Any hope for a PBM rework?

Hello guys,

after the unexpected tradeoff of loosing your toolbelts after overheating as holosmith (I still don't understand why since you already loose hp if you do it), I pretty much dropped engi as power class for fractals and raids and I'm sure that I'm not the only one.

Now we only have sword holo but the Rotation is not fun imo and it also lacks a lot of utility. Just compare the cc and burst with the rifle build for example. I couldn't care less if it the sword ESCU build will always be the stronger option for pure damage as long as I can get my old build back and bypass this nonsense they call tradeoff.

So what do you think? Any chance they might consider this? A few people already suggested this change so I was pretty sad when I read the notes of the incoming patch.

Best regards

I heard they're taking not only the belt but also our pants away, replacing them with oil slick, changing the graphic from black to brown, and renaming the new ability to 'LBM.' There is a silver lining, however. LBM will have synergy with the Explosives trait line. Might be just a rumour. Might not be. Who knows how these things get started?

@Iozeph.5617 said:I heard they're taking not only the belt but also our pants away, replacing them with oil slick, changing the graphic from black to brown, and renaming the new ability to 'LBM.' There is a silver lining, however. LBM will have synergy with the Explosives trait line. Might be just a rumour. Might not be. Who knows how these things get started?

Omg. :joy:

@Iozeph.5617 said:I heard they're taking not only the belt but also our pants away, replacing them with oil slick, changing the graphic from black to brown, and renaming the new ability to 'LBM.' There is a silver lining, however. LBM will have synergy with the Explosives trait line. Might be just a rumour. Might not be. Who knows how these things get started?

yes pls

@Iozeph.5617 said:I heard they're taking not only the belt but also our pants away, replacing them with oil slick, changing the graphic from black to brown, and renaming the new ability to 'LBM.' There is a silver lining, however. LBM will have synergy with the Explosives trait line. Might be just a rumour. Might not be. Who knows how these things get started?

I could get behind - in front of - this concept. Make it so!

Well any look into it would be appreciated. :>At least it would be used for memes.

I was desperately hoping that they would address the toolbelt lockout for PBM with this last balance patch but it's clearly not on their radar. It feels like they aren't even aware of the trait given that they never even mentioned it in the patch notes when it was most affected by the toolbelt lockout. As an engineer main it's really frustrating to me that they would nerf a fun trait that was already under-performing. Being locked out of my important toolbelt skills for half the rotation just robbed the rifle build of most of the depth that it had (And deleted the PBM sword builds). I can still make the build work okay dps-wise, but I often feel useless during break bars and it's never been as fun as it used to be. I really hope we get a fix someday, but I'm not expecting one. I just want my toolbelt skils back anet. :C

The newer ECSU build doesn't even come close to being a proper replacement for me. Sword just isn't as much fun and having to preheat without being able to leave photon forge and lock my heat is super annoying.

I hope so much for a change.

Since they changed this trait, the game is less fun to me.I completley agree, the sword rotation is not fun and lacks utility.Looking at the empty toolbelt skills after overheating is so frustrating.

If they dont want to revert this change fully, maybe they could change the duration of the toolbelt lockout after overheating for lets say to 3-4 secondsinstead of the whole cooling down period. Would still be bad because there is still the life loss from overheating.Just spitballing here.

At the very least give toolbelt skills back to PvE where it mattered more for the DPS rotation.

One saving grace is that with a little fancy timing, since your toolbelt skills are 25, 30, and 25 seconds of cooldown, you should be able to cast them during forge every time, and I think they only come off cooldown a couple seconds before you re-enter it. Sketchy and not as fun; oddly I always preferred sword/pistol and hated rifle, was happy when s/p became meta, and only now am i starting to play and enjoy the previous rifle meta

@Aooogah.1673I don't want to be forced to use every toolbet skill right before overheating, especially stuff like big old bomb or your f1 from AED or something.

And forcing you to spam autoattacks until finally the boss gets the breakbar... yeah well that just sucks in my eyes. Might be overthinking on that Part.

Also their Solution was bad in general. I mean a 37,5% modifier for sword users? Anyway I just wait for one more balance patch to see what happens. The thoughts and ideas of the Balance Team make no sense lately (just look at IP for chronos, which will never come back now with the new seize the Moment trait or the shade rework for necromancers which is just as bad implemented as the overheat punishment).

@anbujackson.9564I am okay with using toolbelts specifically during the forge since that strategy is used in the sword/pistol rotation to delay heat generation and make it easier to get the second corona burst out, but I agree with you that since so much of your CC does come from the toolbelt, the fact that you happen to be able to use the toolbelt skills once per forge doesn't make up for not being able to use them for roughly half of your rotation in my eyes.

@"Waldrun.8493" said:I was desperately hoping that they would address the toolbelt lockout for PBM with this last balance patch but it's clearly not on their radar. It feels like they aren't even aware of the trait given that they never even mentioned it in the patch notes when it was most affected by the toolbelt lockout. As an engineer main it's really frustrating to me that they would nerf a fun trait that was already under-performing. Being locked out of my important toolbelt skills for half the rotation just robbed the rifle build of most of the depth that it had (And deleted the PBM sword builds). I can still make the build work okay dps-wise, but I often feel useless during break bars and it's never been as fun as it used to be. I really hope we get a fix someday, but I'm not expecting one. I just want my toolbelt skils back anet. :C

The newer ECSU build doesn't even come close to being a proper replacement for me. Sword just isn't as much fun and having to preheat without being able to leave photon forge and lock my heat is super annoying.

It isn't that Anet isn't aware of PBM. Anet wanted it dead, and are happy that its carcass is rotting in the rain. Look at the series of events:

New changes get announced, players complain it will kill holosmith.Anet implements changes, and kills holosmith. Players complain.Anet implements buffs specific to ECSU sword builds. Holosmith still ruined. Players complain.Anet implements a few very specific PVE related changes to traits. Holosmith is finally on the map again, but only the ECSU build.After months of feedback of players saying they hate that PBM is worthless, next update no changes have been made to make PBM better.

The intentions are clear. Anet doesn't want the PBM builds to be meta, or even useful anywhere. Their intention is that holosmith players have to constantly watch and manage their heat bar, or else. Because that is "skill." They're not going to fix PBM.

@Blood Red Arachnid.2493 said:

@"Waldrun.8493" said:I was desperately hoping that they would address the toolbelt lockout for PBM with this last balance patch but it's clearly not on their radar. It feels like they aren't even aware of the trait given that they never even mentioned it in the patch notes when it was most affected by the toolbelt lockout. As an engineer main it's really frustrating to me that they would nerf a fun trait that was already under-performing. Being locked out of my important toolbelt skills for half the rotation just robbed the rifle build of most of the depth that it had (And deleted the PBM sword builds). I can still make the build work okay dps-wise, but I often feel useless during break bars and it's never been as fun as it used to be. I really hope we get a fix someday, but I'm not expecting one. I just want my toolbelt skils back anet. :C

The newer ECSU build doesn't even come close to being a proper replacement for me. Sword just isn't as much fun and having to preheat without being able to leave photon forge and lock my heat is super annoying.

It would be sad if that was true, but I can't say I'm convinced of that. Outside of not doing the specific fix required to fully revive the PBM builds there isn't really any evidence that they intend for the trait to be in the crappy, incoherent state that it is now. They never even mentioned PBM in notes for the patch that ruined it and described the toolbelt lockout as a "slight increase to the penalty for overheating" which is ridiculous thing to say if completely ruining PBM was their objective.

Since there wasn't exactly a huge uproar on the forums about PBM (well, nothing compared to the recent sand shade changes anyway), it's easy to see them not paying attention to it. Also, the Laser's Edge buff that disproportionately benefited the ECSU build did partially revive the PBM rifle build too, so while the utility/flexibility is still crippled by the lockout, it's not completly dead DPS-wise. While they haven't made their intentions for PBM clear at all, I think it's more likely that they aren't trying to remove it from play.

That's not to say that I expect a fix or anything, but I'm not going to entirely rule it out either. I just feel that if they hated PBM as much as you say they would have just replaced it entirely (please no) or at least addressed it in the patch-notes. I still lean toward viewing the gutting of PBM as collateral damage of the toolbelt lockout, which was just the balance team's (completely unnecessary) attempt at forcing a new trade-off into holosmith like they have done with other elite specs lately. There may be some hope of a fix for PBM, just not much as they are probably don't care about it and are just going to ignore this thread like most of the other ideas/complaints. I do agree that if we we're going to get a fix, it probably would have happened last patch.