Credits where credits due: CATALYST IS AWESOME!

[Flori.2194]

On 9/18/2021 at 10:56 AM, Zhaid Zhem.6508 said:

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.

 

 

I have to save your statement, because it's exactly how I feel about the catalyst. Everything is rather mediocre and you can instantly think of a dozen scenarios where all of those cute little combos won't work. 

[Zunki.3916]

You can maintain Quickness if you somehow manage to have the group standing in your air field 33% of the time. All moving bosses are by default not possible to give quickness with.

The class mechanic is a lot harder to maintain than weaver and the buffs not actually better. If you kitten it up once, good luck building it up again from scratch. If you replace the boss, good luck qith your buff upkeep.

And that is with hammer. Some other qeapons cant even get enough finishers out to trigger the auras.

I like the overall design and I even would like the traits, if they were not again low reward high effort. Weaver traits at least were high reward. They should just refresh all buffs on empowerment gain and the aura skill should have 10s duration and not 6. And the gm trait should just double the bonus, ot only on max stats.

The elite skill should be something like: recall yours sphere to your location, for the duration of the skill it follows you. Reduce weapon cd by one sec every 1 sec (no condition). Make it shorter duration and much shorter cd in pve, then as much cd as needed in pvx. And when the effect ends, let the shere do smthing cool, burn in fire, heal in water, bleed in earth and quickness in air.

Edited September 19, 2021 by Zunki.3916

[Vissarion.6509]

8 hours ago, The Great Al.2546 said:

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. 

Those are my thoughts exactly. After seeing hammer I got excited as a weapon looks very promising, but after seeing utilities and especially the elite, feel very weak and uninspiring, once again nothing really new to bring, really "boring" skills.

Man that elite skill is just so weak right now, I mean can we finally get a viable elite that feels impactful to use ? 

Also traits are ok, but they don't look like they synergize well with the current loadout. Once again there's a push for auramancer (like we don't have that already).

Finally the spec gimmick (F5) it's just not interesting, it's just a combo field that lasts for a few seconds, you don't have any control on it, like if you want it to stay in air for the quickness you need to stay in air, also you can't move it, and finally you also need to charge it every time ??? That's so clunky to use. 

Ofcourse will see it in action next week but that's my thoughts for now.

Edited September 19, 2021 by Vissarion.6509

[fuzzyp.6295]

9 hours ago, The Great Al.2546 said:

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

EDIT: Let me just say you have good points here, but I'm offering up some counter points. I don't fully disagree with you, especially with your critique of Augments.

This might actually be a good thing in the long run. It goes to show that the Jade Sphere orbs are complimentary to the play style of the Catalyst, not a requirement. I would much rather have the game play mechanic work with how I play rather than dictate how I play. If Energy isn't given a lot of traits or focus, that means it will probably not be too much of a focus in the kit. Remember, Elementalist has other weapons all of which have fantastic access to fields and combos too.

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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. 

Idk, I think the Harbringers utilities are a little more uninspired if you ask me. Pretty much 3 out of 6 of them are just "gain x boons and blight." We could also honestly throw their heal skill in here too.

You're right, 90 seconds on the elite might be a little rough, but we don't really know how well the damage speed reduction will be. It could amount to a 8 second, uncorruptable alacrity which is something Elementalist has never had access to. I'd imagine the augments are less impactful because there is a lot of damage/defense built into the Catalyst just from the comboing potential. The only thing I'd think I'd change about them is the range you need to be in order to proc the secondary effect, it looks pretty small.

 

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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. 
 

Tempest is more about using Auras as a way to supplement team buffs and team survivability. Catalyst is using Auras as a selfish self enchantment feature that basically only improves the Catalyst. Auras have always been a key component for the Elementalist. I would rather then re-use Auras, which have support and synergy built into the Eles kit than invent something new just for this class.

And hey, maybe you're right. Maybe the Arcane skills will be better than the Aguments for chaining together combo. That'd be awesome considering Arcane Skills haven't been used in any one of the game modes for years. Bringing old skills to the current meta is a good thing.

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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. 

This is true, but to be fair, Augments are also on some of the shortest cool downs we've ever seen for Elementalist utilities so far.
 

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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?

These skills are already offering you 5% Damage Reduction, 5% Condition Reduce, 7% Crit Chance and 5% Increase in Strike/Condi Damage as basically passive buffs once you toggle them on. And the cool down of 18 seconds is pretty short considering they last 5 seconds each and refresh each time you use another. That means by the time you cycle through them all and use Grand Finale, you should be able to just start using them back over again. It seems plenty strong as it is, and any trait that focuses on one skill situation is probably not going to be taken all that often anyway.

Edited September 19, 2021 by fuzzyp.6295