Cata is a joke

[ddos.1407]

Decided to play a few games after the hotfix, only to understand condi cata is still alive and well. Incredible sustain, holds 2v1 easily, dropping sh*ttons of burning and cover condis literally every second. The only thing to do against it is to completely avoid as it absolutely wrecks everything. We had this with power cata a few months ago, now it's exactly the same just a different build. What is Anet thinking? It's not even just this regular outlier that is stronger than most meta builds, it's just incredibly overpowered.

Out till it's fixed (guess in Autumn).

Edit: wait I just saw they have a follow-up balance post, no mention of Cata at all xD 2024 that is then

Edited June 30, 2023 by ddos.1407

[Eddie.9143]

ways to change cata

take away the quickness on spheres, add alacrity or stability, and just 2 seconds quickness on air sphere. 

that will nerf cata a bit, give it strengths in some spots it lacks, and won't nerf core. only core nerf needed with the new signets is swirling winds should be 3-4 seconds max

[Shao.7236]

5 hours ago, Eddie.9143 said:

ways to change cata

take away the quickness on spheres, add alacrity or stability, and just 2 seconds quickness on air sphere. 

that will nerf cata a bit, give it strengths in some spots it lacks, and won't nerf core. only core nerf needed with the new signets is swirling winds should be 3-4 seconds max

Don't give them more stability. Stability is the reason why they don't have to dodge anything and faceroll.

[Eddie.9143]

15 minutes ago, Shao.7236 said:

Don't give them more stability. Stability is the reason why they don't have to dodge anything and faceroll.

Maybe just alacrity? Idk, anything but quickness, hate getting pumped on lmfao 

[Sweetbread.3678]

Cata boon uptime needs some shaving in pvp, but imo the common denominator for almost every broken ele build has been the focus and scepter. Having a 3 second full immunity every min, 9+ seconds of straight projectile hate every 30 seconds, and an unblockable 3 second stun is just an impossible amount of 0 counterplay active defenses to balance unless you give everything 60+ second cooldowns. Couple that with the scepter rework overbuffing the kitten out of Ele's easiest and most risk-free weapon and here we are. Why the ranged weapon with better defensive utility does more burst and condi damage than all of the risk-heavy melee options is beyond me. Just a complete balance fail.

[Waffles.5632]

On 6/30/2023 at 9:16 PM, Sweetbread.3678 said:

Cata boon uptime needs some shaving in pvp, but imo the common denominator for almost every broken ele build has been the focus and scepter. Having a 3 second full immunity every min, 9+ seconds of straight projectile hate every 30 seconds, and an unblockable 3 second stun is just an impossible amount of 0 counterplay active defenses to balance unless you give everything 60+ second cooldowns. Couple that with the scepter rework overbuffing the kitten out of Ele's easiest and most risk-free weapon and here we are. Why the ranged weapon with better defensive utility does more burst and condi damage than all of the risk-heavy melee options is beyond me. Just a complete balance fail.

Things only make sense when you factor in that CMC mains ele.

[Sweetbread.3678]

9 minutes ago, Waffles.5632 said:

Things only make sense when you factor in that CMC mains ele.

Probably part of it. Dunno why I even bother with caring about pvp balance though. Even if Cata got nerfed it would just be like "Oh good now this super busted build with a 5 iq requirement is in line with all of the incredibly well-designed and not cheesy at all builds that I'm constantly seeing like... *checks notes* ...perma chilling 0 iq Reapers, 0 iq Harbingers rolling their face over their keyboard, trap spamming 0 iq Dragonhunters consistently topping match damage and kills, 0 iq Engineers also consistently topping match damage with a build that's just 4 passive signets and an autocasting ai pet, 0 iq Rangers chaining 19 seconds of immob or bursting you for 17k+ damage from 1500 range with One Wolf Pack and then getting carried by how ridiculous Greatsword is." And that's just the short list. At least Cata requires something approaching a brain cell to play correctly.

This game's pvp has been an abandoned joke for years and I'm pretty sure at this point that the balance is intentionally kept like this because they know they will at least have some guaranteed market share by being the safe haven for people that are too dumb and insecure to compete in any pvp game where their faceroll build isn't 100% carrying them.

[Yerlock.4678]

bump

[Wyrdern.4092]

not saying that cata shouldn't be nerfed ... it is an abomination of a build ... but swirling winds has already been reduced to 4 seconds in pvp only

[WhoWantsAHug.3186]

8 hours ago, Wyrdern.4092 said:

not saying that cata shouldn't be nerfed ... it is an abomination of a build ... but swirling winds has already been reduced to 4 seconds in pvp only

Meta builds use dagger now. It's way more cracked than focus, especially in condition builds. Churning earth is kittening OP and transmuting so many frost auras via signets is omega busted. 

[Aaron.1294]

@Sweetbread.3678all builds you mentioned were nerfed and I'm sorry, but people like you helped pvp become clown fiesta as it is now...

[MikeOck.7461]

next patch: "In order to adress catalyst overperforming in pvp, we will remove another spin from arc divider"

[Trevor Boyer.6524]

On 6/30/2023 at 11:26 AM, ddos.1407 said:

Cata is a joke

I tried to come up with a good knock knock joke in response to this but I failed.

If anyone can pick up the slack, much appreciated.

[Malus.2184]

On 6/30/2023 at 7:51 PM, Eddie.9143 said:

ways to change cata

take away the quickness on spheres, add alacrity or stability, and just 2 seconds quickness on air sphere. 

that will nerf cata a bit, give it strengths in some spots it lacks, and won't nerf core. only core nerf needed with the new signets is swirling winds should be 3-4 seconds max

The issue with Cata is that it needs more than just a bit of nerfing. If it was nerfed to the ground in PvP it would still be as powerful as most other Professions. And this rubs over to other Ele builds as well, and while there were some specific Catalyst changes the changes that have made Ele op are general changes to things everyone can get. Every Ele is affected by this, Cata is just the worst offender, and both Tempest and Weaver are affected by these changes, just less so.

Instead of thinking of this in absolutes of "the Cata os OP so every other build must be fine," think of it as "all Elementalist Professions are OP for PvP, and Catalysts are even more broken than that."

[Azure The Heartless.3261]

19 hours ago, Trevor Boyer.6524 said:

I tried to come up with a good knock knock joke in response to this but I failed.

If anyone can pick up the slack, much appreciated.

[Knock Knock]

Who's there? 

[Flamestrike]

"Flamestrike Wh-"

[Flamestrike]

"I'm sorry wh-"

[Flamestrike]

"Excu- Am I on FI-"

[Flamestrike]

"Why does that stack SO MUCH BUR-"

[Flamestrike]

 

[Trevor Boyer.6524]

44 minutes ago, Malus.2184 said:

The issue with Cata is that it needs more than just a bit of nerfing. If it was nerfed to the ground in PvP it would still be as powerful as most other Professions. And this rubs over to other Ele builds as well, and while there were some specific Catalyst changes the changes that have made Ele op are general changes to things everyone can get. Every Ele is affected by this, Cata is just the worst offender, and both Tempest and Weaver are affected by these changes, just less so.

Instead of thinking of this in absolutes of "the Cata os OP so every other build must be fine," think of it as "all Elementalist Professions are OP for PvP, and Catalysts are even more broken than that."

You're absolutely correct on this.

Aside from the long full class-wide list of things that are op about Ele, if I had to point out one thing that was the most broken about it, is this perma-stability bull****. They allowed perma-stability and then also nerfed boon corruption on top of that, like what? Ok. Even if you can find a moment to burst through the anti-projectile and shock aura and super stacked damage mitigation mods and invulns and blocks and all the consistent 25 might stacked random splash damage it throws all over the place, there is never opportunity to open up any meaningful interaction during a DPS burst because you can't CC it.

Everything about Ele needs to be massively gutted. I've never had to say that about a class before, but this is just ridiculous at this point.

[Leonidrex.5649]

Elementalist walks into a bar.
There is no counter.

[Malus.2184]

39 minutes ago, Trevor Boyer.6524 said:

You're absolutely correct on this.

Aside from the long full class-wide list of things that are op about Ele, if I had to point out one thing that was the most broken about it, is this perma-stability bull****. They allowed perma-stability and then also nerfed boon corruption on top of that, like what? Ok. Even if you can find a moment to burst through the anti-projectile and shock aura and super stacked damage mitigation mods and invulns and blocks and all the consistent 25 might stacked random splash damage it throws all over the place, there is never opportunity to open up any meaningful interaction during a DPS burst because you can't CC it.

Everything about Ele needs to be massively gutted. I've never had to say that about a class before, but this is just ridiculous at this point.

The cause of this is that the performance system in GW2 is objectively negative, the combat system is a great objective positive, it's just he performance system within that combat system that's horrible. 25 stack of Might and perma Protection, while still bad, would at least be somewhat tolerable if the vast majority of a player's power came from themselves rather than the Boons they could give themselves.
I've described this in another post and instead of repeating m myself, since it's an essay and a half, I'll just link to it instead, 

 

[Azure The Heartless.3261]

10 minutes ago, Leonidrex.5649 said:

Elementalist walks into a bar.
There is no counter.

An Elementalist walks into a bar. The bar disintegrates.

The Elementalist goes "Just stun better"

💀

[ZeftheWicked.3076]

While I love catas (such easy kills!) I will say no more as I don't want my cata-b-gone method removed from game because someone mains an ele..

[Trevor Boyer.6524]

1 hour ago, Leonidrex.5649 said:

Elementalist walks into a bar.
There is no counter.

Oh man. That's actually perfect. The Mad King himself could say this in-game it's so good.

This needs to be remembered for the book of GW2 memes.

[Charybdis.3695]

13 hours ago, Trevor Boyer.6524 said:

This statement just made me afraid to play ESO.

Same kind of fear I'd feel when considering if I should drink a bottle of anti-freeze or not.

Or perhaps a Cata-Tonic? 😅

[Trevor Boyer.6524]

On 7/6/2023 at 3:30 PM, Charybdis.3695 said:

Or perhaps a Cata-Tonic? 😅

Nah they need to make a Dogalyst to counter Catalyst.