Greetings, dear Elementalists.
Unfortunately, the most recent Elementalist elite specialization, Catalyst, seems to leave the vast majority of people disappointed and wanting for more; me being one of those people.
Because of that, I thought I would make this thread to share my voice as an Elementalist main since almost the game's release, and how I would improve the Catalyst specialization.
Once again, please keep in mind that this is how I would change it, but also, please, do share your thoughts and what you would do to improve upon the specialization's current state.
F5: The Jade Sphere
Make it so it is cast upon us and follow us by default; just like Scrapper's gyro
Takes no energy to deploy, and instead energy is drained while having the Jade Sphere active; similar to the way Herald's upkeep skills work
Pressing F5 again stops the Jade Sphere
Generate 2 energy per hit with a cooldown of 0.5 seconds per target hit; this would promote hiting more targets for faster and more energy generation (with a target cap of 3)
Generating energy while the Jade Sphere is active in combat is possible, but it is limited to gaining 1 energy per second; this rewards the player for attacking as much as possible, while also increasing the uptime of the Jade Sphere (the Jade Sphere would continue to drain 2 energy per second)
Energy no longer depletes out of combat and unsummoning the Jade Sphere no longer makes you lose all the energy
Summoning the Jade Sphere into your current attunement, grants that boon on a shorter interval (every 1 second)
Switching attunements while the Jade Sphere is active provides the boons from all the attunements it has cycled through, with the current attunement applying the boon for a longer interval of time
E.g. I summon the Jade Sphere in Air, so it applies Quickness on a shorter interval (every 1 second), but when I switch to Fire, I continue to gain Quickness but on a longer interval (every 2 seconds), while also gaining Might since I am now in the Fire attunement. I switch to Water, so it would pulse Resolution on a shorter interval, while also providing Quickness and Might on a longer interval.
Since they went with a Poison field for the Earth attunement, while having the Jade Sphere active, I thought I would change this aspect as well and introduce a new type of field:
Earth field
Blast: provides Stability
Leap: applies Magnetic Aura
Projectile: applies Bleeding
Whirl: Blinds targets
Hammer skills
First, I would half the cast time of almost every Hammer ability and increase their damage, but I won't provide numbers.
Secondly, I would make all #3 skills a leap; here are my proposed changes for the weapon skills on top of what they already do (unless otherwise stated):
For the #3 skills, the leap, I would make it so that after the leap, the projectile is summoned, and after all the projectiles have been summoned, they would automatically attack your target after 10 seconds. Fire attunement
Flame Wheel
Becomes a Leap Finisher, leaving behind a line of fire sporting as a Fire field (similar to Dagger 3)
Evade for the duration of the leap
The projectile summoned lasts for 15 seconds if staying in Fire attunement, and 10 seconds after leaving the Fire attunement (summoning projectiles in other attunements refreshes its duration, just as it currently works)
Triple Sear
Make it so it counts as a Fire field
Make the Fire field last for 5 seconds
Water attunement
Chilling Crack (the third hit from the auto-attack combo)
Make it so it heals in a small AoE (this would make just the third hit of the auto-attack chain heal)
Rain of Blows
Evades and also heals self for every strike
If all the strikes hit, trigger an AoE heal
Icy Coil
Becomes a Leap Finisher, triggering an AoE explosion that Chills enemies and leaving behind an Ice Field
Evade for the duration of the leap
The projectile summoned lasts for 15 seconds if staying in Water attunement, and 10 seconds after leaving the Water attunement (summoning projectiles in other attunements refreshes its duration, just as it currently works)
Cleansing Typhoon
Make it a Whirl finisher
Air attunement
Hurricane of Pain
Make it a Whirl finisher
Evade for the duration of the skill
Crescent Wind
Becomes a Leap Finisher, triggering an AoE explosion that Blinds enemies and applies Fury to allies
Evade for the duration of the leap
The projectile summoned lasts for 15 seconds if staying in Air attunement, and 10 seconds after leaving the Air attunement (summoning projectiles in other attunements refreshes its duration, just as it currently works)
Wind Storm
Remove the "propel yourself backwards" aspect, or make it so that you evade for that short period of time that you are being propelled backwards
Shock Blast
Make it so that the stun effect of the projectile triggers faster
Earth attunement
Whirling Stones
Make it a Whirl finisher
Evade for the duration of the skill
Rocky Loop
Becomes a Leap Finisher, triggering an AoE explosion that Bleeds enemies and immobilizes them
Evade for the duration of the leap
The projectile summoned lasts for 15 seconds if staying in Earth attunement, and 10 seconds after leaving the Earth attunement (summoning projectiles in other attunements refreshes its duration, just as it currently works)
Immutable Stone
Make it so it blocks all attacks for its duration
Utilities
Soothing Water
Make it so it cleanses by default
If used in range of the Water Sphere, it also applied Regeneration per interval
Relentless Fire
Make it so attacks are unblockable by default
If used in range of the Fire Sphere, apply Burning to enemies
Shattering Ice
Make it so it adds Chill per strike by default
If used in range of the Water Sphere, trigger a small heal per interval, per strike
Fortified Earth
Make it so it gains Barrier by default
If used in range of the Earth Sphere, nearby enemies are Blinded
Elemental Celerity
Make it so it gains the boons by default
If used in range of a Sphere, it doubles the Jade Sphere effect
Reduce the cooldown to 60 seconds and increase its duration to 10 seconds
Traits
For some of the traits I didn't know how to improve them, if needed at all, so I added a * followed by their default in-game description.
Minor Adept: I covered this in the very beginning, where I wrote about the suggested changes to the Jade Sphere
Major Adept Top: *Hardened Auras - damage reduction when gaining an aura (2% per stack, max 5 stacks, 6s duration)
Major Adept Middle: *Vicious Empowerment - gain Elemental Empowerment and might when you disable or immobilize a foe (2 X Might, 2 EM stacks for 15s; 1/4 cooldown)
Major Adept Bottom: *Energized Elements - gain energy and fury when switching attunements in combat (Fury 2s, 2 Energy)
Minor Master: *Gain Elemental Empowerment while in combat - 3 stacks (3% all stats), 15s, max 10 stacks (10% all stats)
Major Master Top: *Empowering Auras - increased outgoing damage when gaining an aura (2% per stack, max 5 stacks, 6s duration)
Major Master Middle: Evasive Empowerment - gain Elemental Empowerment and vigor while evading an attack (2 EM stacks, Vigor 3s; 1s cooldown) + add the effect on block skills + gain barrier on a successful evade/block
Major Master Bottom: Spectacular Sphere - grants boons to nearby allies based on current attunement when the Jade Sphere is active (Might, Vigor, Fury, Resistance) + increase its radius to 300
Minor Grandmaster: Elemental Epitome - gain an aura based on your current attunement when you combo. Gaining an aura grants you Elemental Empowerment (10s cooldown) ~ reduce its internal cooldown by 4 - 5 seconds
Major Grandmaster Top: Staunch Auras - Gain 3s Stability when you gain an aura ~ I would reduce its duration to 2 seconds and make it AoE
Major Grandmaster Middle: *Empowered Empowerment - While at maximum stacks of Elemental Empowerment, its effectiveness is increased (20% stats increase)
Major Grandmaster Bottom: Sphere Specialist - Boons applied by your Jade Sphere have increased duration + increase the maximum energy to 40 + when engaging in combat, gain 10 energy (with a 5 second cooldown)