Fresh Air Catalyst

October 2024

Fresh Air Catalyst is a highly mobile dps roamer that provides excellent boon support to the team.  Catalyst is driven by Fresh Air in the Air traitline. Fresh Air not only buffs damage but allows you to constantly swap into Air Attunement to refresh the buff, gain very high uptime, and access your Deploy Jade Sphere frequently.

Tip: Air Attunement lacks native combo finishers, but you can swap to Air Attunement during the cast of skills like Phoenix to get a from a combo field.

Crowd Control

Your ‘Hard CC’ comes from Gale and Comet and Arcane Wave. Gale is especially good in mirrors against other Catalysts since it is unblockable and ignores Fortified Earth and Final Shielding . Keep in mind that all your CC skills can be reset to extend lockdowns. This is especially useful with double Gale to secure kills in a teamfight.

Note: Don’t waste Magnetic Wave , Hurl is also a combo finisher that will let you chain with Magnetic Wave for extra reflects.

While your hard CC is limited, Catalyst has excellent access to soft cc. With the buffs to Blinding Flash , the Lightning Strike Blinding Flash combo applies , , and most importantly on an incredibly short cooldown. You also have access to more limited in Earth Attunement and in Water Attunement.

Damage

Catalyst benefits from both the high base damage of Scepter and the boon output of Jade Spheres. A Fresh Air Catalyst can stack high , , , and and share key boons to its allies.

Dragon's Tooth is a powerful AOE damage skill that will follow your target around hit them regardless of line of sight. Combined with Phoenix and Fresh Air, it can add up to very high aoe burst damage, especially when you reset everything with Elemental Celerity.

Note: Arc Lightning will keep casting even on attunement swap; you can leave Air Attunement, continue the attack, and swap back to Air Attunement for more and a Fresh Air damage buff.

Your best damaging combo comes from starting in either Earth Attunement or Fire Attunement and swapping to Air Attunement for the damage bonuses. Water Attunement also give you access to Water Trident which can hit hard on chilled foes. Try to get on foes before using it for maximum impact.

While your skills are on their way to the target, you can jump on them with Arcane Wave to both them and deal high damage. It can add a lot to your burst.

Sustain

Catalyst has excellent re-sustain but low health pool, which makes you vulnerable to getting killed quickly if you’re out of defensives. It also relies heavily on kiting and mobility to avoid damage. Your direct healing comes from Cleansing Wave (water dodge) and blasting Deploy Jade Sphere. Try to use damage mitigation like Deploy Jade Sphere and Fortified Earth to avoid taking damage in the first place. Earth Attunement also gives you Obsidian Flesh, which is your most powerful defensive, but its cooldown is too long to be fully reset by Elemental Celerity.

Tip: Spam your auto attacks even when you don’t have a target, Signet of Restoration will heal you up while kiting, especially if you have .

Fresh Air allows you to swap attunements very frequently, which makes proccing Arcane Restoration often quite easy, and it adds up to a decent amount of healing.

Fortified Earth and Rock Barrier are both sources of barrier and can supplement your low base HP pool with enough extra health to push through fights.

Your best defensive ability is your W key. Run away from whoever is chasing you and between , , and Arcane Wave. Combined, you can be pretty hard to catch.

Alternatives

Lightning Flash Offers more mobility.