Holosmith Relative DPS

[Eastcorn.5901]

So, usually I'm not one for whiny hyperbole but does anyone else find it kind of a downer that our DPS elite spec is the only spec in the game that can kill itself, but does not rank among the highest classes in terms of DPS.

I mean, if we go too hard we hurt ourselves, and photon forge demands us to be melee. We also don't provide much in the way of support. I really think we should have DPS that is on equal grounds with Elementalist and what Thief SHOULD be.

I'm not happy that the latest rounds of buffs still did not increase our DPS significantly. Sword still being worse than rifle/bomb kit is still a travesty.

This isn't a problem if a balance patch was going to happen again soon but we'll probably have to wait a few months, so...

[Lunateric.3708]

At this point the only way to make sword better than bomb kit without buffing it again is to either make PBM baseline or to rework how heat bonuses apply to sword. Either way most of the reason sword is a meme still is it doesn't synergize with PBM and PBM is too strong to ignore. There's also the fact rifle is naturally more damaging because it boosts toolbelt skills by about 15% more than sword. Either way we may have to wait yet 3 more months for anything to change...

[Eastcorn.5901]

The tool-belt damage scaling needs to be sorted out by Anet.

But, we could let sword auto-attack be stronger than Bomb Kit auto-attack even at 0 heat, and stronger above the heat thresholds. The benefits of Bomb Kit should be the AoE potential and the Combo Fields, not raw damage. Raw damage can belong to the sword. There's nothing wrong with that. It still would not synergize with PBM, but it would at least still be the go-to if Anet fixes the tool-belt damage scaling.

Even if we are stuck auto-attacking with bomb kit, we should at least STILL be one of the highest DPS specs given the risks we need to take to deal damage.

[Lunateric.3708]

I agree the spec isn't being properly balanced around the fact it does damage to itself but buffing sword further may not be the best course of action, my main concern is we don't really know what devs want with Holosmith :/

[Rezzet.3614]

@Lunateric.3708 said:I agree the spec isn't being properly balanced around the fact it does damage to itself but buffing sword further may not be the best course of action, my main concern is we don't really know what devs want with Holosmith :/

devs havent had a clue on what to do with engi as a whole for over 5 years

[Kalibri.5861]

@Lunateric.3708 said:I agree the spec isn't being properly balanced around the fact it does damage to itself but buffing sword further may not be the best course of action, my main concern is we don't really know what devs want with Holosmith :/

Agreed on all counts. For starters though, I'd like to see heat mechanics added to the rest of our limited set of weapons. I think it would give the devs another avenue to balance the spec and would also give players more choice and diversity when running holo.

[Vagrant.7206]

@Rezzet.3614 said:

@Lunateric.3708 said:I agree the spec isn't being properly balanced around the fact it does damage to itself but buffing sword further may not be the best course of action, my main concern is we don't really know what devs want with Holosmith :/

devs havent had a clue on what to do with engi as a whole for over 5 years

The weird thing though is that they can treat the elite specs as classes unto themselves, and holosmith is STILL bad by relative comparison. High risk, low reward when compared against other specs.

[Atmaweapon.7345]

Engi sword is actually comparably better than a lot of other professions' sword chain, it's just that Bomb kit has an insane 1.25 power multiplier that still can't keep up with other profession mechanics.

I highly disagree with giving each weapon a set of heat effects though. That would just be a headache, amounts to "Is X% better above 50 heat" and would completely warp Engi dps around Holosmith. Laser's Edge is a good enough bonus for being in Heat up status, it's just that things like Enhanced capacity storage unit and Sword being based around this one trait make it not up to par.

Sword needs some of ECSU's Heat bonuses baked in while ECSU needs a rework to its gimmick. ECSU could, for example, increase attack speed by 25% instead of granting might, making it much better when group buffs are covered while removal of the third heat tier gimmick would let Sword be balanced accordingly.

[Vagrant.7206]

@Atmaweapon.7345 said:Engi sword is actually comparably better than a lot of other professions' sword chain, it's just that Bomb kit has an insane 1.25 power multiplier that still can't keep up with other profession mechanics.

Honestly, engineer has possibly the worst weapon skills of any class in the game. The closest it gets to decent is the scrapper hammer. Every other class can auto for a decent amount of damage, but we have to camp bomb kit/grenade kit to get close.