Build: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:

Difficulty:

TBD

This build was last updated on June 20, 2023 and is up to date for the October 8, 2024 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 Deploy Jade Sphere (Air) for a faster Glyph of Renewal cast as well as access to ranged Resistance and Protection from Deploy Jade Sphere (Earth) for powerful ranged support among other boons.

Skill Bar

Staff

Utility

Weapon Variants

Dagger/Dagger

Skill Variants

Utilities

• If you are being targeted you will not consistently survive without a second stunbreak, so you need Armor of Earth, or, alternatively, Lightning Flash
• If you don't get targeted you can get away with picking any of the following instead:
  • Signet of Water - Catalyst lacks healing so this skill is quite nice. It also fits very nicely into the staff playstyle.
  • Signet of Earth - The single target immobilize from this skill is insanely good, but it is tricky to fit into the playstyle, as you don't typically target enemies a lot.
  • Conjure Lightning Hammer - Provides very good CC and a knockback for downed enemies, as well as an extra leap finisher for Elemental Epitome.
  • Conjure Earth Shield - Provides a strong pull and an invulnability skill. It also provides an extra Magnetic Aura that can be transmuted with Transmute Earth.

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 Elemental Empowerment most of the time

Rune Variants

• Rune of Superior Rune of Durability

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:
  • Lava Font
  • Flame Burst
• 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 Elemental Epitome in Air Attunement
    • This is easiest if you swap from Earth Attunement while casting Transmute Earth

Skill Usage and Rotation

• The main goal of our gameplay loop is to provide a high boon uptime:
  • On Deploy Jade Sphere (Air) and Deploy Jade Sphere (Earth)
  • On auras by utilising Elemental Epitome
    • 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 Sunspot
• 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 Earth Attunement ⇒ Air Attunement ⇒ Fire Attunement ⇒ Water Attunement ⇒ Earth Attunement.
  • 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 Earth Attunement
   • Unsteady Ground - use this to CC the enemy. Place on own backline to slow enemy pushes or on the enemy while pushing.
   • Magnetic Aura ⇒ Transmute Earth - this will proc Elemental Epitome and give us another Magnetic Aura
   • Eruption - not strickly necessary but a delayed backup finsher for Elemental Epitome in Air Attunement
2. While Earth Attunement ⇒ Air Attunement
   • Deploy Jade Sphere (Earth) - place on whoever needs the Resistance from the initial proc of Spectacular Sphere and such that your team will spend maximal time in it.
   • Transmute Earth - starting this cast in Earth while swapping to Air will proc Elemental Epitome in Air for the Shocking Aura
   • Deploy Jade Sphere (Air) - place on DPS players. Place it right after the Earth sphere, to minimize the time where you don't generate energy.
3. In Air Attunement
   • Windborne Speed - extra cleanses and Superspeed
   • Static Field - use this to CC the enemy. Place on own backline to slow enemy pushes or on the enemy while pushing.
   • Gust - an extra knockback
   • Lightning Surge - AoE blind
4. While Air Attunement ⇒ Fire Attunement
   • When using a delayed blast finisher (Eruption or Ice Spike) to proc Elemental Epitome 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 Glyph of Renewal in Air soon
5. In Fire Attunement
   • Lava Font - AoE for energy generation
   • Flame Burst - 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.
   • Burning Retreat - Repositioning
6. While Fire Attunement ⇒ Water Attunement
   • Make sure you have more than 10 Energy before swapping out of Fire. If not, place another Lava Font.
   • If you have more than 20 Energy before swapping, you can place Deploy Jade Sphere (Fire) or Deploy Jade Sphere (Water)
7. In Water Attunement
   • Ice Spike - delayed blast for Elemental Epitome
   • Geyser - for targeted healing
   • Frozen Ground - for Frost Aura
   • Healing Rain - big AoE cleanse and healing. Place towards the direction your team is moving.
8. While Water Attunement ⇒ Earth Attunement
   • We can time the blast on Ice Spike so that it procs Elemental Epitome in Earth. This is good since the staff skill Magnetic Aura will be on cooldown still

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

Overall Priorities

High

• Glyph of Renewal
• 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

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

Detailed Explanations

Glyph of Renewal

• Focus on reviving allies who are far away with Glyph of Renewal, don't waste the skill on players that can be hand rezzed.
  • If possible, use Deploy Jade Sphere (Air) on yourself while casting for Quickness
  • This still speeds up the cast if you use the sphere after you started casting the glyph
• Use Glyph of Renewal in Air Attunement on single players and Earth Attunement on multiple players
  • If you can't be in a good position, don't cast in Air Attunement
• Under General Options / Combat/Movement turn on Allow Skill Retargeting and set Ground Targeting to Instant Cast, this will make Glyph of Renewal 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 Smothering Auras and comes passively while rotating through the attunements while blasting
• Healing Rain also cleanses many conditions - place this when your party is pushing forward
• You can apply Resistance on a long range using Deploy Jade Sphere (Earth) due to Spectacular Sphere
• Prioritize Water Attunement for burst condition clear, see the burst healing rotation below
• Elemental Epitome 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 Elemental Epitome
    • It is easy to swap attunements during Ice Spike, Eruption and Transmute Earth
    • This also works with Stoning and Shock Wave, but these skills proc a projectile finisher only when they hit an enemy. Stoning does not track the enemy, so its impossible to hit. Shock Wave is a skill shot, but unreliable due to reflects.
  • Prioritize getting auras from Air Attunement for Shocking Aura and from Earth Attunement for Transmute Earth
• Use Frozen Ground on your group before or during pushes to give Frost Aura

List of combo finishers

• Ice Spike
• Eruption
• Magnetic Aura ⇒ Transmute Earth
• Arcane Brilliance
• Shock Wave - projectile finisher on hit (unreliable with reflects)
• Stoning - projectile finisher on hit (impossible to hit)

Condition clear priority

• Water Attunement
  • Healing Rain
  • Frozen Ground - Frost Aura + Smothering Auras
• Fire Attunement - Sunspot + Smothering Auras
• Earth Attunement
  • Magnetic Aura - Smothering Auras
  • Transmute Earth - Smothering Auras

Boonshare

• Prioritize Deploy Jade Sphere (Air) and Deploy Jade Sphere (Earth)
  • If you have spare energy use Deploy Jade Sphere (Water) for Vigor or Deploy Jade Sphere (Fire) for Might
    • You don't gain energy from attacks while a Jade Sphere is deployed. Thus, you want to use Lava Font and Flame Burst after the spheres from earth and air have run out. Regardless, you passively gain three energy from Energized Elements
• Make sure to land the Jade Sphere cast on top of allies for the boons from Spectacular Sphere
  • Deploy Jade Sphere (Earth) can be used to save allies caught with Immobilize with the Resistance and Protection from Spectacular Sphere
• 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 Pyromancer's Puissance
  • Go into fire whenever there is time to trigger Pyromancer's Puissance as often as possible
• Try to fill any gaps in your guardian's Stability uptime with Magnetic Aura ⇒ Transmute Earth, especially when your group is pushing

CC

• 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

CC priority

• Air Attunement
  • Static Field
• Earth Attunement
  • Unsteady Ground
• Tornado
• Conjure Earth Shield - Skill 4
• Conjure Lightning Hammer - Skill 5

Healing

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

Burst Healing Combo

1. Water Attunement - Healing Ripple
2. Ice Spike
3. Geyser
4. Healing Rain
5. Ice Spike
6. Earth Attunement
7. Eruption - Water Field Blast

Superspeed

• Focus on using Windborne Speed 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 Glyph of Renewal. While this doesn't allow you to see conditions on allies, most of your cleanses are passively applied anyway.