Holosmith - DPS Holo

Part of the current metagame

Our curator decided this build is in the current metagame regardless of rating. The community gave this build a rating, making it top-tier: Great

Focused on: Strike damage

Designed for: WvW Zerg

Expansions required:

Difficulty:

Hard

This build was last updated on September 25, 2025 and is up to date for the August 19, 2025 patch.

Overview

A power damage Holosmith WvW build meant to do massive damage within melee range, overwhelming the enemies with copious amounts of burst hits, causing great pain and harm to their bodies and souls and health bars, while having no meaningful downtime, unlike their other DPS such as reaper or berserker which struggle outside of Reaper's Shroud and Berserk.

Skillbar

Rifle/Rifle

Utility

Variants

Weapon

• Hammer
• Spear

Heal

• Med Kit more team utility but less personal survivability

Utility

• Bomb Kit
• Elixir S

Template Code

[&DQMGOyYvOS0qDwAAVxYAAJMBAACVAQAA8BUAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA=]

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Specializations

Variants

• Crystal Configuration: Eclipse
• Photonic Blasting Module

Equipment

Head
Dragon

Shoulders
Marauder

Chest
Marauder

Hands
Dragon

Legs
Dragon

Feet
Dragon

Backpiece
Dragon

Accessory
Marauder

Accessory
Marauder

Amulet
Demolisher

Ring
Marauder

Ring
Marauder

Rifle
Marauder

Sigil

Sigil

Rifle
Marauder

Sigil

Sigil

Rune
x6

Relic

Variants

Stats

• Feel free to use as much Berserker's gear as you can without dying
  • Swap out Dragon gear first
• The given setup aims for maximum Effective Health
  • You can swap Marauder's to Demolisher's to make healing more efficient in exchange for increasing your chance to be spiked from 100%

Sigil

• Sigil of Superior Sigil of Stamina for activating Explosive Entrance

Usage

Quick Guide

• Holosmith is a short range pure DPS with very high burst
• Set up ticking damage effects to increase your burst

Ticking Damage Skill List

• Prime Light Beam
• Acid Bomb
• Laser Disk

• Aim to land as many of your hard hitting skills within as short a time window as possible while those ticking effects are active

Burst Damage Skill List

• Napalm
• Jump Shot
• Corona Burst

• Use holosmith's exceptional filler skills to finish enemies off

Filler Damage Skill List

• Light Strike
• Flame Jet

General

• As soon as you get the 25 stacks of Sigil of Superior Sigil of Bloodlust and get out of combat, swap back to the Rifle without it

Surviving

• This build has low passive defense
• This build has moderate mobility skill access
• This build has low active defenses

Defensive Skill List

• Healing Mist - Stunbreak
• Smoke Vent - Stunbreak
• Overcharged Shot - Clears Immobilize/ Chill/ Cripple
• A.E.D.

• Use A.E.D. when you expect high spike damage to occur inside its duration
  • Let your group heal you instead of using A.E.D. to heal yourself

Priorities

High

• Burst Damage

Moderate

• Damage

Low

• Superspeed
• CC

Detailed Explanations

Burst Damage

• Your ideal burst priority is very similar to your damage priority. It should look as follows:

1. Prime Light Beam
2. Laser Disk
3. Acid Bomb
4. Napalm
5. Jump Shot - when needed for mobility
6. Blunderbuss
7. Engage Photon Forge
8. Corona Burst
9. Light Strike

• The goal is to maximize the amount of damage ticks at one time by having Prime Light Beam, Acid Bomb and Laser Disk all ticking with your other damage skills
• If you can't land a short range skill skip it
  • If you can't land most of your skills, wait for a better time to burst
• Only use Jump Shot when needed for mobility - it can fit anywhere in this order
• Napalm can easily be moved since it has by far the highest range and is the easiest skill to land. Cast it later if you melee uptime will be limited or use it early if you can hit flamethrower but can't melee yet

Damage

Skill priority

• Prime Light Beam - over 50 Heat
• Acid Bomb
• Napalm
• Engage Photon Forge - Do not overheat
• Corona Burst
• Laser Disk - over 50 Heat
• Light Strike
• Jump Shot
• Blunderbuss
• Dodge - for Explosive Temper (Explosive Entrance)
• Flame Blast
• Flame Jet

• Priortize syncing your burst skills up when possible as described above, but otherwise your priorties are to:

1. Use Acid Bomb and Napalm as often as possible
2. Engage Photon Forge use Corona Burst ⇒ Light Strike ⇒ Corona Burst then leave forge
3. Fill with weapon skills and Flamethrower

• In Engage Photon Forge prioritize Corona Burst and Light Strike for damage
  • In general you should use two Corona Burst before leaving forge
  • Use Holo Leap as needed for mobility
  • Watch your Heat carefully, overheating must be avoided at all costs
  • Keep your Heat above 50 (past the first bar) always, especially when using your Exceed skills
    • Holographic Shockwave is helpful for quickly gaining Heat, even while out of range for its primary effects
  • Around 95 Heat is a sweet spot for entering Engage Photon Forge without overheating
  • You should preheat your Engage Photon Forge before engaging the enemy to around 100 heat when possible
• UseLaser Disk whenever you are sure you are going to be able to sit in melee for a long time
• Prime Light Beam is best suited for chokes or scenarios where the enemy is pushing at you, since it goes beyond the standard 5man target cap
  • Prime Light Beam roots you for a while during the cast so be careful to not greed
• Use Acid Bomb whenever the enemy group will be in the AoE for multiple ticks, the CD is very short
  • The backwards leap must be canceled by using a Weapon Swap keybind during the animation
• Use Stoke the Flames before Napalm if you don't already have Quickness
• During Photon Forge downtime:
  • Use your rifle skills, mainly Blunderbuss and Jump Shot for burst damage
  • Use Flame Blast then spam Flame Jet

Superspeed

• Holo Leap gives Superspeed to an unlimited amount of allies
  • Use Holo Leap in the direction your commander is pushing whenever you use it
  • Cast Holo Leap behind the commander to keep the group together
  • Pair Holo Leap with Veil if your group isn't out of combat on Veil cast

CC

CC Skill List

• Holographic Shockwave - AoE Launch
• Net Shot - Single target Immobilize
• Overcharged Shot - Single target Launch

• Holographic Shockwave adds 25% Heat, be careful not to overheat when using it
• Net Shot and Overcharged Shot are generally not worth casting
• Use your CC when:
  • Your group calls a spike such as Wells - (Well of Corruption)
  • On top of enemy downs (while alive enemies are on top of them)
  • Enemy groups move defensively while your group is pushing