Pi Slinger.5801

OVERALL DESIGN: Outside of the few traits that interact with combo fields and the ability to place fields separate from weapons, the Catalyst feels indistinct from Weaver and Tempest. Essentially, it feels like someone said "let's just mash together Weaver and Tempest" and it results in an elite spec that doesn't do anything particularly well enough to carve out a niche befitting an elite spec. Weaver does quick-swapping elements and melee combat better and is also more survivable. Tempest does auramancy and support better and is also more survivable. If the Catalyst is supposed to be a "tanky bruiser" it is not achieving that goal in a viable way compared to either of the other two elite specs. The concept for Catalyst feels muddied as a result. The niche that Catalyst could carve out is with regards to combo fields and enhancing interactions with them outside of just auras. A design focused more towards this concept would help simplify the elite spec and improve its usability. JADE SPHERE: The energy does not start out full outside of combat, so you have to build the energy to use the elite spec's primary mechanic. Most of the gameplay is dependent on having the Jade Sphere for combo fields, especially on the Hammer due to its lack of field generation, so not having access to the Jade Sphere at the start of battle cripples its viability. The following issues negatively impact the energy mechanic: Currently, players will have to grind weak mobs to build energy for real fights. Prior balance and design updates modified similar mechanics to fill to full outside of combat. There's basically only one trait that modifies energy behavior and it requires you to play the Catalyst like a Weaver but faster. This results in the Catalyst not feeling like a distinct elite spec. Having to track the energy on top of the rest of the base complexity of Elementalist is a nightmare. The Weaver felt like it already found the complexity limit and Catalyst somehow blew past it into the realm of annoying to play. The following are my recommended solutions: Removing the energy mechanic and replacing it with an ammo mechanic that caps at three and is potentially modified by traits like the Scourge's Shades. If more of an on-the-fly decision style is desired for the mechanic, then use the endurance bar instead of a new energy bar to limit the number of things the player has to keep track of. This would also add interesting tactical decisions between field usage and dodging. HAMMER: Skill #3 still feels out of place and/or cumbersome. The skill #3 mechanic feels like it would make more sense added onto the Weaver's elite skill and feels like a shoehorned copy/paste of the Weaver's elite skill to an extent. To make full use of the skill #3's you have to essentially move through the attunements faster than even a Weaver would, which feels like it runs counter to the rest of the Catalyst design. The Hammer has no field generation of its own. This makes it the only Elementalist weapon incapable of generating any fields (besides scepter which can be paired with off-hands for field generation). For the Catalyst which seems built around the concept of combo fields, this means that THE Catalyst-specific weapon is less capable of enabling Catalyst builds than the core Elementalist weapons. This makes Hammer suboptimal for builds and entirely dependent on the Jade Sphere for viability. The differing ranges between Water/Earth and Fire/Air sound cool on paper, but in practice result in gameplay that feels at odds with itself. It's not uncommon to be swinging at nothing in Water/Earth. I recommend the following: Making all of the attunements 600 range like Fire/Air to assist with survivability. If variable range is necessary, add more leaps and backwards moving skills to help it flow better when switching between ranges. In this case, leaps on Fire/Air and backwards moving skills for Water/Earth. It's weird that the leap is on Water and the backwards skill is on Air and neither Fire nor Earth have anything for movement. Squishy professions need mobility and evade access to compensate for close range with low health pools, i.e. Weaver. The following are my notes for each attunement: FIRE: Skill #2 lacks impact and doesn't feel useful. Perhaps make it a leap with an evade frame? Skills #4 and/or #5 would be good places for a fire field. Alternatively, replace skill #3 with some kind of fire field generation. WATER: Skill #4 would benefit greatly from having evade frames baked into it. It's weird that it's a leap without evade frames. Skill #5 would be a good place for a water/ice field. Alternatively, replace skill #3 with some kind of water/ice field generation. The animation for skill #2 feels janky. It's like a bad edit of another skill's animation. Some kind of damage mitigation utility like a block/evade would be a good addition, maybe on skill #2? AIR: Skill #2 and #5 could be lightning fields. Alternatively, replace skill #3 with some kind of lightning field generation. Skill #5 could stand to be faster as landing it for the stun is quite difficult. A leap would be nice somewhere in air. Maybe something akin to the Lightning Hammer leap or the Weaver's shadowstep on sword's air skill #3. EARTH: The blocks on skills #2 and #4 are good, but #4 feels like it should flip over to another skill for ending it prematurely. Perhaps with some kind of knockback or launch? The addition of the blast on #5 feels good but also feels like it should be some kind of knockdown. In line with my other suggestions, the addition of a skill that generates a poison field to replace skill #3 would be nice. AUGMENTS: The adjustment to Augments from the previous Beta are an improvement. However, they still don't feel particularly interesting or add much in the way of utility outside of simple buffs. Perhaps if the augment skills pulled the Jade Sphere fields to your current location if you aren't in range for the bonus effect (without providing the bonus effect ad hoc).I still don't feel incentivized to incorporate these utilities over the core utilities. The following are my notes for the specific augment skills: The fire augment feels like a means to replicate the damage boost from the Weaver elite skill. The air augment feels like a means to replicate the air shout on Tempest. The block on the earth augment is a nice touch but otherwise feels like a replication of the Weaver barrier generation skill. The ice augment is similar to one of the skills on Soulbeast, but distinct enough from it and the other Elementalist skills to make it a nice addition (although it doesn't really go with any of the trait options for buildcraft). The water/healing augment is essentially just a boosted version of the core Ether Renewal skill, so it has no distinct flavor from core Elementalist. Also, the obsession with having a single utility for each element appears to be damaging elite spec design. Outside of theme, there isn't really a need for them to be based around the Elementalist's elements and they could be made to be anything, i.e. skills that just modify (aka Augment) the base mechanic behavior of the elite spec. TRAITS: The traits are messy and would benefit from a rework that focuses on traits that interact with combo fields, provide survivability, augment the augment skills, and interact with/modify the behavior of the Jade Sphere. For example: Traits that provide different effects based on the type of finisher that was used. Traits that speed up the Jade Sphere accrual. Traits that move the Jade Sphere to the player from a set location. Traits that enhance the effects of the Jade Sphere while reducing the number of fields that can be produced (like the Scourge's shade traits) Traits that have the Jade Sphere field follow the player like a Gyro. Traits that modify Augments, etc. The following are my notes for the traits top to bottom: TOP: This line of traits are the best traits on the Catalyst simply because they incentivize combo field usage. However, the specificity to auras feels like a retread of Tempest. That being said, the combat perks do add their own distinct flavor. Staunch Auras doesn't feel impactful enough at the moment to be a Grandmaster trait. Perhaps it would if it provided more/longer-lasting stability or also added some condi-cleanse and/or tankiness? Maybe if it made combos into stun breaks? MIDDLE: Elemental Empowerment feels like it's unnecessarily trying to tie into the world-building of Guild Wars 1's Nahpui Quarter, but the concept feels out of place. The celestial stats seem intended to allow for build diversity, but it really just incentivizes primary usage of celestial stats, hurting build diversity. The Grandmaster trait isn't useful because of the investment required in other traits/skills to get to the max Elemental Empowerment cap, which doesn't last nearly long enough to make it worthwhile. Essentially, I'm saying this line of traits would be better off scrapped and replaced with something more cohesive with the rest of the Catalyst design, i.e. more traits that interact with combo fields. BOTTOM: This line seems oddly geared towards both offense on the Minor trait and support on the Major and Grandmaster traits. The Minor trait is the only trait that directly modifies the energy mechanic and results in incentivization of Weaver-like gameplay. This would be fine if there were alternative traits that also modified the energy mechanic. During melee combat, it's hardly possible to stand in the field for full effect and especially implausible that you'll be able to stand in the fields back-to-back, so a 50% duration boost of short duration boons is not useful and certainly not worthy of being a Grandmaster trait. Maybe if it gave you the boons from active fields regardless of whether or not you're standing in the field?

Just noticed I put my Catalyst feedback in the wrong thread. Don't mind me. (*casually runs away*)

I currently exclusively play WvW when I can get the Outnumbered bonus because the pips feel too slow otherwise. This already doesn't feel great in a game type that already doesn't feel super rewarding for time investment. When reading the article my response was effectively "Yay! An increase in base pips, now I can enjoy WvW more" and then "Boo! Now the goals I'm working on in WvW will feel even more grindy". I'm already quite burnt out with the game from how long it took to farm the WvW legendary armor and the idea that it will take even longer in the future really sucks the interest out of it for me (even after getting everything for Warbringer and two Confluxes except for the parts that require skirmish tickets). That's also despite quite enjoying the gameplay of solo roaming, capping, and the thrill of sneaking around zergs and aggressive roaming groups. Maybe it'd be a bit much, but honestly adding the +5 from outnumbered to the base level of pips would probably get pips to the point of feeling like they accumulate at a more reasonable pace and do a lot for making WvW feel more rewarding. I mean, I love WvW but sometimes it feels more like a second job than a war simulator in a game that sells itself on the premise of respecting player time...especially if you're going for pip rewards, didn't farm out WvW experience in EotM when that was more of a thing, and/or don't have the time to dedicate on a daily basis to grinding out WvW levels to get better pip accrual.

The Catalyst currently feels disjointed with a hodge podge of mechanics and concepts that don't really mesh well together or that retread ground previously already covered by other Ele elite specs. However, the concept of an Ele elite spec that plays heavily with combo fields really appeals to me and is touched upon by portions of the Catalyst design. To me, the ideal version of the Catalyst is a mid-range Ele with a heavy focus on combo fields, finishers, and effects. Hammer: Generally, the skills on the hammer feel disjointed. It's not like the other weapons where it feels like there's a clear skill flow and it also runs counter to general Elementalist design in some places. The skill 3 orbs are a fun idea that could have probably been their own profession mechanic separate from the hammer, but the way they are implemented promotes a gameplay style of quick attunement swaps that seems to run counter to the rest of the hammer's design, such as the skill 2's that have long cast/channeling times and often result in the duration of skill 3 running out before you have the opportunity to swap attunements. The damage feels low for "bruiser" combat on the squishiest class, the cast-times feel slow, and the "survivability" built into the weapon feels like it removes you from the flow of combat. The movement skills feel great, but it feels like there should be a couple more to aid with the flow of the weapon as currently implemented. The premise of mixed ranges suggests the intention that a player camp in the ranged attunements when needing distance and camp in the melee attunements when they can close in on the target. This doesn't work well if you are supposed to be quickly shuffling attunements. The concept of the weapon's ranges changing based on attunement is cool, but the current design doesn't incentivize play that would place you in melee range when you are in the offensive air/fire, so when you need to switch to the more defensive water/earth, you either put yourself into danger (despite trying to defend) or resign yourself to not doing damage. In general Elementalist design, Air/Fire are for offense and Water/Earth for defense, but Air/Fire has been placed at the less risky mid-range and Water/Earth are placed in the riskier melee range. Although I like the idea of mixed ranges, the hammer would feel better overall if all of the attunements were mid-range like air/fire. The general lack of combo fields and finishers on the Hammer is really noticeable and not in a good way. For a spec that leans into combo field gameplay and benefits, it makes the Hammer the sub-optimal choice for maximizing combo field interactions. Jade Sphere: The Jade Sphere is frustratingly inconsequential. The flavor of the Jade Sphere is quite nice and I enjoy that they are combo fields, allowing for more combo field play. Combo fields are one of the most unique and enjoyable aspects of GW2 combat to me and it makes a lot of sense to have a spec for Elementalist that delves deeper into the mechanic. The energy feels like it charges too slow and the Jade Sphere's duration is too short, making it feel like its not worth focusing on and feeling useless. This is especially true when you are using the Hammer with its lack of combo fields. Squishy classes move around more to avoid demise and don't usually have time to stand around in stationary fields, especially in active combat. The Jade Sphere only really builds energy during combat, so the field is not going to be available at the beginning of combat for stacking boons before rushing in. This means the boon aspect of the field has limited usefulness. Perhaps if energy regenerated to max outside of combat, like some other mechanics, it would be more useful. Augments: Augments feel terrible. The cast times feel too long to feel useful for one or two boons. They feel like sad elixers with extra hoops and longer cast times. For the squishiest class and as a "bruiser", it doesn't make sense to stand still while taking hits to the face. The elite sounds interesting on paper, but Elementalist walks around with 20 weapon skills and you don't typically wait around for the cooldown to use a skill but rather switch to a different attunement. The fact that it's only strikes that count and only weapon skills that are impacted results in it feeling completely useless. Combo this with the quick-attunement swap incentives created by the hammer orbs or the energy trait and it feels somehow even more useless. Augments, by their name, sound like they should be directly augmenting the Jade Sphere mechanic, but they don't. Having them "augment" how the combo field works instead would be amazing, especially if it did stuff that interacted with the combo system. Like, having augments to the combo effects that are generated from the fields, splashing out combo effects from the field on a pulse or finisher, an augment that adds other field type effects in addition to the current field effects when a finisher is used, etc. Needing to be on a specific attunement to get full value from a utility is a cool idea on paper, but feels terrible to use versus any of the core utilities. If it worked more like glyphs where the effect changed based on the active field, maybe it would be more enjoyable, but the current implementation doesn't have augments being nearly as competitive for utility spots as they'll need to be to get slotted. Traits: The field combo aspect is honestly the most interesting part of the Catalyst for me. Having more (or all) traits interact with field combos and finishers along with more Jade Sphere energy management options would be the ideal Catalyst implementation in my opinion. The aura traits feel really out of place. Core Elementalist already did auras pretty well before Tempest and Tempest is heavily slanted towards auras and aura support. Not to mention how many aura traits there already are on each spec line for Ele. These traits don't feel like they belong and would probably be better served as part of a revision to traits on Tempest. If putting these on Tempest is a no go, then reworking them to be generally activated for combo fields/finishers instead of just auras would be great for leaning more into the combo field aspect of the class which is the best part of the Catalyst concept to me. Elemental Empowerment is a cool concept, but its implementation makes me feel like I need to be using the Celestial stat set to make full use of the mechanic. I understand it was implemented the way it was with the intention of enabling stat set diversity in the builds using the elite spec, but I feel like it has achieved the exact opposite. I'd find it more enjoyable if it somehow interacted directly either with damage, survivability, or, again, combo fields. More traits that play with the energy mechanic of the Jade Sphere would be amazing. The only one currently present feels like it pairs well with Fresh Air, but because that's the only one it feels like it limits the gameplay variation for buildcraft. Especially, if you want better energy management without focusing on quick attunement swaps. A trait that changes the Jade Sphere behavior to follow you around like Scrapper Gyros would be very nice. Ele already suffers from an abundance of ground targeted skills and in practice most Ele blast finishers (even for the ground targeted ones) are used at the Ele's location and not at range. The result is the Jade Sphere field only feeling useful for a few boons while you're standing still and not as a combo field in combat.

Just remove RNG from the Gemstore entirely. Whereas I completely ignore purchasing items with an RNG factor from the Gemstore, I would definitely purchase a lot of the items that have been included in the RNG items if sold in a non-RNG format. i.e. Balthazar's Regalia, Zaishen Helmet, Shadow Dyes, Zephyr Glider, etc. I very much doubt that I'm the only one in this camp. Hypothetically, let's say you sell something RNG that only 5% of your player base will buy due to the fact that it's RNG. Let's be crazy and say that that 5% buys enough of the item to be like 20% of the player base buying the item once. But then let's say 50% or 60% of the player base would actually have paid for the item if it wasn't RNG. For this scenario, it's not hard to see that more money would be earned if the items weren't gated behind RNG. Here's what we as a player base are seeing that is honestly disturbing us and make us question the integrity of ArenaNet: Mounts released with single-dye channel. Made to think that it was time/design constraint. Large number of mounts then sold less than 1.5 months later that look like the standard mounts, but with the 4 dye channels the originals should have had at release. And the cherry on top is that they're gated behind RNG.Increasing number of awesome skins being placed into BLC. They're account bound on acquire. Drop rate of items appears to have been made very small to exploit the hypothetical 5% in attempt to artificially boost sells to be like the 60% buying the item once. People would have definitely purchased these from Gemstore if not for RNG.Single mount skin sold for same price as account upgrades, almost the same price as even buying the game. Is ArenaNet saying that this one item has as much value as buying the game? Is it being sold at this price to make the RNG mount item not seem as bad by comparison?ArenaNet is the company that sold us a game based on respecting a player's time. However, based on the RNG, I'm starting to feel as though they don't respect my money, which took time to earn. Don't gate items behind any kind of RNG. It does a disservice to the game and impairs overall quality. If the item placed on the Gemstore is worth a player's money, then they will buy it. By artificially boosting sells to a subset gambling population, your sales number do not reflect the quality of the product being delivered, but rather the upward limit of your gambling population's wallets. Let the quality of the product drive sales. Not desperate RNG purchases. Happy customers have looser wallets than those that feel cheated. If we can't trust the Gemstore for getting the items we want from it, then we'll inevitably stop using it.