Machinist latency issues need recognition akin to Ninja

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Originally Posted by Aiscence

On some fight, rdps wise, mch is behind brd tho.

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It's really simple: Bard has better AoE and tools to damage multiple targets.
MCH Bioblaster is barely superior to Drill only if the dots lasts up to their full duration and Flamethrower is shit. Auto Cross-Bow should be a better choice against 2 targets but I'm not exactly sure about that one.

SE released an official job guide today: https://store.jp.square-enix.com/cat...757563261.html
Here's an example of the MCH section: https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachmen...158336/MCH.jpg

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachmen...158336/MCH.jpg

If this is really how the devs expect us to play the job, it makes me very worried. The recommended rotations are starting Wildfires with a Hypercharge→Wildfire weave, which makes the Hypercharge buff window incredibly tight. But not only that, they are ending Wildfires with a Drill, an ability that registers its damage at least 0.30s slower than other shots (testing done about it here). This highlights the absolute disconnection of SE's internal play testing and the actual experience of the players outside Japan. The overseas community has long moved past those rotations and altered all of them to avoid alignments where Hypercharge is not weaved at the very end of the gcd or where Wildfire ends into a Drill or Anchor because it's simply very inconsistent. We've never even considered Hypercharge→Wildfire weave order to be valid because it makes Hypercharge extremely tight for no reason. Similarly, many people reported inconsistent results with Anchor and Drill within Wildfire, so we did testing on it and found that they actually register their damage much slower. Why on earth is this a thing?

Understandably, these things might not be as big of an issue in Japan, but this is a world wide game once upon a time claimed by Yoshi-P to be playable up to 200ms ping with no discernible difference. It's absolutely unacceptable that these things are not taken into account in the design process. Patch 5.1 better bring some changes for MCH latency issues because this is ridiculous if the devs can't even realize how their own game works. More effort needs to be placed into play testing in high ping environments, not just internal zero ping servers!

I play within 20-40 ping and still had trouble with Drill not registered in Wildfire window.
I don't know how smooth the ping is in Japan but I hope this has been written by the dude who designed MCH in SB, otherwise I'd be worried to see a game designer working on MCH having no connection with the community as a whole.

The best we can hope is that this guide was written in prevision for 4.1 and that Drill will register the damage faster aswell with some Hypercharge balancing?

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Originally Posted by Naoki_Yoshida

FINAL FANTASY XIV was designed to be played in an environment featuring ping times of 200-220 milliseconds or less. Even if players experience an increase in ping times due to the data center relocation, as long as their times remain below 200 ms, then they may rest easy, for there should be no discernable difference in gameplay.

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There is a VERY discernible difference in gameplay, the rotation listed in the official job guide would be literally impossible with 200 ping, hell even 100 ping is a stretch. They seriously need to do something or at least respond to people’s concerns and not just on MCH, on any tank except PLD (and even PLD only at 80) if you get any ping you’ll likely miss an attack inside your burst window, I’m sure other jobs get problems with ping too other than ninja. The game has become so tight on timing since HW they need to address this issue.

This isn't a problem that can be fixed in gameplay only slightly alleviated.

SE hardcore cheaped out on the servers for FF14 which wasn't a huge problem back in ARR but is now becoming untenable.

The server tick rate is one of worst for a major modern MMO like this and there are only 3 data centers for NA.

So, no matter where you are in NA it's like you're playing on dial up internet.

Dont forget the bug where the wildfire damage register before it actually ends. I've seen many times where my 6GCD were before the end of the WF, even in the chat log the damage were registered before the end of the duration, and still only got a 5GCD WF damage

As expected, no mentions of MCH issues in the live letter today beyond simple potency increases. Meanwhile, SMN is being made "less busy" while MCH has higher casts-per-minute. NIN is getting fixes for their latency issues and charges for their Bunshin so they can use mudras without losing Bunshin gcds while MCH is still forced to put out all Heat Blasts and weaves in sequence without alleviations. We could use charges as well, for Heat Blast and Wildfire gcds, or some help with Gauss Round and Ricochet weaving.

Despite all the content updates and system reworks with crafting/gathering and the job changes coming in 5.1, it's still pretty disappointing that there's still not even an acknowledgement for MCH issues. I could understand MCH being further back on their priority list but when it's not even mentioned it gets increasingly harder to hold on to hope. Most people seem to have already given up on talking about the ping issues because the feedback continues to be ignored. Apathy is not a good state for the player base to be in. Sure, the complaints stop eventually, but the issues remain.

I really hope the potency increases include some mechanical tweaks even if they went unmentioned.

I was disappointed to see that the only thing that MCH has to look forward to was potency increases.

I play at 110+ ping and it's a coin-toss whether or not I can get 6 GCDs in my Wildfire some nights. I just hope we don't have to wait until 6.0 for another pass at our job mechanics.

Can they even reduce animation lock?

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Originally Posted by Sylvain

Can they even reduce animation lock?

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Sure. Typically abilities have a [0.6s + 2 x latency] animation lock, some abilities like RDM Displacement have a longer one so you can't double weave them. NIN Mudras on the other hand have a much shorter lock or they would be unusable with their 0.5s recast time. There has also been multiple occasions where they've reduced the animation lock on abilities such as DRG jumps, DRK Plunge and so on. So yeah, it's totally possible for them to define skill specific animation locks if they want to.