[Aura should be On-Enemy-Hit and not On-Self-Hit]

They need more ways to detonate the auras.

[A new ranged spec for Ele is simply both undoable and boring.]

Fresh Air Sceptre will last much, much longer than the equivalent Hammer build.  Also, there is no such thing as an 'earth field', earth F5 is a POISON field.

Stop trying to be some weird pseudo-intellectual, like some first year uni student.  It is sad.

[A new ranged spec for Ele is simply both undoable and boring.]

5 hours ago, volca.7234 said:

 

The ele whining thread is two blocks down, read the thread opening post before you reply.

Like the one in Dragon's dogma? same but then i remembered that i really only used the daggers on it, and the elemental bow was nothing but a fire exploding arrows machine... even in dragon's dogma it was meh at best

 

Already replied to this one at:

 

 

 

Couple of huge problems turning this Spec into an anti synergy nightmare:

1- And this is the killer for me, steam which is how Torment currently working require you to immobilize the target to get maximum damage, and your kit lacks any sources of immobilization or long stuns and knock downs, meaning that you have no way to get the higher damage from steam, and here already you are not outside staff's design space, Staff flat out does much better job in this, instead of steam staff has small high damage AoEs which hurt more if the target is immobilized and stunned, which staff has access to many such immob and stun distance control skills like E5 E4 A5 A3 E2 W4 etc.. not only that, this distance control is both its defensive run and gun style but also the way lava font and W2 do their dmg through sniping the already immobile target

2-The unblockable bounces while maybe fun is the pinnacle of gimmick, not many players have blocks let alone enemy mobs, so you have a class entirely built around interacting with a small small sliver of gw2 block-able mobs and classes

3-Prevention is Aegis + pure of heart trait from the guardian, and is even more OP by the fact it it stacks.

1- Comparing ele's ranged vs melee with other specs is fundamentally wrong headed due to the fact that ele's weapons are 4 weapons in one and its meta game is entirely different

a- In your examples, Mesmer defensive metagame is all about generating clones to dupe players into attacking them and distort, and virtuoso generally reducing the survivalbility of mesmer by taking away their clones and distort for a block bladesong that can be bypassed with unblockable skills and getting their distort by sacrificing utility slots and dmg traits allowing less DPS gap between ranged and melee due to lack of sustain.

b- DH doesn't lose much damage because the weapon has not much utility out side of CC, and most of the big numbers come from its symbol not true shot, a symbol with a boon that DH lacks "due to F2 not giving endurance like core" and a healing "if speced" so a DH to achieve its dmg has to choose to either use the symbol at range to gets it range DPS or at melee to get the boon and healing without the dmg, or use it while the enemy is in melee range for all sacrificing the long range itself

c- Condi slb sacrifice sustain in the form of having no pet sacrificing half of its HP and a second target for enemies for it to gets its dmg, etc.. etc..,

d- Ele unlike all of these cannot and should not sacrifice its sustain in the kit itself, because it would be boring, 4 dps attunment ele is BORING, Even our most glass cannon kits like scepter-dagger and dagger-dagger (excluding weaver) they got at least 5 sustain skills in each set between evades, blinds, weakness or vigor, healing etc..  and thats fun


2-The hammer isn't dealing the same DPS at range the same as Scepter because hammer has waaaaaaaay more sustain than scepter, scepter depending on how you count it has 5 sustain skills"E3, E2, A3, W3, F3", while Hammer has 6 NOT COUNTING any combos into jade orbs water and earth fields "E2, E4, E3, A5, A4, W5, W4, W3", with water field into account we add "F5, E5" not counting traits stability or hardened auras or aura effects in general, its safe to say that having access to 2 mag auras is kinda neet

3-which bring the other topic, the "no gap closer" and "" no jumping between melee and ranged"",

a-Hammer earth has many long range shutdowns by having it entire purpose built for the utter inhalation or projectiles with its E2, E4, E4-aura and any E5 combo for another mag aura, granted not all ranged DPS is projectiles based

 

b- For that there is another 2 gap closers, aboutface A4 and W4 and stability to make sure you reach there unhindered, and having your gab closer being a heal is perfect for catalyst because its a leap and water fields exists, its meant to be used at a low HP to keep its unique identity of being the only sustain bruiser weapon in ele's hands, evident by the fact that it heals for 4500ish base with 700ish FOR EACH foe struck, add to that a good 1300ish water field combo through water jade sphere and you looking for AT LEAST 6500 healing which is on par with a healing skill WITH ONE ENEMY ONLY, with 5 enemies the number jumps to 9300 which is higher than all other ele's weapon heals not counting other water field combos or signet/sootheing water augment etc..

The fact that melee is rewarded with higher DPS because you put yourself at risk using air and fire doesn't mean using them at range is a meme, it means much like the DH longbow symbol, that you have a choice between choosing the melee risk or keep safe at distance, all fully ranged weapons can still do their max DPS in melee, what makes them ranged is the fact that they have the ability of dealing the same dmg at lower risk from afar

Sceptre + offhand >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Hammer sustain.

Please stop pretending you know how Hammer works (and staff), it is really sad.

[So Catalyst gets only nerfs due to static golem/large boss dps, but nothing to address its numerous issues]

At least the catalyst can still suicide off maps with air 4, to make things quicker.

[Yolomouse=Ban?]

On 3/17/2022 at 4:02 PM, Stalima.5490 said:

If you accept a cursor improvement to see better in the game then you would also accept a 3rd party tool that shows a massive out of place blue square every time an important skill was being used... the concept is exactly the same, visibility.

No.  Horrendous argument with absolutely no basis in reality.

[I find hammer on catalyst and untamed...good..for PvE, that's it really]

On 3/15/2022 at 1:34 AM, SeTect.5918 said:

Hammer of Catalyst and Untamed is also not doing great in pve.
Its too slow there too. And Catalyst hammer is badly designed. There literally no interaction with traits.

Why isnt untamed hammer good for pve?

• Low dps, very low. I think its 30k dps atm.
• Hammer ambush attack has too high cast time
• Other Hammer skills also too high cast times

I didnt play untamed hammer that much but that r the reasons I know already, if u played a bit on eod maps, u ll see that tons of enemies are having small ccs for interrupts. EVERY hammer has slow attacks for all classes, the horrible cast times are making it terrible against enemies that have these small interrupts.

Why isnt Catalyst hammer good for pve?

• Its impossible to keep orb of hammer 3 up if u dont have perma quickness
• Its impossible to keep up "Elemental Empowerment" on 10 stacks all the time...tbh u cant keep it over 7 stacks for more than 2 seconds if u dont have quickness.
• Hammer has only 2 ccs, air 4 and air 5, air 4 makes u fly to the moon so big dps loss, so only air 5. The traits have high interaction with ccs and hammer has almost no ccs.
• Traits also have high interaction with auras and hammer has no auras.
• Because u cant keep orb up and elemental empowerment also not: You lose over 20% crit chance just bc u dont have quickness.
• Thats has not directly to do with hammer but somehow it has: Catalyst sustain is...terrible, it has far less sustain than power weaver or power tempest. With hammer you are forced into melee, which is very bad if u have this amount of sustain.
• Long cast times which makes it bad against enemies with interrupts

Both Untamed and Catalyst are having very big issues atm, that are actually easy fixed. At least the dps of Untamed and the sustain + easier access to Elemental Empowerment of Catalyst should be really easy fixed in PvE.

They decided to make Catalyst worse, instead.

[Open Letter to Anet and Community regarding the Catalyst]

Fire and Air autos need AoE or piercing.

Fire 4 and 5 need more range.

Earth auto needs bleeding.

Water 2 needs to not suck and have a proper animation.

Air 4 needs to not be a suicide button.

Using Hammer should give passive survivability.

 

Personally, I want Hammer 3 to die.

[Why does the Catalyst exist?]

Anet did not want all the leftover crap to go to waste, so they mashed it into a spec, added auras, and called it the Catalyst.

[Catalyst is garbage in WVW]

Hopefully they rework it so all abilities are Hammer 3.

[Happy with your specialization?]

They just made the least liked Elite, the Catalyst, even more terrible.

[So Catalyst gets only nerfs due to static golem/large boss dps, but nothing to address its numerous issues]

Your Elite spec has a mech!

Your Elite spec has a gunsaber and a super-hard hitting charging Iai slash!

Your Elite spec can place a field every 15 seconds!

 

Nice one, Anet.

[Only nerfs, no buffs to sustain, no way for more elemental empowerment uptime, no hammer orb change....]

Absolutely pathetic.  Why do I even play this game?

[So Catalyst gets only nerfs due to static golem/large boss dps, but nothing to address its numerous issues]

There is a reason Catalyst is the least used and most disliked new spec.  Hammer is horrible to use due to Hammer 3 kitten spam, bad range attacks, no survivability, no mobility, poor break-bar attacks, and rubbish condition damage.  Augments are also extremely weak outside of raids, yet they just get damage nerfs only, while the elite remains useless with its 90 second cooldown.  The survivanility traits were even NERFED, even though the Catalyst is the most fragile spec in the game.

But of course the biggest issue here is the Jade Sphere cooldown nerf.  While it makes the horrible frantic rotation less spammy, it also means you are sitting there not using the new profession mechanic for 15 seconds.  It is also means mobility kills the Catalyst extra hard, as do short battles.  Anet has clearly only thought of static raid bosses, and not considered at all smaller battles, or how it feels to have such a poor Elite defining ability.  I mean, what is the point now in even having energy on this stupid orb, and the energy trait, if you can only cast it every 15 seconds?  What even is the IDENTITY of this elite spec?  Because right now it is 'a field every 15 seconds'.  IS that what Anet was going for?

Please, actually LISTEN to the feedback from the players, instead of just looking at someone beating up a golem.

[Ele wasn't overpowered]

I love how they made energy pointless now, and how they did NOTHING to adjust the other horrible traits, the crappy augments and Hammer being a horrendous weapon.  Their 'balance' team is a complete and utter joke.

[PvE method for Acquisition of Gift of Battle]

You have to do PvE to get things.  Also WvW gives as much stuff in a week, as Drizzlewood does in an hour.  WvW rewards are a bad joke.

WvW also requires constant exp buffs to actually function at a non-horrendous rate.

[A new ranged spec for Ele is simply both undoable and boring.]

New?  We do not even have a current one...

[Is there a reason to play elementalist ?]

I like pain.

[Catalyst is garbage in WVW]

The Hammer is most of the Catalyst's identity, though.  Take it away, and you have a 15 second cooldown field which hits for 5 damage.

[Is quickness Cata viable in a realistic scenario?]

7 hours ago, Infusion.7149 said:

Well if you actually paid attention , Roul stated you can run arcane for reduced attunement cooldown which means by default you don't even have persisting flames traited.

I don't think people want the energy mechanic on elementalist, that much I have read on last beta feedback, as it is convoluted. I suppose Arenanet put the energy mechanic for it to excel against trash mobs in openworld as the energy gain is similar to adrenaline in that it is nearly effortless as mob density increases. Sure hammer orbs could be lengthened to make the rotation less tight timing but don't forget it is putting out 36K DPS benchmark while also outputting quickness. The largest issue with the orbs is 7% crit chance loss from not having the crescent wind. If  it is only required 23% boon duration then if you run diviner pieces  you have more leeway (similar to chrono which while benchmark is 10% BD most people run 50% , scrapper has 33%+ Boon duration even though prior it was mathematically determined to be ).

The hammer orb problem is primarily a PVE concern as most players I've seen have been running other weapons outside of PVE. Hammer doesn't have the mobility , burst combo due to cast times, or sustain of other weapon combinations. The same goes for Empowered Empowerment complaints, even if ideally it would make every stack of elemental empowerment more potent (rather than being all or nothing) it simply isn't as attractive outside PVE compared to stability uptime.

The variance between large and small hitbox after EOD launch is below 1K DPS. It is not the same catalyst as first beta where jade spheres could only be put down once and hammer orbs orbited farther out. Quickness scrapper is at the mercy of stability or swiftness from others (due to Object in Motion) and doesn't even have 100% fury uptime for yourself let alone other people in party. The cooldown of jade sphere is just over 4 seconds with arcane traitline and with alacrity on top of that it is even lower, there is no issue with jade sphere and you don't need to run a traitline to output quickness unlike scrapper, firebrand, harbinger, or chrono. This means two catalysts brings massively more damage to the table compared to double of any other quickness provider much like condi RR when it was 10 man but in power damage : if you can upkeep quickness with 100% boon duration it means you can upkeep quickness with two catalysts as well.

In fact, discretize recently posted their power catalyst and it only has 16.2% boon duration from gear :
https://discretize.eu/builds/elementalist/power-catalyst/

Yep, Hammer is trash.

[How would you rate Catalyst?]

It is still garbage in most PvE.

[Catalyst Hammer 3 cripples the specialisation]

58 minutes ago, Conncept.7638 said:

Posts like this are the reason ANet doesn't actually take feedback from the forums, there is no pleasing some people, everything is bad because negative opinions have more value than positive ones.

The Catalyst is jacked up, and its far from the only class released in this expansion that has problems, but there is a lot of content people are happy with, and hyperbolic generalizations aren't remotely constructive feedback.

You are the reason Catalyst is trash.

[catalyst in wvw is soo bad]

On 3/7/2022 at 3:49 PM, FrownyClown.8402 said:

Here is a secret. The weapon choice doesnt matter. The real strength of catalyst is the 20% extra stats and running celestial to cap your might.  The rest of its design literally does not matter.

You still do worse than a Weaver, while having to take horrible traits and no aura stability.

[You did not listen to ANY of the Catalyst Hammer feedback]

They need to do constant patching, not leave things rubbish for months and years.

'They might fix it in 4 months' is ridiculous, especially for an expansion elite spec.

[Happy with your specialization?]

The people in game ALSO think the Catalyst is horrible.

[Crisis zone does more than all 4 of Catalysts augments combined]

3 hours ago, SeTect.5918 said:

Thats simply not true. 

Also catalyst augments are pulsing and this is 1x every 30 sec. 

Also augments are quickness, protection, might and resolution.

Crisis zone is protection, aegis, stability and alac. 

 

There is only 1 boon that is on augments and crisis zone, which is protection. 

How did it come that u compare these? Sure catalyst could be a bit looked at but seriously, this makes no sense to compare these at all. 

Augments are the (really bad) utility skills Catalyst got, not the Jade Sphere (which is the ground AoE with pulsing boons).

Now that I look at Crisis Zone, I see that it absolutely obliterates the crappy Augments.