A question regarding MCH and post-opener CD management

As we all know, MCH lives for it's wildfire combos. That's basically what the job is built around. I'm not here to ask for an opening rotation or how to do a wildfire rotation (there's already enough guides for that), but I am however confused as to what happens between wildfires, because as becomes apparent if you play MCH, most of MCH's major CD's don't line up all that well with wildfire.

My question is what to do with these CD's. Which ones should be used freely, which ones should be saved for wildfire, when do I do these things in relation to CD timers, should wildfire itself be saved to wait for CD's, and if so, which ones, etc etc.

For example, one thing I'm wondering is this: at 60 seconds, Reload becomes available again, as does Ricochet (maybe not perfectly in line, but thereabouts). Wildfire is available at 90 seconds. Do I save Reload and Ricochet for an extra 30 seconds and just continue my usual routine, or is that a potential dps loss over time having major abilities be unused for 50% of their uptime? Does that then mean I save wildfire an extra 30 seconds after it comes up to wait for Reload and Ricochet again, or is that the real dps loss? Is getting my wildfires off that important in the long run, or is the guaranteed consistency of Reload more important to wait for? Or, again, do I just simply not use Reload and Ricochet for 30 seconds and wait for wildfire to come up?
It's a really complicated juggling act going on here, and I don't have enough knowledge of the crunch of the dps numbers to make a decision.

The others that I'm curious about are...well...basically that same questions as above, but instead with regards to B4B/Hawk's Eye (80 and 90 seconds respectively), Raging Strikes(180 seconds, or 3 whole damn minutes), Reassemble (60 seconds), Rapid Fire (90 seconds), and of course Hypercharge which seems more interesting now given it's buff in 3.2.
Again, for all these, I am wondering just as much as before: what is and is not saved and for what things are they saved or not saved.


Gah, all these spinning plates, someone help my brain ;_;

K. So i dont have actual numbers this is based off of sss but i do the most damage when i save my HE and B4B. I usually use the reload ricochet reassemble right away that way by the time its up again after i used it again hypercharge is ready. Blow all my cds again, once reload is up use it yadda yadda yadda. The difference was a barely clearing a5s dummy in i210 gear to comfortable clear. Like i said i dont parse soo take what you will

-As I understand it:
Always save Hawk's Eye and Blood for Blood for Wildfire. In fact these two are great signals to start preparing for Wildfire due to their similar cooldowns to it. B4B is 10 seconds shorter, so when that's ready you know you have about 10 seconds to think about prepping your next one - with all buffs applying before you refresh Lead Shot and go into the rest. Rapid Fire falls into this category too, being the same cooldown. You'll always have it up shortly after applying Wildfire.


Gauss Round, Blank, and Head Graze are short enough to use freely on Wildfire-downtime, but if you're very close to a Wildfire "phase" you'll want to hold them. Gauss Round is a bit more expendable with the shorter cooldown, but naturally you need to use it at least 6 seconds prior to applying Wildfire for it to be up again in its duration.

Reload you generally don't hold on to, so it will be down for every other Wildfire. Naturally make sure Hot and Lead are freshly up before applying. Reassemble should only be used on Clean Shot + Ammo. It always seems to neatly line up anyway, assuming no serious disruption to your rotation.

Ricochet use on CD.

Raging Strikes will line up for every other Wildfire after the first (it basically alternates between All Buffs WF -> half buffed WF -> All buffs WF etc).

Hypercharge is one I'm not entirely sure on, and it has the most awkward cooldown for lining up neatly when used at every earliest opportunity. I *believe* you just use it whenever it's up, generally. Though in the last stretch of a fight for example, if it's up and you're still waiting on Wildfire - and you'll only get one more WF in the whole fight, naturally keep it to use with WF. This is just my speculation however, correct me if I'm wrong. In a static setting you could also perhaps coincide it with Trick Attack and other group buffs. If a fight is short enough that you'll see 3 WFs in the whole duration, then holding onto Hypercharge for the 3rd and final one will of course be a bigger gain. And of course there's the variable of potentially needing very fast MP/TP regen though that'll be rare, and a chunk of potential raid dps lost.

So in summary:
*B4B and Hawk's - always save for Wildfire in a single target fight
*Rapid Fire - will always be up for Wildfire
*Raging Strikes - every use of it will line up with every other Wildfire, so use on CD in an ideal rotation
*Reload - on cooldown, just don't use if you'd have to waste ammo refreshing Hot / Lead
*Ricochet on cooldown
*Reassemble - should always line up nicely with a Clean Shot during your Reload phase (and only use it for this)
*Gauss Round, Blank, Head Graze - use freely, don't really need to think about them, just don't use them too soon before WF or they won't be up again when it's active
*Hypercharge - to your discretion :P (i.e. I'm not sure) This is pretty much the only one that doesn't line up well, though I highly doubt holding onto it for up to a full minute is a good idea unless the next WF is your last. Considering it buffs group DPS as well as your own, I say use it whenever it's up.

So every other wildfire will be a weaker one, due to the lack of Reload giving a guarantee for procs and ammo buffs, is what you're saying?

Pretty much, odd numbered Wildfires will be stronger due to lining up with Reload and Raging Strikes, and every 5th Wildfire will be really strong since you'll have a repeat of your opener where everything (including Hypercharge) lines up again.

Of course all this assumes you're using everything immediately as it comes off cooldown. If a fights has phase changes or circumstances where it might be beneficial to delay the use of a cooldown slightly - then you can do that provided you have a good understanding of when to do so. No fight is going to let you stand still and wail on the boss for 6+ minutes, so what separates exceptional machinists from mediocre ones is how good you are at improvising your use of cooldowns based on circumstances.

As a general rule of thumb, I find it's useful to think of the MCH 'rotation' in 30 second blocks of time defined by your Hot Shot and Lead Shot refreshes. Something like this, you'll see that 6:00 is basically identical to your opener and the point where everything begins to repeat.

0:00 - Hot Shot, Lead Shot + BFB, HE, RS, HC, Rapid Fire, Reload, Reassemble, Wildfire
0:30 - Hot Shot, Lead Shot
1:00 - Hot Shot, Lead Shot + Reload, Reassemble
1:30 - Hot Shot, Lead Shot + BFB, HE, Rapid Fire, Wildfire
2:00 - Hot Shot, Lead Shot + HC, Reload, Reassemble
2:30 - Hot Shot, Lead Shot
3:00 - Hot Shot, Lead Shot + BFB, HE, RS, Rapid Fire, Reload, Reassemble, Wildfire
3:30 - Hot Shot, Lead Shot
4:00 - Hot Shot, Lead Shot + HC, Reload, Reassemble
4:30 - Hot Shot, Lead Shot + BFB, HE, Rapid Fire, Wildfire
5:00 - Hot Shot, Lead Shot + Reload, Reassemble
5:30 - Hot Shot, Lead Shot
6:00 - Hot Shot, Lead Shot + BFB, HE, RS, HC, Rapid Fire, Reload, Reassemble, Wildfire

The 30 second window I feel is a very useful block of time to think around. Just like the opener where you follow the sequence of Prebuff > Hot Shot/Lead Shot refresh > Wildfire and rest of cooldowns like Reload/Reassemble etc - it's a good policy to follow that sequence of use for any midfight Wildfires you have to do as it will ensure the order of activations (and thus the order that your skills come back off cooldown) remains consistent.

If you ever find yourself activating buffs nowhere near a time where you are refreshing Hot Shot/Lead Shot - let's say you refresh those, wait 15 seconds for some reason and then start hitting BFB/HE/etc - you're going to have a bad time because you're unsyncing all your cooldowns from the above pattern.

So, let's say halfway through a fight you notice Hot Shot and Lead Shot are about to drop off, and glancing at your cooldowns tells you that you have a 1:30/4:30 type Wildfire coming up, you can spend the last couple of ogcd's before Hot Shot putting up BFB and HE, then you Quick Reload after Lead Shot and Wildfire like usual.

A lot of people get intimidated by all the cooldown juggling MCH has to do, but if you use Hot Shot/Lead Shot refresh GCDs like that as your 30 second internal timer, and as your cue to begin blowing cooldowns, you'll find it's really very simple and easy to keep track of.

Ah, makes sense I suppose. Sounds like it'll take no small amount of practice though. Gotta find some time to put my head down and work on this.

Man this was a good question!! I needed the advice. Question do you guys ever take gauss barrel off or leave it on? I played with it like a tank dance type of thing and my dps jump pretty high.

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Originally Posted by RecklessLion

Man this was a good question!! I needed the advice. Question do you guys ever take gauss barrel off or leave it on? I played with it like a tank dance type of thing and my dps jump pretty high.

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I would not recommend stance dancing unless you have not only a complete understanding and mastery of the job, but also knowing how to work with it in raid situations. The extra DPS you get in return is not that much and a lot more stress on you.

Best times to not use GB is depending on the fight. Like with Sephirot EX. When he starts slamming his fist into the blue circles, unless my procs are working in my favor, I turn GB off so I can still run/shoot while dealing with the mechanic at the same time. Then turn it back on.

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Originally Posted by Myon88

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this is pretty much top tier advice, follow it! if you split your rotation into 30s chunks set by your hotshot/leadshot timers, MCH really becomes a lot more simple.

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Originally Posted by Velhart

I would not recommend stance dancing unless you have not only a complete understanding and mastery of the job, but also knowing how to work with it in raid situations. The extra DPS you get in return is not that much and a lot more stress on you.

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I figure that much. Only reason why I switch barrel off and on and when I'm in that dry phase, or if I'm fighting enemy and I can still dps while dodging, or burn phase pop and I got tunnel vision for procs and cd. I notice it's a damage improvement when I'm that dry phase you know waiting till reload opens up then barrel back on until luck goes away. I'm only lvl 58 but so far it's my favorite dps class besides tanks so this really helped me can't wait till I'm lvl 60!!!