Build:Holosmith - Condi DPS

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

Focused on: Condition damage

Designed for: Raids and Fractals

Expansions required:

Difficulty:

Hard

This build was last updated on September 17, 2024 and is up to date for the October 8, 2024 patch.

Overview

Variant of the old Condition Engineer build. Great condi burst and sustained damage as well as having good CC options. Very complicated to play at peak effectiveness, but more than rewards players that can.

Skill Bar

Spear

Utility

Weapon Variants

Pistol/Pistol is the best weapon set for players that don't own Janthir Wilds. This also provides better ranged damage.

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Equipment

Head
Viper

Shoulders
Viper

Chest
Viper

Hands
Sinister

Legs
Viper

Feet
Sinister

Backpiece
Sinister

Accessory
Viper

Accessory
Viper

Amulet
Viper

Ring
Viper

Ring
Viper

Spear
Viper

Sigil

Sigil

Pistol
Viper

Pistol
Viper

Sigil

Sigil

Rune
x6

Infusion
x18

Relic

• Relic of Akeem is also a strong option if you use Air Blast each time you enter Flamethrower. Its AoE nature makes it superior if there are targets other than the boss around.

Non-SotO Gear

For players that don't own Secrets of the Obscure, Relic of the Aristocracy is the best core option. As this adds a lot of condi duration, you should run the following gear instead:

Head
Viper

Shoulders
Viper

Chest
Viper

Hands
Sinister

Legs
Viper

Feet
Sinister

Backpiece
Sinister

Accessory
Sinister

Accessory
Sinister

Amulet
Sinister

Ring
Viper

Ring
Sinister

Pistol
Viper

Pistol
Viper

Sigil

Sigil

Rune
x6

Infusion
x18

Relic

Consumables

Food

Utility

• • for a cheaper alternative

Usage

Spear rotation

The unique aspect of Spear is the Focused mechanic, which is applied by Conduit Surge and refreshed by the last hit of the auto chain. You can only have a single Focused target, and hitting the target with Spear skills will trigger enhanced effects:

• The autoattack chain will apply Vulnerability
• Conduit Surge applies more Burning
• Lightning Rod ⇒ Electric Artillery deals more damage, and applies more Vulnerability and Burning.
• Roiling Skies deals (slightly) more CC.
• Devastator will hit the Focused target with Focused Devastation, applying more damage and Burning.

Due to the number of kits being used, skills will be coming off cooldown all the time, and your job is to fit in as many as you can while prioritising the most important ones.

The highest priority skills are Conduit Surge and Lightning Rod/Electric Artillery. These form the backbone of the rotation and should always be cast together (alternating between Lightning Rod and Electric Artillery).

After these, you want to cycle through your kits, using key skills in each before returning to Spear for Conduit Surge.

To make this manageable, each "kit" you swap to (for these purposes we consider Spear to also be a kit) has a key skill that we ideally want to swap to and use every time it comes off cooldown, as well as some lower-priority skills that you use if they happen to be off cooldown when you swap. The skills you use in each kit are:

Spear
Key skills: Conduit Surge & Lightning Rod/Electric Artillery
High priority: Devastator

Grenade Kit
Key skill: Shrapnel Grenade
High priority: Poison Grenade
Low priority: Freeze Grenade

Bomb Kit
Key skill: Fire Bomb
Medium priority: Concussion Bomb

Flamethrower
Key Skill: Flame Blast
Medium priority: Napalm
Low priority: Air Blast

As general principles, the priority of your kits is Spear > Grenade Kit > Bomb Kit > Flamethrower, and you should only use one or two skills each time you enter Grenade Kit. Also note that Fire Bomb has a longer cooldown than your other key skills, so you will occasionally skip this kit. Any downtime between key skills can be filled with spear autoattacks, but you don't need to worry about finishing the chains.

The following opener should give some idea of how this fits together:

Opener

Start at ~80 heat.

1. Fire Bomb (optional, mostly useful if you can cast it just before combat starts)
2. Lightning Rod
3. Conduit Surge
4. Incendiary Ammo - has no cast time so use as soon as you're in combat
5. Grenade Kit
6. Poison Grenade
7. Engage Photon Forge
8. Corona Burst
9. Photon Blitz
10. Prime Light Beam
11. Overheat
12. Electric Artillery
13. Conduit Surge
14. Devastator
15. Grenade Kit
16. Shrapnel Grenade
17. Flamethrower
18. Flame Blast
19. Napalm
20. Bomb Kit
21. Fire Bomb
22. Concussion Bomb
23. Weapon Swap
24. Lightning Rod
25. Conduit Surge
26. Grenade Barrage
27. Grenade Kit
28. Shrapnel Grenade
29. Freeze Grenade
30. Flamethrower
31. Flame Blast
32. Weapon Swap

After this, try to follow the principles outlined above until Photon Forge is ready again. This should line up with Spear skills such that you can do:

1. Lightning Rod
2. Conduit Surge
3. Engage Photon Forge
4. Corona Burst
5. Photon Blitz
6. Autoattack until Corona Burst is ready
7. Corona Burst
8. Deactivate Photon Forge
9. Conduit Surge
10. Electric Artillery
11. Quickly cycle through your kits and use the higher priority skills. The aim is to spend ~5 seconds doing this so that Corona Burst is back off cooldown
12. Engage Photon Forge
13. Corona Burst
14. Photon Blitz
15. Grenade Barrage
16. Overheat
17. Repeat something similar to the opener, though the available skills won't necessarily be the same.

• Use Incendiary Ammo off cooldown
• Grenade Barrage can be used to fill in gaps in the rotation. Big Ol' Bomb can be used similarly, but it's barely a damage increase over autoattacking, so can be saved for CC instead.
• Prime Light Beam should be used nearly off cooldown. It should line up roughly with Photon Forge so you can delay it slightly to use at higher heat.

Spear rotation example

Pistol rotations

Pistol rotation example

Pistol rotation example - simplified