Some MCH Ideas for fun

Disclaimer : This is meant to be a fun topic to vent/discuss ideas for Machinist. As we all know, they initially had planned for the job to utilize different attachments for different scenarios, but ultimately scrapped it and gave us GB (which sorta loses it's "attachment" novelty considering they gave BRD WM), and really their "utility" feels incredible under utilized when compared to BRD (having a weaker physical boost versus a magic boost) Balance is a whole nother can of worms, so the premise of most of the changes should only be kept in relation to their interaction with the game and other jobs (basically assume the numbers are balanced and ultimately, their performance is kept relatively the same, and in the case of number tuning that can easily be done with hot fixes anyway). And lastly, this topic is meant to be for a fun discussion of ideas of what it could have been. Perhaps even give ideas for 4.0 implementations.

Attachments
The job could have been designed around extensively using an attachment/stance system. Something you'd change depending on the circumstances, rather than keep on the entire time. Some ideas I had;

An AoE Attachment and a Burst Attachment
-AoE would convert all weaponskills to have an AoE effect, while reducing damage and increasing TP cost. This would be their "equivalent" of AoE damage, rather than getting a carbon copy of QN and WV.
-Burst Attachment would sacrifice TP efficiency for higher damage output. This would favor burn phases or otherwise where controlled burst damage is high desirable (such as add phases for wildfire), but the TP consumption is amped up to the point that it's not sustainable and ultimately a loss of dps if it's not utilized properly.

"Shotgun" attachment
Increases overall damage, but enforces a damage penalty when attacking from further from 5 yalms. Essentially makes you require a melee positioning when it comes to fight mechanics and party interaction. Being able to switch between the two on the fly, maximizing melee uptime and turning it off when otherwise would be important to maximize damage output.


Ammo/Charges

Clean Shot /w proc generates a charge when used with current GB
-The charge itself is used for GB-exclusive abilities such as gauss round and ricochet, or other abilities at varying costs. Stack management would become important when deciding on what is the most appropriate ability to use at the time, such as consistent single target, AoE, or single target burst

Ammo Effects to non-combo skill
Give a secondary effect to abilities like hotshot and lead shot. Effects could be a self heal, multi-dotting, or even resistance down (detailed later).

General

Hybrid Damage Type (have both piercing and blunt damage) and give Blunt resistance (with maybe +int down?)
The looks of MCH abilities themselves have spurred a separate discussion of whether or not it should be piercing or blunt. My perspective, you have the gun shooting so many different projectiles, its hard to consider it to be one or the other exclusively. So my proposal is that MCH has both piercing and blunt damage depending on what kind of ability it is (blanks and guass round would be blunt for example). They would also get a blunt-resistance down skill that will give them a partial boost to their dps, while synergizing with monks; it allows the latter to do bootshine every opo-opo instead of the weaker dragon kick (more so if you have a dork knight for delirium). Part of this would also address MNK's lack of direct synergy in any party composition since they are currently the only job with blunt damage.

Flank positional with turret positioning
This is still an afterthought for me, but allow turret interactions along with flank positional bonuses. Specific skills that do more damage when hit from the flank of the boss, but this is done based on the relative position of your turret rather than the player and boss. This could be either in the form of a turret ability, or a skillshot utilizing the turret (ricocheting in otherwords). Small idea I had, but it's not necessarily on the top of my list as the others.

Assuming the numbers are not an issue, what would your ideal MCH changes be? As mentioned in my disclaimer, this is meant to be a fun discussion on ideas on what they could have done for MCH, and possibly what they could implement in the future. Please also keep in mind with party interaction, as you don't necessarily want to make BRD useless or make 4 MCH raid the meta.

I would be happy if i can take that damn mechanical jellyfish off, visually.
It doesn't even make much sense lorewise, the skill is supposedly a result of a modification to the aetherotransformer thing on the waist, personally I don't think adding something is quite the same as modification.
Just take that jellyfish off and rename it "Aetheric Burst Mode" or something and have the weapon emit a glow of some sort, I don't care just make that jellyfish go away, SE PLEASE.

Having the option to hide gauss barrel would be nice. I'm at the point that the gun designs don't really matter much if it;s going to get ruined by gauss barrel, it doesn't match any of them, not even the eso gun.

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Originally Posted by RiceisNice

Having the option to hide gauss barrel would be nice. I'm at the point that the gun designs don't really matter much if it;s going to get ruined by gauss barrel, it doesn't match any of them, not even the eso gun.

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if they can do it with DRK im sure GB can be optional too....now MCH need to cry for months then ....maybe :P

your ideas are how MCH was supposed to work....they scrapped all of it to make a BRD copycat

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Clean Shot /w proc generates a charge when used with current GB
-The charge itself is used for GB-exclusive abilities such as gauss round and ricochet, or other abilities at varying costs. Stack management would become important when deciding on what is the most appropriate ability to use at the time, such as consistent single target, AoE, or single target burst

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They should give a proc'd Clean Shot a 50% chance to reset Gauss Round/Richochet Timer (irrespective of Ammunition or not, to prevent using ammo on just Clean Shot spam).

I want a "Dissipation" for MCH that kills the turret but makes your weaponskills AoE for 10 seconds but can't summon your turret for like 30 seconds (also fills up your ammo to 5). AoE Lead Shot and Clean Shot...mmmm.

I'd still like a self heal, lol.

On a related note, as I was trying out Lord of Verminion today, I thought "What if a Machinist could adapt a Mammet for combat?" Bam: The Knight Mammet/Turret. A true mechanical "pet" for the job! So many ways to go with that one, but rather than stationary turrets, we'd have something more akin to an egi summon.

I'd sacrifice Leg/Foot Graze for a linear, "Railgun" AoE. Like Doom Spike or Dark Passenger. Heh, yeah, why not give it a Blinding effect too? It'd be more useful than Bind.

As a trait to Wildfire: Arcfire - If an enemy dies before the Wildfire timer expires, it arcs to the nearest target with 5% less potency (So we still get our burst, even if a bit weaker. We just wouldn't completely lose what we built up.)

Change Suppressive Fire to Wrench Toss, no shared CD with Head Graze, no range limitation. . . What better way to stun an enemy than whiffing a wrench at it? (<--- SE if you do anything here, definitely do this.)

I'd be happy if Wildfire will also have a small aoe radius but with reduced potency damage to mobs surrounding the target with Wildfire.

Drop Foot Graze. Bind isn't very useful. I think Leg Graze with Heavy +40% is more practical, but then again that's a strong reflection of my play style preference.

Clump together Rend Mind and Dismantle. Increase the cast timer to balance it out. - they're on the same cd anyways.

Shrapnel shot - When used on a mob with Lead Shot has chance to spread Lead Shot to surrounding mobs.

Are you sure Blank isn't just called Blank because you have to fire it "Point-blank" Aka in melee range?

That would be neat, as long as they dont touch wildfire single target percent.

Good ideas mentioned so far. The only thing I would add is turning the turrets into actual pets with mobility and their own hot bars. There's really no reason that at least the Rook can't follow the player; the Bishop I get. It's not a huge deal to have to place it every time, but it would add a bit of convenience. Maybe limit its attack range so that it closes in on enemies, positioning itself well for Promotion.

For the love of The Twelve, just give me some sort of self healing skill. Potions that are at absolute best on par with NIN/BRD Second Wind, (STR based healing on DEX classes), while those classes can use potions as well, are NOT a viable form of self healing, since it costs at least 3k gil per heal based on my server's current MB price for Max Potions. I'm not asking for us to have Benediction or anything, but right now we're the only class that can't self heal outside of potions, which makes it quite annoying to do solo content while qued for the DF, or being the only class that's completely reliant on the healers in group content. We don't even have any damage mitigation skills aside from, (technically), Feint, and Keen Flurry. Keen Flurry being completely useless in group content in terms of damage mitigation, while the already weak slow provided by Feint is completely resisted by most high level enemies......

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Originally Posted by HeyAFunkyFish

The only thing I would add is turning the turrets into actual pets with mobility and their own hot bars.

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More turret interaction would be nice in form of more cool downs (as it stands, we only have hyper charge) or a pet bar, although the turret placement itself is fine as is due to the low cooldown and regen functionality. Otherwise, the turrets are just as good as ninja poison/Fists of Fire as far as how it adds to the job's gameplay.

And while in that same regard, the summoner egis should get the same targettig function as the turrets; it attacks whatever you are targeting rather than fixate until ordered otherwise. It could be two different orders, assist and guard, for the former and latter respectively.

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Originally Posted by Gamer3427

For the love of The Twelve, just give me some sort of self healing skill. Potions that are at absolute best on par with NIN/BRD Second Wind, (STR based healing on DEX classes), while those classes can use potions as well, are NOT a viable form of self healing, since it costs at least 3k gil per heal based on my server's current MB price for Max Potions. I'm not asking for us to have Benediction or anything, but right now we're the only class that can't self heal outside of potions, which makes it quite annoying to do solo content while qued for the DF, or being the only class that's completely reliant on the healers in group content. We don't even have any damage mitigation skills aside from, (technically), Feint, and Keen Flurry. Keen Flurry being completely useless in group content in terms of damage mitigation, while the already weak slow provided by Feint is completely resisted by most high level enemies......

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Having the ammo mechanic to add secondary effects to weaponskills/abilties rather than being a straight potency boost (and only secondary effects that ensure procs for slug/clean) would go a long way for something like this, or really meaningful decisions in general. Hot shot with ammo could give a self healing effect, lead shot spread the effect to two other targets, gauss round could give blunt resistance, so on. With something like aetherflow, you're concerned with when to use it in order to time it with DWT, TD and contagion. It's not so much the case for quick reload and reload, since the way ammo works, it's a flat potency gain, while the former also regens your TP; you'd be a damned fool to not use it as it comes off cooldown.

I'd like to be able to manually detonate Wildfire, and have an indicator to tell you when the stored damage is enough to finish off the target.

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Originally Posted by Tropa

I'd like to be able to manually detonate Wildfire, and have an indicator to tell you when the stored damage is enough to finish off the target.

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I´d love this too. When clearing trash Wildfire it´s pretty much useless, so why not give us a detonator. Of course it would have to have a max damage cap, would be so OP if it didn´t.

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Originally Posted by HeyAFunkyFish

Good ideas mentioned so far. The only thing I would add is turning the turrets into actual pets with mobility and their own hot bars. There's really no reason that at least the Rook can't follow the player; the Bishop I get. It's not a huge deal to have to place it every time, but it would add a bit of convenience. Maybe limit its attack range so that it closes in on enemies, positioning itself well for Promotion.

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No to turrents becoming pets. SCH and SMN pets have a significant cast time and mana cost to summon, whereas MCH bots are free to throw out every 10 seconds as needed. I prefer that very spammable utility over the ability to reposition.

Manual Wildfire Detonation: I love you. Can we get an actual effect while we're at it? Even a small shockwave effect would be better than just damage numbers that can easily be missed.

On the subject of pet glamours, I hope we're not overlooked if/when it's added. Having my own ADS Bishop turret or Magitek Bit Rook turret would be nice. Then again, that's mostly my Allagan fetish talking, lol.

What about something like the warrior deliverance/defiance. A different attachment for different situations

1.Breach-bore=40mm esque aoe damage dealing. Explosive shot for damage. Napalm cluster aoe with dot/slow. Willy pete blind maybe low damage?

2.Titanium lined barrel or rifled bore=(Similar to that of chrome lined barrels common in the majority of firearms today) Focuses on single target damage. Maybe something like a 3 skill combo with a buff (Magiteknical Rage) stacking every time you fail to get the additional effect for skills 2&3. Once X# of M.R. is reached next skill has increased potency? Something to mitigate RNG failure with an equally random potency bonus? Maybe the stacks of MR would have a passive effect.
>Each would be off the gcd and have unique skills.
> Combo using hot shot to self heal. Maybe cauderize wound? adenaline shot? Machinist feels like the guy with the gadgets for anything. i know the names are not well thought out.

I mentioned this idea in a thread in the General Discussion forum, but I'll add it here as well. A "Knight Autoturret" that has 25% of the player's health and takes all damage in place of the player until it's health is depleted. When Promotion is used, it creates a spherical shield, (similar to Sacred Soil, but with probably half the radius), that gives 5-10% damage protection to any within it while draining MP while up....

From the other thread:

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Originally Posted by Connor

Hypercharge could even have it provide a small regen to party members in range for its duration on top of damage reduction.

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Add in 5% HP regen per tick for all party members within the shield when Hypercharging, (total, 25% HP). On single target self-shield, regen is 10% per tick, (50% total), and 5% damage boost for 10s on tick, (still weaker than Rook's Hypercharge due to not increasing turret damage, and only boosts the player, not party)....

Wildfire detonator EXCELLENT IDEA! This or the ability for Wildfire to stop counting when a mob becomes unhit-able and then continues from where it left off when the mob is hit-able again. Yes a noticeable effect for Wildfire is very much needed, something that looks similar to fire or fire III would do well, or at least something easily seen and orange/red in effect. Finally I love the third automaton turret idea, it could be a tank turret! I love it!

Make Gauss Round 200 potency, or make reload on a 45 second cooldown, though this one is entirely because I dream of a time when reload is up for every wildfire...

Speaking of Wildfire, make it have a more interesting animation, because I can't tell when it goes off except a light sound effect, maybe a quick sequential explosion.

Make it an option to see the Gauss Barrel, some guns actually look good with it (Magitek gun comes to mind) but for others...not so much.

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Originally Posted by Tizzy_Tormentor

Make Gauss Round 200 potency, or make reload on a 45 second cooldown, though this one is entirely because I dream of a time when reload is up for every wildfire...

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My reload is up for every Wildfire. I work off of a 2min burst rotation, and my DPS is top tier based on my estimations to account for gear level differences, latency issues, (I run with 700ms latency because of satellite internet), and not having a party that benefits my personal DPS in any way......