Catalysts - The Worst Weapon Type? | Genshin Impact 

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…

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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

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

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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)

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.

Hopefully with the introduction of Yae Miko and her weapon, we will start to see some improvements to catalyst users. I’m a Klee main and find her insanely fun, but many of my units just massively out perform her which is such a shame because shes so fun to use.

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.

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.

my main issue with the catalysts that you can't move while attacking, it locks you in place while characters that use it have low resistances/hp and die/get interrupted many times

Claymores now officially hold the title as the worst weapon type

Also, since catalysts are slower, I feel like actual easily-obtained shields would be nice to have. As a Ningguang main, I’m aware of the geo crystalised shields, but not everyone can do alright without these weak shields and not everyone wants to put a shielder character in their party. Much less the non-geo catalysts and those with no shield constellations.

I like how ningguang can use a charged attack with 3 star jades, and those 3 star jades will autoaim to the point, where even if a rifthound disappeared, the starjades will spin around where the rifthound last was, then instantly launch out where he disappeared to.

I still think bows are the worst weapon type on balance. You talk about there being clear 'top-tier' bow users but only one of them (Ganyu) actually uses their weapon at all - and that's only because she has a busted AoE charged shot mechanic that is unique to her, not a property of the bow weapon type itself. Venti is exclusively used for his skill/burst, while Childe is a melee character who happens to hold a bow on the character screen. My point is, none of these characters are good because they use a bow. They are good IN SPITE of using a bow. Catalysts can at least track their targets with auto-attacks and some of them even have the ability to AoE like a melee weapon. Meanwhile my bow normal attacks will frequently miss even at a moderate distance and using charged shots requires the extra step of manual aiming which can be tricky especially if you're targeting fast-moving targets and/or weakpoints.

3/4 characters on my team are catalysts, and I couldn't be more satisfied. Using Yanfei's charged attacks with Yae Miko's skill creates consistent overloaded reactions. Also, Yanfei is useful for mining, since her skill and charged attack can act as a claymore.

As a proud Yanfei main I can say that she feels like playing fighting games but way easier: you just have to have the muscle memory for her attack pattern (imo the best being ult > charge > E > charge) and you can basically animation cancel (I think) without even moving. Also she screws Oceanid over so hard it's actually nuts

In the future it would be cool to have "flamethrower" catalyst user. A character with low but really fast damage application and next to no icd. It doesn't even have to be pyro specifically.

The fact that catalyst users output purely elemental damage, even while their skill/burst is on cooldown, is one of their biggest strengths. They don't have to waste time tickling the enemy with weak physical attacks while waiting for their abilities' cooldowns to end; instead, they can keep attacking elementally and thereby make efficient use of their elemental damage goblet. Having access to elemental reactions on demand (minus the ICD, which plagues most characters anyway) makes them seriously underrated units.

I really like the fact that catalyst users are always infused. That said, the only cata user that didn’t feel really awkward to auto attack with imo was Yanfei…

As a ninguang main I love how she can crystalize almost on demand and is really useful with 4 piece of the geo set. Also it’s easier because you don’t have time elemental skills that turn off when you leave the field which is especially a problem with hu tao since she takes hp from herself so I have to question weather bringing her out is necessary. Also since their are only a few catalyst weapons they are a lot more broad so you don’t need to invest in like 500 niche pole arms (note skyward atlas is my only 5 star weapon). The lost could go one but I will admit the fact their are only 3 (or 4 depending on how you build kokomi) dps catalyst units does make the class inaccessible and it took me almost half a year of playing to get one of the three viable catalyst dpses to main

I've mained both Ningguang since I got her super early in the game (AR 55 now) and I think the fact that she's geo makes her a lot better to use. She has easy access to geo resonance, her kit is fairly versatile (burst support for off-field and main dps for on-field) and she doesn't need elemental reactions to make her powerful. Other catalysts like Yanfei and Klee have the problem that they can't consistently vaporize their enemies, but Ningguang just hits people with rocks and does big damage

With the current boss being able to teleport everywhere, like the thunder bird or rift hound, having a catalyst user in the team will guarantee that you will land a hit, thats why i feel a little “safer” when i put ningguang in my team. The only set back for me is stamina, and the inability to do charge attack while dodging (it’s either bc i have shitty mouse or slow animation, idk), but tbh i have a zhongli so it doesn’t bother me that much. One thing i love abt ningguang is that her normal attack pierce through enemy’s shield, though it’s just a little bit, not sure other units have the same thing bc i main ningguang for the longest time and lowkey refuse to main other units lol

My boy Heizou is awesome! Love to see a catalyst without lock-on.

i think it’s safe to make an update on this video cuz whew the recent catalyst users have made a big name for the weapon type

The problem i see with catalyst on genshin is because they the old mage vibes from old RPGs with long casting low mobility but packing quite a punch That would be great if genshin was more co-op focused having the holy Trinity. But with how fast is the game, most of the time no other characters on field to mob the enemies and worst of all: KNOCKBACKS it's pretty hard for the characters to cast long animations charge attacks while having to dodge almost everything because one bitch slap from the enemy and your casting fails

As a Ningguang main, the most difficult part of being a catalyst user is the autolocking feature. Having no control over where your attacks go is annoying. However, nothing will ever beat the ease of access that catalysts have to immediate elemental damage.

Personally for me, I think of catalysts as hard mode characters. Challenging in terms of use, but rewarding when they come in clutch for big heals, big damages, or both. As a former user of Klee, it's all in the timing of generating elemental reactions, I for one use barbara E, raiden E and klee E and Q in tandem for multiple reactions along with klee charged atk.

Just the other day, I was telling some friends that one of the biggest weakness to catalysts is the fact that the weapon variety is so low. As of right now, there's only four 5* catalysts (with Yae's upcoming will be five) and the only ones worth getting are Skyward Atlas and Lost Prayer. Memory of Dust and Moonglow are both niche catalysts and easily substituted with 4 stars. Plus catalysts have no true powerhouse in any element, except maybe hydro where they're the majority of that element. Why use Yanfei or Klee when you could use Hu Tao or Diluc? Why use Ningguang when you could use Itto? Why use Lisa when you could use Raiden or Keqing? Even why use Sucrose when you could use Venti or Kazuha? Most of the only thing separating them is the fact that there's rarity differential but outside of that, there's always someone better than the catalyst user - and I say this as a person who's mained Ningguang, Yanfei, and Kokomi. Overall, MHY has explored catalyst users the least. Heck, we don't even have a cryo catalyst character and we're over a year into the game (which fun fact, there's that Dragonspine catalyst that literally has a passive of bonus dmg to enemies affected by cryo... so it's useless). And it's a shame cuz some of my fave characters are catalysts and i like doing consistent elemental damage.

With the exception of Ganyu, none of the "meta" bow users use their normals or charged attacks. Venti/Diona/Gorou/Fischl are all burst/skill dependent characters, and Childe only uses his melee normals, not his bow normals. I think bow, as a weapon type, is definitely worse than catalysts because it's entirely single target. That's the big problem with Yoimiya, for example.

Imo, it just comes down to preference. I think catalyst users are way more fun to play than any other class. I just looove using Yanfei as my main dps and I don't see myself using any other class as my main dps any time soon

catalysts are my fav weapon. they’re so easy to use and versatile plus yanfei is the opposite of clunky her attacks are very smooth and easy to use compared to say mona. it’s good as well because you can attack from a distance whilst doing big attacks without having to aim with a bow

One thing I like about using Catalyst units is when it is in Co-op. It just feels right to use them when its Co-op, as your teammates tries to body the damage oncoming to you as well giving them support by elementals application, debuffs, heals, or outright DPS. But in a single player, Catalyst starts to show its flaws; they're meant to be back of the action, not in front of it.

I have a problem with some of my Catalyst characters, mostly Lisa. Her E doesn't hit Dvalin purple thingy most of the times and her charged attacks have a problem in some terrains. And most of the catalyst have some sort of "aiming" problem which includes Yoimiya's E AA in Rozalyne's Domain(those Cryo and pyro lamps). In simple words, most of the ranged unit's AA are kinda broken. They sometimes even shoot backwards.

as someone who mains Yanfei, there are some things that i've learned about them. first of all, each catalyst user that i have (Yanfei, Lisa, Ningguang, Sucrose, and Barbara) seems to have at least one combination of attacks that lead together very cleanly, for example, Yanfei can do three auto attacks then charged attacks which flows very well, looks nice, as well as being her optimal rotation. with Ningguang it's 3 auto attacks, charged attack, with Lisa, it's 2 auto attacks, then charged attacks, with Barbara it's 3 auto attacks, then charged, with Sucrose it's 3 auto attacks then charged. honestly i don't know why it's almost always 3 auto attacks, but ehh, whatever. anyways, back on topic. one of the main advantages for catalyst users that i've found is incredibly fast reactions, due to all of their auto attacks. for example, a team with Xiangling, Beidou, Xingqiu, and Sucrose, you will be getting off a insane number of swirl reactions due to so many elements being applied at once. Catalyst users charged attacks tend to cover a fairly large area of effect, meaning that they do have some crowd control ability. for example, Yanfei's charged attack covers a sizable area and that area only gets bigger with more auto attacks you do (due to scarlet seals, as well as decreasing charged attack stamina cost). As to the main issue of standing still while attacking, this can be easily avoided by having a good shielder such as Zhongli, Diona, Thoma (in theory if you're auto attacking a lot) and Noelle which the game gives us for free. for example, damage wise, the best team comp for Yanfei that i've found is Zhongli (shield+resistance shread), Yanfei (main dps), Bennett (buffer+healer), and Kaeya (elemental application support+sub-dps if Yanfei dies) the main downside that i've personally found with catalyst users is their abysmally low hp stat, however they make up for it with really fast elemental reactions and high damage capacity. to address another issue that you mentioned, mainly that of aiming, i've found that all the catalyst users that i have don't really have any issues with aiming as they either as they almost always target the closest enemy and even if they do miss (which has only really happened to me a few times and has never caused any issues for me) you can usually run up to the enemy that you want to hit, and kill them at a closer range due to catalysts targeting the closest enemy (this wouldn't be a problem due to the aforementioned shield character). ohh yeah! and damage wise, they're pretty broken, as with Yanfei with almost no preparation can pretty consistently hit 30k charged attacks (max i've hit was 70k with a single charged attack and i could easily do like, 5 more), with Lisa at lvl 60 i've hit 20k with elemental skill, sucrose is just broken as we all know due to crowd control, and i haven't messed around all that much with Ningguang and Barbara, but Barbara has the ocean hued clam 4 piece set now, and Ningguang has the Retracting Bolide 4 piece/archaic petra 2 piece and noblesse oblige 2 piece. and one last thing. THIS IS NOT AN ATTACK ON YOU OR YOUR IDEAS, i am merely providing my own experiences and trying to get a different perspective on this issue. but uhh yeah, that's my experiences with catalyst users and i hope that you enjoy the rest of your day/night and thank you for reading this insanely long comment on a fairly mundane topic : )

There's a small arrow that tells you who you are locked on to. You can change the target by holding down directional key while spamming the attack. So, by that mechanic, you can focus on a single target by *Not* holding down directional key. It requires some getting used to, but when you learn it, you won't have a problem with auto-aim anymore.

after 4.1 with nevilette and wriothesley, its now clear that hoyoverse is changing how we see catalyst back then catalyst are basic with elemental blasts for normal attack, and a stonger variant using skills. now, we see hoyoverse is being more creative on how catalyst are used baizhu does tai-chi nahida uses a sort of computer mechanics with the mouse cursor and typings for na, then theres teh 2 new characters neuvilette's charged attack changed form the generic big damage single instance attack with no additive effects, to an outright hydro pump and wriothesley is basically the 5star heizou being a meele catalyst thats whats new about catalyst. theyre changing how it works from the "throw your vision aligned attack" to bieng more creative as it makes sense, since catalyst attacks are the manifestation of the user. wrio doesnt use catalyst as a means to shoot ice shards, nahida dont throw leaves, and maizhu too. neuvilette changed the game too with the laser beam charges attack needless to say, i think hoyoverse is slowly changing the way catalyst work, from this generic mage archetype, to this versatile and way to introduce more fighting styles without adding new weapons. its basically genshin's light cone, where its attached to said character but they use a different weapon altogether like in starrail; who knows we just might get a scythe or battle axe user in a form of catalyst. we already have a power fist user with wriothesley what else would they lose?

Some catalyst users move backwards as well, Ningguang and Barbara stand still and Klee kinda stays in the same spot but Kokomi Lisa and Mona all move backwards as well. Also archers and mages have the same auto attack range, it's just aimed bow shots that are obviously longer range. There's also the problem, I have no idea where this issue lies, where catalyst users will just... stand there. I'll be spamming the hell out of my attacks or I'll start to click and hold for a charged attack and they just stand there and do nothing. IDK what that is.

I find it quite funny how catalysts are automatically the best support weapon type in the game yet automatically the worst dps weapon type in the game

please do another video regarding catalysts becasue hoyo is cooking it and theyre doping it right

i used to pair yanfei mona and raiden for a long time and it’s amazing! raiden with her electro shots, mona with her E, doing hydro damage and distracting the enemies, and yanfei far away easily ripping all the enemies apart with vaporise and overload all over the place. fyi fourth one was jean for physical dmg, anemo dmg/crowd control and healing.

We also just havent gotten anymore catalyst users in a long time compared to the others besides kokomi (and yae upcoming), but even kokomi has way more usage than you are giving her credit for here.

I think they solved most of the catalyst issues with Yanfei when it comes to main dps catalyst. Stamina reduction on charged attacks. C4 shield so you dont have to dodge or get interupted. Good attacks and tracking. Good flow, not janky like Ninguang.

personally, i love catalyst users bc you can build them with elemental mastery and elemental damage more than atk. sure, atk still matters but for me it's so much more fun to pile on the em to see the Big Numbers. plus, they really came in handy during the raiden shogun fight because they could still proc reactions and elemental damage without the use of their skills or bursts

Honestly Yanfei is my go to when it comes to grinding ascension materials, like spectre husks and stuff. or fighting the oceanids. for that if you have her at decent investment she is really good imo

I would say their strengths would lie in some of the characters having amazing kits as well as beautiful animations. As well as their ability to spam weak side reactions more frequently than other units who don't have infusions. Their lack of DPS options is disheartening though. I would love to see a Cryo catalyst with a kit like Ayaka's. Catalysts don't really have a niche outside of pure elemental damage which can already be done by other units, so they should focus on their elemental application and maybe make EM more useful for them as it's essentially the "magic power" of Genshin.

IMO every complaint about catalysts in this video has actually been fixed in a way by yanfei (especially at c6) she works well with xq because shes forced to set up scarlet seals for charged attacks, even in her burst despite regenerating seals she still needs 2 normal attacks at c6 or 1 normal at c0 to charge attack with full seals. unlike ninguang her charged and normal attacks are pretty easy to use ive often struggled using charged attacks with ning after normal ones but with yanfei its the opposite shes very responsive. at c6 her charged attack costs 0 stamina with 4 seals. her biggest issue is the fact shes forced to stay still to cast her anvil and she gets interrupted often, but seeing as she gets a shield at c4 its quite clear shes a glass cannon (cant move and has low hp, you really need a shielder for her!) couple her with any cc unit and she can comfortably dish out really good damage to a lot of enemies. i think the issue with catalysts are the characters not the actual game, hopefully in the future we can get more characters like yanfei

Catalyst Main here (Yanfei C6), I can clear a few things up about them: Targetting - Not as bad as you'd think it is as 99% of the time you fight on a flat plain with maybe some rocks or other terrain moving it up here and there (especially Bosses). The only time I can ever think of it is more as an annoying thing instead of being outright detrimental (e.g. she couldn't hit a ranged Hilichurl sitting atop those towers you can't climb (I do have Zhongli to somewhat remedy this now but still). Charged Attack Stamina Cost - Yeah I didn't even know that every Catalyst had the same massive Charged Attack Stamina Cost and I still know the meme of Yanfei eating Stamina hard which is somewhat mitigated by her C1 but is also balanced out by the fact that its worse in Yanfei's case whose entire kit revolves around doing damage with Charged Attacks. 100% I'd want them to lower it a significant amount seeing as you only have so much Stamina you can spend with the cap that they give you. Damage Dealing - Its worse in my case since I have 2 Archons on my team (Shogun and Zhongli) but yes, despite Yanfei being my A-Team's Main DPS Shogun constantly has spikes of damage higher whenever I pop her Burst. Its slightly better now since I have her C6 to help her more consistently hit big numbers but still worth mentioning especially since not everyone, even other Yanfei mains have C6. AoE - I'm not sure how it is for other Catalyst mains but generally Yanfei does do well against multiple enemies because aside from Normal Attacks (which are only really used as fillers to build up Scarlet Seals) her AoE has been pretty good, especially with her passive that does a follow up hit if your Charged Attack crits. Catalyst Mains of other Catalyst Characters follow up in the replies about this specific point. Overall, good vid :D! I do wish they were more powerful as I've always been a fan of this archetype in general even before Genshin.

As a very happy Klee user, I can confidently say that even without animation cancelling, she's not, in any way, shape, or form, inferior to, say, Arataki Itto or Tartaglia (Both of whom I also have). The thing with the three main DPS catalyst users is the fact that Klee has the range of a melee user, which makes it easier to use her at point-blank range, with almost always will guarantee a hit, but even then, Klee and C1 Ningguang deal AOE damage with their normal attacks, so they can hit multiple enemies at once without the damage dropoff that you see most AOE attacks do in other games. The only problem is Yanfei, who can't AOE unless it's with her charged attack, but she has insane homing ability. Basically, for the catalyst DPS: Klee: Close-range AOE damage dealer, can circumvent stamina usage, hardly misses due to close range despite no homing ability. Ningguang: Mid-range AOE damage dealer, can circumvent stamina usage, has moderate homing ability and will always hit at least one target. Yanfei: Long-range damage dealer, can reduce stamina usage, has high homing ability and never misses unless there are no targets. So, yeah. Catalysts don't miss as much as you might think. In fact, some catalyst users like Barbara or Mona literally cannot miss, as their attacks spawn right on top of the enemy. Then there's the close-range Sucrose and the instant-hit Lisa. Kokomi is like Ningguang with her moderate homing ability. Trust me, MiHoYo has put thought into this. I do agree with the reduced stamina usage, though. Maybe a little bit of a damage boost as well, but that's just my opinion.

I started the game on the first day of zhongli's first rerun and the first character I pulled was yanfei. She is my most sentimental character by far, the first i levelled to 90, my first c6 too and i'm currently trying to minmax her rn. she is incredible. she is super f2p friendly, got some of the smoothest animations in the game and her personality is a joy to watch. I don't see any problems with her. You mentioned doing a "why noone plays" for yanfei and I find that a bit funky considering it is widely agreed upon in the genshin community that yanfei is one of the best 4 star main dpses, and pretty much the entire reason nobody uses her is simply because pyro is oversaturated with 5star main dpses anyways; she isn't going to be your first pick if you have hu tao, diluc, klee or yoimiya. xiangling is one of the 3 broken 4stars that came out with the release of the game so yanfei is overshadowed by her too, but among all the 4star characters i'd say yanfei is a top 3 most well-balanced and executed. she isn't God broken, but she can be in certain situations and she's super fun to play so there's no drawback to her. she also is one of the most versatile units in the game and was literally the only character who could use overloaded until yoimiya was released, she isn't glued to bennett either like xiangling, not entirely dependent on xingqiu like hu tao or diluc, making her team comps super flexible. the thunder manifestation was practically made for her too. The only thing I think falls short of catalyst characters is their weapon roster; the lack of good catalysts, both 5star and 4star is what makes them an inferior pick. bows have broken shit like the thundering pulse, polar star, skyward harp, amos bow, stringless, polearms have the staff of homa, calamity queller, pjws, dragonsbane, the catch. for catalysts the only genuinely good 5star weapon is the lost prayer which is extremely difficult to get since it's a standard weapon, the others are too niche, even the skyward atlas. the auto aim is annoying but once you play catalyst characters enough it becomes easy to work around it. yanfei's stamina issues aren't even a problem considering her c1, and at c4 she unlocks an entirely new playstyle for variety. yanfei isn't hard to play like ningguang (i'm currently maining ning in my itto team and i love her but she literally has clunkier animations than klee and ayaka). dodoco is amazing on her too, definitely one of the best 4star weapons in my opinion. i feel like everyone should play yanfei at least once, a lot of people's negative nterpretations of catalyst characters is based on playing one of the clunky ones or one who is tied to being a support, like mona or sucrose, but if you give yanfei a try you'll realise that she is arguably the best catalyst user in the game and that a lot of the problems they face become minimized with her. i genuinely believe that if yanfei was cryo she could be a top-tier main dps and one of the most played characters in the game, sadly she's just in the most damage-populated element.

Sucrose does attack though, atleast in taser teams. She is your on field attacker since she keeps swirling XQ and beidou's Burst Reactions.

I like your take here and I'd love to see them experiment with some of your suggestions. I hope we get a purely main DPS focused five star catalyst that both has the mulitpliers and isn't clunky to play. I love playing Kokomi and I think her fluidity (hehe fluid) is great, but I'd love a main DPS catalyst user with the big multipliers who could dish out that big damage.

Great use of the character pop up’s when making the points. I learned lot, thanks.

As a Ningguang main, i agree that her attack animations needs to be fixed. I don't get how she attacks as fast like a claymore user when she's holding a small book. Her C1 makes her normals become AOE but the area is so small that it's almost negligible.

Don't set up my girl yae miko right before her banner like that 😭😭

every catalyst user: use magic to blast enemies Heizo: me punch

I like how you can make any catalyst character a healer with prototype amber and healing artifacts! In my hu tao team I use xinqiu, zhongli, and ningguang with noblesse set and prototype amber. She heals enough for my team and her burst has a very low energy cost so I can always get the noblesse buff. I hated catalyst characters at first (using them) but I’ve grown to like them a lot, at least visually. Yanfei can very powerful if built well and sucrose is one of my favorites.

Unrelated, but I hope there'd be more catalyst designs bc they could literally be anything

I love your videos! U are doing an amazing work ^^

I've mained Yanfei ever since I got her. I find her really easy to use, and when you get Scarlet Seals the charged attack stamina cost becomes less of a problem. I've also tried seeing how slow her fireballs are, and they've always seemed pretty fast to me. (In case anyone asks, I did switch her weapon from Lost Prayers to something else to see if it was slow, and it wasn't) that may just be me though. But the best thing I like about catalysts is that they're super easy to build. If I'm going to have a DPS, I want to be able to use all their attacks. I've always struggled with building characters that didn't get an infusion as a DPS because I was always trying to be able to use both normal and elemental attacks. But when I built Yanfei it was actually pretty easy, since it was just pyro damage. Although I'm probably just weird, I also disregard critical hits and just see crit substats as a nice bonus.

"sucrose exist only to use her E" No offence, m8, but her strongest party is Taser, where she is the on-field attacker. The ability to swirl with only ICD restriction is bonkers

I agreed with almost everything you said until you started talking about Sucrose. She is most definitely not "budget Kazuha" and only ignorant people believe that. There are times where she is straight up better than him. A Sucrose with thrilling tales will increase your damage more than a Kazuha in a reaction based team, with the exception of if you can swirl both elements with Kazuha, which most people don't bother doing anyway. The buff they provide is extremely similar regardless, and it's statements like this that make Sucrose a still very underrated character. The worst part though is that you completely ignored the existence of a very meta team which is taser. You cannot replace Sucrose with Kazuha in a taser team, because her normal attacks are actually an integral part of the team's damage. Sucrose is actually such a strong unit and very comparable to Kazuha, assuming you don't have him C2+

Great video, the funny thing is that my main dps has been Yanfei with Diluc as my number 2. Those two got me through most of the story content right up to Inazuma.

thanks for this video! a lot of people said that catalyst ONLY sucks because you cant cancel animation. but you covered a lot! thanks

one quick way to see where catalysts stand is to actually implement a manual lock on and giving them the same range as bows. that way, you remove the flukes, you get a good range (without aoe damage to avoid the opposite situation where catalysts > bows ) and then act from there. they could even make the catalysts the "claymore" of ranged combat, high power with slow speed. let's face it, the targeting system is terrible and not because it's automated but because it can't keep up with most of the mobile enemies.

feels like yanfei has pretty much none of the said issues especially as her constellations grow her kit wants you to build stacks via normal attacks, and from normal3 her CA flows very smoothly by normal 3 you would've proc'd XQ twice giving plenty of hydro to vape both parts of CA CA is aoe her stacks reduce her stamina consumption esp at C1 her normals home in C4 also fixes her problem of wanting to stand still and opens up a pyro shielder playstyle for her C6 allows her charge attacks to not cost any stamina at 4 stacks

As a person who used to main Yanfei on an alt account early game I have to say that I rarely (if ever) had targeting issues. My main problem were her charge attacks. Her normal attacks were very fluid and I loved them. But the charge attacks took so much time and they were often interrupted which really irritated me. I know I could have used a shield but the only shield character I had was Noelle and my Yanfei was at c1. I didn't want to give up a spot in my team cause I really liked the one I was running back then (I think it was Yanfei, Bennett, Fischl and Sucrose or Kaeya)

I main yanfei and I just feel like doing charges attacks one after the other is really satisfying. I also use zhongli so I don’t have to move and the convenience of applying pyro for elemental reactions is nice.

"sucrose exist to mainly use her elemental skill and burst" sucrose taser team mains would like to have a word with you

I'm interested in this, since i rarely notice any issues with catalyst, becuase the gameplay just sits so well with me as a Sucrose main. Even tho i do sometimes experience stamina shortage, but that's the only thing i can think of that's really that bad. Otherwise i genuienly don't see anything wrong with catalysts

Watching this 2 years later and catalysts got an insane dps buff 😂😂

If you look above the energy bar of the opponents you will see a white triangle pointing down, this lets you know who you are targeting. If you pause at 6:39 you will see it above the Lv. 74 on the Fatui agent. I main Mona with the help of Raiden shogun E skill she uses Lost Prayer to the Sacred Winds (only 5 star I have). She usually kills everything before the passive starts but it's good to know if they aren't already dead they soon will be! Great vid

Catalyst is my favorite weapon type in the game, I main Yanfei and soon will have three catalyst users in my team (Yanfei, Ningguang and Miko) I’d say it’s really up to preference in game style, animation canceling and getting used to the character. Personally, I would not trade my catalyst girls for anyone else🥰

No catalyst user has BIS 5 star weapon btw. Mihoyo just decided that catalyst shouldn't be dps since yanfei's release. Hopefully yae miko with her personally designed weapon can change this

"anyway, I started kicking" - Heizou

Now we have Charlotte, Heizou, Writhsoley, and Neuvillette which he’s one of the strongest. They all take a different approach with gameplay causing them to actually be fun compared to early catalyst users

7:30 any other catalyst wouldve been usable for this point, but not Klee, so thats an odd choice. Klee can animation cancel and get out her normal and charged attack all in the time it would take to do just a normal, is why i say this. The only exception is, start with Charged, not normal. Shes different, but not worse, in this regard. 6:28 "theres no way to tell who you are locked onto or whether you are in range." In reference to who you lock onto, this is a problem with targeting, not catalysts, catalysts only bring the issue to light more, but is present for a majority of characters who want to aim literally anything like skill or burst. also the targeting is proximity based when working correctly. Example if you start playing in melee range you will only target the enemy right in your face, it will become apparent that its proximity based. A problem yea, just wanted to point out that spacing can counter this annoying issue. 10:47 "theyre objectively worse than bows... " uhh... What? Bow users suffer from some similar issues like targeting and the only super noteworthy ones for dps are those that stray away from bows in the first place. Ganyu they gave insane multipliers. Childe isnt really even a bow user most of the time. And Ventis good because of his utility not because he uses a bow. Bows dont have easy setbuilding due to auto self infusion. Bows dont have amazing damage. Certain chars fix this but bow is still inherently terrible in comparison. You also mention how auto infusion is a weakness? Think about it this way you dont have to worry about anyone overriding your damage, and you know when you put a pyro% cup on klee, 100% of her is benefiting from that.

Actually, there’s a setting (that is set to off at default) that can help alleviate the core problem of catalysts. It’s the “Combat Camera Settings” - it pans the camera in an angle that shows your current character and target similar to a fighting game’s view. I’ve mained Sucrose for quite a while and that helped me so much. Though it doesn’t work as good with some characters like Yanfei and Ningguang since they are projectile types- their projectiles would change targets mid-flight for some damn reason and end up missing. But the issue of having no clue which enemy your character is about to aim at is definitely minimized.

Oh my god, why did you use that song at 1:00?? Triggered me straight to depression, holy hell haha. For those of you who don't know it, it is from the masterpiece album "Everywhere At The End Of Time" from The Caretaker. A hell of an experience, honestly. But yeah, trigger aside, great video!

This is a great video as always! If you may, would you consider making videos on Ningguang and the other less-used characters? I rarely meet Ningguang mains.

I only have Klee as a pyro DPS and I love her play style. Something about Catalyst characters is that they are the best at breaking shields, they have permanent infusion of their element so they can constant destroy shields with no downtime.

Catalysts are just design oversight. They're "supposed" to be untapped elemental damage, always doing elemental damage and therefore always producing reactions. Except in this game, with how much Mihoyo loves to fondle Pyro and cryo, too much elemental dmg is a bad thing due to ICD. It doesn't matter how fast you can apply your element if it ends up doing nothing. Klee is probably the best example of this. Catalysts already do nothing besides stand there and tank everything since they can't move while attacking, so why not make their charged attacks at LEAST like 1/3rd of their damage. I'm tired of seeing Catalyst users always have that token lvl 1 normal attack because it's literally just WORSE to attack with them unless you run sucrose tazer teams.

LOL the tear of the goddess edit on Beidou was sneaky and cheeky. Vars II is getting even more meta and I'm onto you

tbh when you said Childe in the beginning I was so confused, I honestly forgets he is a bow user sometimes

Looking at how our newest catalyst user Yae Miko works, I feel like they've given up on making better catalyst auto attack/targeting. Here you go spam E and Q and the totems are gonna do their thing.

For me it’s the lack of good weapons holding catalysts back. So many of the weapons are very niche for certain characters and even the good ones get outshined by some 3/4 star weapons. We need a weapon that really boosts catalysts’ damage to be on par with other weapon types

Klee was my first 5 star, and I loved playing her for a while as my second DPS behind Beidou. After a while though when I switched them out for Arataki Itto & Zhongli (who i just got) I am doing much better off both damage and survivability wise. I can't really come up with anything amazing about catalyst users despite playing one for so long and it makes me kinda sad...

Hm, this is interesting. I'm a self proclaimed "catalyst main" and main yanfei and regularly use sucrose and kokomi. Yanfei's attacks are fairly fluid in my opinion and her autolock has never bothered me. She's never missed a hit for me since her attacks lock on and follow their targets. I find them more powerful as they easily apply their elements with just normal attacks. Idk, im sure catalyst users have their problems but I've never found their playstyles to be a problem. I'm just not a physical dmg person.

Did you forgot about Taser Sucrose? Top Meta team with a catalyst user as the driver.