Static Discharge Holo

July 2023

Static Discharge Holosmith is a high-skill build that brings excellent damage, crowd control, mobility, and condition cleanse in a neat package. While not as popular as other roamers, Holosmith also benefits from an ability to take 1v1s and act as a pseudo side noder.

For a more defensive version of the build, see the Tool Kit Variant.

Build Fundamentals

Holosmith gives an engineer access to Engage Photon Forge, a transform ability that gives access to five new weapon skills. Engage Photon Forge is similar to a Necromancer Death Shroud, except instead of using an energy pool like Life Force, Photon Forge builds Heat, a mechanic unique to the Holosmith. Heat needs to be carefully managed since gaining too much causes you to Overheat. Overheat takes you out of Photon Forge, deals high damage to you, and puts all toolbelt skills on cooldown. If you Overheat in pvp, you’re probably going to die.

Exceed skills, unique to the Holosmith, gain additional effects at 50% and 100% heat. Keep your heat high for extra damage and healing!

Static Discharge adds bonus damage to all of your toolbelt skills. This is relevant on Particle Accelerator and Surprise Shot, both of which act as burst skills. SD Holo’s main use is as a high-damage teamfighter that can lock down and burst targets, then cleave hard enough to prevent a res. While you have excellent condition cleanse and healing, you are extremely weak to crowd control since you only have one stunbreak on Superspeed and no access to Stability.

Damage

Your biggest damage comes from Engage Photon Forge. Corona Burst and the Light Strike auto chain all do high damage and hit 5 targets. They also combo well with Particle Accelerator and Static Discharge for more instant-cast dps. Using Photon Wall in meele range can help you to avoid damage, but you can also reactivate Launch Wall above 50% heat for three point-blank walls that do excellent damage.

Outside of Photon Forge, Radiant Arc is your hardest hitting combo abilities. You can apply constant pressure with auto attacks and swapping in and out of Forge until you’re ready for a burst.

Aim-Assisted Rocket will be adding constant damage to your combos. Every four rockets, you will get an Orbital Strike which is unblockable and deals massive AOE damage. Try to get this skill to activate in teamfights or on downed players when possible for maximum value.

Photon Blitz combines with Surprise Shot and Particle Accelerator for excellent ranged burst.

Prime Light Beam is your biggest teamfight tools since it’s not only an unblockable cc, it also does high damage and leaves a field that applies burning on the ground.

Tip: Elite Mortar Kit can go over terrain and ledges due to its parabolic arc. Take advantage of this to land free damage in 1v1 or teamfights!

 Crowd Control

Your Crowd Control is probably the strongest aspect of Holosmith. You have access to the following Hard CC:

• Magnetic Inversion
• Static Shield
• Throw Shield
• Slick Shoes
• Holographic Shockwave

Combo these skills together with your damage to chain-cc opponents and get easy kills. Remember to bait stunbreaks before beginning a CC chain or you’ll waste valuable cooldowns.

Static Shield has no Internal Cooldown (ICD). Classes with multihit abilities like Mesmer shatters will stun themselves repeatedly, making stunbreaks useless.

Sustain and Healing

Holosmith has direct healing from Heat Therapy and Coolant Blast.  Heat Therapy is a stacking buff that heals you as your heat decreases. The higher your heat, the more Heat Therapy you receive. This means Holosmith walks a fine line between stacking as much heat as possible and not Overheating. Coolant Blast is a strong heal that gives you Frost Aura and the cooling vapor buff which heals you over time. The higher your heat level, longer the duration of the Frost Aura and cooling vapor. This also means you can have Heat Therapy, Regeneration, and cooling vapor all ticking on you at the same time for massive healing.

Shield gives you access to some excellent defensive utility on Holosmith Magnetic Shield is a projectile reflect that can be flipped over into a cc. Static Shield is a block and stun that works like Shocking Aura without the ICD. These two abilities combo well with Photon Wall to give you a multitude of blocking options.

Elixir Shell can be blasted and leapt through for massive heals. Your best skills for this are Coolant Blast, Magnetic Inversion, Holographic Shockwave for AOE healing or Radiant Arc and Holo Leap for self heals.

Over 50% Heat, Photon Wall becomes a projectile reflect.

Holosmith has great cleanse coming from Mechanized Deployment and Cauterize. [Trait 1872] gives you condition cleanse on every activation of a toolbelt skill. Cauterize is the toolbelt of Coolant Blast and instantly removes 5 conditions over 50% heat and 7 conditions over 100% heat. You also have Prismatic Converter, which is a condition conversion, meaning it turns two harmful conditions like Burning or Poisoned into beneficial boons like Aegis and Regeneration.