Catalyst - Celestial D/D Roamer
The community gave this build a rating, making it top-tier: Great
Focused on: Control, Mobility and Hybrid damage
Designed for: WvW Roaming
Difficulty:
Normal
This build was last updated on October 10, 2024 and is up to date for the October 8, 2024 patch.
Overview
A hybrid Celestial Dagger/Dagger Catalyst build for WvW roaming, offering a strong mix of damage and sustain. Has less burst damage than the Hammer version but D/D offers better mobility, CC and defense against conditions.
Skill Bar
Dagger/Dagger
Utility
Skill Variants
Utility
- Blind could also be used proactively to avoid incoming attacks. over - Armor is a better defensive skill in general but it's on a longer CD. It's up to you to decide what's more important for you, a stronger defensive or more frequent access to a stun break. The Signet's
Template Code
[&DQYfKSUeQx90AHUAHAFPAZAAkADvGusA9xoAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACLwAzAAA=]
Specializations
Variants
- is also a viable option if you're having trouble dealing with conditions.
Equipment
Head
Celestial
Celestial
Shoulders
Celestial
Celestial
Chest
Celestial
Celestial
Hands
Celestial
Celestial
Legs
Celestial
Celestial
Feet
Celestial
Celestial
Backpiece
Celestial
Celestial
Accessory
Celestial
Celestial
Accessory
Celestial
Celestial
Amulet
Celestial
Celestial
Ring
Celestial
Celestial
Ring
Celestial
Celestial
Dagger
Celestial
Celestial
Dagger
Celestial
Celestial
Sigil
Sigil
Dagger
Celestial
Celestial
Sigil
Rune
x6
x6
Infusion
x18
x18
Relic
Note: the second dagger offhand with
is optional. While Elementalists can only use 1 set in combat, if you have a 2nd set with a stacking sigil equipped you can use that to kill Sentries and other veteran NPCs to build up Stars stacks while roaming. Simply swap back to your PvP set where the Geomancy/Doom sigils are after you're done with the PvE tasks and the stacks will stay on. It's enough to only put 1 dagger into the 2nd set, you'll inherit the mainhand from the 1st set. You don't have to bother with a 2nd set if you don't want to (most people don't), but it's an option.
Equipment Variants
Runes
- - defensive option, but it shouldn't be necessary.
Sigils
- You could go with if you're having trouble surviving.
Relics
- - passive damage boost.
- - slightly worse than Isgarren but you have more control over the bonus damage proc.
- Poison procs could make you better at killing other high sustain Cele builds. - in terms of raw damage this is weaker than Isgarren and Fireworks, but the extra healing reduction and
- - defensive option with better healing.
Consumables
Food
- - Ascended food which boosts all of your stats much like Celestial gear while also reducing incoming strike damage.
- - provides a general stat boost just like the other Ascended food, but reduces incoming condition duration instead of strike damage. Could be a good option if you're struggling against conditions more than Power-based damage.
- - extra endurance regen and Might stacking, also has synergy with Relic of Rivers.
Utility
- , , or
- Budget: either from Canned Food Crates found in WvW s or purchased from the Permanent Portable Provisioner.
Usage
Elite specialization basics
- Catalysts gain access to Deploy Jade Sphere which drops an AoE combo field with pulsing boons depending on the attunement they were used in.
- The Jade Sphere costs energy to deploy, you build energy by hitting enemies or swapping attunements thanks to .
- Jade Spheres are instant and can be used while casting skills or sitting in a CC.
General
- Because of Confusion stacks in which case you'd take more damage then the signet could heal. you should almost always be casting something for the passive healing, even if it's just an autoattack that's not even hitting anything. An exception to this would be having high enough
- Water for cleansing and healing.
- Air for CC and an excellent mobility tool.
- Earth for CC and combo finishers.
- Fire for raw damage, combo fields and an evade frame with some mobility.
(the elite) is used mainly to reset the CD of skills 3-5 of a given attunement:
- Jade Spheres do insignificant damage, but that can still be useful because these are instant skills. Dropping a new sphere to remove Aegis from an enemy or consume Blind on yourself right as you're about to land an important attack can make all the difference.
Auras
- You gain Stability and cleanse 1 condition whenever you gain an aura thanks to and .
- grants an aura based on your current element when you execute a combo.
- The spread of combo finishers on D/D isn't optimal for aura stacking with Elemental Epitome - it ranges from 0 on Fire to 4 on Earth (skills 3-5 + the dodge from ). This however can be remedied with good timing and a little bit of creativity by switching attunements at the right moment, causing some finishers to land in a different attunement.
- Some examples for spreading out your finishers inside the Jade Sphere:
- Cast then quickly swap to Air to end up with a .
- Dodge on Earth inside a Jade Sphere for , use but swap to Water before the animation ends for a . Cast but immediately swap to Air for a Shocking Aura.
- Frost Aura from the combo itself and a Shocking Aura from Elemental Epitome synergy. is the best combo tool in the build - it's both a field and a finisher, so you're always going to get an aura when using this skills. In fact you can get 2 auras by swapping attunements while casting Frozen Burst, for example swapping to Air will give you a
- Aura combos like this from can only happen once every 10 seconds per attunement, so while it's possible to swap attunements for a different aura keep the CD in mind! There's no point in carrying a finisher from earth to combo on water if you were going to use on water anyway.
- There are also some less complicated ways of obtaining auras. Water #4 and Air #3 are skills that directly apply auras (and flip over into a chain skill which lets you transmute them for extra effects or more cleansing via ). Another easy one is to simply swap to for a proc. These are all instant and can even be done while casting skills or sitting in a CC, preventing enemies from piling more CCs onto you.
- Combo finishers in the build:
- Air's .
- Water's .
- Earth's skills 3-5 and the first dodge you perform after swapping to this element.
- As the Jade Sphere is instant you could even drop a combo field in the middle of your dodge in Earth to obtain an aura.
Damage
- Fire is where most of the damage comes from, followed by Earth and Air, then finally Water in the last spot.
- and can both do good damage without any real setup. Burning Speed does the most damage 600 range from your initial positon so you're going to want to use that one slightly farther from the target than you would other skills on D/D.
- is a quick attack that drops a combo field and could quickly get some Burning on enemies to set up Fire Grab.
- should only be used on burning foes as it does significantly more damage that way.
- , and are more on the filler side of things in terms of pure damage but they are quite useful in their own right and much more versatile than most Fire skills.
- Air's Jade Sphere grants Quickness which increases your DPS in general. This combined with spam can dish out some decent damage especially against downed and CC'd enemies.
- , and are all great CC tools for setting up burst.
Combo Examples
Low Risk Burst Rotation
- Optional - if you're not in melee range or if you need to get rid of Blind/Aegis quickly before the next step.
- for CC while evading attacks.
- for Quickness.
- and swap to Fire Attunement while casting it.
- for damage and to get back into melee range after having used Updraft. At this point Convergence (which has a delay) should also hit.
- . Now, if you have the energy for it then drop the Jade Sphere (F5) on Fire. If not, do it after swapping to Earth.
- Swap to Earth Attunement while still casting Drake's Breath.
- Stability and Immobilize the target. These should make it easier to land the next CC. for evasion and an aura combo, which should give you
- for CC.
- for damage. You could consider swapping to Water while casting CE for another aura combo, or stay in Earth for a bit more damage via the next step. If you stay in Earth you won't be able to carry a combo finisher over to another attunement though.
- Optional - if you're still in Earth. We call this a low risk rotation because you're using CC, evasion, defensive boons and debilitating conditions to make it harder for enemies to touch you while putting a lot of pressure on them.
Disengaging Safely (make sure you don't have a target selected)
- for evasion and to place a combo field.
- Swap to Earth in the middle of Burning Speed.
- immediately after BS to capitalize on the combo field of step 1. This is another mobility skill with evasion and you should be able to combo Magnetic Aura.
- Swap to Air.
- Optional - If enemies are still on you, use for more evasion and to CC whoever managed to follow you. Updraft makes you roll backwards, which is not the direction we want to go, so turn around before you use it then turn back before proceeding to the next step.
- without a target to get away from the fight.
- Either heal up in Water or wait a bit for out of combat regen to kick in, assuming you weren't followed. Using the elite for a CD reset just so you may use skills 4-5 again instead of swapping to Water is also an option, taking you even farther. If you use the elite definitely press skill 3 before you do, it's a "free" instant aura source.
Mass Cleansing/Healing
- While standing inside a combo field, carry a finisher over to Water attunement (either Convergence on Air or any of Earth 3-5). This will give you Frost Aura.
- while the Stability still lasts.
- Dodge for healing and cleansing
- You should have removed at least 7 conditions by now.
- There are many ways to proceed based on what your situation is. If you're free from conditions and have time to cast longer skills without getting bursted, do . If you're still heavily pressured by conditions, use skill 4 twice (once to apply an aura and once to transmute it). If you're still focused cast while swapping to Air in the middle of it, this will give you 2 Auras (and cleanse 2 conditions) - Frost Aura will reduce incoming damage taken while Shocking Aura can give you some breathing room.
Sustain
- Water and Earth are the most defensive elements here as usual, but Fire and Air have a couple of defensive CDs as well such as evade frames on and .
- Simply swapping to Earth can already help you out against direct damage as you'll gain Protection from . Earth Jade Sphere grants the same boon plus Resistance.
- Water is the best element if you want to cleanse or heal.
- Both of these are AoE skills so if you see an ally in need you can provide some support for your team.
is a simple but effective heal that also cleanses conditions. A lesser version of this skill procs on your first dodge after entering Water Attunement, healing for a similar amount but only cleansing 1 condition.
- 's passive mitigates direct damage while transmuting it (using the chain skill) cleanses 2 conditions.
- is still a good heal but slower than the other skills, making it worse in emergency situations.
- Water Attunement's Jade Sphere is, you guessed it, a Water field. While you can blast it for AoE healing with Resolution to help mitigate condition pressure. , it's best used shortly before switching to Earth where most of your combo finishers are. Unloading Earth 3-4 + the dodge is a great way of recovering a large chunk of health. The sphere itself pulses
- is the only stun break in the build so use it wisely, but all the Stability synergy with the auras should help you deal with CC.
- When damage starts to overwhelm you D/D offers quite a few escape tools. Most obvious one is , just make sure you don't have an enemy targeted. Chaining into would be a good idea too, these are 2 mobility skills with evade frames that also have combo synergy - Burning Speed leaves behind a fire field while Earthen Rush is a leap finisher. This results in both a Fire Aura and a Magnetic Aura!
- is a low CD anti-projectile skill.
Related Builds
- Catalyst - D/D Duelist - sPvP version of the build.
- Catalyst - Cele Hammer - hammer variant.
Ratings
I prefer the hammer version but both are quite strong. This one has better cleansing (as it's able to transmute 2 auras while hammer can't do any) and better mobility, but falls behind on damage. The spread of combo finishers is not ideal for Elemental Epitome synergy (2 elements are without combi finishers while earth has 4) so it's hard to beat hammer which was made with that trait in mind. Still it's possible to use some of the earth finishers by swapping attunements before the combo goes off which mitigates this a little, and chaining all these finishers in something like a water field for healing is huge. Overall a very strong roamer with no real weaknesses. SotO edit: still good
Comments
Get MetaBattle Premium
Enjoy an ad-free experience & support the website, for less than $1 per month! Upgrade to Premium
Enjoy an ad-free experience & support the website, for less than $1 per month! Upgrade to Premium
MetaBattle is recruiting!
We are seeking an experienced Build Admin for Throne and Liberty with a deep understanding of the meta across most weapons and game modes. Get in touch with Galaxian on Discord if you're a good fit for the role or know someone else who is. This is a paid position.
We are seeking an experienced Build Admin for Throne and Liberty with a deep understanding of the meta across most weapons and game modes. Get in touch with Galaxian on Discord if you're a good fit for the role or know someone else who is. This is a paid position.