I think that Catalyst has a solid foundation, but could use some work to reach its full potential. The ability to combine hammer skills, the sphere, and utilities for a period of burst damage was fun and felt like the different elements of the specialization were working together. I generally like hammer, I think the combination of melee and ranged works well on Elementalist. However, I believe hammer needs more of an incentive to enter melee. The sphere boons work well with increased boon duration and/or Sphere Specialist, encouraging attunement swapping and giving boons that last long after the sphere has ended. On the other hand, the fixed cooldown and recalling the sphere removing any remaining energy limits its use, discouraging using it for brief durations. I like how the utilities tie into the sphere and encourage attunement swapping, but I think they could be improved by adding some kind of benefit for using them outside the sphere, like gaining energy, to give them more fexibility. Alternatively, if they affected the sphere (increased size, added damage, etc) rather than buffing the player character, it could make controlling the sphere feel more like a key aspect of the specialization, adding to its identity. Also, the elite's weapon skill recharge feels like it goes against the attunement swapping incentives from other aspects of the specialization and is just kind of strange on Elementalist of all classes. I like some of the traits, like the bottom row and Elemental Epitome. However, the aura damage reduction and boosting traits feel too similar to gaining Elemental Empowerment, as it also increases defense and damage.
