Shots Fired: A Machinist Guide

Currently 55. so im missing a few skills. but i must say, the class feels incredibly weak compared to its other ranged counterpart. at level 55 im not doing the dmg i was doing at lvl 50 as a brd. its pretty depressing. and from what im seeing the xtra abilities are far from impressive. I hope someone can tell me im doing it wrong or something cause if not, this class is incredibly weak in a parse

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Originally Posted by prophecy4seen

Currently 55. so im missing a few skills. but i must say, the class feels incredibly weak compared to its other ranged counterpart. at level 55 im not doing the dmg i was doing at lvl 50 as a brd. its pretty depressing. and from what im seeing the xtra abilities are far from impressive. I hope someone can tell me im doing it wrong or something cause if not, this class is incredibly weak in a parse

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You're not doing anything wrong, that is literally what I noticed at level 50 so I just dropped the class.

Unless the dev team decides to buff it in MANY aspects it will never be competitive with Bard and will always lose raid group spots to bard because bard at present does outshine it.

I want to love this class so much, but being denied access into raids because you're a machinist is exactly what I would face.

Yeah, I've noticed that aswell... I'm currently at lvl 56 with full 133 gear. The class really feels weak when compared to other dps classes.
Also, I don't get it... Why can't they just make it so that your single-target turret actually FOLLOWS you instead of having you redeploying it after every single pack? Pain in the butt to be honest.

Yeah, the class is painfully weak right now. My BLM does substantially more damage and is much, much, much easier to play. I can't imagine a single situation in which I would take a MCH over a BRD.

The class has some interesting ideas behind it, but it's just a train-wreck in terms of execution. It also needs a massive buff to even be competitive.

It feels weak levelling, only time will tell once theres more 60's around to really test stuff out, but if buffs are needed heres what I would like to see adressed:

- Make turrets follow you in the same way SMN pets do. Using promotion allows you to move it and turn on its support option, turning it off returns it to you. This allows you to put your turret where its needed when its needed rather than constantly redeploying it. Also allows the turret to remain between trash pulls or in solo content rather than redeploying over and over.
- After each unsuccessful Split Shot, chance to trigger Enhanced Slug Shot increases by a %, same goes for each unsuccessful Slug Shot. (I dont want to completely gut the concept)
- Successful Cleaner Shot crits reset Quick Reload or reduce its cooldown by X amount.
- Hot Shot increased to 10%.
- Rapid Fire increased to 6 once traited.

Rapid fire to 6 is too much burst (though tbh, MCH potencies leave much to be desired). It is not necessary to make the CD useful - what would make it useful is if it didn't have animations delays, ugh...but I digress.

Moving turrets is unnecessary. If you want to complain about turrets then might as well make Shadowflare follow the SMN around. It is a chore but it is an instacast oGCD to place it, instead of a summon which takes 7 seconds to cast. Think of it as a ground based dot rather than a pet, because it isn't one - it is not a pet, lets make that clear.

Hot Shot does suck. If only our other skills potencies weren't also terrible - 5% bonus is negligible. I hate hot shot. Sometimes I forget to put it up and can't tell the difference in my damage.

Making the combo have successfully higher chance to proc is not necessary - simply make noncombo abilities not consume ammo. Or you know, maybe design ammo so all our abilities that consume it actually do something fun.

Like...

1. Hot shot - damage bonus increased to 10%
2. Lead shot - dot duration increased by 9 seconds.
3. Clean shot - next slug shot is instacast even with Gauss shot, and costs 20 less TP.

I think this would preserve our combo being unique, while making people not groan when they have to refresh a dot in the middle of reload. Please note the above numbers are just tentative, I tried to make it seem approx as good as a 100% combo chance. Tried to focus on utility more than damage (because damage is already provided with the 20pot buff).

I'd also like our ammo to be a resource or something we can do more with. Perhaps a "reload shot" (terrible name, I know) which does low potency (maybe 100) but lowers the cooldowns of quick reload and reload by 5/10 sec.

I don't think they can do much on the potency's unless they change mch traits around theirs too much +% Damage that Machinist has access to do much to the potency numbers. Ammo already increases the potency of skills by an extra 20 (30 with Gauss)

I don't feel that my damage is particularly low at times in comparison to other classes (relatively anyway, bard/mch versus melee for example). Can't really make a solid judgement due to 3.0 enemies being overall more tankier. Though I will say that I have a fairly hard time justifying the use of gauss barrel even when I have gauss round learned.

the dps of the bard is 10-15% weaker than other jobs, that sure, the dps was lowered you can feel it.
at 50 with all my cd used i can land some 1100 with clean shoot (i'm around 612 dex and have the i130 weapon of the forge) but i need to use 3 cd of dps for reach this number. the rest of the time i'm around 700 in critical it's too low.
and it's not the only bad part of the jobs, the cost of tp of the skill are dumb... no other word is good enough for discribe this.
split shot cost 70 tp, and the two other skill cost us 60.



me i think they need to reduce the cost of tp on split shoot, slug shoot and clean shoot by 10. it's already a good start for the tp management trouble.
other point hot shot need to be buffed +5% is far too weak for be good enough, at least +10% will be a good start.

and i still feel that the damage output can be enhanced for be on par with the other jobs, because if you look at it even the ice branch of spell of the black mage deal far more damage than our spell. it's not normal. how you want to secure a place in a raid if you can deal enough damage for be on par with the other dps.

honestly i think Machinist (like the two other new jobs) need a fast corrective patch, because soo far, when alexander will come out, people will avoid to bring this three jobs in raid.


i want to add something about machinist, wildfire can deal a lot of damage, but for this, you will have a pretty long down time between each use.

Legend

1 = Split Shot
2 = Slug Shot
3 = Clean Shot
a = Ammo-Use
* = Proc-Active
c = Proc-Chance
_ = Misfire
R = Reload
QR = Quick Reload


OK, I'm going to explain a few principles about our priority-based DPS mechanisms.

I've got five to expound upon today: 6-Shooter, Bullet Dancing, Gun Jamming, Loaded Gun, & Misfiring.


6-Shooter

Utilizing Quick Reload & Reload in close proximity to one another.

6-Shooting makes for a very smooth shot-cycle if executed properly.

Always begin with Reload, staggering a Quick Reload afterward.

It's best to Reload prior to Quick Reloading so as to avoid Gun Jamming & also to prevent an additional Misfire (see below).

It goes like this: R > 1a > 2a* > 3a* > 1a > 2a* > QR > 1a > 3* > 2* > 3*

In order to fully understand this sequence, one must fully grasp each principle to follow.

Therefore, this sequence will be revisited later on in the guide.


Bullet Dancing

To intentionally 'skip back' a shot in your priority.

Why do we do this? Simply put, it prevents us from wasting any ammo when 6-Shooting.

How? The following explanation of Gun Jamming will describe this circumstance in detail.

...WIP...


Gun Jamming

Occurs when loading at a poor time, causing a misfire (see below).

This can happen in a few different ways, outlined here:




Loaded Gun

A firing phase using Quick Reload by itself.

...WIP...


Misfiring

Results when an ammo is 'wasted,' whether forcibly or by mistake.

...WIP...


All Together Now

Now that you are familiarized, let's get into the nitty-gritty.

...WIP...

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Originally Posted by Finalflash

Yeah, I've noticed that aswell... I'm currently at lvl 56 with full 133 gear. The class really feels weak when compared to other dps classes.
Also, I don't get it... Why can't they just make it so that your single-target turret actually FOLLOWS you instead of having you redeploying it after every single pack? Pain in the butt to be honest.

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Mon dieu, I would love that QoL buff of the turret following and us being able to place where it goes just like summoner/scholar.

That would be a HUGE improvement.

Hey, I've parsed as Machinist with the ACT update today, and the results seem to be quite disappointing with Gauss Barrel toggled.

Having Gauss Barrel toggled the whole time even with optimal positioning (staying in 1 spot) does the least amount of DPS, meaning that for the majority of the time, you should have Gauss Barrel toggled off.
However, having Gauss Barrel active while you have your buffs like Hawk's Eye/Blood for Blood/Dexterity Potion/Raging Strikes coupled with Wildfire is a lot stronger than not having Gauss Barrel active. The best time to cast Gauss Barrel seems to be before Hawk's Eye when you gain a Slug Shot/Clean Shot proc so you don't have any cast time on the shots when Gauss Barrel is active.

Can anyone else confirm that having Gauss Barrel on for the opener and hard casting Gauss Barrel when buffs are up otherwise having it disabled is the highest DPS?

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Originally Posted by Cascadi

The best time to cast Gauss Barrel seems to be before Hawk's Eye when you gain a Slug Shot/Clean Shot proc so you don't have any cast time on the shots when Gauss Barrel is active.

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Did you take into account that every time you turn GB on you're essentially losing a GCD? I was expecting GB to not be worth using, considering how weak WM seems to be on bard and they seemlingly get a stronger set of locked skills behind it.

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Originally Posted by SasakiNori

Did you take into account that every time you turn GB on you're essentially losing a GCD? I was expecting GB to not be worth using, considering how weak WM seems to be on bard and they seemlingly get a stronger set of locked skills behind it.

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Yeah, I also thought that there'd be a DPS loss by turning on GB before popping buffs (Hawk's Eye/B4B/Wildfire/etc) but it seems Ricochet and Gauss Round makes up for it and results in higher DPS. You'd turn it off though once your buffs are gone and Wildfire is done with.

Gauss Barrel should be used in opener. then should be used everytime you have "rapid fire" available. this will allow you to equip the barrel without the 3second cast time

Blank is (much like WHM's Fluid Aura) extremely situational, and outside of soloing should not be considered as part of a rotation.

Tanks, and our positional-dependent friends out there hate us for misusing Blanks.

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Originally Posted by ThirdChild_ZKI

Blank is (much like WHM's Fluid Aura) extremely situational, and outside of soloing should not be considered as part of a rotation.

Tanks, and our positional-dependent friends out there hate us for misusing Blanks.

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Only time I use Blank is to buy breathing room if I get aggro or if I'm in close to a boss I know won't be pushed back. Otherwise, the low range on it doesn't make it worth it.

Blank is a dps increase in pretty much all bosses (they're all immune to knockback).

And noone really cares about optimal trash rotation =D

What does wildfire actually do? I find the tooltip a bit misleading

Does it lower dps while under it by 25% then apply at end of use?
Does it just take 25% of the dmg you did while under it and apply at end?

Seems it is only worthwhile on bosses and pointless everywhere else bar soloing, wish it was a self target ability instead of 1 mob, that way you could build its power up and unleash its proc on your mob of choice

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Originally Posted by Stupiduglytaru

Does it just take 25% of the dmg you did while under it and apply at end?

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That's correct.

Well, according to the japanese forums (thanks to @kiyamashuuichi), here's a full buff Wild Fire (lvl56 MCH) dmg:

Gauss Barrel ON = 1900 to about 2000
Gauss Barrel OFF = about 2100-2200

Now i'm confused if it's better to do an opening with GB or not :/

I misread thanks for the answer

I really like machinist currently 40, looking forward to testing it pvp. Should have some excellent burst combined with between the eyes.

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Originally Posted by Elizabeth

That's correct.

Well, according to the japanese forums (thanks to @kiyamashuuichi), here's a full buff Wild Fire (lvl56 MCH) dmg:

Gauss Barrel ON = 1900 to about 2000
Gauss Barrel OFF = about 2100-2200

Now i'm confused if it's better to do an opening with GB or not :/

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It's starting to become apparent that something is very off, not working as intended with MCH and Gauss Barrel

I am not sure if anyone mentioned this. You can have you Gauss Barrel up without casting when you have Rapid Fire buff. Could this benefit and alter the rotation?

Since rapid fire only last 3 weapon skills, would it be better if we cast it before any other buff in the opener? Even if you want it to line up with Wildfire you can delay it later
And well... I don't think that you will have 50 sec count down in most of the pulls, even if you are in a static, I know that it gives you more damage in teoria but it is not practical
For gauss, I have a question since I am still not high level, how many cast time does it add?
For the opener, maybe deactivate it after gauss round and ricochet would be optimal, so maybe would be optimal to use those two ASAP

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Originally Posted by Keylus

Since rapid fire only last 3 weapon skills, would it be better if we cast it before any other buff in the opener? Even if you want it to line up with Wildfire you can delay it later
And well... I don't think that you will have 50 sec count down in most of the pulls, even if you are in a static, I know that it gives you more damage in teoria but it is not practical
For gauss, I have a question since I am still not high level, how many cast time does it add?
For the opener, maybe deactivate it after gauss round and ricochet would be optimal, so maybe would be optimal to use those two ASAP

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Attacks in Gauss take 1.5 seconds. You should be able to fit all of your shots in a wild fire with proper use of rapid. Attaching the barrel takes 3 seconds of channeling, and it isn't really feasible unless you're at a complete downtime

Thx for the help so far. i am hoping we can figure out the ins and outs of this dps... i do enjoy the class so far, but i am seeing alot of people feeling that teh dps is quite subpar.. im going to use some of this

From @FunkMasterOne on Reddit:

Just want to clarify a few things. As a level 59 MCN, with a 57 weapon and ilvl 142, I am sustaining 622 dps after 3min. With an intial burst of 1000. HOWEVER, upon testing skills individually, ACT is not picking up on Wildfire . This is a very huge DPS skills for the MCN, and I dare say that the parse would be much higher were it to be read accurately. So now to compare to my DRG friend w/ ilvl57 Wep and ilvl 143: He is bursting for 1200 and sustaining around 750.
Don't get too panicked about MCN been worthless yet.
Edit: Just to clarify, I am updated to the latest parsing plugin.
Edit 2: No pots or food was used.

Update: ACT developer just confirmed on Reddit. Working on a fix.

so if what im picking up this right Gauss burst turn off wait for rapid fire repeat.
so we are seeing bunch of Stance dancing stuff with a lot of the classe if this were the case. I mean I feel a lack of dps when everything is off cd and im just waiting for my shots to proc

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Originally Posted by Elizabeth

That's correct.

Well, according to the japanese forums (thanks to @kiyamashuuichi), here's a full buff Wild Fire (lvl56 MCH) dmg:

Gauss Barrel ON = 1900 to about 2000
Gauss Barrel OFF = about 2100-2200

Now i'm confused if it's better to do an opening with GB or not :/

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So I did some tests in game again as well as creating a rough spreadsheet of the first 20 seconds of an opener, and yeah, Wildfire basically does more damage without Gauss Barrel even if you cancel Gauss Barrel after the first Clean Shot. The discrepancies in the opener starting with Gauss Barrel and without were taken from 20 samples, but I guess RNG acts up. And so, it's not worth hard casting Gauss Barrel either.

Here's the spreadsheet with the math done: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets...it?usp=sharing



): Gauss Barrel is basically useless other than for AoE pulls.

EDIT: Whoops, forgot to extend the GB openers to 20 seconds, GB is worth using only until Clean Shot after all for higher overall DPS in the first 20 seconds but not higher Wildfire damage.

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Originally Posted by Cascadi

Here's the spreadsheet with the math done: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets...it?usp=sharing



): Gauss Barrel is basically useless other than for AoE pulls.

EDIT: Whoops, forgot to extend the GB openers to 20 seconds, GB is worth using only until Clean Shot after all for higher overall DPS in the first 20 seconds but not higher Wildfire damage.

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Does the spreadsheet account for rapid fire? Ideally you would open with rapid fire and gauss, then cancel after the first crit clean shot.

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Originally Posted by Cupbot

Does the spreadsheet account for rapid fire? Ideally you would open with rapid fire and gauss, then cancel after the first crit clean shot.

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The spreadsheet accounts for rapid fire and assumes you start with 5 ammo. If you do not start with 5 ammo, having Gauss Barrel at all in the opener is a large DPS loss, so if you do not want to use Reload/Quick Reload pre-pull, you can just go open without Gauss Barrel.

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Originally Posted by Cascadi

The spreadsheet accounts for rapid fire and assumes you start with 5 ammo. If you do not start with 5 ammo, having Gauss Barrel at all in the opener is a large DPS loss, so if you do not want to use Reload/Quick Reload pre-pull, you can just go open without Gauss Barrel.

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Can you explain (with formula and calculation or testing?):
1. why you would start with Gauss Barrel off instead of having it on and turn it off after the first clean shot (as others suggest)?
2. whether you would consider using Rapid Fire to have your Gauss Barrel up without casting for Gauss Round and Ricochet (with the dot perhaps)? If yes, would you do it every 90s (Rapid Fire) or 180s (Rapid Fire + Reload)? When do you turn it off and what should the rotation be?

Sorry for throwing ideas all over the place. I really want to test it myself but I am still on my way to level 60.
Btw, I believe cd for Quick Reload should be 30s (one of the Traits shortens it).

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Originally Posted by ChespinXL

Can you explain (with formula and calculation or testing?):
1. why you would start with Gauss Barrel off instead of having it on and turn it off after the first clean shot (as others suggest)?
2. whether you would consider using Rapid Fire to have your Gauss Barrel up without casting for Gauss Round and Ricochet (with the dot perhaps)? If yes, would you do it every 90s (Rapid Fire) or 180s (Rapid Fire + Reload)? When do you turn it off and what should the rotation be?

Sorry for throwing ideas all over the place. I really want to test it myself but I am still on my way to level 60.
Btw, I believe cd for Quick Reload should be 30s (one of the Traits shortens it).

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1. Hi, the opener starts with Gauss Barrel on and turning it off after the first Clean Shot, and the difference between having it on/off is in the spreadsheet that I linked earlier: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets...it?usp=sharing
Pre 60 when you don't have access to Ricochet it's a DPS loss so don't bother with Gauss Barrel outside of AoE

2. Because Reload doesn't line up with your buffs after the opener you'd have a cast time on your Shots and no +20 potency which builds off of Gauss Barrel and removes the RNG so it is not worth using Rapid Fire for Gauss Barrel until you get Ricochet, pre-60 you'd use it at the 180s mark when you'd have access to Raging Strikes again. Also yeah, the CD for Quick Reload is 30s, lemme fix that.

is Ricochet a 100 or a 400 potency on a single target?

Under "Actions: Buffs and Utility" you have the same description listed for both the Rook and Bishop.

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Originally Posted by Cascadi

Buffs and Utility

• Rook Autoturret - Deploys a single-target battle turret which will deliver auto-attacks with a potency of 60 to its master's target. Using a weaponskill will cause turret to change targets. Hypercharge Potency: 160. Hypercharge Effect: Increases target’s physical damage taken by 5%. Duration: 10s. Shares a recast timer with Bishop Autoturret. Recast Time: 10s

• Bishop Autoturret - Deploys a single-target battle turret which will deliver auto-attacks with a potency of 60 to its master's target. Using a weaponskill will cause turret to change targets. Hypercharge Potency: 160. Hypercharge Effect: Increases target’s physical damage taken by 5%. Duration: 10s. Shares a recast timer with Bishop Autoturret. Recast Time: 10s

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Thanks for this Cascadi, will be interesting to see how things play out when more machinists hit 60

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Originally Posted by Lacant

is Ricochet a 100 or a 400 potency on a single target?

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400 potency on a single target, split evenly on others i.e 100 potency to 4 targets.

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Originally Posted by arctic

Under "Actions: Buffs and Utility" you have the same description listed for both the Rook and Bishop.

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Thanks, will fix that typo!

Hey guys, got an update/heads up for you all, and a question. Update first:

Don't use Quick Reload + Reload prepull. Your ammo can only stack up to 5. So you're wasting QR by using it prepull.

And the question is, how wide are the parse differences between using Gauss Barrel the whole fight and only using it for the opener? Reason is that if it isn't too insignificant, then I'd like to train myself to just use GB the entire time as I imagine SE will be buffing the class to compensate and I want to train my reflexes to be used to GB 100%. So if the potency difference isn't too bad, I won't feel too bad being subpar dps leveling to 60 until SE fixes it. Mind testing some numbers for me? :) Also remember on test parses to check crit rates, and for MCH how often you got non-ammo procs, as that will make a difference between parses.

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Originally Posted by Kairei

Hey guys, got an update/heads up for you all, and a question. Update first:

Don't use Quick Reload + Reload prepull. Your ammo can only stack up to 5. So you're wasting QR by using it prepull.

And the question is, how wide are the parse differences between using Gauss Barrel the whole fight and only using it for the opener? Reason is that if it isn't too insignificant, then I'd like to train myself to just use GB the entire time as I imagine SE will be buffing the class to compensate and I want to train my reflexes to be used to GB 100%. So if the potency difference isn't too bad, I won't feel too bad being subpar dps leveling to 60 until SE fixes it. Mind testing some numbers for me? :) Also remember on test parses to check crit rates, and for MCH how often you got non-ammo procs, as that will make a difference between parses.

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Hey, the Reload at 50 seconds and Quick Reload at 20 seconds isn't to gain another stack of ammo, but to keep it up when the opener happens as the timer for ammo stacks is reset to 30s every time ammo is added. By doing this, the Reload CD is only 10s on pull, compared to 60s when you use it after Lead Shot. As for how much of a difference Gauss Barrel makes, in my experience pre-60, the difference was around 30 less DPS IF you never have to move, which is unrealistic.