Last Updated on by Samuel Franklin
Use this Spellweaver guide to masterfully command fire and ice elements for consistent or high burst damage. Including recommendations for cards, build, perks, enhancements, tips and items you’ll contribute ranged damage, area of effect spells, healing, utility and summons to your party as this mage archetype role.
Table of Contents:
– Spellweaver Cards, Perks, Enhancements and Items Overview
– Spellweaver Cards Detailed
– Spellweaver Perks Detailed
– Spellweaver Enhancements Detailed
– Spellweaver Items Detailed
Gloomhaven Spellweaver Guide Overview
This overview optimises the Spellweaver for consistency and flexibility to ensure players of all skill levels have the necessary tools for success.
Spellweaver Cards Overview
- Level 1: Remove Hardened Spikes, Freezing Nova and Crackling Air cards to create your starting deck from the remaining starting cards.
- Level 2: Flashing Burst replaces Ride The Wind
- Level 3: Cold Fire but leave it out of your deck for now
- Level 4: Forked Beam replaces Frost Armour
- Level 5: Chromatic Explosion replaces Impaling Eruption. Add Cold Fire to your deck now which replaces Flame Strike
- Level 6: Living Torch replaces Aid From The Ether
- Level 7: Engulfed In Flames (Level 5 card) replaces Chromatic Explosion
- Level 8: Zephyr Wings but leave out of your deck unless needed for a particular scenario
- Level 9: Inferno replaces Forked Beam
Spellweaver Perks Priority Overview
- Replace one -1 with one +1 card (take twice)
- Add one +2 ice (take twice)
- Add one +2 fire (take twice)
- Remove four zeros
Spellweaver Enhancements Priority Overview
- Add any element to the bottom of Reviving Ether
- Add strength to the bottom of Mana Bolt
- Add hex to the top of Cold Fire
Spellweaver Items Priority Overview
- Eagle-Eye Googles
- Minor Power Potion
- Minor Stamina Potion
- Invisibility Cloak
- Piercing Bow
- Boots of Striding
Gloomhaven Spellweaver Guide Detailed
This section dives into the reasons for the recommendations above and explores alternatives based on party dynamics or your scenario objectives.
Spellweaver Cards Detailed
The Spellweaver’s cards are as follows and shown in level order:
- Mana Bolt (Starting): A fantastic card throughout your adventure as it brings not only a fast initiative of 7 but also a reliable way to acquire experience and heal yourself or allies. This will stay a staple of your deck with both top and bottom options having their use throughout the broader campaign.
- Frost Armour (Starting): Similar to Mana Bolt this offers great initiative for the Spellweaver and a reliable source of experience when elements are available. While the bottom is a burn that you’ll rarely use given you should be avoiding places where you will take damage the vast majority of the time the top and initiative mean this will stay in your deck.
- Flame Strike (Starting): A solid starting card although it is 2 range that can put us in danger to deal the damage (top or bottom). With the double attack it is flexible though and one of our few bottom attacks overall that give us a burst option.
- Fire Orbs (Starting): One of our strongest level 1 cards which is balanced by being a burn card. Ensuring you use this twice a scenario (with Reviving Either) is important to maximising experience and area of effect damage. The move 3 also makes it one of our staple move cards when we do have it available but haven’t had the opportunity or need to utilise the damage yet.
- Impaling Eruption (Starting): A similar card to Fire Orbs although slightly more difficult to use effectively as it relies on enemies being in some sort of targetable path. You’ll still use it in your deck for most of your Gloomhaven adventure as it has similar great damage and another source of easy experience acquisition but is given up before Fire Orbs.
- Reviving Ether (Starting): The core Spellweaver card this is extremely powerful allowing us to bring all our burn cards back from the dead to be used a second time and helps counter our small hand size. Given this you will want to use top action as late as possible after you have burned everything else to maximise the gains. This also means you’ll be using the move multiple times a scenario which is why this card a great candidate for an any elemental enhancement. The move itself is also quite powerful with 4 and jump included to also be one of our best move cards.
- Ride The Wind (Starting): While loot can be good to have as it allows us to afford equipment and enhancements it is simply not worth giving up something else in our limited hand size. The bottom as a burn also doesn’t offer much so you’ll be defaulting to the default move 2 most of the time. There are some niche scenario uses for this burn though to dive deep into the enemies to acquire a chest or unload damage and pair it with invisibility cloak but this isn’t a playstyle you will use all the time.
- Aid From The Ether (Starting): Ranged summons are great value in Gloomhaven and Mystic Ally contributes consistent damage. Summoning this early in a scenario is ideal to maximise its potential provided there is a safe hex to do so. This will be replaced with a different summon later with better range and while it is fun to temporarily use both summons it’s not your best strategy as the Spellweaver due to hand size issues supporting two summons at once.
- Hardened Spikes (Starting): This melee card doesn’t fit into the Spellweaver playstyle. Having the appropriate elements is also key to getting the most out of this card which simply aren’t going to be available early often enough and have better uses if they are. You can consider using this instead of Ride the Wind at level 1 for the 26 initiative and 3 move if preferred as it’s the best of the worst cards we are leaving behind at level 1.
- Freezing Nova (Starting): This card is also melee focused and not something we should be prioritising and the heal burn simply isn’t worth the space in our deck. While the initiative is pretty solid at 21 the top and bottom of this simply don’t work for the Spellweaver playstyle compared to our other starting cards.
- Crackling Air (Starting): Offers little with a top burn that is unnecessary and a retaliate bottom that we simply shouldn’t need if playing the Spellweaver correctly from range.
- Icy Blast (Level 2): A double loss card is rarely a great option in Gloomhaven as you must use default actions only until ready to use it. You do get a powerful heal and a reasonably good area of effect attack but Flashing Burst simply offers superior usage and longevity for us at level 2.
- Flashing Burst (Level 2): Another nice initiative card that adds an easy method to gain an element for Mana Bolt or Frost Armour. The 3 attack and 3 range means it is a bread and butter attack for a while and the 4 move give this card provide fantastic flexibility.
- Elemental Aid (Level 3): Elemental Aid is a helpful support card but is unfortunately competing with one of our best cards at level 3 Spellweaver. If your team needs the extra heal or shield ability and has methods to generate the necessary elements then you can consider this card but you will still want your other level 3 card (Cold Fire) so you will give up something else later instead.
- Cold Fire (Level 3): Our best card (other than Reviving Ether) although at level 3 it can be difficult to generate the fire and ice elements. Around level 5 when you have consistent methods to self generate fire and ice this becomes a fantastic utility or a damage card depending on the situation and perfect to use on hexes alongside your front line fighters.
- Spirit Of Doom (Level 4): Another double burn loss where neither option is particularly strong. Killing a normal target sounds great but these are rarely an issue in scenarios or worth the burn and the heal is not significantly stronger than our other heal cards that aren’t burn cards.
- Forked Beam (Level 4): The better option at level 4 and while it’s not super strong it can be a good replacement for Frost Armour given they perform similar roles. The 4 move also adds extra flexibility to move safely around the scenario battlefield.
- Engulfed In Flames (Level 5): Adds reliable flame generation and a decent non-burn attack to boost our longevity that I recommend taking later on but not initially at level 5. The bottom is completely useless to us as the Spellweaver playstyle avoids melee range so you’ll want to be using the default move if you are forced to use the bottom.
- Chromatic Explosion (Level 5): While it might not seem like much with a small move of 2 the elemental generation on this is invaluable and makes the Spellweaver easier to play. With this card obtained we can then bring Cold Fire into our deck if not already which creates a deadly combo when these two cards are combined. This card drops in usefulness once you obtain some enhancements to provide element generation on other move cards so likely may leave your deck at some point.
- Living Torch (Level 6): The best level 6 card option and the Burning Avatar replaces our Mystic Ally. Despite Living Torch doing 1 less damage than Mystic Ally the additional range, movement and fire generation before our turn is going to mean it has a greater chance of survival and provides better utility. The top action is also useful with good attack, range and and some utility to help ourselves and allies survive and can be a viable choice until you can safely summon.
- Frozen Night (Level 6): Adding another burn is not something we are looking for especially when it requires us to get into melee range to use. The bottom seems nice with the invisible but dark is unlikely to be on the board often unless we give up fire or ice generation for it which is simply not worthwhile.
- Stone Fists (Level 7): Another melee and damage absorbing focused card that doesn’t fit into our overall theme although some in the community have created a Spellweaver melee build by combining this and the other melee focused cards together.
- Twin Restoration (Level 7): The bottom does provide a useful double heal with decent range which will be the primary reason you want to consider this card if you are falling into a supportive party role regularly. It’s awkward to use in practice though as you’ll often need the move on your bottom cards to position yourself or for fire/ice generation that enables an elemental empowered Cold Fire attack. Instead I recommend level 7 as a good opportunity to take Engulfed Flames from Level 5 to bolster our attacking power instead (or another card from past level unlocks that interests you).
- Cold Front (Level 8): More double loss cards which we simply can’t take as the Spellweaver as we will be exhausting too early in scenarios. Cold Front can be tempting as it is fantastic with the right enemy setup but you’ll have greater consistency in scenarios by not taking this double loss. The bottom is also not worth the burn loss in our deck for what it offers as the Spellweaver should be avoiding damage as much as possible instead.
- Zephyr Wings (Level 8): The better of the level 8 options and one I will take but leave on the sidelines unless the scenario calls for significant looting or moving and my party lacks those. This level can also be a good opportunity to look back at the other cards you haven’t taken and consider if you would prefer one of them over this niche option although I encourage Zephyr Wings to provide you a strong albeit niche sideboard card option when needed.
- Black Hole (Level 9): Overshadowed by the other level 9 option Black Hole won’t be making it into your Spellweaver deck. As a card itself it’s not particularly great anyway with a pull move on a class that doesn’t want enemies close to them and a burn top that feels powerful when used against 3 enemies although those opportunities are few and far between and we sacrifice too much longevity for it.
- Inferno (Level 9): The pinnacle of Spellweaver power the Inferno top attack is deadly and with a good initiative of 19 gives another quick attack option. While your allies will suffer damage when in the same room this will often be less damage than full rooms of enemies take, particularly when enhanced with fire element. The fact that this is a non burn is just the icing on the cake for us with a party of good healing or shields allowing us to use this over and over again. The bottom isn’t necessarily terrible in the perfect situation but these are rare so don’t expect to ever use the bottom.
Spellweaver Perks Detailed
Like other characters our priority is to improve damage consistency to plan your attacks with allies and have confidence that your plan will work. For this reason removing the -1s twice comes first before adding the +2 ice and fires in that order to give us another potential source to empower Cold Fire or our other abilities while boosting damage. It’s at this point that zero removal allows us to take advantage of all the +2 we have just acquired by thinning our modifiers.
From this point your choice of Spellweaver perks is less clear and will depend on your party and overall campaign situation. Grabbing the +1 options with Wound and Curse effects are best and followed closely by Stun and Immobilise simply because they are harder to use well if you don’t know its coming with your attack while Wound and Curse are generalist modifiers.
Spellweaver Enhancements Detailed
Gold won’t come easy to a Spellweaver depending on your party generosity so focusing on only a few small enhancements is best to prioritise the gold we do acquire. Given we use the move of Reviving Ether consistently in a scenario it makes for an obvious choice for any element albeit an expensive one. Our next priority is boosting Cold Fire as our primary skill with an extra hex. While actually hitting 4 enemies with it will be rare the additional hex opens up more situations where you can hit 3 targets.
The final core Spellweaver enhancements is buffing Mana Bolt which is a staple attack throughout the entire game with bottom Strengthen adding extra damage output from your healing.
If you make it beyond these enhancement options you’ll want to consider cards that stick with you for a long time in scenarios for your playstyle such as any element on the bottom of your Forked Beam to reduce reliance on Chromatic Explosion.
Spellweaver Items Detailed
The ideal Spellweaver items are similar to most ranged characters in Gloomhaven with an emphasis on damage and utility. The Eagle-Eye Googles are an obvious first choice for our strong area of effect attacks like Fire Orbs or Impaling Eruption. Following this with the minor power potion for the same reason and the affordable minor stamina potion to give us more potential in a scenario rounds are ideal consumables.
From here your next Spellweaver items are based on playstyle and party needs although you will likely acquire all 3 of these eventually. The Piercing Bow for example is fantastic if you’re starting to encounter shielded enemies and lack an ally that can deal with these effectively. Meanwhile the Invisibility Cloak is extremely attractive in smaller parties or if you want to play aggressive in your positioning for attacks or loot. Lastly, the Boots of Striding allow you to take some advantageous movement although are generally the lowest priority as the Spellweaver’s movement options aren’t actually that bad. Winged Shoes are absolutely a viable alternative if you find yourself having issues but keep in mind that Reviving Ether already has this and will be one of your main movement cards for most of a scenario.
For information and build guides on other Gloomhaven character options visit our Gloomhaven classes overview and the related Gloomhaven class tier list.
