Catalyst - Power Catalyst
The community gave this build a rating, making it second-tier: Good
Focused on: Strike damage
Designed for: Open World and Open World General
Expansions required: 
Overview
Power catalyst rotates through all four Attunements dealing damage in a large AoE. It's also slightly more durable thanks to improving all your attributes, and provides some boons to itself and nearby allies - most notably, permanent 
Quickness and 
Fury.
As a downside, the playstyle is very fast and requires you to be constantly swapping attunements pretty much off cooldown to spam their Spheres such as , and you need to stay inside the Spheres to receive the boons, making the build somewhat static and vulnerable to enemies that move around.
Template Code
Skill Bar
Weapon Variants
Usage of 
Spear requires Janthir Wilds. Other weapon options you can consider are:
Skill Variants
Heal skill
We default to as it provides good passive healing and works great with a fast-paced playstyle, but very weak heal on demand, leaving you vulnerable to burst damage. Other alternatives are:
- - strong burst healing and a boon based on attunement.
- - weak heal by default, but is greatly increased if it strikes nearby enemies. Performs a blast finisher, and heals for more when doing so. Excellent synergy with water combo fields. (See: Guide:What are Combo Fields).
- - very high healing and condition removal throughout its long channelling time. Great option for raw healing if you can afford the cast time, and it also regenerates enough endurance for one dodge.
Utility skills
We default to and for damage, and to improve critical chance. can be replaced if needed. Other utility skills you can consider are:
- - stunbreak, barrier, and stability.
- - spawn a small elemental army that dies when you mount up, good for fighting strong bosses.
- - condition cleanse and stun break.
- - more mobility
- - very flexible skill that can do damage, or cleanse conditions, or daze enemies, or give barrier, depending on your current attunement, and breaks stun.
Elite skill
lets you use your into a second time. You can also consider:
- - cast it on Fire for damage, on Water for support, healing and
Knockback, on Air for a 
Stun, or on Earth for defense and tanking.
Specializations
- Variants
- + : when playing in groups and someone else is already providing Quickness.
Equipment
Ascended gear is not required.
Berserker
Berserker
Diviner
Berserker
Berserker
Berserker
Diviner
Diviner
Diviner
Berserker
Berserker
Berserker
Diviner
Diviner
Berserker
x6
If you are gearing this character from zero, start with exotic quality gear. Search the trading post for "Zhed" armor, "Impaler" spear, "Ironfist" hammer. See also: Guide:How to Gear a Character.
- You require about 31% boon duration to maintain your boons, most notably Quickness.
- For relic alternatives, you can consider to trade a minor amount of damage for sustain.
- For defense, equip the highest tier Jade Core you can afford.
- For an extremely minor damage optimisation, use 4 "Precise +5 Agony Infusion" to reach 100% critical chance.
Consumables
Budget consumables are acceptable for use in open world.
DPS
- Prioritize Steak Ascended food.
- /
- /
Defense
Farming
- Prioritize Steak Ascended food.
- /
- (and variants)
Usage
Jade Sphere
The Jade Sphere is the profession mechanic of the catalyst. Hitting enemies generates energy, and you spend this energy to summon a sphere that deals minor damage and provides yourself and nearby allies with boons, most notably permanent Quickness thanks to and . Each attunement has its own sphere, and their cooldowns are not shared. Thanks to the trait , you can generate Energy even while a sphere is deployed.
You also gain improved attributes from Elemental Empowerment effect from traits like .
Damage
The playstyle is easy to explain, but not so much to execute. You want to rotate through all four attunements while using their Sphere and their spear Etching skills. If you are spending more than 5 seconds on an attunement, you are too slow. Cast (preferably inside the fire Sphere) and (on Air or Fire) off cooldown for damage.
In long fights, if you do not have 
Alacrity from another player, your spear Etchings will not be ready once you attune to an element for a second time. When that happens, you have to skip the Etching, cast whatever weapon skills are off cooldown, and move to the next attunement to cast its Sphere off cooldown in order to maintain permanent Quickness. Note that you want to always cast the fire etching, , right after to increase its damage.
If not using spear, the idea is the same: rotate through all four attunements off cooldown to use their Sphere while casting all your damaging weapon skills.
Elemental Empowerment
As a catalyst, you gain stacks of Elemental Empowerment which increase all your attributes. This obviously increases your damage and survivability a little bit, but they are also important to increase boon duration.
provides 3 stacks of Elemental Empowerment. To get more, you need to inflict crowd control due to . Pretty much all your cc skills on any weapon are also damage skills and thus part of your normal rotation, so you don't need to worry about this trait. will also give you an aura periodically, and every time you get an aura you get one stack of Elemental Empowerment, such as when you attune to due to .
Quickness
You provide quickness with the traits + . You want to swap attunements off cooldown and use their Sphere immediately. This also provides other boons, namely permanent Fury and some 
Might.
lets you generate energy even while a sphere is deployed, so you won't have energy problems.
Consider using more 
Diviner gear if you're struggling to maintain permanent Quickness.
Defense
Protection and 
Aegis via .- provides healing.
- evades.
- stability.
- passively increases toughness and vitality
CC
- /
Ratings
Comments
Enjoy an ad-free experience & support the website, for only $1 per month! Upgrade to Premium
