Sorasnobody.9350

Whenever you are in the empowered state (when you get bigger), any clones that should summon, whether it being from phantasms or abilities, scepter 2 or staff 2 for example, do not spawn in (https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Relic_of_Nourys) I appreciate the thematic of we're literally consuming our clones before they appear it seems but I don't think this should be intended? 😭 Mentioning to give some light to the issue/bug!

With the 30th of January patch, Mantra of Pain was changed so that you can consume charges when you don't have a target selected, which is really nice, as it lets you spam this during down time on Heal Chronomancer or hell, even dps boon Chronomancer for a solid 16 might, which is handy. However, I would assume this Mantra now not needing a target, should extend to using the charges while you have something targeted? Much like Mantra of Concentration/Resolve/Recovery. I know there is an added benefit of the damage and possible vulnerability, but I feel that should be a case of you get that if you are close enough and they are in line of sight, if not, oh well, charge is used and you can get back to preparing it. I was very much looking forward to it having 0 target dependency, but at the moment, the charges will not fire when you have something selected and you aren't within line of sight/range, which can make it feel janky, if a boss is moving about, or you need to look away for a moment for a mechanic, or the boss isn't right there in front of you. I don't know if this is intended as I suppose in essence, the Mantra's charge does not require a target now, but its basically exactly the same as it was before this QoL change when you do have a target, which is sorta counter productive, as you can't really play anything without targeting the boss, to try and make use of spamming this mantra without a target. More than anything I'm posting this here just as visibility for this, in case this is not intended, but if nothing gets changed about it I suppose it is, and I'll just roll with that 😊

Scourge's Serpent Siphon is very hit and miss at the moment. It appears to be proximity based, where my sub-group and me are not being prioritized. However, beyond this, it also seems to sometimes not occur at all? I was doing Deimos earlier and used it to aegis myself from the Mind Crush and I directed the centre of the ground target just in front of me. The animation went through and it went on cooldown but I go no aegis/barrier/alac/regeneration and I just went down. I've tried to theorize if its a little like the ventari tablet bug that happened last year where it was going through the floor and maybe the Serpents are going into the ground and not actually hitting targets in the area? tl/dr 1) It is proximity based, not sub-group based. 2) When cast on yourself or near yourself, (in specific terrains?) it isn't granting any of the benefits that it should. 3) Cooldown is still occurring even when none of the effects actually happen.

Reported in-game but wanted to post it here too. When you take the Grandmaster trait in Nature's Magic: Invigorating Bond that should give vigor and protection, you don't get either boon, just the Hunker Down's innate protection. Did not check if you got the heal component or not. This was on a beta character, I don't know if that has any bearing or not!

My final notes on the beta weekend, not got as many for Thief. Unfortunately I ran into a bug where scepter skills were not granting malice so I couldn't really try anything. I did however try one whacky build which made me laugh how it was actually working (to a degree, let me clarify 🤣) Same preface, this is from a solo play perspective, with one instanced build as an additional perspective. Deadeye: Scepter/dagger - The only thing I can say about this is, it can achieve 25 might and permanent fury/quickness, as that is as far as I was able to practice with my utility skill choices for solo. As I mentioned, I could go any further with this due to malice not working properly. However, I feel this could be a potent solo build once that works as Cloak and Dagger is 5 malice generation, a perfect amount, and then you can fill your revealed time with two Twilight Assault casts. Scepter's stealth attack has always felt so slow, hence why I never try solo Specter builds, but this having quickness means you can blast that thing really quick which I love the sound of! I am intrigued to give this one a go gain after Secrets of the Obscure comes out! Heal Quickness Deadeye - scepter/pistol & sword/pistol A massive meme I know. I just remember a guildie saying "James, why can't you just deadeye heal man?" and well, you technically can now 🤣 it can achieve 25 might, fury, quickness, regeneration, swiftness, vigor, and decent protection up-time. It has a fair amount of barrier access due to scepter, but I did find I was dying on moderately threatening. Yes, me, not my friend who was in there with me, but then once I died, they went down too, which is unfortunate. This also carries no stability/aegis or group break-stuns so you'd be pretty useless on stab-requiring fights. It was a fun concept to try though! I didn't check anything else as my brain didn't even consider other builds, but I'm intrigued to give some Thief action ago again once the expansion is out! Bug(s): Even when you have a target marked with Deadeye's mark, malice is not being granted from scepter/dagger skills. I did try Cloak and Dagger but that wasn't working either it seems. Might be because its paired with scepter and that is foreign to the weapons malice mechanic works with right now. I'm sure it can be fixed though!

Dropping off some information from my notes here! Keep in mind, most of these are from a solo-play perspective but I did try a few instanced content builds too! I do want to make a point on shield, but that will be later down! Herald: Mace/axe & shortbow - I love shortbow on revenant, probably one of my favourite weapons in the entire game, but I haven't really got to enjoy it with Renegade. I love Herald thematics so this is heaven. I always felt energy was just abundant on a solo build for Herald as you are just use mace/axe, but this gives you a proper rotation. It was hard to get an accurate idea of how this was going to work as the quickness is still a little scuffed and I'm awaiting the 18th of July for the changes. However, it was nice to use shortbow and it was pulling just as much damage almost as a live server solo herald, and this had scuffed gear. Shortbow is great! More damage, soft and hard crowd control and can give you some mid-range gameplay. Quickness paired with the shortbow is also great for solo play. Fixed a few weak points for me as I didn't really enjoy how energy intensive Renegade was for solo, but I didn't enjoy how relaxed Herald was on energy. It got rather boring, but Shortbow adds some extra spice to the gameplay for me! Gives a strong double weapon set condition build too! Renegade: Heal Alacrity Renegade - mace/shield & staff This is already a build, but I really don't like having to go to mace/x to blast my might, as the off-hand always feel out of place. With this build I could easily heal moderately threatening in Special Forces while keeping up all of my boons. I do need to look at regeneration a little more, but It is nice as your might generating weapon set can easily heal without needing to swap. You can ramp up a lot of might quickly too, so if you need to swap to staff for burst healing more so, you have a lot of built up might. Mace/shield is really nice as it gives you a load of might blasting, shield four gives some healing while on this weapon set and extra protection up-time. This helps you sustain damage pressure without the need of staff to keep might blasting It has all the other strengths of Renegade, and the one thing that was grating me (off-hand) has been fixed/changed so I'm super excited! Shield 5, we gonna talk about that later on, but it feels very obstructive to use given the current environment in the game. It is slow and stops you from aiding allies at all, to instead protect yourself, which feels reverse psychology for how shield was brought into the game, as a more group support weapon. Vindicator: mace/axe & shortbow - I cannot tell you HOW MUCH I LOVE THIS OKAY. I recently made Chuka and Champawat, and it is one of my favourite legendaries, but my spark deflated as I wasn't enjoying Renegade. I love Vindicator, but it was getting rather boring for me just having a single weapon set. Having access to shortbow is a huge win! In solo play this build is immortal, and it has now gained a ton more damage, among other things. Extra damage from having two weapon sets. It also counters the issue I've had where I feel you have a surplus of energy and it feels rather wasted with a single weapon set. Shortbow has soft and hard crowd control and I was missing this on solo Vindicator and I really enjoy being able to effectively crowd control I know its just a personal cheesy point, but there is something very thematically correct about having Archemorus throwing their spear while I'm hailing down arrows. It just hits right for me! It should help boost damage as well when I can check this with proper gear. Issue(s) and proposal(s): Much like my Mesmer feedback, it isn't specifically anything to do with the beta, but I'm noticing some glaring issues with shield. Shield four is fine, I wouldn't say no to a slight healing increase or scaling with healing power so healing builds can boost this healing and none-healing builds don't just get free healing without investment. Shield 5 however is pretty sluggish and not very fun. As I briefly mentioned, it is all focused around protecting yourself, when shield, at least for me-feels like it was designed as a group support weapon. I feel it should either remain a channeled block, with new functionality or be reworked. I'll list this as proposal (a) and proposal (b): Proposal (A): You will be able to to move while channelling this. It will either retain the self block, or get rid of this for more group support. The new effect would be it would pulse 5 times and each pulse would give barrier to nearby allies and a small heal (or this little heal can be skipped out). I feel this would be a way of giving shield some more group support through damage mitigation. Proposal (B): This would redesign the ability entirely. You would have a ground targeted ability where you throw your shield to a nearby area and it pulses healing as like a healing font sort of thing? The final pulse could give a stronger heal and maybe a condition cleanse and then the shield would come back to you. It could even be pushed a step further where you can use shield 4 while it is active to cause the healing to occur where the shield is instead and give the double protection. If this functionality came into play, shield 4 could become a blast finisher, and shield 5 could be a water field to give advanced shield users some more burst healing potential. As I have echoed, I don't prepare myself for any of my proposals to be considered, I just like to offer them, especially in this case with shield becoming universal across revenant. All the same, I am so excited for my original main spec in Secrets of the Obscure!

Swinging on by to leave some thoughts based on the notes I made. Keep in mind these are mainly from a solo-play perspective, but I did also experiment with a Heal Quickness build, but sadly it was stamped on because of a bug, but I'll cover that later! Druid: Dagger/warhorn & shortbow - Since the balance patch, Druid has gained so much damage, and it as easily become one of my favourite solo builds. Good boon coverage, great damage, amazing soft and hard crowd control and some pseudo healing from your Celestial Avatar Rotation. I devised a way to get a lot of quickness with Sigil of Celerity > "We Heal As One!" on live so you could have permanent alacrity and a decent chunk of quickness, and I really tried to push further with this in beta. Dagger 3 gives quickness. The methodology I have when I can play dagger on live is dagger 3 > warhorn 5 (Sigil of Celerity) > "We Heal As One!" This should give easily 11+ seconds of quickness which is really nice considering you have alacrity as well! Dagger 3 should really help with getting more quickness uptime on this build which is very effective when solo. This can let you get combos of abilities off faster, especially in Celestial Avatar so you can get them all cast and drop out asap to get your weapon abilities used again. What I tried was less damage than my live build, but I didn't have some key elements of the build on my beta character such as strength/celerity sigils. Untamed: Dagger/warhorn & shortbow - This would play exactly the same as the build above. I need to see if axe would be better but I still wanted to try dagger on this build to make use of the beta. It will help on the opener to use dagger 3 > warhorn 5 > other boon abilities > "We Heal As One!" to get the boons rolling on this build for solo play. Again, this was doing lower damage than my Untamed build on my live character, but again, I was missing a few key components to make this work fully. As I say, dagger 3 I was running to get quickness up-time, but Untamed has free quickness without even thinking about keeping it up so dagger might not be that important for it honestly. I've got no other points to make on this as they're pretty much the same as the Druid build above. Heal Quickness Untamed - sword/warhorn & staff It didn't even occur to me until I thought about it again last Thursday, Untamed is getting staff!! I yelled! When I saw the Unleashed ability as well I LOST MY MIND. The animation and visuals are crazily well down, kudos to whoever made that! The moving field around the caster is huge so I don't see it being a problem of it affecting allies. I'm so sad though! It was bugged and wasn't granting quickness! I really wanted to give it a go as well, but I am more eager for Secrets of the Obscure to try this out now! Quickness will be super easy. You can unleash your sword attack, swap to staff, unleash instantly and then you camp on staff and then ambush staff again before you weapon swap. All your quickness comes from your weapon skills so you have a lot of utility choice. I am still working out might and protection generation, but initial theories are Jungle Stalker, pet swapping, warhorn 5 with either quickdraw or trying to use Clarion Bond, need to see which is better! Sun Spirit will be mandatory and maybe Stone Spirit specifically for protection so the aegis might be wasted. You do have a free slot to bring something else though. You have no inate stability, so "Protect Me!" might be mandatory to break-stun allies. You have nature spirit for reviving as well. You can go Water Spirit and use it as a burst heal on sword/warhorn as that could be an issue where healing will be a lot lower when you are not on staff. I kid you not though, I am REALLY going to give this build a go! The unleashed staff heal could potentially have more healing on it? If not base value, make it specifically scale heavier with healing power to open it up more so as a healing unleashed. Overall, despite being an Elementalist main, I really, really enjoyed trying out builds on Ranger and the prospects of heal quickness Untamed! I will make it work to literally just use the staff unleashed, it is stunning! Bug(s): Solar Brilliance (staff Unleashed) is not giving quickness with Let Loose traited.

Popping here to drop some notes on a few of my findings! I want to preface this was all from a solo-play perspective. With how Harbinger and Scourge are both so very similar to each other, I was able to figure out a build that would work for both elite specs by using a combo of pistol/torch & scepter/focus. This means you can play either quickness or alacrity on a solo build, depending on which one you want to play! Each build has differing method of keeping itself alive which keeps the gameplay fresher for each build. Harbinger: With the use of dagger/torch & scepter/focus, you have life force across both weapon sets which means you don't need to worry about any life force utility skills, which is great! As I have it designed, you can stay entirely mid-range on this build which is great! Pistol/torch is a perfect addition to this build! It gives a lot more condition damage to work with Parasitic Contagion. It carries some extra crowd control too and Oppressive Collapse is nice for might generation! Pulling very fair damage for a solo build and it has a lot of healing over time with Blight, regeneration and healing from Parasitic Contagion. Somehow it feels so befitting for a Necromancer! Scourge: Not much to offer as unique information that is different to the Harbinger build. It plays exactly the same but you just trade out how you sustain yourself. Out of the two, I did gravitate towards the build because I love barrier as a system, and this uses a lot of barrier spam to sustain itself. I would offer more information on this, but honestly it feels like a mirror of the build above so I can't give any more information on it. I've missed having easy might on Scourge and I wanted to use quickness on Harbinger for soloing but it just didn't have enough damage for my liking, but now it feels like my issues have been rectified which is great. I am looking forward to Secrets of the Obscure for sure with these two specs!

Dropping a few of my notes here. I want to preface, I did not practice any instance content builds. These are all from a solo-play perspective. The new weapons are fairly nice! I tried dagger first, and was totally thrown back by dagger 2 summoning a dagger throwing clone. After playing Virtuoso for quite a while, I never expected this! It is rather cool though, and I enjoyed to see it! I swapped around to axe/shield as I overlooked dagger. Shield was feeling sluggish, and I'm gonna mention this later on again. I returned to dagger and found a comfortable build that I was really enjoying! Chronomancer: Probably to no ones surprise, solo Chronomancer builds are still not that strong. Even using axe I couldn't push that much damage. Axe is still a nice addition don't get me wrong, but Chronomancer is only shines as a power spec I feel so I didn't make use of axe. I think dagger is going to be a nice power main-hand weapon so I do want to eventually try quickness and alacrity power chronomancer. Dagger will be nice for instanced content. I've not really jelled with sword main-hand so this will be a nice addition. None of the weapons have really changed the effectiveness of a solo chronomancer build so nothing to report there. Virtuoso: Dagger/shield & dagger/sword - I tried to figure something out with Virtuoso in a solo sense. I was hoping shield might give you some prowess but it just isn't enough. Virtuoso needs too many things to function and you can achieve them all solo. More of a general Virtuoso issue, but again, this makes me realize how sluggish and underwhelming shield can be. With dagger being a pivotal part of Virtuoso, I didn't even try to consider axe. I know it won't be that useful. Shield gives this access to a few extra boons, but shield 4 just feels underwhelming at best. Mirage: Staff & dagger/focus - I am absolutely in love with this build! Staff/staff was getting monotonous, same thing over and over again, but this second set breaks the cycle and it also adds a few extra things that I was missing. You can cast Chaos Storm and then weapon swap and use focus 5 and dagger 3 to get a load of confusing bolts off. Something about this is very satisfying for me! Dagger gives me the crowd control I was missing on staff/staff. Still has all the great survivability of a solo Mirage build. Breaks the cycle of just staff/staff with a weapon combo that pairs well together and enables me to stay mid-ranged. It gives me some much needed crowd control for this build that I was heavily lacking for my own taste. Has a nice burst of damage, smooth rotation and is pulling more damage than my current live solo build, even with scuffed gear so I'm excited to give it a go once Secrets of the Obscure comes around! Issue(s): Not really anything specifically from beta, but shield is something I've picked up on. As it is being shipped into every spec, I think shield needs a looking at. Shield 4 is what I am struggling with. It is very slow, it can easily interrupt itself at the end so you don't get a clone and the protection it gives is very minimal. With the new introduction of alacrity and quickness entirely from phantasms and clone shattering. This ability is really not hitting for me on actually being useful. Its meant to be a defensive ability but it feels so restrictive to use. I feel all mesmer specs, playstyle wise and to give boons have a very active one, and shield stops you from being active for a decent amount of time if you consider the flip over skill. I had this thought of turning it into more of an Arcane Shield kind of system? It would not be a channeled block anymore, but you'd get a buff where you can block three attacks. If you block an attack you get the clone, then you can use the flip over to activate it again to block three more hits. This would turn the ability into something you can press while still using other weapon skills. You could get the phantasm from it to give protection (increase the duration of protection granted as well!) while you summon more clones to give boons, heal, do damage, etc. etc. As I say, this isn't really feedback pertaining to specifically the beta, but seeing these weapons on other elite specs/core makes me realize how sluggish shield will be. I also accept is this probably won't get looked at, and that is okay, I just wanted to offer my input just in case! That aside, the new Mirage build I found was really fun and I can't wait to play with it!

Slipping by to drop some findings from my notes. I tend to try everything from a solo-play perspective, but no solo builds will be affected by the new weapons so I went ahead to try a few instanced content builds instead. Mechanist: Power Mechanist - Hammer I really enjoyed this weapon to give Mechanist a potent power dps build. Since the constant adjustments/nerfs to rifle, I feel this has fallen into the tier of a support dps weapon and I wasn't vibing with pure dps power Mechanist. Hammer however gives me something I enjoy. Electro-Whirl works cooldown wise with Shrapnel Grenade so it works the same as the current rifle combo: Blunderbuss > Shrapnel Grenade. It still has good amounts of crowd control and a block so I'm really liking how it is playing. Power Alacrity Mechanist - Hammer This plays exactly the same as the build above, but it works just as well. I aren't much of a pure dps player as I like the idea of supporting more so and I really love hammer on engineer so I will be playing this a lot more once it becomes an actual build. The block on hammer 4 is really helpful for certain encounter mechanics. I'm thinking specifically oil kiting on Deimos so I don't need to run Tool Kit anymore. Its a refreshing way to play Mechanist and might help a lot of players with the Mechanical Genius penality as you need to be melee with hammer. They might just notice their mech isn't with them, who knows 😄 Hammer is a nice accessible weapon too as just auto attack chains > Electro Whirl > Thunderclap is a strong rotation so you can play kitless Mechanist and still pump damage. Heal Quickness Scrapper - Mace/shield My eyes lit up I tell you! I have despised HQScrapper due to it using a condition damage main hand weapon-it felt very weird and off and that alone makes me not enjoy playing it. But it was always that case as there was simply nothing else, but mace is great! It will let you provide regular intervals of barrier, keep up permanent Vigor with Infusion Bomb and make regeneration a whole lot easier. With the new quickness interaction as well, every mace 2 will give quickness as you can easily create combo fields in a pinch with Mortar Kit. I'm honestly super excited to play this build! Issue(s): It isn't really something I tested on instanced dps builds, but it was something I felt when trying solo build variants. Sword feels a little bland. Don't take my word for this, but I just want to chip in, just incase it is a common thought. It feels rather heavily tied with Holosmith due to it being a lot more effective at different heat thresholds but you don't have that on other elite specs/core. Maybe I'm looking at sword too one-dimensional for PvE end game/open world but it just feels like you'll take Hammer in every situation instead if you're looking for a power replacement, and pistol, sometimes even mace is still going to be the better condition weapon. But as I say, I didn't test it so I could be completely wrong, but I'm just dropping it here in case! I'm very excited to extend my arsenal with an extra quickness healing build and a new-found alacrity dps!

Gonna drop some notes on the testing/findings I did and some thoughts. As a preface, most of my testing this beta for Elementalist was from a solo play perspective, but it still let me get a feel for each weapon combo. Catalyst: Sword/warhorn - This had a middle-ground effect for me, it wasn't the best of the best, but it was a nice thematic and worked well for having a lot of healing and evasion. I have a feeling it could be better once I've fully fleshed a rotation out and got very comfortable with sword skills as right now I haven't used sword all that much. Warhorn is so much fun on Catalyst, it gives you might/fury extension, extra boon coverage while solo and then boon extension which makes keeping up 25 might, resolution, vigor, fury, swiftness, quickness and protection easy which all those boons solo is really potent. The magnetic aura on Sand Squall is also beneficial for extra Elemental Empowerment stacks. Really nice evasions frames in water and in earth meaning you have evasion across a couple of attunements. Boon extension from warhorn which perfectly plays into all the boons you can provide as a Catalyst. Enough energy building to allow for a 4-sphere deployment rotation, something only hammer has exclusively been able to do, so this is very refreshing! Scepter/warhorn - Easily my favourite set. This achieved the highest damage as well. It brings more might generation, allows a mid-range playstyle, barrier/resistance access which then gets extended as well from Sand Squall. It has all the strengths of warhorn on the previous weapon set too. I will definitely be looking to play this set specifically when Secrets of the Obscure come out! Extra might generation over against sword/warhorn. Resistance access that can be extended, very potent for solo play. Boon extension from warhorn which perfectly plays into all the boons you can provide as a Catalyst. Enough energy building to allow for a 4-sphere deployment rotation, something only hammer has exclusively been able to do, so this is very refreshing! Tempest: Sword/warhorn - From my notes this was doing as much damage as my live character's solo build, with scuffed gear, so this version can only get better with proper gearing. I really enjoyed the evasion and blast finishers on this weapon set to get to 25 might rapidly after my fire overload. It can give itself an array of boons and then extend them all with Sand Squall. I even have a sigil of celerity setup on my live character that I would have loved to try on my beta character. I know it would have made this even stronger. Out of the two, I much preferred sword/warhorn on Tempest, it seemed to feel more natural to me. Basically the same points as sword/warhorn on Catalyst. One extra is this felt like it fit Tempest really well for me. Overloads are small in radius so being melee with sword seemed to fit super well for me and the evasion worked well to keep you safe more so while melee. Hammer - One weapon I was very ready to try, and it did not disappoint. I was able to develop a nice loop where you could go to fire > water > earth > air to keep up orbs or activate them later on, in air's case so you can Grand Finale just before your fire overload when you go back to fire. It was really fun to see this weapon on something other than Catalyst. I will say (it isn't something bothering me all that much, but worth a mention) it felt slow without quickness so I might look to pop in a celerity sigil to speed up a section of the rotation, but overall it was really fun. Despite the orbs/Grand Finale feeling okay on hammer, I will address them again on Weaver as overall they feel off. A nice rotation to still complete overloads and activate your hammer orbs and then being able to Grand Finale just before your next fire overload. It all felt like it fit well. Having alacrity solo on hammer is refreshing to bring down cooldowns to use them every single loop instead of every other loop. Very potent damage. Rocky Loop does give you more damage reduction while you overload which reduces how exposed you are to damage while completing an overload. Weaver: Hammer - I was very suspicious of how orbs were going to work on Weaver and worried it was going to be a case of double dipping every attunement to get them up. However, the dual orbs is a nice work around to let you get all your orbs active without needing to go to every attunement. It felt okay to play, and I feel most of my issues are because I'm used to the agency of hammer on Catalyst, but due to how Weaver functions, I felt without that agency due to me not having skills up when I wanted them. Where quickness lacking didn't feel that bad on Tempest, it felt pretty brutal on Weaver. Also, Weaver has no combo fields so you can't make use of the varied blast/leaper/whirl finishers that hammer has at all which does lower your sustain and boon output when solo with Weaver hammer. As I mentioned in my Tempest section, the orbs/Grand Finale felt fine there, but in Weaver, for me, they still felt really off, even with accessing them becoming easier. Due to a lack of quickness and how Weaver keeps your off-hand abilities, there was a lack of agency. No combo fields so all your benefits from various finishers are entirely wasted Grand Finale is really good inside a combo field for bonus effects as well, and you won't be able to do this on your own with hammer on Weaver. If it remains, Dual Orbs is a good way of letting you get your orbs up without needing to double dip every attunement. Issue/proposal: So, out of all of these, the only issue I ran into, and its only become more relevant now I see Hammer being used on other weapon sets, is that the skill 3 (orb/Grand Finale) mechanic, is really feeling out of place, at least for me. I have a complex where Catalyst doesn't have much identity; it is an elite spec where its class mechanic is literally a combo field (with boons, but loads of classes have boons). The other defining feature of Catalyst was hammer's orb mechanic. I did want this to become a Catalyst mechanic where using skill 3 on any weapon with the Catalyst trait line equipped would summon the orb, but now I want that even more. With the orb mechanic being stuck to hammer, I feel Catalyst is going to lose even more unique identity. Orbs are there also to give passive bonuses and generate rapid energy to use your class mechanic. Weaver and Tempest do not need energy and they both have their own modifier traits so I don't feel they need orb modifiers as well. Now, I aren't expecting this to even happen at all, but I'll propose it again, especially now I've seen hammer on Weaver and how it is feeling clunky despite Dual Orbs: Rework hammer. Remove orbs off the weapon entirely, and give it 4 new abilities, one for each attunement on skill 3. Make it where casting skill 3 on any weapon with the Catalyst elite spec equipped will summon the orb matching the attunement (basically how with Mechanist, using skill 3 on any weapon shoots Rocket Fist). My initial idea was hammer can still use Grand Finale as it was Catalyst specific, but now it won't be, that can't work. I'm not sure how Grand Finale would fire anymore, maybe deploying your Jade Sphere could be moved to f1/2/3/4 (attunement keybinds) and f5 becomes your Grand Finale so you still have control over it. This would fix a long standing issue of energy on other weapons on Catalyst as literally only hammer can build really rapid energy, which I respect is the elite spec weapon, but Catalyst on other weapon sets feels like core-ele v2 (I'm talking about live Catalyst, beta weapon sets aside, they feel great!) I also feel it might make Weaver function closer to live Weaver on Hammer. You'd be wanting to dual attunements but then double attune to fire or air (condi or power) to use the new skill 3. This is quite an extensive proposal and I've always felt that so I still won't be surprised if it doesn't ever come to light, I just wanted to put it out here properly now given how Hammer is looking on other weapons, and how Hammer is kind of of a defining feature of Catalyst, and soon it won't be. I still had a load of fun with Elementalist in the beta and no matter what happens, I'm excited for the new weapon combos when Secrets of the Obscure comes out! Bugs: Only one I personally saw is a guildie was running Aurene's Hammer (gen 3 legendary) and he didn't have the legendary hammer orbs/projectiles on Weaver like you normally do. I had them on Tempest, it just seemed to be a Weaver thing, probably as its not coded for a Dual Orb ability to give the proper legendary hammer visuals/projectiles. Only a visual bug though!

you must be using your high hit abilities (not damage, but hits per ability) while you have a sphere deployed then*. The general idea is to spam three spheres back-to-back then have a massive period, I usually have it in fire, to rebuild all your energy and do it again * as you energy generation stops when a sphere is active. That is something I wasn't aware of when first playing cata, not sure if it was something you are aware of or not.

If you're doing a two sphere deployment rotation, yes it is worse quickness, but then I need to ask why you are doing a two sphere rotation. I play cele Catalyst solo religiously and even on staff I can do a three sphere deployment, and staff is really clunky for energy building. Three spheres are always doable. With like standard cele boon duration, you get about 45% boon duration, give or take, along with some elemental empowerment buffing that. Before the patch I got 14.5s of quickness from my air sphere alone, which was also un-fun as I was delaying going there to complete my rotation for energy. Now, you get about 17.25s, let's say 17s of quickness from three spheres, of which you can get from ANY sphere now. If you're running hammer as well, it is even better as you can use Energized Elements (or Vicious if you really are going for it) and get a four sphere deployment so you go from 14.5s to over 20s of quickness on a celestial Catalyst build which is really, really nice. Although, as a few have said, would really not be opposed to energy being stripped off Catalyst or lowering deployment cost of spheres to 'reduce the drawbacks of playing an elite specialization' philosophy that anet is following 🤗

Yeah! I have the exact same usage of it. I always tank in my w1-4 guild full clears and cover extra roles. Kiting on Sabetha is so smooth as I don't even need to go back melee so no worries of dropping flak. I can cast spheres just in range of me and the group so I get quickness/protection too which helps. I've been tanking green myself in olc so I can role squish and keep an extra dps on the red watchknight instead of it being a dps out tanking. It feels like a little niche role in olc that only really heal cata can do comfortably due to having such high range boon/heal application.

Quite shocked to see a heal Catalyst thread! I've been playing it since about a month after EoD hit and its my main healer for every piece of instanced content I do. The energy can feel really rough and as you mentioned going downstate is hell as you lose all your energy, adding even more complexity to the build/role as you need to be playing perfect to not go downstate, otherwise getting the energy back can take a while without wasting Frost Bow to build the energy back. I've spent a lot of time theorizing ways for them to fix energy but I never thought about healing being a contributing factor towards jade sphere energy. It would be quite a nice change actually as you're always giving regeneration + Soothing Mists and then burst healing from Water Ripple. With spheres having icds anyway, I don't feel it would be an issue to have the energy gain uncapped either. It is already odd the class mechanic is locked behind an energy system and a cooldown but if they really wanted to keep it in place, something like this would be quite nice and it would give a lot of flexibility to a healing Catalyst build and might even allow for a 4-sphere deployment so more boon coverage as rn I tend to do fire/air/earth and if I have an alacrity Mirage I can drop water instead. Really like the idea and it's cool to see someone else is playing heal Catalyst as I've seen literally no one in game doing so 🤣