Catalyst Feedback Thread

[Galeskyring.9617]

Pardon the put but my overall impression with the catalyst is it has no 'Spark'.

It feels far to much like it is trying to be both the tempest's aura and weaver's combo based play-styles at the same time with no real substance to drive that. The hammer feels too heavy and clunky as well which is a letdown given it's the spec's unlocked weapon. The F5 feels like an 'interesting' thought for gameplay however two things bog it down.

My thoughts to make it better?

1: Hammer needs to be reworked to flow more smoothly, either by including more combo fields but certainly needs more finishers.

 

2: The utilities need lower cooldowns/some should be instant cast or need more useful powers especially the element based bonuses.

 

3: F5 needs one or both suggestions here, 1 it needs to be movable either ventari tablet style or original scrapper gyro's lax follow tether system. 2 Either remove the energy bar in favor of a proper cd or improve the flow of energy gain to justify having the bar at all such as half energy gains per tick of condi to allow condi builds to use it where as now its all base don strike ticks.

 

4: More trait diversity, either by un-tethering from the large aura focused ones or the new elemental bonus from getting auras or combos as both of these are rather fussy to make use of not to mention there isn't a single one for the hammer. the minor for 2 energy per elemental swap is not useful for energy build and does nothing really to prevent decay while sphere is active. Perhaps change 1 line of the traits to be boon focused, 1 to be aura OR combo finisher focused for the elemental stat bonus but not both! With the last line being focused on either damage or movement to provide catalyst with more build diversity options then aura-V-combo finisher focused traits given it's large short coming for that, especially on the hammer.

[Zicarous.2134]

Do think the spec needs an overhaul. Seen some good idea's and wanted to drop mine in to!

 

Spheres moved to the class mechanic

 

When Attunning to a new attunement (in combat) Create a sphere that move circles you damaging enemies and inflicting a condition (fire - burning, water - chill, earth - bleed, air - vul)

Sphere lasts 10 seconds, However casting F5 will over charge the sphere sending it back to you damaging enemies around you, creating a aura on yourself depending on your attunement and it will be a blast finisher (maybe too much?)

F5 will have a cd of 20 seconds so can't spam this ability in each attunement.

 

Move old F5 wells to hammer 3 and give earth the smoke field! it will give hammer something really good to play with  (Hammer skills do need looking at to but atm the main idea of the catalyst needs fixing)

Do think we should of got wells/ wards to go with the idea of what the cataylst is supposed to be. Think new skills be best in the long term, rather than trying to fix/ buff ones they have done would be better idea.

 

If keeping the utility skills that you have created. They need massive improvements. Whats the idea/ point of them over cantrips? Huge buffs needs. Such as, making the extra stuff with them baseline and giving them an aura maybe if you using it while in the that attunement?

Edited September 22, 2021 by Zicarous.2134
added more

[Bealis.6023]

I would have a suggestion.

1. Remove hammers #3 skills - projectiles and replace them with some different ones, some finishers would do good for a bruiser type.

2. Add the similar effects of those #3 skills  to each of the corresponding Augments, they would evoke those effects in the actual orbs in the Jade Sphere, when u trigger the Augments inside them with the corresponding element.

Augmented orbs could stay for some time when u change attunements.

 

I think it would actually feel more like a Catalyst and players would not need to be fixed on just a hammer.

Edited September 22, 2021 by Bealis.6023

[Tungsten Monarch.6058]

Catalyst should be changed in the following way.

• ·       Skill 3 should be universal for all weapon options, staff, scepter, dagger, etc.
• ·       Skill 3 Summon Projectile, Flame Wheel, Icy Coil, etc, should 30 second duration, with 10 second cooldown or until released.
• ·       Skill 3 Release range should be 1200
• ·       Skill 1,2,4,5 for each elemental attunement, skill attack range should be increased to 1200.
• ·       Increase damage by at least 10%

 

Individual Hammer skill changes

• Stream Strike should add a Heal for up to 5 nearby allies, centered on caster, not on target like a Staff, this makes it unique to the Hammer as opposed to a Staff effect.

 

Jade Sphere

• ·       Rename to Elemental Sphere
• ·       Change range to 1200
• ·       Energy should have a passive charge up to full unless in use, not a build up during combat that is usually over before the charge is useful.

Edited September 22, 2021 by Tungsten Monarch.6058

[Xephir.7635]

I have read most of this thread and have also posted. Analyzing all suggestions: 

- Hammer 3 skills on attunement change, with F5 being the mechanic to fire them and receiving and aura based on which elemnt you threw them.

- The F5 well can go to an utility skill, and a rework of the rest of utilities, and elite (alac is better than the elite at this moment) is needed ASAP.

Hammer range is Ok, it just need some animation fixes, earth aa im looking at you! Hammer 3 skills can include leaps for the attunements that are missing those, or blasts for the ones that have leaps already or something rlly.

Trait skills need to emphasize on the utilities and the spining orbs too, right now they are mostly based on auras which we dont get much on hammer which is supposed to be the cata main weapon, I dont want to play d/d for auras, I did that for core ele and tempest already.

 

There are more suggestions in this thread that can be used with what I suggested and would fit cata.

 

Just my two cents

Edited September 22, 2021 by Xephir.7635

[Kain Francois.4328]

First impressions:

1. Too high potential damage, too little bulkiness.
2. We already have Weaver for high damage and complex rotations. What are Catalyst's domains?
3. I was promised a "steady" bruiser in the trailer. But I still feel fragile.

[sfaubion.9452]

Played in wvw roaming duels and small team fights exclusively. 

First build was all marauder with leadership.  Felt lacking in damage compared to the same build on sword/focus weaver.  Second build was Berserker armor, marauder trinkets, Scholar runes.  More damage than first build, but comparable to all marauder weaver.

Traits as follows:

Air 2 2 2 

Arcane 2 2 1

Catalyst 2 2 2

I love most of the ideas of the hammer and especially the hammer 3 management.  There are just a few changes I would like to make its defensive utility comparable to having focus available. 

Hammer- Damage in wvw, across all skills seems to be 10% - 20% too low. I think the hammer 3 spheres should last for at least 7 seconds. I think there should be 1 more defensive utility on the kit, for instance maybe fire hammer 4 creates a persistent 4 second duration projectile destruction ring, or water hammer 4 has evade frames etc. I think there should be 1 more mobility skill somewhere.  Air hammer 5 doesn’t feel very impactful (maybe just a matter of skill effect/animation).  Earth hammer 2 doesn't feel very impactful (needs more damage maybe).  Hammer lacks on demand auras compared to other weapons, maybe hammer 3 could give them (no transmute though).  Everything else on hammer is great and I love it as a new weapon.

The jade orb is a great addition as a class mechanic and I like the change on attunement swap.  However it is a bit clunky to deploy and recall right now.  I have an idea below for how it could be tweaked to be less clunky, as well as moveable.

Jade Orb- I think this mechanic should behave oppositely of photon forge on engineer. Energy should build up naturally over time out of combat, as well as in combat, and when the sphere is deployed, it should drain at a fixed rate (normalize pve and wvw/pvp rate). When you recall the sphere with energy remaining it should go on a 5 second cooldown, and keep remaining energy, so that it can be re-deployed in a different position. Deploy jade sphere should have a ¼ second cast time, as it really stalls rotations. If you allow the sphere to run out of energy, it should go on a longer cooldown and/or you should become “exhausted” delaying the start of energy generation. Energy generation should happen faster in combat than out of combat.  All that said, Jade orb is a great mechanic that would feel a lot better if it could be moved around in some form by the elementalist.

Utilities- The heal skill should heal for slightly more each pulse. I think each utility could give an associated aura when it is cast regardless of sphere position, or some other additional effect to add incentive to use them. It goes without saying that some traits may need adjustment because of this. I like the idea of augments; I just think they should give more value outside of the Jade Orb.

Traits- You feel forced into Empowered Empowerment with Hammer because you need more damage.  Staunch auras is better with dagger/dagger/focus because you have on demand auras.

Thank you for collecting feedback and for designing such a fun and engrossing game 😊.

 

Edited September 26, 2021 by sfaubion.9452
More gameplay knowledge

[Loboling.5293]

Hammer 3 is not impactful enough.

Catalyst profession mechanic is... boring. It needs to be movable with a cooldown, and it shouldn't swap to the element you do. If I place down an air field, that's it. The profession requires you to cycle through your skills/attunements, but the profession mechanic works best if you can camp a single element. That is the biggest problem with Catalyst. 

The also needs to be more combo finishers, and maybe give a utility that rapidly generates energy for the profession mechanic. 

The risk/reward will be knowing when the activate the field, and which field to put down. Once it's down, it keeps draining, so you can move it, but it's only for so long. I think that would be more fun. Trying to maximize the time you can use your combo field, before the energy depletes. And if you need to, you can squeeze out another 5-6 seconds with a utility, or recharge some to activate a new field when empty. 

[HowlKamui.5120]

On 9/22/2021 at 2:08 AM, HowlKamui.5120 said:

Augments are pretty underwhelming. Using it when not on the correct attunement feels like a mis-click and doesn't feel good. 

 

Adding some more after duelling a bit more in wvw and pvp. Overall the class feels like multiple things rely on cooldowns other than its own. Like, if the heal augment is up, but the jade sphere is on cooldown, it feels like the heal is on cooldown as well because you lose so much of the augment when not used with a sphere.

Jade Sphere cooldown needs to scale with how long it was out. Dropping it at low energy  to proc augments should at least mitigate how bad it feels and how much value is lost when not using augments because the sphere is on cooldown. 

Also, why does the jade sphere have a 2 second cooldown when switching attunements? I sometimes find myself switching to water or earth for healing/protection but find it awkward that I have to wait 2 seconds to drop the sphere for my heal or earth augment. Sure I can drop it before hand, but if my above suggestion of scaling the cooldown with the energy consumption will be implemented, the cooldown on attunement swap needs to go to maximize low energy jade sphere drops.

So far, those are the 3 main points I think need the most improvement. Otherwise, I like the feel of the class. Won't talk about damage numbers or anything since I'm not an expert on that.

In summary:

-Using augments on the wrong attunement without the jade sphere feels punishing and feels like a misclick. 

-Jade sphere cooldown should scale with the energy it consumed to enable quick jade sphere deployments to combo with augments.

-The cooldown of the jade sphere should be removed on attunement swap.

[ClickToKill.8473]

An idea for augments(and pardon me if it has been brought up already since this topic is 14 pages long): 

 

What if instead of needing to be in the correct attunement to pull off the bonus, each one does one of the four different types combo finishers in the game?   And then maybe the Elite skill can be tied into it?

 

It would certainly make playing F5 more satisfying.

[CJH.2879]

As a dedicated GW2 player, I like to dream a little, you've tried out the Catalyst *as is...*

Now imagine this instead: >>

 

From Ancient Cantha, there exists a Secret Clan of Elementalists known as the Conflux Arcana, these spellcasters utilize the multi-faceted spells of the elements through their magical longbows to fire off spells to deadly effect! Utilizing Fire they can burn their foe's from afar, create deadly fire fields & even create walls of literal flames with their explosive fiery impacts! With the power of the wind they can match a Ranger with distance, even recalling their projectiles as they pass through their foes with electrifying impacts that can cause stuns, dazes & knockbacks! Their attunement towards water can heal allies from afar, bringing about healing springs from mother Tyria, removing conditions, chilling opponents & even freezing foes on a grand scale! And finally with the earth attunement they can bleed, knockdown, blind, block & even slow down their foes with muddy terrain before sending them flying with a tremor that rumbles & explodes with a devestating impact!

 

See? That wasn't so hard! I'm certain most people who read the above would love to see this elite spec... instead of what we got! If you agree send this message a like! Cheers!

 

Oh... co-incidentally I'm a full time fantasy writer with well over 2 million words written! I'm on Amazon if anyone is interested, >> Regards, Christopher John Hill

[Wraistlin.6072]

Okay so I feel like the orb projectiles need to be the focus of this spec.  It has been the most enjoyable part for me thus far.  Nix the Jade Sphere combo field nonsense.

Add the hammer #3 skills to attunements instead (matching the proper attunements), while Catalyst is spec'd.  Make F5 the Grand Finale skill.  Then you can redesign the elite utility to refresh the duration of all active spheres, and apply the boons to 5 targets etc, based on the active orbs. 

Change the utilities to do what they do, but also generate the orb projectile based on their element.  (Nix the Jade Sphere requirements)

Redesign the hammer 3 skills or simply make Hammer#3 the Jade Sphere, that drops a field based on your current attunement, but doesn't switch as you change attunements.

 

BOOM! Catalyst fixed.

Your welcome!   >=)

Edited October 8, 2021 by Wraistlin.6072

[BlackBeard.2873]

Profession mechanic: The Jade sphere seems just like a combo field that you can lay down every ~30s. The boons are good in air (quickness) and earth (prot), but the other two just feel like a waste to get. It feels bad to be getting some might or resolution, when ele already has plenty ways to get might, and resolution seems useless (condis are either super-long and have to be cleansed anyway, or ele is fragile and needs to cleanse anyway).

Hammer: This one feels bad overall. There really isn't a big burst, there aren't a lot of control, mobility, or condi options, making me think this is supposed to just be a sustained damage weapon. However, the sustained damage isn't that great, and there aren't really important variation from 1 skill to the other. Like sure, I can cycle through all my skills and attunements and auto-attacks which looks neat, but the end result is only visual without any actual variation - no big skills to hit or avoid, just a steady line of "meh" effect. Being melee and mid-range also doesn't really work, as the sustained damage from mid-range is pretty pathetic. The only way to get decent dps is to cycle the spinning orbs to keep them ticking while plunking away, but this keeps you at 200 range. The profession really wants to focus on fields and finishers, yet Hammer has no fields (meaning you rely on your 30s sphere cooldown) and long CD's on finishers, making it anti-synergistic with its own trait line. Compare the play-style to the other melee/midrange options, scepter/dagger and scepter/warhorn, which at least feels good in that there is decent ranged damage, then a reason to pop in, get off some combos/heavy hitters/overloads, then get back out. The mid-range option (dagger/dagger, for instance), not only has better consistent damage, but also a whole bunch of control abilities (cc's, chills, shocking/frost aura, etc), so hammer doesn't fill that niche either. Finally, for essentially being a melee-range spec, there are no proper defensive skills to allow you stay there effectively. Overall, Hammer has an identity crisis in that it doesn't know what role it wants to fill, and doesn't fill ANY roles that other sets don't already. Some specifics:

• - Orbs don't last long enough, and feel really bad b/c while it says they are a 0.25s cast, they seem to take about 1s to cast, giving you realistically 4s to cast the next one or else you lose them mid-cast
• - Being able to cast fire and air backwards is the most interesting interaction, so you can continue to dps while running away. I know this will be nerfed though
• - Triple Sear - this needs almost pixel-perfect to get more than 2 procs, feels bad
• - Molten End - this should be ranged as there is no disengage or engage in fire, so you are stuck slowly plodding toward your enemy or else stuck in melee on your "ranged" set
• - Water: one leap and no other way to stay ontop of an enemy for your other skills, feels bad
• - Shock blast does actually 0 damage in pvp. The projectile tickles the enemy, then the field does 9 damage with a zerker amulet. Maybe this is a bug, or this big slow-moving thing really just a slower, crappier comet on focus?

Utilities: every utility feels like a worse version of something else we already have. The triple-conditional (1. In range of the spehere, 2. Sphere is off-cd and up, 3. You are in the correct attunement) makes them even more useless. Utilities on eles are almost always reactive (especially the heal, the air and earth utilities here), and having them time-gated for proper use makes them unable to fill that role. Thematically, these feel like you just made stances again, but couldn't give ele the same mechanic utility type AGAIN so put some weird conditionals and made them bad enough that nobody will ever use them.

- The earth block not being a stunbreak makes this just a worse earth-sheild. This should also be a stunbreak if you want it to ever be used.

- The fire and water utilities are both just there for more damage, so only 1 will EVER be taken, and honestly, you are better off just taking other utilities. You would be better off either giving something else, like a field to combo, or some leaps for mobility/finishers.

- The elite does nothing, and the boons ontop aren't even worth worrying about the triple-conditional hoops.

Traits: This is what I think is the most important aspect of any spec, as traits open up all new options for how you play. The minor traits here are pretty decent, especially the GM minor, turning this into an auramancer focused on combos. There is then nothing that in any way helps combos anywhere else in the kit - what? Also, tempest is already an auramancer, so why do we have ANOTHER auramancer? Outside of Staunch auras (stab on aura - which is good), both the top and middle line focus on just raw stat increases via effects that need to be constantly refreshed. That doesn't really make them all that interesting, you just pick whichever one gives you more stat impact. None of them impact the way you play or open up new styles, you just end up trying to spam auras to get stats. The bottom line, aside from the old arcana trait for fury (which is a bit of a slap in the face), don't really do anything b/c the jade orb is so bad. Spectacular sphere gives me boons approx once every 30s in durations that are pathetic compared to something like elemental attunement. Sphere specialist is useless b/c the sphere is immobile and you miss out on the one boon you really care about (quickness) if you have to change attunements.

 

Overall:

The spec just feels really unfocused. Outside of spamming auras, it doesn't really try to do anything else well. Hammer's playstyle competes with other weapons by just doing things they already do, and synergizes poorly with the traits due to lack of fields/finishers. The sphere is really just an extra combo field with a lot of hoops to jump through. Catalyst felt best to play with X/D with fire traitline (to make fields last longer for combos, plus a free aura, and all auras cleanse) to me, due to the long-duration, short CD fire field. There are some interesting build-craft avenues, but only around auramancy, as the rest of the traits, skills, and utilities don't offer new options and don't do anything that well.

Edited September 22, 2021 by BlackBeard.2873

[cgMatt.5162]

- Hammer needs at least 2 auras to compete with D/D or D/F weaponsets
- All of the utilities would benefit from having a 1/4s or instant cast time
- Cast time on a stunbreak never made sense
- Augment stunbreak (Invigorating Air) superspeed is too situational, don't want to be forced to stand in the tiny sphere radius to get superspeed
- Earth Hammer 2 (Whirling Stones) and Water Hammer 2 (Rain of Blows) feels too slow
- Water Hammer 2 (Rain of Blows) should just add chill even if all 4 hits don't land
- Earth Hammer 4 (Immutable Stones) can't get this to block in another attunement to get the other aura effects for the entire cast duration
- Fire Hammer 3 (Triple Spear) could have higher damage, I didn't feel pressured at all when it was used on me
- Jade Spheres could either be larger to fit nodes in PvP, do more damage, or just follow you or even not lock it out of global attunement cooldowns would feel better
- Yes having a smoke field would make it viable for use in WvW in place of Scrappers
- Staunch Auras and Powerful Auras could synergize better for stability sharing could find use in being closer to replacing Firebrands in WvW squads
- The elite (Elemental Celerity) is completely underwhelming where the recharge time reduced

Hammer overall feels pretty bad. I never lost a duel to anyone using it.

In addition I would like to point out that it was a bad idea to have the beta event and double XP WvW event in the same week because the people who want to spend time testing in that game mode won't be able to do it and get the rewards.

Edited September 22, 2021 by cgMatt.5162

[delriaan.7854]

On 9/21/2021 at 3:18 PM, Vissarion.6509 said:

More like tempest 0.5. Tempest at least is fun to play and has good flow.

Yup: after about 10 minutes of testing Catalyst out in The Silverwastes, I switched back to Tempest to compare the experiences.  Under the former, I barely held on during camp raids, whereas with the latter, I had no real issues handling multiple wave with little to no assistance.  The combat was just far too quick and volatile for the Catalyst to keep up.

[Mithos.9023]

2 hours ago, Zicarous.2134 said:

When Attunning to a new attunement (in combat) Create a sphere that move circles you damaging enemies and inflicting a condition (fire - burning, water - chill, earth - bleed, air - vul)

Sphere lasts 10 seconds, However casting F5 will over charge the sphere sending it back to you damaging enemies around you, creating a aura on yourself depending on your attunement and it will be a blast finisher (maybe too much?)

F5 will have a cd of 20 seconds so can't spam this ability in each attunement.

 

Move old F5 wells to hammer 3 and give earth the smoke field! it will give hammer something really good to play with  (Hammer skills do need looking at to but atm the main idea of the catalyst needs fixing)

Do think we should of got wells/ wards to go with the idea of what the cataylst is supposed to be. Think new skills be best in the long term, rather than trying to fix/ buff ones they have done would be better idea.

 

I had nearly the same idea. It is such a bummer that the spheres are on the hammer and not the class mechanic. I would have made them a little different, but I like this idea as well.

 

I would have made them long-lasting, maybe infinite lasting while in combat but with low impact. You generate them while attunment swapping. The energy system that is currently on the F5 would then power up the spheres. So the more energy you collect while in fight the stronger the spheres become. The F5 would then shoot them on the enemies like the current hammer skill.

 

For the wells, I had the same idea, they seem to fit much better on the hammer than on the F5.

 

Over all, I am not impressed by the Catalyst. I have the same problems with this spec as most other as well. I found nearly no use for the F5. In a game that sets so much on active and fluid combat, stationary fighting will always lose and feel out of place. It simply doesn't fit to the combat system. I am certain that I will stay on weaver, as I can't find anything fun in this elite spec.

I mean, so many have complained about the sluggish gameplay on elementalist, like the summoning weapons that are so slow clunky and unfun to use yet somehow mandatory. And now this elite hits the same wound again, slow and sluggish.

[BlackBeard.2873]

6 minutes ago, delriaan.7854 said:

Yup: after about 10 minutes of testing Catalyst out in The Silverwastes, I switched back to Tempest to compare the experiences.  Under the former, I barely held on during camp raids, whereas with the latter, I had no real issues handling multiple wave with little to no assistance.  The combat was just far too quick and volatile for the Catalyst to keep up.

D/D or S/D with Catalyst makes a pretty good auramancer, and CAN be competitive with tempest, but maybe that matters more in pvp.

[tgilmore.2731]

As others have said, I really like the IDEA of the spec - combo party. The feel is there and as an ele main, it would provide another type of playstyle - slow but impactful hits. But it has missed the mark.
So after reading here and playing a bunch I think 4 changes should be made outside of better oomph/faster casting (easy post-beta fixes imo)
1) skill 3 needs to be much longer (~12s). Right now, the frantic swapping feels too much like weaver with core attunement CD. Unlike what I saw some people say with the perma orb upkeep, I think Grand Finale should stay. The scaling needs to be increased and the range of the orbs needs to change with the earth/water attunements (or earth/water should be 600 range). Having perma buffs like others suggested basically turns it into a passive that needs button presses every so often - a wasted weapon slot.
2) as has been said, swap utilities and F5 and make the fields true wells (or call it something else if chrono runes are too scary). We have stationary wells on necro and chrono that do not feel bad to use, would keep the boon support idea as well as not wasting the art and importantly FIELDS. Keep the jade sphere/projection idea even and call them Jade Sphere Fire/Water/Air/Earth. The heal skill is fine, just make it so it works in any CATA well (or go full ham and make it work in ANY well for the lolz). Rework the elite to freeze the energy (more in a moment) where it is and give a boon (25 might and fury in fire, alac in water, quickness in air and aegis in earth) on a 30s CD. F5 (Just called Augment or Jade Sphere Augment) now empowers wells for more dmg/condis/more boons using the 30 energy pool and rev mechanics (50% cap ooc and pips in combat with down pips per well enhanced). If it feels bad, make the F5 cause the wells to persist while you have energy. If it is overtuned, change the energy cap or pip cost. Or keep the same buffs (15% dmg/unblockable in fire, shatter in water, endurance in air and dmg mitigation in earth) if you want to change from well boosting.
3) make the hammer have finishers to combo off wells. Whirls, 20% projectile on autos, projectile on Grande Finale (why it should stay). It seems anet wants this to be a combo class - make it combo like all the other weapons.

4) more survivable than just cele buffing with mid trait. As it is, it is hard to keep that 20% modifier since stacks have their own 15s timer (I was hoping they would be like the willbender and top line stacks  with new ones refreshing duration) - not sure exactly how still, maybe move/combine traits. I will think about this more and edit my post.

Edited September 22, 2021 by tgilmore.2731

[delriaan.7854]

Just now, BlackBeard.2873 said:

D/D or S/D with Catalyst makes a pretty good auramancer, and CAN be competitive with tempest, but maybe that matters more in pvp.

Hmmm, PvP: I hadn't considered that.  I haven't done any PvP,  but I'd imagine that competitive mode does reduce a lot of the combat variables that can diffuse the effectiveness of skills and timing.

[Naneel.2348]

Catalyst seems relativly underwhelming. Slow attacks and therefore not really impactful 😔 Either more damage or faster attack/casting speed.

Visuals are stunnig 🤩, with a few exceptions. Air #1 Player-Animation does not fit with the projectile you shoot, would probably better fit with Player-Animation from Revenant AA.  Air #5 is really bad , visuals look lame and not like an explosion at all. Earth #5, the spikes that erupt should be centered around the Hammer-Head not the player, would look more fitting and impactful 😄.

Hammer needs more finishers. Air #2, Earth #2 and Water #5 could be Whirl, "Projectile" Skill from #3 could be Projectile Finisher. Skill#3 needs either more time before the projectile expires or should autoattack when expiring, 5s is just to short do do anything else in combat...

Earth skills could use a bit more bleed, maybe on AA and cripple or slow on #2 or #3. With Earth and Water being close comabt and only 1 gapcloser we need something to hold enemies in melee range. Alternetively change one skill for something similar to GS#5 from Necro/Reaper to pull enemies towards you.

Fire #5 shouldn't be melee when the rest from fire is ranged. Either change animation to something similar to revenant #3 or #5 or make a new animation, but make it ranged.

Jade-Sphere is nice on paper, but not really good in game. Energy bulild up is okay, but could use some interaction with traits or maybe combos (gain energy on succesful combo?, if we get more finishers 😋). Field needs to be larger or moves to your destination on element-swap. Energy drain is to much, either we need more gain or lower drain. Although the cooldown when the field expires is unnecessary. It's nice that Energy does not deplete outside of comabt, but it nedds a better UI.

Augments feel not really good, but not bad either.

[Morderger.6298]

A lot of good reviews and changes in this thread.

I have 6000+ ele games in pvp. I have played off and on since Beta. Did all D/D , D/F, Staff. Mostly Core and Tempest.  Weaver is cool not really for me since I play mostly Staff/Marauder for fun now.  Never really liked scepter or sword.  I really want a Long Range DPS Mage. You know, that could kill like a Longbow Ranger or Hammer Rev from across the map.

 

The only viable option I've had some success on is a D/F Arcane/Water/Catalyst build with Sage and Dwayna runes. So basically a Heal/aura/boon bot.

 

 F5 charges too slow to even be remotely useful and by the time its up the fights over or has moved off point.  This skill as is would be most likely just be thrown on down bodies. The New heal skill is super weak and  F5 needs to Follow you or you be able to pull the well to your new location. Remove the energy requirement, I would like to summon a field on my own call and not when ArenaNet thinks I've been in combat long enough to deserve one. Another Idea would be to have the F5 Follow your target creating a well underneath them for a duration that will follow them around. This would require the enemy to have to react and move from teammates and be a walking combo field for your teammates to attack. There are a ton of ideas in this thread that could be great, just do something.

 

Hammer is neat.  No one wanted it, whos idea was this? Fire them.  Sorry, just The community has been asking for a long range weapon for a long time, as staff is just not up to par compared to other ranged dps classes .  I was hoping for maybe the range of hammer rev with some cool abilities and damage to boot.. What we got was a wet noodle with a meatball taped on the end with a range that every class has an insta teleport for.   Please read these other response in this thread about all the hammer problems. It's just a blah weapon and design. rework recommended. Long range is my vote.

 

Utility skills like other have said, feel underwhelming.  There is no reason to pick them over older/core ones. Augments not worth especially with F5 never being available. So why choose an Augment that I won't even get to see the second part of? The Heal is mediocre same as the Elite Skill. Neat idea for the Elite would be to have it summon a giant meteor based on your attunement that did different effects on impact. So if you hit your elite skill in Fire, you summon a giant meteor of fire/molten rock to smash on your target for damage + field, or if you do it in water you get a giant water ball that you can smash on your allies for a heal + field. Earth could be a giant rock that knocks down foes ( you could steal this animation from Hammer rev)+ field,  Air could be a giant lightning bolt that stuns or pulses blinds + field.

 

So overall, I would not pick this elite to play as it stands now. There is no way to justify losing what you gain from the other Elite specs. My recommendation is to Rework hammer to long range, utilities, and  Elite skill. Just tweaking the numbers is not going to save this unless you make it 1 shot people.

[Vova.2640]

So overall.. I hate this spec. It is slow, complex for no reason and has low payoff in return.

The F5 is really bad. It is a small stationary field and gives a bit of boons. Other classes can do what this does 10x times better. At least make it pulse STABILITY and give a SMOKE field in earth. might make it somewhat useful in competitive game modes.
Still it has BOTH energy and a cool down.. like come on.

Hammer skills overall meh at best.

The 3 skills : Projectiles that break if touch a reflect/projectile breaking skill. Making this USELESS in wvw because there is so much anti-projectile skills always down. So all 4 of those skills are virtually useless in wvw.

Fire:
1 & 2 - projectiles = useless in wvw. Why arent either of them projectile finishers??
4 - why is this not a dmg pulsing FIRE COMBO FIELD? 
5 - its ok, maybe a bit faster & make it a bit bigger radius.

Air:
1 - Another projectile. 
2 - skill is very cool. probably the coolest in this entire spec. but why not make it a WHIRL finisher for the combo trait?
4 - ok i guess? It goes off w.e u target apparently and not opposite of where u face so thats kinda bad.
5 - Projectile..... you will probably stun ur own party more frequently than u will stun any enemy (cause reflects)

Water:
its just so slow. who are u going to hit with these skills..
5 - why does this only hit ONE TIME? And has a 3 target cap !? And why is this NOT A COMBO WHIRL FINISHER?

Earth: 
1 - cool skill good cleave.
2 - slow af, will likely get interrupted a lot.
4 - make this block all dmg for like 1.5sec - to give us a time window to actually swap to an attunement for the aura type we want.
5 - pretty cool, good skill but maybe a bit faster and bigger radium would be cool.

Augments... really bad. Id say make them 5 target to share with allies MAYBE they will be decent then? idk. just bad I wouldnt use either except maybe the fire one. Also lower the CD all across the board.
Heal skill - kinda bad. little reward for how much it requires setup (used in water attunement AND inside the sphere combo)
Fire Augment - only good one. But again 5 sec is so little.
Water - looks decent but eh. idk just does not feel rewarding again for the setup that is required.
Air - maybe make this stun break allies also?
Earth - make this give a barrier to allies also
Elite - noob trap. if u make this affect allies MAYBE it will be good.

As for traits..
The top line - First I do not understand why there is any focus on auras at all. that was what tempest was all about. This makes the spec only less unique. For this... maybe merge the first 2 (dmg reduction and dmg outgoing increase) and give it to tempest.  The 3rd one give it to base ele earth traitline -- grant stab when u grant an aura. its about time honestly.
Then rework the top trait lines to be something more useful. Maybe around the augments? And Make the GM trait have augments share effect with allies? Idk. just leave Auras to tempest.. please...

middle line - they are decent but.... it is realistically very slow to get to 10 stacks and seems to be not easy to maintain currently.  these are the only ones worth taking tho out of all the trait lines.

bottom line - idk... dont even know what to say. very underwhelming. very pointless. very clear that anet has no idea what they want the spec to be so they slap some shared boons and try to play that whole line off as useful for boon share. in reality is barely anything compared to some other "boon share" classes.

Overall... I am very very disappointed in this spec.
It still have little survivability, no extra health or armor to compensate being melee. limited access to barrier in 1 mediocre utility. little access to blocks. The spec is not a viable frontliner because it will still die very fast. And no, the 10% dmg reduction from slowly applying auras is not going to help.......
limited dmg all around, has some potential to do dmg with fire augment + 20% stat bonus - but needs a lot of testing how to actually keep the 10 stacks and the fire augment only 5 sec so not enough even for a full meteor shower cast...
Also there are so many mechnics to "min-max" this spec.... but at the end of the day the payoff to minmax is so minimal. Just feels pointless all around. 
Just a last second "what can we slap together and call it unique" spec. 
 

Edited September 22, 2021 by Vova.2640

[Eddbopkins.2630]

I only pvp so thats my perspective on the class. As far as it goes i am not a fan of it. Hammer feel slow and clunky. I rarely have the opportunity to use f5 in a effctive way in combat since it a stationary circle. Pressing f5 to have it dissapear so you can reposition it clears all energy with out an affect or helpful skill it seems. 

What i did mostly with catalysts is play fresh air. After hammer i tried staff and actually had fun with. There wasnt much synergy with staff but it was better then core staff. What i play most was FA scepter/focus and that was mostly like playing core fa but with a tiny twist. F5 was helpful in earth and fire attunements as those has blast finishers allowing for some aura spam as per the class spec should be doing. 

I tried support boon, aura share, and it just didnt really work. It was just to squishy to be in any team fight, and it had no team aoe heal.  It worked ok with staff but 1/3 of the catalysts mechanic with every hammer 3 skill was not there so it felt very much like a core support build with alittle team healing because of the water feild and blasting. I only see catalysts as a sub support with a tempest on the team as main healer support, but at that point i would want another dps 100% of the time.

What i am very dissapointed about is the attunement cooldown. It is exactly like core ele so in essence catalysts is core ele 2.0 imo. Tempest get a 5 second cd on each attunment after swap, and weaver is 3 second universal, but catalysts share the same as core so that make cat like core ele imo.

In short, catalysts is like your playing core ele with minor tweeks. Not a unique class experiance.

 

The more i play it the more i dis-like it. F5 never goes down when you need it. It either get interupted by the next skill your trying to cast or it gets dodge interupted, and even then it doesnt stay with me ad i move and kit like an ele does. 

Imo, poorly thought out spec. Might be a good raid spec for still targets but it certaintly not pvp ready.

Edited September 23, 2021 by Eddbopkins.2630
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[Daywalker.9710]

I think catalyst could be a really fun spec, but like others have said, it seems to be having an identity crisis. I think, like with all the other classes, you should focus more on what makes the spec flow and more fun to play at this point, or no one will play it regardless of the damage output etc.

 

Catalyst has the most work needed. It feels too clunky and slow. Skill 3 disappears too fast and the f5 skill is just not fun to use currently. Maybe instead of the f5 skill, make the utilities the gyro 'wells' which could then work well with staff!!! (Maybe add 2h traits to buff dmg).  F5 could be a finisher relating to what you are attuned to, similar to the tempest's overload fields but not fields or id just play tempest.  Oh, and fire skill 5 really needs to be range, along with an overall range increase for fire and air because 600 feels really awful.

 

Hope you take on board the feedback! Keep up the good work regardless :)

 

 

[Agrios.9071]

When people were speculating about the weapon for the elementalist elite spec i was very much against longbow. A weapon like greatsword or even hammer seemed more interesting.

 

Now after seeing hammer on catalyst i think the best approach would be to start with a new concept.

 

I mostly play wvw and the hammer is absolutely unusable in RvR. The elite spec doesnt give any sustain or reasonable support that is usable in a pvp gamemode. Utility skills seem very much useless and i use only skills from the core ele kit.

 

The f5 beeing a class mechanic seems incredibly boring. A pulsing field with a tooltip of 8 dmg on full zerk is a class mechanic?

It has nothing unique about it, it doesnt suit any role i can think of in its current state and it doesnt promote interesting gameplay.

 

I hope Anet reads some of the posts here and comes up with a big rework to this (and other) specs...