GW2. Best Open World Build. Power Catalyst Open World. Hammer Catalyst. Staff Catalyst. Elementalist PvE.
Last Update: September 2024
Hammer Variant
The Power Catalyst for Open World is a hammer or staff elementalist that uses combos and AoEs to gain many boons such as quickness, protection, and might from the Jade Sphere which it can also share to allies and the elementals it summons.
The hammer build with Fresh Air allows swapping to the Air Attunement at any time, which can add damage modifiers onto all of your pulsing damage effects for a big burst. Jade Sphere effects in each attunement can do great damage, but when one is currently out you cannot gain energy to use them.
Energy can be gained quickly by multi-hitting attacks such as the orbs on each attunement’s 3 skill. Get to 30 energy using the Hammer 3 orbs and then burst 3 Jade Spheres out in a quick succession by swapping attunements while stacking up damage modifiers. Use the Grand Finale (3) once you have used all orbs in each attunement and have performed all of your Jade Spheres.
Example rotation:
- Fire Glyph of Elementals > Fire Lesser Glyph of Elementals
- Fire 2 > 3 > 4 > get to near 30 energy > Fire 5 + Jade Sphere
- Swap to Earth or Water > 3 + Jade Sphere > 2 > 5
- Swap to Air > 3 + Jade Sphere > 2 > 5
- Swap to Water or Earth > 3 > 2 > 5 >
- Swap back to fire and wait for energy to fill while using 2/4 > Grand Finale 3
- Restart the Jade Sphere bursts
Equipment
| Item | Stat | Rune / Sigil |
|---|---|---|
| Helm Berserker | ||
| Shoulders Berserker | ||
| Coat Berserker | ||
| Gloves Berserker | ||
| Leggings Berserker | ||
| Boots Berserker |
Primary Weapon Set
| Hammer Marauder |
|
Optional Weapon Set
| Hammer Marauder |
|
| Item | Stat |
|---|---|
| Amulet Dragon | |
| Ring Dragon | |
| Ring Dragon | |
| Accessory Dragon | |
| Accessory Dragon | |
| Backpiece Dragon |
Relic
Consumables
Infusions
| Optional x18 |
Alternatives
- Jade Bot Core: for extra vitality
- Stats: Mix Marauder/Dragon stats for more vitality but at least base 45% crit chance is suggested
Skills
| Hammer | Heal / Utility / Elite |
Traits
Alternatives
- Catalyst: for stability when needed
Build Template
Chat Code: (copy/paste into in-game chat)
[&DQYpKyU/Qz90AP4acgD2APYA6wC+Ae8aJgD3GgAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA=]Gameplay
Full Video Guide:
Credit to Vallun for the video.Staff Variant
The Catalyst specialization also enables the elementalist Staff weapon because of how many combo fields and finishers both playstyles provide. This build can handle a variety of situations because of how many spell effects it has access to such as hitting a large boss to controlling multitudes of enemies. It can also provide boons and support through the Jade Sphere which can create combo fields and finishers.
Example rotation:
- Fire 2 > 3 > 4 > Glyph of Storms > Fire 2 > Fire 5 + Jade Sphere
- Swap to Air > Jade Sphere > 2
- Swap to Water or Earth > Jade Sphere > 2 > (345)
- Swap back to fire and wait for energy to fill while using 2/4
Equipment
| Item | Stat | Rune / Sigil |
|---|---|---|
| Helm Berserker | ||
| Shoulders Berserker | ||
| Coat Berserker | ||
| Gloves Berserker | ||
| Leggings Berserker | ||
| Boots Berserker |
Primary Weapon Set
| Staff Berserker |
|
Optional Weapon Set
| Staff Berserker |
|
| Item | Stat |
|---|---|
| Amulet Dragon | |
| Ring Dragon | |
| Ring Dragon | |
| Accessory Dragon | |
| Accessory Dragon | |
| Backpiece Dragon |
Relic
Consumables
Infusions
| Optional x18 |
Alternatives
- Jade Bot Core: for extra vitality
- Stats: Mix Marauder/Dragon stats for more vitality but at least base 45% crit chance is suggested
Skills
| Staff | Heal / Utility / Elite |
Traits
Build Template
Chat Code: (copy/paste into in-game chat)
[&DQYfHSU/Qz8nD3UAvgEdAe8a6wD2AJAAJgCWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA=]Gameplay
Full Video Guide:
Credit to Vallun for the video.
Curious why this build recommends a sigil that can only be used in combat. Like Engineers, Elementalists do not have weapons swapping in combat. Perhaps an accuracy sigil or some other one that can be used in combat would be a better recommendation.
Also curious why a set of runes of durability, which are fine for boon duration boosts and +10% overall health, but have limited impact on toughness since there’s no other toughness at all in the build. Fireworks runes provides power stacking, and boon duration, plus movement speed for when not attuned to air.
Also questioning the Marauder build, since the Catalyst Spec increases all attributes, which is more of a celestial thing. Rune of the Traveler would augment all of the traits, plus the boon duration and includes a speed buff.
Switching attunements counts as a weapon swap.
Cleansing sigil works with attunement swapping, as does kit swapping for engineers.
Toughness has more of an impact the less you have of it, due to the inverse exponential scaling. So the little toughness from this rune is very good.It already has swiftness from swapping to air attunement from the arcane traitline.
While the celestial stat boosts would be more synergy with catalyst’s core mechanic of elemental empowerment, synergy is not the end all be all, and often will force you to make sub optimal choices because you’re forcing a synergy.
So much creativity Vallun <3 I LOVE THIS BUILD and i think after the old Self sustain condi Rev (before tormenting rune sustain nerf) this is the funniest build i had the opportunity to play in GW2 ! Thank you a lot <3
I’m confused as to why the hammer is Diviners stats. Does the 200ish concentration it provides make it worth using over marauder or some other stats? Also how’s this build hold up since it was last posted/updated?
Before it was harder to reach maximum quickness uptime with little boon duration, after the patch it is easier so I changed it from diviner to marauder just now
There any scope for a celestial variant of a catalyst build?
you can check out the wvw section for the celestial hammer catalyst and that would work