Many of you may know that the catalyzer went through several changes over the years, and it went through most of them during the gunner update test server. The first pass for its changes was, by far, the most interesting and fun variation of all the catalyzers, and really made it shine as a weapon.
For those of you who don't know, here are the mechanics:
Original Catalyzer
- Primary attack fires slow moving bullet, 3 in a clip
- Charge attack fires single tag, orbits enemy it hits. The tagging process does 0 damage.
- If a primary attack hits an enemy with an orbital, all orbitals on it detonate
Curret Catalyzer
- Primary attack fires slow moving bullet, 3 in a clip, which can tag enemies and orbit them. The tagging process does 1 damage.
- Charge attack fires extremely powerful, slow moving bullet.
- Any orbital the charge bullet comes in range of detonates. Additionally, hitting a tagged target will set off their tags (at least most of the time)
First pass catalyzer
(what i'm proposing)
- Primary attack fires slow moving bullet, 3 in a clip, which can tag enemies and orbit them. The tagging process does 0 damage.
- Charge attack fires extremely powerful, slow moving bullet.
- Any source of damage will set off the orbitals
The biggest issue with the first pass of the catalyzer was that it couldn't be used to break blocks or minerals with the standard bullets, however the changes to the catalyzer in general left it in a similar if not worse position than before. Before the change we had slow moving but fairly powerful projectiles that we could use as an alternative to a blaster - after the change we have to charge the weapon to get any use out of it.
If the catalyzer was reverted to its first pass change, it would become a weapon you use to help your team - not one you tag only to have someone else run in and kill your target with a different weapon before your super slow bullet can reach them - and should they shove the enemy out of the way then it's too bad. The first pass would be both more helpful and overall more fun as you can always see your weapon doing things in combat. Additionally, you can tag a huuuuge group of monsters, and then throw a pot at them to set off what is essentially a nuke.
As it stands, the catalyzer is a weapon that is not fun to use, despite how interesting it is. A simple revert to its first pass would make it both interesting and super fun to use!
Would be a blast to play with, even if alone- it'd be a gun that makes it easier to you to go ham, in direct opposition to Pulsars that make it harder for enemies to come close. How could I ever say no to more support weapons?
I think the largest problem with catalyzers in their current state is how slow the detonation is. You have a second of charging and a half second of startup for an extremely slow projectile that enemies will nonetheless try to dodge. Could fix that very simply by making the charge attack an instant remote detonation, but that's not NEARLY as interesting as the old-new version.