Range/Spell Caster how can you generate rage?

[kocur4d]

I decided to play as a range, pistol character, with the catalyst. My idea is to play some CC spells, aka Winter Grasp's, while my damage is coming from attacks.

I am having trouble with starting the fights - since all my resource are in willpower.

I haven't seen any skills that could generate rage, something like melee openers, and my spells are not spammable.

Any thought on helping with rotation for a character that would like to jump in close-range CC do some dmg and jump to next group?

[Cruces]

I had the same idea as you only with melee and focused mainly on the spell side, I use infinity blades for generating rage and wrath of baapheth for generating willpower, but if you are ranged you should try thunderstrike, the damage is ok, but it fires really fast and generates rage a lot , another option is arctic spear , because the animation is so fast you can cast it while moving and in between your normal skill attacks

[Fusei]

The ressources are pretty confusing, anything that depletes a ressource will generate the other :
A melee skill will generate willpower and a spell will generate rage.
So if you wanna play hybrid, pick a no-cd spell as your rage generator and a no-cd ranged skill as your willpower generator.
Rest can be cd skills. And you're going to hate having the auto attack locked on your action bar, cause you're never gonna use it. You'll always be able to cast either a spell or launch a ranged skill.

[!MèFi!]

Hey, I also use a pistol and a catalyst.
I dont have any problem generating Rage because I use a spammable magick spell (I've bound it to left click and I open the fights with). I use the ice shards projectiles (dont remember the name) because I've decided to focus my build on projectiles, I spend most on my passives on projectiles damage; I only use projectiles attacks. Ice shards are kinda slow to fire (I also use slower fire for double damage) but thats not a problem because they're not slow to cast and you can start using Rage attacks before they fire, Its mainly to generate Rage but they also hit hard.

[MTB-Fritz]

gonna check in on this thread because I also was thinking of a hybrid character. The Catalyst seemed to advertise that approach but from what I can see within the game so far it doesnt support hybrid characters very well because its always rage OR willpower, never both at the same time and if you are forced to build up the other resource before you can use the connected abilities you are going to wait more then play

Its especially bad because willpower only generates passively if you go with a catalyst or at least I didnt find any 1H willpower generator items yet. The only weapons that generate willpower are staffs and those are 2H so cannt be used with a catalyst.

My first attempt meant waiting for willpower to regen to max then start a fight with unloading all my caster abilities and continue with rage skills because thats the only resource I can generate midfights.

So I either "dont get it" or the devs messed this up somehow

[Pete]

Originally posted by MTB-Fritz:

gonna check in on this thread because I also was thinking of a hybrid character. The Catalyst seemed to advertise that approach but from what I can see within the game so far it doesnt support hybrid characters very well because its always rage OR willpower, never both at the same time and if you are forced to build up the other resource before you can use the connected abilities you are going to wait more then play

Its especially bad because willpower only generates passively if you go with a catalyst or at least I didnt find any 1H willpower generator items yet. The only weapons that generate willpower are staffs and those are 2H so cannt be used with a catalyst.

My first attempt meant waiting for willpower to regen to max then start a fight with unloading all my caster abilities and continue with rage skills because thats the only resource I can generate midfights.

So I either "dont get it" or the devs messed this up somehow

Seems that you "don't get it" :)
You should alternate between one willpower spender and one rage spender in combat. (Already mentioned in above posts). If your willpower is full spam a willpower spender and it turns to rage,after your willpower is empty which to rage spender to turn it back to willpower. There's 0 waiting involved. Quite opposite really compared to non-catalyst builds where you are forced to use the basic attack for generation.

[kocur4d]

One more thing to keep in mind is that Spells Attacks have tags. So in my case I was able to find a spell and attack that was projectile. So I could boost projectile damage via tree and then spam spell with willpower and attack with rage - alternating both. Without a worry of wasted bonuses focusing only on attacks or spells.

[Luzzifus]

There is a major node in the passive tree that turns willpower generation into rage generation (3rd ring, Child of Fury (red) -> Furious Appetite). Helps tremendously if you mainly focus on rage skills.