Build:Catalyst - Quickness Support Power DPS

This is a rough draft. Once adequately written, it will progress to the testing stage, where it can be rated by the community. You can help by proposing changes with a comment.

Focused on: Strike damage and Support

Designed for: Raids and Fractals

Difficulty:

TBD

This build was last updated on August 27, 2022.

Overview

A quickness-providing catalyst build.

Skill Bar

Hammer

Utility

Skill Variants

• Arcane Blast will provide more burst damage than Shattering Ice.
• Conjure Lightning Hammer will be more damage than Shattering Ice on large hitboxes.
• Glyph of Elementals is a minor DPS loss if you prefer to avoid conjured weapons, or you think you won't get use out of the second one.

Template Code

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Equipment

Head
Diviner

Shoulders
Diviner

Chest
Diviner

Hands
Diviner

Legs
Diviner

Feet
Berserker

Backpiece
Assassin

Accessory
Diviner

Accessory
Diviner

Amulet
Berserker

Ring
Berserker

Ring
Berserker

Hammer
Berserker

Sigil

Sigil

Rune
x6

Infusion
x18

Consumables

Food:

• or ascended versions

Utility:

Usage

Rotation fundamentals

Catalyst's rotation can be varied quite a lot, so an outline is provided rather than a strict skill usage. The fundamental goal is to cycle through all four elements, activating the Circular Projectile in each element before releasing them all with Grand Finale and starting the loop again.

Jade Sphere use

During the loop, you also want to deploy your Jade Sphere in Fire, Air and Water. You do not regain the energy needed to cast them while they are active, so Fire and Earth are used to regain that energy as they have the strongest autoattacks. The sphere does the same amount base damage in each element, but thanks to the damage buffs you gain while in Fire and Air, these attunements are higher priority. Deploy Jade Sphere (Fire) also generates stacks of Persisting Flames, and Relentless Fire and Shattering Ice will last longer if used while standing in Deploy Jade Sphere (Fire) and Deploy Jade Sphere (Water).

If you are not using Shattering Ice, you could deploy your Jade Sphere in Earth instead of Water if the Protection would be more valuable than Resolution.

Glyph of Storms use

Glyph of Storms should be used either in Fire or Air attunement. Optimal use will depend on phase timings as well as hitbox size - Fire favouring small hitboxes and Air favouring large. Given the damage and cooldown, Fire should be the more efficient option, but the rotation lines up somewhat awkwardly compared to using it in Air, so consider the following:

• A rule of thumb for elementalist is that your last Glyph of Storms in each phase should be used in Air, so try to keep an idea of how long you have left when deciding where to use it.
• As the more powerful option, if you can line Air up with your target gaining Exposed this will be greatly beneficial - particularly useful in fractals.
• If your rotation is not particularly tight, you may be better off just casting Glyph of Storms at the earliest possible opportunity, whether you are in Fire or Air.

Fiery Greatsword use

With the Whirling Stones trick (see the Earth section below), Earth has the fewest cooldowns to use, and so is the best time to Conjure Fiery Greatsword. Summon after using Rocky Loop and Ground Pound (if available) and use Firestorm then drop the weapon and continue your rotation. The next time you reach Earth, pick the second Greatsword up and repeat.

Fire

In Fire you want to use:

• Deploy Jade Sphere (Fire)
• Surging Flames
• Flame Wheel
• Triple Sear
• Molten End
• Relentless Fire

Water

In Water you want to use:

• Deploy Jade Sphere (Water)
• Icy Coil
• Crashing Font
• Cleansing Typhoon - use if available, but don't delay your attunement swap for it
• Shattering Ice

Air

In Air you want to use:

• Deploy Jade Sphere (Air)
• Hurricane of Pain
• Crescent Wind
• Shock Blast.

Earth

In Earth you want to use:

• Whirling Stones - as Stonestrike is your most powerful autoattack, it is a good idea to delay this until your attunement swap is available, then use Whirling Stones and immediately swap (this will not interrupt the cast)
• Rocky Loop
• Ground Pound - use if available, but don't delay your attunement swap for it

Rotation example

You should always start in Air to start generating boons as quickly as possible. The rotation follows similar fundamentals to the DPS build, but you want to switch to air more frequently to use Deploy Jade Sphere (Air) nearly off cooldown (10.4s).

Opener in Air

1. Glyph of Storms
2. Crescent Wind
3. Deploy Jade Sphere (Air)
4. Shock Blast
5. Hurricane of Pain - swap to Fire Attunement once the cast begins

Fire

1. Flame Wheel
2. Deploy Jade Sphere (Fire)
3. Relentless Fire
4. Molten End
5. Triple Sear
6. Surging Flames
7. Water Attunement

Water

1. Icy Coil
2. Deploy Jade Sphere (Water)
3. Shattering Ice
4. Cleansing Typhoon
5. Crashing Font
6. Earth Attunement

Earth

1. Rocky Loop
2. Ground Pound
3. Conjure Fiery Greatsword
4. Fiery Rush
5. Firestorm - drop Fiery Greastword immediately after the cast
6. Stonestrike until Air Attunement is available
7. Whirling Stones - swap to Air Attunement once the cast begins

Air

1. Hurricane of Pain
2. Deploy Jade Sphere (Air)
3. Fire Attunement when available

Fire

Video example