I decided to make and test the Catalyzer out, and the more I play with it the more I realize how the concept for such a good weapon was there, just not well executed.
Unlike its twin Pulsar, which focuses on area denial with strong knockback and intense pressure, Catalyzer specializes on Area of Effect by capitalizing on spreading as much damage on surrounding mobs... Or at least it should.
Since I doubt many knights have spared as much as a glance to this weapon, I'll explain what it does in a quick description: It fires spheres that tag enemies for minimal damage and later blown up for stacking damage once struck with a charge shot.
--- The Issue ---
Herein lies the biggest problem, the charge shot. Unlike most guns, the shots are incredibly slow- which ill benefits this gun. Attempting to detonate at long range will most likely fail, either by missing entirely as the enemy will be long gone from that spot or hit another sphere-less enemy passing by. Forcing you to fight up close to even get to detonate the spheres.
Only the charge shot itself can detonate spheres, even if an adjacent enemy with spheres gets caught in the explosion it will not trigger them. Making it almost irrelevant to spread spheres around a group as you can only trigger them one by one.
Charge speed and damage disparity. Catalyzers are known for their incredibly rapid charging speed, taking less than a second at max CTR. However, this causes a huge issue. Having gone with Biohazard, the shadow variant to test on both effective and normal mobs, I've compared both sphere explosion and charge shot damage.
On effective mobs, a charge shot deals around 2.5 times what a single sphere explosion does. Meanwhile on normal ones, the charge shot deals close to a whopping 4 times the sphere explosion damage?!
At first glance, one might think "Makes sense, the charge has to deal more damage than the normal shots" but when the weapon itself has a charge time of less than a second? It becomes more effective to spam charge shots than wasting time stacking spheres, moreso when charge shots can stunlock mobs like turrets or gremlins.
--- Potential changes ---
The most important change would be the charge shot. Instead of the slow moving orb, replace it with a 45° non-damaging wave (Visually like the wave the battlepods use) that triggers all tagged enemies caught in it. This way, it incentivizes players to spread spheres around a group, so that at the time of detonation enemies get caught both by their tags and adjacent ones when exploding.
But how do we cover the damage lost from the charge shot?
Simple, make it fire more spheres per shot. 2 spheres at 2/3* and 3 spheres at 4/5*
In the same fashion they orbit enemies once tagged, they would travel in the same way but more tightly packed, that way you can still tag all if not most spheres when dealing with a singular enemy.
In a single clip, you would be able to stack as much damage as a charge shot, more if you manage to tag all spheres.
A minor change I would include is so the spheres that tag enemies to spread around equitatively, so at the moment of the explosion they don't get launched around randomly, either in your or a teammates direction by accident.
With these changes, we can address the biggest problem with the Catalyzer while achieving its intended purpose.
If you have any thoughts on it, whether you agree or would change some other stuff I'd like to read them. -Scuttlechan
The previous mechanics of the Catalyzer worked pretty solid too IMO and honestly am not really a fan of the change to the current mechanics.
Previously it had a 3 shot clip with damage identical to the Blaster line of weapons, and it was the Charge shot that was the "Tag". This made is very useful for new players who didn't understand it's mechanics but also left it a reliable weapon in situations where the charge shot wouldn't be feasible to tag enemies. The Biohazard even could deal poison status with the regular shot...
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But, considering potential changes for the current iteration of the weapon I think that something else may be required.
First and foremost is removing the knockback and having it just be a very high flinch chance, while it can be funny you can also run into a similar issue as the Nitronome where enemies flung about mid attack don't flinch and end up striking an ally.
Next would be some sort of Auto-Detonation mechanic, rather than JUST the Catalyzer line charge attack you could make it so ANY weapon charge attack can work, which would massively play into it's co-op potential regardless of what weapons your team brings.
It could also have an Auto-Detonation mechanic when the number of stacked tags reaches "Critical mass" or when it has the capability of killing off the target... this would keep you from wasting time stacking tags past the required amount to get the KO
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I also do think that making the tags equally circle the target would provide not only a nicer aesthetic but also a more reliable weapon since it ensures 50% damage will reach an enemy with a directional shield rather than worrying about it being higher or lower due to asymmetrical tag placement.
I'm largely OK with how the current charge attack works honestly, if anything I wouldn't mind if it had a piercing effect like the Magnus line but without the knockback... the damage can be reduced to account for this but it allows for it to detonate multiple groups of tags even if they're bunched together... and with the earlier suggestion of removed knockback you don't need to worry about an explosion moving some of the targets away from the incoming projectile