Catalyst - D/D Duelist

Part of the current metagame

Our curator decided this build is in the current metagame regardless of rating. The community gave this build a rating, making it top-tier: Great

Focused on: Strike damage, Sustain and Mobility

Designed for: PvP Conquest

Expansions required:

Difficulty:

Normal

This build was last updated on November 21, 2024 and is up to date for the October 8, 2024 patch.

Overview

D/D Elementalist makes a return with a bunch of shiny new tools. A fast-paced, highly versatile duelist build with great sustain and damage.

Skill Bar

Dagger/Dagger

Utility

Skill Variants

Utility

• Signet of Air over Armor of Earth - 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 stunbreak. The Signet's Blind could also be used proactively to avoid incoming attacks.

• Lightning Flash over Arcane Wave - as a mobility tool/panic button Arcane Wave is worse than Lightning Flash, but it's better at everything else. Has multiple charges, good AoE damage, dazes enemies and even acts as a Blast finisher which is a highly valuable thing on Catalyst builds.

• Conjure Earth Shield over Arcane Wave - makes the build more tanky. The conjure's a versatile skill that can help you out in any situation as it has aura synergy, CC, invulnerability, block, even damage.

Template Code

[&DQYaGyUeQx90AHQATwGPAE4BkQDvGhwB9xr3GgAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACVgBZAAA=]

Copy Template Code

Specializations

Variants

• Sphere Specialist gives you higher uptime on important boons in exchange for becoming more vulnerable to CC due to the loss of some Stability sources.

Specialization Variants

Dropping Earth for Fire sacrifices some of the tankiness for better damage and condi cleansing:

Equipment

Dagger

Dagger

Sigil

Sigil

Rune

Amulet

Relic

Equipment Changes

Amulet

• - coupled with Rune of Dolyak or Rune of Scrapper this would give you similar damage, but trade active sustain (healing) for passive (higher armor/HP).

Relics

• Relic of the Mists Tide - significantly boosts your cleansing. This is usually overkill, but because this relic acts very much like your current GM trait on Earth, taking this could free up that slot and allow you to take Stone Heart for even higher sustain.

• Relic of Fireworks - a damage bonus much like Isgarren's. You have more control over its effect, but Isgarren tends to have a higher uptime of the damage boost.

• Relic of Nayos - adds a lot of extra healing to the build in case you're looking to improve survivability.

• Relic of Zakiros - similar to Nayos in terms of purpose, but Zakiros provides a more consistent type of healing throughout a fight while Nayos is better at burst healing when you really need it.

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 Energized Elements.

• Jade Spheres are instant and can be used while casting skills or sitting in a CC.

General

• Because of Signet of Restoration 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 Confusion stacks in which case you'd take more damage then the signet could heal.

• Elemental Celerity (the elite) is used mainly to reset the CD of skills 3-5 of a given attunement:
  • 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.

• 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 whenever you apply an aura to yourself. With the Fire spec you also cleanse 1 condition whenever you gain an aura thanks to Smothering Auras.

• Elemental Epitome 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 Evasive Arcana). 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 Earthen Rush then quickly swap to Air to end up with a Shocking Aura.
  • Dodge on Earth inside a Jade Sphere for Magnetic Aura, use Earthquake but swap to Water before the animation ends for a Frost Aura. Cast Frozen Burst but immediately swap to Air for a Shocking Aura.

• Frozen Burst is the most reliable 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 Frost Aura from the combo itself and a Shocking Aura from Elemental Epitome synergy.
  • Carrying over combo finishers from other attunements to Water is optimal. This is because Frozen Burst is the only finisher here, and it's one that's always going to give you a Frost Aura. Since auras of the same type don't stack, using this in Water doesn't give you an extra Frost Aura, so using Frozen Burst in Water wastes the Elemental Epitome proc. Either use it a few seconds after you've carried out a finisher into Water (ensuring that you'll get both Frost Auras) or use it as you're swapping out of Water.

• Aura combos like this from Elemental Epitome 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 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 Smothering Auras). Another easy one is to simply swap to Fire Attunement for a Sunspot 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 Convergence.
  • Water's Frozen Burst.
  • 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 Air, Earth, and finally Water.

• Drake's Breath and Burning Speed can both do good damage without any real setup.

• Ring of Fire (elementalist) is a quick attack that drops a combo field and could quickly get some Burning on enemies to set up Fire Grab.

• Fire Grab should only be used on burning foes as it does significantly more damage that way.

• Ring of Earth, Convergence and Frozen Burst 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 Lightning Whip spam can dish out some decent damage especially against downed and CC'd enemies.

• Shocking Aura, Earthquake and Updraft are all great CC tools for setting up burst.

Combo Examples

Low Risk Burst Rotation

1. Optional - Ride the Lightning if you're not in melee range or if you need to get rid of Blind/Aegis quickly before the next step.
2. Updraft for CC while evading attacks.
3. Deploy Jade Sphere (Air) for Quickness.
4. Convergence and swap to Fire Attunement while casting it.
5. Burning Speed for damage and to get back into melee range after having used Updraft. At this point Convergence (which has a delay) should also hit.
6. Ring of Fire (elementalist)
7. Fire Grab
8. Drake's Breath. Now, if you have the energy for it then drop the Jade Sphere (F5) on Fire. If not, do it after swapping to Earth.
9. Swap to Earth Attunement while still casting Drake's Breath.
10. Earthen Rush for evasion and an aura combo, which should give you Stability and Immobilize the target. These should make it easier to land the next CC.
11. Earthquake for CC.
12. Churning Earth 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.
13. Optional - Ring of Earth 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)

1. Burning Speed for evasion and to place a combo field.
2. Swap to Earth in the middle of Burning Speed.
3. Earthen Rush 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.
4. Swap to Air.
5. Optional - If enemies are still on you, use Updraft 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.
6. Ride the Lightning without a target to get away from the fight.
7. 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 (Fire spec only)

1. 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.
2. Cleansing Wave while the Stability still lasts.
3. Transmute Frost
4. Dodge for healing and cleansing
5. You should have removed at least 7 conditions by now (8 if you got a Cleansing sigil proc) and healed for a decent amount.
6. 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 Cone of Cold. 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 Frozen Burst 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

• How you deal with conditions depends on your specializations. With Earth you cleanse conditions whenever you successfully perform combos using leap and blast finishers, while on Fire spec much of your cleansing comes from applying and transmuting auras. There's some level of overlap between the two playstyles though. For example using a leap finisher in a fire field gives you a fire aura - with Earth this cleanses a condition because it was a leap finisher combo, while on Fire this'd also cleanse a condition because you've gained an aura from it. Same results, different reasons.

• 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 Burning Speed and Updraft.

• Simply swapping to Earth can already help you out against direct damage as you'll gain Protection from Elemental Attunement. Earth Jade Sphere grants the same boon plus Resistance.

• Water is the best element if you want to cleanse or heal.

• Cleansing Wave 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.
  • Both of these are AoE skills so if you see an ally in need you can provide some support for your team.

• Frost Aura's passive mitigates direct damage while transmuting it (using the chain skill) cleanses 2 conditions on Fire spec.

• Cone of Cold 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. It's best used shortly before switching to Earth where most of your combo finishers are. Unloading Earth 3-5 + the dodge is a great way of recovering a large chunk of health. The sphere itself pulses Resolution to help mitigate condition pressure.

• Armor of Earth is the only stunbreak 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 Ride the Lightning, just make sure you don't have an enemy targeted. Chaining Burning Speed into Earthen Rush 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!

• Ring of Earth is a low CD anti-projectile skill.

• If taken Conjure Earth Shield is for buying time and surviving heavy pressure. With a block, a Magnetic Aura, a CC and an invulnerability frame this could bridge the gap in your defenses until your other CDs come back up or help arrives.

Top Streamers

• Twitch: Grimjack

• Twitch: Zeus

• Twitch: Blamthrax

Related Builds

• Hammer variant

• WvW version of the build with Celestial gear