Catalyst After a 12ish Month Break

[Helgaley.3619]

I took some time off after I finished the EoD story around this time last year, but I just got back and decided to play my Elementalist since it's always been my favorite, and I have to ask - why in the world does Catalyst still have an energy mechanic on top of a cooldown for the jade sphere? It's SO much easier to generate energy with hammer that it limits our already limited range of weapon options, so right off the bat you have a double whammy of a flexibility problem and a balance problem, but it's also an unnecessary layer of complexity on an already complex class. The spec already has a mountain of other issues, so what would be the consequence of entirely removing the energy mechanic from the jade sphere? Simplifying the spec for newer players? Giving players slightly more agency in their choice of weapon?

 

It still wouldn't be possible to spam it because of the cooldown, and the buffs would still be wasted if the group had to move away from the sphere, so why is it still there? Why did I come back just in time to see Anet to disable an entire Elementalist elite spec because of a combat tonic bug? Anet, why is it so hard to remove a useless mechanic that would give you one less mechanic to balance around AND make the players happy? Whyyyy

[Kyraios.8954]

It would be a buff to spvp, but that game mode is 75% bots lol 

 

In pve & wvw, removing the energy mechanic would be sooo convenient. I wouldnt have to hit mobs before going into an actual fight just so I can get enough energy to use the spheres at the start of combat. 

 

They'd also have to rework the trait that gives you energy when swapping attunement.

[the krytan assassin.9235]

It definitely takes some time to get used to, but i think the system works fine as it is right now. It works good for dagger, scepter and hammer in pvp and WvW roaming, it works for staff in zergs and it works for scepter and hammer in PvE. 

Staff will never be a valuable weapon in pvp and WvW roaming so you're not missing out on much. PvE staff cata will always be clunky since the dmge output outside of Fire is lackluster at best. Dagger's dps output is also simply way to low to be a good alternative in PvE. 

 

If you'd want to simplify energy management the best way would probably to remove the energy on hit system and give catalyst a passive energy gain of 1/sec and reduce the sphere cost to 5 energy (and let energized elements grant 1 energy per attunement swap). It would simplify the energy system without making the spheres to accessible at the same time (because otherwise theyll definitely need to be nerfed in PvP/WvW). It would also allow perma combo field uptime which shouldve been standard from the start giving its class mechanic 

[Markus.6415]

You don't like weapon abilities that hit for 1 damage? Weird. I always thought it's a totally reasonable and valid design choice.