Holosmith - Power Holo

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

Designed for: Open World and Open World General

Expansions required:

Difficulty:

Normal

This build was last updated on August 24, 2023 and is up to date for the October 8, 2024 patch.

Overview

A power Holosmith build for open world. Engage Photon Forge to cauterise enemies with the power of concentrated sunlight. This build has great damage both in AoE and single target, decent mobility, and is slightly resilient. Compared to scrapper and mechanist, this build is harder to play but does higher damage after learning to play it. However, it isn't that great for soloing as it doesn't have barriers like scrapper or a very tanky pet like mechanist.

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Skill Bar

Sword/Shield

Utility

Weapon variants

We strongly recommed the usage of sword, as it deals great damage and has good synergy with the rest of the build. Rifle can be used if you need a ranged option, but it has much lower damage and, since most of your damage comes from Photon Forge which is melee, the range of rifle isn't that great either.

Skill Variants

Healing

The choice of heal skill is very open. We recommend Healing Turret because it provides very high healing and cleanses 2 conditions when first deployed, while creating a water field where you can detonate the turret to provide even more healing (See: Guide:What are Combo Fields). Always pick up the turret or detonate it, as it will provide more healing over time than the super weak regeneration that leaving the turret deployed provides. Other options can be considered.

Med Kit provides a decent heal with a low cooldown with the toolbelt skill Bandage Self, a Blast finisher with Infusion Bomb, condition cleanse and water field with Cleansing Field, and some ally healing.
A.E.D. - helpful to negate a big attack or a oneshot, and has a helpful 2 second stun on the toolbelt skill Static Shock. This skill requires a bit more skill to use, as it only provides large healing if you were to take lethal damage.
Coolant Blast - good healing when used above 100 Heat, but not too good at low Heat. Its toolbelt skill is quite niche, transforming the conditions you suffer from into Burning (transforming more conditions at higher Heat levels), which can do more harm than good.

Utility Skills

Throw Mine has great damage and crowd control. Laser Disk is great for damage. Grenade Kit provides great damage through the kit and its toolbelt skill. You can replace Grenade Kit if you don't like it. Laser Disk and Throw Mine are needed for doing damage and should only be replaced if you really need to.

Spectrum Shield - great stun break and damage reduction with a low cooldown, even lower if used at high Heat.
Photon Wall - provides a projectile block on demand and a toolbelt skill that deals good damage. Situational since you are already using a shield, and this skill only blocks frontal attacks.
Personal Battering Ram - heavy melee range crowd control on a short cooldow, in case you need more crowd control than what Throw Mine provides (though it does almost no damage). Its toolbelt skill does a little ranged crowd control.
Hard Light Arena - provides boons to yourself and nearby allies, and its toolbelt skill pulls nearby enemies, though sadly it has a small range.

Elite skill

Prime Light Beam deals great damage and Crowd Control.

Supply Crate inflicts more crowd control but has less damage and a longer cooldown.

Specializations

Specialization Variants

Glass Cannon - DPS increase in group events when allies are providing Fury.
Light Density Amplifier - trades some damage for defense,
Prismatic Converter - more condition cleanse.

Fast Tagging

In events that require fast AoE damage, take Thermal Release Valve and Crystal Configuration: Storm with a Sigil of Superior Sigil of Stamina for higher tagging potential.

Alchemy Variant

This variant deals much lower DPS but provides much higher durability. This typically should replace Firearms, though to keep the high crit chance you can also replace explosives.

Equipment

Ascended gear is not required; exotic gear with the same stats will work.

Standard Equipment

This gearset is useful across all of PVE.

Head
Berserker

Shoulders
Berserker

Chest
Berserker

Hands
Berserker

Legs
Berserker

Feet
Berserker

Backpiece
Berserker

Accessory
Berserker

Amulet
Berserker

Ring
Berserker

Sword
Berserker

Shield
Berserker

Sigil

Rune
x6

Variant Equipment

Defense

Invest in a Jade Core for additional HP and access to Jade Protocols.
Full Dragon - luxury set: trades damage for a massive boost to HP; pair with Signet of Fire.
Knight's Trinkets - extra defense
Sigil of Superior Sigil of Energy - increased evasion

Budget

Rune of Superior Rune of Infiltration - budget replacement for Rune of Superior Rune of the Scholar
Sigil of Superior Sigil of Air - budget replacement for Sigil of Superior Sigil of Impact

Consumables

Budget consumables are acceptable for use in open world.

DPS

Prioritize Steak Ascended food.
/
/

Defense

Farming

Prioritize Steak Ascended food.
/
(and variants)

Usage

Photon Forge

Most of your damage comes from Photon Forge, the holosmith's profession mechanic. Using skills inside the Forge generates Heat, some Heat is also gained over time. Having high Heat is great, as it increases your damage through Laser's Edge and Enhanced Capacity Storage Unit. However, you must exit Photon Forge before you accumulate 150 Heat, or you will Overheat, which does great damage to yourself, prevents you from accessing the Forge until it cools down, and puts your toolbelt skills on cooldown, so a terrible thing to happen.

When you exit Photon Forge, it will begin to cool down after a few seconds, and you will slowly lose Heat and heal yourself a little through Heat Therapy. Once the Forge has cooled a bit (but not all the way down), you will enter it again. This way, you will always have some good amount of Heat to benefit from the aforementioned traits.

Damage

As mentioned, having high Heat is great, and your Photon Forge skills not only generate Heat but also do great damage. You should open fights with your Photon Forge, use your Forge skills until you're very close to overheating, then exit the forge and fight with your sword and Grenade Kit. Once your Heat cools down to about 80, you should enter the Forge again. Your highest damage skills are:

Throw Mine
Photon Blitz
Corona Burst
Grenade Barrage
Laser Disk

Rotation

Against bosses and other durable enemies, try to follow this rotation. If possible, start with high Heat, about 80. You can use Holographic Shockwave to quickly generate a lot of heat. If possible, use Throw Mine before the fight, so you can detonate it later once you have high Heat so it does more damage (the skill beings to cool down when you place the mine).

Corona Burst
Photon Blitz
Photon Forge auto attacks.
Corona Burst
Deactivate Photon Forge
Refraction Cutter
Radiant Arc (skip if a nearby ally is providing you with Quickness)
Shrapnel Grenade + Poison Grenade
Sword auto attacks.
Refraction Cutter
Sword auto attacks.
Refraction Cutter
Engage Photon Forge
Repeat

Use the following skills off cooldown inside Photon Forge when above 100 Heat instead of Forge auto attacks: Grenade Barrage, Laser Disk, Prime Light Beam, Throw Mine.

Notes and tips

If you enter Photon Forge at about 80 heat as recommended, your second Corona Burst will be used very close to overheating. But this won't be a problem because you can leave Photon Forge right after the yellow casting bar of Corona Burst disappears. This might cause you to reach 150 Heat outside of Photon Forge as Corona Burst generates its Heat over 1.5 seconds after casting, but you can't overheat outside of the Forge.
If possible, precast Throw Mine and Mine Field before fights.
You can enter and leave Engineer Kits without interrupting your current action. So you can press the key for Refraction Cutter and equip the kit immediately and it won't get interrupted. This is great for when you are only going to use Shrapnel Grenade and exit the kit, as you have to wait 1 second before you can exit the kit, this way that one second will pass by as you finish casting Refraction Cutter and cast Shrapnel Grenade, making the rotation much more fluid. Do note that Stow Kit does not interrupt your ongoing action but Weapon Swap does, so don't use weapon swap.
To quickly generate Heat before fights you can use Corona Burst, Holo Leap, and auto attacks. You can also use Holographic Shockwave if you won't be needing the Crowd Control.
Remember to try to stay always at high Heat to benefit from Laser's Edge and Enhanced Capacity Storage Unit. Even your sword skills are more powerful when used at high Heat.
Static Shield only stuns enemies that attack you while you from melee range.
Photon Forge auto attacks have been bugged since launch and are much slower if you manually press the key. Instead, just rely on auto attack and don't press the key.

Defense and Sustain

Heat Therapy and Big Boomer provide a little sustain in long fights, but you're vulnerable to burst damage.
You can block attacks and reflect projectiles with your shield.
With your great burst damage, you will kill trash mobs before they kill you. You can also use your CC to incapacitate them so they can't fight back.
In longer fights, if you need more defense, you can consider using the defensive utilities Hard Light Arena and/or Spectrum Shield at a dps loss.
Remember that Healing Turret cleanses 2 conditions. If you need even more cleansing, use Prismatic Converter.

Crowd Control

Magnetic Inversion
Static Shield
Throw Shield
Throw Mine
Holographic Shockwave
Prime Light Beam
Static Shock (if using A.E.D.)

Holosmith - Power Holo

Contents

Overview

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