Catalyst update for beta 4.

[Vissarion.6509]

Elementalist - Catalyst

Catalyst first appeared in Beta 2, where we saw excitement for several of the mechanics it offered, but your feedback also pointed us to a lot of areas in which we could improve it! For each End of Dragons elite specialization, we've put together a list of key items of feedback that we saw expressed during the beta that specialization appeared in, and highlights of which specific changes were made to address that feedback. Afterwards, we have the full list of detailed changes for that specialization.

Key pieces of feedback that we identified were:

1) The Jade Sphere mechanic felt difficult to use and tied the Catalyst down in one location without sufficient benefit to make up for it.

Specific changes made in response to this feedback: This is the crux of the issue, and we've made big changes here. For starters, Jade Sphere energy no longer drains out of combat, and the Jade Sphere no longer drains your energy gradually while deployed. Instead, it consumes a flat amount to instantly cast at the target location and will always persist for five seconds. Now, you can deploy multiple Jade Spheres from different attunements at the same time, allowing you to deploy the benefits of your Jade Sphere and associated combo fields in multiple simultaneous locations as you swap attunements. We'll be keeping an eye on your feedback about this change in Beta 4, and hope that it'll create a faster paced and more mobile experience in play.

2) Several skills felt difficult to use well or weren't connecting with targets when you'd expect them to.

Specific changes made in response to this feedback: We've improved a mix of Hammer and Utility skills to make them behave more reliably, or easier to consistently use to their full potential. Most notably, the #3 Hammer skill in each attunement has been significantly improved. They now activate instantly, and the circling projectile now orbits faster and closer to you, so that it'll strike enemies in melee range consistently. The skill to launch them is now a Projectile Finisher, and has a lower cooldown, so that you can use it to combo with the fields from your Jade Sphere. The Catalyst's Augment utility skills have been broadly improved- in many cases, the effects that formerly only occurred when within the range of a same-attunement Jade Sphere are now part of the base functionality of these skills, and they now receive an additional benefit, such as reduced cooldown, when within range of the Jade Sphere.

3) Catalyst felt difficult to survive with, like playing on hard mode, even in open world content.

Specific changes made in response to this feedback: We've added survivability to several skills. On the hammer, Whirling Stones will now block projectiles while channeling, Immutable Stone will grant Barrier, and Cleansing Typhoon will remove conditions. On the trait side, we've also increased the duration of the defensive effect of Hardened Auras. The full list of detailed changes is below.

Full List of Catalyst changes:

Profession Mechanic

• The functionality of the Jade Sphere has been adjusted. Each attunement now has a separate version of the skill that can be activated by expending 10 energy, which creates the associated field for 5 seconds. Each attunement's deploy skill has its own cooldown and the field element will no longer change as the catalyst changes attunements. Multiple Jade Spheres can now be active at the same time.
• Deploy Jade Sphere: This skill now activates instantly.
• Catalyst's Energy no longer drains while out of combat.

Hammer

Any

• Flame Wheel, Icy Coil, Crescent Wind, Rocky Loop: These skills now activate instantly. Reduced circle radius from 200 to 130 to better align with melee spacing. Reduced power coefficient from 0.35 to 0.25 to compensate for a faster orbit.
• Grand Finale: Reduced cooldown from 20 seconds to 15 seconds. This skill is now a projectile finisher.

Fire

• Triple Sear: Reduced the distance from the centerpoint of the three attack areas to make it slightly easier to hit the same enemy with all three.
• Molten End: This skill now grants more Might stacks and longer Fury duration for the first enemy struck, and a reduced amount for each additional enemy. Increased power coefficient from 1.5 to 1.7 in PvP and WvW.

Water

• Crashing Font: This skill now heals for an increased amount for the first enemy struck and a reduced amount for each additional enemy. The total healing when striking 5 enemies is about the same.
• Cleansing Typhoon: This skill now cleanses two conditions before attacking in addition to its other effects. This skill is now a whirl finisher.

Air

• Hurricane of Pain: Increased power coefficient from 0.27 to 0.3 in PvP and WvW.
• Wind Storm: This skill will now stop moving when the player is approximately 600 units away from their target, instead of always moving 600 units backward. This limiting behavior can be avoided by using the skill without a target selected.

Earth

• Whirling Stones: Reduced channel time from 3.25s to 2s. This skill now also blocks projectiles around the catalyst while channeling.
• Immutable Stone: This skill now also grants barrier when successfully blocking an attack.

Utilities

• Soothing Water: This skill now always cleanses conditions. Casting this in range of your water sphere will now reduce its cooldown.
• Invigorating Air: This skill now always grants super speed. Casting this in range of your air sphere will now reduce its cooldown. This skill now activates instantly.
• Fortified Earth: This skill now always grants barrier after fully channeling. Casting this in range of your earth sphere will now reduce its cooldown.
• Shattering Ice: Additional strikes created by this skill will now always apply chill. Casting this in range of your water sphere will now increase its duration. Reduced casting time from 733ms to 250ms.
• Relentless Fire: This skill now always grants unblockable stacks. Casting this in range of your fire sphere will now increase its duration. Reduced cooldown from 25 seconds to 20 seconds. Reduced casting time from 733ms to 250ms.
• Elemental Celerity: Instead of reducing the recharge of all weapon skills when striking an enemy, this skill now recharges weapon skills of the catalyst's current attunement when activated. Reduced casting time from 733ms to 250ms.

Traits

• Hardened Auras: Increased buff duration from 6 seconds to 10 seconds.
• Empowering Auras: Increased buff duration from 6 seconds to 10 seconds.

Bug Fixes

• Fixed the order of augment skills in utility selection to line up with other element-themed utility skills.
• Deploy Jade Sphere: Fixed a bug where this skill would use ground-targeting while underwater.
• Deploy Jade Sphere (Fire): Fixed a bug where strikes from this skill would not grant stacks of Persisting Flames.
• Shattering Ice: Fixed a bug where the additional strikes created by this skill required line of sight to hit enemies.
• Soothing Water: Fixed a bug where this skill was not considered a healing skill for the purposes of certain runes.
• Flame Wheel, Icy Coil, Crescent Wind, Rocky Loop: Fixed a bug where these projectiles would last much longer than expected when becoming downed or defeated.
• Fixed a bug where some hammer projectile skills could be fired behind the player.
• Fixed a bug where some channeled hammer skills could not be interrupted by using a different skill.

[TrollingDemigod.3041]

It really burns my eyes to have white background on website, black background on text, while the text itself is white, what is this magic?
Beside that, Hammer will still be clunky af and worthless, Jade Sphere is still PvE Golem Benchmarking tool, Traits are still stat stick boost, utility finally are somehow useful.
Overall, still trash, but this time in golden bag.
I'll wait for the beta ofc, but I don't believe it'll be anything else beside "barely usable".

[Stallic.2397]

Multiple wells! Nice, that was my idea btw 😜. Thanks Anet for listening to suggestions. I can see a lot of ideas mentioned already in the new additions. 

 

Hammer still needs work. But it's better. And the utility changes are so much better. 

 

Does the aura traits refresh all stacks when a new stack is added? I hope so, otherwise they're still bad traits. 

[Downstate.4697]

So basically what we had before but now with a functioning mechanic.

The elite is interesting and good for staff and hammer and prob focus. The cooldown is too long for it to be a reliable choice.

Not sure about augments yet. They sound better but idk if its worth in pvp.

The lack of trait changes and emphasis on interacting with fields is disappointing and I hope these get changed before the beta. The top line is boring minus grandmaster. Middle line is boring and only the minor is good. Bottom line is interesting minus the minor. Try again anet. Top line could be combo interactions. Middle could be anything else. Bottom can be altering the jade sphere

[Retow.8475]

Another down-state elite. Great. I can finish 1 of the 4 fields I have out now. Great.. 

[fuzzyp.6295]

Changes look fantastic can't wait to give it a go!  I'm hoping the Jade Orb mechanics work better and can give more reliable access to fields when on Hammer.

[The Great Al.2546]

The changes are all desperately welcomed, but I echo the sentiment that the jade sphere isn’t fundamentally interesting or powerful enough to really excite me. It seems weaker and less useful than sand shades, and sand shades have a TON of trait synergies. 

Edited November 24, 2021 by The Great Al.2546

[Caid.4932]

These changes will help but theres a few i wish they'd make a more drastic changes to.

Hammer #3 activating instantly will make it usable but I'll still be bouncing between attunements every 5 seconds at most. Tempest has covered aura related gameplay quite well so i really find that mechanic just redundant and uninteresting.

It just feels like both are driving this elite down a road thats been covered.

Focus on combo finishers, slow the attunement swapping down to make a less manic ele specilization. Give it a different playstyle to whats been done before.

[Bast.7253]

12 minutes ago, Caid.4932 said:

These changes will help but theres a few i wish they'd make a more drastic changes to.

Hammer #3 activating instantly will make it usable but I'll still be bouncing between attunements every 5 seconds at most. Tempest has covered aura related gameplay quite well so i really find that mechanic just redundant and uninteresting.

It just feels like both are driving this elite down a road thats been covered.

Focus on combo finishers, slow the attunement swapping down to make a less manic ele specilization. Give it a different playstyle to whats been done before.

Yeah, it might feel slightly better having multiple wells out but in general it's pretty lack luster and missing an identity. I knew it wasn't going to happen but I was hoping for a completely new elite spec. Or at least something with enough changes that it doesn't feel anything like how Catalyst felt the first time around.

[pallas.8150]

Still trash, sorry.

[Tabootrinket.2631]

I'm not even sure we're gonna run into that "multiple wells" scenario often.
The wells last 5s, and are limited to the energy pool that we need to build up beforehand. By the time we finish a rotation in one element and change attunement the well will vanish too.
 

 

Edited November 25, 2021 by Tabootrinket.2631

[Demented Yak.6105]

There are a few nuggets of gold in these changes but overall, catalyst is still going to be disappointing.

f5:

The f5 changes are welcome, but now I'm worried that I'll just be spending half my time in combat trying to pump out combo finishers in a tiny 5 second window.

Since each sphere has its own cooldown and it only lasts for 5 seconds, I'm wondering what the point of the energy mechanic is? If the sphere still drains energy after the initial cost it will remain unusable. If it doesn't then it's essentially just an extra, separate, pointless cooldown.

Hammer:

Circle skills seem to still only last 5 seconds and force fast attunement switches. 99% of the testers complained about this but I suppose instant cast is a small step in the right direction. The other weapon changes are pretty good. I'm very happy with the new combo finishers. It still looks like dagger/dagger/focus will be the best option for both offence and defence.

Utility:

Utility skill changes are a lot more attractive. Other than soothing water and fortified earth, I still probably won't use any of them. Elemental Celerity remaining on a 90 second cooldown still makes it seem weak for an 'Elite' skill.

Traits:

The traits are a massive let down. None of the traits looked amazing in the first place except for the stability trait and the minor traits. Now it seems every other profession got more attention in this area. Even with the greater duration on the aura traits, keeping up 5 stacks when not playing against a golem is still going to be pretty tight considering we still won't have great aura access. With the energy changes, Energized Elements seems like it'll be pretty weak. I was hoping for one or two traits that actually give the catalyst an identity beyond core ele but never mind.

 

 

Edited November 25, 2021 by Demented Yak.6105

[Infusion.7149]

Now, you can deploy multiple Jade Spheres from different attunements at the same time, allowing you to deploy the benefits of your Jade Sphere and associated combo fields in multiple simultaneous locations as you swap attunements.

This is huge.

 

Quote

Whirling Stones: Reduced channel time from 3.25s to 2s. This skill now also blocks projectiles around the catalyst while channeling.

This should be a large damage buff to catalyst using condi as hammer 3 orbs were reduced from 0.35 to 0.25 with faster orbit. Instead of 2.55 coefficient over 3.25s which is less than autoattack DPS if you are power , it could actually put out some power DPS as well (1.27 coefficient/sec).

Edited November 25, 2021 by Infusion.7149

[Aedil.1296]

I'm just glad they fixed the vindicator nonsense so now it's usable. I have to admit I'm definitely going to give up with Catalyst. Still feels like not enough has been done to make this class fun nor interesting 😞

Energy mechanic is still there and we probably just rush to try to combo in a 5 secs window, or worst trying to recharge air all the time with fresh air to pop quickness. Where's the new stuff? I mean look at mech or specter or harbinger. They are very new creative ideas. Where was fantasy and creativity when Catalyst was born? 

I'm just sad, I could never use my main Ele  in gw2 and I always need to play other classes as they are so much more effective and stress free. 

[Avatara.1042]

Hammer 3 kills all the fun of Hammer, and that new elite is still boring rubbish.

The elite should be a low cooldown stun/knockdown.

The traits are still hideous percentage modifiers, but I guess half of them are viable now.  For non-hammer, of course.

Edited November 25, 2021 by Avatara.1042

[Mogsterfortytwo.6712]

I'll hold judgement for now, but the changes seem far more iterative that the other classes got. The elite is still poor quality and boring as sin. Why reduce cd of weapons skills we're about to switch out of?

[Arheundel.6451]

Catalyst is now 30% less trash than before which is an improvement in the end....still glad I started to multiclass seriously years ago though

Edited November 25, 2021 by Arheundel.6451

[The Fear.3865]

Quote

Elemental Celerity: Instead of reducing the recharge of all weapon skills when striking an enemy, this skill now recharges weapon skills of the catalyst's current attunement when activated. Reduced casting time from 733ms to 250ms.

Recharges weapon skills ? Do they mean no CD at all ?

[The Great Al.2546]

We don’t need 3 spheres out, we need one sphere with a longer duration, that is movable. 3 spheres basically turns this into sand shades, but sand shades have actual utility both offensively and defensively. The sphere has no identity, it’s not really useful for any other reason other than to proc auras, which then need core traits to even be useful. 
 

I think when the caster is standing in a sphere, it should reduce incoming strike damage by somewhere between 25% and 50%, and other allies it should reduce incoming strike damage by 10%. Yes, Ele health is so low that if you want to inherently make this class tankier without requiring an insane level of skill, the numbers need to be that drastic.

The trait that gives 2% damage reduction per aura needs a massive, massive buff.

Edited November 25, 2021 by The Great Al.2546

[Fueki.4753]

It's still depending on rather rapid attunement swapping and Auras, so I'm still in favour of completely scrapping this abomination and replacing it with a specialization that benefits from staying in one attunement (instead weapon swap is available in combat) and doesn't need to rely on Auras.

Edited November 25, 2021 by Fueki.4753

[Obtena.7952]

14 hours ago, Infusion.7149 said:

Now, you can deploy multiple Jade Spheres from different attunements at the same time, allowing you to deploy the benefits of your Jade Sphere and associated combo fields in multiple simultaneous locations as you swap attunements.

This is huge.

 

This should be a large damage buff to catalyst using condi as hammer 3 orbs were reduced from 0.35 to 0.25 with faster orbit. Instead of 2.55 coefficient over 3.25s which is less than autoattack DPS if you are power , it could actually put out some power DPS as well (1.27 coefficient/sec).

Yup ... I think people don't understand how significant this change is ... along with the additional finisher on Grande Finale, it's going to be an Aura Fiesta in here. 

[kurosy.1384]

Well i'll wait the beta for major comments but this seems a step into the right direction. Can't wait to cast two meteor showers in a row with quickness and unblockable. That might be nice :3

[Kain Francois.4328]

2 hours ago, Obtena.7952 said:

Yup ... I think people don't understand how significant this change is ... along with the additional finisher on Grande Finale, it's going to be an Aura Fiesta in here. 

Mind if I ask how you sustain Auras on Hammer?

[Guybrush.4762]

I am cautiously pessimistic if that makes sense. I was hoping they would address the UI complaints about the weirdly small energy bar and probably rethink one traits or two. But it seems we are hitting the number adjustment phase.

 

Don't get me wrong, all of the proposed changes are good for the spec for sure and they answer specific issues I had with the previous iteration. Plus, if they keep pumping the numbers up, Catalyst might even be meta on release! But I am worried they are skipping steps on a spec that fail to deliver something unique. I get it : it is the spec if you want to use combo a lot... but every classes have access to combos!

 

I guess we need to see it in action but the hype I had for the spec has certainly dwindled down a bit.

Edited November 25, 2021 by Guybrush.4762

[Obtena.7952]

13 minutes ago, Kain Francois.4328 said:

Mind if I ask how you sustain Auras on Hammer?

Elemental Epitome

You finish on the Jade Sphere field with either of the two finishers available on each element of the Hammer. The changes mean more frequent Aura applications and a wider range of finishing options as well. 

Edited November 25, 2021 by Obtena.7952