  As a spider you want to stay on the outskirts of the main skirmish.  This allows you to stay out of the AoE ball, and gives you an overview of the battle.  Your main targets are going to be support classes(Minstrels, Healing Runekeepers, Captains, and Loremasters) your secondary targets are going to be Hunter turrets if there is one. 
    
    Minstrels/Healing RKs and support classes:
    Power draining and slowing the healer's ability to heal is your primary functions.  If they only have 1 healer than start moving in on them.  If they have more than one, find the primary healer(the one that will be doing the majority of healing and has the most power and protection).  When you find that healer,  You will want to start off by hitting him with toxin.  Most healers are going to be paying attention to everyone elses green bars and not his debuffs,  So after you land your toxin your next skill will be Entangling webs.  This will give them a +30% Duration to their skills.  Nowy ou want to place your Necrosis.  This will make sure your longer cooldown skill are not resisted.  Stay at ranged till you know it is clear then charge in and hit your latent poison.(my opinion here is to NOT use hatchlings because in a raid situation they wont do any good during a stun.  reapply your toxin at this point then when the Latent stun lands hit your hatchlings.  Your job here is to burn through the minstrels power and disrupt their healing.  Not kill them.  At this point their power should be slim to none so move on to the next Target. 
    
    90% of the time you have multuple spiders in your group.  So if all the rank 7 + spiders harass a healer they should all be powerless very quickly. however dont be afraid to move from healer to healer adding Entangling webs to them to slow them.
    
    at this point its time to re-evaluate the situation.  The DPS should have been bringing some of the raid down(hopefully)  
    So take a look around.  Lets say we find a hunter turret?  Well, grab 3 other spiders and help out the DPS.  Take your spider pack and move right to them.  Each of you pick a different hunter(this needs to happen quick)  Move through them so you are behind them,  And each of your fire off your Venemous Haze, and Poison spray.  This will bring their Skill range down to very short range, and their DPS down a ton due to poison spray's -285 Agility.  Then each of your place Entangling Webs on your hunter to bring their induction time up 30%.  They may clense those poisons, but that is a couple seconds of breathing that can bring in some much needed healing.  Make sure you get out.
    
    For the other support classes things are a little less technical.
    
    For Loremasters, most of their skills are induction based.  Keeping Entangling webs on them Will slow their inductions and keep their DPS down a bit.
    
    Captains that are healing are a bit tougher due to their heals not having an induction.  Entangling webs will still give 
    
    them a +30% attack duration.  but your best tool here is your mez and toxin.  try to keep them locked down.  their heals are light and they dont have a lot of power. so keep toxin on them, and try to mez them and stun them when you can.
    
    Melee:
    
    With melee, your web the earth is a great tool.  Obiviously when they are slowed they cant chase your raid as well.  So make sure you keep that web the earth on them.  Melee also uses Agility for their crits.  Burgs especially.  Poison spray is a big thing here.  You will want to keep your Latent and hatchlings for the healers.  But when you run across a burg, warden, champ, or guard, Poison spray can make a world of difference.  When the time comes for the target to be a Warden or Guard, They will both most likely be traited DPS so you wont have to worry about block so much.  But you will need to worry about Evade and Parry.  So make sure you hit them with Clinging Webs when the time comes so all you have to do is burn through their Mitigations and not their avoidances.  If they have a block stance up, make sure you land your catch prey on top of the clinging web to remove all their avoidances as best you can.
    
    Keep Fight(offence)
    
    In a situation where you are taking a keep you can't move around as much so things move a little differently for you.  The debuffs will stay the same except for 1 major change.  DO NOT USE HATCHLINGS.  Unless you are asked to do so, dont put your hatchlings on a freep.  They call pull those things throughout the whole keep and make life very difficult for your raid.
    your biggest difference is your positioning.  You cant really be outside the raid looking in as much as you are in an enclosed space.  Your new spot will typically be back and forth between the front and middle of your lines.  Watch those AOE's from the freeps.  That is a meat grinder for spider soup if you get caught in it.  If a charge comes, Hit your web the earth and back up towards the healers.  During a hallway battle keep the same observations up as an open fight.  But you cant charge in to find a healer as easily as before due to the AOE ball.  So your changes are going to be dealing with mostly toxin and entangling web.  Your main tactic however is going to be Creep raid defence and more DPS based as many of your skills require you to be in harms way.  When the freep raid is in a defensive state, move to the front line of the creep raid and get ready for the push.  When they charge your job is to slow them down so web the earth and move back to the middle of the raid.  Once the melee pushes through into your lines, Move in with your 
    Poison spray and coat the raid with it.  Lower their DPS and move over to the healers and start your harassment as before.  Toxin > Entangling Webs > Necrosis but then hit them with Tainted Kiss but stay at range.
    These are some of the primary uses of a spider.  There are many variations.  Ones that i would always recommend trying and seeing what is best for you,  But remember. You are a CC and Debuff class by trade.  Your DPS is a secondary use.
    
    Good luck and happy webbing!!!!.

[Yicky, Elendilmir]

 

Traits

• I have compiled a list of different combinations of damage/morale corruptions here: http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=pEi4djhuEik-A3N4WwnkIOQ
• I recommend using DfP2 and DfP1, because the percentage increase in DoT damage for each damage corruption is tremendous.  Taking DfH is debatable, but in my opinion, is worth the loss of survivability.  Damage is better for a solo fight and health is better for small group-raid fights.
• HfP2 and HfP1 are advisable if you need the morale.  I would be careful about taking HfD, as it penalizes your damage output significantly.
• Class traits: At r8, I have the following slotted: Health Boost, Armor Boost, Steelweave Webs, Swift Weave, Enhanced TK, Enhanced PA.

[Nidor, Brandywine]

For my Class Traits:

armor boost...must have. we are already quite squishy...need all the armor we can get

health boost....see above (plus it magnifies the boost from the corruptions)

Clinging Webs...I use this debuff a lot, need to use a class trait slot to use the skill

Enhanced Tainted Kiss & Piercing Attack...+30% & 20% damage respectively. helps soften the impact of the Health for Damage corruption trait. Big bang for the buck in terms of damage. Helps you more in solo situations than raids, so if you are more inclined to raid, you would more likely be going for more ranged damage so you could slot Enhanced TK and drop the enhanced PA and use the slot for something else.

the above is what I run with...other comments on Class Traits below:

Regeneration...pathetic amount to burn a racial trait on. You get IIRC 120 morale per minute w/the +2 regen...food is better regen and only costs you 5 silver. Might be useful if you fight in TA all the time, since you could get a +3 ICMR buff in addition to your class buff. I won't ever slot this unless they buff this one up to a decent level.

Swift Weave... some weavers use this to ensure they are able to get their webs off on charging melee types or in solo fights. IMO w/WTE you don't need to cut your web inductions. Lay down WTE and kite them....40% slow w/wte is enough for you to get enough distance between you and your prey to get off any webs you need.

Steelweave....the longer durations for Clinging webs and Entangling webs this trait gets you could be enough to slot this in place of say, enhanced PA. The snare is pretty useless though...it still breaks pretty easily, even w/Steelweave IMO. I rely on my slow (WTE) much more to keep prey nearby than my Ensnaring Webs.