Catalyst - D/D DPS

The community gave this build a rating, making it top-tier: Great

Focused on: Strike damage, Utility and Crowd control

Designed for: WvW Zerg

Expansions required:

Difficulty:

Normal

This build was last updated on January 24, 2026 and is up to date for the January 22, 2025 patch.

Overview

A glass cannon spike based melee build that combines several skills to hit at the same time while stacking damage modifiers. Prefers being played in a party with support tempest/catalyst for higher Fire Aura uptime.

Skill Bar

Dagger/Dagger

Dagger/Dagger

Utility

Template Code

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Specializations

Variants

• Energized Elements if Elemental Empowerment can be maintained
• Evasive Empowerment if Elemental Empowerment can't be maintained

Equipment

Head
Marauder

Shoulders
Dragon

Chest
Dragon

Hands
Marauder

Legs
Marauder

Feet
Marauder

Backpiece
Marauder

Accessory
Dragon

Accessory
Marauder

Amulet
Marauder

Ring
Marauder

Ring
Marauder

Dagger
Marauder

Dagger
Marauder

Sigil

Sigil

Dagger
Marauder

Dagger
Marauder

Sigil

Sigil

Rune
x6

Infusion
x18

Relic

Equipment Variants

Relics

• Relic of the Thief

Sigils

• Sigil of Superior Sigil of Energy

Usage

Quick Guide

• DD Catalyst is a glass cannon burst DPS with exception spike but high downtime
• Use your burst combo as your group pushes into the enemy to generate downs

Burst Combo

1. Relentless Fire + Arcane Shield
2. Convergence
3. Fire Attunement
4. Deploy Jade Sphere (Fire) (optional)
5. Burning Speed
6. Lightning Flash (if needed, before end of Burning Speed cast)
7. Ring of Fire (elementalist)
8. Fire Grab

• Fill downtime in Water Attunement/Earth Attunement while waiting for your combo to be ready again and proc Elemental Epitome to maintain Elemental Empowerment

General

• As soon as you get 25 stacks of Sigil of Superior Sigil of Bloodlust and get out of combat, swap back to the Daggers without a stacking sigil
• You are much stronger with full stacks of Elemental Empowerment
  • Maintain stacks via Elemental Epitome, Vicious Empowerment and Evasive Empowerment
  • Keep in mind you can start a combo skill in one attunement then swap attunement during the cast to proc Elemental Epitome in the new attunement

Surviving

• This build has low passive defense
• This build has high mobility skill access
• This build has low active defenses

Defensive Skill List

• Burning Speed - Movement and Evade
• Frost Aura - Damage reduction
• Ride the Lightning - Movement
• Updraft - Evade
• Earthen Rush - Movement and Evade
• Lightning Flash - Movement

• Ride the Lightning gives so much movement that you probably won't use it for mobility unless you get very separated from your group
  • Make sure to drop your target before using Ride the Lightning for mobility
• Be careful with the animation lock on Updraft if using it defensively

Priorities

High

• Burst damage

Moderate

• Damage

Low

• CC

Detailed Explanations

Burst Damage

• Your burst combo is:

Burst Combo

1. Relentless Fire + Arcane Shield
2. Convergence
3. Fire Attunement
4. Deploy Jade Sphere (Fire) (optional)
5. Burning Speed
6. Lightning Flash (if needed, before end of Burning Speed cast)
7. Ring of Fire (elementalist)
8. Fire Grab

• The goal of this combo is to land as many hard hitting skills as possible in as short a window as possible
• Use your spike when your group is pushing into the enemy group
• If properly executed Convergence and Burning Speed should land at the same time
• If you need extra range for Burning Speed use Lightning Flash during the cast time to land Burning Speed at the Lightning Flash location
• When Elemental Celerity is off cooldown use it to reset Burning Speed, Ring of Fire (elementalist) and Fire Grab and extend the combo by repeating from step 5
  • Use Arcane Brilliance to activate Relic of Fire after using Elemental Celerity

Damage

• After your spike combo is done, use Drake's Breath then swap to Water Attunement
  • Cycle from Water Attunement ⇒ Earth Attunement ⇒ Air Attunement to stack Elemental Epitome and prepare to use your burst combo again
• Maintain full stacks of Elemental Epitome by cycling through your attunements and using your Combo Finishers and Aura skills every time you finish your main combo
  • Keep in mind that while Elemental Epitome has a 10 second per attunement cooldown on giving an aura when using a Combo Finisher it has no cooldown for applying an aura to yourself to gain stacks of the buff
    • You can also begin the cast of a Combo Finisher in one attunement, swap attunement during the cast and get the Elemental Epitome proc in the new attunement

Elemental Epitome Procs

• Arcane Brilliance
• Fire Attunement
  • Sunspot
• Water Attunement
  • Frozen Burst
  • Frost Aura
• Air Attunement
  • Convergence
  • Shocking Aura
• Earth Attunement
  • Earthen Rush
  • Earthquake
  • Churning Earth

• Once Convergence and Relentless Fire are ready go for your burst combo again
  • Camping Air Attunement for Lightning Whip is fine while waiting for Fire Attunement if you're out of skills in the other attunements

CC

List of CC Skills

• Shocking Aura - Stun
• Shocking Aura ⇒ Transmute Lightning - Stun
• Updraft - Launch
• Earthen Rush - Immobilize
• Earthquake - Knockdown

• Shocking Aura is worth pressing every time you're in Air Attunement since its instant, but Transmute Lightning and Updraft can usually be skipped due to the short range
• Earthen Rush is good to land when your group crosses the enemy group
• Earthquake is a decent CC, but very short range
  • Its OK to use to as just a blast for Elemental Empowerment stacks