Future Machinist Rework

This is an open letter to the developers, and also the community. After years of deliberation and recently seeing how the Patch 6.1 Machinist in PVP has played out, I feel confident in having made a document detailing how it could not only be made to be a stronger job in general, but also one with a stronger sense of identity. The current plan is to double down on being a selfish DPS job, still containing some utility but becoming more "Black Mage" in the process. This would give it more risk compared to other Physical Ranged jobs but also make it more justifiable in making it stronger in personal damage.

The document details all the changes here; https://docs.google.com/document/d/1...it?usp=sharing

Feedback and criticism is welcome, I want the best for Machinist and I'd like to imagine many of us would also want to see it in a better state than it is currently. Here's to hoping this can spread like Wildfire.

Love the amount of effort you've put into the documentation.

That's a well thought out document. I've been gathering my thoughts reading various threads and I'd like to ask what you think about scaling potencies based on how close you are to the target? Without needing to be in melee range. Say something like 10-20y.

The thing that stood out to me was Blast Charge and Hypercharge. I think that's a really good idea. I think I pretty much agree with everything aside the role actions. Rather, they intended for those to originally be useful utility but then started scrapping encounters with CC. I think they should start having CC matter again instead.

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Originally Posted by Roxus

That's a well thought out document. I've been gathering my thoughts reading various threads and I'd like to ask what you think about scaling potencies based on how close you are to the target? Without needing to be in melee range. Say something like 10-20y.

The thing that stood out to me was Blast Charge and Hypercharge. I think that's a really good idea. I think I pretty much agree with everything aside the role actions. Rather, they intended for those to originally be useful utility but then started scrapping encounters with CC. I think they should start having CC matter again instead.

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Nothing else particularly scales with distance like that so I don’t want to add that into the mix personally, Physical Ranged should at least have freedom of distance in all forms. It is certainly an interesting idea for maybe Marksman’s Spite maybe but it would be strange to be the only job with such a requirement. Not to discount the idea entirely of course, maybe the developers could make it work.

I appreciate the feedback, CC would be easy to pull in with Arm Graze at the least, I mainly just want anything else besides Foot/Leg Graze given how extremely niche they are in the kit.

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Originally Posted by ShimAoki

Love the amount of effort you've put into the documentation.

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Appreciate the feedback! Anything in particular with the document that you are in favor for or against if I may ask?

This is a well put document, albeit slightly difficult to read due to spacing and no text formating.

Return of the Bishop for AoE battery
No, that's button bloat and SQEX will remove Reassemble for that.
The best solution is to give the give splash damage, aoe and single target merged into 1 button.

Asking for an AoE version is asking for Shoha II.

Flamethrower fix
The real problem with Flamethrower is not that it's doing low damage.
It's that standing without doing anything is the most boring job mechanic. 5 or 10 seconds, it's not fun.
Lost Ark has a flamethrower, and it's only 2 seconds long.

The second suggestion is much better, thought Flamethrower should be thrown in with Drill/AA/Chain saw, a cooldown on GCD.
It could generate battery or heat, you can also merge it with Barrel Stabilizer to gain 50 heat.

Role action buff
I kinda disagree with that, while pressing more button is good, pressing more button for button sake is not exactly a good idea. All buttons needs to be engaging.
It work with GNB because it works with a burst window. MCH is a resource job, it can simply build up for bursts phase.

Palisade and Dismantle return are good ideas. It's starting to get ridiculous that RDM gets more utility than all the ranged combined.
But keep the 10% on dismantle. RDM has a 10% Addle and 10% + 5% healing increase on a 120s on top of a res.

Grenado shot
I would say turn it into a Machinery action just like Drill & co.
At lower level it can be grenado shot, but at higher level could evolve into Mustard Bomb/Noise Blaster/Missile or whatever.

The goal should really be to avoid MCH to be a 1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-Drill-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1 job.
Pushing the identy of rotation between the big guns would greatly benefits the job, in my opinion.

Additional notes:
-MCH really lacks a 120s window if WF is reduced.
-Due to the 1-1-1-1-1 aspect you could add a new GCD on cooldown+charges.
-Wildfire dealing splash damage would also be welcome.

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Originally Posted by CKNovel

This is a well put document, albeit slightly difficult to read due to spacing and no text formating.

Return of the Bishop for AoE battery
No, that's button bloat and SQEX will remove Reassemble for that.
The best solution is to give the give splash damage, aoe and single target merged into 1 button.

Asking for an AoE version is asking for Shoha II.

Flamethrower fix
The real problem with Flamethrower is not that it's doing low damage.
It's that standing without doing anything is the most boring job mechanic. 5 or 10 seconds, it's not fun.
Lost Ark has a flamethrower, and it's only 2 seconds long.

The second suggestion is much better, thought Flamethrower should be thrown in with Drill/AA/Chain saw, a cooldown on GCD.
It could generate battery or heat, you can also merge it with Barrel Stabilizer to gain 50 heat.

Role action buff
I kinda disagree with that, while pressing more button is good, pressing more button for button sake is not exactly a good idea. All buttons needs to be engaging.
It work with GNB because it works with a burst window. MCH is a resource job, it can simply build up for bursts phase.

Palisade and Dismantle return are good ideas. It's starting to get ridiculous that RDM gets more utility than all the ranged combined.
But keep the 10% on dismantle. RDM has a 10% Addle and 10% + 5% healing increase on a 120s on top of a res.

Grenado shot
I would say turn it into a Machinery action just like Drill & co.
At lower level it can be grenado shot, but at higher level could evolve into Mustard Bomb/Noise Blaster/Missile or whatever.

The goal should really be to avoid MCH to be a 1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-Drill-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1 job.
Pushing the identy of rotation between the big guns would greatly benefits the job, in my opinion.

Additional notes:
-MCH really lacks a 120s window if WF is reduced.
-Due to the 1-1-1-1-1 aspect you could add a new GCD on cooldown+charges.
-Wildfire dealing splash damage would also be welcome.

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I disagree with the button bloat resulting from Bishop Autoturret for the reason that unlike Samurai, Machinist currently is a job lacking in many buttons, and would lack more as a result of removing the Split Shot Combo. However I will say that if they did give Automaton Queen some AOE properties with each attack it deals, it would certainly help as well, but I feel that bringing back the Bishop would at least not just bring back the turret we had lost previously, but also to be more deliberate in your choice. It would be crazy to remove Reassemble so that is definitely something that should not be done. The resulting riots would be akin to the current Kaiten removal on Samurai.
Part 1

I do agree that being forced to stand still completely for current Flamethrower doesn't help the current situation, hence I have put in that it should also allow you to walk with it much like Blast Charge currently does, although I can't ignore that with how Heat buildup was as early as Shadowbringers, the damage is still lackluster since at most you only want to use Flamethrower for 2 seconds anyway before just building up Heat since Heat is far more powerful. Currently, I do prefer the idea of having the 2.5 GCD timer only to "cast" it(while still letting you walk around), but then it comes out instantly without having to hold it down and it gives you a buff to make using the rest of your skills even more damaging. This would also put it on a similar level to be thrown in with Drill/AA/Chain Saw/Marksman's Spite(name pending), but it would essentially be the first skill to use in order to inflict large damage instantly but also buff your opener and your resulting combination of Drill/AA/Chain Saw/Marksman's Spite.

I mainly put Dismantle at 5% to not step on too many toes but also to make it too overpowered for a short cooldown, I would not be opposed to 10% however. I just desire to have better role actions, as currently Physical Ranged(which I was considering as a whole with that section, not just Machinist) has the fewest Role Actions in terms of usability, as Foot/Leg Graze are far too situational even among niche content like POTD and such to be considered usable. Stun is difficult to put in given its near uselessness when bossing(for the most part), but also it can clash with some other kits like White Mage's Holy, and that's not considering immunities as a whole. With Hawk's Eye at least, it would serve as a strong DPS tool for all Physical Ranged to bump them up further as they do substantially less than every other job, so at least lowering the gap would be helpful. Palisade is a sorely missed skill in my opinion, and it wouldn't be too crazy to bring back in since it already existed which was primarily what I was drawing upon.

That would be cool to have Grenado Shot upgrade as it goes along. I have it considered as part of the big buttons to press like Drill and etc. I didn't think of the upgrades much admittedly simply because I didn't have any more room on Photoshopping things like that without diverging too much from what was already here.
Part 2

With Wildfire recast, I mainly thought of reducing it simply because I am changing the general use so you save your Heat for actual movement, but make it cozier and less strict to explode as well. Blast Charge would mainly be what you use after you use Flamethrower and all of your big skills, when all you have left is filler. I will admit that I don't know about changing the charges and cooldowns on too many things simply because I again am not great at calculating potencies and how to balance everything out. The goal though is to make sure the big buttons are pressed, keep some heat when you aren't blasting away, but never go above 100 heat so you can squeeze out bursts of damage akin to Triplecast where you never want to have 2 charges, but always have 1. If Wildfire dealt splash damage, I would actually like that, I will put that in the document for sure.

I appreciate the feedback greatly, I do want to be challenged in explaining myself properly and also fixing things that could be thought out better. I do wonder though about since there didn't seem to be issues when I had some others check it beforehand, but any feedback on that is welcome as I have never made a document of this sort before, and having it be more readable would be good for others as well as myself.
Part 3

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Originally Posted by MikoRemi

I disagree with the button bloat resulting from Bishop Autoturret for the reason that unlike Samurai, Machinist currently is a job lacking in many buttons, and would lack more as a result of removing the Split Shot Combo. However I will say that if they did give Automaton Queen some AOE properties with each attack it deals, it would certainly help as well, but I feel that bringing back the Bishop would at least not just bring back the turret we had lost previously, but also to be more deliberate in your choice. It would be crazy to remove Reassemble so that is definitely something that should not be done. The resulting riots would be akin to the current Kaiten removal on Samurai.

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Yes, MCH lacks button and we can agree on that.

However, try to think about which content has more than 2 targets as of 6.1:
-Dungeons? Yes.
-8 man Raids? No.
-24 man Raids? No.
-Trial and Extremes? No.

I don't do dungeons anymore, that would mean I would never ever press AoE buttons for the whole patch.
Giving the AQ AoE damage would do the same job.
The idea of merging 2 buttons is that it frees a new button.