Lock and Load: The Reassembled Machinist Guide

i fixed something

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VT90C_HLLbc

anyway, as said in the video

pros: 3.68% higher potency overall (mad guessing here, i did some rough math but i don't trust my own math)
cons: 2.5s slower than usual in rotation (-1.5s precast, -0.5s gauss round, -0.5s triple weave HC HE BFB), and your hot shot/lead shot timing is messed up. solution is to let hot shot drop for a bit to fix it, slight potency loss down the road

here's some bad math i did, comparing this 5 ammo vs the normal 5 ammo

http://puu.sh/oye7m/e5a707fb93.png

A8s is frustrating me. I don't seem to get a good parse due to bad streak of rng mainly ;( 1350 ish is my best so far.

Gets debuff 4. Rip
Gets blue/orange pentacle during gavel. Rip.
Gets water debuff. Rip.

Do you guys play mana song during robot dps phase. I keep mana up as soon as blaster dies, and till the end of balls/brawler. Then swap to rook for swindler and vortexer.

I'm on the last bit of A8 (post gavel), but so far my healers haven't needed any more mana than putting it up for transitions (time between swindler/vortexer dying and brute justice showing up) and intermissions.

My group has been dickin around with comps after A8s, and have been looking into replacing the useless caster spot with another MCH in the way of me changing jobs. I was initially going MNK but figured double Hypercharge is more raid DPS. ANYWAY, as some of you may know, with 2 MCHs in a party apparently there's a ACT bug where ACT only picks up on one MCH's wildfires, which obviously makes their dps look gimp.

My question is:

Does anyone know if FFlogs calibrates it properly to pick up both when you upload it? Or are numbers still screwy?

If not, that's going to severely hinder the enjoyment of parsing adventures if one or both mchs are getting screwed for numbers every time. Thanks for any help D:

I'm working on A8S myself now and I'm curious how many cooldowns (if any) you guys are saving for regulators in P1.

Obviously they come right after the opener, so if you do a full and proper opener you're going to be empty when they spawn - which isn't going to cut it at my current gear level at least.

I currently do a really ghetto version which saves Ricochet, Reassemble, and Reload for regulators, but no doubt there are more optimized versions out there. It's really annoying as executing a full opener is one of the joys of MCH. :D

My brother plays MCH and he's been bouncing ideas off me as we progress in the fight. He (as he should) holds Raging Strikes for Blaster - when you should be getting a full RS+WF opener to burst the thing's ass off - and just uses Reload with Wildfire on Onslaughter alongside the shorter ogcds (read: all of them besides Ricochet) to drop a 5-6k Wildfire. Then he pulls off for the regulator with B4B+HE+Rapid Fire - gives mobility to dodge the laser if it targets him while making the thing die in like 5 gcds or so. He mentioned how he still has a few B4B+HE gcds left when he's back on the boss.

That's second-hand so a few things might be a bit off?

We talked about how he should try and open with 5 Ammo and then do the WF with maybe just 1-2 Quick Reloads and save Reload for the Steam Regulator but I dunno if that's a thing that would be better. He was consistently downing it with B4B+HE+Quick Reload with off-gcds.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by JackFross

My brother plays MCH and he's been bouncing ideas off me as we progress in the fight. He (as he should) holds Raging Strikes for Blaster - when you should be getting a full RS+WF opener to burst the thing's ass off - and just uses Reload with Wildfire on Onslaughter alongside the shorter ogcds (read: all of them besides Ricochet) to drop a 5-6k Wildfire. Then he pulls off for the regulator with B4B+HE+Rapid Fire - gives mobility to dodge the laser if it targets him while making the thing die in like 5 gcds or so. He mentioned how he still has a few B4B+HE gcds left when he's back on the boss.

---

It's definently a overkill to hold on to your dps increase cds for the regulators instead just save a few cds like ricochet, rapid fire and reload. these 3 cds should be enough even with 230 weapon.

I think this all doesn't matter after all, because we still have to wait until boss finishes his tank buster+rockets, and it is like 5-10 seconds of doing nothing (except padding numbers for fflogs, of course). We had him clearly at 0% a couple of times before he started casting tank buster, so it seems impossible to finish p1 earlier.

I seem to be having success with holding reassemble + b4b + ricochet. I don't think you need to hold reload at all, and definitely not hawk's eye. I don't even really think I'll need reassemble if I tweak my opener a little more, but for now I'm sticking to the safe side (since my experience is similar to vp's above where pushing is not an issue either way).

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by vp_cmc

I think this all doesn't matter after all, because we still have to wait until boss finishes his tank buster+rockets, and it is like 5-10 seconds of doing nothing (except padding numbers for fflogs, of course). We had him clearly at 0% a couple of times before he started casting tank buster, so it seems impossible to finish p1 earlier.

---

Actually, if your raid groups dps is high enough to get him to 0% a little before the final mega beam cast, he WILL skip tank buster and you'll have to get everyone's stacks off while blaster is landing giving you less time to kill him fast enough.

Still, if your groups dps is high enough to skip that tank buster, killing blaster isn't usually a problem.

Im in a little of an issue here.
Im sitting on 233 iLevel (just 240 accessories) and my static mate at 222 and our dps is almost the same. Like im doing about 1500 and he is about 1450-70. As for myself i never really cared too much because in general you wont see MCH doing turbo dmg. He got like 1007 crit and im sitting about 980 with food i kinda saw he doing like 5740 clean shots like me so i really have no idea of what is going on. Is it the opener ? Like i used to burn everything off in the wildfire trying to squeeze as much dmg i can then start praying for procs, also i dont do stance dancing because most people told its like a 5% dps gain and if you do it wrong you screw with yer dps.

Hello everyone!

I might have missed something on an earlier page, but here goes. A7S and Wildfire timing:

In a group too low to be skipping phases etc, where do you guys do wildfires? I have been doing it by timer, but one comes right at phase change to balls, and I have to switch to True Heart halfway through burst. Awkwardness like that, so I'm just thinking if someone could give a quick run-down of the points at which to wildly fire them off.

Thanks :)

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Dorone

Hello everyone!

I might have missed something on an earlier page, but here goes. A7S and Wildfire timing:

In a group too low to be skipping phases etc, where do you guys do wildfires? I have been doing it by timer, but one comes right at phase change to balls, and I have to switch to True Heart halfway through burst. Awkwardness like that, so I'm just thinking if someone could give a quick run-down of the points at which to wildly fire them off.

Thanks :)

---

I usually ignore 1-st heart and do WF on boss. 3 other dps kill it just fine (with stun locking from tank)

Yeah that first heart is very awkward since you'll have a big wildfire window at about the same time (once your group starts pushing it fast enough).

I ignore it as well, just make sure your group knows so the other 3 DPS can pick up the slack.

Don't the melee lose more DPS tho, if they have to move to the heart? Just thinking if it isn't a raid dps loss

Frankly, I don't know enough about melee mechanics to say if it forces them into suboptimal situations, but no one seems to have an issue with it.

I mean, they're going to be moving to hit the heart anyway won't they? Unless you mean some groups just leave their melee on the boss full time and let the ranged DPS kill the heart by themselves. I guess you could do that too - but in my group all the DPSers are on the heart anyway, so I'm just leaving myself out of the first one.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Myon88

Sum all this up and you get a modified rotation that looks something like this,

B4B, HE, RS (weakest to strongest, so weakest falls off first)
Hot Shot, Hypercharge
Lead Shot, Reload
Split, Wildfire
Slug, Gauss Round, Reassemble
Clean, Quick Reload, Rapid Fire
Split, Ricochet
Slug, Head Graze
Split, Blank
Clean
Slug

---

Why do you use Blank instead of Feint near the end of that rotation? Just out of curiosity since Feint has higher potency and does not require you be within close range of the mob/boss compared to Blank.

Feint is a weaponskill and not an off-global cooldown ability, so you wouldn't be able to fire it in the position Blank is in, between weaponskills like that.

If you did try to fire Feint at that position, what would happen is you would spend the backswing of Split Shot doing nothing (because the game will only allow you to fire abilities off while weaponskill GCDs are resolving). And it would look something like this,

...
Split, (you're spamming Feint but nothing comes out)
Feint
Clean
(Wildfire explodes at the same time as normal, except there's no time for the Slug because Feint used up one weaponskill slot in the wildfire sequence)

And since it is a weaponskill, it means that in practically any situation where you can use Feint, you may as well fire Split/Slug/Clean Shot instead since those have higher potency and trigger procs. It does have uses, just very niche ones, mainly for when you want the slow debuff, or when you have to fire a weaponskill on the move and you can't/don't want to drop Gauss Barrel for some reason.

Fair enough, was just curious as mentioned.

No worries, Feint has always been in a rather unusual position for MCH and BRD post-3.0 since it's a weaponskill that can be fired instantly even with GB/WM on.

It would be interesting to see how gameplay would change if it were an ability (on top of being spammable with no cooldown like it is now). If you wanted you could weave it behind as many weaponskills are you want, and fill literally every gap in our rotation - for a massive TP cost of course. It would be kinda cool actually, it would make TP management matter again.

It would be nice if SE changed it (Feint) to an ability as opposed to weapon skill. I just have a personal dislike of using Blank against specifically bosses due to being a close range skill that has no effect on the boss outside of a slight potency which to me defeats the point of playing a long ranged class if need to run into melee range/using essentially a positional skill which the fight mechanically should not require from this class. The rest of the rotation working well with the concept of ranged class but that one skill throwing a spanner in the works if end up having to use it running up close when the bonus effect (knock back) is useless and the fight itself mechanically does not require it followed by then once used putting some distance again between you and the boss. It just feels wrong somehow using it in that situation.

The exception and time I do like the skill however is when against generic mobs which can be knocked back when your in trouble (often I follow up with either leg or foot grazes), I don't mind throwing it out there/weaving it in also when the actual fight mechanics bring you into close range to avoid AoE's but as a skill when used against mobs/bosses which can neither be knocked back/does not require being so and does not require you being close range due to the mechanics of the fight...it's just bugs me. I would love it if was an alternative ability skill with potency that could replace it in that situation. One that remains ranged like the rest of the rotation yet doesn't screw things up, even if had slightly lower potency than Blank I would still prefer that. It might sound petty and I am not sure if I can get across/adequately explain well enough why bugs me but if honest it does slightly annoy me. :)

OK so I'm new to the MCH class, typically I'm a tank. I've gone over the 3.05 opening rotation from Aiurily and am going over the 3.25 version now as well. I have a noob question though, I know at the end of the 3.05 rotation before the last Slug Shot you turn off Gauss Barrel but throughout the rest of a fight when and where are you supposed to be turning it off and on for optimization? It's not evident to me so I assume there's a really solid answer to this, hopefully one that I don't have to sift through 50 pages for.
Cheers

I tend to keep GB on throughout dungeon and raid runs unless the fight has such a high movement/dodging/kiting requirement that it becomes detrimental so I can't help you with that question because I do not follow that rotation and I do not turn off GB for rotation purposes. I only turn mine off when fight mechanics aka things like the AoE's and movement are too complex to keep up a decent level of DPS with it on. In those types of fights I master weave and have no set in stone rotation to begin with until done that same fight enough times to pre-plan everything without worry of major mistakes.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Only1zbro

OK so I'm new to the MCH class, typically I'm a tank. I've gone over the 3.05 opening rotation from Aiurily and am going over the 3.25 version now as well. I have a noob question though, I know at the end of the 3.05 rotation before the last Slug Shot you turn off Gauss Barrel but throughout the rest of a fight when and where are you supposed to be turning it off and on for optimization? It's not evident to me so I assume there's a really solid answer to this, hopefully one that I don't have to sift through 50 pages for.
Cheers

---

You remove gauss when you have NO unused gcd(most popularly in all your WF) to get one auto attack in then reattach it. The longer you end up w/o GB, the longer it take to auto when you do remove it & the less overall dps you're outputting. At least that's what I learned from Aiurily so it's probably right lol

The idea is that you need your Auto Attack (which feels like it's ~80 potency) to outweigh the loss from dropping GB. GB is a 30% gain.

Hot Shot = 120 => 36 / 140 => 42
Split Shot = 140 => 42 / 160 => 48
Slug Shot = 180 => 54 / 200 => 60
Clean Shot = 200 => 60 / 220 => 66
Lead Shot = 490 => 147 / 510 => 153

That's the gain you get from GB - aka the loss you suffer when dropping it and hitting said GCD. The oGCD stuff is a bit wonky because you can only use two of your oGCD hits without being under GB - Blank and Head Graze/Suppressive Fire. Both are 100 Potency, so a gain of 30 with GB equipped. Applying these to the above, the only situation where you could GCD > oGCD without GB and still get a gain is if you're hitting Hot Shot or Split Shot - and even then the gain is minimal at best and ONLY a gain IF there's actually an Auto in that timeframe.

The general rule of thumb is you want 1 auto per GCD you use out of GB.

If you end up delaying Ricochet or Gauss Round by turning GB off, you're taking significant hits to damage - those things are 260 and 390 potency off-gcd attacks - comparable with Dragoon's Jump and PS+Jump - two of our strongest attacks. Don't delay them if you can help it.

This is all garnered from a bit of research into Aiurily's videos as well as my own number crunching as seen here. I call Autos 80 potency because they hit about as hard as Rook attacks, which are 80 potency.

Okay so I never ever use feint, for me(221) it does 1000-1050 damage & crits 1600 with gauss, split shot without Gauss does 870-930 & crits 1400 & I get an auto for 490~ than can crit for 800. Correct me if I'm wrong but the only time I think feint would be even remotely useful is if GB is on cd & I can't stand and cast for a few seconds bc some annoying mechanic.



Is there ever any situation I SHOULD use feint? I get a lot of mixed answers with google...

I'm not Aiurily, but according to their guide, you outlined the exact situation when you would need to use Feint. There was one specific situation that was mentioned for A7S where you may have GB off for a Hot Shot and turn it on for the Lead Shot, only to need to move for the merry-go-round. In that situation, you just Feint until GB is ready, then turn it off and auto/Split-Slug-Clean until you're good again. It's also useful in a situation where you have to move and you have ogcd attacks ready to go - better to Feint>ogcd than drop GB and do Split>ogcd, I think!

It's ALSO worth noting, though, that if you won't be strafing while turning GB off (and thereby missing your AA's), you'll get net gains by keeping it on and rolling Feint instead of Split out of GB. Dropping GB is only a gain if you don't miss AA's.

Yes, I have been dropping feint for the first merrygoround (Hot Shot around when the 4th circle appears) then GB on and lead shot, followed by feint (x3 i believe it is) for the second round

Hello fellow Machinists. I've been playing the job for awhile now and I feel like I've got a good handle on it for the most part but I'm ready for a little fine tuning because I may be going into Alexander Savage this weekend so I was hoping maybe I could get a little assistance on a few tidbits. I tried looking through the thread before posting and did clear a few things up, but anyway, questions.

I need to meld my stuff, and I saw someone do stat priority with melding earlier. It read: Accuracy(To 100% hit) > Crit > Det > Sk.S

Is this accurate? The post containing this was back in February so it may be a little outdated, I just wanted to check. I half expected the top stat to be Skill Speed to cram more into Wild Fire, but I could see the merits of critting more often during the Wild Fire window out-doing the extra attack or two.
part 2 inc

and of course, the obligatory Wild Fire question. I feel like my Wild Fires are adequate, as I routinely hit somewhere between 7k and 10k, highest being around 11k at ilvl 223 w/230 gun. I know that Aiurily posted a Wild Fire sequence that
seems really good a few pages ago, and I should probably try to learn how to do most of it, but my question is more for a sequence when you can't store 5 ammo ahead of time, like in the middle of a fight, or doing LFD type content. The way I do it is:
HS > LS > Reload > RF > HC > B4B > HE > RS > Split > Quick Reload > Slug > GR > Split > Reassemble > Clean > Rico > Blank > Slug > Head Graze > Clean Shot > Feint, and then I'm out of time.

(Sorry need to do a part 3, 1,000 character limit is terribly inadequate for detailed posts)

So my question is mostly, is this roughly how I'm supposed to do it in the scenario where you can't load 5 ammo ahead of time or am I doing something horrendously wrong here?

Last thing I would ask is cooldown related. I've seen it asked and answered earlier so again I'll just ask if this is still the case, because the answer was a long, long time ago. Delaying your 2nd Wild Fire long enough to activate all of B4B, HE, and HC are all ready again is a overall gain instead of just going after B4B and HE are back up. Is that accurate still?

That's all I got. Thanks.

The stat weights are correct, it would require a LOT of sks to get more GCDs in WF


I am actually 221 with a 230 weapon & my WFs are all 9K-12K, following aiurly's no ammo rotation on their YT channel(however in Savage content you will always have the opportunity to pre load 5 ammo)& the second WF should be 6K-ish. So you in a good range, it just needs a little fine tuning for the lower end.


And in any fight longer than 3 minutes(I believe), it is a loss to hold any skills so pop them as they come up EXCEPT hold BFB & HE until just before your second WF is off cd. Do not wait until HC is up, that's far too long unless again you'll be in 3 min or less fight. And don't use feint unless very specific conditions are met such as A7S.

Understood, thanks very much for the info RL.

Some people have been noticing that something seems different about OGCDs in 3.3, they seem to execute a little faster and feel more responsive - the actual total delay is the same though I think, so it's not like we can triple weave now or something. I think they just increased the buffer window to chain skills one after the other and made them fire off more responsively like the recent mudra change.

It's definitely been a benefit to me, playing from AU I'm never below 150-200ms ping, and sometimes I suspect I'm losing the last weaponskill in Wildfire (it's very close). Since the patch though, its been super smooth sailing.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Myon88

Some people have been noticing that something seems different about OGCDs in 3.3, they seem to execute a little faster and feel more responsive - the actual total delay is the same though I think, so it's not like we can triple weave now or something. I think they just increased the buffer window to chain skills one after the other and made them fire off more responsively like the recent mudra change.

It's definitely been a benefit to me, playing from AU I'm never below 150-200ms ping, and sometimes I suspect I'm losing the last weaponskill in Wildfire (it's very close). Since the patch though, its been super smooth sailing.

---

I've noticed that QR and Pot doesn't kill into your GCD like it did before. Pot still does cut into your gcd but not as bad as I remember it. Unsure if its because I've been making Drac pots instead of X pots now.

Hey guys .

New Machinist reporting for duty !

anyone willing to share their cross hotbar for MCH ?

ive been trying some things out but i am curious wwhat yours look like .

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Myon88

Some people have been noticing that something seems different about OGCDs in 3.3, they seem to execute a little faster and feel more responsive - the actual total delay is the same though I think, so it's not like we can triple weave now or something. I think they just increased the buffer window to chain skills one after the other and made them fire off more responsively like the recent

---

It definitely feels that way, especially with Rapid Fire weaving.

Also, has it been mentioned at all that it seems like MCH has a minimum SPD value where everything aligns really tight like DRG?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Judge_Xero

Also, has it been mentioned at all that it seems like MCH has a minimum SPD value where everything aligns really tight like DRG?

---

Outof Names guide mentions that the openers should be doable with 475+ skill speed.

Aiurily's MCH FAQ has some skill speed threshold information as well:
http://www.tinyurl.com/aiurilyfaq
"the rotation flows more fluidly and comfortably (imo) at either below 460 sksp or 704+ sksp. i consider anything in between to be a bit awkward. in the end, these are not huge deal breaking thresholds; you should still prioritize maximizing crit and det."

If you look at gear for most top MCH in lodestone, they're usually sitting at around 500-something skill speed.

One thing I probably should've mentioned though is that if you have to use the same gear set for BRD and play both, then you might consider shooting for closer to ~700 sks since that's more optimal for BRD, if BRD is your main.

Thanks. Was just curious since currently I have a 2.4s GCD and everything just seems to line up smoother than when I had a 2.47 ish GCD. Although not sure if it translates to a higher pps