Guild Wars 2

I have been following the information and release, and I know the skill information has been released to some extent. Still, shouldn’t we wait until we get to test it(which is only a few weeks away for those that didn’t hear) before we claim that holosmith is trash and that this class is doomed. Anet is a good studio and they have been working on this expack for a while, so we should give the benefit of the doubt.
Tldr: give holosmith a chance

I understand where you are coming from, I used to always die in hot. The build I use now changes all that.

Full dire gear with rune of Balthazar and sigil of smoldering. This is a cheap build (less than 20 gold on tp for full elite armor, accessories, runes, and sigils). Use the standard condition traits, dual pistols, and flamethrower with any other skills that your want. I use rocket boots and flame turret for added fire, mobility, and smoke.

This build revolves around fire skills( you will have 95%+ fire duration and very high condition damage) . I feel this is a better fit than viper for you because though it is reduced damage this build is very tanky(condition damage equivalent of soldier). Your burst damage is still great (12-15k per second in real game not testing environment ) . Because it is condition, you also don’t have to worry about break bars. The rotation is very simple and you can casually go through hot without becoming a piano player. I soloed the arrowhead hero point without crazy skills.

Give it a shot, it does not require a huge investment like viper gear.