I Tried DPS HOLOSMITH in Guild Wars 2 - Thoughts

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[@Jawastew]

As a longtime overheater.. err Holosmith enjoyer, I very much agree with the Helldivers reference. I never knew you couldn't exit Holoforge when the skill flipped, that's too early to leave forge anyway! From my experience it's a lot more satisfying to keep your heat between 100 and 150.. You enter around (never over) 100, forge 3 -> 4, throw some utility and F skills and when you're in the red, you press 3 again and immediately exit forge. This is because forge 3 has some delayed heating, taking you up to exactly 150! And when you pull that off is when the enjoyment of playing this hits you :D You didn't fly close enough to the sun, Muk! :D

[@The_Turtle_Academy]

With practice, getting up to 150 after leaving the forge comes easy Enter forge at 75% heat, press 3, 4 auto, then 3 after the F5 flips and exit forge It also keeps you at 150 for a few seconds instead of going back down instantly, giving you more time to throw your F2-3-4, laser discs and 1-2-3 skills

[@user-hs9in1wi7e]

Oh, that's clever, the forge 3 + exit combo, thanks for the tipp!

[@Mister5597]

This really is the way to use Sword ECSU, pre-heat and keep 75-90% heat before engaging the boss > F5 > 3 > 4 > all damaging utility skills above 100% > 3 > F5. Out of photon forge rotation is just using sword 2 > grenade kit 2 4 5 leave > auto attacks. For more explanation, Laser Disk and Prime Light Beam both have a massive damage modifier when used above 100% heat, on top of that the minor holosmith trait Laser's Edge gives every skill another massive damage modifier when you are above 100% heat and photon forge is active to give your utility skills more damage. The burst is satisfying! For someone just learning the class and is scared of using corona burst (photon forge 3rd skill) before leaving photon forge, you can always cooldown a bit more and activate photon forge at around 60-75% heat, its just more optimal to enter forge at 90% but not a deal breaker to do it at a bit lower heat.

[@gabrielpelegrini6135]

The visual glitch is due to the legendary gloves skin you are using. The perfected envoy skins does that to some infusions too

[@TheSithHugo]

Nice test Muk! Interesting to see the review of a non experienced player on this build. I’ll just add a few notes. General notes : - Holo is really frustrating to get into due to being punished hard when doing things wrong. Even when you are really used to it, you’ll overheat sometimes (specially if you are greedy, i mean you play Holo…). So if you just try it, don’t discourage yourself, the more you play it the more interesting it is to play. - Holo has a lor of variety. Escu is the « classic » option but PBM is really easy to get into as you are free to choose when you overheat to get big dam. Trv is also fun but not that viable in Group Content due tu having to burn dodges to maintain damage. - Condi Holo is also a really good option if you like to piano piano. It’s really hard to play but really skill relevant imo, getting the most out of it is really hard and rewarding. Play this if you are a degenerate or if you want to laugh at Weavers complaining about their class complixity. About the build : - It’s really bursty and manageable. Being used to heat management and knowing the fight well allow you to throw your burst at every opening phase in a fight (AH, WoJ, Fractals…), rewarding you with really high dps. - You said that the build has almost no CC and it is wrong. You have plenty of soft CC first (p5, nade 34, Particle Accelerator and sw3) and some hard CC even with nades (DEA, Forge 5, PLB). Can also take mines or even shield if it is not sufficient at the cost of dps. - it offers all the utility of Engineer if you want to (Heal Turret, Pbr, boonstrip…) and has plenty of good tools build into his kit as personal superseed or a bit of barrier, 2 leaps, good add management, a bit range of dps, AED, and Photon wall is amazing if you can time it well. - using Corona Burst at 140/150 heat won’t overheat you if you leave the forge as soon as the skill has been casted. - Using Laser Disk at 95 will proc the duration buff, and if you enter forge after and go beyond 100 heat, damage will scale with the 100+ heat buff (doesn’t work with Photon wall tho) - Your objective is out of forge is to get 3 sw2 at 100+ heat before entering forge again. Sw2 is always followed by Nade 2! - Use DEA if you hava problems maintining Fireworks relic. - Always try to combo Photon Wall -> Grenade Barrage -> Release photon wall as the cooldowns are the same. - Skipping Corona burst if you feel like you will overheat is less of a dps loss than being greedy and overheating. And please, try Condi Holo

[@huna7a]

Female Asura Engi - the best combo! I use power holo to farm the fractal dailies and find joy while doing so.

[@Nex123]

to be fair, if you're stacking together in a group, you can't see if you're low, medium or high heat. As an engi player, I don't use that visual. I just know which skills will give me extra heat and when to go down lower than 75 heat during phases that require CC so I can use the CC skill and not go overheat

[@obsidianchilly]

Main Engi so i play Holo a lot. Not a pro so I don't have lots of tips but I did notice you never detonated your mine toolkit skill - it's just sitting there. If the boss is stationary (or if you practice on a golem) you have to trigger it yourself as it will not walk over them.

[@rektek2493]

Also you have to detonate it instantly as unlike the Throw Mine skill itself, the cooldown only starts going down once detonated.

[@kumamarru5492]

Big Tip for Holo Enjoyers. Always Try to use Crona(Virus) Burst immediately before leaving forge. It will slowly fill the bar even after you leave forge, so you can cap out your heat without risk of overheating. This is important because Holo does more damage the higher heat it has. Even outside of forge.

[@baronoke5432]

2:22 Some Power Holosmith builds take Photon Wall not for the skill itself, but for the tool belt skill Particle Accelerator, which is a ranged-damaging-instant skill with only 8s cooldown.

[@TheSithHugo]

Not really. Photon Wall does massive damage since they buffed it, it’s a big part of your dps actually

[@FloStylerable]

for both, the toolbelt skill of the mine is so clunky for me that I hate mine with a passion

[@shadowinthevoid]

@@FloStylerable It plays well with Invigorating Speed and Optimized Activation as well as other Tools and Alchemy traits if you want to try something diferent. Especially if your using Thermal Release Valve.

[@jurare89]

in addition what the others already said, there´s a tiny detail you may want to keep track of: your minor trait "Laser's Edge" (every holosmith has that by default since it´s, well, a minor trait) is ONLY active when your holoforge is active. this reaches its cap at 100 heat (which is easy to keep up as you´re running ECU). So you want to make sure to use Laser Disk and Prime Light Beam while you´re STILL in holoforge (basically the moment you reach 100 heat you already want to use LD and PLB) because you want to have as many of the damage-ticks as possible before deactivating holoforge.

[@ThiVasss]

4:40 A correction here, You want to do your burst (disk, grenade barrage, toolbelts etc) while you are IN forge in order to proc Laser's Edge (you do increased damage based on your heat WHILE THE FORGE IS ACTIVE)

[@minkuspower]

just prioritize not overheating, and you should be fine, as it's REALLY easy to not overheat as long as you're paying attention to that

[@Rystek74]

Longtime Holo/Scrapper main, other folks have already mentioned a few points but figure I'll chime in with a few of my own and echo theirs as well. - It's true that holo doesn't bring great CC, but your AED toolbelt skill (the heal) is a 2s stun on a 20s cooldown. In fights you don't need the CC you can use it to proc fireworks, otherwise you can comfortably hold it any time it's needed. On fights I know CC is needed I'll actually let my heat drift lower as it's about to happen so I can forge 5 for the 232 break without risking overheating. Your elite is also a 232 break but that's a bit harder to line up, just nice when it does. - If you hold an instrument or mount up you won't drop below 100 heat! This is pretty dumb but it means every boss before pulling I stack up over 100 and pull out the harp. When we actually run it, you can drop it and swap straight into forge to get everything kicked off at max already. - Others have mentioned but forge 3 causes very little heal build up on use, most of it ticks after the initial cast. So your goal is to end forge on that skill and swap out, since you can almost be overheated already and still get that out without catching fire. If for whatever reason it's not up, just stick with autos or if you're feeling real spicy you can try forge 4 (the pistols), that one's very easy to overshoot though so I'd recommend just swapping safely. - The goal is to leave forge at 150 and swap back in just under 100 and loop that. If you don't want to stare at the tiny bar, you can actually just learn a rotation outside forge that'll help auto time it. In most fights I only look at my heat when I'm in forge, nearing the end of that rotation, or if the boss had any downtime/need to bring more CC with forge 5 so I can manually drift it. - It's pretty minor but Photon Wall actually gives a reflect over 50 heat (so always). I've actually used this for Matthias before when we didn't have enough reflects from other sources. - As you mentioned the gear is really easy and actually overlaps very well with scrappper! Any fights we need more boonstrip, CC, or I just want to be more durable I can swap to power scrapper. Or if we need a qdps quick scrapper uses the same gear as well. Just need a hammer, though honestly sword/pistol still works as well if you don't have one. This class is super fun and engi in itself is extremely flexible. Pholo hits a nice level of mid intensity and reward for playing it well and staying high heat, but if you want lower intensity you've got Mech or Scrapper builds and for those of us who love to break our fingers Condi Holo exists. :) Been looking forward to this one, thanks for giving my favorite spec a shot!

[@MuklukYoutube]

"stack up 100 heat and pull out the harp" made me laugh more than it should have

[@tyburkulosis8799]

@@Rystek74 I had no idea about the instrument thing! You have changed my life, although I will be using a tuba instead of the harp lol

[@mimimalloc]

I think the distinctions between power and condi are pretty cool, condi is harder to execute but you don't have to micromanage heat too much because not only does it stay where you leave it but you want to blow up and burn the enemy's face off, power is generally easier but with harsher consequences for overheating since it doesn't have the same offensive application.

[@Mister5597]

Playing holosmith since I started playing the game in EOD launch, I gotta say I actually learned something new.... I never realized that going to red line in photon forge the F5 flips over and negates deactivate photon forge for a split second, I thought it was Corona Burst (Forge 3) casting that blocks the action since I always use corona burst before leaving photon forge.

[@Gardao6]

Props for the editing of the "mini game" onto the heat bar

[@coffEEbot12]

Main holo here. Yeah, all I want is to turn off forge at 149 every time, feels amazing when I pull it off.

[@CuriousMoth]

The big Corona Burst on the edge of overheating that pulses and holds you at 150 heat while you're out of Photon Forge (and thus can't overheat) is very satisfying.

[@herbertwalter8693]

yess

[@xezzee]

Holosmith has access to the best reviving skill in the game! Better than Druid's Glyph of the Stars 😏 60s cooldown Glyph of the Stars is 1200 range 360 area 5 target revive which revives 6 times 12% for 72% total revived. 90s cooldown Toss Elixir R is 1200 range 180 area 5 target revive which revives 10 times 17% for 170% total revived!

[@tyburkulosis8799]

One thing I haven't seen mentioned in the comments is that relic of fireworks can be procced if you use toolbelt skills that meet the 20s cd requirement. So as long as you are using Grenade Barrage, Blade Burst, or even Static Shock off cd as well as Glue Shot from pistol, you should be able to upkeep relic of fireworks fairly well (Although I would save static shock for cc moments). Kits and shield skills don't procc it unfortunately. If I need more cc I'll typically swap pistol for shield for a small dps loss, and if I'm doing fractals that need boon rip I'll swap photon wall for throw mine. Bomb kit could possibly be used instead of grenade kit for more cc on the toolbelt skill, but bomb kit kinda sucks.. And as others have said it's very important to use corona burst before leaving forge, although if the situation looks dicey and you're cc'd into the floor then just swap out before you overheat. I like to corona burst halfway thru red and swap out mid animation, but sometimes I do it at the start of red because a mechanic is about to happen.

[@drdoctor9146]

*Doc Doc be judging very intently.* Glad you gave Holo a fair shot! Though, that visual bug might be due to what you are wearing, because I don't believe I've ever had that bug before, so that's very weird.

[@kwaddell]

that risk of exploding is why I love holo so much. It feels good to spike damage then dip out just before.

[@tonikunec]

There is a hammer only, 100 heat version that can reach 36k easily. I've tried both version and can only get over 35k with the hammer version, so I stuck with that. Much easier on fingers and less stressful. Thanks for the video, I really enjoy your "I tried" series of videos. :)

[@Mister5597]

Hammer PBM is a nice and simple high burst opener build for holosmith, its great in fractals when you have Soulbeast and Dragonhunter friends to phase the boss in an opener. Though I never use it because because hammer is a scrapper weapon to me and it would spoil my time with quickness scrapper if I used hammer in holosmith.

[@didoma73]

@@Mister5597 same, i try to stay close to how these classes were created conceptually

[@SpartanOfLuxon]

As an RGB enjoyer it would be cool to sync RGB lighting to the holo heat and have the colored lights give you visual indicators. I do that for Untamed, when the swap weapon button comes back up my RGB turns yellow to indicate its swappin time.

[@user-hs9in1wi7e]

wait, how did you set that up? Another program?

[@VendettaPSC]

I love this idea. Ima set this up one of these days. Thanks for sharing it with us, never thought about using that that way.

[@SpartanOfLuxon]

@@user-hs9in1wi7e If you have any Logitech with RGB you can go into G-Hub software and set the rgb to react to parts on your screen. I have the G560 Speakers that output RGB onto the wall behind it so I put it on the "Swap Weapon" Button so it greys out when recharging and when its ready it glows that same yellow

[@CyberDoedel]

In the potato we trust.

[@spughety8098]

Something to note, your toolbelt for your heal skill is also a small CC so you do always have some amount on demand

[@leftrom9738]

I'll take Rev's energy management system over this overheat mechanic, anytime of the day.

[@SheenaMalfoy]

Reaper can be one of those "punishing" specs but in a different manner: if you eat too much damage you get booted from Shroud, which loses you access to most of your damage for the next 10 seconds. So where Holo fucks up by not managing it's modes, Reaper fucks up by not paying attention to the fight and eating damage.

[@UmeII]

I don't play Holo so I can't speak to how much of your DPS you lose if you overheat. But Muk is definitely underselling how punishing it is for Soulbeasts to get unmerged (either by fat fingering F5 or, more commonly, because your teammates are trolling with spreads or other big oof mechanics.) It's 10 seconds until you can merge back, you do like 30% less dps while unmerged and your Sic Em rotation is basically on hold until you can merge again.

[@Blu3Souls]

I personally use the Photonic Blasting Module Trait (The one that forces you to overheat but deals damage to enemies when you do) on my power Holo. With that the class plays a lot in Photon Forge until you overheat. While cooling down you use your grenade kit and hammer skills until you can use photon forge again. This easily yields me >32k dps without having to think about juggeling my heat meter. Because of the 2 phases "heating up + overheated" and "cooling down" the dps graph looks like a square wave.

[@zhamirdiaz3196]

I play an Engi all the time, I fk up and overheat almost every fight too lol. Why i stick to mechanist, easy and does good dps still!

[@herbertwalter8693]

as a holo player him not going back into photon forge at 95 heat somehow triggers my autism

[@SylvesterAshcroft88]

You can also build a reasonable damage build if you stack boons, even if you're running a more tanky build, as i have a pretty powerful wvw build, that is mostly for solo capping, although i do sometimes do it on my dps necro instead.

[@LocalAnonOnTheInternet]

You forgot that one trait that gives your Forged auto-attacks range. As an Engineer player who refuses to take Grenade Kit, it's usually my ranged option aside Mortar Kit.

[@rektek2493]

It increases heat gain, so taking it messes up the rotation big time, unlike condi holo who actually likes this.

[@kwaddell]

@@LocalAnonOnTheInternet I have begrudgingly gotten used to the clunkiness of swapping into grenades for 2 seconds because I can’t not have a ranged option.

[@campioneri]

You forgot to put weakness on the golem. That would have been another 2% damage. But thanks for pointing out the flipover glitch, I was wondering why I randomly couldn't exit forge sometimes.

[@OatsTube]

Awesome

[@icata12345]

is it easier than dps scrapper?

[@JH-vb1wo]

I decided to try holosmith in wvw and I enjoy it. The skill 2 leap is a great relief considering engineer has virtually no mobility or teleport type skills. I’m trying to decide the best skills to stack when in photon forge. I think a elixir or 2 might be best paired with photon forge because the other skills are realy weak until 50 percent or 100 percent heat. It’s definitely a fun class

[@glowdonk]

I used to run Holo for PVE stuff, but now I just run them in WVW because I had more fun with Scrapper in PVE than Holo

[@truecross4090]

Ill never know how people play with their skills on number keys. How do you wasd move and have enough finger memory to stretch up there and whack all those keys?

[@TardThor]

MMO-mouse for some. You also don't really need WASD most of the time, some people only move with the mouse (holding the two clicks). 1-5 are easy enough to reach without completely leaving WASD (1=ring finger, 2&3=middle finger, 4&5=index finger). And finally some people keep the main binding but use a secondary one.

[@256shadesofgrey]

MMO mice are the answer. It's much easier to adjust the games to the one mouse profile you use than create different mouse profiles for different games, because you are usually limited by the number of profiles you can save, and you have to remember to switch between them when you play a different game. But if you configure the games to the one profile on the mouse, you set it up once and you don't have to think about it any more. Also if you don't have one yet, get an MMO mouse. It will give you freedom that you never imagined, when your left hand can actually be completely focused on the movement.

[@VendettaPSC]

I just do? Guess I have long fingers. Not too difficult, to be fair tho, I don't have my main skills on number keys, it is skills I dont use as often so I am not always stretching for them.

[@VendettaPSC]

I like high risk, high reward classes. I nee to give holo another try, looks like it could be fun. hm

[@HyldenLord]

Holo is very reliant on his opening to do good dps. You should start the fight at ~95-100 heat and after leaving forge get back to it the moment it drops below 100.

[@watdafox455]

the first ten seconds of the vid i laugh out loud, 'pure dps deadweights'.

[@JH-vb1wo]

I have a love hate relationship with AED heal skill. It feels like it’s worthless sometimes for healing but having a f1 stun is real nice when it works in wvw and on a class with low mobility the more condition cleanse the betrer

[@shadowinthevoid]

An as Engi main I can't think of a time I would ever take Holo over Mechanist or Scrapper for high end content. It can be fun in open world but even then your usually better with one of the others. I'd like to see a rework to make it a little less punishing for mistakes or maybe a blanket damage reduction in photon mode rather then needing Light Density Amplifier as a trait. Adding quickness on rolls with Thermal Release Valve would also go a long way to making people want to play it.

[@Mister5597]

As an engineer main, I just enjoy holosmith too much to bring scrapper or mechanist as DPS specially into fractals with the amount of cleave and CC it brings, photon forge and >100% heat burst damage is just satisfying. And yeah, thermal release valve could use a boost for PVE since I think its just a PVP trait and the 2 other traits are just too good to ever bring thermal release, it does give you a better self sustain though since it vents 15% heat and thats 975 hp back with every dodge.

[@rektek2493]

TRV is pretty much the same dps as PBM on condi holo. Last I remember the guy who did the SC bench said he chose PBM because it was easier to manage, more consistant and significantly more forgiving at little to no dps cost. Buffing TRV would make it pretty much mandatory and make it even harder to play one of the hardest builds in the game.

[@Lazyman2777]

"Can't take anymore heat!" (c) Muk with his glowing cro... pants on fire, probably

[@rulotron]

The fact that he didn't detonate the mine toolkit gave me anxiety 😂

[@aidam6152]

Specs like this make me wish we had UI customisation in gw2. I want that super-important heat bar in the middle of my screen >:(

[@sh1ro9]

*>fair to decent understanding* *>doesn't detonate minefield*

[@lemony_mellow]

you forgot to mention that holo skill 2 is a leap with swiftness on a 2s cooldown

[@SariatheFrostMage]

What if they changed the Overheat mechanic into a buff instead of a massive punishment? Then when it's cooling down, you maintain that buff? It would make more sense, wouldn't it?

[@Mister5597]

It does both a lot of damage and buffs your damage if you use Photonic Blasting Module, in fact the Laser's Edge trait remains active if you overheat when you have PBM. Holo Hammer PBM build takes advantage of the overheat for its damage output.

[@CuriousMoth]

Before last patch you could run a kitless Holo and not lose too much DPS for doing it, and that was a fun build. Since then they nerfed the Exceed skills and buffed the Grenade Kit to compensate, essentially killing the kitless build. It's ashame because it would have been great for a beginner Holo like yourself to get a taste for the overheat mechanics without added complexity.

[@rektek2493]

Kitless still does a tiny bit more than nades, but requires being able to precast it.

[@OverzaBell]

I have tried holo so many times and have never gotten above 25k while trying my hardest. I shall enjoy my ele main 35k status until we are hit with a nerf and go back to the bottom.

[@Paelmoon]

Same. I watched a video and the guy was hitting 37k. I cannot for the life of me figure out how they did it.

[@luca7675]

@@Paelmoon âre you using the right buff food, golem setup, and boons?

[@Jawastew]

@@Paelmoon I'm happy to give some pointers if you're on EU, Jawastew.1304

[@TheGismono]

power mech was far easiers and I could LI get to 30k dps and 35k if I work on it.

[@benalloucheayman9738]

NOTE: u didnt click ur toolbelt mine it wont detonate unless you double click it cuz the boss is stationary and wont triger it by walking over it. ALSO your photon forge state auto 1 is ranged XD idk why but it is ranged. on another note unrelated but i can use my toolbelt skills on mechanist if i use like F1 it uses the mech command and toolbelt skill of my healing slot. bug wars back?

[@22darthmaul22]

There's a lot more holosmith hate in these comments than I expected.

[@kwaddell]

They can’t take the heat 😎

[@Theuubestofbuus]

Holosmith is the thief of specializations, The hate and animosity is strong with this one 😂

[@Seriousbomb54]

I play condition holo, but hardly see anybody play it. maybe because the spec seems more power focussed. it is the only option for you to also permanently stay in Photonforge.

[@Mister5597]

Condi Holo is just way too hard to play compared to Condi Mech, and power holosmith also brings a lot more CC on demand and the burst damage is very satisfying.

[@Seriousbomb54]

@@Mister5597 I don't play raids so my dmg propably doesn't matter. I use the thermal release valve trait and it is weird that even for the metabuild photon blasting module is chosen since it yes it has bigger burn dmg, but it mostly the power spike in it that matters. for release valve you have the dodge which pretty much gives the full dmg even if you have hardly heat available. I'd wanted to play condi mech ones, but the problem is just, that it seems weaker than holo. sure you get the condi buff and can use kits, but you lose out sources of burns. and the limit of one bleed per second or so it oo low for it to really ramp up. I mean the mech has t go melee too first. regarding cc I think I got it available when I need it. 1 in photon forge, toolbelt bombkit and skill 3 flamethrower aswell as elite skill together with relic if you want the extra pull.

[@rektek2493]

@@Mister5597 Does it though? What CC does power bring that condi doesn't? Throw Mine maybe, but condi has bomb toolbelt and flamethrower 3, that's more CC than power without any dps loss. Sure you can swap skills, but you can do that on condi too.

[@Mister5597]

@@rektek2493 off hand shield does 350 CC, I know some of the metabuilds now use photonwall instead of mine but its close enough damage so you can hold mine for an extra 200 CC, and the ECSU is much easier to sacrifice heat for Holographic shockwave for 232 if noone in the group is using their skills. Condi build using bomb kit does 332 CC on a 3s delay which annoys me quite a bit, and flamethrower only does 150, the rest of condi holos CC is static shock and soft CC.

[@rektek2493]

​@@Mister5597 Swapping to shield is a pretty big dps loss, especially since you're forced to run thief rune because you can't maintain fireworks anymore. At this point condi can also afford to drop something for more CC while tanking a similar dps loss. As for shockwave, I disagree. There are plenty of times I use shockwave on condi, but never on power. Notably, when you do your second burst and are about to overheat, you can just use shockwave there at basically no dps cost, while power loses an entire burst window every time. Sure you have to time it, but it usually lines up pretty well, same with bomb. For example, on sunqua peak CM you can usually contribute ~1000 defiance break for side CC at pretty much no dps cost, which very few other classes can do.

[@Marxone]

wasn't soulbeast re-merge 10 seconds in pve? Most annoying encounter KO that forcibly unmerge you and you could not re-merge for a while is still in my vivid memory.

[@DingoUndSo]

Yes

[@demenion3521]

- first thing that i questioned: why are you not playing scrapper instead of holo? it has currently more dps, much more sustain, much less buttons, no heat management and more support. - holo is a lot of fun to play if you know how to do it. with your setup you really need to keep your heat between 100 and 150 at least like 90% of the time since it does way more damage. - running photon wall over mine is more dps AND you get basically the dragonhunter f3 shield as a utility which can be extremely useful to block stuff for your group - for heat, you really just watch the bar and ideally you always leave forge at 148-150 heat which you can achieve by using forge 3 when your heat is at about 145 and leaving forge during the animation - you should also use sword 3 in your rotation. it's a lot of damage and gives you a lot of personal quickness - holo is really difficult to play well since your auto chain finisher reduces the cd on your other sword skills, so your rotation literally doesn't work if you don't finish your auto chains. fitting the grenade kit into that makes it even more cumbersome since you might just not auto attack enough to get your cd reductions. there was a build with no kits, but since the most recent patch, grenades have been buffed and you basically can't take them away anymore

[@SnaccHBG]

First question was answered at the start, he's playing the specs that can't be used to offer support (in pve)

[@VendettaPSC]

The video is specifically made to play and test non-boon DPS. That's why... hello?

[@rektek2493]

Holo has more dps than scrapper, no clue what you're talking about. It also has way more burst and higher encounter-specific dps due to blade burst. Even condi does more. Holo also has pretty good sustain, not better than scrapper but better than average (corona burst gives barrier, losing heat heals roughly as much as a heal skill every 20s)

[@from-bavaria]

I would say it was your fail to not see the heat... Play bikini meta and you will see it better 😎

[@256shadesofgrey]

I hate holo for the very same reason you did. And my main is engi. The moment mechanist came out I deleted my holo build and never looked back. I like to pretend that engi only has 2 elite specs, that's how much I hate holo.

[@kwaddell]

Meanwhile I felt underwhelmed by mech, like it didn’t have much skill expression and I just watched my bot do stuff. Summoning and dismissing mech animations ARE sick though. (also and I know this is hipster but seeing so many of the green jade mechs around makes me not want to play it). Scrapper’s still cool though.

[@themutedflag]

Dear Anet, if a DPS is punishing to play (Deadeye, Weaver, Holo) it needs to do 45k+ DPS (even 50k). STOP NERFING DPS BASED ON YOUR STUPID ENCOUNTER PARADIGM. When that happens, easier classes must have comparable DPS to harder classes. Hard classes require skill, skill should reward high DPS. End Rant.

[@BackwardsCombatable]

Holosmith is just Scrapper but useless to the team beyond the damage

[@beneteus3833]

do not I REPEAT DO NOT PLAY ASURA or you get visual bugs

[@arkanaloth2617]

don't like holosmith... too easy for me to not notice and self-nuke.

[@GoogleSpiesTooMuch]

Power Holo is one of the worst classes to play. Needs a whole rework on how the overheating mechanic works.