Holosmith - Power Sword DPS

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: Direct damage

Designed for: Raids and Fractals

Expansions required:

Difficulty:

Normal

This build was last updated on April 12, 2024 and is up to date for the October 8, 2024 patch.

Overview

A power DPS Holosmith build for fractals and raids. This build brings good burst and sustained AoE damage.

While this build deals good damage on its own, it excels when there are lots of conditions on the boss for Modified Ammunition.

Skill Bar

Sword/Pistol

Utility

Weapon Variants

• Shield can be used in the offhand slot for extra CC and/or survivability, for a small DPS loss.

Skill Variants

Healing

• A.E.D. provides a massive amount of healing if you can predict damage spikes (e.g. specific mechanics in raids). It also provides CC with Static Shock.

Utility

• Throw Mine can replace Photon Wall or Grenade Kit for extra CC or boon rip. Additionally, it will be higher burst damage if you are able to precast Throw Mine and/or Mine Field. Grenade Kit is the lower DPS option, but offers you ranged damage which can be very valuable in maintaining DPS uptime. You should also switch to Relic of the Thief if you remove Grenade Kit.
• Rifle Turret could replace Grenade Kit for a much simpler rotation, but with the same caveats as above.

Other utility options are a much larger DPS loss:

• Hard Light Arena can be useful in uncoordinated groups for the protection and pull.
• Spectrum Shield if you don't trust your healer to keep you alive or stunbreak you in high pressure fights.
• Personal Battering Ram for massive amounts of CC.

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Equipment

Head
Berserker

Shoulders
Berserker

Chest
Berserker

Hands
Berserker

Legs
Dragon

Feet
Berserker

Backpiece
Dragon

Accessory
Berserker

Accessory
Berserker

Amulet
Berserker

Ring
Berserker

Ring
Berserker

Sword
Berserker

Pistol
Berserker

Sigil

Sigil

Rune
x6

Infusion
x18

Relic

Equipment Variants

• If not using Grenade Kit and offhand Pistol, Relic of the Thief will be higher damage.
• The Dragon stats pieces are a tiny dps increase, so you can run full Berserker stats if you prefer.
• Sigil of Superior Sigil of the Night or slaying sigils when applicable.

Consumables

Food

Utility

• Slaying potions when applicable.

Usage

Rotation

The logic behind this rotation is to maximize your Photon Forge and Laser's Edge uptime. You build heat in Photon Forge with Corona Burst, Photon Blitz, and autoattack chains. Using Corona Burst as your last skill and exiting Photon Forge will continue to generate heat for a few seconds without causing you to overheat. Then fill the time cooling down with Sword auto-attacks and your high damage skills such as Shrapnel Grenade and Refraction Cutter. Rinse and repeat when you fall below 100 heat.

Opener

Holosmith can vary the length of its opener by starting at different heats. This enables them to maximise damage by ending a phase just after their Photon Forge burst. Choosing the correct opener for the fight is a matter of experience, but 100% heat is a good standard:

100% Heat opener

Try to start with Mine Field and Throw Mine pre-placed (if using)

1. Grenade Kit ⇒ Shrapnel Grenade
2. Engage Photon Forge
3. Corona Burst
4. Photon Wall
5. Grenade Barrage - triggers Relic of Fireworks
6. Detonate (engineer), Detonate Mine Field, Particle Accelerator and/or Blade Burst (whichever you have)
7. Throw Mine (if using) directly onto the boss (see Notes below for details on how to use this during the rest of the rotation)
8. Launch Wall
9. Laser Disk
10. Photon Blitz
11. Prime Light Beam
12. Light Strike → Bright Slash → Flash Cutter
13. Corona Burst
14. Deactivate Photon Forge

Sword loop

Blowtorch has a cooldown slightly longer than the rotation, so you alternate between using it at the start and end of your sword loop, and in the middle.

1. Blowtorch - skip if it's not off cooldown
2. Refraction Cutter
3. Shrapnel Grenade
4. Poison Grenade - This will drift backwards in the loop over time, so use whenever it is available
5. Radiant Arc
6. Blowtorch - skip if it's not off cooldown
7. Glue Shot
8. Sun Edge -> Sun Ripper -> Gleam Saber
9. Refraction Cutter
10. Shrapnel Grenade
11. Sun Edge -> Sun Ripper -> Gleam Saber x2
12. Refraction Cutter
13. Blowtorch - skip if it's not off cooldown
14. Shrapnel Grenade
15. Engage Photon Forge

Photon Forge loop

1. Corona Burst
2. Photon Blitz
3. Mine Field (if using)
4. Photon Wall - this will drift backwards in the loop over time, so use whenever it is available
5. Grenade Barrage - this will drift backwards in the loop over time, so use whenever it is available
6. Launch Wall - this will drift backwards in the loop over time, so use whenever it is available
7. Light Strike → Bright Slash → Flash Cutter x2 - ideally you want to be above 140 heat when you use Corona Burst so depending on your speed you may need to use more or fewer autoattacks
8. Detonate (engineer) and Detonate Mine Field (if using)
9. Corona Burst
10. Deactivate Photon Forge
11. Return to start of Sword loop

Video example

Video example (without grenade kit)

Notes

• Under no circumstances should you ever overheat as it will massively reduce your damage output. Try to exit photon forge as close to 149 heat as possible.
• Corona Burst will continue to generate heat for a short time after it finishes, but it will not trigger an overheat if you are not in forge. For this reason, it should be the last skill you use while in Photon Forge.
• If you are a little slow with the rotation outside of Photon Forge, you may find that you are not close to 149 heat when you would normally exit. In this case, perform extra Photon Forge autos.
• Use Throw Mine off cooldown. To avoid it detonating instantly, you will need to throw the mine to the edge of the target's hitbox. If you struggle with this, just replace Detonate (engineer) with Throw Mine in the loop.
• The cooldown on Poison Grenade is longer than the loop, so it will change position in the rotation. Whenever you enter Grenade Kit, use Poison Grenade if it is available. If it is still on cooldown the third time you enter Grenade Kit in the loop (just before going into Photon Forge), use Freeze Grenade instead. Both Poison Grenade and Freeze Grenade may be omitted from the rotation if you are losing too much heat between Photon Forge uses.
• Use Laser Disk, Photon Wall ⇒ Grenade Barrage ⇒ Launch Wall, Blade Burst, Particle Accelerator and Surprise Shot (if using) off cooldown.
• Use Prime Light Beam off cooldown, but only while in Photon Forge so that you benefit from Laser's Edge.