Fresh Air Catalyst

February 2023

Fresh Air Catalyst is a highly mobile dps roamer that provides excellent boon support to the team.  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.

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

Crowd Control

Your ‘Hard CC’ comes from Gale and Comet . 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 Magnetic Aura 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 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.

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. Earth Attunement also gives you Obsidian Flesh , which is your most powerful defensive.  Elemental Celerity has been heavily nerfed and no longer fully resets Obsidian Flesh, but it can still be useful for other elements.

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.

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