New Elementalist Elite Spec: The Catalyst

[Jski.6180]

10 hours ago, otto.5684 said:

Removing the low HP pool was a long request. They HP pools may have made sense in 2012. In 2021 it is a relic that lost any meaning or value. More than anything, it makes low HP pool classes (especially ele) at a much higher risk of being instantly downed in pve. Yet the damage is about the same as everyone else. In pvp, all it does is prevent low HP pool classes from being able to use damage amulets. Even though, at no point, would these amulets made these classes over performing.
 

HP pools seriously need normalisation. Sadly, Anet is too slow. And I haves limited confidence in the current management and balance team.

Been trying to push that point of view for years now after the rework of trait lines anet need to normalized hp and def. Anet went though a lot of troblme to nomrlize dps and the ele class dose not get more power for having lower hp so i do not see why any class should have simply more of something to start with a build should be the only reason why some one is passively tankly or glassly.

[fuzzyp.6295]

9 hours ago, Vilin.8056 said:

I'm afraid you misunderstood the point again,  these trailers are not only meant for existing players, but for new comers as well. Since elemental mage class are always a major attraction on a role playing fantasy game.

The competition has a clear presentation of the role itself, even a total newbe can spot it as a mage of elements just from the visual cue, while the EoD one not only requires a full video narration to explain the confusing state of why a hammer wilding fighter throwing Hundredblade animation is a mage class, yet still struggles to convince players, as shown by the youtube comments below.

 

This concept is hardly new, nearly all melee based elite specs in this game are frontline battlemages, including all heavy armor classes.

 

I suggest that you rewatch HoT announcement trailers again, it was a much more polished package even at an early stage.

Edit: Eh, nevermind this isn't worth debating. Ultimately this is a subjective topic on what is impressive and what isn't. You're compairing a 20+ year old spec from a remake of a game to a brand new class that has never been seen before in GW2. Of course the vidoes are going to be different. I can tell you as a new player to Diablo, their trailer did not excite me, all I saw was another generic spell casting mage. EoD atleast brigns something new that hasn't been done before in this game.

Also the HoT videos... lol there are only three for class reveals man, and none of them explain why the classes have become what they are. Why is a Necro now a Reaper? How did Chronomancers get their Time Magic? Can you answer any of those questions? No... because... there is no explanation in game or in the videos lol

 

 

Edited September 17, 2021 by fuzzyp.6295

[ChronoPinoyX.7923]

LACROSSE HAMMER LIVES! 

[aspirine.6852]

So my first impression was all wrong it seems..  It looks pretty kitten good and fun...  

[ChronoPinoyX.7923]

1 minute ago, aspirine.6852 said:

So my first impression was all wrong it seems..  It looks pretty kitten good and fun...  

I feel like we were all wrong when we assumed it was purely melee when the first thing they showed was Fire Auto

And now I'm actually HYPED for this Melee/Ranged Hybrid play. It's not the full range Staff offers, but I'll take it over nothing

[Nubilus.9156]

On 9/16/2021 at 9:12 PM, Nubilus.9156 said:

My two cents after playing 1000 hours of Elementalist and both elite specs over the last 6 years:

 

Elementalist is a very squishy, relatively hard to learn (with all the elements and such) and support reliant class.

If you want to deal damage you die if someone looks at you weird. If you want to be tanky your damage suffers greatly.

And playing support feels weak. Theres better options.

 

Tempest (Mid to close range): While being aimed as a support class it feels outmatched with others like druid or chronomancer.

Not quite enough boon giving skills to be effective on their own. Decent with a team.

 

Weaver (All ranges, Melee most effective): Very complex rotation of elements, High Risk, High Reward. If you can catch something off-guard it dies. If it notices you halfway through your combo and sneezes in your general direction... You die. Also most fun I had playing elementalist when I WASN'T dead lol.

 

Now, seeing just ANOTHER melee oriented DPS (taken from the press post earlier in this topic) elite spec is breaking my heart.

It seemed full of potential. Slinging orbs like Lacrosse or playing tricks with the ball like a Kendama, which honestly would've been culturally apropriate with the asian theme of Cantha. Give us either ranged hammer or more survivability in melee.

Ok. Revising my OG post after the stream showcase.

 

2 mid-ranged elements (Fire, Air) 2 melee (Water, Earth)

Defensive skills. Decent self buffs. Augments seem whacky but decent enough.

Damage seems ok. We'll see in the Beta.

[Gibson.4036]

I'm hoping for a lot of wobbly, overbalanced animations on Asura Catalyst.

[Naneel.2348]

Catalyst looks really awesome. Now I really need to decide which race my Ele will be 😋

Edit : Catalyst seems to have way to few finishers, only one on each element with Hammer. Did I miss some options to combo? As the trais also work with combos this amount of finishers seems to low.

Edited September 18, 2021 by Naneel.2348

[Gibson.4036]

3 hours ago, Naneel.2348 said:

Catalyst looks really awesome. Now I really need to decide which race my Ele will be 😋

Asura. Wobbly, overbalanced animations for the win.

[fuzzyp.6295]

3 hours ago, Naneel.2348 said:

Catalyst looks really awesome. Now I really need to decide which race my Ele will be 😋

Edit : Catalyst seems to have way to few finishers, only one on each element with Hammer. Did I miss some options to combo? As the trais also work with combos this amount of finishers seems to low.

First off: Asura, yes. You throw your hammer over your shoulder and it is adorable.

Right now all the Hammers have one finisher with them. The Elementalist also has Arcane Wave, Arcane Brilliance and Arcane Blast. Arcane Wave is a Blast Finisher with 2 charges and Brilliance is a heal skill that is also a blast finisher. Blast is a projectile finisher which may or may not work with the trait since it just says "when you combo, get an aura."  Some of our conjures can also be used for combos. And of course, other weapons like Staff and Dagger have a lot of options to combo with themselves too.

EDIT: Also, if you take Evasive Arcana in the Arcane Trait line, you get a blast finisher when you dodge in Earth. Tornado is also a Whirl finisher which may or may not work depending since Whirls don't usually give Auras. And a reminder that the elite skill  for Catalyst will reduce the cooldown on all your weapon skills, so you'll have a lot less down time between using them if you're running that.

Edited September 18, 2021 by fuzzyp.6295

[Naneel.2348]

9 minutes ago, fuzzyp.6295 said:

First off: Asura, yes. You throw your hammer over your shoulder and it is adorable.

Right now all the Hammers have one finisher with them. The Elementalist also has Arcane Wave, Arcane Brilliance and Arcane Blast. Arcane Wave is a Blast Finisher with 2 charges and Brilliance is a heal skill that is also a blast finisher. Blast is a projectile finisher which may or may not work with the trait since it just says "when you combo, get an aura."  Some of our conjures can also be used for combos. And of course, other weapons like Staff and Dagger have a lot of options to combo with themselves too.

EDIT: Also, if you take Evasive Arcana in the Arcane Trait line, you get a blast finisher when you dodge in Earth. Tornado is also a Whirl finisher which may or may not work depending since Whirls don't usually give Auras.

Thanks for telling, I don't play Ele that often, just remembered that the other weapons have more finisher (and fields), so was kind of confused 😅

[Gustaff.6581]

I like Hammer skills, but augments look weak, they just give a single boon and an added effect only if aplied in their respective element. Looks very limited, Elite skill looks weak, is that better than alacrity?

[Loules.8601]

2 hours ago, Conqueror.3682 said:

Looks very limited, Elite skill looks weak, is that better than alacrity

I think that they can be combined - so, super-strong in theory 

Edited September 18, 2021 by Loules.8601

[Tempest.8479]

3 hours ago, Conqueror.3682 said:

I like Hammer skills, but augments look weak, they just give a single boon and an added effect only if aplied in their respective element. Looks very limited, Elite skill looks weak, is that better than alacrity?

I think you might be misunderstanding how augments work. Each one has a unique effect baseline, and a second that triggers in range of the sphere.

 

Relentless Fire

Base: 15% increased damage

Sphere: attacks are unblockable

 

Shattering Ice

Base: trigger an aoe attack on successful attack

Sphere: that attack also chills

 

Invigorating Air

Base: gain endurance regeneration

Sphere: gain superspeed

 

Fortified Earth

Base: channeled block

Sphere: gain barrier at the end 

 

Elemental Celerity

Base: reduce weapon skill cooldown per strike

Sphere: gain boon based on attunement

 

It's important to remember that even when you aren't in range of a sphere, some of the effects are pretty strong. While I don't think the air one is particularly strong, stacking a unique endurance regen buff that can stack with vigor and superspeed could give very strong mobility and evasion. Earth is a very useful defensive utility, with barrier as a cherry on top.

The other two are legitimately awesome. I already wrote about it in another thread, but just imagine a staff Catalyst using those 2 combined with casting the sphere directly on top of itself to drop an unblockable meteor shower that triggered a second aoe strike per meteor on an enemy zerg. I think a combination of these 2 could create insane gameplay potential for a Catalyst using any weapon.

 

Edit: the elite is also pretty strong. While not super crazy, it can stack an 8 sec cooldown reduction on weapon skills with alacrity. That's pretty great cooldown reduction in group environments. It's also a great thematic skill that pushes the idea of a Catalyst being able to accelerate elemental effects.

Edited September 18, 2021 by Tempest.8479

[SlitheSlivier.1908]

2 hours ago, Tempest.8479 said:

I think you might be misunderstanding how augments work. Each one has a unique effect baseline, and a second that triggers in range of the sphere.

 

Relentless Fire

Base: 15% increased damage

Sphere: attacks are unblockable

 

Shattering Ice

Base: trigger an aoe attack on successful attack

Sphere: that attack also chills

 

Invigorating Air

Base: gain endurance regeneration

Sphere: gain superspeed

 

Fortified Earth

Base: channeled block

Sphere: gain barrier at the end 

 

Elemental Celerity

Base: reduce weapon skill cooldown per strike

Sphere: gain boon based on attunement

 

It's important to remember that even when you aren't in range of a sphere, some of the effects are pretty strong. While I don't think the air one is particularly strong, stacking a unique endurance regen buff that can stack with vigor and superspeed could give very strong mobility and evasion. Earth is a very useful defensive utility, with barrier as a cherry on top.

The other two are legitimately awesome. I already wrote about it in another thread, but just imagine a staff Catalyst using those 2 combined with casting the sphere directly on top of itself to drop an unblockable meteor shower that triggered a second aoe strike per meteor on an enemy zerg. I think a combination of these 2 could create insane gameplay potential for a Catalyst using any weapon.

 

Edit: the elite is also pretty strong. While not super crazy, it can stack an 8 sec cooldown reduction on weapon skills with alacrity. That's pretty great cooldown reduction in group environments. It's also a great thematic skill that pushes the idea of a Catalyst being able to accelerate elemental effects.

 

If you are playing staff ele in wvw and you don't have teleport and mistform (to replace twisting fate), you probably won't last long. You might be able to carry 1 of those, but I'm questioning whether it's wise to use the fire one for all-in on meteor shower or continue using glyph of storms

[Tempest.8479]

4 minutes ago, SlitheSlivier.1908 said:

 

If you are playing staff ele in wvw and you don't have teleport and mistform (to replace twisting fate), you probably won't last long. You might be able to carry 1 of those, but I'm questioning whether it's wise to use the fire one for all-in on meteor shower or continue using glyph of storms

If you're careful enough with your positioning I think you can get away with dropping mist form, especially because you can get pulsing protection with earth sphere along with good aura uptime. Even if you only had one though, it would still be big for staff if you could make your meteor shower unblockable or make it a super aoe that can shatter per meteor.

Even just using the elite skill could be huge if you can reduce your weapon skill cooldowns for better access to big hits. Pulsing quickness on air sphere could also address the biggest issue with staff feeling slow and difficult to land.

[SlitheSlivier.1908]

53 minutes ago, Tempest.8479 said:

If you're careful enough with your positioning I think you can get away with dropping mist form, especially because you can get pulsing protection with earth sphere along with good aura uptime. Even if you only had one though, it would still be big for staff if you could make your meteor shower unblockable or make it a super aoe that can shatter per meteor.

Even just using the elite skill could be huge if you can reduce your weapon skill cooldowns for better access to big hits. Pulsing quickness on air sphere could also address the biggest issue with staff feeling slow and difficult to land.

Mayyybe. Itd be tight and you lose a lot of versatility and escape.  However i think the 15% from the fire augment will do more damage for meteor shower than the shattering ice, even ignoring unblockable. Tho it has a 30s cooldown.

[Gorani.7205]

On 9/16/2021 at 3:31 PM, Gorani.7205 said:

I wanted torch, I get hammer.

I wanted ranged, I get melee.

I watched the video and I have no clue how the profession mechanic with attunement will work.

I am not very happy at the moment.

 

I saw the hammer, not as bad as I thought before.

I see some split between melee and ranged when you switch attunements.

I kind of like the "well" mechanic with F5 you can recharge with swapping attunements (although only world bosses will stand still in those)

I think the "push back" thing in the video was a red herring, because no skill shown does this (?).

I am worried about the utility skills (too situational to be fired off at specific wells, no stun break, no blast etc.) and the elite skill (which have dubbed Elemental Celery ), because "if you run out of weapon skills, you kind of switch attunments and ... you get ones off cooldown".

[Gwaymor.9607]

Here go my hopes of seeing Greatswords in Elementalist's hands... As usual.

[fuzzyp.6295]

3 hours ago, Gorani.7205 said:

 

I saw the hammer, not as bad as I thought before.

I see some split between melee and ranged when you switch attunements.

I kind of like the "well" mechanic with F5 you can recharge with swapping attunements (although only world bosses will stand still in those)

I think the "push back" thing in the video was a red herring, because no skill shown does this (?).

I am worried about the utility skills (too situational to be fired off at specific wells, no stun break, no blast etc.) and the elite skill (which have dubbed Elemental Celery ), because "if you run out of weapon skills, you kind of switch attunments and ... you get ones off cooldown".

The push back thing? Do you mean Wind Storm? That is the large disengagement skill on Air Hammer 4.

Augment Invigorating Air is a Stun Break. The Augment Skills have two effects, one is based and the other is conditional on how close you use it to your Jade Sphere. Most of the conditional effects are just adding something extra: Unblockable (fire), Chill (water), Superspeed (Water), Barrier (earth) so I don't really think they're too situationally dependent.

Edited September 19, 2021 by fuzzyp.6295
added actual spell name,

[delriaan.7854]

On 9/16/2021 at 9:16 AM, Grand Marshal.4098 said:

That's good and all but the thing I was waiting for is the element mechanic. We have normal switching, dual pairing and overloads. Will they stick to core ele mechanics and slap wells on top to call it a day? Or is it some form of overloads all over again where at tuning to a single element pops some mobile AoE field around you? 

 

I don't mind weapon or utilities, I want to know what this spec can do with elements and I'm frustrated a bit. 

Wholeheartedly agree.  I'd much prefer to see some exploration with a mechanic similar to the Necro's "life force" that opens up tiered skills by element or perhaps a different mechanic that allows for using fields that can be transmuted for secondary effect (e.g., water field to heal allies -> ice field to slow enemies; static field -> collapse to lightning strike).

[aymnad.9023]

It looks like this spec offers some strong aoe control (potentially creating lots of chaos) and will be fun to play in PvP. It could be good in open world too, not sure in raids even with (what seems like) a crazy amount of stat boost.

Edited September 19, 2021 by aymnad.9023

[Gorani.7205]

17 hours ago, fuzzyp.6295 said:

The push back thing? Do you mean Wind Storm? That is the large disengagement skill on Air Hammer 4.

Augment Invigorating Air is a Stun Break. The Augment Skills have two effects, one is based and the other is conditional on how close you use it to your Jade Sphere. Most of the conditional effects are just adding something extra: Unblockable (fire), Chill (water), Superspeed (Water), Barrier (earth) so I don't really think they're too situationally dependent.

 

No, not the Wind Storm. I meant the "activity" that seem to push back the Naga slowly at 0:28 (https://youtu.be/Nu1lYnbQmZM?t=28) I could not identify that yet (pulsing, slow push).
Invigorating Air on a 30sec CD is not enough stun break for WvW (currently coming from Tempest who can stun break via overloads + has traits that help against being locked down again). We have to play test, but I still think that on paper the utilities do not support a squishy Ele well enough, who very likely is closer to the centre of trouble than a typical Tempest, Core Ele or (staff) Weaver.

 

[draxynnic.3719]

2 hours ago, Gorani.7205 said:

 

No, not the Wind Storm. I meant the "activity" that seem to push back the Naga slowly at 0:28 (https://youtu.be/Nu1lYnbQmZM?t=28) I could not identify that yet (pulsing, slow push).
Invigorating Air on a 30sec CD is not enough stun break for WvW (currently coming from Tempest who can stun break via overloads + has traits that help against being locked down again). We have to play test, but I still think that on paper the utilities do not support a squishy Ele well enough, who very likely is closer to the centre of trouble than a typical Tempest, Core Ele or (staff) Weaver.

 

Could just be that the naga was trying to backpedal out of the effect, but a proper animation hasn't been implemented for that behaviour on the naga/krait model yet and so it only looks like it's trying to move forward but is moving backwards instead.

[Gorani.7205]

8 minutes ago, draxynnic.3719 said:

Could just be that the naga was trying to backpedal out of the effect, but a proper animation hasn't been implemented for that behaviour on the naga/krait model yet and so it only looks like it's trying to move forward but is moving backwards instead.

A possible explanation, but still kind of misleading for a teaser trailer about what is special about a new Profession.