Holosmith - Holorifle

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The community gave this build a rating, making it top-tier: Great.

Focused on: Direct damage, Mobility, Control.

Designed for:

Roaming

Overview

A WvW build utilising the power potential of the Holosmith in a smallscale roaming setting.

Skillbar

RifleHealingUtilityElite

Specializations

Variants

• Protection Injection makes it harder to maintain Vigor but potentially offers better sustain.

Equipment

6x

Superior Rune of Durability

18x

Mighty WvW Infusion

Consumables

Food

• • - budget version

Utility

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, or by activating forge skills. Higher CD skills generally generate more heat.
• Reaching maximum heat (100) should be avoided as Overheating damages you and locks you out of the forge until heat goes back to 0. The best tool for heat management is dodge rolling, which vents 15 heat per roll via 24px Thermal Release Valve and does some moderate AoE damage.
• Engage Photon Forge 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 5 seconds, so be careful about reentering with high heat levels.
  • 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

This is where most of the damage comes from

• Although the auto attack chain got significant nerfs in March 2018, it can still do considerable cleave damage especially with Quickness.
• Holo Leap will be used to maintain permanent Swiftness and Vigor (through Invigorating Speed), keep using this skill out of combat as well but don't build too much heat (manage with dodges accordingly). Holo Leap also does considerable damage while in combat. Keep in mind that this is a Leap Finisher, so always try to combo it with either a Light Field for Light Aura or a Water Field for healing.
• Corona Burst will be the primary source of Stability in the build and an important source of Might, granting up to 5 stacks per use. There's a second attack too which goes off after a short delay. This should be the VERY FIRST SKILL you use after entering holo mode.
  • Stability won't be applied unless you hit at least one enemy.
• Photon Blitz can be useful for reaching targets trying to escape, otherwise it should only be used if you can make sure that all of its projectiles are going to land (for example if the target is CC'd).
• Holographic Shockwave is an excellent AoE CC and also a Blast Finisher. You can also fake cast it by stowing your weapon right after activation in order to bait enemy dodges.

General

• The only sources of cleansing in the build are A.E.D. and 24px Prismatic Converter.
  • Against condition burst Elixir S's immunity can bail you out.
• 24px Particle Accelerator works well with Static Discharge and should be used as often as possible for free instant damage.
• A.E.D. for the most part should be used preemtively whenever you feel like an enemy burst is going to take you down. The traited version of this skill has an 8 second window where it can save your life.
  • This skill synergizes with the Overheat mechanic! You could either activate A.E.D. if you accidentally overheat at low health, or even overheat on purpose to trigger A.E.D. in case your opponent is trying to play around it by not attacking you.
• Rocket Boots is a mobility skill with few combat applciations. Feel free to use it if you wish to cut down on travel time, need to chase down someone, or if you're on low HP and have to disengage in a blink of an eye.
• Toolbelt skills grant Vigor, and you deal 10% increased damage while affected by this boon.
• Photon Wall can be used offensively especially above 50 heat. Standing in melee range all 3 parts of 24px Launch Wall can hit the same target.
• Overcharged Shot can knock downed enemies off of capture points, bleeding them out while you cap thus delaying their respawn. Prime Light Beam could do the same, but that'd be a waste of cooldowns (except if there are enemies trying to revive their downed, in that case your elite can pressure all of them while interrupting the rez attempt even if they had Stability by launching the downed player far enough to cancel the channeling).
  • Overcharged Shot knocks you back upon activation. To negate this you can try building Stability through Corona Burst before using the skill.
• Net Shot, Overcharged Shot and Prime Light Beam can CC people long enough to set up a burst.
• Enable skill retargetting (under general options, combat/movement section). This lets you cast Prime Light Beam facing target A, potentially bait out a dodge, then switch over to target B just before the skill goes off and hit that target. Alternatively, just stow your weapon if the target dodges in order to not send the skill on full CD.
• A few burst combo examples:
  • Corona Burst ⇒ Overcharged Shot ⇒ 24px Particle Accelerator ⇒ Jump Shot ⇒ Blunderbuss
  • Corona Burst ⇒ Holographic Shockwave ⇒ Photon Blitz ⇒ dodge to vent heat ⇒ Holo Leap