I think what is important is to ask yourself what the fantasy of the Catalyst is, and to think "What is the coolest thing we could make out of this?" And I think: "Use the rotating spheres!". The Hammer 3 skills are pretty cool, and could be made into the class' core mechanic as a melee-focused spec. It could be that every time you swap attunements, you get one of these floating spheres, or as an extra press of the attunement with a cooldown, to prevent abuse (fresh air?).
I also imagine a trait that could add their buff effects (the "increased outgoing damage (fire) / decreased damage from conditions (water) while active"). There could also be a trait to be beneficial to ranged weapons ("Reduced damage from projectiles (earth)").
The fields from the "Jade SPhere could then be added to hammer #3. I think it would make more sense thematically even that the "Jade Sphere" is directly linked to the orbiting balls, then to the fields.