Difference between revisions of "Holosmith - Tools Holo Roamer"
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If you're confident in your ability to handle conditions even without {{Sigil|Superior Sigil of Cleansing}}, other options open up: | If you're confident in your ability to handle conditions even without {{Sigil|Superior Sigil of Cleansing}}, other options open up: | ||
− | * {{Sigil|Superior Sigil of Celerity}} - lines up perfectly with {{Skill|Thunderclap}}, significantly improves {{Tooltip|Quickness}} uptime. | + | * {{Sigil|Superior Sigil of Celerity}} - lines up perfectly with {{Skill|Thunderclap}} when playing with Hammer, significantly improves {{Tooltip|Quickness}} uptime. |
* {{Sigil|Superior Sigil of Vision}} - improves the consistency of your bursts. | * {{Sigil|Superior Sigil of Vision}} - improves the consistency of your bursts. |
Revision as of 11:22, 5 February 2024
The community gave this build a rating, making it top-tier: Great
Focused on: Strike damage, Mobility and Control
Designed for: WvW Roaming
Overview
Built around the toolbelt synergy of Tools and damage procs of Explosives, this WvW Holosmith roaming build is capable of doing massive burst damage without much setup. While the sustain's not that great by default, there's plenty of room for customization in the build that allows players to finetune things for their needs.
Skill Bar
Skill Variants
Utility
Viable choices for the optional slot:
- - it's mostly for the toolbelt skill, is an instant trigger for and improves your burst damage. Has great synergy with the Tools spec in general because of its low CD. Currently the most popular pick.
- - CC, block, and some decent damage on .
- Stealth access on toolbelt. - great panic button against any kind of pressure and even has
- - defensive skill that also breaks stuns and its CD could be reduced when used at high heat levels.
Weapons
- Hammer - this is an equally viable option for people who own both Heart of Thorns and the Secrets of the Obscure expansions. The two sets offer very similar things - block, projectile-reflect, CC, leap finishers. Hammer is a slower weapon but has more damage.
Heal
- - worse cleansing but higher healing thanks to the toolbelt skill and the water field the kit offers. Goes up in value compared to when NOT playing with .
Elite
- - unblockable ranged CC on low CD.
- Stealth stacking. - a different kind of AoE CC, and the combo field could even be used for
Template Code
Specializations
Variants
There are 2 main versions for this build:
and .- With Vigor from Tools and the rest should either come from on Tools OR , but never both! You don't want to overcap endurance regen. If you take Adrenal Implant you get to use ascended food and still have 100% bonus endurance regen, if you take the dodge food you'll only have 90% endurance regen but retain access to . you'll focus on dodging for heat management and synergy. You should aim to hit 90-100% bonus endurance regen. 50% is provided by
- If you go with your burst potential is going to be even higher, your Holo skills become stronger but your heat management gets worse, forcing you to use Photon Forge less often. Both of the Tools GM traits and both of the food options remain viable choices, but you'll no longer have to maximize endurance regen if you don't want to.
Equipment
Marauder
Marauder
Marauder
Marauder
Marauder
Marauder
Berserker
Berserker
Berserker
Commander
Berserker
Berserker
Marauder
Marauder
x6
x18
Equipment Variants
Runes
- - lower sustain, more damage.
Sigils
If you're confident in your ability to handle conditions even without
, other options open up:- Quickness uptime. - lines up perfectly with when playing with Hammer, significantly improves
- - improves the consistency of your bursts.
- - higher burst potential.
Relics
- - boosts your condition cleansing.
- - improves your consistency by adding a frequent 100% crit chance proc to the build.
Consumables
Food
- - defensive ascended choice with passive damage mitigation while also providing a decent amount of offensive stats.
- - defensive option with
- - budget version.
and synergy.
Utility
- or
Usage
Elite specialization basics
- Holosmith grants access to the Photon Forge (sometimes referred to as holo mode) and introduces a new resource: heat. Heat is generated passively while the forge is active and also by activating forge skills. Higher CD skills generate more heat.
- Reaching maximum heat (150) should be avoided as Overheating damages you and locks you out of the forge until heat goes back to 0.
- is used to activate the forge, after which your weapon skills will be replaced by 5 new ones. You can't exit the forge for at least 6 seconds, so be careful about reentering with high heat levels. Be careful when entering it above ~70 heat as you may risk overheating.
- Both Engage Photon Forge and Disengage Photon Forge count as toolbelt skills and will work with related traits. Both skills can proc weapon swap sigils too.
Forge skills
- The autoattack chain can do considerable cleave damage especially with Quickness.
- should be used on CD most of the time as this is an incredibly loaded skill on a very short CD. This skill provides mobility/cleansing via , does decent damage, and even functions as a Leap Finisher.
- Might. The second strike goes off after a delay, making it ideal to combo with other skills for burst damage. Try to squeeze in 2 Corona Bursts before exiting the form. tends to be the first skill Holosmiths use in combat right after entering holo mode. This is a two-parter that also stacks
- offers some ranged pressure on an otherwise melee-focused set. You could combo this with the toolbelt skills and for ranged burst damage if going into melee is too risky, but it's worth using for the damage regardless of range.
- is an excellent AoE CC and also a Blast Finisher. You may also fake cast it by stowing your weapon right after activation in order to bait dodges from enemies.
General
- and are best used above 50 heat for maximum effectiveness. For Sword skills you should be aiming for 100+ heat.
- on toolbelt is the only stun break in the build by default, but at least it recharges quickly. could be used while stunned in hopes of CCing enemies.
- Poison field for healing reduction (that could also make it harder for enemies to rez their downed allies), Blind and Chill to avoid damage or kite enemies, and a Water field to combo extra healing. Most skills also do solid damage and could be used to pressure targets both in melee and range, further reducing your downtime between burst combos. is a versatile kit useful in just about any situation and has a lot of combo potential. It has a
Damage
- The more heat you have, the more damage you do thanks to and .
- After every dodge roll you gain which adds a decent damage proc to your next attack.
- When playing with Sword/Shield follow up with and right after exiting the forge (while your heat is still high), preferably in this order - Radiant Arc leaps to your target which makes it easier to land Refraction Cutter in melee range, increasing the chance of landing all projectiles on one target.
- and are the best skills for proccing . These provide frequently available instant burst damage and should be used as often as possible.
- Every 5th toolbelt skill you use gives you Quickness and Superspeed via .
- is primarily a defensive skill, but its chain skill lets you shoot it at nearby enemies for extra damage. Using this skill only for the damage is hardly ever worth it (as it's one of your few defensive CDs and doesn't hit that hard), but you should consider using when Photon Wall is about to expire.
- If taken Quickness, but you could even pull some mind-games with it. PLB roots you in place and makes you face towards your target - with skill retargeting enabled under Combat/Movement Options you're able to cast it on target A, bait out a dodge and then switch to target B in the last moment, hitting them with the beam.
- If target A dodges and there is no target B simply stow your weapon to cancel it and try again a few seconds later, don't waste your elite.
is a powerful unblockable ranged AoE CC on low CD and works great for setting up bursts. The skill is very telegraphed and somewhat easy to avoid if you don't have
- Once your heat is back at a reasonably low level enter holo mode and spam those skills, that's really all there is to it.
Sustain
- Every Hammer skill except the autoattack could be used defensively.
- does great damage in melee while reflecting projectiles, has a lengthy evade frame on top of being a double combo finisher and having high damage, stuns enemies while leaving behind a pulsing damage field.
- is the most defensive thing on Hammer, being a block skill with barrier. While the damage is mediocre it's still worth using it in melee as you gain barrier whenever the skill strikes an enemy, but even if you don't do that the block is still very useful.
- Stability while also creating the perfect opening for counterpressuring targets. Really good at immediately punishing teleport skills like or too. is great at turning things around. The instant unblockable AoE CC could stop most burst attempts made by enemies without
- Toolbelt skills remove conditions. Since you're going to be spamming and quite a lot you should be able to keep them at bay just by playing offensively. When conditions start to overwhelm you use (preferably at high heat).
- The only stunbreak in the build is found on toolbelt skill (not to be confused with the effect of the same name).
- is an extremely valuable blocking skill that allows you to keep pressuring targets without having to worry in most cases.
- Standing inside any of the AoE fields created by is already going to make you a less attractive target, but and are especially useful when used defensively. isn't scary but being a water field you could use your many leap/blast finishers like or to get even more healing out of it.
Ratings
Comments
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