Lujuanji.7284

All right, Kids. Sit down because your dad needs to tell you the story about How I Met... I mean... Choose My Main in GW2. You see it was the Spring of 2011 and Arenanet had just started rolling out their profession preview trailers in an upcoming MMO called GW2. This MMO was going to be revolutionary (and to some degree it was, but we will get to that later). As each video released over the course of several months, it became quite clear... the decision to pick a main was going to be kitten hard in this new game. You see, your dad, at this point in my life had already had experience with several MMOs... Runescape, Everquest, World of Warcraft, Warhammer Online, Rift... you get the point. Well actually the point is, I already knew what type of classes I liked to play in an MMO. In Everquest I played a Druid, in World of Warcraft I played a Druid and Shaman, in Rift I played Shaman/Druid/Warden... and now Rift was hella fun... yes we said "hella" back then... or at least I did). But anyways, I think you can see the pattern. However! In Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning I didn't play some nature wizard, or a shape-shifting bozo, or elemental daffodil.... I was drawn to the Dwarf Engineer! This was the first MMO that I played where you could place turrets, shoot guns, and throw bombs. I thought I was in love! But just like every other MMO that was created at the time, it was supposed to be the legendary WoW killer.... but just like every so called "WoW Killer"... a couple months later the game would flop and just like everyone else I returned back to World of Warcraft. But this game...this class... it left an impression and to this day holds a special place in my heart. But where was I? Oh right, Guild Wars 2, had just started releasing video's showing off their professions and all of them looked so cool with a all their dynamic skills and combos. But after a year of deliberation (because the game took so kitten long to launch) I narrowed my choice down to three professions: the Elementalist, the Engineer, and the Ranger. The each had their own appeal of mechanics, flavor, and lore that seemed so intriguing. And then it happened. Launch day finally arrived, and because your dad was so rich then, he made sure to use your grandparents money to pre-order the game so that he could play the game before everyone else... or rather at the same time as everyone else. The first hour or so of the game I spent in the character creation. I created my three Asura characters: Blip the Elementalist. Bork the Engineer, and Bark the Ranger. And then for the next 2 weeks I split my time between each of these professions. They were all so different... wonderful in their own right... Blip with his two daggers ripping enemies apart with the fury of the elements... Bork with his turrets and rifle holding his ground against the Inquest... and Bark with his wonderful kitty pet fighting side by side. To this day, I cannot remember why I settled on Ranger... I think it has something to do with your uncle Trae.... yea that's right... it's his fault. But that's another story to itself. Anyways, I mained Ranger until EoD. The main story was fantastic. Then WvW held me over until Heart of Thorns. And thats when it happen. Thats when I knew I made the right choice so many years ago. The Elite Specialization for the Ranger was the Druid. My go to class. My comfort. My home. My main. Druid captivated and sustained my interest in the class for many years to come. And then Path of Fire added the Soulbeast and it was just the cherry on top. Though I wished for shapeshifting, the idea of merging with my pet gave me a new found fervor for my Ranger that even pulled me through the darkest times that would follow... the content drought of 2019-2021... also known as the Icebrood Saga. But then all was bright again... Arenanet made the announcement. The next expansion was in development: End of Dragons. And with the announcement came months of speculation regarding the next wave of Elite Specializations. With each elite specialization announced I was just dying to know what was on the horizon for my beloved main. For my Ranger who had been with me since the beginning. And then... they announced Untamed, I was really hoping for a pet focused class and at first it seemed that Arenanet had truly delivered! But then the Beta's came and went... and well... I was disappointed in the Untamed and I felt like all the wind had been ripped out of my sails for the first time in a long time. And so after a few months of contemplating, I did the unthinkable. When EoD launched I decided to main my Elementalist. You see kids, the elite specialization the elementalist received was called the Catalyst and reminded me a lot of my days playing Enhancement Shaman in WoW and my hella fun days playing Rift (see told you there was a point to this story). This hammer wielding, element controlling elite specialization was the dream fantasy. I was so excited to get my hands on it. I played my Catalyst through the EoD story, I maxed out his bag slots, I crafted a full set of ascended and was having the absolute time of my life... sure thats also when I developed carpel tunnel in my left wrist because the specialization was harder to master than the piano.... but kitten it kids it was worth it! But then it happened. The absolutely unimaginable occured. Well it really wasn't that far fetched because Arenanet hates Elementalist, but the specialization got nerfed into the ground. And it was bad. Reddit blew up. The forums blew up. Content creators berated Arenanet in there youtube videos and Twitch streams. Sure a few weeks later the balance patch came that ultimately fixed Catalyst in a weird but effecient way, but I was crushed. My heart of fire that burned for Guild Wars 2 for so long seemed to just be a pile of hot ash. But looking back now, I thank the universe for Arenanets hatred for elementalist. And for their blunder of and elite specialization that was the Untamed. Because if it wasn't for those mistakes... and yes they truly were mistakes... and still are to this day... but if it wasn't for those mistakes.... I would not be where I am at today. For my heart and keyboard found a new beloved. The old flame and intrigue of the Engineer all the way back from Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning came pouring forth and out of the smouldering ashes rebirthed a new found desire to keep playing Guild Wars 2. For over the last year suddenly one of the most versatile professions in the entire game was budding right under my nose, and I was to distracted to see it happen. Prior to EoD, I already dabbled with other profession just to fill out any role in Strikes when my IBS Fast 5 Groups needed some boon support. And during that time I could never stomach playing a Guardian... so in order to provide Quickness I decided to play a Scrapper. The Scrapper was not necessarily most efficient with its boon support, but for Strikes it got the job done. I also played Alcrigade and Heal Scourge, and Banner Warrior... But thats not the point. The point is I had an epiphany. One that was already known to so many but for whatever reason had avoided me for what seemed like an eternity. This epiphany made me realize the lowly Engineer who couldn't seem to find a niche for so long, was now one of the most versatile professions in the game. With the addition of the Mechanist, I could now fill almost any role in 10 man content, WvW, or sPvP. There were so many viable builds and roles to be filled by one single profession. It was on this day, as the blue light from my 4k monitor refracted through the tears of joy that I realized I was truly home. That I found my true love. That I found the main that was meant just for me. And kids, that is the story about how I chose Engineer and all its wonderful specializations to be my main in Guild Wars 2.

I am in the same boat... looks like the bug has hit a new wave accounts. Very sad day... Based on the previous forum posts it seems the issue is server side and will eventually resolve itself...

I love the idea of Catalyst, but the execution is lackluster. Not liking it as much as I want to like it is really really bumming me out too. Here are a few critiques: 1. The energy bar UI is WAY too small. Something as obvious as Necro's shroud, Holosmiths' heat bar, or Druid's celestial power is a must. 2. Catalyst Energy generation and drain is horrible. Not a single thing in the entire elementalist tool kit can modify this either; and even if traits could modify it, it just means the catalyst would have to sacrifice something else... which at this point it cannot. Lastly, draining the entire bar when cancelling the jade sphere is extreme overkill. Its the cherry on the top that makes the centerpiece of this class pointless in basic open world content and highly mobile encounters. 3. The hammer is way too slow and even in full berserkers it kinda feels like you are slapping things around with a wet noodle. Not having a single combo field generation skill on ANY of the weapon skills is also overkill;' especially with how much this spec is supposed to highlight and rely on combo skills. This further exacerbates the problem in the majority of content other than PvP and some basic open world events when its required to lock down a point (and even when you can stay in one location, the jade sphere cannot even stay active through the majority of a fight since generating energy takes forever. 4. I think the traits are really cool and I like the idea of stackable buffs. However, getting 10 stacks of elemental empowerment is nearly impossible while using hammer and on your own. It pretty much means you cannot utilize ugments and must use a weird combination of arcane and conjuration skills. Throwing conjuration weapon skills into the mix just to generate fields for yourself while using hammer is just absurdly over complicated. Arcane skills while running Elemental Surge can proc a decent amount of stacks while attuned to earth. I think it should be difficult to maintain 10 stacks of Elemental Empowerment, but it should not be impossible and should last longer than 3-5 seconds. You can barely take advantage of the stat bonuses from empowered empowerment because the hammer weapon skills are just too slow. Its make this trait practically useless (though it may be easier to maintain in organized raids when everyone else is generating combo fields and aura's for you. Lastly, the Flame Jade Orb's damage should proc the Persisting Flame's strike damage increase buff (not sure if this is a bug or intended). 5. Augments feel cheap. They provide zero satisfaction for me, and the reward for squeezing them out in my rotation while not just in proximity of my jade sphere, but one of the exact element, is practically moot unless you can actually manage to stay in one place long enough to use more than one augment at a time. The elite skill is also subpar. The cd reduction is nice, but I think lower cds on hammer should be baseline for the Catalyst's kit. Also, other utility skills are leaps and bounds better than the augment skills and pair better with hammer skills. Solutions: 1&2. Either get rid of the energy bar all together and make the jade sphere a cool down (this way it can at least benefit from alacrity), or greatly increase energy generation while also removing complete energy drain upon cancelling the skill. If it stays the UI also need to be much more defined and visible. 3. Hammer CDs and cast times need more fine tuning. Not sure exactly how, but the only skills that feel nice are the 3 skills and water and air 2 skill. 4. Core Elementalist needs greater trait synergy with Catalyst to help reduce the insane complexity of the its kit/rotation. 5. Augments could benefit from really any change to the jade sphere. The jade sphere needs a longer presence in battle for these to feel worthwhile, they also should do something to assist with generating stacks of elemental empowerment.