Shots Fired: A Machinist Guide

[prophecy4seen]

Currently 55. so im missing a few skills. but i must say, the class feels incredibly weak compared to its other ranged counterpart. at level 55 im not doing the dmg i was doing at lvl 50 as a brd. its pretty depressing. and from what im seeing the xtra abilities are far from impressive. I hope someone can tell me im doing it wrong or something cause if not, this class is incredibly weak in a parse

[SovereignAegis]

Currently 55. so im missing a few skills. but i must say, the class feels incredibly weak compared to its other ranged counterpart. at level 55 im not doing the dmg i was doing at lvl 50 as a brd. its pretty depressing. and from what im seeing the xtra abilities are far from impressive. I hope someone can tell me im doing it wrong or something cause if not, this class is incredibly weak in a parse

You're not doing anything wrong, that is literally what I noticed at level 50 so I just dropped the class.

Unless the dev team decides to buff it in MANY aspects it will never be competitive with Bard and will always lose raid group spots to bard because bard at present does outshine it.

I want to love this class so much, but being denied access into raids because you're a machinist is exactly what I would face.

[Finalflash]

Yeah, I've noticed that aswell... I'm currently at lvl 56 with full 133 gear. The class really feels weak when compared to other dps classes.
Also, I don't get it... Why can't they just make it so that your single-target turret actually FOLLOWS you instead of having you redeploying it after every single pack? Pain in the butt to be honest.

[Sovereign]

Yeah, the class is painfully weak right now. My BLM does substantially more damage and is much, much, much easier to play. I can't imagine a single situation in which I would take a MCH over a BRD.

The class has some interesting ideas behind it, but it's just a train-wreck in terms of execution. It also needs a massive buff to even be competitive.

[Tribunus]

It feels weak levelling, only time will tell once theres more 60's around to really test stuff out, but if buffs are needed heres what I would like to see adressed:

- Make turrets follow you in the same way SMN pets do. Using promotion allows you to move it and turn on its support option, turning it off returns it to you. This allows you to put your turret where its needed when its needed rather than constantly redeploying it. Also allows the turret to remain between trash pulls or in solo content rather than redeploying over and over.
- After each unsuccessful Split Shot, chance to trigger Enhanced Slug Shot increases by a %, same goes for each unsuccessful Slug Shot. (I dont want to completely gut the concept)
- Successful Cleaner Shot crits reset Quick Reload or reduce its cooldown by X amount.
- Hot Shot increased to 10%.
- Rapid Fire increased to 6 once traited.

[pandabearcat]

Rapid fire to 6 is too much burst (though tbh, MCH potencies leave much to be desired). It is not necessary to make the CD useful - what would make it useful is if it didn't have animations delays, ugh...but I digress.

Moving turrets is unnecessary. If you want to complain about turrets then might as well make Shadowflare follow the SMN around. It is a chore but it is an instacast oGCD to place it, instead of a summon which takes 7 seconds to cast. Think of it as a ground based dot rather than a pet, because it isn't one - it is not a pet, lets make that clear.

Hot Shot does suck. If only our other skills potencies weren't also terrible - 5% bonus is negligible. I hate hot shot. Sometimes I forget to put it up and can't tell the difference in my damage.

Making the combo have successfully higher chance to proc is not necessary - simply make noncombo abilities not consume ammo. Or you know, maybe design ammo so all our abilities that consume it actually do something fun.

Like...

1. Hot shot - damage bonus increased to 10%
2. Lead shot - dot duration increased by 9 seconds.
3. Clean shot - next slug shot is instacast even with Gauss shot, and costs 20 less TP.

I think this would preserve our combo being unique, while making people not groan when they have to refresh a dot in the middle of reload. Please note the above numbers are just tentative, I tried to make it seem approx as good as a 100% combo chance. Tried to focus on utility more than damage (because damage is already provided with the 20pot buff).

I'd also like our ammo to be a resource or something we can do more with. Perhaps a "reload shot" (terrible name, I know) which does low potency (maybe 100) but lowers the cooldowns of quick reload and reload by 5/10 sec.

[Shinun]

I don't think they can do much on the potency's unless they change mch traits around theirs too much +% Damage that Machinist has access to do much to the potency numbers. Ammo already increases the potency of skills by an extra 20 (30 with Gauss)

[RiceisNice]

I don't feel that my damage is particularly low at times in comparison to other classes (relatively anyway, bard/mch versus melee for example). Can't really make a solid judgement due to 3.0 enemies being overall more tankier. Though I will say that I have a fairly hard time justifying the use of gauss barrel even when I have gauss round learned.

[silentwindfr]

the dps of the bard is 10-15% weaker than other jobs, that sure, the dps was lowered you can feel it.
at 50 with all my cd used i can land some 1100 with clean shoot (i'm around 612 dex and have the i130 weapon of the forge) but i need to use 3 cd of dps for reach this number. the rest of the time i'm around 700 in critical it's too low.
and it's not the only bad part of the jobs, the cost of tp of the skill are dumb... no other word is good enough for discribe this.
split shot cost 70 tp, and the two other skill cost us 60.



me i think they need to reduce the cost of tp on split shoot, slug shoot and clean shoot by 10. it's already a good start for the tp management trouble.
other point hot shot need to be buffed +5% is far too weak for be good enough, at least +10% will be a good start.

and i still feel that the damage output can be enhanced for be on par with the other jobs, because if you look at it even the ice branch of spell of the black mage deal far more damage than our spell. it's not normal. how you want to secure a place in a raid if you can deal enough damage for be on par with the other dps.

honestly i think Machinist (like the two other new jobs) need a fast corrective patch, because soo far, when alexander will come out, people will avoid to bring this three jobs in raid.


i want to add something about machinist, wildfire can deal a lot of damage, but for this, you will have a pretty long down time between each use.

[Yuri_Hyuga]

Legend

1 = Split Shot
2 = Slug Shot
3 = Clean Shot
a = Ammo-Use
* = Proc-Active
c = Proc-Chance
_ = Misfire
R = Reload
QR = Quick Reload


OK, I'm going to explain a few principles about our priority-based DPS mechanisms.

I've got five to expound upon today: 6-Shooter, Bullet Dancing, Gun Jamming, Loaded Gun, & Misfiring.


6-Shooter

Utilizing Quick Reload & Reload in close proximity to one another.

6-Shooting makes for a very smooth shot-cycle if executed properly.

Always begin with Reload, staggering a Quick Reload afterward.

It's best to Reload prior to Quick Reloading so as to avoid Gun Jamming & also to prevent an additional Misfire (see below).

It goes like this: R > 1a > 2a* > 3a* > 1a > 2a* > QR > 1a > 3* > 2* > 3*

In order to fully understand this sequence, one must fully grasp each principle to follow.

Therefore, this sequence will be revisited later on in the guide.


Bullet Dancing

To intentionally 'skip back' a shot in your priority.

Why do we do this? Simply put, it prevents us from wasting any ammo when 6-Shooting.

How? The following explanation of Gun Jamming will describe this circumstance in detail.

...WIP...


Gun Jamming

Occurs when loading at a poor time, causing a misfire (see below).

This can happen in a few different ways, outlined here:




Loaded Gun

A firing phase using Quick Reload by itself.

...WIP...


Misfiring

Results when an ammo is 'wasted,' whether forcibly or by mistake.

...WIP...


All Together Now

Now that you are familiarized, let's get into the nitty-gritty.

...WIP...