Catalyst - D/D Duelist

• Twitch: Grimjack

• Twitch: Zeus

• Twitch: Blamthrax

• Hammer variant

• WvW version of the build with Celestial gear

Skill Variants

Utility

地磁护盾 can be replaced, but you should also drop the conjure trait for 燃烧烈焰 on the Fire spec if you do so:

• 空气纹章 - low CD stunbreak that could also be used proactively, avoiding incoming attacks by 目盲ing targets.

• 电光火石 - moility/escape tool.

• 秘法波动 - has a bit of everything. It's got multiple charges, good AoE damage, Arcane trait synergy, dazes enemies and even acts as a Blast finisher which is a highly valuable thing on Catalyst builds.

Equipment Changes

Relics

• 雾潮古物 - significantly boosts your cleansing. This is usually overkill, but because this relic acts very much like the current GM trait on the Earth version of the build, taking this could free up that slot and allow you to take 磐石之心 for even higher sustain.

• 莫辛古物 - allows for cleansing cover condis or dangerous conditions such as 冰冻. Fairly easy to activate thanks to the weapon set's evasive kit.

• 伊斯加然古物 - potentially higher uptime on the damage boost than you'd have with Fireworks, but you have less control over the proc.

• 纳约斯古物 - adds a lot of extra healing to the build in case you're looking to improve survivability.

• 萨奇洛斯古物 - similar to Nayos in terms of purpose, but Zakiros provides a more consistent type of healing throughout a fight while Nayos is better at burst healing when you really need it.

Elite specialization basics

• Catalysts gain access to Deploy Jade Sphere which drops an AoE combo field with pulsing boons depending on the attunement they were used in.

• The Jade Sphere costs energy to deploy, you build energy by hitting enemies or swapping attunements thanks to 强能元素.

• Jade Spheres are instant and can be used while casting skills or sitting in a CC.

General

• Because of 再生纹章 you should almost always be casting something for the passive healing, even if it's just an autoattack that's not even hitting anything. An exception to this would be having high enough 困惑 stacks in which case you'd take more damage then the signet could heal.

• 元素迅捷 (the elite) is used mainly to reset the CD of skills 3-5 of a given attunement:

  • Water for cleansing and healing.
  • Air for CC and an excellent mobility tool.
  • Earth for CC and combo finishers.
  • Fire for raw damage, combo fields and an evade frame with some mobility.

• Jade Spheres do insignificant damage, but that can still be useful because these are instant skills. Dropping a new sphere to remove 圣盾 from an enemy or consume 目盲 on yourself right as you're about to land an important attack can make all the difference.

Auras

• With the Fire spec you cleanse 1 condition whenever you gain an aura thanks to 窒息光环.

• 元素典范 grants an aura based on your current element when you execute a combo.

• The spread of combo finishers on D/D isn't optimal for aura stacking with Elemental Epitome - it ranges from 0 on Fire to 4 on Earth (skills 3-5 + the dodge from ). This however can be remedied with good timing and a little bit of creativity by switching attunements at the right moment, causing some finishers to land in a different attunement. Arcane skills like could also help with combos on any attunement.

• Some examples for spreading out your finishers inside the Jade Sphere:

  • Cast then quickly swap to Air to end up with a .
  • Use on Air while swapping to Water as you cast it.

• is the most reliable combo tool in the build - it's both a field and a finisher, so you're always going to get an aura when using this skills. In fact you can get 2 auras by swapping attunements while casting Frozen Burst, for example swapping to Air will give you a from the combo itself and a from Elemental Epitome synergy.

  • Carrying over combo finishers from other attunements to Water is optimal. This is because is the only finisher here, and it's one that's always going to give you a . Since auras of the same type don't stack, using this in Water doesn't give you an extra Frost Aura, so using Frozen Burst in Water wastes the Elemental Epitome proc. Either use it a few seconds after you've carried over a finisher into Water (ensuring that you'll get both Frost Auras) or use it as you're swapping out of Water.

• Aura combos like this from can only happen once every 10 seconds per attunement, so while it's possible to swap attunements for a different aura keep the CD in mind!

• There are also some less complicated ways of obtaining auras. Water #4 and Air #3 are skills that directly apply auras (and flip over into a chain skill which lets you transmute them for extra effects or more cleansing via ). Another easy one is to simply swap to for a proc. These are all instant and can even be done while casting skills or sitting in a CC, preventing enemies from piling more CCs onto you.

• Combo finishers in the build:

  • Air's .
  • Water's .
  • Earth's skills 3-5.
  • (your healing skill).

• As the Jade Sphere is instant you could even drop a combo field in the middle of your dodge in Earth to obtain an aura.

Damage

• Fire is where most of the damage comes from, followed by Air, Earth, and finally Water.

• and can both do good damage without any real setup.

• is a quick attack that drops a combo field and could quickly get some Burning on enemies to set up Fire Grab.

• should only be used on burning foes as it does significantly more damage that way.

• , and are more on the filler side of things in terms of pure damage but they are quite useful in their own right and much more versatile than most Fire skills.

• Air's Jade Sphere grants which increases your DPS in general. This combined with spam can dish out some decent damage especially against downed and CC'd enemies.

• , and are all great CC tools for setting up burst.

Combo Examples

Low Risk Burst Rotation

1. Optional - if you're not in melee range or if you need to get rid of Blind/Aegis quickly before the next step.
2. for CC while evading attacks.
3. for Quickness.
4. and swap to Fire Attunement while casting it.
5. for damage and to get back into melee range after having used Updraft. At this point Convergence (which has a delay) should also hit.
8. . Now, if you have the energy for it then drop the Jade Sphere (F5) on Fire. If not, do it after swapping to Earth.
9. Swap to Earth Attunement while still casting Drake's Breath.
10. for evasion and an aura combo, which should give you and the target. These should make it easier to land the next CC.
11. for CC.
12. for damage. You could consider swapping to Water while casting CE for another aura combo, or stay in Earth for a bit more damage via the next step. If you stay in Earth you won't be able to carry a combo finisher over to another attunement though.
13. Optional - if you're still in Earth. We call this a low risk rotation because you're using CC, evasion, defensive boons and debilitating conditions to make it harder for enemies to touch you while putting a lot of pressure on them.

Disengaging Safely (make sure you don't have a target selected)

1. for evasion and to place a combo field.
2. Swap to Earth in the middle of Burning Speed.
3. immediately after BS to capitalize on the combo field of step 1. This is another mobility skill with evasion and you should be able to combo Magnetic Aura.
4. Swap to Air.
5. Optional - If enemies are still on you, use for more evasion and to CC whoever managed to follow you. Updraft makes you roll backwards, which is not the direction we want to go, so turn around before you use it then turn back before proceeding to the next step.
6. without a target to get away from the fight.
7. Either heal up in Water or wait a bit for out of combat regen to kick in, assuming you weren't followed. Using the elite for a CD reset just so you may use skills 4-5 again instead of swapping to Water is also an option, taking you even farther. If you use the elite definitely press skill 3 before you do, it's a "free" instant aura source.

Mass Cleansing/Healing (Fire spec only)

1. While standing inside a combo field, carry a finisher over to Water attunement (either Convergence on Air or any of Earth 3-5). This will give you Frost Aura.
4. You should have removed at least 6 conditions by now (7 if you got a Cleansing sigil proc) and healed for a decent amount.
5. There are many ways to proceed based on what your situation is. If you're free from conditions and have time to cast longer skills without getting bursted, do . If you're still heavily pressured by conditions, use skill 4 twice (once to apply an aura and once to transmute it). If you're still focused cast while swapping to Air in the middle of it, this will give you 2 Auras (and cleanse 2 conditions) - Frost Aura will reduce incoming damage taken while Shocking Aura can give you some breathing room.

Sustain

• How you deal with conditions depends on your specializations. With Earth you cleanse conditions whenever you successfully perform combos using leap and blast finishers, while on Fire spec much of your cleansing comes from applying and transmuting auras. There's some level of overlap between the two playstyles though. For example using a leap finisher in a fire field gives you a fire aura - with Earth this cleanses a condition because it was a leap finisher combo, while on Fire this'd also cleanse a condition because you've gained an aura from it. Same results, different reasons.

• Water and Earth are the most defensive elements here as usual, but Fire and Air have a couple of defensive CDs as well such as evade frames on and .

• Simply swapping to Earth can already help you out against direct damage as you'll gain from . Earth Jade Sphere grants the same boon plus .

• Water is the best element if you want to cleanse or heal.

• is a simple but effective heal that also cleanses conditions. A lesser version of this skill procs on your first dodge after entering Water Attunement, healing for a similar amount but only cleansing 1 condition.

  • Both of these are AoE skills so if you see an ally in need you can provide some support for your team.

• 's passive mitigates direct damage while transmuting it (using the chain skill) cleanses 2 conditions on Fire spec.

• is still a good heal but slower than the other skills, making it worse in emergency situations.

• Water Attunement's Jade Sphere is, you guessed it, a Water field. It's best used shortly before switching to Earth where most of your combo finishers are. Unloading Earth 3-5 + the dodge is a great way of recovering a large chunk of health. The sphere itself pulses to help mitigate condition pressure.