Catalyst Feedback Thread

[scerevisiae.1972]

2 hours ago, Silverpoopoo.1476 said:

The Hammer skill 3 orbs disappear so quickly that they feel useless.

This. I don't even bother casting them.

[SnappyJoe.5490]

I'm sure it was posted, but again:
Having raids in mind - please make Hammer 3 diameter a bit lower, so it's usable at more bosses.
I believe currently it's around 420 dia, changing it to 300 or so would be great.
Especially for condi DPS, most of your conditions come from Hammer 3 hits.

[Tabootrinket.2631]

2 hours ago, Arkaile.5604 said:

My own issues with the spec have already been communicated by others, so I won't bother writing that book. However, there is one thing I would like to address.

 

Those of you asking for the Jade Sphere to act like a Scrapper's gyros, that being a well which follows the caster around, have you forgotten about how much of a pain it can be to play a flimsy class in melee range and how much that limits build diversity? Have you lot been spending too much time farming trash mobs in squads while using a full set of dire or trailblazer? If you want point blank aoes, Tempest and Weaver already offer plenty, and the Jade Sphere, while it has some serious issues that need to be addressed, is at least an opportunity to add something more interesting than yet another point blank aoe with a couple pulsing boons.

The main point of F5 is to act as a combo field that also provides bonuses though. It's not to deal damage.
And hammer already forces us to stay in somewhat close-range we're already past trying to have a range e-spec at this point

[Mik.3401]

I just played it a bit in pvp:

 

- the jade sphere feels a bit clunky and it doesn’t spawn outside of fight right?

- the fire/air skills feel a bit awkward with 600 range, 300 or 900 range would be better

-  water and earth skills are fun, I like the fact water finally does some nice damage

- traits are quite interesting but nothing mindblowing - auramancer appears to be the way to go as raw dps is kind of low

- skills number 3 are kind of awkward maybe it’s a case of getting used to them, they seem to dissipate so quickly

- utilities are cool but apart from The frost or elite one I didn’t see a point of taking any

Edited September 22, 2021 by Mik.3401

[Degine.1045]

😊Hello ANet and everyone else. 👋

 

I'm sorry but I only got to read about half of other people's comments so I apologise if I say something that has already been mentioned without referring to it.

 

Theme: 🌸Ancient poet sorcerer👍

So far I really ❤️ the theme of the catalyst. I played as a Norn and I just loved the voice overs upon switching attunements and using utility skills. The words themselves -but also the tone- really offer a more ancient and poetic feel to the Catalyst.🎋 They really make me feel like I'm playing something different from a regular elementalist. These are some which I've heard so far:

"Hotter than lava", "A brilliant ember", "Heart of a vulcano", "A soothing mist", "A swift stream", "An ocean trench", "Just a lick of frostbite",  "An ancient mountain", "A swirling gust", "A thousand storms".

 

I will try other races later, but so far great job on making the Catalyst feel more ancient and at home in Cantha.👏

 

Jade Orb: Borrow from the Revenant (please)🙏

The Jade Orb also matches this theme, but could you please make it a more prominent part of the Catalyst? This is how I would do it:  Borrow from the Revenant. Use the energy bar and upkeep mechanic in the same way. Let it charge to 50 % out of combat, increase steadily in combat and have the Jade Orb cost upkeep. Why? It is visually clear, simple to understand and the Revenant has already proven it works. It also makes the Jade Orb have a far more perceptible place in the UI. Like Vengeful Hammers and Impossible Odds I don't think it needs a cool down, but I don't know if not having it would create balance issues. Maybe just a short one like Embrace the Darkness.

 

I know people have suggested that the orb should be mobile like the gyro's from the Engineer. This is certainly an option. But, I think stationary combo field suits it more. Like for Hurricane of Pain for example, it helps to have CC. Which brings me to the next point.

 

Hammer: Fun, but no synergy.🤔

I think Skill 3 is fun to use. It is not as complicated as the Weaver, but it pays to switch attunements, making the skill stronger with each attunement.  The Grand Finale is really also just that, especially if you managed to use all attunements. It has reasonably good range (why not a more standard/common 900?), pierces, hits multiple targets and drops a bunch of nasty conditions.

The division between Fire and Air being more ranged elements and Water and Earth being more close range is a fun mix.

There is however almost no synergy with the Jade Orb, however. There are not enough combo finishers and to little CC to keep enemies in the combo field. The Fire skills are okay, in my opinion.

Air🌩️

It just makes so much sense for Hurricane of Pain to be a Whirl Finisher.

 

Earth⛰️

Please make skill 1 a chain attack too. Something like:

1. Slam your foes depositing rock splinters that damage and bleed.

(Rationale: Most weapons give Earth a condition damage focus, with bleeding)

2. Swing your hammer hurling dust at your foes that damages and blinds (1 s). 

(Rationale: Defensive, like how Enduring Swing used to be, but themed.)

3. Arc your hammer, creating a ring of jagged rock to damage, bleed and cripple your enemies.

(Rationale: the before mentioned needed CC, and again more condition based).

 

 

 

Edited September 23, 2021 by Degine.1045
Groundpound is blastfinisher.

[Zeesh.7286]

6 hours ago, Crazy Nachos.7918 said:

Hammer water 5 literally cleanses per each target hit.

 

"Per each target"

"Range is melee"

"20 something sec CD" 

 

Yea. I'll treat it as zero cleanses sorry. 

[Serephen.3420]

1 hour ago, SnappyJoe.5490 said:

I'm sure it was posted, but again:
Having raids in mind - please make Hammer 3 diameter a bit lower, so it's usable at more bosses.
I believe currently it's around 420 dia, changing it to 300 or so would be great.
Especially for condi DPS, most of your conditions come from Hammer 3 hits.

I don't think anyone will be running hammer not to mention cata in raids at this rate.

[skoda.4619]

So i've take a bit more time to think about Catalyst and still i have trouble figuring out what the elite specialization is.

Bruiser spec:

What i'm struggling with is if you want a bruiser spec you go and take weaver, it's a lot better at that gameplay with all the evades on sword and barrier, the augments and F5 ability don't really work for that kind of gameplay. Hammer as many people pointed out just doesn't work with all the buffs you have in the traitlines as you need auras for which you don't have any fields on hammer so if F5 is not up which in most cases it is not you will have a hard time maintaining them so you rely on other people which isn't really how bruising spec works and just to mention Persisting flames grandmaster doesn't work with hammer at all....


Support spec:

And if you want a support spec you have tempest, which is much better at being an auramancer than catalyst. 

I know this is a Catalyst thread but please consider giving us TEMPEST as our support spec as it is so close to being amazing, it only struggles due to not having either alacrity or quickness, which can easily be added if you make powerful auras baseline, moving elemental bastion to grandmaster water instead of it and putting alacrity or quickness when you grant an aura to allies as tempest grandmaster.  Other traitlines already sinergise well with aura application, if you go fire you get condi removal on aura application, if you go earth you get protection on aura application, if you go air you get fury and swiftness on aura application.
As well as being more reactive with insta cast shouts, saving people with rebound, 5 target stun break of eye of the storm, projectile reflect of aftershocks magnetic aura and so on....



With the above fix to tempest can make Catalyst be more free to what it could be and not be shoehorned into being a supportish bruiser spec that you're trying to make it, as it will never be as good as the likes of firebrand even if you implement all the fixed others are here suggesting.

Edited September 22, 2021 by skoda.4619
additional clarification

[Thsalf.3942]

Uninspiring, unrewarding, and not fun spec, please either completely redo this spec or make some major adjustments. 
 

One of the main problems: This spec has no identity outside of hammer, and even the hammer is completely disconnected from the concept of the wells, Jade Sphere, and the celestial icons (which do nothing). The designers really dropped the ball (pun intended) with this spec. Frankly, Anet should have chosen a bow or rifle. But we all know that’s not going to happen in this game’s existence. 
 

So how can we improve this spec:

If the Jade Sphere is going to be the selling point of this spec it needs to be the MAIN STAR of the show. Currently it is mostly cosmetic, and doesn’t affect gameplay very much. So here’s my idea:

 

Similar to Holo-smith the player’s spells will charge the Jade Sphere, enabling the player to tap into a new set of Jade Magic skills. Depending on your main hand weapon type (range/melee) you will receive range or melee type of skills. This would make the Jade Sphere rewarding, and make sense plot-wise for using Jade Magic (since jade isn’t everywhere). 
 

While you are charging the sphere, it will provide buffs/deboons/minor damage etc. based on your attunement. And you have the choice for the sphere to stay put in one place, or to follow you (I think Ranger pets can do this already). This would make it more combat friendly and customizable for both range/melee players. 
 

As for hammer, Anet really should have done the Revenant route and made it all long range. I won’t say much more about that.

 

So in summary, please go back to the drawing board. What is the point of Jade Sphere, how do you want it to connect players with Cantha, and how can you streamline the spec to not feel like the player is having to force oil and water together. 

Edited September 22, 2021 by Thsalf.3942

[Doggie.3184]

The range and melee mix feels really bizarre and clunky and also really squishy without Weaver barrier or Tempest healing. It looked like it could be cool and I gave it a chance but I just don't like it in the end.

You should just make it full range like people wanted. Even with the few range weapon skills it still plays the same way as Tempest and Weaver and forces close range but doesn't feel as fun as either of them~ making it just not feel very new and exciting.

And I'm not a fan of the slow charge up mechanic of both this and bladesworn degening out of combat because in general open world gameplay jumping enemy to enemy you pretty much don't get many chances to use it.

Edited September 22, 2021 by Doggie.3184

[bram.6138]

I sadly was not able to enjoy playing catalyst it just didn't feel fun.

 

It felt incredibly clunky to me.

the mix of ranged and melee meant it didn't feel decent either,

at ranged it was impossible to make proper use of the wells(Which were not fun to use either).

While it was not anywhere near as fun in melee as the weaver.

 

Looking  at the attunements

fire: there are 2 abilities that don't  properly work for me Flame wheel could be fun but it needs to last a lot longer and molten end felt awful since we are in a ranged element without any gap closers suddenly needing to be in melee feels weird

 

Water: the only attunement with a gap closer however this doesn't feel good to me either since I usually enter water when i need healing , Entering melee when I'm low on health feels counter intuitive.

 

air: i like hurricane of pain and wind storm, shock blast feels to slow.

 

earth; needs a gap closer to make moving from fire or air to earth feel less clunky

 

the utility skills felt boring and the fact that they were tied to an attuned made them incredibly rigid  to use.

 

the elite skill is another boring passive a good alternative might be overload well: increases range and effectiveness of the well and allows the well to attune to multiple elements at the same time

 

overall to fix this class what is needed mostly in my opinion

more fluid movement from ranged to melee(and back) might be able to achieve this by replacing one or multiple of the utility skills.

 

The well needs to be useful at ranged and melee.

 

a lot of balancing tweaks but before balancing you need to at least make a fun specialization (and in it current state regardless of balancing its clunky and counter intuitive and therefore not fun).

 

 

Edited September 22, 2021 by bram.6138

[moony.5780]

I was first really hyped about the new spec 🙂 I main ele since the beta, but when I played it first it was a complete disaster. I tried it again with different builds...So here r my notes 🙂

 

- the dmg on hammer is sometimes really low, considering the time a skill needs. In general, the dmg feels pretty low (it took me sometimes 30 sec to kill a normal low def monster with autoattack)

- i tried a super tank with waterfield and blast it all the time with lighting hammer nr1 and also the arcane blast. I was shocked how fast i died, even i made a water blast like 7 times. The water field became my weakpoint instead of my strength. It reduce my mobility, because I try to stand inside while blasting. I'm an easy target, and weak for AOE. 

- I often can't hit all monster that are around me during the battle. The melee range seems really strange.

- on dagger/dagger if felt really nice, but to be honest I played it just like core d/d ele. Just the additional quickness was a noticeable benefit. 

- I was not able to keep the buffs up(the 10 stacks) even if i tried my best.

- it takes ages to fill the energy bar. And I lose it again so fast. I can't reposition the field during the combat, because then the whole fields disappear.

- the sphere make ele go into a facetank playstyle. And ele will l lose in miserable way. The aoe field is not big enough for walking to enemies that attack me just 1 m away from the sphere.

 

I will try it next in a dungeon, because that's seems the only good place for a catalyst. 

[Tempest.8479]

So in my last post I made some suggestions on how to improve the jade sphere/related traits within the framework of how the Catalyst is currently designed, but I'll use this post to move into a hypothetical design overhaul of the augment utility skills.

I think their usability could be vastly improved if they lost their secondary benefits for being used in a matching elemental sphere in exchange for a more universal trade-off. This would work by redesigning them so they'd function more like powerful, situational signets, with conditional passive effects that only activate once a jade sphere is active. Once deployed, these skills would flip over into a new active effect that expends the passive for a more powerful immediate benefit. I tried to incorporate synergies with combo finishers and the positioning of the jade sphere on the actives, while trying to keep the passives pretty similar to what they are now. The only exception being the heal skill, which remains largely unchanged save for the more universal application of it's secondary effect. This is what I came up with (note: all the active effects would be able to stack with each other and the baseline/traited effects of the jade sphere):

 

Soothing Water

Regenerate health over time. While a jade sphere is active, cleanse a condition with each pulse.

 

Relentless Fire

While a jade sphere is active, gain 10% outgoing damage

Flip-over: Relentless Recall

Expend your augment, recalling your active sphere to your location in a massive burst of damage that also burns foes. 600 range

Unblockable

Combo finisher: blast

30 sec cooldown

 

Shattering Ice

While a jade sphere is active, successful attacks will trigger an additional strike on nearby enemies. 1/4 sec interval

Flip-over: Shattering Pulse

Expend your augment, causing your jade sphere to pulse chilling projectiles that shatter upon impact.

Duration: 5 sec

Combo finisher: physical projectile

25 sec cooldown

 

Invigorating Air

While a jade sphere is active, gain increased endurance regeneration.

Flip-over: Invigorating Return

Expend your augment and teleport back to the location of your jade sphere, dealing damage to nearby enemies and gaining superspeed per target struck. 600 range

Combo finisher: leap

Breaks stun

35 sec cooldown

 

Fortifying Earth

While a jade sphere is active, successful attacks grant aegis. 3 sec interval

Flip-over: Fortify Area

Expend your augment, temporarily increasing the radius of your jade sphere and causing it to pulse barrier.

Radius increase: 25%

Duration: 5 sec

45 sec cooldown

 

Elemental Celerity

Gain energy in combat.

Energy gain: 1 per sec

While a jade sphere is active, successful attacks reduce the cooldown of your equipped weapon skills up to 8 sec. 

Attack interval: 1 sec

Effect Interval: 60 sec

Flip-over: Elemental Accelerator

Expend your augment, gaining 10 energy and a boon based on active attunement. Apply the Elemental Accelerator effect. 

Elemental Accelerator (Effect): Reduces pulse interval of an active jade sphere to 1/2 sec and increases pulsing damage by 25%. Jade sphere now pulses a condition based on active attunement.

Duration: 5 sec

90 sec cooldown

Edited September 23, 2021 by Tempest.8479

[Jijimuge.4675]

Having thought about the catalyst a little more, I get the strong impression that it's the result of 2 quite different concepts having been merged/mashed together.  I suspect a decision may have been taken to try to combine the best ideas of 2 quite different concepts.

Thematically, the trailer mentions how the catalysts' art is "ancient" (which matches the celestial spirits which sit in the F5 area) but also sets it up as being "technological" by using a jadetech sphere, which immediately feels a bit disjointed to me.

Functionally, the F5 is stationary, which would be a lot more workable if the spec were ranged.  The hammer "3" skills (the circling orbs able to be flung at an opponent) would also fit well with a ranged playstyle.  On the other hand, many of the hammer skills are melee or mid-range.

My guess is that early draft ideas for the concepts were roughly -

1 - a melee spec using hammer and themed around the celestial spirits

2 - a ranged spec using jadetech gyros and fields (perhaps even with the field able to move in the manner of Ventari's tablet?)

However, the catalyst as it stands is thematically rather a jumble, and some of its functional elements synergise poorly with each other.

 

[Effect.2753]

Disclaimer: This is a solely pvp focused review!
I've dueled my friends as catalyst vs a multitude of different established pvp builds the whole evening.
At first glance the elite spec mechanics / utilities in combination with hammer just felt completely horrible however after sticking to it for a while and getting used to the unique playstyle hammer demands I had to change my first opinion quite drastically because i could sense the potential catalyst might have.

In my opinion the most important part of a new elite spec are its mechanics. They need to connect to the core class by offering new and fun ways to play while maintaining a connection to the already established builds and fundamentals the class relies on.

I can see what they want to do with catalyst - reinforcing the theme of using my combo fields in conjunction with finishers to gain powerful effects - though I think they went only 25% of the way regarding of how the spec currently feels and plays. So here are my thoughts on the different aspects of catalyst...

 

Hammer:
The current iteration of hammer feels very slow. This however doesn't have to be an inherently bad thing as long as the rewards of using your slow weapon skills are in line with their cast time. A good and recent example for this would be the new greatsword 5 ability of vindicator - it has a very slow and telegraphed cast but always forces a recation of your opponent. They can't just easily outspace it because it has enough range, it kinda tracks your opponent with a field so it always hits atleast once and it deals a truckload of damage. So in order to deal with the skill you need to invest resources yourself to counter its effects - be it a simple dodge roll, a long lasting block, an interrupt, you name it.
Now compare this to catalyst fire hammer 5. It's cast time is slow aswell but it has 240 range, a tiny hitbox and deals a lot less damage even if you build full glass. The risk of hitting this spell is inherently higher because of it's small range and there is less reward - especially since your opponent can just outspace the skill by movement. Combine this with the rather squishy class elementalist (at least if you compare it to other melee bruiser classes) and the rest of hammers fire skills which want you to be midrange and you have a very awkward skill that feels clunky to use and needs some sort of setup to hit reliably.
This theme of long cast time, high effort - low reward is present through the whole kit of hammer...

Why would you want to channel earth 2 for massive 3 and a half seconds and deal 685 (1.7) dmg and a bit of bleeding while a revenant can just outspace you while hitting sword 2, 4 and 5 in 2 seconds while dealing 1539 (4.2) with all those skills combined? If you expose yourself to such long melee cast animations you need the skill to backup the channel with damage or utility. The same applies to air 2 and water 2.

Hammer 3 needs a longer buff duration so you can actually keep the orbs while casting your other skills before swapping attunements. Also the grand finale feels very underwhelming even if you cast it with all 4 orbs swirling around you. Since the whole kit of hammer lacks any kind of combo field you could add a field to this spell while you have atleast 3 orbs active.

Hammer 5 on air travels way to slow to ever hit anything with its tiny aoe and even if you "hit" the aoe the small timer before the stun actually goes off feels unnecessary.

In general I feel like hammer could use more combo finisher to emphasize the "blast your combofields for extra rewards" theme of catalyst.
Now this sounds all pretty bad and to be honest every matchup I played with hammer felt exceptionally horrible since other classes would just outdamage me and abuse my long cast times. The moment a warrior can just outtrade you with greatsword autoattacks while tanking your earth 2 leaves a bad aftertaste though there was one exception where you could see the actual potential and fun gameplay hammer could offer - while dueling other hammer catalysts. Although it felt like wet noodle fights (albeit having zerker stats) you weren't facerolled and outdamaged so hard that you could actually use your long casts and try to combo them together.

 

TL DR Hammer: The weapon has interesting skills that can work together well and could feel rewarding if there was more dmg or utility to cover your slow casts. Also the lack of combofields and few combofinishers feels awkward since catalyst wants to be a spec focused on exactly those aspects.

 

Jade Sphere:

This feels like the worst part of the elite spec. It has a very slow energy build up, doesn't last very long, has very little impact except the quickness on air, a way too long cooldwown and I think not having it at all wouldn't change the class experience by a lot.

I feel the 1/2 second cast time makes it even worse and doesn't feel good. Why have another animation if your hammer already uses up all your time. Removing the cast and making it instant would improve the flow of combat because you could cast it during your long animations like swapping your attunements. Losing all the remaining energy when you recall the sphere is pointless aswell. An improvement to this could be to being able to recast the sphere while it's running to relocate it. You could add an effect that improves all your combofinishers used in the sphere.

 

TL DR Jade sphere: Very low impact ability that is hard to use due to low energy build up and long cd that doesn't add much to catalyst at its current state.

 

Utilities: The only utilities i actually played were the block which felt nice and the stunbreak which was ok. I like the idea of extra effects while using them in their fitting sphere though due to the sphere being a problem in itself i almost never had the chance to do so. I think adding a way to interact with the sphere even more on each of them would be nice. Maybe even combo finishers to drive the catalyst theme home.

 

Traits: Not much to say here aswell. I kinda like the choices you have to make but I would also need more time to test different builds and playstyles to evaluate their uses and impact on the class. The stability grandmaster trait felt pretty strong though.

 

TL DR: I feel like catalyst only goes 25% of the way to being a unique elite spec that offers gameplay that feels rewarding and unique while complementing the concept of elementalist. I think there need to be more ways to interact with combo fields and more rewards if you do so. Hammer offers a unique take on ele combat as a very slow and midrange / melee weapon that doesn't support its long and telegraphed casts with enough dmg or utility to justify its use. Jade sphere has too many drawbacks and too little impact to make any meaningful difference in combat. The utilities feel lacking in effectiveness aswell (except the block) and I am missing more interaction with combo fields and the sphere. The most optimal way to play catalyst in duels seemed to be the playstyle of dager/focus dagger/dagger core ele with the added stability of the grandmaster trait - which didn't feel like playing an elite spec at all, just core ele with stability and more aura application.

 

I apologize for the wall of text and any spelling mistakes - have a nice class beta test week!

Edited September 22, 2021 by Effect.2753

[BlueTheRaptor.4576]

So to start off, as an elementalist main of 4 years: the concept of the Catalyst is really fun. But the execution of it leaves a lot to be desired.

In short, everything with the exception of hammer weaponskills should be reworked. From traits to utilities to the Jade Sphere. And even then, the hammer feels clunkier on Catalyst than it does on literally any other hammer-wielding profession.

The weaponskills themselves are fun in application, though it's hard to get used to fire-air being mid range and water-earth being close range after spending years being either all melee or all ranged, with no exceptions. The instinct with the hammer is to always stay in melee range, regardless of what the skills are gonna be.

The traits... don't do anything to amplify the elite specialization at all. Catalyst is not geared for application of elemental auras at all, for one, with the exception of one single weaponskill in earth attunement. So making an entire set of traits dependent on you being under an aura's effect is... pointless. The only way those could be actually taken advantage of is if you constantly had a Tempest player at your beck and call. Aside from that, as was mentioned in previous entries on this thread several times, the trait that gives the Jade Sphere energy charge upon attunement swap is either broken or ineptly executed, as the actual energy gain from that trait is only noticeable in combat, and then otherwise it just... prevents you from losing the last third or quarter of your charge. That's it.

Now, getting started on the uselessness of the augment utilities is pointless if I don't speak of the biggest gripe possible with this elite specialization: the Jade Sphere itself.

Where do I even start. The extremely slow charge-up of the energy bar? The absolutely tiny radius of it's generated field? The ridiculously brief duration of it's active effects? All of these lower it's potential exponentially, and render the Augment utility skills practically useless as a result, because to be able to utilize the Sphere's and the utilities' effects to any degree means effectively not moving a single step. Which, for the elementalist? Is pretty unthinkable. Unless, possibly, you exclusively use staff and nothing but. And all of these downsides combined thoroughly counter the intent for the Catalyst to also apply boons and buffing effects on allies as well as on self, with the use of the Sphere and the utilities alike. How can we reliably do that when, comparatively, the radius in which we can do that is the size of a pinhead?

Also: why put the Sphere on F5? As mentioned by Green Thumb Gamers.3608 in a post previous to mine, it would've been more than logical to have the Sphere's actual activation be similar to Tempest overloads- a concept that would be both logical and familiar to elementalist. Effect fields remaining unchanging based on the element you were attuned to upon their activation, eliminating the need for some frivolous and clunky energy charge-up mechanic that takes ages to collect and drains in about a single second, comparatively.

The concept of the Jade Sphere is neat, don't get me wrong. A Jadetech creation working in tandem with our own innate magic, and it's effect execution having the added pleasant visual of invoking creatures akin to the Canthan Celestial Beasts. But the concept and the visuals don't offset the current execution of it, which is... utter bogus, to be frank.

Either the effect fields should be made noticeably larger, longer lasting, and with the energy charge-up/drain gimmick being better balanced... or the Sphere should be reworked in it's entirety. Maybe... have it follow us permanently like the Scrapper gyros do. When the Sphere's effects would be engaged, maybe have it not put down a combo field, but instead act as an amplifier of our own power and that of a limited number of allies in a certain radius around us for an extended but limited duration. The augment utilities not being dependent on the Sphere's combo field's presence, but instead having amplified effects while under the Sphere's effects, maybe with the utility skill icons changing to a new graphic depending on whether the Sphere is enabled or not. (Have the projections of the elemental creatures follow us like intangible minions, because that is a genuinely endearing characteristic of the Sphere that is about it's currently only good quality.)

So... yeah. In short: about 4/5ths of the full scope of the Catalyst are in dire need of rebalancing or rework, if ArenaNet genuinely wants to see this profession being actively played. Because even with the recent punching down that elementalist has gotten, both Tempest and Weaver are absolute joys to play. With the Catalyst as it is right now... the same cannot be said. Quite the opposite can be said instead. I genuinely wish to like this elite spec, because it's concept is fun and it has great potential. Only... not in it's current incarnation.

Edited September 22, 2021 by BlueTheRaptor.4576

[ClickToKill.8473]

1.  Hammer cooldowns could use a small reduction, especially Earth 5.

2.  The Elite Spec mechanic seems to only have synergy with hammer and scepter(due to the might stacking).  Its really hard to use with any other combination. 

3.  Augments don't feel like they do enough, even with the sphere. 

 

[Raolin Soulherder.3195]

This is one of the clunkiest specs I’ve played.
 

-Hammer doesn’t really seem to synergize with the traits, with the scarcity of auras and fields. F5 energy and the hammer #3 are both really slow buildup & feeble payoff for all the juggling you have to do with them.

-& speaking of juggling, the augments are all handicapped  unless you take special care to position properly & have your F5 active. It’s just got alot going on, & on a profession that *already* has alot to keep track of.

-Stationary F5 & accompanying augments are maybe ok for fighting on a static node, but ineffective in a moving WvW battle. 
-nothing exciting about the elite or augments. 
 

In general, this jade orb stuff just doesn’t feel good at all. 

Edited September 22, 2021 by Raolin Soulherder.3195

[Nozdu.5971]

Post this on another thread but my intent was to post here:

 

 

From what I'm seeing Hammer skill 3 should be redesign, the orbs should be tied to the attunements like in fire each fire spell grants an orb(same for other attunements) max 4 orbs, dealing minor damage passing through enemy's, orbs give 1/2% damage bonus per orb. F5 is the new grand finale dealing good amount of damage, applying the conditions and granting boons(fire-might, air-quickness etc). The jade tech spheres just just be wells replacing the augment skills.

[Angelus Demens.8719]

*The Jade orb seems like a waste of time, it takes forever to charge and then doesnt really do anything exciting.
*The hammer skills are slow and underwhelming.
*very little condi damage skills on the hammer.
*The utility skills provide no utility. some of them are just less good versions of the Tempest shouts? 

*whole traits for auras and combos but a distinct lack of combo fields or aura abilities on the weapon or the utility skills. what's the point of offering stat boosts or damage boosts iof there's no reliable way to get them, WHILE doing damage? no-one wants to dance skills for five minutes to reach max stacks of buffs that last 4-6 seconds. realistically the class just has no pay off, no wow factor. it has nothing going for it.

*Frankly, I dont see ANYTHING that the catalyst can do that d/d tempest doesnt do a hundred times better.

[Bazsi.2734]

In PvP it feels clunky and undertuned. The best I was able to come up was a build that spams CC with LR, and boosting the procs damage with modifiers from catalyst traits. It's basicly an inferior version of or LR weaver though, so it's not going to be a thing.

As for the hammer, dropping it was the first step in buildcrafting. I was under the impression that hammer would be clunky, slow, and huge damage over time when left to freecast. Well, it mostly ticks the boxes with the exception of damage. 

Also, combofields! Either make the profession mechanic charge faster, or make it able to move (like with a trait that makes all aguments draw your jade pillar to you upon casting or something). Or just... give hammer combofields, or make some aguments a combofield, anything would do. I love the idea of offensive auramancer, but there are not enough synergies to make it work.

[wolfyrik.2017]

I can't help but feel that the Jade Sphere and Augments are backwards. The skills should be ground targetted, placable JS which are basically long lasting wells each being an elemental field. This would take care of the horrendous combo failures of the Hammer, while adding to the other weapons. The F5 should be Augment, you charge it up then blast for enhancements, boosting the effects of the jade spheres and/or consuming them.

Right now the existing F5 is weak in the few situations that there's any point in placing it, useless in most scenarios and rarely available when you do need it.

The hammer 3 is an interesting idea but in practice it's fairly terrible. You basically build around using that exclusively or never use it. It needs to have it's timer removed or massively extended. Overall the spec seems like you've greatly increased complexity but made it almost impossible to use effectively. Part of the spec wants you to build energy, but doesn't give the means to do it, so that you can focus on comboing within it's field but lacks the tools to make adequate use of it. Forcing the player into arcane or making hammer worthless.

Another part of the spec wants you to focus on Auras, but doesn't give you the means to do it, lacking tools, forcing you into Fire traits or making the hammer worthless. The hammer forces you into melee for two elements but lacks the tools to allow you to survive melee unless you spec into those trees, preventing you from utilising Arcane and Fire which you need to use the Catalyst traits because Catalyst doesn't provide the tools to use them. It's chaos.

I was quite excited for the potential of Catalyst but it's pretty disappointing. In fact, so far, I've barely seen anything that actually gets my hopes up for the xpac. Everything seems determined to kill my enthusiasm. The horribe pre-order skins, the weakness and poor design of the 6 elites, the fishing and boat nonsense being masteries, the Black-lion legendaries.

So far the only thing that's working for me is the DX11 beta. Ive got some noticable improvement from it.

Edited September 22, 2021 by wolfyrik.2017

[Arolandis.8360]

Dagger/Dagger on it was decent, but Tempest still does that better. 

Hammer skills were really disappointing outside of a few utility moves like the knockdown/pushback skill in Air. The orb skills should last longer and give higher than a 5% boost. 

The main F5 mechanic... I tried to make it work, with staff, daggers, hammer, and it was just... "OK", not great. They could use some buffs or additional effects if the mechanic is here to stay. You only get so much value from an extra combo field and low duration boon. 

(speaking for wvw) 

Also, hammer needs more finishers to combo with. 

Edited September 22, 2021 by Arolandis.8360

[Josspai.4356]

As a side note, I love having the elemental orbs from Hammer 3 floating around me but the fact that they don't always pop in a perfect balanced circle is... I don't know, visually ugly? It's weird to have like 3 of them together and then a fourth one appears on the opposite side of the rotation. I think it would probably look better if each one occupied a fixed rotating space in a perfect formation (like the spheres from the elite skill).

By the way, those orbs could actually be fields, so if I use Flame Wheel, I become a moving fire field, and then I can 'blast myself' with Molten End. Same for the others: Icy Coil could be a moving ice field around the catalyst, Crescent Wind a lightning one, and perhaps Rocky Loop could be a smoke/poison field? Or alternatively a whirl finisher.

This would tremendously help hammer because as it is, it really needs access to some combo fields.

EDIT: Maybe the elite skill could work similarly to guardian 'Signet of Courage', passively and periodically giving you energy until you activate it, making it easier for you to deploy your Jade Sphere for longer periods and then using the appropiate utilities inside them. Right now, it's a bit lackluster. And please, consider throwing some aura/energy/combo field/combo finisher on these utilities so they synergize better with the overall spec mechanics.

Edited September 22, 2021 by Josspai.4356

[Flaming.4250]

 I have noticed that some of the hammer skills have a long cast time and animations for them don't flow together from one skill to the next. The long cast skills can't be interupted by the player rooting you in place.