A Hammer Catalyst WvW Roaming build that is actually decent (post your build ideas here as well)

[solemn.9670]

2022-04-02 edit: pls be mindful of the upload date before commenting on it (and consider this was mostly recorded only a few days after release .. your mileage may vary)

Let's pool together some Catalyst builds that have proven to be worthwhile roaming with in WvW. Doesn't have to be a hammer build, but kudos if you can find a way to make it work.

Here's my submission. It's a great all-around-er; it can fight both power, condi and hybrid builds thanks to the utility/trait choices. It's also relatively mobile, so you can actually somewhat run from outnumbered fights if you need to (use magnetic aura combos while running though). It also does quite a lot of close-range damage thanks to pyro puissance/fresh air combo & vulnerability stacking. Hope you guys enjoy. P.S. Trust me on the double cleansing fire & antitoxin rune, cleansing sigil, agility sigil...ya gonna need all of em on this build.

Build: http://en.gw2skills.net/editor/?PGgAgilZw8YcsJGKOWLqxLA-z1QY1opzfHUwZ0rCIaJgkvECohYLVZGB-w

 

Edited April 2, 2022 by solemn.9670

[Downstate.4697]

Catalyst is hard carried by celestial stats. I can make core ele work in wvw with full cele. You take away those stats and you are left with a hollow elite spec with another hybrid weapon, a pointless mechanic, and bad versions of stances.

[solemn.9670]

16 minutes ago, FrownyClown.8402 said:

Catalyst is hard carried by celestial stats. I can make core ele work in wvw with full cele. You take away those stats and you are left with a hollow elite spec with another hybrid weapon, a pointless mechanic, and bad versions of stances.

Yes.

(also let's make the best of this, kitten as it is; do you think they'll change this anytime soon? Probably not)

[Newholiday.8103]

4 minutes ago, solemn.9670 said:

Yes.

(also let's make the best of this, kitten as it is; do you think they'll change this anytime soon? Probably not)

 

Lol.  I like the hard dose of reality.

[Flori.2194]

Catalyst tryharder vs Weaver enjoyer kekw

 

but thanks for doing your best, as always, solemn ❤️

[SlitheSlivier.1908]

I was roaming on my hammer catalyst using essentially starfire traits but catalyst instead of weaver. I did alright until I went up against decent opponents and got destroyed. Switched to weaver and felt much better as well as feeling like I was doing more savage against npcs,esp yaks.

 

Do you really think cele is the way to go for catalyst? 3/4 attunements don't really do much for condition damage and I feel like for cat you need all 4 attunements. I haven't tried Marauder yet... on Vaca... but I'd be interested in hearing how it works out.

 

That being said...I didn't run cleansing fire skill and didn't have too much problems with cc's. I do think Glyph of Ele Power is great for cat and also used it.

[Ace.1784]

I died when you typed "Catalyst has no mobility" and "DOES NO DAMAGE".

 

Hammer definitely pumps damage if you can lock a target down and your video has some pretty good demonstrations of this.

 

 

[Flori.2194]

1 hour ago, Vinteros Asteano.1209 said:

I died when you typed "Catalyst has no mobility" and "DOES NO DAMAGE".

 

Hammer definitely pumps damage if you can lock a target down and your video has some pretty good demonstrations of this.

 

 

I mean the mobility comes from core utilites or core weapons, compare that to Weaver with Sword and its many evades and leaps and twist of fate, it's something at least, Catalyst is an immobile bruiser (?) that ironically lacks any sustain. And your statement about Hammer and damage is also true for Sword, one of (Fire) Weavers weaknesses is when you get kited... 

[Mattmatt.4962]

Video is good, just sad that you tainted it yourself with those terrible comment:

 

"catalist has no mobility" when you escaped using fresh air and super speed on air ..... yup, catalist has no mobility indeed.

"catalist has no damage" when you bursted (and that's a big word to use) an IMMOBILE bladesworn ... not insane damage for a fire air build tbh. probably more reliable than fresh air scepter but definitely lower burst.

[SlitheSlivier.1908]

6 hours ago, Mattmatt.4962 said:

Video is good, just sad that you tainted it yourself with those terrible comment:

 

"catalist has no mobility" when you escaped using fresh air and super speed on air ..... yup, catalist has no mobility indeed.

"catalist has no damage" when you bursted (and that's a big word to use) an IMMOBILE bladesworn ... not insane damage for a fire air build tbh. probably more reliable than fresh air scepter but definitely lower burst.

 

The enemies he fought clearly weren't very good. They didn't use much for stumbreaks, esp didn't use 2 like a Roamr should have. 

 

It's true catalyst doesn't bring mobility. The traits have none. The skills only have added mobility on the air augment, but it isn't very good or worth taking. Any mobility has to be gotten from core traits and skills and equipment, which is not an attribute of catalyst. It is still direly missing swiftness procs from its traits like Weaver is.  As for damage, yes it's damage isn't great either. I can kill a dolyak much faster on my Weaver, which is known as a bunker build and not for its huge damage.  As for players, when fighting competent ones, I was getting out-healed quite often ... partially due to catalyst being kited so easily. 

 

So yes...catalyst has low damage and mobility as well as low sustain since you don't have great ways of avoiding or absorbing damage. Pretty much no barrier, little vigor, little protection, only 1 hammer skill blocks attacks, only hammer disables are on air, the list goes on. 

[Zhaid Zhem.6508]

Yeah it's sad the "block" only works for 1 hit, the spec with the hammer deserves a better block. It would also be easier to chose the aura. I hope they'll buff specs before I buy the xpack.

Anyway Solemn, don't listen to the negative on your gameplay or video, try hard !

Edited March 14, 2022 by Zhaid Zhem.6508

[Ragnarox.9601]

I encountered 1 hammer ele and 1 willy in wvw so far and both were dead in les then 10 sec by my tempest 😄

[AliamRationem.5172]

Nice work!  Keep it coming with the variety.

[solemn.9670]

On 3/13/2022 at 12:51 AM, Mattmatt.4962 said:

Video is good, just sad that you tainted it yourself with those terrible comment:

 

"catalist has no mobility" when you escaped using fresh air and super speed on air ..... yup, catalist has no mobility indeed.

"catalist has no damage" when you bursted (and that's a big word to use) an IMMOBILE bladesworn ... not insane damage for a fire air build tbh. probably more reliable than fresh air scepter but definitely lower burst.

This will help you understand

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarcasm

  

On 3/14/2022 at 8:31 AM, Zhaid Zhem.6508 said:

Yeah it's sad the "block" only works for 1 hit, the spec with the hammer deserves a better block. It would also be easier to chose the aura. I hope they'll buff specs before I buy the xpack.

Anyway Solemn, don't listen to the negative on your gameplay or video, try hard !

 

On 3/14/2022 at 10:55 AM, AliamRationem.5172 said:

Nice work!  Keep it coming with the variety.

 

On 3/11/2022 at 7:41 AM, Flori.2194 said:

Catalyst tryharder vs Weaver enjoyer kekw

 

but thanks for doing your best, as always, solemn ❤️

Thanks all! Cheers & I'm used to it no worries lmao, for some reason I upset a lot of people by doing absolutely nothing. Almost as if they're insecure about something and I bring out these insecurities in them by merely existing 🙃. #gamer_problems Look at all those sad/confused reacts hahahaha!

Edited March 25, 2022 by solemn.9670

[AliamRationem.5172]

9 minutes ago, solemn.9670 said:

This will help you understand

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarcasm

  

 

 

Thanks all! Cheers & I'm used to it no worries lmao, for some reason I upset a lot of people by doing absolutely nothing. Almost as if they're insecure about something and I bring out these insecurities in them by merely existing 🙃. #gamer_problems Look at all those sad/confused reacts hahahaha!

Just remember:  It's all your fault if we get nerfed again! 🤣

[Serephen.3420]

Working on a hybrid roamer with hammer, but so faronly manages 1v1s. Bit more burst than fire weaver but less sustain. 

Will try make a video sometime once I've smoothed it out. But if changes really are coming next week then it might change again 😅

[SlitheSlivier.1908]

On 3/24/2022 at 9:30 PM, Serephen.3420 said:

Working on a hybrid roamer with hammer, but so faronly manages 1v1s. Bit more burst than fire weaver but less sustain. 

Will try make a video sometime once I've smoothed it out. But if changes really are coming next week then it might change again 😅

Those changes are only for pve 😞

[Zhaid Zhem.6508]

You triggered them with "actually decent".

I don't think "objectively" that catalyst is decent in competitive modes, not even close; but this is stoopid to annoy, to bash, players who try hard or have fun with.

[gooddrakkarboi.4870]

2 hours ago, Zhaid Zhem.6508 said:

You triggered them with "actually decent".

I don't think "objectively" that catalyst is decent in competitive modes, not even close; but this is stoopid to annoy, to bash, players who try hard or have fun with.

Solemn is probably known for playing stuff that isn't your generic copy-paste guildjen or metabattle roaming build nearly everyone else plays... I like his videos because he is good, he has some nice ideas about his builds and I don't feel that bad anymore when I try something that isn't even mentioned by those build websites... Everyone who is triggered doesn't know him I guess /shrug

[Kozumi.5816]

On 3/10/2022 at 9:12 PM, solemn.9670 said:

Let's pool together some Catalyst builds that have proven to be worthwhile roaming with in WvW. Doesn't have to be a hammer build, but kudos if you can find a way to make it work.

Here's my submission. It's a great all-around-er; it can fight both power, condi and hybrid builds thanks to the utility/trait choices. It's also relatively mobile, so you can actually somewhat run from outnumbered fights if you need to (use magnetic aura combos while running though). It also does quite a lot of close-range damage thanks to pyro puissance/fresh air combo & vulnerability stacking. Hope you guys enjoy. P.S. Trust me on the double cleansing fire & antitoxin rune, cleansing sigil, agility sigil...ya gonna need all of em on this build.

Build: http://en.gw2skills.net/editor/?PGgAgilZw8YcsJGKOWLqxLA-z1QY1opzfHUwZ0rCIaJgkvECohYLVZGB-w

 

Any build can hold W and run from you, you have zero chase potential and zero ways to secure kills.

Edited March 26, 2022 by Kozumi.5816

[scerevisiae.1972]

I enjoy your content a lot but have to hard disagree that hammer is "actually decent". It's a worse version of sword basically, whose only possible niche in WVW is a cele-based roamer, a space that sword already fills really well.

 

For the life of me, I can't understand WHY Anet would choose to give Ele another melee-based bruiser weapon after the last expac added one. 

 

Sword and hammer now directly compete for the same design space, it's super dumb. Thing is, if they had actually gone all-in on the concept of a 600 range caster hybrid, it probably could have worked, but that's not what hammer is. Only 6 of the 20 skills are 600 range, so it's really just a melee weapon with a couple of poke skills.

 

Honestly one of the biggest design fails I've witnessed in 20+ years of playing MMOs. 

 

 

 

 

Edited March 27, 2022 by scerevisiae.1972

[solemn.9670]

On 3/26/2022 at 7:26 PM, Kozumi.5816 said:

Any build can hold W and run from you, you have zero chase potential and zero ways to secure kills.

Mind you a lot of the players I came across were just as new to EoD specs as I was when it was recorded but... this is disproven in the video if you would've watched any of it so, might be a skill issue. You have all those tools at your disposable and you... can have players simply W key away from you? Can't kill anything? I can't relate, man. Ele certainly isn't the top dog atm, especially not Catalyst, but if you find it that poor then I don't think ele/catalyst is the problem.

That being said, 

On 3/26/2022 at 8:18 PM, scerevisiae.1972 said:

I enjoy your content a lot but have to hard disagree that hammer is "actually decent". It's a worse version of sword basically, whose only possible niche in WVW is a cele-based roamer, a space that sword already fills really well.

For the life of me, I can't understand WHY Anet would choose to give Ele another melee-based bruiser weapon after the last expac added one. 

Sword and hammer now directly compete for the same design space, it's super dumb. Thing is, if they had actually gone all-in on the concept of a 600 range caster hybrid, it probably could have worked, but that's not what hammer is. Only 6 of the 20 skills are 600 range, so it's really just a melee weapon with a couple of poke skills.

Honestly one of the biggest design fails I've witnessed in 20+ years of playing MMOs. 

Pretty spot on tbh. Even with the buffs it's still pretty bad vs most EoD specs (+any previously existing cheese builds) played by reasonably competent players lol.

I've since just gone back to playing Weaver/core ele 90% of the time again. Way more fun and consistent/dependable.