Raidssnowcrows

Beginner Power Catalyst

Guild Wars 2 Beginner Power Catalyst - Sword & Dagger Meta build for raids: complete guide with gear, runes, relics, traits, and rotation tips.

元素使 (Elementalist)catalystpower damage

Build Template

Template Code
[&DQYfHSkfQyYnDwAA+BoAAL4BAABQAQAA9xoAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACWgAvAAA=]

Overview

Build Difficulty: ● ● ● ○ ○

Pros
Cons
Attributes
  • High damage
  • Provides self boons
  • Sustained damage
  • Lots of cleave
  • High learning curve
  • Fast paced rotation
  • Relies on resource management
  • Requires accurate positioning
Power
2950
Toughness
1000
Vitality
1297
Precision
1971
Critical Chance
56.23%
Ferocity
1619
Critical Damage
257.9%
Condition Damage
0
Healing Power
0
Expertise
0
Condition Duration
0%
Concentration
0
Boon Duration
0%

Equipment

Traits & Skills

Traits

Skills

Rotation & Extras

Introduction

Power Catalyst is an easy to learn but hard to master build. There are 4 primary resources or buffs that you need to manage while playing Power Catalyst:

  • Energy to cast Jade Spheres
  • Upkeeping 元素赋能 图标元素赋能 stacks
  • Upkeeping 充能光环 图标充能光环 stacks
  • Maintaining Relic of the Claw uptime

You will automatically maintain high uptime and stacks just by performing the Power Catalyst rotation correctly and fast enough. However, because the rotation is fast-paced and relies on resource management, making mistakes or delaying the rotation can cause you to lose stacks and uptime.

That said, with a good understanding of build fundamentals and enough practice, you'll be rewarded with powerful DPS numbers!

Step One: Jade Spheres and Attunement Loop

Jade Spheres are the unique profession mechanic of Catalyst. They are instant-cast skills that deal damage, put down a Combo Field, and give a boon based on your Attunement. The Jade Sphere in each Attunement is its own individual skill, so they each have a separate Cooldown.

It costs 10 Energy to cast a Jade Sphere. Energy is gained by landing hits, but you cannot gain Energy while a Jade Sphere is deployed. Using Jade Spheres in quick succession minimizes that time frame, allowing you to promptly start gaining Energy again.

Managing Energy in the rotation is relatively simple; once you're at 30 Energy, you will quickly swap from 空气协调 图标空气协调 to 大地协调 图标大地协调 to 火焰协调 图标火焰协调, using the Jade Sphere in each Attunement as soon as you swap over. This will consume all 30 Energy, then give you plenty of time to regain Energy to repeat the loop.

The basic loop is as follows:

空气协调 图标空气协调
  1. Auto Attack until 30 Energy
大地协调 图标大地协调
  1. 部署翠玉元晶 图标部署翠玉元晶
  2. Auto Attack until 火焰协调 图标火焰协调 is off Cooldown
火焰协调 图标火焰协调
  1. 部署翠玉元晶 图标部署翠玉元晶
  2. Auto Attack until 空气协调 图标空气协调 is off Cooldown

Keep an eye on your Energy and make sure you have 30 Energy before deploying Jade Spheres! Not having enough Energy will severely delay your rotation.

Step Two: Weapon Skills

In this step, we will add some weapon skills to the loop to give it a rhythm that more closely resembles the full build.

量子打击 图标量子打击 hits multiple times to help gain Energy faster.

地动山摇 图标地动山摇 will refresh Relic of the Claw.

The rotation aims to use 火焰升腾 图标火焰升腾 inside the Lightning Field generated by to apply Daze, which grants additional uptime on Relic of the Claw. This means you will need to cast your first 火焰升腾 图标火焰升腾 within 5 seconds of . The timing isn't particularly tight if you are doing the rotation fast enough, but if you are not getting the Dazing Strike from 火焰升腾 图标火焰升腾, you will need to pick up the pace.

From now on, your second cast of 火焰升腾 图标火焰升腾 will determine the timing of swapping to 空气协调 图标空气协调.

Updated loop:

空气协调 图标空气协调
  1. 量子打击 图标量子打击
  2. Auto Attack until 30 Energy
大地协调 图标大地协调
  1. 部署翠玉元晶 图标部署翠玉元晶
  2. 地动山摇 图标地动山摇
  3. Auto Attack until 火焰协调 图标火焰协调 is off Cooldown
火焰协调 图标火焰协调
  1. 部署翠玉元晶 图标部署翠玉元晶
  2. 火焰升腾 图标火焰升腾
  3. Auto Attack
  4. 火焰升腾 图标火焰升腾

Make sure you are not delaying 部署翠玉元晶 图标部署翠玉元晶! Otherwise it will take significantly longer to reach 30 Energy to start the loop again.

Remember that changing Attunements will not cancel any skill you're currently casting. If available, use this to your advantage by swapping to your new attunement during the cast time of your current skill.

Step Three: More Weapon Skills

We will now add the rest of the weapon skills to the rotation.

While 极化跳跃 图标极化跳跃 doesn't do very much damage, it is cast to maintain uptime on Relic of the Claw and 充能光环 图标充能光环 stacks via 元素典范 图标元素典范. It can easily interrupt other skills, so it is cast after 风驰电掣 图标风驰电掣 because it does not interrupt 风驰电掣 图标风驰电掣.

Updated loop:

空气协调 图标空气协调
  1. 风驰电掣 图标风驰电掣
  2. 极化跳跃 图标极化跳跃
  3. 量子打击 图标量子打击
  4. Auto Attack Chain x 3
  5. when at 30 Energy during Auto Attack Chain
大地协调 图标大地协调
  1. 部署翠玉元晶 图标部署翠玉元晶
  2. Alternate between: When the enemy health reaches below 50%, you can use all 3 skills together if 大地翻腾 图标大地翻腾 is available:
  1. 地动山摇 图标地动山摇
  2. 大地翻腾 图标大地翻腾
  3. 锈蚀之怒 图标锈蚀之怒
火焰协调 图标火焰协调
  1. 部署翠玉元晶 图标部署翠玉元晶
  2. 火焰升腾 图标火焰升腾
  3. 烧灼打击 图标烧灼打击
  4. 炙火之环 图标炙火之环
  5. 烈焰之攫 图标烈焰之攫
  6. Auto Attack Chain until 火焰升腾 图标火焰升腾 comes off Cooldown
  7. 火焰升腾 图标火焰升腾

More about Auto Attack Chains:

  • The third hit of each Auto Attack Chain deals a lot of damage, so it's important to avoid interrupting Auto Attack Chains with weapon skills.
  • Grouping Auto Attack Chains together and weapon skills together will allow you to seamlessly queue your weapon skills, contributing to a cleaner rotation. All skills in the loop can be queued if done in the correct order as written.
  • If you start an Auto Attack Chain and swap to a different Attunement, your previous Attunement's Auto Attack Chain will still continue until it's finished or interrupted. If you want to change your Auto Attacks to your new Attunement, press Skill 1 and it will swap over.

Step Four: Utility Skills

Next, add the utility and elite skills to the rotation. You don't have to add these to the rotation all at once; make sure you're comfy with what you're doing first before adding more skills into the rotation.

Use 风暴雕文 图标风暴雕文 off Cooldown in either 空气协调 图标空气协调 or 火焰协调 图标火焰协调 without delaying any of your weapon skills; that is, only use 风暴雕文 图标风暴雕文 when you would otherwise be Auto Attacking.

Use 秘法爆弹 图标秘法爆弹 in 火焰协调 图标火焰协调 if available. 秘法爆弹 图标秘法爆弹 has multiple Charges and no cast time, so cast it while you're casting other skills.

Use 无情灼焰 图标无情灼焰 right after 部署翠玉元晶 图标部署翠玉元晶, then use it off Cooldown. Note that 无情灼焰 图标无情灼焰 will shift back in your rotation over time, so although it gains increased duration if cast in your 部署翠玉元晶 图标部署翠玉元晶, the loop will not always allow them to be cast together. Some boss intermission phases will allow 无情灼焰 图标无情灼焰 to recharge and be used together with 部署翠玉元晶 图标部署翠玉元晶.

元素迅捷 图标元素迅捷 will reset the Cooldown of all weapon skills in your current Attunement. If available, cast 元素迅捷 图标元素迅捷 in 火焰协调 图标火焰协调 when all your weapon skills are on Cooldown, then cast all your weapon skills again. When 元素迅捷 图标元素迅捷 is available, 火焰协调 图标火焰协调 should look like this:

  1. 部署翠玉元晶 图标部署翠玉元晶
  2. 火焰升腾 图标火焰升腾
  3. 烧灼打击 图标烧灼打击
  4. 炙火之环 图标炙火之环
  5. 烈焰之攫 图标烈焰之攫
  6. 元素迅捷 图标元素迅捷
  7. 烈焰之攫 图标烈焰之攫
  8. 炙火之环 图标炙火之环
  9. 烧灼打击 图标烧灼打击
  10. 火焰升腾 图标火焰升腾

This prioritizes the longer Cooldown skills, ensuring that they will be off Cooldown for the next loop.

Step Five: Opener

We're almost done! We just need to add an opener to bring the whole rotation together.

This opener will allow you to quickly reach maximum stacks of 元素赋能 图标元素赋能 and 充能光环 图标充能光环 very shortly after 火焰协调 图标火焰协调. You will be able to naturally maintain these stacks simply by doing the standard loop. However, downtime during boss fights can cause you to start losing stacks, so remember to quickly build up stacks as soon as you can - for example, by doing the opener at the beginning of a new boss phase.

Opener:

Cast 冰霜光环 图标冰霜光环 in 流水协调 图标流水协调, then enter 空气协调 图标空气协调 before engaging combat.

空气协调 图标空气协调
  1. 闪电风暴 图标闪电风暴
  2. when 闪电风暴 图标闪电风暴 is almost done casting
  3. 风驰电掣 图标风驰电掣
  4. 极化跳跃 图标极化跳跃
  5. 量子打击 图标量子打击
大地协调 图标大地协调
  1. 部署翠玉元晶 图标部署翠玉元晶
  2. 地动山摇 图标地动山摇
  3. 大地翻腾 图标大地翻腾
火焰协调 图标火焰协调
  1. 部署翠玉元晶 图标部署翠玉元晶
  2. 无情灼焰 图标无情灼焰
  3. 烈焰之攫 图标烈焰之攫
  4. 炙火之环 图标炙火之环
  5. 烧灼打击 图标烧灼打击
  6. 火焰升腾 图标火焰升腾
  7. 元素迅捷 图标元素迅捷
  8. 烈焰之攫 图标烈焰之攫
  9. 炙火之环 图标炙火之环
  10. 烧灼打击 图标烧灼打击
  11. 火焰升腾 图标火焰升腾
  12. Auto Attack Chain

Use all Charges of 秘法爆弹 图标秘法爆弹 in 火焰协调 图标火焰协调.

In the opener, 量子打击 图标量子打击 can be easily cancelled by pressing 地动山摇 图标地动山摇 too early.

Transitioning to the Full Build

In real fights, try to maintain 元素赋能 图标元素赋能 and 充能光环 图标充能光环 stacks during downtime, such as in between phases of a boss. This can be done by putting down Combo Fields and performing finishers in them to generate auras thanks to 元素典范 图标元素典范. The full list of effects can be found here.

This is essentially the full Power Catalyst rotation. Further small improvements can still be made to increase Damage. You can visit the Power Catalyst page for a complete overview of the build and rotation.