What are your impressions with Holosmith now PoF is out?

[Hawks.5736]

> @Heatsink.5794 said:

> Having to toggle holo mode off and on made me hate it after about thirty minutes. The whole setup seems clunky since I didn't want yet another cooldown to manage. But the damage in holo mode is really good. I wish they'd streamline the design and lose the clunk and the toggling. Not to mention, let engineers swap weapons so I can use the (currently super weak) rifle when needed.

 

If anyone's having trouble getting used to Holosmith I would recommend taking Light Density Amplifier and Photonic Blasting Module (or Enhanced Capacity) and just activate Photon Forge at the start of a fight, spam skills, and letting Forge pop. Just spend some time getting used to Sword and your other new skills, don't worry about stance dancing and managing heat until you're comfortable with the rest of the new skills.

 

I would also then take Inventions to get Over Shield (using a shield obv), Mecha Legs and Bunker Down. This is because with the increased crit on sword auto when over the heat threshold you crit like crazy for a while and proc a ton of mines and health kits off Bunker Down.

 

 

[MrForz.1953]

I remained Viper and ran with rocket boots, a flamethrower and whatever for the 3rd slot. It's not exactly a dps increase, but the burst damage is demential. It also feels very glassy too.

 

 

> @StarlightBreaker.8512 said:

> Feels very strong. Been running it in my Vipers gear from Core Engi build. Still pretty good. Wondering if the Grieving stat set will be a good fit for it (or the lack of Expertise will destroy us).

 

You could work around it. Use a full grieving set and add a smoldering sigil + balthazar runes to nearly fully compensate for the lack of expertise.

 

 

[Nate.8146]

It's a good class and I'm enjoying it for its speed in combat. It feels good to melt mobs, but I guess this is what DPS professions have been enjoying since the game's release. It feels good to keep the combat momentum moving along and I find the survivability is there if you play your cards right. However, if you have a nuclear meltdown because you forgot to cool down, it can dramatically change the situation of the fight. Photon Blitz is the bread and butter of this class though. Combined with other forms of burn and dmg/+bleeds from your disk, things start to melt when those two go off.

 

So far there's only two things I don't like. The new heal toolkit skill that trades 2 - 4 conditions for 2 -4 stacks of burn. Ehh... If it were not for the bonuses of coolant blast when over the heat threshold, I'd likely stick to healing turret. The jury is still out however. The sword also feels really slow and lackluster, but I think that's more of a side effect to just how fast and more engaging photon forge is. It's like going from a kit to a riffle. Suddenly everything slows down and gets a little uninteresting.

 

 

[Mally.6298]

They phoned it in when it came to the toolbelt skills.

[Anthony.7630]

Any one try assassain armor ? Its like 69% crit chance 202% crit damage and 1900 max power (which is a little low) but with sword you can get 100% crit chance.

 

Mix and match with berserker gear and be a death machine.

 

I feel holosmith has good base valuez but not a lot of power scaling. Not sure on condi so i don't know.

[Rhomulos.2089]

> @Heatsink.5794 said:

> Having to toggle holo mode off and on made me hate it after about thirty minutes. The whole setup seems clunky since I didn't want yet another cooldown to manage. But the damage in holo mode is really good. I wish they'd streamline the design and lose the clunk and the toggling. Not to mention, let engineers swap weapons so I can use the (currently super weak) rifle when needed.

 

Rifle isn't weak, it has ridiculous burst. blunderbuss + jump shot and fill with bomb auto, staple engi power dps since day 1.

[Unholy Pillager.3791]

> @Rhomulos.2089 said:

> > @Heatsink.5794 said:

> > Having to toggle holo mode off and on made me hate it after about thirty minutes. The whole setup seems clunky since I didn't want yet another cooldown to manage. But the damage in holo mode is really good. I wish they'd streamline the design and lose the clunk and the toggling. Not to mention, let engineers swap weapons so I can use the (currently super weak) rifle when needed.

>

> Rifle isn't weak, it has ridiculous burst. blunderbuss + jump shot and fill with bomb auto, staple engi power dps since day 1.

 

On day 1 grenade kit was still vastly better than bomb because of the ludicrous amount of vulnerability stacking, or so I recall. Back then it also had 1500 range when traited.

[Rhomulos.2089]

> @"Unholy Pillager.3791" said:

> > @Rhomulos.2089 said:

> > > @Heatsink.5794 said:

> > > Having to toggle holo mode off and on made me hate it after about thirty minutes. The whole setup seems clunky since I didn't want yet another cooldown to manage. But the damage in holo mode is really good. I wish they'd streamline the design and lose the clunk and the toggling. Not to mention, let engineers swap weapons so I can use the (currently super weak) rifle when needed.

> >

> > Rifle isn't weak, it has ridiculous burst. blunderbuss + jump shot and fill with bomb auto, staple engi power dps since day 1.

>

> On day 1 grenade kit was still vastly better than bomb because of the ludicrous amount of vulnerability stacking, or so I recall. Back then it also had 1500 range when traited.

 

Grenade was short lived, I shouldn't say since day 1 but the majority of the GW2 bomb was superior for personal DPS. Grenade only shined at stacking vuln back then after that. The 1500 range was also more of a QoL than anything else.

[Vladish.3940]

I Love it. Kinda odd, feeling like a tank while in full zerker, but hey, I will never complain about more survivability. I finally found a melee class I can enjoy. The only thing I would love as much as I love Holo is if they fixed turrets, but that's just me :P

[stone cold.8609]

Really like it! I'm currently in all vipers gear and am doing extremely well in PvE. Kind of surprising, since I thought Holo would be better with power gear. I think that something like Grievers may be the right stat for this spec (anyone know where to get it?). Both PP and SP work equally well with this condi set up (Firearms/Tools/Holo, all Holo utilities). Lots of damage, however, still trying to see if the sustain/survivability is enough. Be warned, it plays nothing like the base engineer and feels a lot more like playing a warrior, a flashy techo-warrior! My Asura definitely approves.

[coglin.1496]

> @Heatsink.5794 said:

> Having to toggle holo mode off and on made me hate it after about thirty minutes. The whole setup seems clunky since I didn't want yet another cooldown to manage. But the damage in holo mode is really good. I wish they'd streamline the design and lose the clunk and the toggling. Not to mention, let engineers swap weapons so I can use the (currently super weak) rifle when needed.

 

Perhaps you could offer some suggestions as to how to streamline and remove your declared "clunkiness". Aimless complaining while avoiding constructive feedback is pointless.

[Arimas.3492]

> @coglin.1496 said:

> > @Heatsink.5794 said:

> > Having to toggle holo mode off and on made me hate it after about thirty minutes. The whole setup seems clunky since I didn't want yet another cooldown to manage. But the damage in holo mode is really good. I wish they'd streamline the design and lose the clunk and the toggling. Not to mention, let engineers swap weapons so I can use the (currently super weak) rifle when needed.

>

> Perhaps you could offer some suggestions as to how to streamline and remove your declared "clunkiness". Aimless complaining while avoiding constructive feedback is pointless.

 

It took a minute to get used to for me but once I did Forge just feels like another kit. Its easy to go into and combos really well within itself (at least with power, haven't tried condi yet) and I've gotten used to using the Forge to set up other combos as well (like using the the HLA toolbelt pull and then the shockwave to stun them and then grenade barrage or photon blitz for big damage).

 

IMO I don't think its clunky and it feels like another kit with a timer.

[Karmic.5964]

At times I feel like a Jedi, so long as I’m not phoning it in. If I’m not 100% on my game, I’m dead. I definitely don’t have the build down, and I need to re-rune my stuffs. Overall, it’s either crazy fun, or fun sapping. Imo

[Vagrant.7206]

Now that I've had more time to play it, I can safely say that...

 

Core engineer is better in PvE. Scrapper is better in PvP. And I don't care about WvW.

[NiBlack.3149]

I found Holosmith to being very bad for PoF stuff... mostly to CC spam of some mobs, over inflated HP compared to dmg dealt. Beside engi still lack real ranged option (I don't count grenades, rifle, mortar, even trait that chnges your forge AA to "range" acceptable)... Isn't it funny that technical class have one of the weaker ranged abilities...

 

I found that Holosmith PoF is soo much unfun that i just got my thief and destroy everything with dual pistols (When i think about it I don't even need deadeye to do it).

 

Maybe holosmith find it way to the raids, but when I hear about other specialisations then I don't have high hopes for it being meta (Maybe another simple enough rotation option for not messing stuff enough and have high dps).

[Adamantium.3682]

> @NiBlack.3149 said:

> I found Holosmith to being very bad for PoF stuff... mostly to CC spam of some mobs, over inflated HP compared to dmg dealt. Beside engi still lack real ranged option (I don't count grenades, rifle, mortar, even trait that chnges your forge AA to "range" acceptable)... Isn't it funny that technical class have one of the weaker ranged abilities...

>

> I found that Holosmith PoF is soo much unfun that i just got my thief and destroy everything with dual pistols (When i think about it I don't even need deadeye to do it).

>

> Maybe holosmith find it way to the raids, but when I hear about other specialisations then I don't have high hopes for it being meta (Maybe another simple enough rotation option for not messing stuff enough and have high dps).

 

Have you checked out the last few posts of the Holosmith Builds thread? People have been posting what is working well for them there, and I personally I haven't had any of the issues you're describing using the build I posted (I'm using all Berserker now, no Grieving).

 

I'm running a very glassy build in POF and I don't find many problems surviving. If anything it's fairing better than any core/Scrapper build I could make because I can open every combat with Corona Burst which I trait for stability and barrier, then follow it up with Holographic Shockwave for CC. No other Engi build comes close to that much damage/Stability/CC all in the first couple seconds of combat. By that point normal mobs are practically dead and I have a good start on Vets/Elites.

 

Another general tip I can give is to get the Jackal and start fights with that if you find yourself dying a lot. It gives you a ton of barrier.

[Rhomulos.2089]

To everyone having trouble, run alchemy with elixir B and U. Keeping your might at 25 solo balances out the extra survivability you get. Run zerker or viper gear, you'll melt everything and won't be as glassy as a pure dps build. Run with firearms as well.

[Dahkeus.8243]

I've been running this and while it's glassy, I found that it survives well enough as long as I'm wise in my active use of HLA/Spectrum Shield:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vdAQJAsanUUBVIjlID2IDcJjl3Cr/MuGjjfPoJUAAsD9hSLA-jRBPwAB1DAYDAQK/epEsr6PAA-e

 

I still find Scrapper to be the best for open world with this build since the amount of passive boons that you upkeep, including stability, makes everything a cake-walk, but for now, Holo is more fun: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vdAQFASnUUB1ahFpC+dBEqil7ii+2j9cHsBjwAYcLOxPD-jBBXgAPKBB2fU+FqjoX9HA-e

[displacedTitan.6897]

Holo is quite bad actually, it's very simple as to why. We jump through hoops for PF and it still does less than most of the other classes without those hoops. ANet messed up big time with the numbers on Holo skills and since balance patches are so rare and they only ever nerf Engi (2 years+ of scrapper nerfs) I doubt I'll be sticking around long with this Xpack.

[insanemaniac.2456]

> @displacedTitan.6897 said:

> Holo is quite bad actually, it's very simple as to why. We jump through hoops for PF and it still does less than most of the other classes without those hoops. ANet messed up big time with the numbers on Holo skills and since balance patches are so rare and they only ever nerf Engi (2 years+ of scrapper nerfs) I doubt I'll be sticking around long with this Xpack.

 

try firebrand, tomes make it feel kinda like holo or scrapper (but not quite the level of kit engi), but the dps doesnt suck. even after nerfs it should still be not bad and much easier to play.

[Blood Red Arachnid.2493]

Right now, my biggest issue is that for the most part the holosmith doesn't do much other than damage. Holo skills 1-4 are basically just damage, the sword skills just do more damage, the utilities either reduce damage or do more damage. The only two notable skills are Prismatic Singularity and Photon Wall. The spec is very selfish otherwise. At least with shield off-hand and holo 5 it has a lot of CC.

 

This poses a fairly big problem. If the only thing your build can do is damage, then it had better be pretty good at doing damage. But, Holosmith is currently doing less damage than most other elite specializations, which do damage and have additional utilities.

 

 

EDIT: I posted [this](https://en-forum.guildwars2.com/discussion/comment/153077/#Comment_153077 "this") on another thread, but it bears repeating here.

[Unholy Pillager.3791]

Shield needs a buff, _badly_.