March 29 Game Update Preview

[Arckange.8251]

There are two things I'd like to see that aren't in this preview but I hope you can still consider:

1. Adding a very short cooldown to Grand Finale after using a Hammer#3 skill to avoid accidentally double pressing it.
2. Refilling Elemental energy ("Jade orb energy") on encounter start (raids, 100 CM, etc.), the same way Druids get their energy refilled, Virtuosos get their blades stocked, Harbingers get their shroud energy refilled and so on. It feels like you forgot Catalysts!

On a side note, there is a bug in the golem training room if using the "mushroom" skill reset special action key, it refills your Elemental energy but you're still unable to deploy a jade orb until you swap some traits around or start the fight. This is a bit inconvenient and I hope you can fix that too. Thanks 🙂

[Zenith.7301]

Hope you realize that power Vindicator DPS is 3-4k DPS behind the other power specs on non-large hit boxes while offering zero utility, low CC, and a single dodge.

 

Power reaper is the other power DPS outlier far behind the other power specs, and you might want to shave back some of the power soulbeast PvE nerfs.

 

Untamed is just abysmally behind, even more so than Catalyst. Yet Catalyst gets all the attention.

[Serephen.3420]

5 hours ago, Kain Francois.4328 said:

Regarding Catalyst's new unleashed DPS capabilities, how should it compare with Weaver?

Is the Weaver supposed to have more defense, while Catalyst is supposed to have more damage?

Weaver is more of a dualist, more consisten barrier and access to evasion. It also has a much better condi dps build than cata. Cata is probably more for power dps or a bit of hybrid. 

[Serephen.3420]

5 hours ago, Nup.4591 said:

It feels very unsatisfying to not be able to keep up traits like [persisting flames] and [elemental empowerment] because of the lack of fire fields and CC skill on hammer. Hammer has no fire fields at all, so you relied on the sphere for [persisting flames], but with the cooldown increase, it's imposible now, and it feels bad. if hammer had at least one fire field on one of it's skills it would be possible to keep up.

 

I'd say if the field cd was cut down to 10 seconds instead it would give it a 50% uptime. Which might help.

[Monchichi.9301]

PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE

 

Put the orbs on attunements. At the start of the attunement, like the opposite of the tempest.

And make the start of the orb a whirl finisher. That would fit in with the combo theme.

 

Tempest overloads are FUN. Weaver 3 skills and twist of fate are FUN.

 

The catalyst hammer is fun, but on the other weapons sets it feels too much like a base ele. 

 

Make the whole catalyst fun on every weapon. Keep the hammer 3 interaction with orbs, but put some more spice on catalyst when it uses staff or dagger/dagger. 

 

Adjust the numbers however needed for higher level play. Maybe it makes it into the meta, maybe it shares boons from orbs, maybe it builds energy out of combat, maybe it builds energy only from attunement swapping. Maybe lots of stuff, but catalyst just needs more that it can do that isn't dependent on one weapon.

[Jski.6180]

I am not sure how that going to change catalyst over all dps but i must say the new orbs seem like a power creep aura at this point and that not a bad thing. Makes me want to see the orbs take on and maybe take over auras over all on ele. Having to make an effect only work on getting hit is way worst then simply having to be close and letting your effect hit the targets.

Any thoughts on some how making orbs and auras meet up in there effect both in support and transmutation?

In pve and realty wvw 15 sec F5 cd seems still to long for the effect of catalyst.

[Linken.6345]

35 minutes ago, Monchichi.9301 said:

PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE

 

Put the orbs on attunements. At the start of the attunement, like the opposite of the tempest.

And make the start of the orb a whirl finisher. That would fit in with the combo theme.

 

Tempest overloads are FUN. Weaver 3 skills and twist of fate are FUN.

 

The catalyst hammer is fun, but on the other weapons sets it feels too much like a base ele. 

 

Make the whole catalyst fun on every weapon. Keep the hammer 3 interaction with orbs, but put some more spice on catalyst when it uses staff or dagger/dagger. 

 

Adjust the numbers however needed for higher level play. Maybe it makes it into the meta, maybe it shares boons from orbs, maybe it builds energy out of combat, maybe it builds energy only from attunement swapping. Maybe lots of stuff, but catalyst just needs more that it can do that isn't dependent on one weapon.

If they do this ranger should get unleashed skills for all their weapons too.

[Zepoolpe.9217]

7 hours ago, shejesa.3712 said:

Honestly, pick a side, you're nerfing everything or nothing, nerfing just the content where people do proper dps is not the way to fix the huge rift between people who are able to follow a rotation and those who run in masterwork gear in open world.

Proper rotation? before expecting them to perform any kind of rotation, proper or not, they would have to learn to pay attention to what is going on during mini-bosses fights: half of people still stays at melee when the telegraphs show a phase where you need to be at range to do damage.

[Black Storm.6974]

With the Exposed effect lasting 10 seconds I see no reason to differentiate the amount of increased damage between power and condition. 

Make it 20% for both power and condition. For a 10% increased damage most people, for good reasons, will just ignore the breakbar unless it needs to be destroyed to deal with important mechanics.

Also, the current difference (30% increased damage from power and 100% from condition) was ridiculously exaggerated to begin with. It is not like playing a power build automatically means having absurd burst of damage and phasing enemies instantly. It only happens with specific gear, with specific builds, specific teams, good players executing “rotations” properly and at the right time.

Edited March 26, 2022 by Black Storm.6974

[Lilithish.7243]

7 hours ago, Rhokaz.1975 said:

Thanks for taking our input serious and even more thanks for being transparnt! More ❤️

Seriously. I quit ele this last week because I didn’t want to keep getting nerfed into oblivion for another 5 years. I don’t enjoy guardian but it’s the safest profession to not get targeted which isn’t a great reason to keep playing a game/class. I hope to be able to go back to my ele soon without feeling I’m wasting my entire time in this game for having been ele main. 

[Dragon Dude.7832]

2 hours ago, Serephen.3420 said:

Weaver is more of a dualist, more consisten barrier and access to evasion. It also has a much better condi dps build than cata. Cata is probably more for power dps or a bit of hybrid. 

Yeah see as much as I've been wanting a Power DPS Ele ever since Core Staff Ele died out,  that's not what we were promised in the preview, we were promised a Steady Presence Fighter who has this Jade Sphere to assist him and make him tougher.

 

Didn't get that, not 100% unsatisfied, but kinda unsatisfied, at least I can zerker/dragon mix Catalyst, big deeps. The way I see it, you can go Hybrid because burning stacks fast, but generally you're gonna get more use out of Power because Catalyst has more power oriented abilities. 

 

  

52 minutes ago, Linken.6345 said:

If they do this ranger should get unleashed skills for all their weapons too.

Now see, that doesn't even make sense. Now correct me if I'm wrong but the Orbs are the Hammer 3, and the Hammer 3 is NOT the same as the Unleashed Skills at all.

If anything the Orbs would work FAR better as a similar mechanic like tempest overloads, and this can make it more versatile with the class in general. Honestly, it's a missed opportunity, to have the Orbs, which apparently is supposed to be a very important in Class Design of Catalyst, to be on hammer skill 3, instead of F1,F2,F3,F4,F5.

We'd still have to switch between attunements to activate, but this way the Hammer Skill 3 can go to something else, while the Mechanic Feature can go where it should go.

Literally changing weapons wouldn't changing the Orbs...why would it?

And if we gave Unleashed Skills for all weapons then there'd be no reason to use hammer, then that would be stupid. What's the point of getting a no weapon if they don't make encouragements to use it? That beats the whole purpose of CLASS FANTASY. 

It's like how they've basically given several classes Necro shroud, I.E Holosmith & Specter, While I do like Specter and how it was executed, its still stupid that they gave it to multiple classes instead of keeping some things Class Specific.

This isn't being more "diverse" this is being lazy and uncreative. By using logical rules and using creativity to think outside the box, you make things more diverse without overdoing it, and actually innovative and interesting concepts. 

And sometimes simplicity is best too, which it usually is, if done right. I mean honestly, I'm all for giving A Class a similar mechanic to another class, but between Druid, Holosmith, and Specter, it's just not Unique anymore.

Things have to be unique, this creates more playstyles, which makes it more the so called "Diverse" nonsense they keep spouting.

Edited March 26, 2022 by Dragon Dude.7832
edit

[Linken.6345]

34 minutes ago, Dragon Dude.7832 said:

Yeah see as much as I've been wanting a Power DPS Ele ever since Core Staff Ele died out,  that's not what we were promised in the preview, we were promised a Steady Presence Fighter who has this Jade Sphere to assist him and make him tougher.

 

Didn't get that, not 100% unsatisfied, but kinda unsatisfied, at least I can zerker/dragon mix Catalyst, big deeps. The way I see it, you can go Hybrid because burning stacks fast, but generally you're gonna get more use out of Power because Catalyst has more power oriented abilities. 

 

  

Now see, that doesn't even make sense. Now correct me if I'm wrong but the Orbs are the Hammer 3, and the Hammer 3 is NOT the same as the Unleashed Skills at all.

If anything the Orbs would work FAR better as a similar mechanic like tempest overloads, and this can make it more versatile with the class in general. Honestly, it's a missed opportunity, to have the Orbs, which apparently is supposed to be a very important in Class Design of Catalyst, to be on hammer skill 3, instead of F1,F2,F3,F4,F5.

We'd still have to switch between attunements to activate, but this way the Hammer Skill 3 can go to something else, while the Mechanic Feature can go where it should go.

Literally changing weapons wouldn't changing the Orbs...why would it?

And if we gave Unleashed Skills for all weapons then there'd be no reason to use hammer, then that would be stupid. What's the point of getting a no weapon if they don't make encouragements to use it? That beats the whole purpose of CLASS FANTASY. 

It's like how they've basically given several classes Necro shroud, I.E Holosmith & Specter, While I do like Specter and how it was executed, its still stupid that they gave it to multiple classes instead of keeping some things Class Specific.

This isn't being more "diverse" this is being lazy and uncreative. By using logical rules and using creativity to think outside the box, you make things more diverse without overdoing it, and actually innovative and interesting concepts. 

And sometimes simplicity is best too, which it usually is, if done right. I mean honestly, I'm all for giving A Class a similar mechanic to another class, but between Druid, Holosmith, and Specter, it's just not Unique anymore.

Things have to be unique, this creates more playstyles, which makes it more the so called "Diverse" nonsense they keep spouting.

I propabely should have sniped to were my response was aimed to namely these lines in the guys post.

2 hours ago, Monchichi.9301 said:

The catalyst hammer is fun, but on the other weapons sets it feels too much like a base ele. 

 

Make the whole catalyst fun on every weapon. Keep the hammer 3 interaction with orbs, but put some more spice on catalyst when it uses staff or dagger/dagger. 

Edited March 26, 2022 by Linken.6345

[Kilty.4906]

I would love to see something done as well to the orbiting orbs because if they hit a projectile block/reflect or an invulnerable enemy, they get destroyed even before using the Grand Finale skill.

[Blood Red Arachnid.2493]

A lot of these changes to catalyst look interesting.  However, I'm not sure exactly what their cumulative effect is going to be.  The auto attack buffs are good at making Catalyst less punishing, but peak performance isn't going to be effected by this much.  Hammer 2 skills are buffed anywhere from 7% to 27%, but Hammer 3 is having all of its damage removed.  I'm paranoid that these changes are going to be like earlier Specter scepter changes, which was really spinning in place.  There's also one other note:  

13 hours ago, Rubi Bayer.8493 said:

Empowered Empowerment: PvP split removed; effectiveness increase in PvE changed from 50% back to 100%, matching PvP and WvW.

 

That is... not much of a benefit.  It is still extremely difficult for the Catalyst to reach 10 stacks of Elemental Empowerment.  This is due to the internal cooldown on Elemental Epitome, as well as the fact that Jade Sphere is now on a 15 second cooldown.  The catalyst would have to forgo Hardened Auras and Empowering Auras in order to gain enough Elemental Empowerment to trigger Empowered, which would be a nigh useless decision because then all Empowered would do is compensate for losing the two other aura traits.  It would be very inconsistent and delayed in doing this, too.

This is a massive design flaw with the Catalyst.  The traits are redundant, outright conflicting with each other at times.  It is really hard for catalyst to cap the aura or empowered traits, being impossible to do with the hammer.  A player has to blow through all of their attunements and all of their skills to get these buffs, at which point there's nothing left to use with these buffs.  

Edited March 26, 2022 by Blood Red Arachnid.2493

[hash.8462]

"Damage coefficient reduced from 0.1 to 0.001 in PvE only"

I will never understand the reason for such low coefficients... you might as well remove them altogether.

[Blood Red Arachnid.2493]

12 minutes ago, hash.8462 said:

"Damage coefficient reduced from 0.1 to 0.001 in PvE only"

I will never understand the reason for such low coefficients... you might as well remove them altogether.

It lets the orbs muscle through blindness and aegis.  I use Primordial Stance in WvW to similar effect.  

[Monchichi.9301]

4 hours ago, Linken.6345 said:

If they do this ranger should get unleashed skills for all their weapons too.

Does it not? Mirage gets an ambush skill for every mainhand weapon. 

[Avatara.1042]

So the Catalyst basically IS the hammer now...

Anet, you know the Catalyst is the single worst WvW spec, right?  So why the PvE/WvW split?

[Avatara.1042]

This looks like a nice band-aid before you completely rework the spec.  I am surprised you did not buff Spectacular Sphere which you killed with the sphere change, though.

[Jski.6180]

I realty want to see what the wvw updates are going to look like there a lot that needs to be updated after 2 years of waiting.

Bit of an added though on the "orb" or hammer 3 skills update for catalyses. It starting to seem auras are more armor (on being hit) and the "orbs" are more auras (being near). I think there real room to redo auras with these "orb" effects in mind.

[Martzi.7341]

13 hours ago, Rubi Bayer.8493 said:

We want every profession and specialization to feel awesome, regardless of the size of your enemy.

The hammer is a weighty weapon, and it should feel like it when you're crushing your enemies. 

 

So @Rubi Bayer.8493 , based on these: where is my awesome, non-lackluster "big heavy weapon" user power GS Reaper?  Or does only the golden children of GW2 deserve this fairness? 

 

[Kyniel.4706]

14 hours ago, Rubi Bayer.8493 said:

Catalyst

We addressed this by making trait and damage output changes quickly to prevent it from distorting the cooperative play meta-game. However, it left the catalyst's damage builds not meeting our goals for the profession; it's difficult to play well and is only dealing competitive damage on large targets or targets where you can stand inside their hitbox. That's not great! We want every profession and specialization to feel awesome, regardless of the size of your enemy.

Thank you for these changes (and the early sneak peak!)

One small thing - the above (without actual changes) should been included with the nerf last week so that we knew that you guys were aware of this and had intentions to address it. This really would have been massive in mitigating the negativity after last week's nerfs.

Looking forward to the full notes in Tuesday!

[Genesis.8572]

14 hours ago, Parasite.5389 said:

the very first line literally says " This preview isn't comprehensive–the complete skills and balance notes will be in next Tuesday’s update notes"

I'm aware, but it seems to suggest that we would be mostly interested in a Catalyst update as opposed to updates for any other profession. 

[Mongk.2458]

I hope that one day they move the orbs to be summoned whenever you summon the jade sphere, so it becomes a catalyst mechanic, not a hammer mechanic. Hammer needs more CC.

 

But thats really better.

[BatsLoveCaves.5768]

Please add 1 stack of bleed to Stonestrike. It makes no sense that this skill is strike damage only when basically all other earth magic skills in the entire game are condi based.

Edited March 26, 2022 by BatsLoveCaves.5768