Catalyst Feedback Thread

[Eddy.7051]

Likes:

• The Sphere gives us access to a levitating focus without needing to wield the legendary Ipos focus.
• The Sphere conjures the Canthan celestial beasts.
• The name Catalyst sounds cool, but I still don't know how this name is relevant to its abilities. Is it referencing chemical reactions or causing an event to occur? I hope the lore NPC in Cantha will address the relevance of this name.

 

Suggestions:

• Rather than the element of the Sphere switching when the Elementalist changes attunements, I would prefer if the Elementalist slotted one specific element in the F5 skill slot (similarly to how Revenants slot two legendary stances in their F1 skill slots) and this element would remain the same when switching attunements. But the F5 element could temporarily change (or be "augmented") when using Augment skills. If the Elementalist uses an Augment skill that shares the same element as its Sphere, then the Elementalist would receive the bonus Augment effect. This would enhance the identity of specializing into a single element, while not limiting access to other elemental skills. This would also make Augment skills feel more impactful when they change the element of the Sphere.
• Currently, Augment skills feel like clunkier and less flexible versions of Glyphs. The suggestion above would address this issue.
• Hammer feels awkward on the classic mage archetype. Hammers are the heaviest weapons, and it doesn't feel right on the squishiest scholar profession. Hammers are also redundant with conjured lightning hammers (which makes more sense on an Elementalist since the conjure weapon is made of light rather than heavy material). I would prefer Torch or Mace on the Elementalist, but some of the new weapon skills would need to be scrapped to downsize to the kit of a one-handed weapon. If Catalyst used Torch, the color/animation of the Flame could correspond to the Sphere's element. There are currently several torch skins that have non-fire animations (bright frost, flashing electricity, and glowing gem stones/dust), so torch shouldn't have too much favoritism for the element of fire.

[Roshyu.2987]

Catalyst...oh man is there a lot to touch base on with this one...
Bear with me on this one, guys. If you get all the way through, I applaud you. I think a lot of these are sound criticisms, ideas, and feedback, but it's a looooot to get through. If you disagree with me, that's okay, there's countless ways to go about remedying Catalyst.

When imagining wielding a hammer and having an emphasis on melee and mid range combat with fields of power for yourself, my mind goes to significant, ground shattering AoEs and control, either in the form of overall area, hard control effects, or both. The class should absolutely reflect this and I don't think it currently does.

Traits: These are a mixed bag. I actually thoroughly enjoy the concept of Elemental Empowerment as a unique buff, especially since it's percentage increase to stats rather than flat stats or percentage damage. I feel like Empowering Auras should be the third Major Adept in place of Energized Elements. That way, your Adept selection is picking between the 3 unique modifiers to Catalyst. I do think Empowering Auras and Hardened Auras should see some more attention, just not to the same degree of Elemental Empowerment, which seems much more like the core buff of the spec. I could actually see the Grandmasters being a selection of boosting the effectiveness of Empowering Auras, Hardened Auras, or Elemental Empowerment (currently one of the grandmasters) when at full stacks. This would give a strong tie in with the Adept selection, which, now, could probably be moved to Master tier and the current Master tier moved to adept.
 

Utility Skills: The foundation for these is not necessarily bad, but I believe they need sprucing up. It feels bad for half of the effect to be locked behind using it while within range of the Jade Sphere, which in turn is based on your current elemental attunement. I would suggest either adding the current effects as the baseline OR keeping the current baseline and having a different secondary effect depending on the element of your Jade Sphere.
Heal - Soothing Water: Change to Soothing Elements. Maintain the current healing effect, but have a unique buff applied based on your current element.
⦁    When in range of fire Jade Sphere, gives the effect Soothing Heat, which causes some amount (either a percentage or all) of incoming strike damage to instead be taken as damage over time for the duration, like Damage Dampener in Scrapper. This also ties in with the heal being pulse, meaning you're able to manage the incoming damage more effectively and can't be burst quite as hard. When I think of soothing heat, I think of diluting and easing away pain slowly.
⦁    When in range of water Jade Sphere, gives the effect Soothing Water, which removes damaging conditions over the duration. When I think of water magic, I think of healing, hence this design. 
⦁    When in range of air Jade Sphere, gives the effect Soothing Air, which removes movement impairing conditions over the duration. When I think of soothing air, I think of the sensation of becoming lighter and being freed of inhibited movement.
⦁    When in range of earth Jade Sphere...admittedly, this one is hard to follow the theme set forth by the above, but running with it, Soothing Earth...This could grant barrier for each strike taken during the duration (making it stronger against rapid hits and weaker against slow hits), or providing a unique damage reduction modifier during the duration.

Utility - Fortified Earth: Change to Fortified Elements. Maintain the block effect, but add a component that grants an aura based on the Jade Sphere if a number of attacks are blocked this way. This would tie in nicely with the attempted aura synergies elsewhere in the specialization. 

Utility - Invigorating Elements: Change to Invigorating Elements. Maintain the endurance regeneration boost, but (potentially) add an on dodge effect component while within the Jade Sphere (this could be troublesome though since Arcane has an on dodge effect already). Another option would be applying a movement/speed based effect to yourself based on the element - quickness or vigor for fire, alacrity or vigor for water, superspeed for air, and stun break for earth.

Utility - Shattering Ice: Change to Elemental Strikes/Repercussions? Maintain the secondary strike on successful hits, but give a secondary effect based on the Jade Sphere - burning for fire, chill for water, blind or vulnerability for air, blind, cripple, or immobilize for earth.

Utility - Relentless Fire: Change to Relentless Elements. Maintain the damage boost. I'm...actually unsure on what could be done here. Unblockable or short (.25s) daze depending on the element? This one is tough. 

Elite - Elemental Celerity. Oh man this thing is weak. A basic number crunch on this means you're reducing your weapon skills by, at most, 8 seconds. And the only other effect is a paltry 6 seconds of a boon (4s of protection) when used in your sphere. And this is on a 90 second cooldown? This can't be the complete skill, there's just no way. This absolutely needs a lower internal cooldown, longer boons, and/or a lower cooldown. Holy smokes. Look at this skill against Weave Self and Rebound, and it's not even close to the same caliber. MEDIC!

Profession Mechanic: Jade Sphere
This is clearly meant to give the Elementalist a field of power, but I don't see that happening with it as it stands. Assuming max energy, it'll be up for 15 seconds unless you're persistently gaining energy, which is going to be really hard to do if your aim is to stand in your own field of power with hammer. Things aren't just going to come to you. Recalling it puts it on full cooldown AND drains any remaining energy? Why? Give it a reposition option, drop the energy, don't make it lose energy and go on full cooldown if you recall it, incorporate energy into traits, do something to improve this. Honestly though, my call would be get rid of energy. Elementalist already has enough to juggle as is. Energy systems really aren't that fun, especially if there's little to no means of engaging with it (other than taking one Major Adept which is pitiful, especially compared to the other options). I shutter at the thought of engaging with this as it is right now. Just make a base duration and cooldown that are appropriate for its power. This thing should be a core part of Catalyst, not a chore.

Hammer: 
General: Why is there a mix of mid and close range? It seems...kinda confusing from a design perspective, and even more so from a combat style perspective. It probably rattles me more than it does, but it does all the same. Also, I don't know if it's incomplete or not, but why does only water get a full auto attack chain while the rest are stand alone auto-attacks? I feel like if an Elementalist is going to be using a hammer, they're going to be swinging into the ground to create some serious areas of effect, eruptions, tidal waves, lightning explosions (think Thor's attack after "Give me Thanos!" in Infinity War), earthquakes. There's....very little of that. Let the hammer be an epic hammer.
Skill 3: Conceptually, I think this series of skills has potential, but is currently lacking. The radius is further than your max melee, so being right where you want to be won't do anything and it's far too close for your mid range. A 5 second base duration is rather low too, even when you get all of them running, which you'd have to swap very quickly for, and this isn't Weaver. I've heard suggestion of this becoming the new profession mechanic in some fashion. What I could see occurring is that, with sufficient skill and traiting, you could start building up a sizeable volley of elemental wheels around you, then expend them all with a separate key, rather than being capped at 1 of each and the follow up being to expend them. 
Fire: Every weapon except for scepter, until hammer, has had a fire field, but even then, a weapon set with scepter would still get a fire field from any of the offhand options. Fire hammer has no fire field. There's a grandmaster, Persisting Flames, in fire that solely revolves around fire fields from your weapon and you don't give hammer anything to work with. Either make Triple Sear (4) a field or have Molten End (5) create one after the hit so it doesn't have internal synergy. Give us some kind of big slam that recreates a volcanic fissue. 
Water: This one actually feels like it has a degree of flow to it. You have an engage (4), an AoE (5, it looks way bigger than it is and SHOULD be bigger), then a frontal cleave (2, it says it hits 4 times, but I swear the animation swings 3 times only, my only gripe here really).
Air: Boost the auto-attack. It's barely stronger than the first in the chain for water and is the second weakest overall with no bonus. Give it vulnerability or weakness, or make it pack a bigger punch. Hurricane of Pain (2) - either make it deal some amount of damage around us since we're swinging our hammer around in a circle really fast or make it a standard 1/2 to 1 second cast time. Given the style of the rest of the weapon, I actually think Wind Storm (4) is okay. Shock Blast (5) could probably do with a projectile speed increase. 
Earth: With what we've traditionally seen from the auto-attack's animation (like the Geomancy sigil) and earth itself, I'd expect a bleed component to this. Whirling Stones (2) feels far too slow for too little damage. Assuming full berserker gear and Scholar runes, Vindicator's greatword 2 only deals about 20% less damage for about a quarter of the cast time. Immutable Stone (4) should be revisited in some fashion as it's what Fortified Earth should be (see above). Also, I just realized how silly the description is. "If you block an attack, gain an aura based on your current attunement." But it's an earth skill...Was the description/functionality of this and Fortified Earth switched accidentally? Because I could see Immutable Stone giving barrier if it's allowed to finish channeling and Fortified Earth giving an aura based on attunement since, well, you could actually be in different attunements. Ground Pound (5)...oh Ground Pound. With full celestial gear and Divinity Runes, it deals 940 damage, 4662 damage over 14.5 seconds from 5 stacks of bleed, and immobilizes for 4.25 seconds in 240 radius at a 1 second cast time and 30 second cooldown. 5602 damage, 14.5 seconds to do it, 1 second cast time, 30 second cooldown. Churning Earth (dagger 5) deals 1587 damage, 8951 bleed damage over 11.5 seconds from 12 stacks of bleed, and cripples for 6 seconds in a 360 radius at a 2 second cast time and a 30 second cooldown. 10538 damage, 11.5 seconds to do it, 2 second cast time, 30 second cooldown. Overall, I think I'd take the Churning Earth. Dagger should not be doing hammer's job better. And dagger also has a skill called Earthquake that causes a 2 second knockdown. Why do both skills of offhand dagger sound cooler than the entirety of earth hammer?

The TL;DR:
Traits: Generally favored sentiments, but could use some tweaks to create slightly greater focus.
Utilities: Keep the base line effect and have the secondary effect occur in Jade Sphere, as it currently does, but have it be based on your attunement, which is also your sphere's, rather than a single element.
Hammer: General design space needs work across the board, from damage numerics to cast times to size of AoEs.
For those that made it through all of that, bless you and hopefully at least some of it seems rational enough and that ANET picks out some things from this massive list.

Edited September 24, 2021 by Roshyu.2987
Phrasing adjustment

[Merloin.4816]

I will start with the utility skills, as they seem the easiest to fix for me. All of their secondary effects are actually ‘buffs’ that any other spec/class gets without any effort, just by using their utility skills. There is no reason to punish Catalyst if they don’t use it inside a specific sphere. Because Elementalist is already dependent from two factors – attunement and the weapon they use in the fight. There is no reason for adding another hand holder and do not reward the spec for using it. But removing the requirement of specific sphere would break this dependency and open new ways of more versatile gameplay choices.

The second issue is the mechanic skill – F5. First, energy requirement should be removed and given 15sec static time. There is no reason to have both. The second, it should be replaceable (refunding cd equal to the remaining uptime), otherwise it almost has no use. But in the exchange, remove the AoE damage and let it be actually a combo field to catalyze (hah!) your gameplay. Rewarding if used right, NOT punishing if you don’t use.

The third issue is some of the traits. Against the odds, they are really not that bad, but some of them need minor changes. First of all, the middle line is quite acceptable, giving an option to choose increasing your stats (even if it is ‘boring’). The second, Empowring Auras and Energized Elements, Stanc Auras and Hardenned Auras should be merged. There is no reason to have them separated. Other classes have that kind of traits anyway (granting more than one boon in specific situation, even Weaver has one). It will leave two empty slots for new traits, however, you will only need one to fill them. As Catalyst already has an amazing thing in its kit for that – its elite skill. Rework it into Major Trait of the last column, giving a competent trait in the exchange of additional stats and extra boon duration. And it will be needed to make a new Elite Skill, but eh, it is really time to give Elementalist something really worthy.

These are what I see as the easiest fixes for the desing issues we have with Catalyst. I am somewhat sure it will end up OP as the result, but it will be balancable with number changes. Right now, changing numbers won’t really affect the issues or you should do it in the level of breaking something (as if we don’t have enough).

Edited September 24, 2021 by Merloin.4816

[Flori.2194]

Yeah, as everyone pointed out:

 

Let the jade sphere move with you, rework it, make it stowable whatever, who cares if it's a gyro 2.0? Maybe give us a trait where we can say that attuenement switch won't switch the attunement of the jade spere?

Rework the augments, make them viable, the whole effect immediately and an additional effect if your current attunement corresponds with the attunement of the utility (only for 7, 8 and 9), heal and elite shouldn't have an element and should get boni according to your element. I don't care about hammer, it's completely out of my focus, I don't care for it.

 

And could you make earth a smoke field? Why was this idea thrown out so easily? Are you afraid of stealth? I mean I am, I don't like to fight thiefs in wvw, but it's just a smoke field... 5 classes already have access to stealth. And underwater earth 5 already gives a smoke field, so it would be ok flavourwise, poison on the other hand is weird, isn't that some necro-ranger-thief-stuff?

[HotDelirium.7984]

1 hour ago, Matt H.6142 said:

I’m coming around to a catalyst way of thinking.  Powerful aura trait and arcane skills really makes the spec work.  Almost on demand auras, particularly shocking aura in wvw.
Or arcane trait for immobilize, sunspot, and dagger or focus to reach empowered empowerment threshold.

Jade Sphere has the potential to be the longest combo field in the game and the only one that can transform.  A five second combo field on a 15 second cooldown is pretty typical. 
Still augments need work. I dare you to make the fire augment inflict burning on every strike because you’ve not done it for ele yet and they should be a fire master.

The jade sphere goes on cooldown with attunement swap.  First expectation is you can place this immediately. It’s taken some adjustment to not try to target its placement for a second, otherwise it doesn’t matter where my mouse is, it’s not going to activate. . Is this cooldown really serving a purpose though?

I get your logic and its possibility of being very versatile with other skills. That should be a good bonus IN addition to its own weapon, skills, traits and utilities being self-contained and viable as well.

[Axl.8924]

This new spec doesn't have decent way to build up might like for instance scepter does with fire, and the utility is 88 sec long.

 

All possible abilities that could possibly generate might are gated.

 

Usually fire air is the go to for power type builds, unless they wanted me to waste a slot with water when i'm going power.

It also seems like they want us to use more of the elements maybe? i was in earth to do dmg water seems kinda underwhelming still for power, especially if you go water to get vulnerability.

Edited September 24, 2021 by Axl.8924

[Krysard.1364]

On 9/21/2021 at 8:12 PM, Quadehar.4379 said:

Hammer 3 with 5s duration is hard to maintain when majority of the skills have cast time that will immediately eat it up: Fire 2 4 5, Water 2 4, Air 2, Earth 2 5. You have to quickly and constantly swap attunements just to maintain all 4 orbs, you'll barely have time to use utilities. Then, using Grand Finale with all 4 orbs doesn't even do that much damage considering how hard it is to maintain.

 

My suggestion is to either:

1. Make the duration longer than 5s.

 

2. Or increase damage output of using Grand Finale.

 

Jade Sphere F5 is hardly rewarding to use. You build energy slowly, you use it on an enemy, move on to the next enemy, wait for the Jade Sphere to run out so you can reset it and use it again, then build up energy again. Or you can try to recall it to manually reset it, then start building up energy again.

 

My suggestion is to either:

1. Make it mobile, where instead of a ground skill, you cast it on yourself so it follows you.

 

2. Or when you recall it, you should regain the unused energy and cooldown will be reduced based on how much energy has been recovered.

Spot on. If I may add, I think a good change would be to make gra d finale give you auras according to the orbs you had. Makes stacking orbs more worthwhile and it gives hammer a much needed way to gain auras

[Punch.4231]

Many have done a great job covering the weaknesses of the spec as is. IMO Catalyst would be fine if you could use Sword or Warhorn with it. Or Sword AND Warhorn. Fields and blasts and leaps for days. Instead it's clunky, inconsistently ranged Hammer...

 

Here is my suggestion for Hammer:

 

Make all of the Hammer 3 orb skills combo fields that travel with you.  To have no fields with hammer (and with Cat utilities) outside of Jade sphere is ridiculous.  Limit it to one at a time if you need to, just give us a chance to actually enjoy the Catalyst mechanic (combos=auras). I'm not counting the sphere as the catalyst mechanic because in its current state it's trash. Catalyst is close to the spec I wanted,  but it needs some kitten help.

[Surolam.1490]

Charge up your Jade Sphere (F5) by hitting baddies, something like a warrior's adrenaline. Once you put it down, you're claiming a spot on the ground. It's not a huge AoE, but you get nice buffs and better skills while staying in it. Also, the middle hammer skill, 3, can be chained across several elemental attunements. Hit 3, swap attunements, and repeat until you've got four balls circling you smashing anyone who tries to melee you - then fire them all off at once. I found myself planning attunement swaps so that I could set up specific combos much more than with other Elementalist specs. The base class "feel" is still there, but with a noticeable, interesting shift. IMO, it's neither heavily over- or under-powered, but is a worthy addition to the game. It has a significant change to the _rhythm_ of play, and getting your combos & sequences set up is more important than for most of the other elite specs we've seen.

[Milosz.5938]

https://i.redd.it/22nv955lh6o71.png

this say everything

[Hedonismbot.3697]

The Catalyst Elite Skill speaks to the design philosophy behind Elementalist

 

The concept of targeted cooldown-reduction is a powerful tool to enable the player. Being able to increase/focus on specific skills enables the player to dish out more combofinishers, more dps, more cc. Your choices actually matter here. This is good.

 

It feel like the intention was to bring back some of the improvise, adapt, overcome playstyle; the philosophy of elementalist being that for every challenge you face, you got an element for that. Being able to cast high impact skills (like Wind Storm/Hammer Air4) "twice" seems like a very rewarding proposition. Not sure if the current Elite Skill delivers on this fantasy but it's a cool concept.

 

Somewhat shallow gameplay opinion:

 

Would've loved more wells. Hammer-Spin-Abilities look silly, just think of the inertia. Hammer makes me feel less like an Elementalist and more like some person wielding a weapon that is magically imbued. As in: I do not feel like a magic user but more like a magic-weapon-wielder.

 

My Beta feedback for ArenaNet:

 

The philosohpy of the Elite Skill feels very "Elementalist" to me. Not sure if it delivers on that fantasy but the idea is something I wished built upon. The mechanic of targeted cooldown-reduction of specific skills is something that seems very in line with the aesthetic of the class. I am reminded of something similar to Mesmer's Mimic or Signet of Illusions or the, imo, inspired Initiative mechanic on Thief.

 

 

(Optional background info: I'm an Ele main since base game Beta 9yrs ago, who is also somewhat bored by the perma Alacrity+Quickness PvE meta by now)

Edited September 25, 2021 by Hedonismbot.3697
Edited for clarity (less rambling).

[Queeriel.2430]

I gave it a try, but gave almost immediately up and I am definitely not ever going to even try this specialization when it gets released. What is this two (2) two handed weps and no sword, but a lousy dagger to put in main hand and throw yourself to death on a cliff or wall? Why deprive main hand sword? And when will there be a melee underwater weapon? I am sooo disappointed. No pairing melee to hammer. And it was so boring weak and slow. For my temper, hammer was too non-responsive.

Edited September 24, 2021 by Queeriel.2430

[SRMorgan.6124]

Another Elementalist main here: first class I ever played in GW2, and still the one I play the most, four years later. Mostly a PVE and PvP player.

Overview

As an Elementalist main, the Catalyst was the new specialization I was most excited for (even though the Virtuoso was kind of awesome!), and the preview event left me with very high hopes, even if Hammer was not the weapon I wanted for my main. Since I normally play staff Tempest, in all game modes, I am more interested in ranged specializations, not melee ones. Hence why I made Weaver into a separate character, rather than play it on my main - the fantasy that I find exciting for my character is that of 'the Sorceress', the one who fights from the back lane, supporting her allies and controlling her enemies' advance [or just burning them to death!]. I was, however, willing to give the Catalyst a chance - especially since Hammer seemed to have both ranged and melee elements in its rotation. Would I have preferred a short/longbow as the new class weapon? Absolutely. Would I be willing to settle for a torch and a sceptre rework? Most definitely. Is that what we're getting? No. So, okay, let's try and make do with the Catalyst.

The Negatives: What I Don't Like About 'The Catalyst'

While I think most of these have been mentioned above, I will summarise them once more.

One, unlike Tempest and Weaver, the Catalyst [with hammer] seems to lack a clear identity or direction: its damage output is too low and inconsistent to be considered a DPS, its healing is weak and unreliable so it is definitely not a healer, and its survivability is too shaky for it to be seamlessly played as a bruiser, tank, or, to borrow League of Legends' term, juggernaut. And believe me, I tried - I tried playing it as a berserker, as a Celestial bruiser, and even as a tank, with Signet of Earth and Armor of Earth. None of them worked competitively when compared to Tempest and Weaver - my Scholar Weaver, somehow, has better survivability than the Catalyst, while my healer Tempest seems to kill Elites faster [or as quickly]. On her Healer build. So, after three days of experiments, I am still unsure as to what fantasy the Catalyst aims to provide, and why I would pick it over my other two Elementalists. Of course, I also tried staff Catalyst - and while that was more fun than the hammer version, the mechanic provided by F5 and the Augments, though they are an issue for later, was not impactful enough to make Catalyst feel distinct from core Elementalist, or Tempest with overloads on cooldown. 

Which leads us to points Two and Three: the Jade Sphere and the Augments respectively. Simply put, the Jade Sphere mechanic is cool as a concept, and the wells with the spirit beasts look fantastic, but... That's it? Four static spirits, which unlike the Ranger ones don't do anything, and four combo fields? Going back to my previous argument, why play Catalyst when I can just play Tempest and get auras from Overloads? How are the combo fields effective, when once you step away from them, the Augments become relatively useless, and F5 goes on cooldown shortly after. Which is then followed by a period of filling in the Energy. Then a cast time, which can be interrupted. So far, a third of the times I've tried activating the Jade Sphere mid fight, especially a big PVE fight, I've been interrupted. The end result being that the fight either ends, or I die, or both. And speaking of energy - why is the bar so small and hard to monitor? Why does the Jade Sphere vanish and reappear, instead of following us like a gyro, which is literally is. How many things must a Catalyst player manage to be successful - energy levels, cooldown of Sphere, hammer skill 3, which then needs you to quickly rotate, but if you need to press F5, and use an Augment, but Hammer skill 3 is no longer active... Back to my previous point again: how is that more enticing than the Tempest, Weaver, or core, with their relatively easier mechanics?

As for point Three - the Augments. Great idea, great icons. Performance in game? Underwhelming at best. The Air and Earth ones are okay, but, yet again, why pick them over Armor of Earth and Signet of Air? For skills with relatively long cooldowns, the Augments feel - and 'look', so to speak, given that they barely have any animations - anticlimactic and extremely uninteresting. Worst of all - what is with the Healing and the Elite skills? The former seems cool when you read the tip, but barely does anything even in the combo field, and the latter is equivalent to a minor trait - no impact or interactions with anything. I switched back to my Glyph of Elementals, and while I am bored of it, at least it has an impact on fights. Just juxtapose Catalyst and Harbinger Elites - one gives all the boons, the other... er... The icon is cool! (And, to repeat myself again, why choose this over what Tempest and Weaver offer?)

Point Four - the Hammer. Beautiful animations! Best disengage in game, with Air 4! Awesome looking mechanic on skill 3! What is with the range, however? Why not make it bigger - if you'll have it - and more consistent? Why only on Fire and Air? Why doesn't Earth skill 1 have an attack chain? Why doesn't it apply bleeding? What is the purpose of Water skill 2? Just like with Jade Sphere, Hammer feels like work in progress, or like it is trying to please everyone - though who that everyone is I don't know, since generally Elementalist players seem to want more ranged options - and failing to deliver both the ranged and melee fantasies. As for Skill 3 - again, very cool, but the rotating elemental orbs need to stay longer and have more of a trade off if you either do a full rotation, or choose to stick to 1-2 elements. As they are now, they are annoying to use, more than rewarding. 

Point Five - the Traits. Those... I actually like, more or less. They offer trade-offs, based on what you pick, but I'd like to see the Grandmaster which gives stability have a second function as well. Just stability feels a bit bland.

The Positives: What I Like About the Catalyst

This will be much shorter, but, as previously stated, I love the visuals, the wells and the spirit beasts look magnificent, and some of the Hammer skills are very fun to use, if a bit underpowered. The Jade Sphere is also a cool concept, as long as what it provides becomes clearer and a bit more impactful. Hammer skill 3 could also be one of the coolest looking and acting skills in the game, in my view, if it is made a bit less frustrating to use. Hmm. Okay. This is shorter than I anticipated.

What Suggestions Do I have? Or, My Constructive Criticism

Since I see no point in listing things I don't particularly like without offering solutions, I am going to put some of those here. Also, stating this clearly: if you like anything, ArenaNet, it's yours to implement! As long as the Catalyst is as cool as Tempest and Weaver when it comes out, I'll be happy! Now, disclaimer included, here are practical solutions:

Jade Sphere - turn it into a gyro which follows the Catalyst all the time, and give it a clear indicator of energy level. My suggestion? Make the Sphere glow with a jade halo as it charges up, with the glow intensifying when it reaches full charge. This way, players can easily spot when they can cast F5, and enemies - in PVP or WVW - also get an indicator that the Catalyst is at full strength. Don't make the energy drop after it reaches full charge unless F5 is cast. That way, the Catalyst gets some strategic play with the Sphere - do I use it now, or do I wait until the Scourge who is running towards me to help the Holosmith I'm fighting gets here! Additionally, give the spirit elemental beasts a similar functionality to Ranger spirits. What I mean by this is that, when the energy expires, the elemental beast that is active at the time should perform an action. My suggestions are:

Phoenix - blinds and burns upon expiring.

Waterhorse - heals and chills.

Dragon - gives fury and pushes enemies back.

Turtle - gives barrier and poisons enemies.

By adding these, you'll open up space for the Catalyst to be played with other weapons, one, and for the elemental beasts to have a function other than decoration, two. Also, F5 will feel more like a competitive mechanic, rather than an inferior Overload. With these changes, the Sphere can easily keep both its Energy requirement and Cooldowns.

Hammer - personally, I would suggest that you increase the range of Fire skills 1 and 2, and Air skills 1 and 2, and then make Water and Earth skills 1 and 2 ranged as well, so that there is symmetry between elements - 2 ranged, skill 3, 2 utility/finisher skills. In this way, fighting with the hammer will feel more cohesive, and will offer 2 different playstyles -  either I stay back and only use my ranged skills, or I come close so I can use all of my skills. Alternatively, of course, you can make all 4 elements melee, though then staff may need some buffs, since not all of us enjoy the melee fantasy. [Also, the animation of Air 5 looks a bit out of place - a blast finisher that moves like a depressed version of Air skill 1?]

Augments - either make their second functionality at present be their base one, and then give them some unified interaction with the Jade Sphere - prolongs the duration of Jade Sphere? Grants fury/quickness? - or redesign them into something else. Perhaps when activated they empower certain skills? Again, in this way, we are not locked into playing Hammer for new content! Maybe they interact with skill 3? Maybe they interact with Elemental Empowerment? Maybe they provide some sort of magical armor, for a bruiser play?

Elite skill - going back to my previous suggestion, maybe it provides some sort of magical armor when cast? Again, if I'm a bruiser with hammer, or even a ranged wizard with hammer, I want my Elite to feel impactful - and to be visually cool.

Thematic - either follow on the comment from the livestream that the Catalyst should be like a 'Wizard', and make Hammer ranged, or push it in the direction of a Juggernaut tank, who uses the aforementioned magical [Arcane?] armor and skill to smash its foes. And control points. In other words - we already have a healer and a DPS-y bruiser in Tempest and Weaver, now give us a tanky control mage. Then the relative lack of damage won't feel as bad, since the gameplay will be about longevity rather than immediacy. [But, seriously, the Wizard sounds cooler with its long range!]

Conclusion

This is way too long for anyone to ever read it all, but at least I got it out of my system. Also, great job with the Vindicator and the Bladesworn - the gunsaber is too cool for its own good, and the Vindicator is probably one of my new favourite 'classes' in the game. So, yes, here's something genuinely positive - at least we'll always have the Vindicator for EoD. 

Edited September 24, 2021 by SRMorgan.6124

[HotDelirium.7984]

6 hours ago, Roshyu.2987 said:

Catalyst...oh man is there a lot to touch base on with this one...
Bear with me on this one, guys. If you get all the way through, I applaud you. I think a lot of these are sound criticisms, ideas, and feedback, but it's a looooot to get through. If you disagree with me, that's okay, there's countless ways to go about remedying Catalyst.

When imagining wielding a hammer and having an emphasis on melee and mid range combat with fields of power for yourself, my mind goes to significant, ground shattering AoEs and control, either in the form of overall area, hard control effects, or both. The class should absolutely reflect this and I don't think it currently does.

Traits: These are a mixed bag. I actually thoroughly enjoy the concept of Elemental Empowerment as a unique buff, especially since it's percentage increase to stats rather than flat stats or percentage damage. I feel like Empowering Auras should be the third Major Adept in place of Energized Elements. That way, your Adept selection is picking between the 3 unique modifiers to Catalyst. I do think Empowering Auras and Hardened Auras should see some more attention, just not to the same degree of Elemental Empowerment, which seems much more like the core buff of the spec. I could actually see the Grandmasters being a selection of boosting the effectiveness of Empowering Auras, Hardened Auras, or Elemental Empowerment (currently one of the grandmasters) when at full stacks. This would give a strong tie in with the Adept selection, which, now, could probably be moved to Master tier and the current Master tier moved to adept.
 

Utility Skills: The foundation for these is not necessarily bad, but I believe they need sprucing up. It feels bad for half of the effect to be locked behind using it while within range of the Jade Sphere, which in turn is based on your current elemental attunement. I would suggest either adding the current effects as the baseline OR keeping the current baseline and having a different secondary effect depending on the element of your Jade Sphere.
Heal - Soothing Water: Change to Soothing Elements. Maintain the current healing effect, but have a unique buff applied based on your current element.
⦁    When in range of fire Jade Sphere, gives the effect Soothing Heat, which causes some amount (either a percentage or all) of incoming strike damage to instead be taken as damage over time for the duration, like Damage Dampener in Scrapper. This also ties in with the heal being pulse, meaning you're able to manage the incoming damage more effectively and can't be burst quite as hard. When I think of soothing heat, I think of diluting and easing away pain slowly.
⦁    When in range of water Jade Sphere, gives the effect Soothing Water, which removes damaging conditions over the duration. When I think of water magic, I think of healing, hence this design. 
⦁    When in range of air Jade Sphere, gives the effect Soothing Air, which removes movement impairing conditions over the duration. When I think of soothing air, I think of the sensation of becoming lighter and being freed of inhibited movement.
⦁    When in range of earth Jade Sphere...admittedly, this one is hard to follow the theme set forth by the above, but running with it, Soothing Earth...This could grant barrier for each strike taken during the duration (making it stronger against rapid hits and weaker against slow hits), or providing a unique damage reduction modifier during the duration.

Utility - Fortified Earth: Change to Fortified Elements. Maintain the block effect, but add a component that grants an aura based on the Jade Sphere if a number of attacks are blocked this way. This would tie in nicely with the attempted aura synergies elsewhere in the specialization. 

Utility - Invigorating Elements: Change to Invigorating Elements. Maintain the endurance regeneration boost, but (potentially) add an on dodge effect component while within the Jade Sphere (this could be troublesome though since Arcane has an on dodge effect already). Another option would be applying a movement/speed based effect to yourself based on the element - quickness or vigor for fire, alacrity or vigor for water, superspeed for air, and stun break for earth.

Utility - Shattering Ice: Change to Elemental Strikes/Repercussions? Maintain the secondary strike on successful hits, but give a secondary effect based on the Jade Sphere - burning for fire, chill for water, blind or vulnerability for air, blind, cripple, or immobilize for earth.

Utility - Relentless Fire: Change to Relentless Elements. Maintain the damage boost. I'm...actually unsure on what could be done here. Unblockable or short (.25s) daze depending on the element? This one is tough. 

Elite - Elemental Celerity. Oh man this thing is weak. A basic number crunch on this means you're reducing your weapon skills by, at most, 8 seconds. And the only other effect is a paltry 6 seconds of a boon (4s of protection) when used in your sphere. And this is on a 90 second cooldown? This can't be the complete skill, there's just no way. This absolutely needs a lower internal cooldown, longer boons, and/or a lower cooldown. Holy smokes. Look at this skill against Weave Self and Rebound, and it's not even close to the same caliber. MEDIC!

Profession Mechanic: Jade Sphere
This is clearly meant to give the Elementalist a field of power, but I don't see that happening with it as it stands. Assuming max energy, it'll be up for 15 seconds unless you're persistently gaining energy, which is going to be really hard to do if your aim is to stand in your own field of power with hammer. Things aren't just going to come to you. Recalling it puts it on full cooldown AND drains any remaining energy? Why? Give it a reposition option, drop the energy, don't make it lose energy and go on full cooldown if you recall it, incorporate energy into traits, do something to improve this. Honestly though, my call would be get rid of energy. Elementalist already has enough to juggle as is. Energy systems really aren't that fun, especially if there's little to no means of engaging with it (other than taking one Major Adept which is pitiful, especially compared to the other options). I shutter at the thought of engaging with this as it is right now. Just make a base duration and cooldown that are appropriate for its power. This thing should be a core part of Catalyst, not a chore.

Hammer: 
General: Why is there a mix of mid and close range? It seems...kinda confusing from a design perspective, and even more so from a combat style perspective. It probably rattles me more than it does, but it does all the same. Also, I don't know if it's incomplete or not, but why does only water get a full auto attack chain while the rest are stand alone auto-attacks? I feel like if an Elementalist is going to be using a hammer, they're going to be swinging into the ground to create some serious areas of effect, eruptions, tidal waves, lightning explosions (think Thor's attack after "Give me Thanos!" in Infinity War), earthquakes. There's....very little of that. Let the hammer be an epic hammer.
Skill 3: Conceptually, I think this series of skills has potential, but is currently lacking. The radius is further than your max melee, so being right where you want to be won't do anything and it's far too close for your mid range. A 5 second base duration is rather low too, even when you get all of them running, which you'd have to swap very quickly for, and this isn't Weaver. I've heard suggestion of this becoming the new profession mechanic in some fashion. What I could see occurring is that, with sufficient skill and traiting, you could start building up a sizeable volley of elemental wheels around you, then expend them all with a separate key, rather than being capped at 1 of each and the follow up being to expend them. 
Fire: Every weapon except for scepter, until hammer, has had a fire field, but even then, a weapon set with scepter would still get a fire field from any of the offhand options. Fire hammer has no fire field. There's a grandmaster, Persisting Flames, in fire that solely revolves around fire fields from your weapon and you don't give hammer anything to work with. Either make Triple Sear (4) a field or have Molten End (5) create one after the hit so it doesn't have internal synergy. Give us some kind of big slam that recreates a volcanic fissue. 
Water: This one actually feels like it has a degree of flow to it. You have an engage (4), an AoE (5, it looks way bigger than it is and SHOULD be bigger), then a frontal cleave (2, it says it hits 4 times, but I swear the animation swings 3 times only, my only gripe here really).
Air: Boost the auto-attack. It's barely stronger than the first in the chain for water and is the second weakest overall with no bonus. Give it vulnerability or weakness, or make it pack a bigger punch. Hurricane of Pain (2) - either make it deal some amount of damage around us since we're swinging our hammer around in a circle really fast or make it a standard 1/2 to 1 second cast time. Given the style of the rest of the weapon, I actually think Wind Storm (4) is okay. Shock Blast (5) could probably do with a projectile speed increase. 
Earth: With what we've traditionally seen from the auto-attack's animation (like the Geomancy sigil) and earth itself, I'd expect a bleed component to this. Whirling Stones (2) feels far too slow for too little damage. Assuming full berserker gear and Scholar runes, Vindicator's greatword 2 only deals about 20% less damage for about a quarter of the cast time. Immutable Stone (4) should be revisited in some fashion as it's what Fortified Earth should be (see above). Also, I just realized how silly the description is. "If you block an attack, gain an aura based on your current attunement." But it's an earth skill...Was the description/functionality of this and Fortified Earth switched accidentally? Because I could see Immutable Stone giving barrier if it's allowed to finish channeling and Fortified Earth giving an aura based on attunement since, well, you could actually be in different attunements. Ground Pound (5)...oh Ground Pound. With full celestial gear and Divinity Runes, it deals 940 damage, 4662 damage over 14.5 seconds from 5 stacks of bleed, and immobilizes for 4.25 seconds in 240 radius at a 1 second cast time and 30 second cooldown. 5602 damage, 14.5 seconds to do it, 1 second cast time, 30 second cooldown. Churning Earth (dagger 5) deals 1587 damage, 8951 bleed damage over 11.5 seconds from 12 stacks of bleed, and cripples for 6 seconds in a 360 radius at a 2 second cast time and a 30 second cooldown. 10538 damage, 11.5 seconds to do it, 2 second cast time, 30 second cooldown. Overall, I think I'd take the Churning Earth. Dagger should not be doing hammer's job better. And dagger also has a skill called Earthquake that causes a 2 second knockdown. Why do both skills of offhand dagger sound cooler than the entirety of earth hammer?

The TL;DR:
Traits: Generally favored sentiments, but could use some tweaks to create slightly greater focus.
Utilities: Keep the base line effect and have the secondary effect occur in Jade Sphere, as it currently does, but have it be based on your attunement, which is also your sphere's, rather than a single element.
Hammer: General design space needs work across the board, from damage numerics to cast times to size of AoEs.
For those that made it through all of that, bless you and hopefully at least some of it seems rational enough and that ANET picks out some things from this massive list.

OMG I literally had the same idea and just saw your post after posting mine.

Soothing Water, Soothing Air, Soothing Fire, Soothing Earth for the win! lol

[HotDelirium.7984]

5 minutes ago, SRMorgan.6124 said:

Another Elementalist main here: first class I ever played in GW2, and still the one I play the most, four years later. Mostly a PVE and PvP player.

Overview

As an Elementalist main, the Catalyst was the new specialization I was most excited for (even though the Virtuoso was kind of awesome!), and the preview event left me with very high hopes, even if Hammer was not the weapon I wanted for my main. Since I normally play staff Tempest, in all game modes, I am more interested in ranged specializations, not melee ones. Hence why I made Weaver into a separate character, rather than play it on my main - the fantasy that I find exciting for my character is that of 'the Sorceress', the one who fights from the back lane, supporting her allies and controlling her enemies' advance [or just burning them to death!]. I was, however, willing to give the Catalyst a chance - especially since Hammer seemed to have both ranged and melee elements in its rotation. Would I have preferred a short/longbow as the new class weapon? Absolutely. Would I be willing to settle for a torch and a sceptre rework? Most definitely. Is that what we're getting? No. So, okay, let's try and make do with the Catalyst.

The Negatives: What I Don't Like About 'The Catalyst'

While I think most of these have been mentioned above, I will summarise them once more.

One, unlike Tempest and Weaver, the Catalyst [with hammer] seems to lack a clear identity or direction: its damage output is too low and inconsistent to be considered a DPS, its healing is weak and unreliable so it is definitely not a healer, and its survivability is too shaky for it to be seamlessly played as a bruiser, tank, or, to borrow League of Legends' term, juggernaut. And believe me, I tried - I tried playing it as a berserker, as a Celestial bruiser, and even as a tank, with Signet of Earth and Armor of Earth. None of them worked competitively when compared to Tempest and Weaver - my Scholar Weaver, somehow, has better survivability than the Catalyst, while my healer Tempest seems to kill Elites faster [or as quickly]. On her Healer build. So, after three days of experiments, I am still unsure as to what fantasy the Catalyst aims to provide, and why I would pick it over my other two Elementalists. Of course, I also tried staff Catalyst - and while that was more fun than the hammer version, the mechanic provided by F5 and the Augments, though they are an issue for later, was not impactful enough to make Catalyst feel distinct from core Elementalist, or Tempest with overloads on cooldown. 

Which leads us to points Two and Three: the Jade Sphere and the Augments respectively. Simply put, the Jase Sphere mechanic is cool as a concept, and the wells with the spirit beasts look fantastic, but... That's it? Four static spirits, which unlike the Ranger ones don't do anything, and four combo fields? Going back to my previous argument, why play Catalyst when I can just play Tempest and get auras from Overloads? How are the combo fields effective, when once you step away from them, the Augments become relatively useless, and F5 goes on cooldown shortly after. Which is then followed by a period of filling in the Energy. Then a cast time, which can be interrupted. So far, a third of the times I've tried activating the Jade Sphere mid fight, especially a big PVE fight, I've been interrupted. The end result being that the fight either ends, or I die, or both. And speaking of energy - why is the bar so small and hard to monitor? Why does the Jade Sphere vanish and reappear, instead of following us like a gyro, which is literally is. How many things must a Catalyst player manage to be successful - energy levels, cooldown of Sphere, hammer skill 3, which then needs you to quickly rotate, but if you need to press F5, and use an Augment, but Hammer skill 3 is no longer active... Back to my previous point again: how is that more enticing than the Tempest, Weaver, or core, with their relatively easier mechanics?

As for point Three - the Augments. Great idea, great icons. Performance in game? Underwhelming at best. The Air and Earth ones are okay, but, yet again, why pick them over Armor of Earth and Signet of Air? For skills with relatively long cooldowns, the Augments feel - and 'look', so to speak, given that they barely have any animations - anticlimactic and extremely uninteresting. Worst of all - what is with the Healing and the Elite skills? The former seems cool when you read the tip, but barely does anything even in the combo field, and the latter is equivalent to a minor trait - no impact or interactions with anything. I switched back to my Glyph of Elementals, and while I am bored of it, at least it has an impact on fights. Just juxtapose Catalyst and Harbinger Elites - one gives all the boons, the other... er... The icon is cool! (And, to repeat myself again, why choose this over what Tempest and Weaver offer?)

Point Four - the Hammer. Beautiful animations! Best disengage in game, with Air 4! Awesome looking mechanic on skill 3! What is with the range, however? Why not make it bigger - if you'll have it - and more consistent? Why only on Fire and Air? Why doesn't Earth skill 1 have an attack chain? Why doesn't it apply bleeding? What is the purpose of Water skill 2? Just like with Jade Sphere, Hammer feels like work in progress, or like it is trying to please everyone - though who that everyone is I don't know, since generally Elementalist players seem to want more ranged options - and failing to deliver both the ranged and melee fantasies. As for Skill 3 - again, very cool, but the rotating elemental orbs need to stay longer and have more of a trade off if you either do a full rotation, or choose to stick to 1-2 elements. As they are now, they are annoying to use, more than rewarding. 

Point Five - the Traits. Those... I actually like, more or less. They offer trade-offs, based on what you pick, but I'd like to see the Grandmaster which gives stability have a second function as well. Just stability feels a bit bland.

The Positives: What I Like About the Catalyst

This will be much shorter, but, as previously stated, I love the visuals, the wells and the spirit beasts look magnificent, and some of the Hammer skills are very fun to use, if a bit underpowered. The Jade Sphere is also a cool concept, as long as what it provides becomes clearer and a bit more impactful. Hammer skill 3 could also be one of the coolest looking and acting skills in the game, in my view, if it is made a bit less frustrating to use. Hmm. Okay. This is shorter than I anticipated.

What Suggestions Do I have? Or, My Constructive Criticism

Since I see no point in listing things I don't particularly like without offering solutions, I am going to put some of those here. Also, stating this clearly: if you like anything, ArenaNet, it's yours to implement! As long as the Catalyst is as cool as Tempest and Weaver when it comes out, I'll be happy! Now, disclaimer included, here are practical solutions:

Jade Sphere - turn it into a gyro which follows the Catalyst all the time, and give it a clear indicator of energy level. My suggestion? Make the Sphere glow with a jade halo as it charges up, with the glow intensifying when it reaches full charge. This way, players can easily spot when they can cast F5, and enemies - in PVP or WVW - also get an indicator that the Catalyst is at full strength. Don't make the energy drop after it reaches full charge unless F5 is cast. That way, the Catalyst gets some strategic play with the Sphere - do I use it now, or do I wait until the Scourge who is running towards me to help the Holosmith I'm fighting gets here! Additionally, give the spirit elemental beasts a similar functionality to Ranger spirits. What I mean by this is that, when the energy expires, the elemental beast that is active at the time should perform an action. My suggestions are:

Phoenix - blinds and burns upon expiring.

Waterhorse - heals and chills.

Dragon - gives fury and pushes enemies back.

Turtle - gives barrier and poisons enemies.

By adding these, you'll open up space for the Catalyst to be played with other weapons, one, and for the elemental beasts to have a function other than decoration, two. Also, F5 will feel more like a competitive mechanic, rather than an inferior Overload. With these changes, the Sphere can easily keep both its Energy requirement and Cooldowns.

Hammer - personally, I would suggest that you increase the range of Fire skills 1 and 2, and Air skills 1 and 2, and then make Water and Earth skills 1 and 2 ranged as well, so that there is symmetry between elements - 2 ranged, skill 3, 2 utility/finisher skills. In this way, fighting with the hammer will feel more cohesive, and will offer 2 different playstyles -  either I stay back and only use my ranged skills, or I come close so I can use all of my skills. Alternatively, of course, you can make all 4 elements melee, though then staff may need some buffs, since not all of us enjoy the melee fantasy. [Also, the animation of Air 5 looks a bit out of place - a blast finisher that moves like a depressed version of Air skill 1?]

Augments - either make their second functionality at present be their base one, and then give them some unified interaction with the Jade Sphere - prolongs the duration of Jade Sphere? Grants fury/quickness? - or redesign them into something else. Perhaps when activated they empower certain skills? Again, in this way, we are not locked into playing Hammer for new content! Maybe they interact with skill 3? Maybe they interact with Elemental Empowerment? Maybe they provide some sort of magical armor, for a bruiser play?

Elite skill - going back to my previous suggestion, maybe it provides some sort of magical armor when cast? Again, if I'm a bruiser with hammer, or even a ranged wizard with hammer, I want my Elite to feel impactful - and to be visually cool.

Thematic - either follow on the comment from the livestream that the Catalyst should be like a 'Wizard', and make Hammer ranged, or push it in the direction of a Juggernaut tank, who uses the aforementioned magical [Arcane?] armor and skill to smash its foes. And control points. In other words - we already have a healer and a DPS-y bruiser in Tempest and Weaver, now give us a tanky control mage. Then the relative lack of damage won't feel as bad, since the gameplay will be about longevity rather than immediacy. [But, seriously, the Wizard sounds cooler with its long range!]

Conclusion

This is way too long for anyone to ever read it all, but at least I got it out of my system. Also, great job with the Vindicator and the Bladesworn - the gunsaber is too cool for its own good, and the Vindicator is probably one of my new favourite 'classes' in the game. So, yes, here's something genuinely positive - at least we'll always have the Vindicator for EoD. 

I just wanted to say I like the logic behind your point about the Jade Sphere fields. For example, for the water jade sphere field WHY do we need so much Resolution? Why so many cleanses? While cleansing is a fine technique why is that the main mechanic. I'm cleansing the conditions just so you can reapply and I cleanse them again?! K. Maybe a bonus for all this cleansing would be great: every condi cleanses adds 2 seconds of Ice Aura. Maybe every pulse of Resolution creates a pulse of regeneration per condi tic? We need more creativity with this spec.

[HnRkLnXqZ.1870]

What I like:

- the animations are good, especially the Jade Spheres

- the trait-line image. This is not a troll/joke. A BETA should give an idea about a class, but not a complete insight. Artwork should be reserved for the release. Only use images which are mandatory for the functionality. I doubt this was planned, but I like the decision.

- the name

- addressing combos as a feature once again, not a gimmick mechanic

- synergies with Conjoure Earth Shield

- synergies with Arcane skills/traits

 

What I dislike:

- It is the second elite-specialization that utilizes Auras.

- Too few combo-finishers and combo-fields.

- Elemental Empowerment. Celestial stats as the recommended way of playing the class.

 

What I would like to change:

COMBOS

- Fire & Wind auto-attacks, Surging Flames  should be Projectile Finishers.

- Whirling Stones, Hurricane Pain, Cleansing Typhoon,   should be  Whirl Finishers.

- Wind Storm should be Leap Finisher.

- Triple Sear should be a Fire Field.

 

PROFESSION SKILLS

- Soothing Water should have unique side effects with every elemental jade-sphere, not only with water.

- The utility-skills should be one skill with different effects depending on the attunement.

- A self-quickness source, as most other Hammer professions have it.

 

OTHER

- Conjoure Lightning Hammer should have a synergy with the Catalyst

Edited September 24, 2021 by HnRkLnXqZ.1870

[SRMorgan.6124]

17 minutes ago, HotDelirium.7984 said:

I just wanted to say I like the logic behind your point about the Jade Sphere fields. For example, for the water jade sphere field WHY do we need so much Resolution? Why so many cleanses? While cleansing is a fine technique why is that the main mechanic. I'm cleansing the conditions just so you can reapply and I cleanse them again?! K. Maybe a bonus for all this cleansing would be great: every condi cleanses adds 2 seconds of Ice Aura. Maybe every pulse of Resolution creates a pulse of regeneration per condi tic? We need more creativity with this spec.

 

Well said, we do need more creativity with it! Ultimately, any change to the Jade Sphere will be welcome, though the one I am most adamant on is making it a gyro and giving Energy levels a visual indicator. After that, any sort of action from the elemental [Celestial] beasts will be welcome - as long as they don't just stand there and then disappear.

[SRMorgan.6124]

4 minutes ago, HnRkLnXqZ.1870 said:

 

PROFESSION SKILLS

- Soothing Water should have unique side effects with every elemental jade-sphere, not only with water.

- The utility-skills should be one skill with different effects depending on the attunement.

- A self-quickness source, as most other Hammer professions have it.

 

OTHER

- Conjoure Lightning Hammer should have a synergy with the Catalyst

I agree with all of these points, especially the self-quickness one, and the Lightning Hammer synergy. [And I don't even use Lightning Hammer most of the time!]

[HotDelirium.7984]

1 hour ago, SRMorgan.6124 said:

 

Well said, we do need more creativity with it! Ultimately, any change to the Jade Sphere will be welcome, though the one I am most adamant on is making it a gyro and giving Energy levels a visual indicator. After that, any sort of action from the elemental [Celestial] beasts will be welcome - as long as they don't just stand there and then disappear.

They do make it sound as if the beast is just a simulacrum of energy we are channeling. There is no actual beast there....just a projection from the Jade Sphere technology based on our intention (attunement).

[bluberblasen.9684]

 

WvW point of view 

 

 

( i used dual DAGGERS because i played with dual daggers ~ 5000 hours in WvW and PvP - so i have a little experience with them )

 

F5: The F5 needs strong buff ---->>>>   remove the energy requirement and set the cooldown to  FLAT 20 seconds (WvW)

---------------------------------------->>>>  increase the radius by 100 % 

---------------------------------------->>>> when i start in for example in water ( please let it for 2 or 3 seconds in water before it starts changing  with your current attunement.

 

The utility skills:

I could only test the one with THE STUNBREAKER because i need at least TWO breakers in Roaming ( so i used the core one with 25 seconds cooldown and the new one with 30 second cooldown from catalyst.

JUST REWORK ALL UTLILITYS ---->>>> They are all very low, even the core utilities are better.

 

 

The heal was very VERY underwhelming so i used the standard heal Signet of Restoration. (please BUFF the catalyst heal)

 

 

The Traits:

I really like the traits i used.

I used Evasive_Empowerment  Vicious_Empowerment and the GOD OF ALL TRAITS FOR ELEMENTALIST Staunch_Auras

 

I really, really like staunch Auras... i will NEVER EVER run without this trait 🙂

Every time you change into fire attunement or leap in fire field  ( sunspot ) or use air 3 or water 4  you gain stability for more than 3 seconds. This save finishers felt soooooooo good.

 

Would Rate Catalyst with dual daggers ( fire, arcane, catalyst traits ) 5/10 ( the power comes from core elementalist with the plus from all stat gains and staunch auras for 70 % stability uptime with the substracion of the very very bad F5.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited September 24, 2021 by bluberblasen.9684

[Roul.3205]

I’m the guy that made the first benchmark for Catalyst, which I have already pushed to 43k dps by now, showcasing its pretty huge damage potential. Lots of people were quick to call out the conjures used here to “carry the damage”, however that isn’t actually true, as conjures are only 3k dps of the build. The real thing that carries the damage of Catalyst is the hammer #3 skill. I didn’t notice this until earlier today, but on a big hitbox while inside the golem, this skill hits the boss up to 11/12 times, whereas when standing outside the golem, it hits only 3-8 times. Here is a video showcasing this phenomenon: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JwIbGipuDfc

 

We are talking about 9k vs 33k damage per usage here. The issue becomes even bigger on small hitboxes, where, if positioned badly, the orb doesn’t even hit to begin with. The dps difference of the #3 skills on big vs small hitbox is more than 11k dps, which is a huge problem. A logical way to fix this would be to have the orbs rotate closer to your character, or keep the visuals while making the skill a pulsing field. Catalyst will only be viable on big hitboxes and nothing else for as long as this doesn’t get fixed. And when talking about hammer #3 anyway, the skill could use a duration increase from 5 to 7 or 8 seconds until it depletes. This would make the rotation feel less timegated, and people with ping problems would have an easier time connecting the orbs aswell.

 

The second obvious problem is the sphere. The biggest issue with it is that energy depletes while out of combat. This renders a quickness catalyst build impossible, as you first have to build up your energy for ages in order to supply quickness. The fix is to simply allow us start with 100 energy. Similarly to this, the sphere should also follow the player wherever it goes in order to properly supply boons in any encounter that isn’t stationary.

Furthermore there should most definitely be more ways to upkeep energy, allowing us to permanently maintain the sphere. My suggestion would be that comboing gives us energy.

Lastly the sphere field, since it is not a weapon skill fire field, does not give any stacks of Persisting Flames, rendering the fire grandmaster trait completely useless – just weird design imo.

 

Other than that I think the spec is quite well done and very enjoyable – on big hitboxes, that is. I really hope these problems can be fixed, as I see huge potential here! 

Edited September 24, 2021 by Roul.3205

[taseka.9043]

of the 6 new elite specs that you've introduced, catalyst is by FAR the WORST of them all. in my opinion it is absolute trash. the F5 sucks, is super weak, doesn't last nearly long enough, the energy takes way to long to build up, and then when the jade sphere disappears it goes on cooldown!? it shouldn't even have a cooldown. the time it takes to build up the energy is cooldown enough. you definitely need to make getting energy easier, and make it faster.  why are there no traits that help you build energy faster? there are for bladesworn, and like every other spec that has a similar mechanic.

 

also, the fact that the jade sphere wells are supposed to be the best way to get boons in this spec is just rubbish. the well is very small, and in pvp/wvw, and even in most pve scenarios, we arent going to stay in one place simply to get a few seconds of boons. and our party or squad members aren't going to either. so the wells are junk.

 

the utility skills suck, so boring, so weak, so utterly worthless. the hammer skills only have 1 blast finisher? and not any leaps or whirls either. the skills are super slow and clunky, not a good weapon for an ele at all, which we all told you. I'm pretty sure that 90% of ele's wanted a long ranged weapon, either longbow or rifle, even a shortbow would have been nice! but instead you give us a HAMMER?! what the heck anet? you seriously failed big time on this spec. in fact, catalyst in my opinion is the worst spec in the entire game. its trash, and in my opinion, you have two options.

 

#1, keep it like it is, and only probably only about 1% of ele's will use it. or #2 trash it all. throw it all away and start from scratch. give us what we wanted, a longbow or rifle. listen to the players, to what we want. because right now, almost no one is happy with this spec. i know you spent a lot of time on this spec, but what would you rather have happen? have almost no one play this spec because of how much it sucks? Or scrap it all, start over? maybe have the ele spec come out a bit later then was planned, like in march instead of February when the expansion will, but use that time to create something we would actually love to play and be happy with. use that time to create something amazing. because right now, i cant think of a single scenario that catalyst would be better then weaver, tempest or core ele. I truly cant. so please, throw it all away. give us what we want, give us something good, something fun, something amazing. Because right now, I'm very disappointed. 

[wetwillyhip.7254]

As a person who used to main Ele, I got tired of the lack of sustain and playing the piano. The level of high risk and input for same (and not higher) reward as other classes is a huge turn off. At least Tempest and Weaver had better fleshed out themes and played uniquely. They had more development.

Catalyst is too limited with how you need to play to get the most of the utility skills. Skills in general are WAY too slow to cast, they should have zero cast times and feel really mobile like dagger/dagger or sword if you're gonna be melee AGAIN. Orbs duration is way too short (and forces you to switch attunements way too fast within seconds of casting it) and don't pay off enough. Orbs could be the profession mechanic rather than some combo field that lasts 15 seconds that you have to build up and by then the fight should be over.. but with how slow and clunky things feel, the fights last too long and the damage in the open world isn't worth it. This is again an overly complicated elite and doesn't feel unique at all to tempest and weaver. It just takes combo fields and damage that already exists and makes Elementalist 2.0. I can already combo fields in all elites and do ticking damage especially well with tempest overloads. Please simplify Catalyst, make it powerful, make it unique and different and for gods sakes make it more survivable with more sustain. Play around with Arcane magic and get rid of the 4 attunements we've had this entire time or with tome books for spells.... or preparations that enhance skills to hit harder and longer.... or just do something different please. Play with an arcane hammer, build from Thor and the existing lightning hammer summon you have. Hammer 3 orbs should be a toggle. There's all kinds of ideas out there.

The development on all these elite specs so far have been underwhelming compared to HoT/PoF. Create a theme and unique role, and work on fleshing it out more with its weapon skills, utilities, and traits. Prime examples are Reaper and Holosmith. Virtuoso is probably the closest fleshed out elite that has all this.

Edited September 24, 2021 by wetwillyhip.7254

[Suasive.1872]

This is intended to be a very wide overview of the Catalyst. I think it's easy to get lost in individual traits but what I think matters most is that these high-level goals are being met and any number of smaller changes could happen to achieve the end goal.

The things Catalyst brings are new: 1) Weapon, 2) Utility skills, 3) Profession mechanic, and 4) Traits.

Hammer:

Hammer is the first new 2-handed weapon for Ele, which means 20 new skills. The kit for this weapon is still rather scattered and that seems like a missed opportunity what modern Elementalist design could be. Players should be able to choose hammer and decide they want this weapon for ______ specific purpose. Based on the rest of the kit, it seems like hammer "should" lean into combo finishers and better uptime on the orbitals from the 3 skill for steady damage. Many players understand well enough why Fire attunement doesn't get a block, but as long as the payoff for staying in close range is there and not super hard to access, we can figure out the survivability elsewhere.

Utility Skills - Augments:

Augments are a skill type that have improved effects based on your current state. Most of these are based on being in a specific attunement. This is a whole different sidetrack and a very narrow space to explore in the context of what this elite spec does. Maybe for a different Ele elite spec in the future they can explore staying in a specific attunement for long periods of time, but Catalyst is not that spec. Instead, Augments seem more appropriate to have their extra payoff when inside your Jade Sphere. This provides an active thing to do in your otherwise passive Jade Sphere zone and unlike combo finishers you can use this regardless of attunement for a specific bonus unique to Catalyst.

Profession Mechanic - Jade Sphere:

This mechanic has a ton of potential as a very persistent and swappable combo field that also gives out amazing boons. However it seems clear that the devs limited the power on this as it is a strict upgrade on base Elementalist. It's clear that players are frustrated with the downtime on this ability since it is also position-dependent. It seems that the course of action is to let Catalyst players play with their Jade Sphere way more often and to adjust the rest of the spec accordingly.

Traits:

I can appreciate what they were going for with these traits. Broadly, I think the following:

• - There are not enough traits that reference using the Jade sphere itself, or using combo fields. These are the basis of the elite spec.

• - The way that Elemental Empowerment is gained probably needs a second look. The buff itself is good and has the potential to support a lot of different builds.

• - The Aura line taking up 3 traits is a disproportionately large focus. These should be consolidated or better wrapped into the things the Catalyst already focuses on.

[Martin Ross.7283]

I really like playing  Catalyst and think about making it my main EoD-toon.

 

What I like:

- The hammer skills are just plain fun and make me take care about positioning and reacting to my enemiens actions. I would rather have an interesting semi long fight, than just melt the enemies in seconds like I feel you do on Bladesworn.

- Jade Sphere keeps its energy when out of combat meaning you can use it from the start in the next combat. A huge win over gunsaber.

- Hammer 3 is an interesting mechanic that brings freshness into the game.

 

What could be better:

- More combo possibilities with the hammer.

- Augments should have an added effect no matter what sphere you are using it in. As of now I think they are too situational.

- Jade Sphere should maintain its energy when manually shut down so you don't have to build it up from zero. This would give it some strategic use.

- Maybe a trait that enhanced the Spheres damage, like a stun on air, immobilize on earth and so on. This would make it useful when casting on ranged enemies.

- Hammer 3 should last longer so you are able to use some skills before switching attunement and casting it again.

 

Overall a fun specialization that I look forward to gets a bit more polish.