Guild Wars 2

I think I share a popular opinion with many when I say that the Holosmith feels very strong in PvP. It’s enjoyable to play, and it offers a very welcomed change of pace from the Scrapper. I think both Robert Gee and Irenio Calmon-Huang have a lot to be proud of with this specialization, as it seems to be one of the more popular ones according to the Reddit poll conducted over the weekend, and it is bringing a lot of non-engi players to the profession. I think the Holosmith will also be a genuine upgrade over core engineer in the PvE side of things, giving us a legitimate, engaging play style that’s quite a bit more active than spamming bombs in the core power engi build while being less frantic than the 4-kit core condi build. There’s a lot both PvE and PvP players have to be happy about with the specialization, but I think it’s important to address the elephant in the room here: five years into Guild Wars 2, the engineer is still an outsider to the WvW meta.

We had a brief stint in the meta when Heart of Thorns first launched, with Slick Shoes seeing very strong synergy with the Scrapper. And with Bulwark Gyro’s toolbelt skill, Defense Field, the Scrapper early on was one of the major contributors to finally disrupting the “pirate ship” meta. But now that Wall of Reflection has a base 30-second cooldown, which can be lowered to a 24-second cooldown with traits, alongside a major shift away from the “pirate ship” to the condi meta we have today, a lot of of our original appeal is gone. The Scrapper has no real defined role in WvW in 2017 outside of Sneak Gyro’s reveal, which admittedly has little utility outside of GvGs.

As such, we’re now entering this game’s five year anniversary and its second expansion release with another elite specialization that does nothing to address these issues. The engineer has struggled to maintain relevancy over the years as it pertains to WvW, and the Holosmith does nothing to fix this. It is yet another specialization that will be very effective in small-group/solo roaming while presenting little upside in a structured raid environment. But rather than sit here and complain about it, I’d like to offer some suggestions to “fix” the Holosmith without disrupting its balancing (i.e., no changes would make the specialization overpowered) while at the same time providing a more cohesive gameplay experience that may potentially translate to core engi skills/trait lines.

Please let me know what you think. Thanks.

Since the utilitys are split for wvw they could increase the duration of photon wall for wvw and keep it the same for spvp in wvw i found that it wasnt long enough to close the gap from a safe distance befor it wore off, i agree with the cd increase on holo leap its really strong because of that 2 sec cd but i found the leap finisher super handy for a variety of tactics while i was doing 1v1 and 2v2s with buddys so id like to see a leap finisher added to the sword 3 skill so i can keep doing that but with obviously a bit more difficult since 6sec lock into photonforge.

Im not sure how i feel about heat on the utilitys, i like the heat system atm but i can really spam and not pop my top easily so with increased cds on photon forges utilitys* would make it alot easier to manage the heat levels with even with heat on the utilites and it would give a way to generate heat for the skills that require heat for improved stats like the autos crit bonus without needing to spam threw photon forge.

I think the iron blood trait should get jumped up to 3% per boon in wvw, in a zerg setup using elixirs for might isnt as such a big deal anymore since there will be boons aplenty as is, this would help it synergize with your idea for hard light arena better as well as synergies with the damage reduction trait in photon forge and with the utility that improves damage reduction which would make use of a currently unused trait and make engineer significantly tanky without it focusing as heavily into stats.

ukuni.8745:

Since the utilitys are split for wvw they could increase the duration of photon wall for wvw and keep it the same for spvp in wvw i found that it wasnt long enough to close the gap from a safe distance befor it wore off, i agree with the cd increase on holo leap its really strong because of that 2 sec cd but i found the leap finisher super handy for a variety of tactics while i was doing 1v1 and 2v2s with buddys so id like to see a leap finisher added to the sword 3 skill so i can keep doing that but with obviously a bit more difficult since 6sec lock into photonforge.

I agree completely that Photon Wall in its current form is relatively useless. I’m honestly kind of surprised they even went the route they did with the exceed skills, as they fulfill a lot of the same purpose that the Bulwark Gyro does … while being exceedingly bad at it. If I’m being completely honest, I’d rather they just make the exceed skills do something else, as neither Photon Wall nor Spectrum Shield really mesh with the specialization and its play style. We already have projectile hate in the Scrapper and in Elixir U, and we already have a great deal of damage reduction in the Alchemy and Invention traitlines. What little defensive upsides they give are easily outshone by preexisting traits and utilities, which is why I thought reimagining exceed skills as support utilities would give them a broader use (with certain downsides attached to them). If anything, Photon Wall as it is currently designed really only serves to infringe on the potential usefulness of Elixir U in the first place.

ukuni.8745:

Im not sure how i feel about heat on the utilitys, i like the heat system atm but i can really spam and not pop my top easily so with increased cds on photon forges utilitys* would make it alot easier to manage the heat levels with even with heat on the utilites and it would give a way to generate heat for the skills that require heat for improved stats like the autos crit bonus without needing to spam threw photon forge.

I’m not really sure about how I feel with regard to the heat mechanic overall. You can either completely trivialize any need to manage it through Photonic Blasting Module, literally just mashing as many skills as possible until you overheat, offloading another 6-8K damage on nearby enemies, or you can run Thermal Release Valve, Tools’ Adrenal Implant, Rune of the Adventurer, and/or a Sigil of Energy to easily dump heat through the form of burning damage. The latter of the two I tried with a Carrion setup in PvP and it was honestly way more effective than it has any right being. (It’s also worth noting that with this heat-dump setup, super speed is easily maintainable through Holo Leap and has potential as the WvW spec.)

The idea behind making exceed skills generate heat is to (1) give them a buff while presenting some kind of drawback while also (2) giving engineers an option of how they play the Holosmith. Right now the Holosmith in its current form is a damage-only specialization—something of which, I’ve already noted, will be welcomed in both PvE and PvP. No matter what traits you take, that identity never really changes.

With a few minor tweaks, however, the Holosmith could easily address the biggest issue engineer has always had literally since 2012, and that’s a real lack of proper utility that affords them a slot in a raid group. I’m not entirely sold on the idea myself either, but I thought it was something that might help generate discussion and it seemed like something interesting ArenaNet might be willing to try.

ukuni.8745:

I think the iron blood trait should get jumped up to 3% per boon in wvw, in a zerg setup using elixirs for might isnt as such a big deal anymore since there will be boons aplenty as is, this would help it synergize with your idea for hard light arena better as well as synergies with the damage reduction trait in photon forge and with the utility that improves damage reduction which would make use of a currently unused trait and make engineer significantly tanky without it focusing as heavily into stats.

I don’t think Inventions or Alchemy need any buffs right now. They’re already over-represented. Last week’s Explosives changes were a welcome adjustment but not enough in the grand scheme. Holosmith, just like Scrapper, feels best with Inventions and Alchemy … whether that’s with Marauder or Mender (or in WvW’s case, Marauder or Celestial).

Rather than making the strongest PvP/WvW trees even stronger, perhaps they should take a longer look at making Firearms and Explosives worth taking.

I think Holosmith has a bigger issue in that scrapper’s hammer is a strong weapon , not so sure about sword other than as damage. You lose the option of Adaptive Armor, in addition to stability from Perfectly Weighted.

Holosmith could fulfill a midline role with the Photon forge , Coolant Blast is respectable, Spectrum Shield is pretty strong , Photon Wall forces enemies to engage in melee but Bulwark gyro already fulfilled this purpose.

I’ll probably play with it more at release, but for now I’m sticking with Scrapper. As a solo WvW player, Holosmith just doesn’t have any sustain. I had fun with it but I had to be super careful that I new what the zerg was doing before executing my rotation or I’d get rolled. I also found it unbelievably easy to snipe Holosmith’s. I can see the case if you run with a dedicated support team.

I really like sword mainhand, but the offhand (either shield or pistol) skills were weird.

I said it in another post, but my final complaint would be the rotations are even more carpal tunnel inducing than previous engi specs.

I like it, and it has a lot of potential, but I don’t think it’s for me.

I think Hard Light Arena should give stability over generic fury and regen that is crapped out everywhere and anywhere.

There’s way too much CC/corrupt even compared to it is now, so not having stability is disastrous in any decently sized fight.

I was able to get around using the eclipse trait, but still rather unwieldly and ended up pulling Elixir B anyways, which of course gets kittened over by projectile hate.