Catalysts - The Worst Weapon Type? | Genshin Impact

For today's video we're gonna talk about Catalysts in Genshin Impact. Among its current roster of characters, Catalyst users suffer from the lowest usage, leading many to believe the problem is a result of the weapon type itself (and the conventions applied to those who wield it). Let's figure out what could be the problem(s)!

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#Genshin #Catalyst #Weapon

[pierceh]

I love almost all the catalyst characters so its a shame they feel like the most underdeveloped type of character

[NaruLuckyCarrot]

I find Yanfei’s attacks perfectly fluid and easy to use, honestly. The only issue is when the auto-lock chooses the wrong target, and that is a different problem: that Genshin for some unholy reason doesn’t have a button for targeting foes…

[FrenchDinosaur]

I love Yanfei, her design, her character, her personality, and every meme face of her. One thing I don't like about her is how bad she is at lighting torches, I initially thought it would be easier because all of her attacks are infuse with pyro but boy am I wrong.

[StickmanCorp]

6:59 "Catalyst users stay in place when attacking"
There is at least one exception to bring us hope: Mona. She will move backward OR forward depending on how far her target is, thus preserve an "optimal distance" of some sort (unlike bow users who have a tendency to fall out of range). I wish they'd carry over that mechanic to more ranged characters in general.

[StickmanCorp]

6:38 "Yanfei and Nigguang may miss because of slow projectile speed."
Not really, their projectiles will actually seek the target they locked on.
I find magic missiles being intercepted on their way is a lesser issue than bow users missing a moving target.

[cedrusnguyen]

I think catalyst users are supposed to be the class that can deal elemental damage consistanly, in exchange for their slow attack speed and huge stamina cost. But many characters of other classes, especially recently ("recently" as in not releashed with the game or first few banner, I forget Genshin is still kinda new) have some form of elemental infusion in their kit and it becomes a trend. They can do what catalyst users can with much more effiecency while having little to no drawback. So there's not much point in using catalyst anymore.

[cheetopuffs]

Yanfei's attack animations are the most fluid of all the catalysts. It's really easy to do 3 normal attacks and then a charged attack and for it to flow seamlessly. You want to be doing that anyway to consume her seals after the normals. Just slap a shield on her so she doesn't get interrupted and pair her with Xq and you're golden. It works quite well! The main issue is the slow projectile speed, so you can miss or hit the wrong enemy. But that's just ONE of the catalyst characters.

[fluffythecat]

Yanfei's attacks have done a complete 180 when targeting something before, so missing with a catalyst is very hard to do, but the whole lack of a targeting system often has me playing her in melee range while she does have any defense to speak of. The c4 shield is good though

[QuirrelSquad]

gotta love how heizou ignores litreally everything in this video since his normal attacks are melee, his charged attacks have quick animations and he has crazy scaling on his e

[sango]

I main Kokomi, Yanfei and Ningguang. Catalysts are my favorite weapon, yet I completely agree with the points you make here. Hopefully we'll get some improvements in the future

[demonz]

Something to also mention is catalyst really lacks a really good 'meta' dps weapon. The only amazing options I can think of is Solar Pearl (which is BP only), Lost Prayer, and Skyward Atlus but none of them really excel at DPS at all. Widsith is also a completely different story because of the RNG nature of it's passive but I think the fact that all of these were available from release should tell you enough of how much catalyst needs more options

[serezelveydawn]

The one thing I can say Catalysts have above other characters are their homing mechanic. (Except Klee) melee can easily miss enemies that are out of range, archer users know the pain of fighting slimes, but catalysts will at least hit something. Barbara, Mona, Lisa, and Sucrose auto hit 100% and even ignore terrain as long as the enemy is in range. Kokomi, Yanfei, and Ningguang spawn homing projectiles so they can miss or hit terrain but when fighting things like thundering manifestation and cicin mages, they hit more often than Archers will.

Out of all the catalyst, Ningguang is the only one with a projectile Charged attack, while everyone else's can ignore terrain.(idk if Klee ignores terrain, it's literally a diagonal laser)

[Treeko]

I feel like the only positive for me with catalysts is that *some* of them are able to hit targets through walls or objects, and i feel like Mihoyo can make that a universal thing for catalysts

[Arcane]

Very minor thing but as a yanfei main, i really like the auto lock-on thing that catalysts do, it automatically adjusts the camera to where you locked on enemy is. Since i am on mobile and its kinda annoying to change camera angles. Yanfei + Beidou is also very satisfying to play

[junkyfk]

Honestly, the whole issue with catalyst users could be “solved” is to simply buff their dmg. For balancing, I would really like to see the charged attack dmg be buffed 2x more. So then catalyst rotations become more like “small hit > small hit> small hit> big deeps”. Perhaps future DPS catalyst users will have this.

[devam]

I would put an argument that bows are inferior to catalyst, it's just we have more broken characters in bow department. Most bow characters never uses their AA and CA since they do so little dps exception being ganyu(due to her blooms) and yoimiya(after Pyro infusion).
Pretty much every other bow character only rely on their E and Q.

[owentan]

I’ve been a Ningguang main ever since I got her on Childe’s first banner in 1.1. I think one of the pros are that against enemies like rifthounds, she’s almost guaranteed to hit them because of her homing projectiles. I find that with claymores, swords, and polearms, it’s difficult to hit them while they are midair. Catalysts can also be used as drivers for team comps like taser, where Mona, Kokomi, Barbara, Sucrose, or Lisa can be used as an on-field attacker to apply hydro/electro/proc swirl. Yanfei is also one of the only pyro users besides Yoimiya that can actually use overload because her homing projectiles can hit enemies that are knocked back by the reaction. Finally, catalyst users are also the best at breaking shields because they can apply their elements the fastest.

[Booyah]

I feel a better way to say it would be Catalysts are the weapon type with the worst representation. The worst type, however, I believe is bows. Their basic attacks have garbage tracking.

There’s a reason that the three bow users you mentioned aren’t used like other bow users.

Ganyu playstyle is vastly different from other bows. Venti is used for utility, not his dps. And Childe dps comes from melee more than ranged.

Bows, not taking the characters themselves into account, are objectively the worst weapon type, as they have a far higher chance of just missing entirely and not doing damage at all than any other weapon type.

[jasmine]

Catalysts are actually one of my favourite weapon types.

During early game, I found the easy elemental application and auto tracking to be really useful. Especially bc I used to hate the Eye of the Storm, I wanted to find a way to defeat it easily. Yanfei quickly became one of my favourite units to play bc of her fluidity, easy elemental application and incredible range for aerial enemies. I still use her today to farm specter drops.

During mid to late game, I invested a lot of resources into units with off-field bursts or skills, and catalysts were amazing at driving a lot of them into performing reactions. I also liked the fact that they could be more stationary than other weapon types bc I hated using stamina to run to enemies. I suppose the higher charge cost comes from a lower need to run to your enemies, but I'm more experienced with ranged catalyst users, so I could be wrong.

[PsycheTrance]

As someone who almost always goes for the wizard/magic class in RPGs, I just found catalyst characters lack the *oomph* to be used as DPS. The only one I think almost got it right was Yanfei, but even she has flaws.