Guild Wars 2

Hey,

I am very close to getting my second full set of ascended armour, but am reluctant to purchase it until I know what stats Holosmith’s will be in meta?

My guess would be power, I don’t see alot of conditions. Atleast not enough to warrent making a decent condi build.

So, what would you say?

Condi, Power or other?

(For PvE, fracts/raids/dungeons)

- Chogger

Until release it’s going to be hard to say for certain. Based on the preview weekend I would tend to say power for sure. However I can see a case for something similar to a burn guardian as well.

I still think Scrapper is better for sustain, but I only play WvW so I’m biased.

@Tyyaen

I appreciate your input, thank you.

Tyaen.5148:

Until release it’s going to be hard to say for certain. Based on the preview weekend I would tend to say power for sure. However I can see a case for something similar to a burn guardian as well.

I still think Scrapper is better for sustain, but I only play WvW so I’m biased.

Do you think that it will either be Condi OR Power though? Because I have a full condi set, so could just buy the power set?

Sure, Holo reliably puts out Vuln, Burn and Bleed. In addition, you could use offhand pistol (more burn, cripple) or shield (essentially no condi). Mix in Kits, Utils, etc… and you’ll have plenty of opportunity for a condi build.

In my opinion, sword for Holo is a power weapon. In my opinion the general focus of the class is also power. If you are going to use sword, focus on Photon Forge, and Holosmith Utilities, then I would say it’s a power spec.

On release you can be sure someone will do the actual DPS numbers. I believe last I saw Engi had ~33K in PvE which was the #3 or 4 DPS spec in game. Holosmith should out damage that with properly managed heat and rotations.

Again though, these are only opinions based on what we’ve seen and what I’ve experienced from preview weekend. Survivability is low.

Sword obv for Holo is power based but Holosmith is going to be used by both condi and power builds for raids.

For condi its going to use Phonto forges 4 skill and 1 skill as a filler while kit moves are on cd. It’s traits are going to be Solar focusing lens, Crystal Configuration Storm, and Photonic Blasting Module. I’m not entirely sure if it will use the new elite but it leave a burning field above 50% heat.

Photon Blitz is pretty mcuh thief unload with 8 stacks of burning attached.

Solar focusing lens is pretty much an extra flamethrower tool kit skill.

Cyrstal Configuration Storm turns Forges 1 skill into explosives which will trigger Shrapnel.

Photonic Blast Module does a decent amount of damage applies a chunk of burning and grants us 15% with lasers edge. Which will also trigger the second portion of Solar Focusing lens for more burning because we overheat. It also stop the initial self explosion damage which would be a massive pain for druids/support to keep and eye on.

Imo at the very least I have a feeling it will replace the Tools trait line especially with the recent nerfs it saw. As for the Power build no idea tbh.

Well, until HoT launches:

http://justflipacoin.com/

If heads, it’s a power meta.
If tails, it’s a condi meta.

But then again…maybe one of the new armor stat combos will give us will be OP and some power/condi hybrid will be meta.

Not sure what will be meta, but it certainly looks like both power and condi will have high damage viable builds.

Holosmith trait line is lots more condi damage than Tools, so to me that pretty much confirms it will improve the current Engi condi meta. I doubt that build will be changed much otherwise, weapons and utilities probably will stay pretty much the same.

Dahkeus.8243:

Well, until HoT launches:

http://justflipacoin.com/

If heads, it’s a power meta.
If tails, it’s a condi meta.

But then again…maybe one of the new armor stat combos will give us will be OP and some power/condi hybrid will be meta.

Not 100% sure so take this with a grain of salt but i think i seen a power condi precision ferocity gear set coming with pof which would make holosmith an absolute beast with a hybrid build for pve

What Lalainnia said V

It’s called Grieving and its on the wiki under four or more attributes, while condi eng uses prob the most power damage out of all condi builds I’m not entirely sure how it will work considering it needs a healthy amount of expertise to max out on duration. Who knows though may find a middle ground.

Lalainnia.3598:

It’s called Grieving and its on the wiki under four or more attributes, while condi eng uses prob the most power damage out of all condi builds I’m not entirely sure how it will work considering it needs a healthy amount of expertise to max out on duration. Who knows though may find a middle ground.

Assuming burning is the condition we are trying to maximize, it might be doable. Incendiary Powder + Smoldering + Rune of Balthazar + Food gets us pretty close. 84 – 85% I think.

Grieving might be the new Berserker for builds like Power Holosmith (pholo?) because of all the extra burning and bleeding even when you trait full power, but I don’t think it will replace Viper for Condi Holosmith (cholo?).

Grieving all the way with Balthy’s runes and the Smoldering sigil. That might be so kitten stupid it could work wonders.