Catalyst - Staff Backline

The community gave this build a rating, making it second-tier: Good

Focused on: Strike damage, Utility and Crowd control

Designed for: WvW Zerg

Expansions required:

Difficulty:

Normal

This build was last updated on February 08, 2025 and is up to date for the February 11, 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

Staff

Staff

Utility

Variants

Heal

• Arcane Brilliance
  extra combo finisher, if needed for
  Elemental Empowerment

Template Code

[&DQYfHykbQyb+GgAAkAAAAL4BAAD4GgAA9xoAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA=]

Copy Template Code

Specializations

Variants

• Energized Elements
  if
  Elemental Empowerment
  can be maintained
• Evasive Empowerment
  only if you can't reach 10 stacks of
  Elemental Empowerment

Equipment

Head
Marauder

Shoulders
Marauder

Chest
Marauder

Hands
Marauder

Legs
Marauder

Feet
Marauder

Backpiece
Marauder

Accessory
Marauder

Accessory
Marauder

Amulet
Dragon

Ring
Dragon

Ring
Marauder

Staff
Marauder

Sigil

Sigil

Staff
Marauder

Sigil

Sigil

Rune
x6

Infusion
x18

Relic

Equipment Variants

Relics

• Relic of Speed
• Relic of the Thief

Consumables

• Peppercorn-Crusted Sous-Vide Steak
  • Bowl of Sweet and Spicy Butternut Squash Soup
    personal option
• Superior Sharpening Stone

Usage

General

• As soon as you get 25 stacks of
  Superior Sigil of Bloodlust
  and get out of combat, swap back to the Staff without a stacking sigil
• You are much stronger with full stacks of
  Elemental Empowerment
  and
  Empowering Auras
  • Make sure to use
    Frozen Ground
    on yourself to help maintain stacks
• Staff Catalyst uses an attunement rotation for maximum burst damage
  • You are not locked into this rotation, while it is optimal for DPS, change the order based on your needs:
    • Water Attunement
      - healing and cleanse
    • Air Attunement
      - CC, Immobilize clear, single target damage
    • Earth Attunement
      - CC, projectile reflect

Attunement rotation

1. Fire Attunement
2. Earth Attunement
3. Water Attunement
4. Air Attunement
5. Repeat from step 1

Priorities

High

• Meteor Shower

Moderate

• Sustained damage
• CC

Low

• Support

Surviving

• This build has low passive defense
• This build has moderate mobility skill access
  • An About Face keybind can be useful for
    Burning Retreat
  • Avoid using
    Lightning Flash
    for mobility unless nessecary to survive
• This build has moderate active defenses
  • Save
    Soothing Water
    for removing Immobilize, Chill or Weakness

Active defense priority

• Windborne Speed
  - for Immobilize
• Magnetic Aura
  - for projectiles
• Dodge
• Burning Retreat
• Lightning Flash
• Soothing Water

Detailed Explanations

Meteor Shower

• Place
  Meteor Shower
  where the enemy group is moving to, not where they are when you begin the cast
• Activate
  Relentless Fire
  after casting
  Meteor Shower
• Use
  Elemental Celerity
  to reset the cooldown of
  Meteor Shower
  and
  Lava Font
  after your first cast
• There are two ways to move during the cast of
  Meteor Shower
  :
  • Cast
    Meteor Shower
    immediately after casting
    Burning Retreat
    and the
    Meteor Shower
    will be queued to cast at the target location after the rollback ends
  • Use
    Lightning Flash
    after you start casting it

Sustained damage

• When using ground AoEs like
  Lava Font
  , place them so that one edge is on the enemy group and the other edge is in the direction they are moving to
• Your 2 skills (
  Eruption
  /
  Ice Spike
  )/
  Lightning Surge
  ) have very long delays or cast times
  • Predict the enemies movement, as with
    Meteor Shower
  • If you rotate quickly enough from
    Earth Attunement
    ⇒
    Water Attunement
    ⇒
    Air Attunement
    you can have all three skills land at the same place and time for burst damage. Sync them up as much as possible
• Use
  Glyph of Storms
  in
  Fire Attunement
  if you expect the fight to last at least 25 seconds
  • Otherwise
    Air Attunement
    has more damage but with a much longer cooldown

Skill priority

• Meteor Shower
• Lava Font
• Glyph of Storms
• Lightning Surge
  /
  Eruption
  /
  Ice Spike
• Autoattacks

CC

• Your three ground CCs are
  Static Field
  ,
  Unsteady Ground
  and
  Frozen Ground
  , in order of strength
  • Frozen Ground
    should normally be saved to give yourself and allies
    Frost Aura
    instead of being used as a CC
• Drop your target when casting
  Shock Wave
  to make it easier to aim, don't cast it into projectile reflect
• You shouldn't interrupt your rotation to try and CC, instead just use whichever CC you have available for the attunements you're in
• 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

Support

• Focus on using
  Windborne Speed
  when your group is pushing or disengaging from the enemy
• Cast
  Healing Rain
  on clashes, targeting the ground AoE so that one edge is on your group and the other edge is where they are moving to
• If a player in your party is going to die because of Immobilize, save them with
  Windborne Speed
• Cast
  Geyser
  where your team is regrouping
• Use
  Frozen Ground
  on your group before pushes to give
  Frost Aura
• Use your Jade Sphere in
  Air Attunement
  , on your group, for Quickness