Holosmith Weapon choice?

Been playing Holosmith in PvE but want to get into wvw/small scale roaming etc. Heard people play with rifle, pistol/shield or sword/shield.Which would be the preferred set of weapons for all around wvw/roaming content and why?

I just run rifle for everything... It's the weapon that can deal damage from afar while I'm not on Photon Forge. Often you'll see P+Sh holos on WvW tho because they rather have a more defensive approach. But they barely do any damage outside Photon Forge like that.

Sword is just clunky and reduntant since Photon Forge is already melee.

@Jeknar.6184 said:I just run rifle for everything... It's the weapon that can deal damage from afar while I'm not on Photon Forge. Often you'll see P+Sh holos on WvW tho because they rather have a more defensive approach. But they barely do any damage outside Photon Forge like that.

Sword is just clunky and reduntant since Photon Forge is already melee.

Ah I see! Thanks for the quick answer!Think I'll have to try rifle more. I like the playstyle of sw/sh more but I agree that it's just not needed with the melee range.

Rifle always felt a bit clunky to me but it has a lot of great value now that I think about it. Thanks man!

@Jeknar.6184 said:I just run rifle for everything... It's the weapon that can deal damage from afar while I'm not on Photon Forge. Often you'll see P+Sh holos on WvW tho because they rather have a more defensive approach. But they barely do any damage outside Photon Forge like that.

Sword is just clunky and reduntant since Photon Forge is already melee.

Agree with above. I use Rifle always. I tried the Pistol/Shield build. Didnt like it all. the damage is poor outside of Photon Forge as @Jeknar.6184 said. Rifle has good damage, hard CC, immobilize and a good leap/damage skill with Rifle 5. So you can keep the pressure on while waiting for Forge to cool down or even use it to kite away and range attack.

@Zpac.9015 said:

@Jeknar.6184 said:I just run rifle for everything... It's the weapon that can deal damage from afar while I'm not on Photon Forge. Often you'll see P+Sh holos on WvW tho because they rather have a more defensive approach. But they barely do any damage outside Photon Forge like that.

Sword is just clunky and reduntant since Photon Forge is already melee.

Rifle is, overall, a stronger weapon than sword/shield. It has superior range and movement. You can use it to interrupt in a way that you won't get with the sword/shield combo and despite the fact that shield is a defensive weapon the defensive options offered to rifle will get you further in most cases.

Always been a big rifle fan but been running pistol/shield lately. Nothing deals damage like photon forge so I rely on it to burst enemies down and have a more defensive weapon set when I'm waiting for it to cool down. Having the shield especially helps surviving outnumbered fights as it completely negates damage taken.

I just carry everything with me, but depending on what kind of builds I encounter, I will favor certain weapons. In terms of being a holo, photonf is my main weapon and everything else just becomes supplementary, so if I'm feeling defensive I just use x/shield, if not, rifle for everything else (also cos predator is one of the only legendaries I have hehe). In the last two weeks I've been using sword/shield though for the quickness. Without that quickness I find it harder in outnumbered fights, I guess that's my crutch hehe.

I like the sword for its look, but the sword feels like an underwhelming mini forge. Shield has its moments, it has cc and can be used to block nasty attacks, but rifle would have allowed you to cc while not having to block those attacks in the first place. If rifle got the same damage buff sword gets when you're over 50% heat sword would be completely pointless, instead of suboptimal. (Still, being able to carry an Iron Legion Shield is a nice extra.)

Holosmith is a good example of a great spec with lackluster spec related weapon. The Cutting Edge is a great weapon for the thematic HOLO look, but that's where it ends. Engineer seems to be forced to use the Rifle most of the time since its the only long range option. The problem I have with it is that I hate the Rifle skills. They are themed and work more like a shotgun instead of a rifle. So when I use a cool looking rifle it just feels and looks... "Wrong".

@"Revan.2015" said:Holosmith is a good example of a great spec with lackluster spec related weapon. The Cutting Edge is a great weapon for the thematic HOLO look, but that's where it ends. Engineer seems to be forced to use the Rifle most of the time since its the only long range option. The problem I have with it is that I hate the Rifle skills. They are themed and work more like a shotgun instead of a rifle. So when I use a cool looking rifle it just feels and looks... "Wrong".

I'm a casual OPvE player, and even I have to agree with this. I ended up swapping specs back to scrapper from holo because of the overall lackluster feel in my environment. I had truly wanted holo to be ... more.

I usually run Sword/Shield or Rifle. I know some that go for Pistol/Shield. I don't know anybody uses Sword/Pistol outside of for roleplay reasons. I don't agree with what people are saying above about it being a weaker Holoforge, though I understand what they mean. Running with Enhanced Capacity, you really get a lot out of Sword.

It highly depends on your build in my opinion.I really enjoy sword/shield for melee oriented builds. Then I use enhanced capacity and you get a lot of quickness of 3 and quite some damage out of 1&2. Also having 5 projectile finishers at once is neat. For example close-combat >100% sword-2 in light field can cleanse 5 conditions in addition to its effect. The shield is also nice for repeated melee stun or pushing multiples foes away.Rifle is a great match for SD-builds and builds you stay at range, push in with forge and then keep range again. CC is only single-target and only 3/5 are no-projectile. In my opinion mostly a roamer-weapon for duells and small group fights.I have no Idea why pistol/shield might be good... maybe someone can explain that. ^^ As far as I know, for condition builds you want pistol-4. Aside from that, all attacks are projectiles, so against most enemies (that have reflect or block against projectiles) you will not be using it anyway. pistol-3 only is nice against 2 close standing targets and pistol-2 misses half its shots unless fired on point. I also once heared that EG-1 is better than P-1 regarding bleeding... So, for condition based holo-builds My pick would be either p/p or rifle...

@Dediggefedde.4961 said:It highly depends on your build in my opinion.

+1 on that

I run all weapons (rifle, sw/sh, p/sh, p/p) in WvW, depending on the build I am using and all have their strenghts and weaknesses.Example: I complement sword/shield with elixir gun for range and Mortar Kit for the Blind, Freeze and Poison field.