Holosmith Specialization Updates for the Path of Fire Launch

Nice. These are some solid changes. Will core engi be getting any changes in launch update?

@Arimas.3492 said:Nice. These are some solid changes. Will core engi be getting any changes in launch update?

Pretty sure this was done in the last balance pass.

@Drago.4158 said:

@Arimas.3492 said:Nice. These are some solid changes. Will core engi be getting any changes in launch update?

Yeah it was with every class. Figured I'd ask though cause on the warrior post it said it was getting additional changes to core warrior as well. Also new mechanic is coming to the game so some classes will get that too.

@Drago.4158 said:

@Arimas.3492 said:Nice. These are some solid changes. Will core engi be getting any changes in launch update?

It was hinted at different class posts that core/HoT elites would get changes so yeah, maybe core engi gets something additional (hoping so too).

Solid changes, my only issue with Holosmith really was some of the toolbelts feeling lackluster and the sword feeling clunky now that it seems that has been fixed I can't wait to go back to main my first level 80

@"Robert Gee.9246" said:

• Photon Forge: Fixed an issue where Photon Forge skills did more damage in PvP than intended. PvP damage values reduced by about 20% as a result.

Wasn't the bug that photon forge in pve used "blue item weapon damage" and therefore was too weak rather than vice versa? I really hope the damage is still fine :S We'll see in a day ^^

When will the other engi weapons get to be used with this new line? How can you absolve yourself of working it with other engi weapons when you do for all the other classes? Since kits are pointless, where is our weapon swap?

@Afearthenrut.9154 said:When will the other engi weapons get to be used with this new line? How can you absolve yourself of working it with other engi weapons when you do for all the other classes? Since kits are pointless, where is our weapon swap?

Kits are not useless. you just need to be cognizant of your rotation. Going into Photon forge means you are committing to it for at least 6 seconds.

@Robert Gee.9246 said:

• Photon Forge: Fixed an issue where Photon Forge skills did more damage in PvP than intended. PvP damage values reduced by about 20% as a result.

Could we instead see a proper fix for transforms? What about Lich, Rampage, and Tornado? They all have the same issue.

also 772.5/1015 = 0.7610837, not 0.8

edit: There's also the fact that engineers will see no benefit from upgrading their weapon type (other than the raw stats the higher tiers add). Exotic and Ascended will do the same damage with photon forge. Exotic and BLUES will do the same damage.

Also while we're asking for bug fixes/normalizations, could engineer kits finally be changed to use a base 952.5 weapon strength in PvE instead of the PvP 922.5? Currently kits use 968.5 when ascended, which is a really strange WS value, as every other mainhand is 1000 or higher.

@Afearthenrut.9154 said:When will the other engi weapons get to be used with this new line? How can you absolve yourself of working it with other engi weapons when you do for all the other classes? Since kits are pointless, where is our weapon swap?

Kit's aren't pointless, you just can't abuse Forge like a kit. You can still run kits and use them after 5s. While I also disagree that we need a weapon swap, I do agree that we need some Holosmith / heat synergy with older weapons.

Shield still needs a lot of love, main hand pistol aswell and rifle barely made it to be a "good weapon" for just one (and a half) skills. All these weapons could use a boost with "above 50% heat".

@Arimas.3492 said:Nice. These are some solid changes. Will core engi be getting any changes in launch update?

All other PoF elite spec change posts mention other changes to core and gen 1 elite specs that will be posted on the 22nd, I'm sure they simply forgot to mention it for the Engineer

@Xyonon.3987 said:

@Afearthenrut.9154 said:When will the other engi weapons get to be used with this new line? How can you absolve yourself of working it with other engi weapons when you do for all the other classes? Since kits are pointless, where is our weapon swap?

Ehh, the core weapons need buffs as part of the core class.

@lorddarkflare.9186 said:

@Xyonon.3987 said:

@Afearthenrut.9154 said:When will the other engi weapons get to be used with this new line? How can you absolve yourself of working it with other engi weapons when you do for all the other classes? Since kits are pointless, where is our weapon swap?

Can't disagree with that statement either. The only really good weapon for core engi right now is the offhand pistol. :/

Love the Hard Light Arena change, thanks!

I'm bummed heat mechanic is still limited to sword. We've made our case though, I feel this may happen in a future patch but the door is sort of closed for release.

From the weekend we had with Holo in PvP I can see how that damage might need to be toned down. 20% seems steep, but I'm willing to see how the builds play out.

I'm skeptical it will have enough damage in PvE (I think it should be at the top of power based damage since that's kind of the whole point of the spec) but I'm willing to wait and see on that. Based on what many have proved, transform damage is not where it should be in PvE and I hope that doesn't hurt the Holo. Maybe the 20% nerf in PvP was because it was tuned for PvE even including that bug? That would be nice.

The other changes seem fair. There was never a need to stack THAT much might on ECSU, and PBM was getting ridiculous crits. Good to see the sword should flow better.

It would be great if there were other changes to core and/or Scrapper you could share with us? I haven't read every single profession thread but it does appear that others got something in their core Profession and Engi certainly could use that.

Has photon forge weapon damage modifier been normalised in PvE to be in line with other kits?

@Robert Gee.9246 said:Hey everyone. With Path of Fire only a few days away we wanted to give you a quick summary of the changes to Holosmith that we’ve made since the demo.

• Photon Forge: Fixed an issue where Photon Forge skills did more damage in PvP than intended. PvP damage values reduced by about 20% as a result.
• Sword Auto Attack: Retimed attacks in this sequence to flow better.
• Radiant Arc: Reduced aftercast of this ability by around 1/4 second to better allow for Quickness usage.
• Hard Light Arena: Now shares boons with allies in the arena at half duration.
• Crystal Configuration Storm: Fixed a bug which allowed projectiles to be fired behind you. Lowered damage by 10% when compared to normal photon forge auto attacks. Changed projectile behavior to fire in straight lines rather than hovering relative to ground height.
• Enhanced Capacity Storage Unit: Reduced might duration from 8 seconds to 6 seconds.
• Photonic Blasting Module: This trait now shows a red ring for enemies (and a white ring for the caster) prior to detonation so you can see the affected area. Reduced damage by 20%. Fixed an issue with the damage fact not showing the correct values. Increased burn stacks from 1 to 2.

It’s fairly safe to say that Holosmith was doing a little too much damage during the demo weekend. A large portion of this imbalance came from a particular nuance of the PvP environment which scaled up the damage on Photon Forge. This has been corrected and forge damage will be consistent between game modes on release. A few other traits that we felt were overperforming have had their damage reduced as well. The rest of the changes were all aimed at improving flow between skills and addressing some missing functionality in a few areas.

Definitely saw the nerf coming so this isn't a surprise at all and TBH I'm glad because it was way too high anyways. I like the other changes as well so thanks for doing this before we had an army of FoTM idiots rooming around like what happened during HoT with DH.

@Robert Gee.9246 said:

@Arimas.3492 said:Nice. These are some solid changes. Will core engi be getting any changes in launch update?

Missed the boat again, but let's hope the next balance update you'll look into improving Inventions and Firearms trees a bit.

Holosmith was definitely too strong in PvP and WvW, but I never got the impression it was too strong in PvE. Granted it was very difficult to tell in open world maps but I was starting to doubt it would be that much of an improvement over regular base Engineer. Some of the quality of life changes are great and all but I do hope PvE isn't going to get dragged down because of PvP and the bug/issue that was present there.

@Bovan.9481 said:Holosmith was definitely too strong in PvP and WvW, but I never got the impression it was too strong in PvE.

Afaik WvW used the PvE stats, so the lowered version unlike PvP. Tell me if I'm wrong tho ...

0> @cat.8975 said:

@Robert Gee.9246 said:

• Photon Forge: Fixed an issue where Photon Forge skills did more damage in PvP than intended. PvP damage values reduced by about 20% as a result.

This one's pretty big and needs to be looked into.

@cat.8975 said:

@Robert Gee.9246 said:

• Photon Forge: Fixed an issue where Photon Forge skills did more damage in PvP than intended. PvP damage values reduced by about 20% as a result.

This can't be re-iterated enough. It's something that keeps getting swept under the rug during discussions, but it's a really important point.

The Holo Forge is designed as a transform. Transforms always use Fine weapon power in PvE and WvW, unlike kits which scale their rarity based on the weapon held. PLEASE fix transforms, and then decide how the Forge should be balanced, even if it's still a nerf. Stapling this blanket nerf over top of what is essentially a bug is a very poor balance decision.

@Xyonon.3987 said:

@Bovan.9481 said:Holosmith was definitely too strong in PvP and WvW, but I never got the impression it was too strong in PvE.

That's how it always used to be, but as far as I'm aware they now have the ability to split WvW and PvE as well. Even if that's not the case I didn't feel WvW was too overpowering either because of the nature of the gamemode. But I dare not say too much about WvW because I haven't spend much of my time testing outside of PvP and the first open world map of the expansion.

@Bovan.9481 said:

@Xyonon.3987 said:

@Bovan.9481 said:Holosmith was definitely too strong in PvP and WvW, but I never got the impression it was too strong in PvE.

Yea I also believe pretty much everyone went full zerk for the beta anyway so yup - also seen some crazy Deadeye oneshots. :P We just need time to adapt and after that rebalance if necessary.