GW2 - Power Catalyst DPS Build - GuildJen (2024)

GW2. Raid Build. Power Catalyst DPS Build. Power Quickness Catalyst. Elementalist PvE.

Last Update: April 2024

Role:DPS

The Power Catalyst DPS is an elementalist build that provides boons to its party such as might, protection, and quickness. It can be used with the Hammer or with Sword/Warhorn, and also go for full DPS or a Quickness providing variant.

When running the quickness variant, always prioritize using Jade Spheres on your squad to give quickness uptime; and when running the DPS variant prioritize using Jade Sphere in Fire Attunement on yourself to get Relentless Fire to trigger inside it.

The Power Catalyst DPS build can be used with Sword and Warhorn for more damage in situations where the boss does not move very often and there aren’t many different targets to swap to. Otherwise, the hammer would be better for its survivability and AoE potential.

Sword/Warhorn Rotation:

Long pulsing damaging AoEs from the Jade Sphere and the Warhorn can be stacked up on top of each other and then improved with all of the damage modifiers for big burst windows.

To perform the rotation, think of it as one big combo, then a quick break before restarting the combo. This is because when using Jade Spheres you cannot gain energy, so it is better to use all the Jade Spheres within a short window of time so you can start gaining energy again and use them more often. During the combo, use your heavy hitting attacks that have high value for their animation investment before moving on to the next attunement. When recovering energy, cast the long pulsing damage effects which will stack up during your combo.

So the rotation can be organized into two sections:

• Jade Sphere Combo
• Energy Recovery

Jade Sphere Combo:

• Earth Jade Sphere > Swap Air
• Air 5 + Jade Sphere > 3 + Arcane Blast > Swap Fire
• Fire 2 + Jade Sphere > Relentless Fire > 5 > 3

After performing the combo, auto attack until your Fire 2 is off cooldown, then cast Glyph of Storms > Fire 2 and immediately swap to Earth attunement to allow your Fire attunement time to recharge so you can do the combo again. While waiting for the combo, improve your team’s boons with Earth 4 and cast your other Earth skills to regain energy. Wait until you are max energy to perform the combo again.

Energy Recovery:

• Fire 111 > Glyph of Storms > Fire 2 > Swap Earth
• Earth 4 > 5 > 2 > 3 > (If max energy use Jade Sphere and continue to the combo)

Use Elemental Celerity in Fire Attunement after you have cast Fire 2/3/5 to recharge and repeat them. Do this instead of auto attacking at the end of the Jade Sphere Combo.

CC – Crowd Control Skills:

• Air 2, Air 4, Water 4

Equipment

Alternatives:

• Stats: When providing Quickness, change 2 accessories and 2 rings to Diviner to upkeep permanent quickness

Skills

Traits

Variants

• QuicknessVariant requires the followingCatalysttraits

Build Template

DPS Variant

Chat Code: (copy/paste into in-game chat)

[&DQYfHSkfQyZ0AHUAUAFPAfga6wC+AZAA9xqWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA=]

Quickness Variant

Chat Code: (copy/paste into in-game chat)

[&DQYfHSkfQz90AHUAUAFPAfga6wC+AZAA9xqWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA=]

Gameplay

The Power Catalyst DPS build with a hammer, all four attunements can be useful in the rotation and it has much more fluid playstyle with more AoE damage but less single target damage.

Constantly rotate through all of your attunements and use the Orb abilities on the 3 skill. These give buffs and then refresh the orb durations until you can’t put any more up and will need to use the Grand Finale (3). The main idea of the rotation is to get the Relentless Fire and Shattering Ice utility buffs stacked up while also setting up pulsing AoEs so that most of the damage modifiers align with most of your damaging skills.

Jade Spheres require 10 energy to use and the cap is 30. You gain this resource by hitting enemies but while a Jade Sphere is out you cannot gain energy. So it is preferred to use Jade Spheres within a short window of time to give your energy time to reset before the next burst rotation. You must use Relentless Fire inside your Fire Jade Sphere and Shattering Ice inside your Water Jade Sphere, so always make sure to order those correctly.

Hammer Rotation:

• Cast Glyph of Storms in Fire Attunement
• Cast Relentless Fire in your Fire Jade Sphere, and Shattering Ice in Water Jade Sphere.
• Use the 5 skills in each attunement and Arcane Blast to combo finisher in your Jade Spheres to gain auras which gives extra stats and while transitioning to the next attunement.
• Minimize your animation downtime by casting the instant cast skills such as Jade Spheres and the orbs during your longer hammer 2 skill animations at the beginning of every attunement swap.

Example Rotation:

• Fire Attunement > Glyph of Storms > 2 + 3 > 4 > 3 (until full on Jade Energy)
• Fire Jade Sphere + 5 > Relentless Fire > Swap Water
• Water > 2 + 3 + Jade Sphere > Shattering Ice > 4/5 (whichever is up) > Swap Air
• Air > 2 + 3 + Jade Sphere > 5 > Swap Earth
• Earth > 2 + 3 > 5
• Swap Fire > 2 > 4 > Grand Finale (3) after Jade Energy maxed > Repeat 3 when possible and restart

CC – Crowd Control Skills:

• Air 4, Air 5

Equipment

Alternatives:

• Stats: When providing Quickness, change 2 accessories and 2 rings to Diviner to upkeep permanent quickness

Skills

Traits

Variants

• QuicknessVariant requires the followingCatalysttraits

Build Template

DPS Variant

Chat Code: (copy/paste into in-game chat)

[&DQYfHSkfQyZ0AHUA7hpPAfga6wC+AZAA9xqWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA=]

Quickness Variant

Chat Code: (copy/paste into in-game chat)

[&DQYfHSkfQyZ0AHUA7hpPAfga6wC+AZAA9xqWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA=]

Gameplay