Holosmith builds

I'm abit curious about which builds people are gonna try out with the holosmith.

So far I've only tried pure power and pure condi builds. BOth seem pretty fun in PvE and Wvw.Did any1 try celestial or mixed stats?

I ran SD Holosmith in the PvE beta weekend. Kills most open world mobs before you even get to melee range so it was pretty nice for casual PvE content. For PvP/WvW I think I'll stick with Scrapper.

Eh...idk. I'll probably start with something like this for general PvE:http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vdAQJAsanUUBlYh9ZB+dBcJjF2CDcEViCA9tx34d8rClhOAA

Will probably run with my viper gear. Rocket boots are just for fun and quality of life while running around, but that may get dropped for something like Lazer Disk.
I gotta say, it'll be nice to not have to rely on traits and such for mobility once we have a mount available.

For meta PvE, I'll run whatever becomes meta. For PvP, who knows. I'll play around with some stuff there, but I wouldn't be surprised if I end up going back to Scrapper for PvP stuff.

For PvE, I'm probably going to go with explosives/firearms/holosmith just to see the damage numbers from a pure power build. Might dabble with the condi build I tried during the beta weekend event. Remember it doing something like 18 stacks of burning in about two seconds.

For WvW/PvP, that might be the standard inventions/alchemy route with scrapper subbed out for holosmith. Tried running the holosmith in a zerg over the weekend event and didn't feel like I could go as deep as I can with the scrapper. Plus the retaliation damage from Prime Light Beam (which makes me want to go 'Shoop da woop' every time I use it.) was making things far to painful to use it in any meaningful way. Still it's going to be something to watch out for when roaming.

I plan to do a lot of testing on this particular build for raid dps. I like the sword pistol theme, and the sheer amount of burning you can do. Flamethrower sadly might be a dps loss, but its mostly their for the incendiary rounds/naplam burst.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vdEQJAsanUIC9dh1aBWIDcJjF2CrvN+GzjfVoM0BA8DViCAA-jxhAQBnR5HXV/Rq6BMpSQA8AA0x+DD4EAQKAeGaB-e

I will definitely play a Photonic Blasting Module build at the start for PvE. I have the feeling that this could be pretty effective AND easy and allows me to look around more and pay more attention to visuals and animations than my heat bar. =)I still need to figure out how much impact the additional cooldown on kits, when playing a holosmith, has.

I was testing this, but only during stress-tests, so I didn't get a chance to see how it's gonna work in WvW. Build offers veeery high endurance regen thanks to food, Tools trait and Hololeap+Invigorating Speed from Alchemy. I decided to go for celestial because of high power damage from forge, and decent burns from dodges.

I had a lot of fun using this build: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vdAQJAsenUUBlIjFYBmYBcJjFDDr/G2DHihBgxxe5riUeSPA-jVyHQBeRPA72fQZPAg/pUQIKTAwJAYPq/AElUMUJIpAWdmG-w

It was basically the same build I used for Scrapper but adapted for Holosmith for WvW.

I ran this for a short time in WvW as well for a condition build. I think with the added burning from Holosmith a condi engi could see the use of shield more for more defense rather than offhand pistol now.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vdAQJAqenUUBlchFYB+dBcJjF2CD8DViCAjthxQtpfNOHrjA-j1hHAB1eCAoY/hz0DAlSQ5V/pIlfA8AAIFgr70A-w

be a bosssd zerk holo full hamgw2skills.net/editor/?vdAQFAUnEID1IjFJD2UBcJjlBDbcI8giQfBg0z7pvHOEXiA-jpQSgAA7PAWGAA

I'll probably start with this BUILD. I'm sick of kits, condi and healing turret and this build will give me perma 25 might in combat (tested in demos) and won't be as glassy as zerker, while giving me some defense utility and additional boons together with really nice burst dmg. Can't wait to play it.

For PvP:

Vipers firearms/explosions

Nades/tk/rocket boots/mortar

Might use the new heal but turret is just so strong

Been playing this without holo in PvP lately and its so much fun. No one expects the 8k barrage

for wvw : BUILD

easy 25 stacks of mightdumb reset capabilities with traited rocket boots + hgh elixir Stool belt for hard light arena is very easy set up for your photon burst (5-3-4)and pelting people from stealth with your DELETE CANNON is so satisfying

so satisfying being able to play a decent power build with engi! but who am i kidding it's most likely going to get the hammer :'(

@tehroi.4619 said:

so satisfying being able to play a decent power build with engi! but who am i kidding it's most likely going to get the hammer :'(

Honestly I don't see myself running WvW without Scrapper . Holo is pretty glassy in comparison to him. It has good dmg but nothing else. Also Scrapper can stack 25 might even more easily just with auto attack and getting quickness from above 10 stacks + other defense utility from elixirs.

@leviathan.2148 said:

@tehroi.4619 said:

so satisfying being able to play a decent power build with engi! but who am i kidding it's most likely going to get the hammer :'(

holo has traits that rewards being glass with careful management of your resources (heat therapy - completely dumpsters rapid regen and enhanced capacity storage - which can get you 25 stacks of might without even auto attacking!) scrapper has its place but comparing what a holo can do with 25 stacks of might vs a scrapper its no competition!

@tehroi.4619 said:holo has traits that rewards being glass with careful management of your resources (heat therapy - completely dumpsters rapid regen and enhanced capacity storage - which can get you 25 stacks of might without even auto attacking!) scrapper has its place but comparing what a holo can do with 25 stacks of might vs a scrapper its no competition!

The thing is that while Scrapper can mindlessly autoattack and chug an elixir from time to time to stay at 25 stacks, Holo must watch the heat bar and switch to and from forge each couple of seconds to maintain the heat while being careful to not blow himself up. So Scrapper can easily compete and win in mightstacking while having low cd utility on hammer that provides lots of defense that Holo just doesn't have.

@leviathan.2148 said:

@tehroi.4619 said:holo has traits that rewards being glass with careful management of your resources (heat therapy - completely dumpsters rapid regen and enhanced capacity storage - which can get you 25 stacks of might without even auto attacking!) scrapper has its place but comparing what a holo can do with 25 stacks of might vs a scrapper its no competition!

but in what perfect situation in roaming where your opponent is just going to let you AA them to death? :thinking:

@tehroi.4619 said:but in what perfect situation in roaming where your opponent is just going to let you AA them to death?

Exactly the same thing applies to forge mightstacking. Break the rotation when you'll need to counter stuff and your might stacks disappear quickly. I tested both Scrapper stacker and Holo stacker with the same stats and I had much easier time to stay at certain might threshold with Scrapper than Holo in wvw. Maybe it's because of more experience with Scrapper.

I'll keep using Scrapper in wvw, feels like a safer, easier and most of all more survivable choice but I can't wait to main Holo stacker in pve.

@leviathan.2148 said:

@tehroi.4619 said:but in what perfect situation in roaming where your opponent is just going to let you AA them to death?

forge might stacks literally come from THIS there's no "rotation" engineer has always been reactive gameplay not press whatever's not on cd, photon 5 generates 25% heat your 2-4 generates 2%, and the AA chain provides 6%, which makes it ridiculously easy to stay above 100%,

scrapper is safer but i honestly feel its going to fall out of flavor with the more experienced engineer crowd

edit: format

It sure seems like most new elites will add more complexity without that much more in corresponding benefits, and when quick thinking and fast reaction time is needed in WvW or PvP, it's usually better to keep it simple.

I've been toying around with a burning focused condition holosmith: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vdAQJAqanUUB9dh9ZB2aBcJjF2CrvNGHrjfVoL0BA8DViCAA-jBiAQBA4BAARVUimegaqEEG7PcNlfQ7EAUN1LAA-e

Replacing Grenade Kit as the filler is Holoforge, which focuses on burn through dodgeroll, 4, and the 2 burns when you enter.Since we use dodgerolls for damage, rocket boots is used for mobility, while the toolbeltskill offers an additional potent burn.Also to consider is replacing Bomb Kit with Flame Turret.

Focus on Sinister (or Grieving) gear, while Balthazar, Burn Sigil, and the trait take care of capping burn duration.Pistol Mainhand vs. Sword Mainhand is also something i'm not yet sure about, because without Vipers, the DoTs on Pistol MH aren't all that good.

@tehroi.4619 said:forge might stacks literally come from THIS

Why are you stating the obvious? We both know how mightstacking works for Holo.

@tehroi.4619 said:there's no "rotation" engineer has always been reactive gameplay not press whatever's not on cd, photon 5 generates 25% heat your 2-4 generates 2%, and the AA chain provides 6%, which makes it ridiculously easy to stay above 100%,

If the cooling wasn't as fast as it is, I'd agree with you. Basically each 5-6 seconds you have switch back to forge and get it to 148-149 heat and NOT BLOW UP. That may sound easy but you have to remember that you can't switch back from the forge for 6 seconds and that's quite a long time if you want to attack and not blow up. You can't use skill 5 because then you would have to choose between not using the forge skills and just wait until you can switch off the forge or blowing up. So we're down to 4 skills. 4 may generate 2% heat but it's on shot (at least I had such experience with it, I may be mistaken) and it has 8 shots = 16 heat. So this one poses also a risk. Smaller but ok, we can work around it. Count in the traits that raise heat generation and let's not forget about passive heat generation and it's not as easy as you present it to be in comparison to just autoattacking. But again this is mainly because of how fast the cooling works and 6s lockout in forge.

@tehroi.4619 said:scrapper is safer but i honestly feel its going to fall out of flavor with the more experienced engineer crowd

Possible but if wvw player will have to choose from mightstacker with easier rotation and very good defense and mightstacker with a decent burst but no good defense then guess which one will be picked. I think that Scrapper will be just fine as a durable bruiser while Holo will most likely go the way of bursting glass cannon for which the third trait - Photonic Blasting Module works better than mightstacking one - Enhanced Capacity Storage Unit.

I hope I'm wrong but the more I look into builds I think ECSU will be the odd one out. PBM for power builds or healing sustain, TRV for condi or high dodge sustain. Might stacks are great but might is pretty devalued nowadays, at least to me. It's everywhere.

ECSU was nice to maintain the 50% heat bonuses easily during the beta weekend, but I think with practice and mastery of Holosmith that will become second nature at just 100% cap, much like managing invisible cooldowns in kits is now.

This is just another point in favor of adding heat mechanic to more skills/weapons as well as adding more that benefits from 100% heat, that would really add appeal to ECSU. Even tying heat to core Engi through the ECSU trait could work, as much as I feel it should be baseline Holo.

PBM isn't bad, honestly I find TRV to be the weakest one from the three but the problem of PBM is that the time for forge to be reactivated is at about 10-12 seconds. That's a very long time. If PBM also decreased this lockdown to let's say half, it could be a very good choice. I agree that in a group content ECSU is pretty much useless when your teammate stacks might for everyone. For solo play it's a nice addition.

@leviathan.2148 said:ECSU isn't bad, honestly I find TRV to be the weakest one from the three but the problem of ECSU is that the time for forge to be reactivated is at about 10-12 seconds. That's a very long time. If ECSU also decreased this lockdown to let's say half, it could be a very good choice. I agree that in a group content PBM is pretty much useless when your teammate stacks might for everyone. For solo play it's a nice addition.

I think you mixed up a few of those ECSU's and PBM's :open_mouth:

@Adamantium.3682 said:I think you mixed up a few of those ECSU's and PBM's :open_mouth:

Damn it, fixed. Thanks for pointing it out, it's morning here and I need my coffee :D