Fresh Air Catalyst

December 2022

Fresh Air Catalyst is  the best ranked build and roamer in the game and it dominates the competition. Catalyst is hard carried 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, generate near-permanent Superspeed, and drop your Deploy Jade Sphere off cooldown.

The Dagger Variant is more aggressive than focus and if favoured by high-skill players looking to hypercarry ranked games. Only play dagger if you feel confident in your knowledge of the class and ability to survive under pressure. While we lose some defensive capability, dagger boost your damage by offering you extra burst in Fire Attunement and Earth Attunement.

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

Crowd Control

Your only ‘Hard CC’ comes from Earthquake and Updraft . Since it has an extra delay, be careful to position Updraft so that it will detonate not where an opponent is but where they will be when it finishes casting. Both Updraft and Shocking Aura can be reset with Elemental Celerity if you need extra cc.

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 Vulnerability, Blinded, and most importantly Weakness on an incredibly short cooldown. You also have access to more limited Blinded in Earth Attunement and Chilled in Water Attunement.

Damage

Catalyst benefits from both the high base damage of scepter and the absurd boon output of your Jade Spheres. A Fresh Air Catalyst can stack 25 Might, Quickness, Fury, and Superspeed easily in a teamfight and SHARE boons to its allies.

Dragon's Tooth is an an powerful AOE damage skill that will follow your target around like the Sword of Damocles and snipe them regardless of line of sight. Combined with Phoenix and Fresh Air, it can annihilate entire teams, 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 Superspeed 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 Chilled on foes before using it for maximum impact. For massive cleave, combo Ring of Fire into Fire Grab or cast Churning Earth the swap to Air Attunement and use Deploy Jade Sphere to cast it with Quickness.

Sustain

Catalyst has excellent self sustain but relies heavily on kiting and mobility to avoid damage. Your direct healing comes from Cleansing Wave  and blasting Deploy Jade Sphere . Try to use damage mitigation like Deploy Jade Sphere and Fortified Earth preemptively to avoid taking damage in the first place.

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 Quickness.

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. If you’re struggling with staying alive, you can consider taking Conjure Earth Shield instead of Lightning Flash. You give up mobility for invulnerability, blocks and crowd control which can be useful while you’re on dagger, since you already have a lot of mobility with Ride the Lightning.

Your best defensive ability is your W key. Run away from whoever is chasing you and between Resistance, Superspeed, and Lightning Flash , the only person fast enough to catch you is another Catalyst