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sfaubion.9452

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  1. Not trolling at all. Fire weaver in high gold/low plat doesnt mean much imo. Lightning flash is always good in WvW, not sure why people are surprised by that. Signet of Air might still be the best stun break, but the air augment can be very usefull. The earth augment is very strong, an ultra low cooldown channeled block with 3k barrier is one of ele's best defensive utilities. Hammer doenst lack condi cleanse at all, in fact, it is the same as focus if you hit someone with it. Elite is incredibly strong if used properly, not only for burst, but for baiting stunbreaks, or chaining heals or mobility. And yeah, dont play core weapons cause that is boring. Ele has always been more about weapon skills than utilities, so take some time and get better at the hammer, its so different from anything else ele has. Sure there are weaknesses in hammer, but I dont think most people are putting in the time to learn it, and are quitting early and complaining.
  2. Water hammer 5 is a 3 condition cleanse, cleansing sigil, water dodge, the augment heal removes 5 condis on a 19 second cooldown if you are good.... Necro is not a hard counter at all. Ranger and thief you need to overcome the same way with every ele build, catalyst aint much different.
  3. My experience roaming in WvW... and genuine feelings because I actually love catalyst. Positives - Cool traits - Great augments, used most of the time - Crazy strong elite - Cool identity - Hammer mobility on point - Water 5 doesnt need to hit to cleanse. Earth 4 and 2 awesome. Blast in earth attunement for projectile mitigation. - Autos decent, who cares about condi imo. - Not every class has great breakbar utility, oh well 🙂 - The piano gameplay is what I live for. Other classes are boring imo. Target can move a lot as you can stick pretty well. - Jade sphere great mechanic all around - Trait for energy gain Conclusion WvW roamers will love it because it is really fun and engaging. Hammer makes ele gameplay so different compared to other weapons that it scares people and makes them bad. Also raid rotation feels dope.
  4. Literally all I did during the beta is roam in wvw with a fresh air, marauder build. Almost all of my troubles can be boiled down to a lack of experience with hammer, not core weaknesses of the spec. For example, victories against soulbeast were dependent on my ability to chain together magnetic aura, which can be done with incredible uptime if you practice. Beating thief is all about utilizing earth sphere for protection and weakness, as well as targeting AOEs on yourself. Mesmer is cake with hammer catalyst. Necro is easy as well imo, although a good reaper is still impossible to trade with, and the chill can get you, but ele always has trouble against chill. In a zerg you should still run staff, but who cares about that, zerg fights are boring imo. Catalyst is NOT garbage in pvp/wvw. People might not realize that of all the new specs, ele is the newest because of how ele gameplay works. We all need way more practice. Also catalyst is more than "usable" in pve - it is amazing.
  5. The catalyst improvements for this latest beta have been amazing. I played exclusively in roaming scenarios in WvW, small team fights, and about 100 duels. I used the hammer as my only weapon. My only focus was to test a fresh air power build, using berserker armor, marauder hammer and trinkets, scholar runes. Energy and cleansing on the hammer. I used the usual arcane traits and Catalyst 3 2 1. Jade orb - The change to deploy jade orb is great, and its usage and flow in combat feels very good. Since the field lasts 5 fixed seconds now, I do think that the field should pulse damage like it does in PvE, this would maybe help alleviate a little bit of a lack of damage compared to marauder sword weaver for example. Otherwise jade orb is amazing. Hammer - Hammer 3 is pretty much perfect now. I think if it lasted 6 or 7 seconds it would add a bit more flexibility for people in different combat scenarios. The additions to survivability are perfect. I think it would be nice if Fire hammer 5 had a ranged component or a very large radius, just to add a bit more utility at range to fire attunement, and to normalize the attunement themes. Compared to other profession 600 range weapon abilities, I think the hammer lacks a bit of damage, especially on the auto attack. As it stands right now, the ranged auto lacks the pressure to force people away, or draw them into melee range. Augments - All of these feel appropriately powered now. The stun-break cooldown is difficult to take advantage of, but that seems fine. Traits - Due to the instant cast and separate instances of jade orb, I do not feel as forced into empowered empowerment now, as it is easier to get might and elemental empowerment stacks through the natural flow of combat. A big problem is a lack of energy generation on hammer compared to other weapons, maybe due to how hard it is to land the multi-hit attacks. Catalyst is great fun and with mainly just a bit more of a tweak to damage, and energy generation on hammer, It would feel perfect. I think most peoples problem with catalyst is their lack of practice or understanding what ele is all about. Hammer is a 2 handed weapon, therefore it is a HUGE change in the way ele plays. Ele is always about the weapon skills, and especially with a new 2 handed weapon, it creates a large learning curve. As Grimjack said, and I agree, "CATALYST DOES NOT NEED NOR SHOULD GET SWEEPING FUNCTIONAL CHANGES."
  6. Played in wvw roaming duels and small team fights exclusively. First build was all marauder with leadership. Felt lacking in damage compared to the same build on sword/focus weaver. Second build was Berserker armor, marauder trinkets, Scholar runes. More damage than first build, but comparable to all marauder weaver. Traits as follows: Air 2 2 2 Arcane 2 2 1 Catalyst 2 2 2 I love most of the ideas of the hammer and especially the hammer 3 management. There are just a few changes I would like to make its defensive utility comparable to having focus available. Hammer- Damage in wvw, across all skills seems to be 10% - 20% too low. I think the hammer 3 spheres should last for at least 7 seconds. I think there should be 1 more defensive utility on the kit, for instance maybe fire hammer 4 creates a persistent 4 second duration projectile destruction ring, or water hammer 4 has evade frames etc. I think there should be 1 more mobility skill somewhere. Air hammer 5 doesn’t feel very impactful (maybe just a matter of skill effect/animation). Earth hammer 2 doesn't feel very impactful (needs more damage maybe). Hammer lacks on demand auras compared to other weapons, maybe hammer 3 could give them (no transmute though). Everything else on hammer is great and I love it as a new weapon. The jade orb is a great addition as a class mechanic and I like the change on attunement swap. However it is a bit clunky to deploy and recall right now. I have an idea below for how it could be tweaked to be less clunky, as well as moveable. Jade Orb- I think this mechanic should behave oppositely of photon forge on engineer. Energy should build up naturally over time out of combat, as well as in combat, and when the sphere is deployed, it should drain at a fixed rate (normalize pve and wvw/pvp rate). When you recall the sphere with energy remaining it should go on a 5 second cooldown, and keep remaining energy, so that it can be re-deployed in a different position. Deploy jade sphere should have a ¼ second cast time, as it really stalls rotations. If you allow the sphere to run out of energy, it should go on a longer cooldown and/or you should become “exhausted” delaying the start of energy generation. Energy generation should happen faster in combat than out of combat. All that said, Jade orb is a great mechanic that would feel a lot better if it could be moved around in some form by the elementalist. Utilities- The heal skill should heal for slightly more each pulse. I think each utility could give an associated aura when it is cast regardless of sphere position, or some other additional effect to add incentive to use them. It goes without saying that some traits may need adjustment because of this. I like the idea of augments; I just think they should give more value outside of the Jade Orb. Traits- You feel forced into Empowered Empowerment with Hammer because you need more damage. Staunch auras is better with dagger/dagger/focus because you have on demand auras. Thank you for collecting feedback and for designing such a fun and engrossing game 😊.
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