Catalyst - Spear Backline

The community gave this build a rating, making it top-tier: Great

Focused on: Strike damage, Utility and Crowd control

Designed for: WvW Zerg

Expansions required:

Difficulty:

Hard

This build was last updated on August 19, 2025 and is up to date for the August 19, 2025 patch.

Overview

A backline zerg WvW DPS build for Elementalist providing damage, CC and field support. Requires a precise usage of skills and positioning to survive.

Skill Bar

Spear

Spear

Utility

Variants

Weapons

• Staff see Build:Catalyst_-_Staff_Backline

Utilities

• If you want more damage drop Lightning Flash for one of the following utilities
  • Signet of Fire
    • Will require gear adjustment to stay below crit cap
  • Arcane Echo

Template Code

[&DQYfHykbQyb+GgAAkAAAAL4BAAD4GgAA9xoAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA=]

Copy Template Code

Specializations

Variants

• Energized Elements if Elemental Empowerment can be maintained
• Empowering Auras if you can keep 10 stacks of Elemental Empowerment without Evasive Empowerment

Equipment

Head
Marauder

Shoulders
Dragon

Chest
Dragon

Hands
Marauder

Legs
Marauder

Feet
Marauder

Backpiece
Marauder

Accessory
Dragon

Accessory
Marauder

Amulet
Marauder

Ring
Marauder

Ring
Marauder

Spear
Marauder

Sigil

Sigil

Spear
Marauder

Sigil

Sigil

Rune
x6

Infusion
x18

Relic

Equipment Variants

Relics

• Relic of Speed
• Relic of the Thief

Sigils

• Sigil of Superior Sigil of Fire
• Sigil of Superior Sigil of Frenzy
• Sigil of Superior Sigil of Strength

Consumables

• • personal option

Usage

General

• As soon as you get 25 stacks of Sigil of Superior Sigil of Bloodlust and get out of combat, swap back to the Spear without a stacking sigil
• You are much stronger with full stacks of Elemental Empowerment
  • Make sure to use a combo finisher in every attunement to proc Elemental Epitome
    • If you start the cast of a skill with a finisher then swap attunements before it finishes casting you'll get the Elemental Epitome in the new attunement instead of the one you started the cast in
• Your combo finisher skills are:
  • Arcane Brilliance
  • Fire Attunement
    • Blazing Barrage
  • Water Attunement
    • Ripple
  • Air Attunement
    • Twister
  • Earth Attunement
    • Earthen Spear
• Spear has Etching skills as the skill 5 in each attunement.
  • You must stay inside the field the etching creates for three skill casts to charge the powerful flip skills.
    • These casts do not need to be weapon skills, your Jade Sphere, heal, utilities and elite also count
    • You do not need to stay inside the field to cast the flip skill once it is fully charged

Priorities

High

• Burst damage

Moderate

• Sustained damage
• CC

Low

Surviving

• This build has low passive defense
• This build has moderate mobility skill access
  • Avoid using Lightning Flash for mobility unless necessary to survive
• This build has low active defenses

Active defense priority

• Ripple
• Harden
• Dodge
• Lightning Flash
• Arcane Brilliance

Detailed Explanations

Burst damage

• In Fire Attunement combo Etching: Volcano ⇒ Seethe ⇒ Deploy Jade Sphere (Fire) ⇒ Relentless Fire ⇒ Volcano ⇒ Meteor
  • Make sure to only use Etching: Volcano when you can safely stay inside it for the three casts needed to fully charge the skill
  • Blazing Barrage can be cast before and after the combo to add damage
• Use Elemental Celerity in Fire Attunement once all your weapon skills are on cooldown when its available
  • Since Deploy Jade Sphere (Fire) and Relentless Fire will be on cooldown you'll need to replace them with Blazing Barrage and Meteor to charge Etching: Volcano
    • Make sure to use Seethe last so its effect buffs Volcano
  • Don't force yourself to use Elemental Celerity every time you're in Fire Attunement. If you can't get a good Volcano off, save the cooldown for the next time
• The center radius of Meteor deals an extra 25% damage, so aim carefully and try to hit 5 target in the center every time
• Using Seethe on Meteor instead of Volcano is more burst damage, but a significant loss in sustained damage. If your group is ranged spiking or you're not able to consistently get good Volcano casts off it is worth doing

Sustained damage

• Your attunement priority for damage is:

1. Fire Attunement
2. Air Attunement
3. Earth Attunement
4. Water Attunement

• Air Attunement
  • Fulgor is an incredible damage skill and should be cast at least twice every time you go into Air Attunement
  • Etching: Derecho should be charged whenever possible to enable Derecho
    • Typically you want to use Etching: Derecho as soon as you enter Air Attunement, but if it isn't a good time to spike hold the skill while poking with Fulgor
    • Since this build is already at 100% crit chance, use Energize as one of the casts for Etching: Derecho and don't worry about its crit buff
    • Deploy Jade Sphere (Air) should be used to charge Etching: Derecho, but make sure you prioritize keeping enough energy for Deploy Jade Sphere (Fire)
• Earth Attunement
  • Use Etching: Haboob as soon as you enter Earth Attunement to enable Haboob as soon as possible
    • Use Harden to charge the Etching
    • Deploy Jade Sphere (Earth) should be used to charge Etching: Derecho, but only at full energy so you can make sure to have enough for Deploy Jade Sphere (Air) and Deploy Jade Sphere (Fire)
  • Like Meteor, Fissure deals 25% extra damage in the center radius, so aim carefully
  • While Earthen Spear is a projectile and will often fail to deal damage it's still worth using to proc Elemental Epitome
• Water Attunement has limited damage, so avoid entering it except for specific reasons:
  • To CC with Undertow on a group spike
  • To reposition with Ripple
  • Using Ripple to reduce the cooldown of Etching: Derecho or Etching: Volcano
    • Ripple should be used immediately before swapping into Fire Attunement or Air Attunement to lower the cooldown of the respective Etching skill
    • If Elemental Celerity is available, save Ripple for Etching: Derecho otherwise use it for Etching: Volcano
  • If you've entered Water Attunement for one of the primary reasons, Ice Beam is usually worth casting
    • Beam skills like Ice Beam much more consistently hit their target cap if an enemy at the back of the group is targeted
    • Be careful about consuming the Ripple buff with Ice Beam
• Glyph of Storms should be used in Fire Attunement so it can be combined with damage modifiers such as Relentless Fire and Empowering Flame

CC

• Only the center radius of Undertow and Twister apply CC, so aim carefully
• Use your CC when:
  • Your group calls a spike:
    • Winds - Winds of Disenchantment
    • Wells - Well of Corruption+Well of Suffering
    • Shades - Desert Shroud
    • Traps - Procession of Blades+Test of Faith
  • On top of enemy downs (while alive players are on top of them)
  • Enemy groups moving defensively while your group is pushing