Suggesting Holosmith PBM buffs based on Nov 29 balance preview

[Wolfb.7025]

Hello, i'm a very dedicated Rifle Holosmith player, after seeing the patch notes previews I noticed most of the buffs are planned for the Sword's Enhanced Capacity Storage Unit build, my biggest concern is that with all these changes, it's gonna turn Photon Blasting Module builds completely obsolete in comparison to ECSU. so I'm here to bring some suggestions on how to buff PBM.

 

Photon Blasting Module:  Remove the 5 second toolbelt cooldown penalty: what makes PBM builds decent is that it had good burst (right now sword holo has even bigger burst). Removing the 5 sec cooldown penalty would allow the holosmith to use it's toolbelt skills more often to keep up with ECSU sword damage builds. If it's possible, instead make exploding with PBM reduce the cooldowns of all toolbelt skills to allow the holosmith to use the abilities more often, giving it a good reason to choose PBM (2 to 5 seconds of cooldown reduction would be fine in my opinion, 5 seconds flat when exploding, or 2 seconds per target hit with the explosion, any of the two).

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30 Nov Edit:

-Let the holo get the full benefit of Exceed Skills (and I mean the 100 heat bonuses) as long as they have the Overheat debuff when they have PBM selected.

-Aditional to Strike Damage % gained by Laser's Edge, give the same amount as condi damage with PBM equiped.

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Solar Focusing Lens: Up the damage increase from 10% to 20 or 30%, PBM holo uses this special boon really well by deactivating photon force after Corona Burst into Blunderbuss for that dmg increase on both Rifle 2 and the second hit of Corona Burst, and timing Jump Shot and Rifle 2 after overheating. WIth the DMG increase of Solar Focusing Lens it would benefit PBM Build more than ECSU holo, since ECSU is based on small damage multi hitting abilities.

 

Heat Theresold Ability bonuses: Right now there is a possible bug where bonuses from the heat theresold doesn't apply if the holosmith has exactly 50 heat, the holosmith needs to be above 51 heat in order to get the benefit of the heat theresold. now that the patch preview showed more bonuses for 100 heat, my biggest concern is that it's gonna happen the same for PBM builds where it will be unable to proc the 100 heat bonuses since it's gonna actually need 101 heat.  Alternatively you can make it so all Exceed skills and their corresponding toolbelt skills give the full benefit of 100 heat theresold bonuses while having the overheat status with PBM trait selected.

Here is a video example of the bug:

 

 

Edited December 1, 2022 by Wolfb.7025

[HnRkLnXqZ.1870]

They do not even touch PBM with this patch, but you do not want any other build to perform better? Build diversity, yes. But only if the alternatives are trash?

[Alcatraznc.3869]

We'll have to see.

 

PBM is a double edged sword, you should be doing overall more burst damage but at the same time if you mess up you die. I do want to see PBM back in the meta for Holosmith along side ESCU

[Wolfb.7025]

More buff suggestions for Photon Blasting Module:

 

-Let the holo get the full benefit of Exceed Skills (and I mean the 100 heat bonuses) as long as they have the Overheat debuff when they have PBM selected.

-Aditional to Strike Damage % gained by Laser's Edge, give the same amount as condi damage with PBM equiped.

 

[Kodama.6453]

8 hours ago, Wolfb.7025 said:

-Let the holo get the full benefit of Exceed Skills (and I mean the 100 heat bonuses) as long as they have the Overheat debuff when they have PBM selected.

Have to disagree on that. Getting these boni is basically the entire appeal of ECSU. ECSU increases the damage modifier from the photon forge, but that damage modifier has way less uptime than on PBM, so PBM is using it more efficiently. And the might you get from ECSU is neglectable, especially in group content where the team contributes to might anyway.

Instead of giving ECSU's niche to PBM, I would improve the actual strengths of PBM. For example, we could increase the damage coefficient of the explosion in PvE. 5,0 is not that impressive anymore, especially for an attack with so many drawbacks (putting toolbelt skills on 5 seconds cd, locking us out of photon forge for a prolonged time, dealing 1/4th of your total health as damage to yourself).

Maybe increase the coefficient to 8,0 in PvE and look where that lands us?

[Doggie.3184]

Most technology nowadays are designed to shut off when they overheat. My Engi should have designed something like that so it shuts off instead of explode into fire and hurt himself. Would be nice if they removed either the self-damage or the cooldown penalty. Having both is just too much.