Catalyst mechanic rework idea

[jonthulu.6943]

My rough ideas for changing the spec mechanic to be more fun and add more synergy to the spec. This is not meant to be balanced or perfect, just to get some ideas out there I haven't seen other people mention.

 

Jade Spheres

The Hammer-3 projectiles are now the class mechanic. I’m going to call these Jade Spheres instead of the ‘projectile of element’ name they use in game.

 

Everytime you are attuned to an element, it grants the Jade Sphere for that element with a T second duration. While attuned to the element, this duration is refreshed (back to T seconds) every second. T must be large enough that you can do one or two weapon skills in each attunement and still maintain all four jade spheres. The benefits currently granted (Rocky Loop, Crescent Wind, Icy Coil, Flame Wheel) are not granted when the Jade Sphere appears, but are instead granted when the Jade Sphere hits an enemy. The new F5 skill changes the rotation radius of the Jade Spheres and has a very short cooldown. There are 3 ranges: short, mid, and long. The Jade Spheres maintain their rotations per minute for each radius. Also the Energy concept is gone altogether.

 

Hammer
Replace all Hammer-3 skills with a combo field generation skill. These could be the current Jade Sphere combo fields or new ones. This is assuming the aura generation trait remains.

 

Utility Skills
Heal: Heal for X for each active Jade Sphere. For the next T seconds, anytime any Jade Sphere hits an enemy, heal for Y.

 

Utility 1: Increases the damage done when any Jade Sphere hits an enemy.

 

Utility 2: Creates a clone of each Jade Sphere and fires them at the target. This is equivalent to the current Grand Finale ability but it doesn’t use up the projectile/sphere.

 

Utility 3: The area inside the Jade Sphere rotation becomes a combo field based on the current attunement.

 

Utility 4: Generates barrier for the Ele when any Jade Sphere hits an enemy.

 

Elite: Clones all the active Jade Spheres for T seconds and puts them on the next radius from the Ele. The F5 skill will shift these as well. This effectively creates 2 circles of Jade Spheres. This has a larger cooldown since we are duplicating the Jade Spheres.

 

Possible Traits Ideas
1. Increase the duration of each Jade Sphere by T seconds. This could be used by newer/LI players who are having trouble maintaining the spheres or players wanted less of a "piano" playstyle. This could also be used to get more weapon skills in between each attunement swap or work better for slower weapons.

 

2. Jade Spheres now apply conditions when they hit an enemy. Each element could have a different condition or just a single condition based in the active element.

 

3. Elite skill now fills all 3 rotations while active. This could be very strong so maybe it also reduces how long the elite skill lasts.
 

[Aedil.1296]

Definitely a more interesting idea than current Catalyst. I thought something similar as well when I trued hammer skill 3. 

What I don't like about it is that it's a projectile around me so I have to move to the right range to make it hit which is absurd. 

[Zhaid Zhem.6508]

The #3 projectile is completely broken

Look at YT benchmarks, do the same on small hitbox : already you struggle to place yourself to hit the golem with.
Then do the same on big hitbox but without skill #3 ; wow, you drop from 45k to 35K. Projectiles do almost 20-25% of the dps only because each projectiles can hit a dozen  of times per second in the hitbox.

I don't know how they could fix it unless make it an aoe pulse* or totally change the skill.

Edited September 24, 2021 by Zhaid Zhem.6508

[Hexd.4796]

Hammer 3 is the most interesting part of the spec.  It has some broken interactions with large hitbox, but it feels like it has the most potential when combined with different weapons.  The jade spheres feel more like they belong on hammer 3 instead if hammer is going to be mostly melee and reliant on bursting fields.