Guild Wars 2

Could be, but probably shorter range than pistol at any rate – something like necro axe maybe.

Wouldn’t mind sword MH being both a long ranged weapon and a melee weapon using weapon swaps. One can be for defensive/support play and the other for straight up offence, possibly condi. The utility skills could also swap function with the weapon swap.

Normally i would complain about an hybrid range weapon since we have rifle for that already.

That said, it totally nails the style of engi if it we will use a sword, agreed with the melee/ranged mix.

maybe holosmith could have weapon swap, which would eliminate the direct competition between single weapons that any position would currently produce

…nah who am i kidding, weapon swap + kits would moste assuredly be op af.

at least hammer is locked to scrapper so theres still a potential niche for a melee power weapon on holosmith. i guess. plus isnt the idea for holosmith to be supporty? shield has a blast and ccs and reflect and if they buff its cds it wont just be worse than the condi weapon that would have no place in a power support build. sword/shield has potential.

cant wait for a real preview!

Inb4 we get a sword with healing skills lol

A sword with healing skills would be original af. All the healing is tied to staves in this game. And a supporty spec is clearly what engineer lacks: condi is best dps on golem, zerker is good enough and so easy you can probably outdps tempests in a pug party:

Ardid.7203:

I’m sure Golemancer will make it eventually. Just not yet. And I think (I HOPE) the Holosmith could give them more room to maneuver, balance and fix things.

But I am afraid I will not be here to enjoy it by then.

I am 99% sure it will be a power main-hand weapon (sword if you believe the picture that was leaked) for the same reason stated above. Engineer’s only main-hand weapon is a condition weapon and its off-hand weapons are condition and a self-support weapon. Engineer’s only power weapons are both dual-wielded. It makes sense that they would want to make a power main to complement shield (with a buff hopefully).

I think what the engineer needs most is a mace, with skins for wrenches and stun batons.

Grimwolf.7163:

I think what the engineer needs most is a mace, with skins for wrenches and stun batons.

Yes, engineer needs more CC skills, I was thinking rifle #2 could also stun for 1 second since overcharged shot doesn’t do kitten at all most players have more the enough stun breakers or defensive skills so OS is useless and power engineer needs CC to get good damage in

Grimwolf.7163:

I think what the engineer needs most is a mace, with skins for wrenches and stun batons.

lets just make scrapper again, this time with a 1 hand and no ai

insanemaniac.2456:

Grimwolf.7163:

I think what the engineer needs most is a mace, with skins for wrenches and stun batons.

lets just make scrapper again, this time with a 1 hand and no ai

Honestly I think they need to use Mace as the Elite Spec that was originally going to be Scrapper.

Scrapper was going to be a Fire theme Elite Spec that had a Heat Mechanic for the hammer that would build up to cause more damage but they scrapped it for current scrapper because they ran out of time for HoT release.

Hopefully this use the Utility skills to be fire theme as well. Maybe call it the Forge to represent how the Elite Spec theme is the Fire of a Forge.

Nothing in the leak relates the holosmith with fire. Well, not exactly true: one of the traits has an image of a lense focusing light like children used to do to burn ants. But at the same time, there’s one cross that ressembles too much a healing cross. Anything else is related to light and energy.

I’ve looked at the image again today and the character is wielding a one-handed hammer made from light in it’s right hand. So maybe thats the reason he’s taking his sword with the left hand?

Edit: Looked at the image again. Seems that what i thought that it was a one handed hammer is a shoulder protection made of light.

Akeno.4962:

Nothing in the leak relates the holosmith with fire. Well, not exactly true: one of the traits has an image of a lense focusing light like children used to do to burn ants. But at the same time, there’s one cross that ressembles too much a healing cross. Anything else is related to light and energy.

I’ve looked at the image again today and the character is wielding a one-handed hammer made from light in it’s right hand. So maybe thats the reason he’s taking his sword with the left hand?

We are not saying Holosmith is the Fire Elite Spec. We are saying they should make the next one after this one being the 3rd elite spec to be the Mace Elite Spec that uses Scrapper original design being the Heat Mechanic design and fire theme Elite Spec.

Holosmith, 2nd elite spec, so far looks like a Laser and Holographic projection Elite Spec being the Energy Theme Elite Spec using the Sword for Energy base attacks and holoprojections to amplify their laser attacks and to create shields and traps.

didnt the leak say that engi gonna be support class with water fields and light fields?

messiah.1908:

didnt the leak say that engi gonna be support class with water fields and light fields?

Really?, we dont have a lot of those fields already?

so use a crystal to convert them to whatever fields you would rather have

scarlet briar spec

Ivantreil.3092:

messiah.1908:

didnt the leak say that engi gonna be support class with water fields and light fields?

Really?, we dont have a lot of those fields already?

We don’t have any confirmation what the elite spec will do yet.

From the image shown of the skills in the tree so far we see a sawblade type skill, shield, a strange eletric Orb, a Energy Cage, and the Elite skill looks something shooting a Laser beam. The Traits has a lot of electricity imaging into the traits arts as well. We can see one Support trai being the HP Cross and other traits arts shows amplification arts such as the Square one showing a beam of light going through and out of it and the magnifying glass trait that is focusing a beam of light.

I can only guess this elite spec may be more focus on a trinity path aspect with the traits covering Support, Defense, and Damage.

Though we can assume this Elite Spec theme is based on Energy theme considering how strongly the art emphasis on light beams and electricity.

scrapper has a pretty strong electricity undertone and i would be disappointed if holosmith does as well

Could see it being mace too though. The mace would look like a blacksmithing hammer. lol

insanemaniac.2456:

scrapper has a pretty strong electricity undertone and i would be disappointed if holosmith does as well

Scrapper was not originally going to be what it is now.

Original design of Scrapper was going to be Fire Theme with fire theme attacks and a unique Heat Mechanic that builds up heat in a Heat bar that cause the Scrapper to do more damage as the heat builds up. The theme was to follow how Scrapper use a Hammer and Heat to build things.

However, Anet could not finish Scrapper’s original design on time before HoT release, most likely because it was their last Elite Spec to work on once the other Professions were finished beofre HoT, and had to “Scrap” it and make Scrapper into what it is now.

Scrapper as of now is more like a Core profession +1 Elite Spec that brings no real unique mechanics and only add the F button for just long range res and finisher due to being unfinished.

As for the Holosmith, as I said the theme of it seems more about Energy theme focusing more on Light based theme skills through amplifying light for laser attacks and creating holographic projections to create physical objects through the use of light. Electricty is of course required as the mechanical parts of Engineer’s ability to manipulate Light through the Holographic images it creates is still required.

So for now we can consider Scrapper for Eltectricity theme and Holosmith for Light theme.

Miltek.2104:

To be worse based on Leakozaurus (guy who posted Ele and Guard skillbars) Holosmith isn’t even close to be completed. Previous itaration of Engineer’s elite spec was scrapped few weeks ago (doesn’t this sound like Scrapper, and his heat and fuel mechanics?). Holosmith is still owrk in progress.

Previous engineer spec used Mech/Golem which you could pilot

They’ve had all this time and this happens now just a few months before release. I’m predicting it now the new elite specs will be hugely bug ridden.

Just by looking at the skill/traits icons, I would guess holosmith is a support-orientated spec.

EdwinLi.1284:

insanemaniac.2456:

scrapper has a pretty strong electricity undertone and i would be disappointed if holosmith does as well

Scrapper was not originally going to be what it is now.

Original design of Scrapper was going to be Fire Theme with fire theme attacks and a unique Heat Mechanic that builds up heat in a Heat bar that cause the Scrapper to do more damage as the heat builds up. The theme was to follow how Scrapper use a Hammer and Heat to build things.

However, Anet could not finish Scrapper’s original design on time before HoT release, most likely because it was their last Elite Spec to work on once the other Professions were finished beofre HoT, and had to “Scrap” it and make Scrapper into what it is now.

Scrapper as of now is more like a Core profession +1 Elite Spec that brings no real unique mechanics and only add the F button for just long range res and finisher due to being unfinished.

As for the Holosmith, as I said the theme of it seems more about Energy theme focusing more on Light based theme skills through amplifying light for laser attacks and creating holographic projections to create physical objects through the use of light. Electricty is of course required as the mechanical parts of Engineer’s ability to manipulate Light through the Holographic images it creates is still required.

So for now we can consider Scrapper for Eltectricity theme and Holosmith for Light theme.

i was there. i simply hope they do something pretty different from what theyve already done. a light theme is different from an electricity theme and doesnt really need electricity (i mean yeah its physically deeply entangled but often the fantasy genre separates the two) so i want something without lightning fields and without the zappy goodness of exploding gyros.

for example, i would like a skill that pulls a glass prism out of a pocket and generates a circular field cut into pizza slices of different fields according to the rainbow (lightning-water-ice-poison-light-fire) (yeah i know, i said lightning, but purple like eles attunement). if instead i got a skill that zaps my sword with enough electricity to make it translucent and then i hold it up to the sun to make that same rainbow pizza field, i would be a bit sad, because its cool but the whole charged weapon thing was already done with scrapper. but both would fit the holograms and light manipulation that a name like holosmith kinda points towards.

theres just so much that you can explore that theres no reason to keep doing the same design over and over with slight differences to achieve a different playstyle.

EdwinLi.1284:

coro.3176:

• Mainhand sword, power – would need to have 3 really OP/powercreeped skills to compete with hammer for melee power damage because hammer 4,5 > shield 4,5.
• Mainhand sword, condi – still allows offhand pistol. would probably be overall top damage because melee tends to be more dps than range.
• Offhand sword, power – awkward hybrid build with mh pistol.
• Offhand sword, condi – competes with oh pistol. As mentioned, it’d have to have insane damage or utility to be chosen over p.

My guess would be main hand power, but that it will still be worse than hammer.

Sword main hand may be Range as one possibility because we are using Holographic images to cause physical harm which would allow Sword to create holographic slash waves for range attacks or use sword as a type of laser beam conduit using Holographic plates to charge the sword to create these things.

That sounds awesome!

And also, this holomamcer should be able to create clones, oh oh and new skills could be wells that complememt superspeed from scrapper with alacrity, it should also be condi specs so we can trait confusion and…

…wait a second…

wolfyrik.2017:

Holograms? I’m calling it, new class utlity will be third set of utterly worthless AI.

Could make them stationary and attack on their own!
Or could make them follow us around while projecting AE effects!

The possibilities are endless!

I’d actually be quite happy if Holosmith ended up being a Healer spec, which would mean that we could fill both a DPS and a Healer spot in Fractals/Raids like Druid with its Condi and Healer spec.

I just hope Holosmith has better synergy with the core class.

Scrapper has nearly NO SYNERGY with the rest of the traits and skills. (with the exception of the FT build that is only useful for lazy open world pve)

Scrapper would feel much more like a part of the engi if it had (maybe on traits traits) that:
– Hammer #3 and Auto counts as explosions, so more synergy with traitlines and dps role;
– Hammer #3 is 2 leap finishers and 1 blast, for better synergy with traits such as soothing detonation and shocking spead;
– Function gyro can repair turrets;
– Eletric fields recharge turrets recharge/Overcharge;

So many missed opportunities…

Hope holosmith can do better.

And, Im very sad that engi won’t get a mecha pilot spec as mentioned here:
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/Suggestions-Future-Elite-Specializations/page/5#post6011523

and here:
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/engineer/Suggestion-Elite-Spec-Mecha-Pilot/first#post6366808

insanemaniac.2456:

scrapper has a pretty strong electricity undertone and i would be disappointed if holosmith does as well

Core engineer does in general as well, though – Static Shot, Static Shield, Static Shock on the A.E.D., and the Static Discharge trait. If sword/shield proves to be the primary set for holosmiths, you’re naturally going to have at least one electric skill there. If the people who want Static Shot and Blowtorch swapped get their way*, you won’t be able to run sword without at least one electric skill (from your offhand).

Scrapper dialed it up a bit, but electrical effects seem to be a core engineer thing. I wouldn’t be surprised to see at least a little in other engineer elite specialisations. In particular for something like the holosmith which is going into sci-fi technology – engineer stuff is at least broadly based on real or theoretical technology, so holo-generators probably will be powered by electricity, meaning the holosmith will likely have a supply of it for other purposes.

However, it will probably be primarily holograms and lasers, although I do note that having a sword mainhand might mean that it actually becomes possible to play a build that behaves like Canach. (Namely, generally making use of engineer kits, explosives, and other devices and a shield that behaves more like an engineer shield than a warrior one, the main distinction is that Canach uses a sword.)

*That said, I’m not sure I’d agree with that. Offhand pistol as it currently stands seems to be set up so that it’s useful for melee as well – in fact, it’s arguably more melee-oriented than shield is. Currently, pistol/shield makes for a more standoff setup, while pistol/pistol is more for close-in skirmishing tactics. Switching blowtorch and static shot would mean that pistol engineers are always obligated to get in close. Additionally, blowtorch is a better fit for an offhand pistol used with a melee weapon – the holosmith, for instance, would probably be happier combining a sword with the current OH pistol with blowtorch rather than one with Static Shot.

Carighan.6758:

wolfyrik.2017:

Holograms? I’m calling it, new class utlity will be third set of utterly worthless AI.

Could make them stationary and attack on their own!
Or could make them follow us around while projecting AE effects!

The possibilities are endless!

What if, if they will be stationary and project useless effect, like single-target condi cleanse every 10 seconds?

Oh boy I can’t wait!

I hope we won’t get non-power stuff man… at LEAST some skills should be good for power builds if not the weapon itself

draxynnic.3719:

insanemaniac.2456:

scrapper has a pretty strong electricity undertone and i would be disappointed if holosmith does as well

Core engineer does in general as well, though – Static Shot, Static Shield, Static Shock on the A.E.D., and the Static Discharge trait. If sword/shield proves to be the primary set for holosmiths, you’re naturally going to have at least one electric skill there. If the people who want Static Shot and Blowtorch swapped get their way*, you won’t be able to run sword without at least one electric skill (from your offhand).

Scrapper dialed it up a bit, but electrical effects seem to be a core engineer thing. I wouldn’t be surprised to see at least a little in other engineer elite specialisations. In particular for something like the holosmith which is going into sci-fi technology – engineer stuff is at least broadly based on real or theoretical technology, so holo-generators probably will be powered by electricity, meaning the holosmith will likely have a supply of it for other purposes.

However, it will probably be primarily holograms and lasers, although I do note that having a sword mainhand might mean that it actually becomes possible to play a build that behaves like Canach. (Namely, generally making use of engineer kits, explosives, and other devices and a shield that behaves more like an engineer shield than a warrior one, the main distinction is that Canach uses a sword.)

*That said, I’m not sure I’d agree with that. Offhand pistol as it currently stands seems to be set up so that it’s useful for melee as well – in fact, it’s arguably more melee-oriented than shield is. Currently, pistol/shield makes for a more standoff setup, while pistol/pistol is more for close-in skirmishing tactics. Switching blowtorch and static shot would mean that pistol engineers are always obligated to get in close. Additionally, blowtorch is a better fit for an offhand pistol used with a melee weapon – the holosmith, for instance, would probably be happier combining a sword with the current OH pistol with blowtorch rather than one with Static Shot.

right, to some extent it’s unavoidable to have electricity in sci fi, it’s such a central part of our civilizations scientific progress. and thats what I mean in that example I wrote out, that in passing I wouldn’t be sad. but if one of the big selling points will be zapping things a lot, like a LOT, that would be unfortunate cuz scrapper does it. hammer 2 4 5 and every gyro zap things and even hammer 1 is electric. let’s get something different goin on. please! there’s so many other things.

Well, it could have a fire centered theme too, we have many things related to burning and heat.

EdwinLi.1284:

However, Anet could not finish Scrapper’s original design on time before HoT release, most likely because it was their last Elite Spec to work on once the other Professions were finished beofre HoT, and had to “Scrap” it and make Scrapper into what it is now.

Scrapper as of now is more like a Core profession +1 Elite Spec that brings no real unique mechanics and only add the F button for just long range res and finisher due to being unfinished.

How much you wanna bet this will happen again?

Vagrant.7206:

How much you wanna bet this will happen again?

Can’t say because Anet was not fully ready for HoT release due to suddenly introducing HoT as the 1st expansion.

Don’t forget originally GW2 was never planned to have a expansion in the beginning thus they did not prepare in advance for the time required for what they wanted fully finishing in the 1st Expansion.

it showed considering some maps we saw in the HoT first trailer were not in the HoT expansion and certain maps had to be reduced in size to meet the release date time such as the 4th Dragon Stand path in the Dragon Stand meta involving the Nightmare Court joining the fight against the Mouth of Mordremoth which leads into Duchess Chysanthea being in the final battle against Mouth of Mordremoth.

I think it’s torch, not sword.
In Flashpoint trailer, there is a medium armor female character fireing cannon, at around 00.42 seconds. She has pistol/torch. No proffesion has that weapon combination yet.

Orodret.8230:

I think it’s torch, not sword.
In Flashpoint trailer, there is a medium armor female character fireing cannon, at around 00.42 seconds. She has pistol/torch. No proffesion has that weapon combination yet.

And Rytlock used pistol as warrior, Hodgins uses dual scepters etc. Profession weapon restrictions don’t apply to npcs. Also in the mentioned leak it’s quite clear that the artwork holds a sword and the first icon for spec unlock is sword.

Yeah there is no doubt its a sword. The necros icon and art clearly show a torch, in comparison.

There is no doubt that the leaked one is sword.
What we’ll get on the day it comes out, not sure…

lLobo.7960:

There is no doubt that the leaked one is sword.
What we’ll get on the day it comes out, not sure…

Well, according to MO’s claims, expac should be about 6 months away from the release. I find it little improbable for them to change weapon now that they have artworks and it seems that they have the elite spec figured out (judging from the leaked trait unlock picture with the charr).

Maybe I’m just naive and think that they have stuff figured out at this stage of development and now start to focus mainly on tuning and testing

HEY GUYS, I noticed one inconsistency with the leaked Elites.
As far as traits go we usually get 1 major, 3 minors, 1 major, 3 minors, 1 major 3 minors on elites.
Here we’re getting 1 major, 1 minor 3 times then twice 3 minors.

Maybe they are just making it so you can get all the majors first so you don’t waste your Hero points on stuff you won’t use and get get right into playing the elite, but still it’s worth noting this change over the first elites. Maybe they will change them all?
Honestly this makes me believe more that the leaks are real, as I don’t think people would think of this when making fake stuff, they would just copy-paste the original unlock ordering.

As far as holosmith goes we have cybernetics, electricity, light and energy stuff related to it.
I believe their play pattern involve enhancing themselves cybernetically. I’m not sure how supportive they are gonna, get. Engineer dies very easily without scrapper, Alchemy is a gimmick with Elixir S. So maybe all the healing and protective skills we have here are to make the Engineer survive more, not necessarily the alies.

It’s not really hard to imagine that they got the ‘heat’ mechanics from the /scrapped/ Scrapper elite and turned it into “energy” for this character. You fight and store up energy and that gets you to deal more damage and cast empowered spells.

I some people said that they don’t see much stuff related to fire, but some of the force fields do have a glowy fire effect. I wouldn’t say it’s beyond them making it so the elite has some fire related condition so people (that are mostly playing condition) can choose to go Off Hand pistol with condition OR power with shield and be a tank.

It would be the smartest thing to do, give finally some versatility to the character. We can’t forget that we still have to use 2 of the engineer traitlines and Firearms would go well if this does apply some burn. Otherwise it would be what? Tools and Alchemy? Doesn’t look very good as far as damaging goes and I’m not really sure how much damage we are going to get with holosmith.

Anyway, being able to cast light weapons and attacks would be amazing if this is really the core of the elite. It sounds very compelling and fun, I’m very bored of the same playstyle for years on end with neer.

Things that would be nice:

• options for power and condi
• a new kit – holo kit?
• options for condi cleanse that aren’t elixir spam

Famine.7915:

From what was leaked, I think we may be getting something similar to conjured weapons. I just wonder how they will differ from the ele ones.

They will be more like Guardians Spirit Weapons, just slightly better utility when you destroy them which will be slightly OP for 1st 3 months so suckers HAVE TO buy the expansion for the spec if not anything else.

Nooooooo please no more ai. Not again.

Kenshi Maru.5489:

HEY GUYS, I noticed one inconsistency with the leaked Elites.
As far as traits go we usually get 1 major, 3 minors, 1 major, 3 minors, 1 major 3 minors on elites.
Here we’re getting 1 major, 1 minor 3 times then twice 3 minors.

Maybe they are just making it so you can get all the majors first so you don’t waste your Hero points on stuff you won’t use and get get right into playing the elite, but still it’s worth noting this change over the first elites. Maybe they will change them all?
Honestly this makes me believe more that the leaks are real, as I don’t think people would think of this when making fake stuff, they would just copy-paste the original unlock ordering.

Sounds like they might have taken (or independently come to) my suggestion of changing the unlock order from a year ago. The old unlock process had the serious flaw that it wasn’t practical to start playing the elite specialisation until you had at least one grandmaster major, which required you to be most of the way in. A different unlock order would make it more practical to play the specialisation earlier in the unlock process.

In brightest day, in blackest night,
No evil shall escape my sight.

Let those who worship evil’s might
Beware my power, Holosmiths light!

Liewec.2896:

In brightest day, in blackest night,
No evil shall escape my sight.

Let those who worship evil’s might
Beware my power, Holosmiths light!

Let me guess, you named your engi Holo Jordan

leviathan.2148:

Liewec.2896:

In brightest day, in blackest night,
No evil shall escape my sight.

Let those who worship evil’s might
Beware my power, Holosmiths light!

Let me guess, you named your engi Holo Jordan

not yet, but i might! XD

i think holosmith will be very lantern-like,
people are fearing another awful Ai spec,
but i think it’ll be more about making light constructs like barricades and shields

I think everyone always fears an awful AI spec. I don’t think ANet would do that to us. I mean if they did it’d just be undeniable proof they’re either kittened or hate us. I’m with you on barricades/shields, when I just heard the name I was picturing Wall of Reflection type skills. Throw up a holographic barrier to protect the team, or augment a weapon with a holographic edge. Personally I was/am hoping for a healing + support spec, but to me holosmith sounds more like a more strait support spec. We’ll help the team by blocking attacks for them while augmenting the damage, and I’m ok with that.

I just really hope it’s not more personal sustain or strait DPS. We have those covered with Scrapper and Condi/power core Engi.