Catalyst Unchanged Since Beta, Such a Disapointment. Here's how to fix it.

[Barnesy.5839]

Apart from F5 not having a cooldown when you switch attunements, has anything else changed since the 2nd beta? Am I missing something?

 

Catalyst could be such an awesome class if you just fix the clunkiness! The biggest offenders are jade sphere and hammer. Some traits could also be tweaked to make them more viable.

 

Jade Sphere: Jade Sphere's energy is clunky to use and you're punished if you accidentally activate it at 29 energy instead of at 30 energy, because you have to wait for the sphere to disappear before you can generate that extra 1 energy.
Solution: Allow energy generation while the sphere is active. (Reduce the duration of the sphere if you need to balance it) Fixed!

 

Empowered Empowerment (trait): This trait is only viable if you choose the other two enabling traits (vicious empowerment and evasive empowerment). This significantly shrinks build diversity and choice. You either take all of the "empowerment" traits, or you don't. It shrinks the "paths" which you can take when choosing traits.
Solution: Remove the "while at max stacks" criteria. Allow Empowered Empowerment to provide double bonus all the time. Fixed!

Hardened Auras/Empowering Auras (traits): The stacks are too hard to maintain and provide not much benefit even if you can. Even at max stacks, these only provide +10% damage or -10% damage.
Solution: Increase the duration of a stack to 15s. Fixed!

Hammer: Hammer needs a lot of work, more than I can say in a short post. The biggest problem is that it is a confused melee/ranged weapon. Elementalists are constantly changing attunements, however the hammer's mixture of ranged and melee skills forces the hammer to be a melee weapon. The hammer is effectively a melee weapon because if you're not in melee range, most of your skills won't hit.
Solution: Ensure all skills have at least 300 range. If you want to make elementalists even happier, ensure all skills have at least 400 range. If you want to make them even happier, ensure all skills have at least 600 range. (mostly) Fixed!

[quaniesan.8497]

same for the  " willbender".  They absolutely did nothing, no fix, no nothing.  The level of disappointment.  This is the worst launch of all xp   

[Puck.3697]

5 minutes ago, quaniesan.8497 said:

same for the  " willbender".  They absolutely did nothing, no fix, no nothing.  The level of disappointment.  This is the worst launch of all xp   

no, they seem to have made changes. but it seems, they didnmt actually list any of the changes.. which is weird lol.

[Shiyo.3578]

Jade sphere gains energy while ones out now

[SlitheSlivier.1908]

Now you can't cast jade sphere without any energy. Previously you could and it would last about 1/2 sec and you could get a combo off. Now it's nerfed so you need full energy to cast. 

[Paradoxoglanis.1904]

All the new elite specs are a huge disappointment. Might as well take a break until they can try and fix them in the spring/summer.

[Jski.6180]

Take the development of the ele class away from anet  and give it to some out side group. Anet has no ideal and seem to actively destroy what the ele class use to be. Whom ever came up with the ele class must be sad at the state of it now.

[quaniesan.8497]

12 hours ago, Daddy.8125 said:

no, they seem to have made changes. but it seems, they didnmt actually list any of the changes.. which is weird lol.

 

They couldn't bear to be transparent because they themselves knew what they doing is wrong.  They knew posting such minimal balance note without any skill balance/adjustment would ruin the launch date. That's why there is nothing in that note (except for nerfing cores - which is quite comforting to say the least) . So we here have to play with broken toys till months or years hoping for a possibility of change.

Edited March 1, 2022 by quaniesan.8497

[Flori.2194]

While we are at it: Why even is there a F5 button? I played it in the story with some condi crap, FA, a bit of hybrid and never was I in a situation where the "deploy jade sphere" couldn't just be on F1-F4... just re-activate the attunement to deploy the corresponding jade sphere, just like tempest overloads... 

Edited March 1, 2022 by Flori.2194

[Yer.8096]

25 minutes ago, Flori.2194 said:

While we are at it: Why even is there a F5 button? I played it in the story with some condi crap, FA, a bit of hybrid and never was I in a situation where the "deploy jade sphere" couldn't just be on F1-F4... just re-activate the attunement to deploy the corresponding jade sphere, just like tempest overloads... 

 

I totally agree. Unfortunately catalyst is in fact, for me, a complete disappointment. Since the weapon and all his design. The movement, the risk for support... How can we support a team if you die inside the battle with so fragile profession and no suvirvability elite spec?

 

However, the icing on the cake was the F5... Really, why? Tempest is a good example of how can you use profession mechanic interaction... Why there is a real person who think F5 should be a good option to invoke a function with your ACTIVE attunement? Really... Why?

 

How many of us said that isnt a good gameplay for eles, ANet? Our opnion is so insignificant for you? After many years staff begin abandoned, you brought us hammer? With 600 range? And F5 to activate a function in the same element we already in? That is conterwise of our gameplay flux... So much disappointing.

 

Even with a lot of good things on the expansion, this contempt with eles is so harsh make me think if it is really worth to buy it (entire EoD).

[Mattmatt.4962]

Have the OP even played catalist since beta1 ? big LOL

First statement is false since beta2

 

Second statement is false, by running no empowering trait, i can get to 7stack "randomly", you dont need both evasive and vicious to get to 10. Evasive is plenty enough. BUT the main idea remains true: you need 2traits for one to function.

 

3rd statement ? you guessed it: false too.
It's super easy to maintain aura traits. Sure it ask some work and force rotation, but it's ele we're playing so i guess that's normal.

 

 

Of course all of the above i said is untrue for Hammer.
Which makes the 4th statement true: hammer is terrible. Since beta1 it has been stated in virtually every post related to ele, and nothing changed.

 

EDIT:

I'll add that here:

To me the biggest flaw right now is the loss of all energy if downed. Make no sense, is very punitiv.

Edited March 1, 2022 by Mattmatt.4962

[HotDelirium.7984]

12 minutes ago, Mattmatt.4962 said:

Have the OP even played catalist since beta1 ? big LOL

First statement is false since beta2

 

Second statement is false, by running no empowering trait, i can get to 7stack "randomly", you dont need both evasive and vicious to get to 10. Evasive is plenty enough. BUT the main idea remains true: you need 2traits for one to function.

 

3rd statement ? you guessed it: false too.
It's super easy to maintain aura traits. Sure it ask some work and force rotation, but it's ele we're playing so i guess that's normal.

 

 

Of course all of the above i said is untrue for Hammer.
Which makes the 4th statement true: hammer is terrible. Since beta1 it has been stated in virtually every post related to ele, and nothing changed.

 

EDIT:

I'll add that here:

To me the biggest flaw right now is the loss of all energy if downed. Make no sense, is very punitiv.

We only build energy in combat IF we hit with our weapon but the jade orb lasts only 5 sec WITH a 15 sec cool down. I just don't understand that design especially when the jade orb effect isn't even that great and doesn't last long enough nor is it wide enough to give us more chances to combo in it.

[Razor.6392]

Lol just checked the patch notes and of course, no major changes. Was updating the game but really there's zero interest to log in.

 

[scerevisiae.1972]

6 hours ago, Flori.2194 said:

While we are at it: Why even is there a F5 button? I played it in the story with some condi crap, FA, a bit of hybrid and never was I in a situation where the "deploy jade sphere" couldn't just be on F1-F4... just re-activate the attunement to deploy the corresponding jade sphere, just like tempest overloads... 

This. The whole mechanic is dumb.

And what is the point of energy while we're at it. It's totally pointless, since you keep energy between fights. It should just be a CD. 

Hammer is still total garbage.

I can't find a single thing I like about the entire spec. 

[giblets.6401]

Agree. The spec is really bad. No enthusiasm to play.

Edited March 1, 2022 by giblets.6401

[Winchester Smythe Anus III.2153]

20 hours ago, Barnesy.5839 said:

Catalyst could be such an awesome class if you just fix the clunkiness! The biggest offenders are jade sphere and hammer. Some traits could also be tweaked to make them more viable.

Disagree, the whole spec has nothing going for it. It's just core ele with a bonus field. Who cares.

You're right that hammer is god-awful but I don't think a few tweaks will fix it. The entire design of it as yet another melee weapon is wrong.

[Jski.6180]

They some how felt the need to nerf catalyst so it was "changed" but for the worst and there are no notes about it anet getting realty shady on us.