Power Holosmith - Solo PVE (Champs, General content) Looking for Advice

I'm getting back into engineer now as I haven't touched the class for PVE since the game released on day one and played it for a good year, but now I'm looking to play a lot more solo PVE, killing champions and doing general content. I'm doing alright so far with general content, and hero point battles in PoF haven't caused me much trouble yet but I'm trying to find a good balance between doing DPS but still having a way to reset and heal up if needed while running full Zerkers. I still need to do some champion battles but I haven't tried yet with this.

I'm not really interested in running kits like grenades along with explosive trait line as I'm pretty bored of using that already from PVP so I'm looking to use Elixirs to help buff me, then if I need I have my Elixir Gun for skill 4 and 5 as an escape and heal, then I use my rifle to DPS until I can get back into melee range again. I do have Sword/Shield but the reason for the rife is simply to allow me to DPS at range as I heal up.

My current build: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?PeyAQx7lFwqYWMPGKWeTavdA-zRIYRU3XG1mCVUB2OA-e

I know some people run without kits, all using holosmith skills, other people use only kits, and others use elixirs.

Would this build be able to sustain for solo champion fights? I'll try to do some tests later today.

I think your best option if it's openworld and you just want a tanky build is to run hammer scrapper with gyros+mortar kit.If you want to stay holo, I'd play sword+shield with grenade kit as the damage loss from not using pistol offhand isn't that much on a power build. I would not run rifle unless it's to cycle between rifle + bomb kit/grenade kit autoattacks and then use rifle 3 (blunderbuss) /5 (jump shot) for extra damage.

Full zerk holo autos with no boons or enhancement: sword ~4600 DPS , bomb kit ~4200 , mortar ~4000 , grenades ~3800.

I haven't tried Scrapper yet and would need to run through the HoT hero points to unlock it quickly. I'm trying to remain with Holosmith for now though and using grenades seems a bit boring.

I just decided to drop Zerk and bunker up with Power, Toughness, and Vitality and take on Alch with Inventions. I might not be doing crit damage now but I can at least survive. I went into HoT and those HP battles wrecked me.... They were a cake walk with my Mirage before due to my sustain, but going full DPS with some aids just wont do it.

So far I can solo now, takes a bit to kill them off (maybe 60% slower now for champions) but I have enough buffer to survive and I can sustain well using my elixirs and mortar 4-5. If I was doing raids for group play then yea full DPS would be great, but solo is a different beast.

I played around more with the build I had before but swapped Zerker for Soldiers and I've solo'd every hero point in two HoT maps so far.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?PeCBw6x7lFwqYWsLWKWeTavUA-zRIYS03fG1KEqQEY0B-e

Works good so far, and damage isn't that bad considering I don't die in 2 hits.

I also unlocked enough points for a full Scrapper so I'll try that next.

@"Infusion.7149" said:I think your best option if it's openworld and you just want a tanky build is to run hammer scrapper with gyros+mortar kit.

I just tried full zerker scrapper and I must say the damage is good and I survive very well for open world. Looks like my new PVE open world main! Thanks!

I used this build to start with: https://metabattle.com/wiki/Build:Scrapper_-_Barrier_Bruiser

Late to the party, but yeah, I found Scrapper suited me much better than Holo for OW stuff. I have them unlocked on different characters, so can use both, so if I get the urge I can give Holo another go.

Holo is more fun than scrapper imo so I would stick to it. I’m sure you’ve checked meta battle but this build is great and doesn’t use a kit: https://metabattle.com/wiki/Build:Holosmith_-_Protection_Sword/Shield

The page also gives usage and various variants you can try skills and trait wise. It also uses marauder which I would recommend if you can get it. If not, valk definitely hurts your dps but it gives the survivability as you already know.