MCH buffs!

Hot Shot: Effect duration increased from 30 to 60 seconds.

Gauss Barrel: Damage increase when overheated changed from 10% to 20%.
Recast time reduced from 10 to 2 seconds.

Dismantle: Recast time reduced from 90 to 60 seconds.

Flamethrower: Increase to Heat Gauge during use changed from 10 to 20.

http://na.finalfantasyxiv.com/lodest...a3edcf44f0d489

My take: YES on hot shot. It's a PITA to have to weave it in and I get so involved in the rotation I occasionally let it drop.

And the new overheat change just made overheating something you'll actually want to do regularly, maybe even as often as possible!

Yes now MCH is even more easier than it's ever been:

Overheat every wildfire.
Use FT to push you into that overheat every WF.
Apply hotshot before every WF.

I was hoping for a dismantle buff (given that it was weaker than reprisal and not on par with BRD defensive utility) but this is just silly.

Still at least it lays to rest the question "should I overheat" I suppose. Since now the answer to that question is "yes, you dummy".

As much as I'm glad this clarified the purpose of overheating, it doesn't look like it will do anything to fix the monotony that is the 50 seconds between Wildfires. Heat will still build so slowly that you'll only be able to use Cooldown once between Wildfires. This at least gives a skilled MCH something to optimize, but I want a job that's interesting most of the time instead of 1/6 of it.

Actually you won't even use cooldown once between wildfires. If you overheat every wildfire you'll never cooldown outside of them ever again unless something in that fight goes seriously wrong.

Barrel stabilizer sits nicely in to use right after. So you will spend pretty much all your time 50+ heat surely.

So does that also mean the downtime after overheat is 2 seconds instead of 10?

I would rather they'd have returned the heat generation to 10 per shot and left Flamethrower as is, personally.

Gotta admit I'm probably gonna be taking MCH up next. The buffs look excellent.

I already talked about my feelings about the job in this post here

I was kind of hoping it'd get some of it's nuances back that lend to interesting complexity that I could enjoy. 4.06 MCH appears to be the furthest away from HW MCH that we could ever reach, never you mind the cast times. Not to be a negative nancy, but the job I fell in love with no longer exhibits the qualities it had when I fell in love with it.

Realistically, I don't know if I want to play the job anymore.

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Originally Posted by Elnidfse

Actually you won't even use cooldown once between wildfires. If you overheat every wildfire you'll never cooldown outside of them ever again unless something in that fight goes seriously wrong.

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Not necessarily because FT now gives 20 heat, fitting a CD in is possible now, since you usually end up around 75-80 heat after CDing and the FT tick being weaved between GCDs will allow you to overheat on time with wildfire.

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Originally Posted by Yorha

So does that also mean the downtime after overheat is 2 seconds instead of 10?

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Lock out is still 10 seconds, recast is only for if you remove the barrel and reapply it.

None of these changes are bad, but I'm skeptical as to whether or not this'll make Machinist as desirable as Bard. Since Machinist has a lot less utility, it should be off-set by doing more damage, and I'm not sure if this'll put them ahead.

I'm not complaining, but I do think it'll still need more.

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Originally Posted by Alvuru

Not necessarily because FT now gives 20 heat, fitting a CD in is possible now, since you usually end up around 75-80 heat after CDing and the FT tick being weaved between GCDs will allow you to overheat on time with wildfire.

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Fair enough point.

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Originally Posted by briarth0rn

None of these changes are bad, but I'm skeptical as to whether or not this'll make Machinist as desirable as Bard. Since Machinist has a lot less utility, it should be off-set by doing more damage, and I'm not sure if this'll put them ahead.

I'm not complaining, but I do think it'll still need more.

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I think it's pretty alright. Unless my idiot math is incorrect the changes to wildfire alone is slightly over 200 potency. Which is pretty okay. This doesn't factor in the free cooldown you get to use or the GCD you can now throw out since hotshot doesn't have to be refreshed every 30 which itself is at a minimum a 80 potency and a 40 potency increase respectively. Change to dismantle makes it as good as reprisal so there's that. But it being made better means the sheer damage reduction is alright in comparison to BRD.

Hotshot buff is useless for the most part. Small dps gain from being able to use another 1 2 or 3 once a minute, I do appreciate the overheat damage buff.

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Originally Posted by Elnidfse

Actually you won't even use cooldown once between wildfires. If you overheat every wildfire you'll never cooldown outside of them ever again unless something in that fight goes seriously wrong.

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If this is the case, then what is the actual point of Cooldown? Based on how much heat it dissipates, I figured it was meant to maintain between 50 to 100 heat in order to keep Heated Split, Slug, and Clean Shots rolling for higher potency over longer periods of time. I mean, if you are suggesting that you use it during Overheat only, wouldn't that completely ignore its intended function? I'm not trying to be snippy, I'm just honestly confused with these changes right now and it's rather frustrating because MCH seems to be moving well away from what I thought it was supposed to be (and what I was actually starting to enjoy).

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Originally Posted by photometrik

If this is the case, then what is the actual point of Cooldown? Based on how much heat it dissipates, I figured it was meant to maintain between 50 to 100 heat in order to keep Heated Split, Slug, and Clean Shots rolling for higher potency over longer periods of time.

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This is my issue with them not reverting the heat gain to 10 as well. Cooldown feels like it has less relevance in a MCH's tool kit with how little heat we generate. They should be aiming for MCH to not be overly punishing with overheating improperly (lowering BS' cooldown and lowering the damage loss from said overheat), not making it harder to accidentally overheat and invalidate one of their gameplay elements.

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Originally Posted by photometrik

If this is the case, then what is the actual point of Cooldown? Based on how much heat it dissipates, I figured it was meant to maintain between 50 to 100 heat in order to keep Heated Split, Slug, and Clean Shots rolling for higher potency over longer periods of time. I mean, if you are suggesting that you use it during Overheat only, wouldn't that completely ignore its intended function? I'm not trying to be snippy, I'm just honestly confused with these changes right now and it's rather frustrating because MCH seems to be moving well away from what I thought it was supposed to be (and what I was actually starting to enjoy).

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I was corrected and that you can overheat before WF since you'll still be able to weave the two ticks you need to get to OH without wasting a GCD. But as a heat management tool? Cooldown is finished. Heat management is rather finished as well. MCH will probably never need to manage heat again.

But it does make me wonder what in the world our AoE is going to be. FT WILL OH you halfway into it's duration. It takes way too dang long to get to OH normally so it's hard to snapshot it for it's 10 seconds. And you can't do 9 seconds of FT in (for example) V3S anymore for the extra aoe potency because you'll end up just OHing yourself and throwing your CD's out of sync. I just don't get it. What happened to 4.0 MCH.

I'm not a fan. I liked the managing heat the most out of the new class changes.

I was actually hoping for everything going back to ten heat per shot and a small potency increase while you are in it.

Doing it the overheat for power way just makes it less unique and more like all the other classes that build up to a super form for a bit of extra damage for a while.

At least I'll kill more i guess.

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Originally Posted by RiceisNice

This is my issue with them not reverting the heat gain to 10 as well. Cooldown feels like it has less relevance in a MCH's tool kit with how little heat we generate. They should be aiming for MCH to not be overly punishing with overheating improperly (lowering BS' cooldown and lowering the damage loss from said overheat), not making it harder to accidentally overheat and invalidate one of their gameplay elements.

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I'm with you on this one. I feel like Overheating shouldn't be nearly as much of a penalty. Just bonus or no bonus. Forget the lockout period and having to reapply GB- just have it reset heat to 0. Having to climb back up or use Barrel Stabilizer to get to Heated Shots is plenty without all the needlessly clunky stuff in between is enough. Besides, if I recall correctly, this whole expansion was all about simplifying things and minimizing the time we spent staring at our bars (heat gauge included) through a whole encounter.

So what's going to come in 4.1? Just flat out remove the heat gauge?

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Originally Posted by Elnidfse

I was corrected and that you can overheat before WF since you'll still be able to weave the two ticks you need to get to OH without wasting a GCD. But as a heat management tool? Cooldown is finished. Heat management is rather finished as well. MCH will probably never need to manage heat again.

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This is pretty disappointing, imo. That was the whole draw of the class in Stormblood. SE should have focused on making Overheating less punishing and decidedly less clunky, while making subtle tweaks to increase our damage output. But instead they went the route of making the existing mechanics obsolete without even bothering to get rid of them entirely. It's like they are saying, "Oh, look- this class has fun mechanics and really good ability synergy to make those mechanics work...except now we're going to make it so you never want to use those abilities the way you're supposed to." I can't help but say...huh?

I like most of the changes except the Hot Shot. Now our rotation is even more on loop from the start. I really miss mixing in Cooldown/Hotshot between procs when your QR is like 1-2 secs from coming off cooldown. Now there's even less mixing and even more 1-2-3. Pretty boring if you ask me.

Wishlist for 4.1: Either revert to 10 heat per heated shot or if they wanna keep it easy then at least make cooldown reduce less heat so we can use it more. I don't wanna be pressing 1-2-3 all the time gimme something to mix in!

I was really hoping they'd go the opposite direction and kill overheat as a mechanic to focus on heat management instead, but c'est la vie. I miss the OGCD moves, too. MCH feels very locked to the GCD now, until the Wildfire window comes up, then it's overwhelmed trying to push all the OGCD cooldowns through in that short timeframe. Feels bad to me.

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Originally Posted by photometrik

But instead the went the route of making the existing mechanics obsolete without even bothering to get rid of them entirely. [...] except now we're going to make it so you never want to use those abilities the way you're supposed to." I can't help but say...huh?

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No, Cooldown is here to temporize in order to use your wildfire/overheat rotation at the right time, so it still has its use. Unlike what you seem to think, Cooldown manages heat, believe it or not, it does --> You don't want to stop attacking because it would start your overheat just when a boss is about to become invincible/untargetable, or that a dps check is about to come. Cooldown temporizes --> Cooldown fills its purpose. And it also has this fun powerful side of spamming it under Overheat (the weapon overheat, you cooldown a lot to make it ok, in a way, it looks it's ok RP wise).

To talk about the Hot Shot, it makes you have +40 minimum potency by using Split Shot instead of Hot shot, and if it procs, it's even better, so it can end to be a nice potency buff as Hot Shot direct potency is too weak.

The Gauss Barrel 2 sec CD is great for lower levels (so also in daily roulettes) who would like to manage heat a bit while they don't have Barrel Stabilizer and/or Cooldown. Even just the feeling of putting it on or off the way you want is nice, especially when you want to just train on a dummy and restart at 0 heat.

Still no new support skills, leaving MCH out of any consideration if you want a ranged support. Granted it should do better than before DPS wise.

I actually didn't mind the 4.0 heat that much. Just needed some number tweaking and fix to the Turret Kamikaze and Flamethrower to be atleast enjoyable.

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Originally Posted by Fannah

The Gauss Barrel 2 sec CD is great for lower levels (so also in daily roulettes) who would like to manage heat a bit while they don't have Barrel Stabilizer and/or Cooldown.

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You do know that heat "Management" sub level 64 means nothing right... there is no reason to ever take the barrel off...

As for the changes Hot shot is a QoL change, 20% overheats sounds good only time will tell if it helps in the long run. The others changes MEH

It does seem they have no intention of buffing the potency of skills for MCH at this point who knows what they are thinking of changing next.

Lol Xygoz, I know and I said the same in another topic, but you are not here enough to be aware of it, there was a recent topic were people complained that they still wanted to manage heat before 62/64 still to always have their 5% bonus and not overheating. Here is the link, so you can know I know ;) http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...a-single-skill

Now, if you read what I wrote, you could have noticed I also said : "Even just the feeling of putting it on or off the way you want is nice, especially when you want to just train on a dummy and restart at 0 heat."
So it will be nice for that part of the game, as training is important too and there was no good reason to set the Gauss Barrel at 10sec CD.

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Originally Posted by Fannah

Lol Xygoz, I know and I said the same in another topic, but you are not here enough to be aware of it, there was a recent topic were people complained that they still wanted to manage heat before 62/64 still to always have their 5% bonus and not overheating. Here is the link, so you can know I know ;) http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...a-single-skill

Now, if you read what I wrote, you could have noticed I also said : "Even just the feeling of putting it on or off the way you want is nice, especially when you want to just train on a dummy and restart at 0 heat."

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I'm not going to go look at your past posts to understand why you said something in another topic...

"Even just the feeling of putting it on or off the way you want is nice" I don't even know what this means
"especially when you want to just train on a dummy and restart at 0 heat" I guess waiting 8 more seconds was to long.

But whatever I don't really care tbh

Bards still way better.

This is a joke.

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Originally Posted by Xygoz

I guess waiting 8 more seconds was to long.

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Not especially too long. I just said it's nice, don't exagerate what I said. It's not something that matters at normal and high content, but it's nicer for training.

So let me get this straight, every 1 minute i must:
-Reload
-Rapid Fire
-(Hypercharge every 3rd minute)
-Wildfire
-{Overheat}
-Ricochet

Basically, 5 cooldowns used simeltaneously, 6 if you include Overheat as a cooldown. Which, thanks to Barrel Stabilizer, is quite literally a 1 minute CD 20% damage up buff.

And we have to do this every god damn minute.
Ensuring that Wildfire's CD never unsyncs from any of those other cooldowns for the entire duration of a 10+ minute fight.
Failure to do so results in our Wildfire damage being cut by as much as 60%.

Yeah, sorry Square but no. For the love of all that is unholy, Fix our total reliance on using 6 cooldowns at once.
I absolutely love the basic rotation and heat management (liked it more when Heated Shots were 10 heat though), But needing to use 5 buttons to make the 6th button do acceptable damage, In addition to hoping to hell you get some Direct Crits in there is just plain wrong.
Hated it before, Still hate it now.

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Originally Posted by Sylve

Yeah, sorry Square but no. For the love of all that is unholy, Fix our total reliance on using 6 cooldowns at once.

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This was the case for 3.4 MCH too. Actually it was even worse since wildfires were much more bursty and the skill had a longer cd so cd alignment was a little more subtle. I don't see the problem to be honest, that's how mch is supposed to be. Of course it was fine back when mch was top dps in most turns of creator savage.

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Originally Posted by Lastelli

This was the case for 3.4 MCH too. Actually it was even worse since wildfires were much more bursty and the skill had a longer cd so cd alignment was a little more subtle. I don't see the problem to be honest, that's how mch is supposed to be. Of course it was fine back when mch was top dps in most turns of creator savage.

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Well, You're welcome to like it. Opinions are Opinions after all.

They could make machinist far more engaging if Wildfire came with Gauss Barrel and you dumped heat from the Gauge into Wildfires instead of a recast.
Reassemble and Rapid Fire (in their current effects) would be better as procs off either Turret attacks or Split Shot.

As it stands, i find Machinist DPS outside of dungeons to just be long periods of nothing followed by a short burst of damage and then another long period of nothing.

lol job chaser

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Originally Posted by Lastelli

This was the case for 3.4 MCH too. Actually it was even worse since wildfires were much more bursty and the skill had a longer cd so cd alignment was a little more subtle. I don't see the problem to be honest, that's how mch is supposed to be. Of course it was fine back when mch was top dps in most turns of creator savage.

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Subtle? The CD alignment was NOT hard to work out. And there was surprisingly few instances in creator that required custom wildfire timings. What's more, you could hold on a CD for a few seconds and not eat massive potency losses. Moreover, because our CD's were longer we had fewer opportunities for fight damning screwups. Not to mention:
Every odd wildfighter only demanded 4 CD's two damage buffs, WF, and RF.
Reload wasn't something you spam for dear life.
And pre WF workup was as simple as applying hotshot and lead shot as opposed to 10 seconds of ammo prep.

Dismantle buff allow mch use it for every single almagest in v4s. After omega there is like 1min before next almagest that help little healers life.

It went from using overheat, to not using overheat, to now using overheat. MCH is just a clunky mess as a job right now.

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Originally Posted by Elnidfse

Subtle? The CD alignment was NOT hard to work out. And there was surprisingly few instances in creator that required custom wildfire timings. What's more, you could hold on a CD for a few seconds and not eat massive potency losses. Moreover, because our CD's were longer we had fewer opportunities for fight damning screwups. Not to mention:
Every odd wildfighter only demanded 4 CD's two damage buffs, WF, and RF.
Reload wasn't something you spam for dear life.
And pre WF workup was as simple as applying hotshot and lead shot as opposed to 10 seconds of ammo prep.

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Where did I write that cd alignment was hard?
Are "a little more subtle" (than how it currently is) and "hard" synonyms?
Considering you also had to use raging strikes, b4b and hawk's eye, it was way less trivial than it currently is.
And again, less trivial =/= hard.

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Originally Posted by Sylve

So let me get this straight, every 1 minute i must:
-Reload
-Rapid Fire
-(Hypercharge every 3rd minute)
-Wildfire
-{Overheat}
-Ricochet.

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Flamethrower? Reassembled? Quick Reload? Gauss Round? Rook Overdrive? Hypercharge is a 2 min CD. And you don't use them all at once you spread them out between CDs. Wildfire is literally like 3.x openers for every dps except you do it once per minute. It's not difficult. It was a bit hard in 3.x I'll admit but as of now it's nothing. To me it just sounds like you don't really know how to play MCH. If you want to complain about an actual frustrating oGCD filled rotation, try SMN. Wildfire is hugely improved over 3.x

But I agree MCH feels kinda plain in between WFs. The procs seem to only exist to keep you on your toes so it isn't just 1 2 3 1 2 3 Gauss Round 1 2 3 1 2 3 then the class really would feel extremely boring.

Well from this I see: MCH is supposed to be DPS, period. No extra utility, just straight up damage. Ill re-think my cross role abilities now. The rotation got dumber, oh well. At least we are getting an idea of where they want to shoehorn us. However if we are supposed to be pure DPS now, these changes are not enough, we need just under the physical equivalent of BLM damage to make this likable (I say under BLM because BLM still doesn't have the luxury of mobility we have.) MCH stays my main, but I am still sure I will need to swap in a Bow for raids in the future. I dont know why they are being so overly cautious about potency changes if we are supposed to be more DPS than Utility.

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Originally Posted by Lastelli

Where did I write that cd alignment was hard?
Are "a little more subtle" (than how it currently is) and "hard" synonyms?
Considering you also had to use raging strikes, b4b and hawk's eye, it was way less trivial than it currently is.
And again, less trivial =/= hard.

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Unless waiting 10 seconds after an offensive CD comes up for another offensive CD to come up is the height of hidden depth, "subtle" is not exactly what I'd use to describe 3.x CD timers;
You didn't use all three offensive CD's every single wildfire.
You used your entire suite of offensive CDs less often.
That WF happening ever 90 seconds for a longer period of time giving a larger fight leeway for cooldown delaying.

The statement was to your comment "this is how MCH is supposed to be" which wasn't true then, and I listed the reasons why that was so. Burning every single button, every single minute was not how MCH worked. Not for the rotation, and definitely not for wildfire.