Credits where credits due: CATALYST IS AWESOME!

[Tabootrinket.2631]

Hmmm....
It started good but then the utilities followed up and I'm left with one question.

What's gonna be the catalyst role in a team ?
It doesn't seem it will bring anything. Those augments seem to be designed just so we don't underperform (boring elite skill again too).
When on the other side of the aisle we got the Bladesworn with their banana numbers and harbinger and their one button all boons applied... to be honest, I don't really see what it brings more than weaver except a little more survivability due to the mid range.

It doesn't even seem that we get any form of sustainability to adress the meme downstate that even the devs aknowledge. On the contrary, now we have to remain even more static with the same health pool
 

Edited September 17, 2021 by Tabootrinket.2631

[Downstate.4697]

The well not moving and not like a gyro severely limits its flexibility in pvp and pve. 

 

1. For pvp it will be fine as a duelist (once again a duelist spec)

 

2. For wvw it offers nothing for your team except damage since the well wont move with the group.

 

3. For roaming it wont be as good as it could be due to the nature of 1vx fights that require you to do burst then get out of fights.

 

4. For pve it is only good in certain content.

 

What they could do at least is everytime you swap attunements the well moves to you

[GoQ.1048]

0 evade frames on weapon skills
1 heal on weapon skills

1,5 leaps w/o evade frames aka negative mobility that can get rupted
another meh heal


2 dodges


 

hf bunkering when that 1 block is behind an atunement cd.

 

Edited September 18, 2021 by shinta.8906

[Touchme.1097]

It's still a No No from me. I don't like the hybrid Melee/Ranged on Catalyst. The new E Spec just proved to me that Anet doesn't have a clue what to do with Elementalist.

They might as well scrap the profession entirely and replace it with Mage/Sorcerer, it would make more sense in my opinion.

My Ele will still collect dust or being used as a bank character until something interesting comes up in the future.

[fuzzyp.6295]

1 hour ago, shinta.8906 said:

0 evade frames on weapon skills
0 heals on weapon skills

1,5 leaps w/o evade frames aka negative mobility
another meh heal


2 dodges


 

hf bunkering when that 1 block is behind an atunement cd.

 

Pulsing AoE Protection from Earth Augment, Pulsing AoE Resolution from Water.
5% Flat Damage Reduction from Rocky Loop, 5% Condi Reduction from Icy Coil.
Strong Disengage with Wind Storm.
Heals from Crashing Font and Condi cleanse from Cleansing Typhoon.
Block from Immutable Earth.
Block from Fortified Earth utility.
Elite Skill basically reduces your cool down on all of the above (expect Fortified Earth I think).

And thats not even going into the damage reduction traits Catalyst has to offer and the possibilities of combing it from other trait lines like Earth or Fire.
Seems pretty tanky to me my friend.

Edited September 18, 2021 by fuzzyp.6295

[BlackBeard.2873]

3 hours ago, shinta.8906 said:

0 evade frames on weapon skills
0 heals on weapon skills

1,5 leaps w/o evade frames aka negative mobility
another meh heal


2 dodges


 

hf bunkering when that 1 block is behind an atunement cd.

 

 

Everybody is looking at hammer like its the weapon to use, but I'm not sure it is. How about this:

3s block on a 30s cd in util slot. Add that to lightning flash (which never leaves the bar), and probably an arcane skill, probably arcane blast with its 20s CD (see next point)

Now look at the Grandmaster minor trait - every COMBO (this means leaps, projectile finishers, and blasts) give you an aura depending on attunement, and the icd is per-attunement (and just so happens to align well with the 10s attunement swap icd).

Now take D/D where you have the following fields: fire 3 and fire 4 and your well and the following finishers: earth 2,4/5, water 3, on top of an on-weapon shocking aura and frost aura. Alternatively take staff where you have fields on: fire 3,4, water 3,5, air 5, and finishers on earth 1, 2, water 2.  Add on earth dodge-roll with evasive arcana.

Now with your build of water/arcana/catalyst (blast finisher and boons in arcana), water/earth/catalyst (prot on aura + stone heart to mitigate ALL CRITS), or water/fire/catalyst (infinite condi cleanse in fire) you have perma-prot, 50+% uptime of magnetic aura and shocking aura shared with your team.

Yea, that'll do for tanking.

Edited September 18, 2021 by BlackBeard.2873

[draxynnic.3719]

7 hours ago, Avead.5760 said:

Don't get me wrong it looks amazing its just that it is a complete upgrade over core with no drawbacks and it competes with the previous specs aswell

I'd call that a problem with core elementalist, really. It either needs to get an extra or to have the core specs buffed so that a third core specialisation can genuinely compete. Tempest has the same problem - sure, if you use the overload you get a longer cooldown for that attunement, but if you don't tempest behaves exactly the same as regular elementalist.

[Bunny.9834]

The only thing I liked about the catalyst is the animation of the skills. 

The rest of the spec behave like a scrapper from hammer down to the "gyro" aka "sphere". 

🤷‍♂️

[montecristo.1324]

I have to be honest I don't understand this spec.

Ele got a new field on demand, we have plenty of fields, ok it spam a single boon, but is it enough?

 

Also the UI is pathetic, what is that small energy bar? Why don't put a energy bar similar to druid?

 

Last, this spec is melee. The point that you have to stand on those fields means that or you ignore the enemies or you stand on them.

 

I guess it will be another expac with dagger focus for ele, maybe thanks to the block on utilities we might play DD

Edited September 18, 2021 by montecristo.1324

[Dadnir.5038]

My opinion:

The hammer is awesome, catalyst not so much. I mean, it's basically core elementalist with a hammer and a some new utilities with a F5 slaped on top to powercreep it.

So far it's the EoD e-spec that seem to be the least original/adventurous in regard of design.

[GoQ.1048]

Quote

7 hours ago, fuzzyp.6295 said:

Pulsing AoE Protection from Earth Augment, Pulsing AoE Resolution from Water.
5% Flat Damage Reduction from Rocky Loop, 5% Condi Reduction from Icy Coil.
Strong Disengage with Wind Storm.
Heals from Crashing Font and Condi cleanse from Cleansing Typhoon.
Block from Immutable Earth.
Block from Fortified Earth utility.
Elite Skill basically reduces your cool down on all of the above (expect Fortified Earth I think).

And thats not even going into the damage reduction traits Catalyst has to offer and the possibilities of combing it from other trait lines like Earth or Fire.
Seems pretty tanky to me my friend.

 

y i get you and i ve to say i also forgot that 1 hammer water heal to mention. meanwhile though: what are your stunbreaks? the amount of stab looked good ngl but it takes 1 nec to fear chain u back to spawn as you gonna lack stunbreaks. you also gonna lack range or the ability to avoid channeled attacks such as slb merge. you just gonna get kited hard sitting next to your atunment well.

if anything the spec screams teamfighty damage dealer with offensive support but its gonna be also dependant on support to survive. those 600 range will also cripple its effect regarding the tf area.

compared to the cd reduction of bladesworns amo system or vindicators endurance regen and those 3s dodges that btw can trace u down and hit for 7k that elite looks underwhelming to me.

[Zhaid Zhem.6508]

I have watched the part on cataclyst again, and yeah... I am puzzled. I don't really get the point of the F5 outside giving "common" boons and combo field. I thought it was like sand shade, but it seems you can't even spam it / re-position it, you have a long CD, you have to fight to maintain it active, and it doesn't deal huge damage. 

Mechanics with utility skills feel kinda poor; 3k barrier, some endurance ... if you use the skill in the right attunement, in the field ? 😐 No group support option in utility skills? Would have been great if we had only one or two skills with this mechanic, but different effect depending on the field (like the elite skill in fact).

No support option in the traits ? (outside one more boon in the field ...)

 

It looks like a pvp spec, to hold a node and spam auras (and support may come from it with water spec) which is nice; but in pve and wvw I don't see reason to play it in group. An other clunky might/fury bot spec, now with quickness  but you don't have more utilities, tools, buffs ...

 

I hope we could share the effects on auras (hardened and powering). Why not even the  Elemental Empowerement.

 

Edited September 18, 2021 by Zhaid Zhem.6508

[Zauber.4069]

The f5 ability should work like ventari's tablet (maybe they could add 3/5 sec cd in order to move it). We need to move those spheres for pve and wvw content. 15 sec cd kills this ability.

Edited September 18, 2021 by Zauber.4069

[InsaneQR.7412]

Tbh i am really stoked for cele catalyst.

With traveler runes and sigil of stars you can have a +1050 in all stats without taking traitline bonusses into account.

 

This will be freaking epic.

[Zhaid Zhem.6508]

1 hour ago, Zauber.4069 said:

The f5 ability should work like ventari's tablet (maybe they could add 3/5 sec cd in order to move it). We need to move those spheres for pve and wvw content. 15 sec cd kills this ability.

 

👍It would have been great if it worked a bit like sand shade or ventari. Short duration you can eventually enlarge by stacking energy, or by traits, but also short CD and possibility to reposition it.

Here, you place it once, if you fail or the enemy moves ... too bad ... you have to wait 15sec again for your class mechanic. A bit annoying if you're the quickness support in the group...
I get it's the point, the restriction > the "reward" but it reduces a lot the gameplay; you'll just stand on nodes and you will never use the field somewhere else. It mights mean nerfs the first month because "QQ too op the cap-holder catalyst"

 

ps: may be I'm wrong; With his cheat "no CD no energy requirement" in the video, it's hard to have an accurate insight into, as well as an analysis. But my first impression, it's a bit clunky, slack.

 

Edited September 18, 2021 by Zhaid Zhem.6508

[nopoet.2960]

I don't even play an ele but I'm going to level up a Catalyst.  I think they got it "right" with hammer.  The element should determine how close you play to your foe not the weapon.   Earth and Fire should always draw you closer to the action.  Air should encourage movement and Water, in my opinion should be the only reliable range option. 

 

I'm probably wrong about all of which is why I don't play an ele but this spec is attractive.

[Tempest.8479]

After seeing the press release yesterday I said I was cautiously optimistic, and after seeing the preview I'm actually impressed. As a Weaver main who went into this round of elite specs not expecting to get anything from ele that would make me consider switching, I feel that Catalyst has exceeded my expectations. Between hammer and it's mechanics, I think it strikes the right balance between mid-range and melee to carve out and interesting space for itself and had my mind racing to think of all the possible combos and synergies that make ele the best class to me.

 

It also feels good to be right about people underestimating the ranged potential of hammer on Thursday lol

[kurosy.1384]

I still think that i would have prefered some more love for "true range" but i must say i wasn't expecting such a fun and good looking spec! My biggest fear was that catalyst was strictly designed for melee (with mechanics only working melee) but the spec itself isn't like that.
On the other hand, hammer is wonderful and it could have been perfect with some attacks at 900 range, nevertheless it looks fun and engaging.

What i like most is:
- this spec opens some new possibility for Ele to finally be a wanted presence in group content like raid (maybe perma quickness, some more tank tool that allows multiple blocks to tank certain bosses and maybe even something else) as more than pure dps.
- i like that they're trying to make combos valuable again and i like the synergy the traits have with other traitlines and different playstyles
- Staff might be actually a good weapon on catalyst thanks to some of those utilities, can't wait to try this out! Also the other existing weapons seem to synergize very interestingly.
 

[ChronoPinoyX.7923]

5 hours ago, Zauber.4069 said:

The f5 ability should work like ventari's tablet (maybe they could add 3/5 sec cd in order to move it). We need to move those spheres for pve and wvw content. 15 sec cd kills this ability.

That's actually a good point. Considering the sphere works almost in the same manner as Renegade spirits without being able to spam it, it's deadlock on a single area is actually kinda whack.

You'd think for something "advanced", the Catalysts in Tyria and Cantha would've considered allowing their Jade Tech Sphere conduits to move around for better utility lel

Edited September 18, 2021 by ChronoPinoyX.7923

[draxynnic.3719]

4 hours ago, nopoet.2960 said:

I don't even play an ele but I'm going to level up a Catalyst.  I think they got it "right" with hammer.  The element should determine how close you play to your foe not the weapon.   Earth and Fire should always draw you closer to the action.  Air should encourage movement and Water, in my opinion should be the only reliable range option. 

 

I'm probably wrong about all of which is why I don't play an ele but this spec is attractive.

You've pretty much just described how dagger/dagger works. Problem is that water is also coded as the healing attunement with daggers, so while water has the longest range attack on that set, it hits like a wet noodle.

 

Hammer shifts it to fire and air being range (but the same range as dagger water) and water and earth being melee (but this time, water seems to have decent enough damage that it's not just something you go into when you need to heal).

[Gibson.4036]

13 hours ago, BlackBeard.2873 said:

 

Everybody is looking at hammer like its the weapon to use, but I'm not sure it is. How about this:

3s block on a 30s cd in util slot. Add that to lightning flash (which never leaves the bar), and probably an arcane skill, probably arcane blast with its 20s CD (see next point)

Now look at the Grandmaster minor trait - every COMBO (this means leaps, projectile finishers, and blasts) give you an aura depending on attunement, and the icd is per-attunement (and just so happens to align well with the 10s attunement swap icd).

Now take D/D where you have the following fields: fire 3 and fire 4 and your well and the following finishers: earth 2,4/5, water 3, on top of an on-weapon shocking aura and frost aura. Alternatively take staff where you have fields on: fire 3,4, water 3,5, air 5, and finishers on earth 1, 2, water 2.  Add on earth dodge-roll with evasive arcana.

Now with your build of water/arcana/catalyst (blast finisher and boons in arcana), water/earth/catalyst (prot on aura + stone heart to mitigate ALL CRITS), or water/fire/catalyst (infinite condi cleanse in fire) you have perma-prot, 50+% uptime of magnetic aura and shocking aura shared with your team.

Yea, that'll do for tanking.

I’m not a theorycrafter at all, but I loved D/D Ele back in the early years. When I came back after a several year break and found my D/D Ele lackluster compared to most other professions I mostly stopped playing my Ele. He was my first character, and the only one I still have that was created on launch day. If Catalyst revives D/D, I will be very happy.

Edited September 18, 2021 by Gibson.4036

[fuzzyp.6295]

8 hours ago, shinta.8906 said:

y i get you and i ve to say i also forgot that 1 hammer water heal to mention. meanwhile though: what are your stunbreaks? the amount of stab looked good ngl but it takes 1 nec to fear chain u back to spawn as you gonna lack stunbreaks. you also gonna lack range or the ability to avoid channeled attacks such as slb merge. you just gonna get kited hard sitting next to your atunment well.

if anything the spec screams teamfighty damage dealer with offensive support but its gonna be also dependant on support to survive. those 600 range will also cripple its effect regarding the tf area.

compared to the cd reduction of bladesworns amo system or vindicators endurance regen and those 3s dodges that btw can trace u down and hit for 7k that elite looks underwhelming to me.

Well, strictly looking at Catalyst it has Invigorating Air as a stun break which also increases our energy so we can not only break out of a fear but then dodge one of the chained attacks you're mentioned.

But I mean... you are really just looking at what Catalyst has. Elementalist has a lot of fantastic stun breaks... Armor of Earth, Mist Form, Arcane Shield all look like they'll have great synergy with this kind of defensive class. Elementalist has always had a lot of stun break options, that has never been an issue.

Also, reminder that the block for Catalyst in the utility is a channeled block, like shield for Warrior, so right there is your answer to channeled attacks too.

And for issues with Range... the amount of Aura Spam this build has the potential of yielding will mean Magnetic Aura should be pretty easy to come about. That should help deal with long range spam.

I don't think this spec is going to need team support to stay alive, its going to work as the Bruiser spec its suppose to be. It'll be an anchor on the battlefield that can hold down a point or area even under heavy pressure with all its incredible amount of damage reduction abilities and blocks. It may not be able to kill without help, but its not going to be your regular elementalist where you can just one shot them if they're unaware.

Edited September 18, 2021 by fuzzyp.6295

[Stallic.2397]

I'm a pvp player so this is strictly in that pov. But catalyst buffs every weakness core ele had. Aura spam in every element, aura buffs, stat bonuses for every stat, and constant fields to play with. 

 

The great thing too is catalyst doesn't force a certain weapon like weaver did. There's no bonuses solely for hammer. I hate those traits on a class that any weapon swap. This spec seems to work well with every weapon cause the traits buffs the character. 

 

I don't think hammer is meant for pvp but we'll see. And the F5 might be Clunky. I'll wait till beta to determine that. But from what I see, catalyst looks great. Hope it can contend with the other elites like warrior and their 340k F2 ability (haha, I know it's just pve, but Kitten!) 

[Zhaid Zhem.6508]

Buffs aren't that high. Already you need to stack them with "special" rotation ; but you must forget weaver with permanent +10% condition damage +20% condi duration (less in pvp), or +10% damage with swiftness, +10% precision, +15% in pvp; +120 power, 120 ferocity, vitality bonus etc. So +3~10% in all stats ...

Edited September 19, 2021 by Zhaid Zhem.6508

[The Great Al.2546]

Energy mechanic comes out of nowhere, with no synergy with existing traits, to gate the profession mechanic, which is…a combo field. 
 

the augments are the most uninspired skills I’ve seen on any class, the elite having a 90s cool down is just unbelievable. Even the augments near their corresponding field seem to do so little. 
 

This is the second elite spec out of the 3 that will basically be an auramancer. The two arcane skills that have a total of 5 charges of finishers on them seem like way better usages of utility skills than augments. 
 

augments are the only skill type that I’m aware of that don’t have a single corresponding trait to boost them in any way. 
 

why is there no trait that boosts your hammer 3 ability when all 4 elements are active, or better yet, why isn’t this built into the grand finale?

 

The hammer is fairly exciting, I agree. But the profession mechanic, augments, and trait lines are really really underwhelming.