What are your impressions with Holosmith now PoF is out?

So far I've been loving it! The damage is great and survivability is also good. So far I've been using HALL and Laser Disk for open world stuff and they've been working well. The HLA pull is really good for setting up a big grenade barrage or Forge burst, probably the best skill so far IMO as it groups up mobs so easily with it's range. And the Laser Disk is really good for passive damage.

Anyway what are you all thinking?

Getting used to being squishier than I was with the scrapper but on the whole it's been nice to have some decent synergy with the exceed skills. The HLA pull + laser disk is currently my main go to 'kill all the things' combo, with Photonic Blasting Module being used to both hold heat and as that final burst of damage to clean up anything that survived. Still need to dabble with holosmith in WvW but for now it'll be my default set for PvE.

It's very glassy.

I should try using HLA instead of bomb kit. Bomb kit hasn't been a good fit.

If your too glass change up your armour stats. Running marauder armour and weapons, zerker accessorises and loving it. Most fun I have had in a long time in game and not unlocked everything yet.

@Vagrant.7206 said:It's very glassy.

I should try using HLA instead of bomb kit. Bomb kit hasn't been a good fit.

Yeah HLA goes a long way in a fight. Large enough area to avoid attacks and stay in it and if you're in it for the full duration it's easily 20 seconds of protection.

Also try to use the heat healing when your heal is on CD so you can regen some health without using heal skill.

I've been using shield too instead of pistol offhand (mostly cause I'm running zerker and not grieving) and shield is actually really useful in open world. Lots of reflect opportunity and it helps break bars better than pistol could.

@Arimas.3492 said:Also try to use the heat healing when your heal is on CD so you can regen some health without using heal skill.

This is the kind of thing most people don't see from theorycrafting, good call :+1:

So far I'm finding rotations are... weird. Gonna take a bit to get used to "camping" a kit. Having my weapon bar show the same 5 skills for 6 seconds is strange!

@Adamantium.3682 said:

@Arimas.3492 said:Also try to use the heat healing when your heal is on CD so you can regen some health without using heal skill.

Usually when I start a fight I'll start in forge mode and leap in and then Corona burst to holographic shockwave to build heat and once I hit 50% I'll use the HLA pull and go for a photon blitz while all of the enemies are super close and that will usually finish non vet enemies.

@Arimas.3492 said:

@Adamantium.3682 said:

@Arimas.3492 said:Also try to use the heat healing when your heal is on CD so you can regen some health without using heal skill.

I rarely get through this and still even have a Vet alive. Burst damage is great!

PF>Holo Leap into battle>Corona>Shockwave>Laser Disk>Singularity (pull)>Blitz>Grenade Barrage... everything is so dead. I'm rarely getting a chance to have fun with Prime Light Beam :lol:

90% of the time I'm not even dodging for Mine Trail, but that's even more damage

I've only done a few tests on the DPS golem, but my n00b butt was able to pull out well over 31k damage where previously I was only getting 28k on vanilla engi. I imagine it'll get better as I get better.

We can use holosmith underwater.....I'm done.

Which stat have y'all been using.

I am still perching on ascended Viper because I love them burns...

@lorddarkflare.9186 said:Which stat have y'all been using.

I am still perching on ascended Viper because I love them burns...

I'm using berserker's armor with pack runes, marauder rings/backpiece and knights accessories/amulet for some extra toughness. Works out pretty well.

@Arimas.3492 said:

@lorddarkflare.9186 said:Which stat have y'all been using.

I am still perching on ascended Viper because I love them burns...

Same. Even if condi ends up being higher DPS overall, power seems to be more efficient for open world stuff due to the burst on low hp mobs.

Berserker all the way, egg shell glassy though

hits like a truck while beeing as sturdy as a toddler in a bar fight. More or less exactly what i wanted

@lorddarkflare.9186 said:Which stat have y'all been using.

I am still perching on ascended Viper because I love them burns...

Grieving Sword+Armor (legendary things I could change easy), Berserker everything else.

In playing around at the DPS golem, burning was my #1 or #2 most damage dealing attack even in what I thought was a power build. So Grieving might be the power stat combo we want.

@Davi.4920 said:If your too glass change up your armour stats. Running marauder armour and weapons, zerker accessorises and loving it. Most fun I have had in a long time in game and not unlocked everything yet.

you're never too glass for pve

Having to toggle holo mode off and on made me hate it after about thirty minutes. The whole setup seems clunky since I didn't want yet another cooldown to manage. But the damage in holo mode is really good. I wish they'd streamline the design and lose the clunk and the toggling. Not to mention, let engineers swap weapons so I can use the (currently super weak) rifle when needed.

I had a lot of fun with the photon forge. The new slow-swap combat rhythm is refreshing, although it will take me a while to get used to. Going in and out of photon forge sets up a nice ebb and flow on your playstyle, while still being a lot less restrictive than other classes' weapon swapping. All 5 buttons are fun to press, so that's commendable as well, although the flashing lights on #3 could be toned down a bit.

I tried using sword and didn't like it. Quickness on high heat is nice, and the auto does decent damage, sure, but I'm having so little fun with #2. It also just feels like a worse photon forge, instead of providing anything different while you decide to use it. It makes me wish the new weapon was a ranged weapon or a defensive one, so it would make sense to co-exist with photon forge. Maybe I'll feel differently after trying shield out some more, but that would be because of the shield and still not the sword. I had much more fun on rifle/nade/photon forge combo.

I had my doubts about the heat mechanic, and my reaction is still a bit mixed, although now I'm leaning a bit more on the positive side. I didn't think heat would be much more than reverse mana bar,(especially if you don't use a sword or exceed skills) but the Grandmaster traits nicely define how you interact with heat no matter what weapon/skill you choose. Generating a lot of heat gives you meaningful blanket benefit in different ways depending on which GM you choose, and the process of building heat doesn't feel punishing thanks to photon forge being very powerful. So good job on that!

That said, I still don't like how heat interacts with Exceed skills. The all-or-nothing nature of heat bonus makes it feel less like heat bonus is a bonus, and rather like you are being punished for not maintaining high heat, and then you have to wait a decent amount of cool-down. Heal, projectile defense, stun breaker, CC all needs to be used somewhat reactively. You need to use them when you need to use them, you don't get to say 'Wait, give me a sec so I can get to 50 heat'. They also have the issue of interacting somewhat badly with 2 of the 3 GM traits that modifies how you lose heat. I think heat bonus works better as a granular boost than a huge one-time check. Utility skills that recharges faster(a la alacrity) while you're on high heat level? Or recharges by heat consumption instead of time? Or Signets that give better passive benefit on high heat? Or simply utility skills with low cooldowns? But alas, it is too late for new ideas I suppose.

Also, some of the skill recharges feel oddly long. Blade Burst and Flash Spark specifically, but I wish cauterize and photon wall was slightly shorter as well.

@lorddarkflare.9186 said:Which stat have y'all been using.

I am still perching on ascended Viper because I love them burns...

Im using Valkyrie armor and Weapons (Sw/Sh) and Berserker Trinkets so Im a little bit more sturdy. Have survived most of the desert while exploring, only died when I got carpet bombed during the story.

I tried Vipers and Berserker. Haven't found a decent rotation yet. Was anyone able to get 34k+ dps?I got the best result with 3 kits + new elite on condi with vipers. The kit swap cd prevents normal engi rotations and why do the 15% dmg only apply in forge anyways?It is nice for open world because of boon generation but forge just doesn't do enough damage to justify the heat or lock mechanic.

So far, it has been a struggle to integrate Photon Forge into my Vipers build where it isn't an overall DPS loss. In my brief tests, core Vipers engi with Tools still yields more damage. There is always room for improvement, but the 6 sec kit lockout seems to be too much of a sacrifice when Photon Forge itself produces weak condi dmg.

I was able to exceed the old core engi Berserker build with Holosmith, but not with the inflated numbers that many were anticipating. While Holosmith has some great burst potential for PvP and WvW, the sustained dmg just isn't as amazing in high-level PvE. I'm still able to out-DPS it with core Vipers engi.

Of course, my gear/rotation could definitely be better optimized, and it might just be a matter of "get gud." We'll know for sure in coming weeks after more folks have done testing.

Does anybody know why the Forge aa range trait reduces damage by 10%? The modifier on explosions was removed months ago. The dev probably forgot that anyways.Forge hits for less than thief staff and is gated by heat. I don't want to run core engi for another 2 years in pve again.Meanwhile weaver sits at 48k+ dps.Even with full raid buffs forge 4 hits for only 50k. The last nerf needs to be reverted and condi durations need a buff. 1sec and 2sec base duration on the burning traits/skills are too low.Next balance patch will take like 4 months anyways so enough time to exploit the op guard / ele specs.

Holo feels tankier than scrapper in wvw.

Feels very strong. Been running it in my Vipers gear from Core Engi build. Still pretty good. Wondering if the Grieving stat set will be a good fit for it (or the lack of Expertise will destroy us).

I like that the Grandmasters give 3 essential playstyles.One gives us 3 tiers, but we have to watch our heat. Another gives us perma-Heat bonus on sword (Sword-Kit build). Another tries to delay and expel heat (High Forge upkeep style).

Preferably, the heat loss prevention grandmasters could see something like Chrono meta build as the Sword 3 gives quickness coupled with Tools' quickness trait, we could be running Commanders gear with Sigil of Concentration.