Open World Solo: Celestial Catalyst (Video and Build)

[SeTect.5918]

Hello,
3 days ago I decided to make a youtube channel specifically for Open World Solo builds with focus on Elementalist Builds.
Reason for this is because I often link my Builds in this forum but I find it far better if I am also able to show you one or more videos with this build.

However, 2 days ago I created my channel then and uploaded a solo of tarnished traitor.
Well because this boss isnt really difficult (imo) I didnt show it here.
I also didnt show it yet because all my solo builds basically have the goal to being able to solo the Champion_Avatar_of_Balthazar without any hp problems (without falling to 30% of hp even once).

However, I uploaded the video a few minutes ago:

The link for the Build is in the description but here again:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?PGQAIlZwuYuMNGJeMX7xfA-zxIY1ogvMSPB6oAc4gICbg7HEJgHA-e

As you can see it really has no problems at all and I didnt even fall under 17k hp in the whole fight.

No food required as you can see in the builds and video.
However if you want to use food, I suggest you to use:
(Nourishment:)
Oysters_with_Spicy_Sauce or the ascended version with expertise.
If you use the ascended version with expertise, you can use 18x +5 condition damage instead of 14x +5 expertise and 4x +5 condition damage.
(Enhancement:)
Tuning_Icicle.

Why this food and why infusions for condi dmg/expertise?
Simply because the build leans more towards condi dmg than power.

You also can use a weapon in the 2nd weapon set (would suggest dagger/focus, dagger/dagger or hammer) with Superior_Sigil_of_Corruption (250 condi dmg if max stacks) or other sigils of this kind (toughness, concentration, power, precision or all stats).
So basically just swap to the weapon with on-kill sigil if you are facing small mobs to get stacks and if you face a boss, swap again to your normal weapon again (cant describe it better....sorry).

What can this builds solo?
I didnt try it out that much yet to be really honest, but i can solo literally every heropoint on hot without problems. At this point it will very likely be able to also solo legendary bounties and so on.
The only heropoint in hot you should take a bit more care about is the Champion_Mushroom_Queen.

Why should I take more care at this heropoint?
This is because a lot of the sustain of this build also comes from the blocks on the utility skill and earth hammer 4. However most of the damage from the mushroom queen comes from the pulsing aoe damage. To make it short: The pulsing aoe damage is unaffected by your blocks -> You cant block the pulsing damage. Thats why Celestial/Trailblazers Weaver does this heropoint easier. The barrier of Weaver also (obviously) is useful against the pulsing damage.
But if you got into the build and you know what you are doing, you will also be able to solo the Mushroom queen without many problems, since I was able to do it aswell.

How is this build in fighting lots of smaller mobs instead of bosses?
Not bad at all! The orbs of hammer are inflicting burning, weak, vulnerability and bleeding to enemies around you. All enemies without breakbar are affected by weak and this helps to reduce the incoming damage from small mobs. Well also enemies with breakbars are affected by weakness but there it acts as soft cc and on normal mobs it has the described effect. Catalyst has fine aoe damage due to spheres, orbs and lots of the hammer skills so its also not bad in killing a lot of smaller mobs.


The downside of this build: The amount of ccs is bad.
But due to the soft ccs it can also shred bluebars pretty fast (as you can also see in the video above).

If you have other questions, feel free to ask.

(Edit: If you want to lean the build more towards power than condi, do this:

1. Use Superior_Sigil_of_Accuracy instead of Superior_Sigil_of_Bursting.
2. Use Superior_Rune_of_the_Flame_Legion or Superior_Rune_of_the_Thief instead of Superior Rune of Balthazar.
3. Use Precision infusions if using rune of flame legion and Power infusions if using rune of the thief.
4. Use power food instead of condi food.

Then you should deal more power dmg than condi.)

Have a nice day! 😄

Edited May 1, 2022 by SeTect.5918
Spelling

[VPK.1796]

Nerf catalyst 👵

[lysico.1297]

Too bad they are being nerfed in upcoming patch

[SeTect.5918]

30 minutes ago, lysico.1297 said:

Too bad they are being nerfed in upcoming patch

Why would they? 

Lots of other e specs do the same result with even more damage output. 

[lysico.1297]

Catalyst is on chopping block.   

[AliamRationem.5172]

5 hours ago, lysico.1297 said:

Catalyst is on chopping block.   

Source?

[SeTect.5918]

Here is a video for the Champion_Mushroom_Queen because I said in the original post that its a bit more difficult with this build.
However after all, it isnt that difficult anymore now that I played a bit more with this build:
 

The time/damage is obv not that good, but what matters for me the most is to survive and thats what it does great.
However if you are using food+utility and maybe also 25 stacks of a weapon sigil, the damage will also be far better obv.
(And the sustain depending on what food you are using)

[AliamRationem.5172]

1 hour ago, SeTect.5918 said:

Here is a video for the Champion_Mushroom_Queen because I said in the original post that its a bit more difficult with this build.
However after all, it isnt that difficult anymore now that I played a bit more with this build:
 

The time/damage is obv not that good, but what matters for me the most is to survive and thats what it does great.
However if you are using food+utility and maybe also 25 stacks of a weapon sigil, the damage will also be far better obv.
(And the sustain depending on what food you are using)

It's pretty impressive you can hang in there without moving out and just tank the sporelings.  I definitely can't manage that on weaver.  It's also cool how water attunement isn't a damage loss with catalyst.  The DPS may be lower with a build like this, but you still manage a solid time because you aren't forced to kite.

[SeTect.5918]

21 minutes ago, AliamRationem.5172 said:

It's pretty impressive you can hang in there without moving out and just tank the sporelings.  I definitely can't manage that on weaver.  It's also cool how water attunement isn't a damage loss with catalyst.  The DPS may be lower with a build like this, but you still manage a solid time because you aren't forced to kite.

Yea thats true. I think the boons of this e spec are what makes it so good.
Its also a great support while someone is around you because some boons from arcane and all boons from spheres also apply to allies.
Thats Making duos with Catalyst very strong. I think a Weaver-Catalyst combo would be really really strong tbh.

Because tbh, Weaver deals more damage than Catalyst in open world but doesnt even have all these boons, but if it can get them due to a support or open world catalyst on its side, that would be really nice to see imo. xD

However overall I would say Catalyst and Weaver are somewhat on par in open world.
Catalyst has better sustain there while Weaver has better damage there. Sure sustain is more needed in open world but its also nice to rush through maps melting everything in seconds on Weaver xD

[punahou.3986]

On 4/26/2022 at 12:56 PM, SeTect.5918 said:

Hello,
3 days ago I decided to make a youtube channel specifically for Open World Solo builds with focus on Elementalist Builds.
Reason for this is because I often link my Builds in this forum but I find it far better if I am also able to show you one or more videos with this build.

However, 2 days ago I created my channel then and uploaded a solo of tarnished traitor.
Well because this boss isnt really difficult (imo) I didnt show it here.
I also didnt show it yet because all my solo builds basically have the goal to being able to solo the Champion_Avatar_of_Balthazar without any hp problems (without falling to 30% of hp even once).

However, I uploaded the video a few minutes ago:

The link for the Build is in the description but here again:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?PGQAIlZwuYuMNGJeMX7xfA-zxIY1ogvMSPB6oAc4gICbg7HEJgHA-e

As you can see it really has no problems at all and I didnt even fall under 17k hp in the whole fight.

No food required as you can see in the builds and video.
However if you want to use food, I suggest you to use:
(Nourishment:)
Oysters_with_Spicy_Sauce or the ascended version with expertise.
If you use the ascended version with expertise, you can use 18x +5 condition damage instead of 14x +5 expertise and 4x +5 condition damage.
(Enhancement:)
Tuning_Icicle.

Why this food and why infusions for condi dmg/expertise?
Simply because the build leans more towards condi dmg than power.

You also can use a weapon in the 2nd weapon set (would suggest dagger/focus, dagger/dagger or hammer) with Superior_Sigil_of_Corruption (250 condi dmg if max stacks) or other sigils of this kind (toughness, concentration, power, precision or all stats).
So basically just swap to the weapon with on-kill sigil if you are facing small mobs to get stacks and if you face a boss, swap again to your normal weapon again (cant describe it better....sorry).

What can this builds solo?
I didnt try it out that much yet to be really honest, but i can solo literally every heropoint on hot without problems. At this point it will very likely be able to also solo legendary bounties and so on.
The only heropoint in hot you should take a bit more care about is the Champion_Mushroom_Queen.

Why should I take more care at this heropoint?
This is because a lot of the sustain of this build also comes from the blocks on the utility skill and earth hammer 4. However most of the damage from the mushroom queen comes from the pulsing aoe damage. To make it short: The pulsing aoe damage is unaffected by your blocks -> You cant block the pulsing damage. Thats why Celestial/Trailblazers Weaver does this heropoint easier. The barrier of Weaver also (obviously) is useful against the pulsing damage.
But if you got into the build and you know what you are doing, you will also be able to solo the Mushroom queen without many problems, since I was able to do it aswell.

How is this build in fighting lots of smaller mobs instead of bosses?
Not bad at all! The orbs of hammer are inflicting burning, weak, vulnerability and bleeding to enemies around you. All enemies without breakbar are affected by weak and this helps to reduce the incoming damage from small mobs. Well also enemies with breakbars are affected by weakness but there it acts as soft cc and on normal mobs it has the described effect. Catalyst has fine aoe damage due to spheres, orbs and lots of the hammer skills so its also not bad in killing a lot of smaller mobs.


The downside of this build: The amount of ccs is bad.
But due to the soft ccs it can also shred bluebars pretty fast (as you can also see in the video above).

If you have other questions, feel free to ask.
Have a nice day! 😄

Hi there-- can you list a rotation please-- thanks

[SeTect.5918]

42 minutes ago, punahou.3986 said:

Hi there-- can you list a rotation please-- thanks

Hey,

to be honest there isnt really a real rotation because you have lots of situational skills on your hammer.
Example: earth 4 gives barrier on block and water 4 heals your by a big amount so if you need hp at that time, you are going to swap to earth or water for the barrier/heal.

However if everything goes right and u dont need any hp, the rotation is somewhat:

Jump with jackal in the fight for barrier.
Start with full or half energy in earth attunement.
Hammer 3 -> Signet of Fire -> signet of Earth -> hammer 2 -> During the casting of hammer 2, place earth sphere (combo field) -> hammer 5 (combo finisher).
Swap to Air.
Hammer 3 -> place air sphere (combo field) and instantly use hammer 5 (combo finisher) -> hammer 2.
Swap to Fire.
Hammer 3 -> place fire sphere (combo field) -> hammer 2, hammer 5 (Combo finisher, doesnt matter if hammer 2 or 5 first) -> hammer 4.
Swap to Water.
Hammer 3 -> Summon Ice Elemental -> hammer 2, hammer 5 (Combo finisher (tho you dont have a combo field at this part) again doesnt matter which one you use first) -> hammer 4 (combo finisher) (if you need 4k hp).
Auto attack until you have like 29-30 energy.
Swap to Earth.
place earth sphere (combo field).
hammer 3 (grand finale (combo finisher)).
Hammer 3 -> ....(same as above)

My videos can be different from the rotation because I was in need of hp or somewhat like that.
Signet or fire and signet of earth you can spam instantly after CD tbh.
Small important note for Signet of Earth:
There has to be a 3 second time gate between Earth hammer 5 and Signet of Earth (what I ironically failed on balth solo).
This is because of the trait Strength_of_Stone which causes bleeding on immob but with an ICD of 3 seconds.
Its a small dps loss if you cast them both at the same time but its not that important.

Other stuff you need to know:
If you know there is an invulnerability phase incoming for the boss, keep in mind that you will lose your orbs because of a bug (I hope) that orbs currently have.
This can kill your rota basically.

If you are in need of hp, dont be afraid to summon your ice elemental (so swapping to water) instead of the listed rotation. Its ofc a dps loss but in open world solo its sustain over damage.

Remember to read the skills to know what are your combo finishers and always use your combo finishers in your sphere.
combos give auras and auras give elemental empowerment. So combos are a source of both sustain and damage.

There can be cooldown issues sometimes and if the skills are still on a too big cooldown, just skip the skill and swap attunement.
If its just 1-3 seconds, you can wait in the attunement to cast it.

If the boss is low hp (around 5-10%) and the next attunement would be water, but you also have air, fire or earth ready, you can go on earth, fire or air to finish it off, since water is the worst damage attunement on hammer (also also on most other ele weapons).
If the boss isnt low, you shouldnt skip water because water is a good source of healing (hammer 4), condi cleanse (hammer 5), combo finishers (hammer 4 and hammer 5) and soft ccs (chill). It also causes vulnerability with its orb.

The utility skill for blocking attacks (Fortified_Earth) :
Dont use this instantly after you applied a jade sphere, because this utility skill has a 3 second duration and will ruin your combo.
Example:
apply fire sphere -> fire hammer 2 -> fire hammer 5 -> Fortified Earth. ||| Good!
apply fire sphere -> fire hammer 2 -> Fortified Earth -> fire hammer 5 ||| Not Good!
This is because the fire field will then already disappear before you can blast the combo with hammer 5.
Other notes about Fortified Earth:
Dont dodge while using it, otherwise you will lose your 3k barrier. Because as the description says, you only get the barrier if the channel completes successfully.

Other notes about combos:
As you can see in the rotation, the is max. 1 skill between the jade sphere and combo finishers.
Casting a leap or blast finisher in the water field of water sphere will give you healing.
So its also not too bad if you skip fire sphere to use the water sphere if you face harder bosses.

Why the Fire sphere?
Its the least important one. Earth sphere gives protection so thats obv important and air sphere gives quickness for a smooth rotation.
Fire sphere basically just gives a dps increase due to might.

For the elite skill:
You can also already cast it before the fight if you dont have jackal.
Dont spam it: If you use it while full hp the healing will obv be fully useless so only use it if you have around 5-8k hp already lost.
And remember that it has a cast time (the elemental first has to cast it (sometimes very slow)) so dont use it in the very last second, otherwise you will be dead.

I think thats all you need to know.
I know its a lot...so yeah...as I said, its mostly very situational xD

However I would say you can use the above listed rotation as the base thing and if you need anything of the other attunements, just swap to them and dont be afraid of killing your rotation.
At the end you just swap between attunements depending on what you currently need basically. xD

[punahou.3986]

thank you

 

only reason i ask is that i dont understand the mechancs of this class and the catalyst portion of the rotations is still beyond me and how it synergizes with the rest of the the build.

How is dagger/dagger?

 

 

Edited April 29, 2022 by punahou.3986

[SeTect.5918]

17 hours ago, punahou.3986 said:

 

How is dagger/dagger?

Its...okay xD

Well its surely far worse than hammer, but I now tested it with 2 rare celestial daggers (without sigils) and I was still able to solo champion avatar of balthazar without problems. However I lost more hp and its clunky.
It also dealt less dps.
 

1. You lose orbs of hammer (+10% strike- and condition damage, -15% incoming strike damage, -15% incoming condi dmg, +10% crit chance). So thats already massive.
2. The Radius of your jade spheres is small, so always you are using earth dagger 3 and fire dagger 3, you whoop yourself out of your jade spheres which will make you not getting the boons from them. Means: you would have to run into your spheres again. Which is clunky. And anyway if you run in your sphere again, you missed 1-2 boon-pulses already. Which leads to the next point:
3. you have less boon uptime, so less damage and less sustain bc lower quickness, might and protection uptime.

However if you really want to play dagger/dagger, it works on most bosses but dagger/dagger is far better on celestial weaver/tempest than on catalyst because on catalyst you have to stay in spheres.

[taara.3217]

Well done battles, thank you.

[Avatara.1042]

How do you manage to do enough condition damage to make this worth it?

[Dante.1508]

LOL anything that does well in this game gets destroyed....

[SeTect.5918]

7 hours ago, Avatara.1042 said:

How do you manage to do enough condition damage to make this worth it?

Hmm, what exactly do u mean? The build? 

The most condi dmg comes from orbs and signets. But hammer skills (fire&earth) also deal okay condi dmg. 

Power damage is a bit strange on this build because it has just 74-78% crit chance (with fury and orb). 

I am still not sure what you mean with "this" tho. 😅

 

[Avatara.1042]

6 hours ago, SeTect.5918 said:

Hmm, what exactly do u mean? The build? 

The most condi dmg comes from orbs and signets. But hammer skills (fire&earth) also deal okay condi dmg. 

Power damage is a bit strange on this build because it has just 74-78% crit chance (with fury and orb). 

I am still not sure what you mean with "this" tho. 😅

 

Sorry, I meant full Celestial.  Is there no power sustain build which works?  I thought condi sucked kitten with Hammer.

[AliamRationem.5172]

1 hour ago, Avatara.1042 said:

Sorry, I meant full Celestial.  Is there no power sustain build which works?  I thought condi sucked kitten with Hammer.

From the video it looks like he's doing somewhere in the ballpark of 12k dps, with roughly half of that coming from burn/bleed.  It's not top tier boss solo damage but it's really quite good for how tanky the build is.

[AliamRationem.5172]

13 hours ago, Dante.1508 said:

LOL anything that does well in this game gets destroyed....

Weaver has been doing the same with higher damage output for years.  This build has the advantage of being tankier and easier to play.  I don't see any reason to believe it will be nerfed.

[SeTect.5918]

2 hours ago, Avatara.1042 said:

Sorry, I meant full Celestial.  Is there no power sustain build which works?  I thought condi sucked kitten with Hammer.

@AliamRationem.5172is right. The build does like 50-70% condi dmg. Condi isnt that bad on hammer, its just worse than power.
However that is pure condi vs pure power.
Celestial is a different thing, because its hybrid, which is both.
Celestial Signet Catalyst is more leaning towards condi because I am using earth traitline for the keeping up the passives of the signets. And earth traitline supports condi so its dealing overall better condi dmg than power dmg.

However as from my experience it also wouldnt hurt if you are using signet of accuracy instead of signet of bursting.
Its basically on you where you put the preferance on. I should've mentioned that in my original post, will edit it later.

So if you want to put the preferance on power dps instead of condi dps, you have to do this:

1. Use Superior_Sigil_of_Accuracy instead of Superior_Sigil_of_Bursting.
2. Use Superior_Rune_of_the_Flame_Legion or Superior_Rune_of_the_Thief instead of Superior Rune of Balthazar.
3. Use Precision infusions if using rune of flame legion and Power infusions if using rune of the thief.
4. Use power food instead of condi food.

However I dont think Catalyst works well on a pure power build when it comes to sustain...
Maybe it would still work well with trailblazers, but thats pure condi xD

Edited May 1, 2022 by SeTect.5918

[Dante.1508]

13 hours ago, AliamRationem.5172 said:

Weaver has been doing the same with higher damage output for years.  This build has the advantage of being tankier and easier to play.  I don't see any reason to believe it will be nerfed.

Weaver is trash..

[AliamRationem.5172]

5 hours ago, Dante.1508 said:

Weaver is trash..

Then like I said, you have nothing to worry about.  Why would they nerf catalyst when trash weaver can do the same things you see in these videos in significantly less time?

[SoundWave.9154]

Does anyone know how this build works with Elementalist/Baelfire runes ? I see Lord Hizen uses the Baelfire version saying it reaches 120% burn duration but I thought burn was capped at 100% ?

[AliamRationem.5172]

2 hours ago, SoundWave.9154 said:

Does anyone know how this build works with Elementalist/Baelfire runes ? I see Lord Hizen uses the Baelfire version saying it reaches 120% burn duration but I thought burn was capped at 100% ?

Hizen's build overcaps burn duration because the rune he uses grants a high amount of burn duration.  I assume he does this because if he takes a different rune then he'll be under cap and it's likely that with full celestial a significant portion of his damage output comes from burning even on a power-forward hybrid.  You don't see any benefit over 100% increased duration, so this is the only reason to do this.

Hizen uses fire/arcane and takes power damage boosting traits, so he deals relatively more power damage and deals more damage overall than this build (44 second Balthazar kill time vs. 57 seconds for the variant shown in this thread).  As a tradeoff, this build gains some additional tankiness, which you can see in play with the impressive facetanking of sporelings on the mushroom queen (these can pop for over 5k on some builds and he's just eating them two or three at a time).