Guild Wars 2

Holo’s got some potential, but feels like it’s being held back by a few things.

[This is mostly from a WvW group perspective, where engi sorely needs a way to get at least somewhat closer to the meta. Some of the below is not going to be relevant to PvE]

UI

• The heat gauge needs to be much larger and more centrally displayed. This gauge is arguably more vital to keep track of than any other class mechanic, because the consequences of not doing so are severe. A vertical gauge right of screen-center would be ideal, but failing that at least place it above the toolbelt and make it take up the full skill-bar width.
• Prime Light Beam needs a line target indicator showing where it’s going to go, similar to the DH’s Deflecting Shot – it’s currently hard to see exactly where it’s going to fire.

Overbalancing

• We already have a penalty for taking kits with holosmith – the 6s no-kit period on entering forge. So it’s a bit harsh to also have kits kick you out of the forge when you swap to them – in particular this is making sigil of energy awkward to use, which would otherwise have been a sensible option to take if you’re running Thermal Release Valve.
• Prime Light Beam is powerful, so it needs some sort of drawback to balance it, fair enough. A long cast time would be OK. Rooting you while you fire it would be OK. But a long cast time and a root is excessive – and in particular it means there’s a good chance the group you were firing at have either run out of range or run over you by the time you fire. Please, get rid of the root – there’s already a very obvious tell to the skill and standing still in WvW is usually fatal.
• Cauterize definitely needs a shorter cast time, and ideally needs a shorter CD – it’s already got a disadvantage in that it sets you on fire.
• Radiant Arc’s got a big pre- and after-cast which is limiting its use as a melee gap-closer.
• Photon Blitz’s range is very short – so much so that it’s easier to just holo-leap and auto-attack, which will do similar damage without risking death-by-reflect. Feels like it ought to be 900 range.

QoL

• In WvW at least, Prime Light Beam would work better if it were manually targetted, rather than firing at whatever your current target is. You want to position it to split enemy groups and force people to run through the fire field, and you can’t reliably do that when tracking a target.
• I was hoping when I saw the weapon-swap icon that we’d be able to swap between sword/shield and forge weapons while keeping the forge running – that way we could use sword-3 quickness (or shield CC chain) combos with our forge skills without incurring the 6s forge lock-in.
• It would be nice if we could shut off the forge (or have it auto shut-off) when gliding.

TBH I didn’t have an issue seeing the heat gauge and your character also changes colors when you increase levels of heat so that’s a really good indicator.

I agree with radiant arc pre and after cast they are terrible. Prime Light Beam I would rather stay targeted especially for the fact that it can still track targets in stealth if you start casting beforehand. And the drawbacks are fine considering you can hit like 10k crits, it’s the same as kill shot basically.

Photon blitz I agree should be 900 , 600 is very awkward of a range for an unload ability.

I think kits kicking you out of forge is great as it saves you an extra click, especially if you want to use one of the skills right off the bat that extra time spent dropping forge and going into kit could be an the opportunity is gone from what you wanted to do.