Catalyst Feedback Thread

[Kidel.2057]

7 minutes ago, Daddy.8125 said:

its mechanic is Non-existant lol how can we say cata will be decent with minor things to tweak?.. vindicator if anything has been said to be a heap stronger effectively then both of these speccs ur comparing them to.

Litterally in a PvP Situation theres no point to actually play Cata above any of the others because it plays identically to Core Ele, Weaver plays both a Ranged and Melee role just better then it. Why wuldnt u run freshair Weaver instead of Freshair Cata, because of cata mechanically. the hammer has to be extremely good to even make the specc worthwhile using.. and its just fundamentally not.

not even remotely close, weave self and Fiery greatsword are both fundamentally better

Nah, Vindicator is inferior to Power Renegade / Herald / Core in all game modes with terrible utilities/elites and traits. Literally nothing is good except GS and 1 of the 3 dodges. 

[Hubnoz.2407]

Ok, the idea of the Catalist is reaally good, but the execution is not. You have to work so much and keep track of so many things and the payoff is unexistent. The class mechanic does not work as intended and its preferable to play with another weapon instead of the hammer to make it work. And if I can't really use the sphere, and I can't use the new weapon why am I playing the spec?
 

Hammer:

Hammer skills are good and seems fun, but the cast time is awful, clunky and it has really low damage in PvP (didn't test it on PvE since ArcDPS is not working). As an example Earth 2 just locks you in the animation and you can't do much about it.

The only skill with a good cast time is the skill 3 which is a really good and fun idea, but it lasts for only 5 seconds so you have to work fast to get all 4 running for a really small buff and since you have to go fast you dont have time to cast the other skills since they have long cast times and lock you in the animation so you'll end up with all your attunements on CD for a patetic buff.

Since the whole mechanic of the spec consist in doing combo finishers to keep up the buffs and generate auras its a shame that Hammer only have 1 finisher per attunement and with a big CD attached to it, making it a unrealliable weapon to do that.

Solutions:

- I would cut the cast time in at least half so it can be less clunky or at least make the skills hit really hard since its a slow weapon.

- For the 3 skill i would up the duration to 10 or 15 seconds so we can take our time to cycle the elements and use our skills in the between and to have the cool mechanic of having orbs orbiting you while you fight.

- Maybe give some finishers on the skills with lower cds also, Air 2 and Earth 2 can be a Swirl finisher, Fire 1 and 2 can have a 20% projectile finisher as well.
- Earth 4 should have a longer duration so we can really use to block an attack on another element as intended (even Cal struggled with it on the presentation . . .)

- Since Ele is an squishy class and you plan on giving it a slow half melee half midrange weapon, it should be long range so we can stay out of trouble or the spec needs to have an realiable way to sustain or stay alive while using it (like Weaver can get bonus Vit and a lot of barriers). Otherwise we will only get insta killed in PvP and WvW.

 

Jade Sphere:

 

The concept is good but it should work like it was shown in the preview stream, without cooldowns and without energy. Since Catalist relly on combo fields giving it a permanent combo field would be a good idea, the CD would be applied so we can move it since its a small static field. Energy should be just deleted, Hammer is too slow to build it up and since it has no combo fields on itself you have to relly completly on the sphere to use your finishers. In the end of the day you wont have it up for 90% of the time.

Solutions:

- Remove energy, it doesnt do nothing and just make the sphere unplayable. Make it a permanent combo field so we can use the class mechanic as intended.

- The Sphere is static so it will be useless in PvP and WvW, make it so we can relocate it on a CD (and reduce it so it can be used on PvP enviroments).

 

Traits and Utilities:

 

The traits are a bit underwhelming  we got a lot of buffs that are kinda hard to upkeep and not rewarding to do so. Elementalists are always too hard to play and with no payoff (on PvE) the duration of the buffs is also a bit too short to be able to juggle them. This incentivise a fast paced rotation but since we got a slow weapon its doesnt feel good to play.

The bottom line with the traits focusing the sphere needs to be revised so they are more interesting.

The utilities are bad and bland, they should have more flavour since in pratical terms its almost impossible to use them inside the sphere, so we should get a bigger payoff for doing that.

The elite skill seems like a utility and not a good one. . .

 

Final Thoughts

The idea and concept of the spec is good and we have a good base that desperatly need changes so we can have fun with it. We know that giving a 2 handed weapon to the Elementalist was really charging on the team so most of the resources went into that. Its a beta and thats what betas are for, getting feedback to keep improving, so I hope that we can reach a fun and rewarding spec to play when EoD come out.
I believe that we all got sooo hyped for the catalist with the stream that people (myself included) got really disapointed when we got our hands on it.
I hope that you can power through the wave of negativity and salvage some good feedback to work on before the expansion comes.

Thanks for your attention and thanks for creating this amazing game we love to play <3

[Snowskau.4369]

I think enough has been said about the tuning and technicalities of the spec so I'll try to express my opinion on the idea of it instead.

 

People immediately called this a scrapper, and I don't think it could have been any more accurate. The sheer identity crisis of this spec is incredible. The elementalist, to me, is one of if not the most significant facet of the mage archetype this game has: a staff-wielding scholar brimming with arcane knowledge, conjuring elemental forces and casting cantrips. You have the boundless potentials of magic to work with and what you come up with is... Ele roleplaying scrapper. Your class identity is a little floating technological sphere thing, and your F5 skill is function gyro with a charge-up. Elementalist can summon forth elemental creatures on a whim but apparently now I need a **** Samsung hologram projector to literally project the appearance of being a mage. I don't remember much of GW1, but Cantha seemed to have a particular affinity with the stars and the celestial realm, and I'm left to just imagine how cool it would have been if ele got to develop it's arcane knowlege in such a direction, like gaining insight into a fifth element, or getting an awesome familiar to draw cool powers out of. I love playing mages in other RPGs for slinging spells and having all kinds of cool creative magics and mechanics, but all I get here, with this spec, supposedly mixing up and making fresh my class, is a worse core ele but with one additional AoE cast on my hotbar. It changes element with me? I struggle to express how underwhelmed I am.

 

Hammer itself also perfectly embodies identity crisis. It feels like you just put sword, dagger and scepter in a blender with dash of focus. I'm in a bit of a bind here as, while all these skills are technically new and creative, I just struggle to be impressed with them at all. It could just be a symptom of nothing being magical when everthing is--I don't feel like this skillset brings anything to my class that I didn't have before; they just seem like something the previously mentioned weapons were already doing, and potentially doing better. I'm left just wanting to completely avoid this thing in favor of any other weapon like it's 2012. In fact, I'd so much rather just play core ele entirely. It feels like the traits want me constantly comboing for auras, and yet hammer itself doesn't have a single field to place, like just a way to force you to use function gyro, or relying on other players to place fields for you.

 

The utilities also come off as rather unoriginal. Their only distinguishable feature is playing off your function gyro field, but other than that do little new. Passively regenerate health. Passively increase damage by percent. Passively increase damage by extra strike. Simply block attacks (hello Obsidian Flesh). Passively gain endurance and stunbreak (guess it's different from vigor in that it can't be stripped?). Passively decrease cooldowns as you fight. I might be throwing a bit too much shade, I don't particularly hate them, but I just feel like running glyphs instead. Maybe a conjure, or a cantrip--hell even a signet or arcane skill.

 

Maybe I'm just under-appreciating function gyro, maybe I just need to give this spec far more time to grow on me, but all this time I've just been thinking core elementalist is both cooler and more fun to play. I honestly still find myself agreeing with tantrum crybabies on reddit who are calling for this spec to just be scrapped and to start over completely. Nothing about this lore, this themeing, this weapon, or this skill design felt wanted or warranted. I don't think buffing numbers or adding effects can salvage the absolute crisis of identity and design that permeates every aspect of this elite specialisation. It appears far, far worse than dragonhunter ever was, by orders of magnitude, because even if dragonhunter weren't good--which is absolutely is--it would remain at least unique and a mix-up of it's core class. I would never in the conceivable lifetime of this game slot this on my ele, over tempest, weaver, or even a core spec. It is a complete flounder.

[soviet taco.7635]

-  F5 is too hard to keep up and is not rewarding besides in lightning; energy mechanic seems pointless.

- Elite seems counter intuitive; Favors staying in one attunement to reduce cooldowns but hammer 3 encourages switching through quickly and the minor grandmaster trait also encourages switching through attunements to do combos and get auras.

- Augment uptime is too low for having cast times, cant stack two and get a full combo off without them running out

- Orbs could potentially be up for longer as well

Besides the issues of the spec just not feeling smooth right now I think its got some great potential and is a super cool concept. 

 

Edited September 22, 2021 by soviet taco.7635

[Ultramex.1506]

I noticed that without hammer, the spec don't have much else to offer beside utilities and F5. Tempest have overload, Weaver have dual skills on other weapons

[ledernierrempart.6871]

this should be renamed as the "clunkalyst"  X)

[Rider.6024]

Adding one more comment,

My only problem so far with Catalyst is that hammer has essentially 0 defensive utilty

technically the leap back from air 4 can be used as a dodge without evade frames.... and earth 4 blocks ONE attack....

I cant see hammer being remotely workable in pvp even with mag shield and fire axe for their defensive utilities

The aurashare builds in wvw and pve will be great, but I still think other weapons hit harder AND have way more defensive utility, hell scepter without an offhand is more defensive lol

[Bunkilicious.4735]

I was really excited to hop on and start trying this new Elite spec out, but quickly found myself with mixed feelings on it.

The good:
-Hammer 3 skills. The spheres floating around the character look neat and unique visually.
-Traits and other unique spec features. I enjoyed the direction with some of the traits, such as stability with Auras, as well as Elemental Empowerment. The latter seems beneficial no matter what stat selection the player chooses for their gear, and that's pretty nice!
-Skills. Relentless Fire is pretty nice in concept for when you really want that boost of damage. It's nice that it affects both strike damage as well as conditions.

The not-so-good:
-Hammer 3 skills. While the spheres from the 3 skill LOOK neat and unique visually, using them feels almost hectic. It feels like a rush through all the elements just to summon them all for the Grand Finale. It feels lackluster in terms of damage and effects when that time could be spent using other hammer skills in any given element. Given that the hammer attacks are relatively slow, there isn't much you can do with many of them before you need to swap attunements and summon the next one. 
-Auras. Several of the traits give boosts to Auras. However, there isn't much of a way for a solo-playing Catalyst to generate their own fields to really warrant focusing on these traits. The F5 skill creates a field, yes, but it also feels like it doesn't last long enough and doesn't charge fast enough to really focus on being that Aura creator. If changes are made to make Aura-generation more reliable, I'd suggest allowing the traits revolving around them also be applied to Auras the player gives to allies. Some support options, less selfish.
-Jade Sphere. Honestly, this one feels like there isn't enough reward for the energy build up. It's small, stationary, and the ability to recall it early makes it feel like it was a waste. I almost feel like this and the Hammer 3 skill could be swapped for a smoother gameplay. For instance, Hammer 3 ability could summon a field of the current element's type for 5 seconds. This field moves with the player much like the current Hammer 3 spheres. This would give players a chance to generate their own field for combos. Have it last 5 seconds with a 10 second cooldown across all elements if Aura-stability-spam is a gameplay balance concern. F5 could be charging up ALL the spheres of the current Hammer 3 skills. The player could choose to have them orbit for a given time, or press F5 again to fire them off instantly. IF the Jade Sphere as it is currently remains the F5 skill, I'd like the ability to move it, or at least conserve unspent energy when recalling it early.
-Healing Skill. The healing skill first and foremost was not all that impressive for the close-midrange sort of gameplay. The healing often felt like it was ticking up too slowly if healing was desperately needed. I'd suggest perhaps giving a barrier for that full heal amount along with that ticking healing. If the barrier is lost as health is gained, it at least can act as a safety buffer for the squishy Elementalist.
-Utility Skills. Implemented as they are, I found a lot of these to be lackluster. To get any real effect out of them, it needs to be in the right sphere. Even then, it feels like there's other, better options already in the Elementalist's kit. I'd almost rather see this augment as a single skill, but with different effects depending on which Sphere it is used in. 
-Elite Skill. I sort of like the cooldown reduction in concept, but the hammer is too slow for me to feel like it made a huge difference. On top of that, the granting of buffs being based on attunement feels lackluster for an Elite Skill with that 90 second cooldown.
 

Edited September 22, 2021 by Bunkilicious.4735

[Zeesh.7286]

I'll just make a few points about hammer to sum up my disappointments. 16 weapon skills on hammer and 0 cleanses. ZERO. Even the heal skill only cleanses when used in water jade sphere field which is locked behind energy AND an attunement cooldown. I have to use either fire traitline or water traitline to get any cleansing or just run cantrips.. so like.. why not just play tempest or weaver or even core ele with a weapons that have cleansing..

 

Your entire catalyst traitline is geared towards synergizing with combo fields and generating auras with blasts. Okay.. well? Where are they? You are better off using dagger/focus with catalyst at this point. The damage is disappointingly low too compared to weaver and catalyst has no sustain compared to weaver. What do stat boosts from catalyst traits mean?? They're unreliable and impossible to maintain for long durations compared to weaver barrier which is reliable and available when needed. (Please don't nerf weaver just to make catalyst attractive) 

 

Whoever designed this weapon sure as heck was not involved in designing the Catalyst traitlines and has probably never played an elementalist. Hammer is completely unviable with catalyst traitlines and has no redeeming qualities as a weapon set when compared to dagger which gives lots of auras and combo options. Even staff is better pn catalyst at this point. 

 

Sorry if the tone is aggressive but i also don't want to mask the disappointment that i feel with catalyst at the moment.

[Zeesh.7286]

Also to the people who are saying hammer 3 is cool, did we play the same game? I mean i guess the aesthetics look fine but it lasts only 5 secs and a single interrupt in can mean it goes to waste even if you spend a painful amount of time going through 4  attunements to summon it. At least warrior only has to press 1 button to charge for 5 secs.. we have to play piano for all 4 orbs and the ending note is a scream of tragedy. That skill is the most lacklustre one on the entire weaponset for me. To top it off, its a projectile.... 😭

[Zeesh.7286]

And, please add a mechanism for us to move the jade sphere fields with us like and engi can move gyro wells with them. Remove all damage from them if needed but make them move with the players or allow us to relocate them..Right now they get wasted in wvw and pvp where you have to keep moving as an ele. We are eles not scourges. 

[Bleikopf.2491]

I did not expect a Hammer Ele

To start off, I didn't expect a Hammer. I pretty much agree with the sentiment "and then we decided to give Ele a Hammer somehow". Due to the Lightning Hammer I did count Hammer as already checked (and the other conjure weapons), leaving us with Rifle, Pistol, Mace and Torch. I did expect Rifle or Pistol to be the next weapon, but apparently we're stuck in melee hell.
If our conjure weapons are fair game as well, that would open up the Axe, both Bows, Shield as well as a Greatsword.

Which leaves me with the question - why, of all these weapon choices, did we get a Hammer?

 

The Catalysator

At the moment, Cata has a lot of issues. A lot of them are number issues, but there are also some mechanical and design issues.
I'll talk about the design, as numbers can always be tweaked.

What exactly is this spec supposed to do? Because it feels like three or four seperate ideas put together with very, very few synergies between them.
We got the Combo idea, the Jade Sphere, the Hammer and the twirly elemental balls.
I can see where the intent is - you want Combos, so you use your Hammer with the Jade Sphere and get rewarded for that. Also, twirly elemental balls! And that's about as deep as the synergy goes.

On a side note, I do not believe that Auras are a Tempest thing. They have been a thing long before Tempest existed, and it merely adopted Auras. Which I believe is interesting and engaging. Auras are more of a defensive Elementalist mechanic, so it makes sense to see them in Catalyst and Tempest, but not in Weaver.

Combos
Looking at the trait line, my initial thought was "this could work really well with Dagger/Dagger or even Dagger/Focus". They have good access to Auras as well as Aura Detonators, combo fields and many combo finishers. So how the hell did we end up with Hammer in its current state? It's lacking any combo fields, one situational aura and the finishers usually have a long cast time and/or are clunky to use. The traitline screams at us to use combos, but the weapon cannot even do it by itself.

Hammer
The Hammer is weird. It's very slow, that is okay. But it's also a (mostly) melee spec and stability still feels a bit hard to get inside this spec. A lot of skills have an unneccessarily long cast time with medioce reward; it feels almost like someone tried to bring the worst thing about the Staff into melee range. The animations are absolutely beautiful and feel very impactful. Just wish it would be backed up by gameplay. It's fun to swing the Hammer around. I just wouldn't do it if I ever cared about achieving something.

The range of the Hammer seems a bit over the place. Sometimes it's melee, sometimes it's mid-range, sometimes it's something inbetween. It's great to have those options if you need them, but it can also get in the way really quickly.

Twirly Elemental Balls
Really great animation that's beautiful to watch and fun to activate.
Why does the Cata have that?
I fail to see a connection to anything we've established yet - Jade Sphere, Hammer or Combos. What's the point?
Sometimes I just forget to activate them and I don't really feel like they're having much immediate impact. They also don't last that long, so they're more of an immediate skill.
Why?

Jade Sphere
First off - I hate F5 skills. At the point we have 5 different skills above your weapon skills it's becoming hard to reach for me. I do use a different keybinding, but it's still uncomfortable. I guess I'll have to get used to it, but I'd rather we just move the F5 to whatever Element we're in. Double-Attuning isn't a thing for Cata so might as well use that space.

I think I can get behind the thought process that came up with the Jade Sphere - we want Combos, so our Hammer has to have combo fields readily available. Somewhere things must have gotten horribly awry though, as we now have a combo field that's unneccessarily convoluted to access, no combo fields on the Hammer itself and combo finishers that are a bit mediocre instead.

What I don't get behind, however, is how this is supposed to be a fun mechanic. Or how exactly this is special enough to warrant to be called a new mechanic for the ele. I'm pretty sure Elementalists know very well what combo fields are, being the combo class and all, so I don't know why we get a glorified combo field as a class mechanic. Don't get me wrong, the quickness from Air is neat. But it's only that, neat.

There are also other problems with the Jade Spheres that have been called out numerous times in this thread already.

I can only suggest swapping the Jade Sphere with the Twirly Elementa Balls. It's not a solution that'll fix everything, but it's at least the start of what one could call an elite spec.

And that's it for now  from my side. Don't mistake my tone for hostility, the Elementalist is very dear to me and there are many things I think are fun about the Cata. But the direction we're currently heading with the Cata is absolutely terrific. People will find a way to make it work, but I don't think it's going to be fun or rewarding. There are some deeper design issues here at play that have to be ironed out before we can really worry about the numbers.

Edited September 22, 2021 by Bleikopf.2491
Formatting

[Hawkeye.5318]

Very Clunky, too much work for almost no pay off. Energy mechanics current design means the class actually works much better with D/D or Staff then Hammer.

 

- Make the Sphere well follow you around (you learned this lesson with Scrapper already). This also goes into the nice fantasy of a walking storm the rest of the spec is giving. 

- Remove energy as a mechanic completely. It isn't adding anything to the design, the Sphere already has a cooldown, and the design of it makes fast hitting weapons work better. (If you dont remove it, at least give it a druid style UI. the bar is impossible to see)

- The orbs on Hammer 3 need to be instant cast, this improves the flow a ton. They also need to last a little longer (~8s) since the hammer skill cast times are so long its nearly impossible to build all 4 up and still use other skills

- Remove Grand Finale, and let Hammer 3 be re-castable so you can just keep chaining through elements and make them permanently up

- Air Hammer 5 is a horrifically bad skill that needs its own call out. The delay on the explosion should be removed completely. Even core tyria open world mobs easily walk out of this skill without getting stunned. 

- Not enough fields and finishers for a spec entirely designed around them. Again makes you want to just use a staff dagger or even scepter. Air 2 /Earth 2 / Water 5 should be whirls, etc

 

 

[tostadude.9214]

Feedback from someone who mainly plays pvp.
Utilities

Issue - Elite Skill
Firstly, since barely anyone mentioned it the Elite skill design should have some changes , it feels unrewarding. It's not an exciting skill, there is nothing visually interesting to it. No gameplay changes when you use it, you just keep on doing the same thing(including for the opponent, they will just try to avoid getting hit as usual). Using a 90 second cooldown skill to get some weak buffs and maybe recover your weapon skills a bit sooner is just not engaging. 
Proposed Solution
I suggest that the elite skill locks your energy to maximum(to help maintain the f5 during some emergency situation) and that  makes all augments used during it's duration get their buffed version. Even with these changes the skill would require a cd reduction to compete with the remaining elites. 

 

Issue - Augments
As many have said, the augment skills feel underwhelming. There is no proper build craft to be had with them as it stands(and yes I know there will be a rune that interacts with them later). 
Proposed Solutions

1 - Have them grant the caster an aura so that they synergize traits(and increase the CDs if that makes them too powerful). Note: you would be probably give them the same treatment as with tempest shouts and have the air one not grant the aura.
2 - To make augments a bit more special and reward proper gameplay interaction with f5, you could have the augment CDs refresh quicker as the player stands on the correct element f5.

 

Hammer

Issue - Hammer 3
Hammer 3 is a brilliant idea that leads to fun gameplay. However, the duration is too short given the cast times of the other hammer skills. If you start casting air 2 or earth 2 say goodbye to your fun elemental shenanigans. Getting CCd also means you're most likely losing your build up.
Proposed Solution

Increase the buff base duration and allow the summoning part to be instant cast(rev hammers are instant cast aswell) so that you can summon a new hammer even while stunned to at least maintain the flow. The counterplay still remains, since the opponent can dodge, LoS, block, reflect, etc.
There should be a greater reward for reaching the perfect situation with all 4 elements lined(maybe increase projectile damage by X%, or have them become arcane and shoot a single powerful projectile that crits).

Issue - Flow, and combos

1. It's very hard to combo air 4 into fire 4 as it pushes you too far(maybe give fire 4 some more range)

2. Fire 5's range is not inline with the remaining fire skills, maybe have it be a ground targeted leap skill(this would help flowing from fire to water/earth attunements and giving hammer some more mobility would increase it's survivability and chase potential)

3. Water attunement is a damage attunement. The healing and condition cleansing aspects are simply unreliable.(Maybe have water 2 grant regeneration if you hit the first strike)

Issue - Fields and Finishers
The hammer could really use a field to allow for synergy with the traits.

Proposed Solution

Have fire 4 be a fire field.
 

Trait Synergy and fun builds

Here are a few suggestions for more meaningful trait choices.

1. Fire - Pyromancer's Puissance: Flame Expulsion being a blast would allow the Catalyst to combo when leaving the fire attunement while inside the f5.
2. Water - Having the water f5 grant regeneration instead of resolution would combo nicely with Cleansing Water (otherwise the catalysts will always take Powerful Aura). There is no resolution synergy in the elementalist kit.
3. Spectacular Sphere - Feels meaningless, maybe make it so the new buffs are pulsed with a short duration

Ending Notes
Don't worry about the harsh criticism, you're doing great. With some tuning Catalyst will be a great addition to GW2.
Best regards.

[Usagi.4835]

I mainly play WvW (and sometimes PvP) and so I've posted my thoughts and impressions with that in mind. Currently, there's a whole slew of things wrong with Catalyst, many of which have probably already been mentioned in this thread:

1. Augments range from worthless to flawed. Both the base and bonus conditional effects tied to lingering around the Jade Sphere are underwhelming. The cast times make them clunky and inconvenient to use and fit into a rotation: for instance, Relentless Fire has a limited benefit for skills with long cast times like Meteor Shower and is very easy to cancel-cast when you're trying to fit as much as you can into that 5-second window. I thought Shattering Ice would function like One Wolf Pack but the strikes hit for like 176. Invigorating Air is a stunbreak with a cast time and a longer cooldown than Signet of Air. The elite is okay, I suppose, but the cooldown is kind of long given that it's dependent on you actively hitting something; I'm quite tired of seeing the same traits (gain boon based on attunement) and it's pretty weak.

Hammer sucks. From the press kit:

Quote

The catalyst is primarily a damage dealer that is adept at controlling areas of the battlefield.

1. Where's the damage? Why are the cast times so long? Why are there no fields or finishers on a weapon that's supposed to synergise with the mechanics of the specialisation? If you're going to have long cast times to fit in with the theme of hammer as a slow, lumbering weapon, that's fine. But can we get damage to compensate? Even in full zerk, you don't do any damage. I watched Phantaram play hammer against a Bladesworn. The other guy's health didn't move at all from 100%. Phanta couldn't even break the tiny amount of barrier he had.
2. Hammer suffers from the same problems that Virtuoso dagger did and that's without taking into consideration the range discrepancy (600 vs 1200): the autoattacks projectiles are too slow. If you're chasing someone or they're strafing, they're unlikely to even connect with your target.
3. I think the earth auto could do with getting a bleed stack tacked onto it. Sure, that's boring but that would bring it in line with other earth autos; the single block on Immutable Stone is weak.
4. It's already been said many times. The orbs are interesting and actually present something new. But the durations are so short that you're very restricted as to what you can do and how you can play with them.

Moving onto the Jade Sphere, from the press kit:

Quote

...it can be expended to deploy and maintain the Jade Sphere, creating an area of power that bolsters allies and damages enemies.

1. With the Jade Sphere, there is no sense of area control because it's so infrequent, the damage is so watered down, and the effects are not only very weak but dependent on being stationary. One stack of pulsing might sucks. Pulsing protection is better, more readily, and more safely provided by Tempest. There's little incentive to use it. As mentioned before, Catalyst's mechanic is basically just a complementary combo field.
2. Its fixed stationary nature makes it limited and risky to use. Besides that, there are two more problems: the cooldown - around 17 seconds if you've taken Arcane, otherwise 20 seconds - the new energy cost which you need to maintain your sphere, and then the fact you have to generate energy at all. Pick one.
3. You're basically locked into an attunement if, say, you want a specific buff e.g. quickness in air, which is easily the best and most useful of the four.

And why is Arcane Fury, previously a minor trait, being sold back to us as a 'new' adept major trait? Is this a joke?

To conclude, it's too much work for too little in return. Like staff weaver, if I have to work hard knitting together multiple skills, I want to see a payoff for my effort.

I'm curious what other people think: is Catalyst encroaching on Tempest's niche? Should these new aura traits be folded into existing traitlines? Since people were asking, one could argue that's the trade-off since aura traits are all over the place and ele players have to choose what they want out of their auras. The only thing that's new is the focus on combos and finishers, and weapons which don't have enough fields and finishers will struggle to take advantage of Elemental Empowerment at all. With Tempest and Weaver, all of the weapons are decent. Personally, I'd be happy with a straightforward ranged damage spec. This is all over the place.

Edited September 22, 2021 by Usagi.4835

[punahou.3986]

this definatley has been made to a condi spec once again.

the damage is any combination of zerker/assassin/marauder/valk, etc leads to low damage output, and even then its only marginally less that condi.

 

i think the damage coeffciemts in the hammers skill is set very low atm.

 

i look at AIR 2

that skills looks like it should be hitting hard on a power spec, but it very low.

i think the spec needs a 30% damage buff across the board.

 

on a condi build, thr damage is coming from fire based utilities, like the signet, and not the hammer.

 

as far as the special jade sphere...

the charge it fully, simply takes too long.

i found myself just ignoring it and not even using it.

 

my condi weaver kills 4x as fast- and i just returned and dont even have correct rotations.

[Tom.8029]

Why is Whirling Stones on Earth Hammer not a whirl finisher.  C'monnnnnnnn Anet.  Actually, I think it would be Ele's first whirl combo finisher.  Or give hammer fields to combo with itself or something.  Feels too clunky to get fields elsewhere.  Why have only combo finishers on hammer and no fields when I can just use another weapon set and get both, or use conjures.

[Erick Alastor.3917]

What, in my opinion, could be improved:

1. F5 shouldn't automatically change when swapping attunement
   if I want a new effect then I should first deactivate the previous one and then launch F5 again from the new attunement.
2. F5 indicator is too small
3. F5 radius is too small
   given its stationary nature, if it must stay stationary then at least increase it to 360
4. F5 build up feels too slow
5. F5 Water and Earth animations are kinda silly
   what are those poor beasts even trying to do? Is the Kirin boxing and the Turtle trying to be spooky?
6. Elemental Empowerment giving toughness is a problem
   get rid of that stat OR (even better) get rid of aggro based on toughness from the game as a whole and let us decide who wants to tank with what gear he prefers (ie as sometimes already happens via action key) so we don't have to keep worring about it.
7. Some Augments feels too slow
   Make Fire and Water 1/2s cast (like the air one)
8. Augments are a bit bland even associated to the F5
   You could add a different effect for every combo, if you utilize Water Augment in Fire F5 you get X, but if you utilize it in Earth F5 you get Y and so on.
9. Hammer 3 could last longer
   It would be nice having all orbs up at the same time before launching them to maximize the dmg
10. Hammer 1 earth animation is overdone
    I'd change it to something a bit more subtle considering it's just an AA

 

 

Edited September 22, 2021 by Erick Alastor.3917

[Tom.8029]

1 minute ago, Erick Alastor.3917 said:

What, in my opinion, could be improved:

1. F5 shouldn't automatically change when swapping attunement
   if I want a new effect then I should first deactivate the previous one and then launch F5 again from the new attunement.
2. F5 indicator is too small
3. F5 radius is too small
   given its stationary nature, if it must stay stationary then at least increase it to 360
4. F5 build up feels too slow
5. F5 Water and Earth animations are kinda silly
   what are those poor beasts even trying to do? Is the Kirin boxing and the Turtle trying to be spooky?
6. Elemental Empowerment giving toughness is a problem
   get rid of that stat OR (even better) get rid of aggro based on toughness from the game as a whole and let us decide who wants to tank with what gear he prefers (ie as sometimes already happens via action key) so we don't have to keep worring about it.
7. Some Augments feels too slow
   Make Fire and Water 1/2s cast (like the air one)
8. Augments are a bit bland even associated to the F5
   You could add a different effect for every combo, if you utilize Water Augment in Fire F5 you get X, but if you utilize it Earth F5 you get Y and so on.
9. Hammer 3 could last longer
   It would be nice having all orbs up at the same time before launching them to maximize the dmg
10. Hammer 1 earth animation is overdone
    I'd change it to something a bit more subtle considering it's just an AA

 

 

I thought the same thing.  I found it annoying when the F5 field type changed when I changed attunements.  Maybe I switched attunements to get a different combo finisher in another element but then the field changed, so I couldn't get the effect or aura I wanted from it.

[Yer.8096]

I agree with everyone here, and add the fact hammer skills need more reaction possibility. If you use n2 in air, for example, you NEED to cancel it to cast another skill, or else you die while stucked; for a squish, profession, that doenst work. Kuma said everything I felt about Catalyst.

After post idea: 1. elementalists changes through attunements everytime, not as an action but as part of rotation. F5 looks as "out of context". I think we could use active element attunement for spheres (like an overload); 2. You use your sphere in a location, you cannot change that location and loose all energy if you remove? Remove it doenst cause anything to anyone, why be punisehd?

Catalyst is beautiful, imo. After so many years being abandoned as a damage "unlikable (cause is squish)" in PvE and a duelist or support with low synergy in PvP compared with others, I dont have hope for elementalists. But, I really want ANet can learn how to make catalyst effective. To me, today, is a decorative spec. But, hope never dies and I believe ANet can do something about.

P.S.: Eternity's Requiem (Vindicator) have 24 impacts like a Metor Shower. But fast. Stronger. Effective for PvP.

Edited September 22, 2021 by Yer.8096
After post idea

[Tarragon.4302]

I really really do not like how this class feels to play. It feels so clunky and underwhelming. I think the best way to sum it up would be why would i play this when i can play tempest instead or why would i use hammer when i can use scepter or dagger instead. I really dont understand what the thought process was behind this class or who thought we needed something like this in the game when we have stuff that does what catalyst does but in a much more intuitive and smooth way. 

Personally I'd like to see the entire spec reworked but i know that wont happen. So instead i'd like to see changes to the overall fluidity of the class and changes to the ranged options. When you have so many buttons you need to press on ele to be effective you can not have casts times that are 3 seconds long and do baiscally nothing special to warrant the cast time. The aoe channel on air makes no sense to me, enemies can just walk out of it and you can do more damage by flipping attunements and casting other abilities. On top of this why are all the ranged options 600? it may as well not be ranged at that point. It needs to atleast be in a baseline with scepter but the abilities aren't good enough so they should be 1200 like staff so it can actually be this ranged melee hybrid, instead of this pseudo hybrid class. 
 

EoD specs so far as a whole have been very underwhelming and the commitment to being different is hurting the enjoyability of the classes. 

[candido.9065]

https://i.imgur.com/VZO8zC7.jpeg

 

This image defines what I expect about the new elementalist format

sorry "A net" just did wrong there please listen to us players

Edited September 22, 2021 by candido.9065

[AquaBR.9250]

Everyone seems bothered by the interface. Energy takes too long to charge.

 

You should be able to move the sphere like Ventari's Tablet, and take it off the F5 and put it you the current attunement button, so you can reactivate it to move the sphere to a target location more easily (my small fingers do not reach F5 that easy if i'll be using it to move the sphere).

 

Hammer 3s when you throw the balls should have increased damage for every rotation the ball do without hiting, like accumulating the damage i didn't caused because you're not playing melee, or else hammer is just a melee weapon if in the end you need to stay melee to maximize the balls damage.

Edited September 22, 2021 by AquaBR.9250

[Crazy Nachos.7918]

1 hour ago, Zeesh.7286 said:

I'll just make a few points about hammer to sum up my disappointments. 16 weapon skills on hammer and 0 cleanses. ZERO.

Hammer water 5 literally cleanses per each target hit.

[Lilieze.8290]

the UI indicator for energy and deployment is terrible

And same as weaver, The skill rotation just not work well without quickness and alac

Edited September 22, 2021 by Lilieze.8290