What I believe could help MCH/Role action idea.
Hello Everyone,
So recently, I have been discussing with my friends the state of SB. It is a great expansion, but of course has some drawbacks. We came up with some ideas about certain a class and role actions that could better the game as a whole.
I wanted to start with Machinist, the class people love to hate. In 3.X, I planned to main MCH but decided on Dragoon (because that was my main in ARR) before switching to DRK later on in the expansion. Anyways, my friend and I came up with some ideas for the MCH, it seemed to ring well with our FC. MCH is the little brother to Bard, trying to do what Bards do but can't quite do it. So, I believe that we approach it like SAM. A physical ranged DPS that is straight up damage, with a touch of utility. Now I know what you are thinking, "Duh," but it seems that SE hasn't seen it in this light yet.
The changes we propose are as follows:
1.) Give MCH a combo. SE wanted a design like Bard and gave MCH random procs that seem to hinder the class more than help it. It would seem more prudent to give it a combo, giving them a certainty that they will be doing damage with Slug shot and Clean shot.
2.) "But what about the reload system?" Simple. Make ammo buff the potency of the abilities, let's say by 50, and give them an automatic crit. Of course that is a huge buff but seeing as they will be buffed anyways, why not this. As for Reassemble, make it so that the Turret crits for about 20s (this amount of time is just a shot in the dark), thus giving the job more identity. It's a MCH and turrets are a huge part of their dps. I am aware that it might make Rook Overdrive broken, but I'm sure SE will say, "Reassemble cannot be used with RO."
3.) Now for my favorite idea, the Flamethrower. Everyone hates the FT and I think SE missed a huge opportunity with this ability. Let's take the Heat Gauge and combine it with FT. No, not in the way that it is now. In our vision, you build up your heat gauge to max and the flamethrower expels that awful heat. The proposal is this, "The MCH unleashes the heat from their weapon upon nearby enemies in a cone before them. Potency: 500. Duration: 10s. Can only be used when Heat Gauge is full. Leaves the target burned: DOT." The machinist can move during this attack (No gun mage please), but have to be in range. I think a 120s cooldown is sufficient, but SE can set it to a more appropriate time. The cooldown is to ensure that Cooldown and Barrel Stabilizer are still being used. This new FT is for burst purposes. I'm not sure if this will sink well with Wildfire, but I think two burst combos would be interesting.
Now this being said, I am in no way a Machinist Main nor have I leveled the job past 50, it was just ideas that my friends and I floated amongst ourselves. I share this with the real MCHs, in hopes of getting their opinions on the proposed ideas.
Role Action Idea:
Now for an idea that I came up with today, but I'm sure that it's been spoken about on here before, debuffs in the role actions. Here is the idea: Piecing and Slashing resistant debuffs are thrown into the role action section. This change is intended for the Bards, MCH, Ninja, SAM and Tank players. Let's be honest with ourselves, there are a massive amount of jobs now, and making the perfect comp just to do raids, primals or even a dungeon can be aggravating. When a job falls from the graces of the SE gods, other jobs suffer as well (looking at the DRG, Bards and MCHs here). Bards and MCHs do less damage when a DRG is absent from a duty, so why can't they get a role action that decreases piercing resistance? SAM and Ninja have slashing attached to their kits now and thus pushed WARs out of the "Meta". Why can't it be moved to a role action, so that the WARs bring Slashing as a "Utility" and if there is no WAR, the NIN/SAM can role action it.
Role Action: Scared (the name is silly but it's an example), reduce the targets "Depending on the Job" resistance by 10%. OGCD, 20s recast timer. (So it doesn't interfere with anything)
Example DRK: Scared; reduce the targets slashing resistance by 10%. Example 2 MCH: Scared; reduce the targets piercing resistance by 10%
I suggest that for DRG, Monk, and WAR keep their debuffs, as that is part of their job identity. So a simple scenario can be this, Bard ques up for Omega, no DRG (oh no), but he/she isn't worried because they can role action this!
A big problem with this idea is not having enough space, especially since (for melee DPS), Second Wind, Invigorate, Goad, and True North are essential in hardcore raiding. For Ranged, SW, Invigorate, Refresh, Tactician, and Palisade will be essential. For this to work, we need a 6th role action, at least for Melee, Physical Ranged and Tanks. (Sorry casters/heals). This of course is up for debate and should be looked at before just giving it to the player.
So those are my ideas thus far. I know that these are rough but I think they would do some good.
Thanks for reading :D