Catalyst - Support Catalyst (GvG)

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

Focused on: Control, Support and Condition cleanse

Designed for: WvW GvG

Expansions required:

This build was last updated on April 15, 2023 and is up to date for the May 02, 2023 game patch.

Overview

The main purpose of this build is to maximize the amount of auras and boons shared by the Elementalist. Tempest can also be used instead for the same role, see here for a comparison

Compared to D/F Fire Tempest builds, it does not bring significant healing. Therefore it cannot be used as direct replacement but needs to be paired with a powerful healing spec in the party, such as a Vindicator.

The advantage of Catalyst is that it brings more access to auras, similar cleanses, access to Quickness from for a faster cast as well as access to ranged Resistance and Protection from for powerful ranged support among other boons.

Skill Bar

Staff

Utility

Weapon Variants

Dagger/Dagger

Skill Variants

Utilities

• If you are never being targeted, you might not need , replace it by

Specializations

Template Code

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Equipment

Head
Minstrel

Shoulders
Minstrel

Chest
Minstrel

Hands
Minstrel

Legs
Minstrel

Feet
Minstrel

Backpiece
Minstrel

Accessory
Minstrel

Accessory
Minstrel

Amulet
Minstrel

Ring
Minstrel

Ring
Minstrel

Staff
Minstrel

Sigil

Sigil

Rune
x6

Infusion
x18

Build Variants

• Nomad stats on the helmet. Your boon duration is capped by most of the time

Rune Variants

Usage

General/Energy Management

• To generate energy for Catalyst's Jade Sphere abilities make sure to hit enemies with skills that have a high number of hits:
• You want to rotate through elements quickly to get as many boons as possible
  • You can be quite flexible with your rotation, but make sure to always have a blast lined up to proc in
    • This is easiest if you swap from while casting

Skill Usage and Rotation

• The main goal of our gameplay loop is to provide a high boon uptime:
  • On and
  • On auras by utilising
    • For this we need to complete finishers in Air and Earth and Water. Blasting in Fire is not required as we gain Fire Aura from
• This means that we want to rotate through all attunemts at a quick pace, roughly once every 15 seconds.
• A good order to go through attunements is ⇒ ⇒ ⇒ ⇒ .
  • Note that many skills on staff have a cooldown higher than 15 seconds, so that these skills will only be up every other time.

1. In
   • - use this to CC the enemy. Place on own backline to slow enemy pushes or on the enemy while pushing.
   • ⇒ - this will proc and give us another Magnetic Aura
   • - not strickly necessary but a delayed backup finsher for in
2. While ⇒
   • - place on whoever needs the Resistance from the initial proc of and such that your team will spend maximal time in it.
   • - starting this cast in Earth while swapping to Air will proc in Air for the Shocking Aura
   • - place on DPS players. Place it right after the Earth sphere, to minimize the time where you don't generate energy.
3. In
   • - extra cleanses and Superspeed
   • - use this to CC the enemy. Place on own backline to slow enemy pushes or on the enemy while pushing.
   • - an extra knockback
   • - AoE blind
4. While ⇒
   • When using a delayed blast finisher ( or ) to proc in Air for the Shocking Aura, make sure that the finisher goes off before swapping our of Air
   • You might want to delay swapping out of Air a bit, if you want to have access to in Air soon
5. In
   • - AoE for energy generation
   • - AoE for energy generation and AoE blind. Note that there might still be a Sphere active at the start, so delay a bit for Energy.
   • - Repositioning
6. While ⇒
   • Make sure you have more than 10 Energy before swapping out of Fire. If not, place another .
   • If you have more than 20 Energy before swapping, you can place or
7. In
   • - delayed blast for
   • - for targeted healing
   • - for Frost Aura
   • - big AoE cleanse and healing. Place towards the direction your team is moving.
8. While ⇒
   • We can time the blast on so that it procs in Earth. This is good since the staff skill will be on cooldown still

• On the second loop:
  • on Staff will be on cooldown, so we need to proc for 24px Magentic Aura differently:
    • Use a delayed
    • Use or - These are projectiles and need to hit to count as a projectile finisher. Inconsistent because of projectile block.
    • Use - Backup finisher
    • Use - Takes a long time to proc, so it's better to use a quicker method.
  • will be on cooldown, so we want to proc in Water with
  • will be on cooldown, so our cleanses will be lower this round.

Overall Priorities

High

• Aurashare/Condition clear

Moderate

• Boon share
• CC

Low

• Healing
• Superspeed

Surviving

• This build has moderate passive defense
• This build has moderate mobility skill access
• This builds has low active defenses

Active defense priority

• - this is your main mobility skill. If you use Hold down LMB, Lift RMB ⇒ About Face ⇒ ⇒ Lift LMB, Hold down RMB during dodge ⇒ About Face this will move you in the direction you are facing
• - for Stunbreaking
• - for Stunbreaking and Stability
• - for cleansing and Superspeed
• Dodge

Detailed Explanations

Glyph of Renewal

• Focus on reviving allies who are far away with , don't waste the skill on players that can be hand rezzed.
  • If possible, use on yourself while casting for Quickness
  • This still speeds up the cast if you use the sphere after you started casting the glyph
• Use in on single players and on multiple players
  • If you can't be in a good position, don't cast in
• Under General Options / Combat/Movement turn on Allow Skill Retargeting and set Ground Targeting to Instant Cast, this will make cast at the location your cursor is at the end of the cast, instead of where you initially targeted

Aurashare/Condition clear

• Most of your condition clear is reliant on and comes passively while rotating through the attunements while blasting
• also cleanses many conditions - place this when your party is pushing forward
• You can apply Resistance on a long range using due to
• Prioritize for burst condition clear, see the burst healing rotation below
• has a per-attunement cooldown of 10 seconds
  • You can start casting a blast in one attunement then swap to a different attunement before the cast ends to proc
    • It is easy to swap attunements during , and
    • This also works with and , but these skills proc a projectile finisher only when they hit an enemy. does not track the enemy, so its impossible to hit. is a skill shot, but unreliable due to reflects.
  • Prioritize getting auras from for and from for
• Use on your group before or during pushes to give

List of combo finishers

• ⇒
• - projectile finisher on hit (unreliable with reflects)
• - projectile finisher on hit (impossible to hit)

Condition clear priority

• • - +
• - +
• • -
  • -

Boonshare

• Prioritize and
  • If you have spare energy use for Vigor or for Might
    • You don't gain energy from attacks while a Jade Sphere is deployed. Thus, you want to use and after the spheres from earth and air have run out. Regardless, you passively gain three energy from
• Make sure to land the Jade Sphere cast on top of allies for the boons from
  • can be used to save allies caught with Immobilize with the Resistance and Protection from
• Place your spheres so that one edge is on your allied group and the other edge is where your group is moving to
  • Optimally leave it somewhere your group is regrouping
• Make sure you are close to allies when swapping out of fire to give them Might with
  • Go into fire whenever there is time to trigger as often as possible
• Try to fill any gaps in your guardian's Stability uptime with ⇒ , especially when your group is pushing

CC

• Use your CC when:
  • Your group calls a spike:
    • Winds -
    • Wells - +
    • Shades -
    • Traps - +
  • On top of enemy downs (while alive players are on top of them)
  • Enemy groups moving defensively while your group is pushing

CC priority

• - Skill 4
• - Skill 5

Healing

• Catalyst healing is very limited, but significant enough to save people if comboed
• Use to heal from range
• You can blast the fields created by and for healing

Burst Healing Combo

1. -
7. - Water Field Blast

Superspeed

• Focus on using when your group is pushing or disengaging from the enemy

Settings

• Under General Options / User Interface check Always show squad health bars and Always show party health bars. These will make it much easier to keep track of who needs your support.
• Also under General Options / User Interface turn on Thick party health bars
  • Thick squad health bars can be used too as a matter of personal preference, but is not recommended for large numbers
• Under Squad Options check View as a grid. This will allow you to keep track of your allies' health and be quicker in using . While this doesn't allow you to see conditions on allies, most of your cleanses are passively applied anyway.