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 April 15, 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

• • 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 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