fuzzyp.6295

I've been roaming exclusively with Hammer since the buffs and absolutely loving it, it feels great and packs a punch. Really fun fighting outnumbered fights on it and its very strong in 1v1s. I also got to Plat in sPvP trying out Hammer Catalyst exclusively so I dunno, I think its pretty good for competitive modes honestly. Hammer isn't the best in Zerg play but you can still go deep and get some downs because of how tanky the weapon makes you 🙂

Well that basically what I said above isn't it? That they aren't bad, but people view them as bad because they don't feel unique enough. Air and Earth are now staples of mine when roaming in WvW, I can't imagine roaming anymore without em. Ice can be fun but situational. Heal is also great if I need the cleanse even though I still think Signet is better overall. And people are seriously sleeping on the elite if they only think its useful for Meteor Shower spam, there is way more utility in it than that. Augments are good but one of the most common complaints about Catalyst holds true: It just feels like they are updated version of Core Elemenetalist abilities. Still hoping one day we'll get a utility that is a decent pull, reveal or even, dare I hope for maybe some boon strip? No, that's going too far, obviously... phew, got a little crazy there with my demands.

TBH, I've had great success using Invigorating Air on my hammer build. The Superspeed works both to escape when needing the stun-break and get some distance from emeies as well as a means to pursue enemies that are fleeing, adding some much needed mobility for Catalyst. And the endurance regen from the skill basically allows for another dodge with is always welcomed with Evasive Arcana. Throw in the reduced cool down if you use it when Air field is up and idk I think its pretty good and a nice side-grade to Signet of Air. Also... I really enjoy playing Shattering Ice in my scepter builds. Helps keep energy management, some okay extra damage and the chill really messes with peoples heads when you apply it with the scepter auto in air haha really fun. But so far this agument is really only for decent in 1v1s. Relentless Fire I haven't found a good way to use in roaming though, if I wanted hyper aggressive damage I'd just use Sc/D Weaver. Basically the best move on Scepter is already unblockable anyway so. Also, I assume you forgot to mention the elite augment which is fantastic. And that augment can turn your mobility from 2 to 3 with a double leap or a double wind storm. (among the other options of course) Augments aren't all bad honestly. But they're not necessarily better than or different from the core skills, which is why a lot of players think they're bad. And that's is a valid point, I would much rather have something new and interesting than side-grades to core skills.

If you have a target, Wind Storm will only knock you back 600 units from the targets location regardless of where you are standing. So if you're standing at like 500 range from the target, you'll only be sent back 100 range (feet? meters? units? whatever measurement they use for distance) and not the full 600 launch range. This can cause a bit of a rubberbanding kind of effect when using this skill, it will show you launching back the full 600 range, but then immediately teleport you back to about where you were standing before using the skill because you were only supposed to move 100 range, not 600. Likewise, if you have a target who is standing at >600 range, you will do the Wind Storm animation but not move at all because you are already exceeding the 600 range lock. This might be the cause of your issue. Always check to see if that little red line is under Wind Storm before using it if you have a target selected. If you see that red line, you are out of range and Wind Storm will not launch you at all. Of course I swear there are still times when I don't have a target and still don't move... maybe got snagged on some terrain or something.. Regardless, this 600 range lock It's a stupid quirk of the skill and needs to be removed, it does more harm than good especially in competitive settings like PvP and WvW.

Overall you can achieve the same amount of CC on a boss's bar by using Lightening Hammer: Wind Blast -> Static Field -> Lightening Leap through the Static Field. And this doesn't require you to completely pause your DPS since you still have Invoke Lightening for extra damage. You could also use something like Glyph of Storms or Glyph of Elemental power in Water for extra Chill, which is soft CC and will reduce the breakbar as well, but you're not completely giving up a utility slot to use it since those skills can also be used for offensive rotations. If you're so desperate, you can also just slot in Torando, that should tear through any break bar issues you have as well. And this is of course without even considering the hard and soft CC that comes baked in with every Ele Weapon. If you're in an organized group, there is absolutely no need that you bring so much CC. If there is, you should find a better group. And if you're just talking about like World Bosses and stuff, I hate to be that guy but that small Deep Freeze is not going to mean as much as the extra damage you can put in when the boss is vulnerable. Frost Bow is just bad, all around. But if you really want to use it, go ahead, I don't want to discourage anyone from trying it out. But you can just add so much more value to a fight by looking at other utility skills. Arcane Power gives you increased Ferocity and 4 attacks that will crit automatically on a 45 second cool down. Sigil of Vision will give you 3 seconds of unlimited critical hit damage on a 9 second cool down. Just run Vision if you want crits, you get more frequent critical damage without having to give up a utility slot for a 45s cool down that has the potential to basically do nothing if you get blinded (since just using a skill will reduce the stack count of Arcane Power, whether it hits or not). Elemental Surge can't save this skill from being trash either since its competes with overall better options for PvE (Bountiful Power) and PvP (Evasive Arcana) and unless you are running on coms with your group, the sharing with teammates point is moot (even then, most people won't notice anyway even if you call it out because its only 2 stacks that go super fast.)

One skill that can be used once per conjure summon can't save Frost Bow from being the mess it currently is. If you need CC for break bars, just run Focus for Gale, both hit the same amount of defiance. If you're trying in PvP or WvW, your basically giving up an important utility slot just for a long, rooted casting, very noticeable stun that can't be followed up with any meaningful damage since Frost Bow is incredibly weak. Not to mention it increases your healing power and condition duration of all stats, if you want to heal you can probably use any other weapon and be more successful. Conjures in general suck because you're trading the flexibility of 20 skills for 5, so if they can't do something outstanding, they are not worth it Arcane Power for extra damage is beaten by Glyph of Elemental Power which provides more extra dps with only a 25s cool down and is a stun break without needing to use both a utility skill and a grandmaster trait. If you're trying to reach 10 stacks of empowerment, sure it could work in PvE but most PvE builds would rather the constant flat damage increase from Bountiful Power than going into a grandmaster that can only be effective every 45 seconds. It's also easy enough to reach ten stacks of empowerment that it's really just not nesscary. It's ability to share with allies is also lost since everyone is spamming their skills and wouldn't even notice they had it 99% of the time. If you're playing Ele is pvp/WvW, again, Glyph is just better as it does extra damage and is a stun break, ele needs to run defensive utilities most of the time. Not to mention you're competing with Elite Spec utilities which usually work better and, like in PvE, if you're running Arcane most of the time you'll be taking Evasive Arcana over Elemental Surge. Only really range focused builds use E. Surge, and those builds usually need more defense as opposed to offense.

My personal opinions on the core ele utility skills: A Tier (Usable in all/just about every game mode) Glyph of Elemental Power Lightening Flash Signet of Fire Signet of Restoration B Tier (Used in most game modes but may have more situational reasons per game mode) Glyph of Storms Armor of Earth Signet of Air Ether Renewal Glyph of Elemental Harmony Fiery Great Sword C Tier (Niche uses in one or two game modes. but not widely used across all game modes) Arcane Shield Arcane Blast Mist Form Glyph of Renewal Signet of Earth Lightening Hammer Earth Shield Cleansing Fire Tornado Glyph of Elements Glyph of Lesser Elements D Tier (Also niche uses in one or two game modes, but overall much less useful and you are probably hurting yourself by using these) Signet of Water Flame Axe Arcane Wave Arcane Brilliance F Tier (Don't pick these) Frost Bow Arcane Power Game modes in my mind: Open World PvE, End Game PvE (Raids/Strikes/Fractals), sPvP, WvW (Zerg/Small Scale) These are just in order that i thought of them, not saying GoEP is the best skill in the game

50%.... longer...?

Not really... Burning Retreat may work practically in the same was as these skills (a roll back), but it make sense from a balance point of view why Burning Retreat wouldn't also remove conditions. These are all utility skills. These are selected by the player based on their needs and by taking one of these skills, you are also locking yourself out of other options, which is why they are a bit stronger. You don't have to give anything up to use Burning Retreat on Staff, it just comes with the weapon. You already get Windborne Speed removing most movement impairing conditions on staff anyway, so its not necessary on Burning Retreat. Unless you'd want to slap the condi removal onto burning retreat and make Windborne do something else.

I don't think it's done any significant damage in competitive modes since its creation, even CMC mentioned in the class reveal they didn't want the jade spheres to be damaging as their benefit came from the boons. PvE has damage because boons are kinda not as important in Open world so the spheres ran the risk of b being under used I guess I don't think adding damage to the Jade Sphere would really do anything though for catalyst in PvP honestly. You should be dropping them on yourself and teammates not the enemy. Edit: not to say I'd be opposed but I'd rather something different than just flat damage. Something like a single stack of burn in fire to synergize with fire 5, a single chill and cripple on water/earth to keep opponents in melee range and air... Idk something unique, make dropping air on an opponent reveals them. But flat damage isn't really gonna redefine the orbs in my opinion anyway.

Out of curiosity, could you maybe go into detail about what you mean by "off" about Elementalist? Perhaps if you tell us what you find that is lacking in it we could try and give you some tips/builds that could help. Is it related to the damage? Lack of surviability? range/melee play? Also, which specs are you playing, have you tried all three elite specs along with Core elementalist? Ele players look out for each other so I'm sure everyone here would be happy to give you some pointers to make it a more enjoyable experience if you tell us a bit more.

Roamer in PvP or WvW? Cause I've been roaming with Hammer Catalyst in WvW* and having an absolute blast, its way more fun than Sword Weaver has ever been for me since the recent buffs it got. Maybe PvP roamer its not that good though, I haven't really had much success in PvP. with hammer atleast.

The best grieving staff build for ele is just to play any iteration of staff. Promise by the end of the day you'll be grieving. Jokes aside, if any build gives flame axe purpose I'd be happy. I'll test this out

Uhh, well i don't think that's what they meant... Sounds like they just didn't know why regen wasn't proccing on em because of range. Seeing the combo heart with no buff would be confusing and for a lot of players Cata is probably the most focus they're giving to combos so that why they thought it was a Catalyst bug. Still that is good info to share with players about the grandmaster minor none the less if that was what they were actually referring too or others have the same questions. So thank for clarifying 🙂

Where you are standing matters if you want to apply the Regen on yourself, which was OP's issue. Even if the Arcane Blast hits, if you are standing at range and not adjacent to the target, you won't get any Regen but still see the little combo icon appear. https://imgur.com/a/7dDfOCb <- First photo shows Arcane Blast hit target, but as I am not standing adjacent to the target, I got no regen. Second one shows regen applied because I was adjacent to the target.

One of the things I can't stand is the 600 range lock to get the knock back. It's annoying to have an enemy targeted at ~700 or higher range, use Wind Storm and then have absolutely nothing happen. It's gotten me killed running away so many times using this skill. It also doesn't really work very well as a CC since, you know, you get sent back 600 feet, they just stun break and take a few steps back and now you're out of range. Also, I'm like, preeeeetty sure there have been times I used Wind Storm and knocked down my opponent, flew back the full 600 range, started to auto attack only to see 'Out of Range' start popping up lol. It's not a fun skill. Its not good to use in PvE and its too inconsistent in PvP/WvW to be used effectively. This should be top priority for the devs to address. It wouldn't fit thematically with Air being ranged, but I would love it to be turned into a pull instead.

From the wiki: "Projectile effects are applied directly to the skill's target, or, in case of the Water and Light fields, to a single ally adjacent to the target." Basically, you need to be standing right next to the target when the projectile finisher hits to proc the Regen on yourself. If you drop your water field, fire an Arcane Blast at range and it hits the target while you're far away, you won't get Regen even though you'll get the little pop-up. But an ally standing near the enemy get the regen. https://imgur.com/5vCzgYD <- Arcane Blast proc's Regen when standing close to target (within the water field range it seems)

TBH you really don't need the full 10 stacks of empowerment to just play Catalyst in open world. If you're trying to maximize your dps for a raid or fractal, sure, you'll be pressing buttons a bit more, but its absolutely possible to just play catalyst quiet relaxed. Its honestly pretty easy to maintain 7 stacks of empowerment with only minimal effort. This of course depends on your build though, some will have an easier time of it.

Overall, its probably a middle ground between Tempest and Weaver in terms of twitchy, spammy and rapid attunement swaps. You still need to rotate your attunements to use all your Orb Skills, but its much more forgiving now. Also, for most of the attunements (assuming you're using Hammer) the 4 and 5 skills are more utility based so most of your gameplay will be just using 1 - 3 (fire is the exception with Triple Sear being a strong abilitiy). If you want to play effectively, you'll have to use the 4 and 5 skills once in a while for a combo for aura stacking (although there are other ways to combo). Oh and I guess it should be noted, while it may not be as spammy, you now have to manage an F5 ability that is a field you need to place, which can be awkward depending on your keybindings. However, this is more from a causal open world point of view. End game raids and WvW/PvP still require a bit more hand motion to be effective. Hope this helps.

Catalyst bridges the gap between the heavily supportive Tempest and the high dps Weaver. It offers fields and boons for team play, something Weaver can't do, yet lacks in the ability to heal/sustain teammates which Tempest excels at (outside of blasting their water field). Tempest also relies more heavily on Aura support through its shouts, whereas any Aura support for Catalyst comes from the sharing trait in Water. Weaver on the other hand brings no team synergy outside of its own DPS with all of its traits focused on self empowerment or sustain, which is not the same for Catalyst which has a lot of team oriented support. I'd imagine that Tempest and Weaver will be seeing some future changes to bring them more in line with this identity. Right now Catalyst is a team supporter who doesn't give up all of their damage to be a pure support like Tempest and lacks anyway to heal allies. Summarize: Pick Tempest if you want to help your team with healing/sustain, Weaver if you want to help your team with damage, Catalyst if you want to help your team with boons without having to focus on healing and without having to risk a large loss of dps. It's really funny, it kinda reminds me of the old days when I'd play 5 mans on my D/D ele. Back in those days the boons I would float around were very useful for team play, yet I didn't have to go full healer to do so. It feels very much like that once again to me, something that both Tempest and Weaver lack.

You can purchase gear on the TP with dragon's stat but they are fairly expensive at the moment (about 20 a piece). I believe its the Jade Tech armor that has Dragon's. You can also craft it. EDIT: Weapons are also on the TP as well, Saltspray set i think has dragon's stats. They are cheaper than the armor (few silver)

For the record, if you don't have full celestial or the pieces you require for that one build (since its an expensive/time consuming gear to make), you can honestly make a pretty effective condi weaver just using cheap Dire gear from the Trading Post. Any condition focused build that uses +toughness/vitality for Weaver will be a good way to learn the rotations. You get the extra toughness and health to compliment the weavers barrier and evades giving you plenty of room for errors while not really losing out in DPS in any meaningful way for an open world build. You mentioned you've played D/D so I'm assuming you have a set of Celestial, but if anyone else pops into this thread with the same idea, that is a much more affordable way to go about it to learn the rotations. Keep in mind though if you do adventure into sPvP, the stats there are different than open world so you're build will be playing a bit differently. WvW has Celestial so its not much more different.

Dragon is a new stat selection introduced in End of Dragons. Its power and ferocity major, precision and vitality minor.

This is hardly a catalyst exclusive issue. Many classes can build themselves to be un-killable. Catalyst probably might be a bit more visible because its abilities are blocks/invulns floating in your face when your attacks fail, but its no different than the sustain that other classes can build up whether it be through protection/regen spam, extra health bars, olypmic level mobility, stealth abuse or whatever. All classes have the ability to last forever in fights if built correctly. Honest, if anything it makes sense since Catalyst is meant to be the bruiser-esque archetype of the Elementalist, they should be hard to kill.

Necro as the worst solo roamer? I dunno.... are we gauging classes on a whole like with all their elite specs included? Necromancer may not be top tier, but Core, Reaper and Harbinger all seem like pretty solid options for solo roaming.. which is more than I feel most classes can say right now. It may not be the best but I'm not sure if I'd say Necromancer is the worse. Could use some love though, you're right about that. EDIT: Reaper could use some love, let me clarify that... Harbinger can be pretty oppressive atm if built correctly... probably needs more than just love to bring it into line.