Making the holosmith less selfish

[archmagus.7249]

So pretty much all of the skills in the holosmith's arsenal are for his/her own use. Here's some ideas to make holosmith more viable in a group setting.

 

Crystal configuration: Eclipse: Add nearby allies gain 50% of the barrier you receive.

 

Crystal configuration Zephyr: Hololeap leaves behind a holographic pad which gives allies superspeed and removes movement impairing conditions. Enemies which step on it are crippled.

 

Coolant blast. New functionality: Heal yourself and chill enemies within 240 radius. Above 50% heat, also heal allies and increase radius to 360 radius, above 100 heat, create ice field centered on the engineer, radius 360, and an explosion which is a blast finisher.

 

For the toolbelt, change cauterize to Cauterization Field. Centered on the caster, remove one condition from each ally within a 240 radius (max 5). For each condition removed (max 5), apply one stack of burning for 5 seconds. This skill recharges 5% faster for each condition removed. If activated above 50 heat, increase radius to 360, and burning duration by 2 seconds; the skill recharges 7%/10% faster (WvW/PvP)/(PvE) for each condition removed. If activated above 100 heat, gain fire shield when this skill is activated and increase radius to 480. This skill does not remove burning.

 

Spectrum Shield: I'll leave it as the only stun break it has, maybe add an additional 25% CD reduction above 100% heat.

 

Flash spark: No change below 50 heat. Above 50 heat, light aura to yourself and allies in 240 radius. Above 100 heat, increase light aura duration, remove a condition, and create a light field. Increase cast time by 1/4s

 

Hard light arena: Below 50 heat enemies entering or leaving the arena without stability will be crippled, above 50 heat enemies entering or leaving the arena will be knocked back, above 100 heat, add 1 stack of might per pulse.

 

Laser disk: This skill now lasts 10 seconds below 50 heat, dealing damage each second to enemies within 180 radius. If activated above 50% heat, it now deals 1 stack of bleed for 2 seconds every second, with a 50% chance for a whirl finisher per pulse. If activated above 100 heat, it deals 1 stack of bleed per half second, with guaranteed whirl finisher.

 

Photon Wall: Increase the distance between the engineer and the wall. Above 50 heat, increase radius to 180 degrees. Above 100 heat, increase wall radius to 360 degrees. For sequence skill, if above 100 heat, increase wall speed, and wall explosions are unblockable.

 

Particle Accelerator: Add above 100% heat now penetrates targets, giving superspeed to allies and knocking back enemies.

 

Prime light beam: Add above 100 heat, prime light beam fires 33% faster and leaves behind a fire field.

[Blood Red Arachnid.2493]

That is... a whole lot of buffs. Holo would be quite scary in PVP/WvW if we were to give them all of that.

 

Though, in a broad sense, Holosmiths aren't particularly selfish. The spec in a vacuum looks like it, but remember that basic Engineers already have a lot of support skills. Holosmiths do bring Hard Light Arena, which I've used to carry in fractals before. But, more importantly, the holosmith supports through controlling enemies. They have great CC skills, and a lot of disabling conditions. Keeping everything blind, crippled, vulnerable, and perpetually stunned has benefits that reverberate through to teammates.

[draxynnic.3719]

Nothing wrong with one specialisation being the selfish one, as long as there are other options that aren't. Selfishness is generally how you balance a profession which is really good at messing up the other side.

[Turkeyspit.3965]

It's all about how you build it though.

 

A 'meta' Dragonhunter is pretty selfish, with the exception of FMW, and yet Guardians have one of the most varied toolkits in the game with tons of support. You can build Holosmith to include all sorts of party utility - it's just a hit to your damage output, which is the same with Dragonhunter or anyone else, and why then most people don't do it.

 

I'd say Thief is the only really selfish profession, as it seems (at least to me) they are really light on utility skills that boost allies; venom share is about all I can think of.

 

[Wolfb.7025]

Protection holo wants to have a word with you.

[Infusion.7149]

Holo doesn't need these buffs in any game mode.

Why do you feel it needs these buffs?

 

[archmagus.7249]

> @"Infusion.7149" said:

> Holo doesn't need these buffs in any game mode.

> Why do you feel it needs these buffs?

>

 

Some of it doesn't fit the name, and I have heat I levels for each skill, which I thought was missing (seriously our elite pulses burn but isn't a fire field?) I also felt like laser disk deserved to have a finisher attached to it. Also, I want all exceed skills to have an over 100 effect.

[Kodama.6453]

> @"archmagus.7249" said:

> > @"Infusion.7149" said:

> > Holo doesn't need these buffs in any game mode.

> > Why do you feel it needs these buffs?

> >

>

> Some of it doesn't fit the name, and I have heat I levels for each skill, which I thought was missing (seriously our elite pulses burn but isn't a fire field?) I also felt like laser disk deserved to have a finisher attached to it. Also, I want all exceed skills to have an over 100 effect.

 

Laser disk shouldn't get whirl finishers since this is one of the differences between laser disk and shredder gyro from scrapper.

They are in general pretty similar skills, they both deal ticking damage in an AoE around you.

The differences between these 2 skills are:

 

* laser disk deals more damage: 6,0 / 9,0 (above 50 heat) power coefficient, shredder gyro's damage: 4,8 power coefficient

* shredder gyro has a bigger radius: 240 / 360 (if traited), laser disk's radius: 180

* shredder gyro has whirl finishers while laser disk doesn't

* shredder gyro has a shorter cd: 20s, laser disk's cd: 30s

 

I don't think we need to make these skills even more similar.

Also laser disk is already a strong skill as is, it is meta in power holosmith raid builds, which is no wonder if you look at the 9,0 power coefficient.

It **almost doubles** shredder gyro's damage, giving shredder gyro some more utility in exchange seems fine.

[Naxos.2503]

Holo can help quite a lot in support, provided the right utility skills are used.

 

Since 95% of the holosmith players (and I'm generous) run it as a damage machine, these skills are never picked.

https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Hard_Light_Arena

https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Photon_Wall

https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Particle_Accelerator

 

I know what you mean though : it's traits (and Engineer traits in general) dont benefit others passively. Engineer can be played as a support, and that can extended to Holosmith which can further help with Photon forge to get extra finishers to combo with fields that engineer already has at it's disposal. Engineer, contrary to many (if not all other classes) is an active support class. You're not benefitting to the group if you're not actively trying to benefit to the group. And unless you set up to do just that, you're just not going to.