Shots Fired: A Machinist Guide

[LenTsani]

its definitely a dps increase to at least toggle GB. stance dancing and leaving it on for extended amounts of time is debatable. it takes decent oGCD management to know when you're able to mess with GB for a bit of extra dps though.

It's actually not debatable. It was a minor gain before the change from 20% to 30% damage increase, and now it's always a gain. Unless you are uncomfortable with the class and don't know how to move and still use abilities, you should always leave Gauss Barrel on.

[Aiurily]

It's actually not debatable. It was a minor gain before the change from 20% to 30% damage increase, and now it's always a gain. Unless you are uncomfortable with the class and don't know how to move and still use abilities, you should always leave Gauss Barrel on.

no, it's pretty debatable. for example, in a situation where you have pretty bad luck and get 5 split shots and have no oGCDs in that time period; doing 5 split shots in gauss is 910 potency, while doing 5 split shots without it is 700 potency+around 12s of auto attacks, roughly 4 with hive weapon. at 75~ potency per auto attack, that would be 1000 potency total compared to 5 split shots in gauss; 90 potency increase, or, a dps gain. if you get a 5th auto then it increases even more; but 4 at least is guaranteed. im pretty sure that if you were to parse with just using split shot and then slug shot on procs with gauss, then compare it to without gauss, the latter would have higher dps

it's just something that's fairly difficult to manage; if you're not in gauss for oGCD attacks or leadshot its a dps loss, then when you consider clean shot procs or the actual potency of autos (it's definitely around 60-75) the math behind it gets a bit blurry (really im just too lazy to bother with it)

What seems to be the optimal opener? I'm seeing a lot of different things and personal testing seems to vary. Is there one people seem to be gravitating towards?

i think the most popular one is just frontloading all of your buffs at 4s prepull and dex potting after hotshot

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cevo2mwB81o

with fey wind you'd do this

rs>he>bfb>hyper>hotshot>xpot>lead shot>reload>1>wildfire>2>qr+reassemble>3>rapid+ricochet>1>g.round>2>h.graze>1>blank>3*>2>3



*gauss off after this, assuming you get the auto and put gauss back on before the next clean shot is a dps increase, but optional if you aren't comfortable with it or would rather just gauss stance dance after the clean shot

[Haxetc]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cevo2mwB81o

with fey wind you'd do this

rs>he>bfb>hyper>hotshot>xpot>lead shot>reload>1>wildfire>2>qr+reassemble>3>rapid+ricochet>1>g.round>2>h.graze>1>blank>3*>2>3



*gauss off after this, assuming you get the auto and put gauss back on before the next clean shot is a dps increase, but optional if you aren't comfortable with it or would rather just gauss stance dance after the clean shot

Why did you reapply GB for the last CS when CS w/ GB is a potency loss v GB + AA? Unless you're guaranteeing yourself a crit increase potency. Your ability would have to hit for 225+ potency to be stronger in GB v with AA. Can use an ammo proc'd CS as an example

220*1.638=360.36 (CS + GB)

(220*1.26)+(80*1.05)=361.2 (CS + AA)

Where I get my numbers from is the Increased Action Damage II trait, GB and Hot Shot. Multiplying those 3 together gives me the first potency. The second potency is (CS + (IA2*HS))+(AA*HS). Where I get my 80 potency for AA? I used the GCD timer to create a fair potency per GCD since comparing the 2 at their own timers would be pointless. Therefore at a 2.41 GCD, which is what I'm at, AA potency will be 80. Let me know if you see any flaws.

[Aiurily]

Why did you reapply GB for the last CS when CS w/ GB is a potency loss v GB + AA?

the logic at the time was really just to get an auto in before wildfire exploded, since i knew slug+auto would be stronger than slug+gauss. at the time, i didn't really bother seeing if clean+auto was better than clean+gauss (or in general really, since this is mostly an alt job for me)

you could just keep gauss off after the blank and it'd work fine/better as well

something random; act potency parser puts aas at around 69-76 potency for me

[Haxetc]

something random; act potency parser puts aas at around 69-76 potency for me

Try parsing an ammo proc'd CS and tell me what you get

[Aiurily]

Try parsing an ammo proc'd CS and tell me what you get

yeah, seems pretty buggy with ammo procced shots. getting 100 consistently with ammo on proc (+9% dmg adjust), while proc with no ammo is 200

potency for autos seems about right though with variance taken into account; about 73% of the damage of a raw slug/clean shot (100 potency), or 73 potency ish

[Lavieh]

It's actually not debatable..

You are right it isn't debatable. If you aren't toggling GB in between Buff cycles then you are playing the class wrong. Real application has shown anyone serious about MCH that this is the case but you can easily do some simple napkin math to figure out that having GB off when there are no buffs to pop and GR/Ricochet are on CD is a DPS gain.

AAs are roughly 80~ Potency. You will AA with almost every GCD with GB off so it is safe to assume the you will do a GCD + AA and then you can compare it to a GCD + GB Bonus.

Split Shot - 140 Potency. | GB = 182 With AA = 220
Slug Shot - 180 Potency. | GB = 234 With AA = 260
Clean Shot - 200 Potency. | GB = 260 With AA = 280
Lead Shot - 490 Potency. | GB = 637 With AA = 570
Hot Shot - 120 Potency. | GB = 156 With AA = 200

Starting to see a pattern?

The only skill that loses potency while not under GB is Lead Shot, which can easily be used while under GB since it has a 30 second duration. You can time its application with your GB cycles.


Obviously you want GB on for buffs and every time GR/Ricochet is up but you can easily stance dance when those aren't available which will greatly increase your DPS.

Before you would always stay in GB because it was very hard to re-apply and you would lose a lot of DPS from missing out on GR/Rico but now you can keep those on CD, apply your Dots and use your buffs while under GB and turn it off whenever it isn't needed.

[airshowboat]

You are right it isn't debatable. If you aren't toggling GB in between Buff cycles then you are playing the class wrong. Real application has shown anyone serious about MCH that this is the case but you can easily do some simple napkin math to figure out that having GB off when there are no buffs to pop and GR/Ricochet are on CD is a DPS gain..

You are not playing the class wrong if you leave GB on 100% of the time. The added complexity of stance dancing isn't worth the very small dps gain of switching GB on and off. The times you can actually drop GB is actually very small because you will be juggling lead shot, gauss round, ricochet, blank, and head graze. Those attacks should never be used without GB and if you postpone them because you are stance dancing you are losing dps. The dps increase is marginal over a 3-5min fight and it is very easy to actually lose dps by screwing up.

[Ryaz]

You are right it isn't debatable. If you aren't toggling GB in between Buff cycles then you are playing the class wrong. Real application has shown anyone serious about MCH that this is the case but you can easily do some simple napkin math to figure out that having GB off when there are no buffs to pop and GR/Ricochet are on CD is a DPS gain.

AAs are roughly 80~ Potency. You will AA with almost every GCD with GB off so it is safe to assume the you will do a GCD + AA and then you can compare it to a GCD + GB Bonus.

Split Shot - 140 Potency. | GB = 182 With AA = 220
Slug Shot - 180 Potency. | GB = 234 With AA = 260
Clean Shot - 200 Potency. | GB = 260 With AA = 280
Lead Shot - 490 Potency. | GB = 637 With AA = 570
Hot Shot - 120 Potency. | GB = 156 With AA = 200

Starting to see a pattern?

The only skill that loses potency while not under GB is Lead Shot, which can easily be used while under GB since it has a 30 second duration. You can time its application with your GB cycles.


Obviously you want GB on for buffs and every time GR/Ricochet is up but you can easily stance dance when those aren't available which will greatly increase your DPS.

Before you would always stay in GB because it was very hard to re-apply and you would lose a lot of DPS from missing out on GR/Rico but now you can keep those on CD, apply your Dots and use your buffs while under GB and turn it off whenever it isn't needed.

Your numbers are a bit off. You forgot to factor in the extra damage from Increased Action Damage 2 and Hot Shot. The damage bonus on GB would be 63.8% and 80.18% with a dragoon. Extra damage for non-GB would be 26% and 38.6% respectively. So, assuming a drg giving 10% piercing buff (rounded to nearest potency):

Split Shot-- GB w/o ammo: 252 - GB w/ ammo: 288 - No GB w/o ammo: 274 - No GB w/ ammo: 302

Slug Shot-- GB w/o ammo: 324 - GB w/ ammo: 360 - No GB w/o ammo: 329 - No GB w/ ammo: 357

Clean Shot-- GB w/o ammo: 360 - GB w/ ammo: 396 - No GB w/o ammo: 357 - No GB w/ ammo: 385

Lead Shot-- GB : 883 - No GB: 759

Hot Shot-- GB: 216 - No GB: 246

So, toggling still applies, but Clean Shot also gets a higher potency at all times, as does Slug Shot when ammo is up. I think the best way would be to start with GB on, do your big opener, turn it off until your next Gauss Round is ready. With the 15 second cooldown, you might as well keep it on for 20 seconds until the next Gauss Round is up before turning it off again. You just always want to make sure it's up and ready for buff phase, Ricochet and GR. Yes, it's a dps increase, but the question is how much-- and how easy will it actually be to do when you're dodging mechanics and dealing with phase changes.

The biggest thing about GB is it's scaling. AA's don't benefit from Increased Action Damage, so they will always remain static while GB will push higher potencies beyond what AAs can give. Now, if GB affected turrets as well, that would make it no contest to keep it on at all times, but sadly, it doesn't.

[Lavieh]

Your numbers are a bit off. You forgot to factor in the extra damage from Increased Action Damage 2 and Hot Shot.

The biggest thing about GB is it's scaling. AA's don't benefit from Increased Action Damage, so they will always remain static while GB will push higher potencies beyond what AAs can give. Now, if GB affected turrets as well, that would make it no contest to keep it on at all times, but sadly, it doesn't.

Without considering the DRG and only considering your Clean Shot + Gauss and Clean Shot + AA you can easily go to a test dummy and just use a proc'd clean shot over and over again, get its average then us it with GB on and get its average.

When I did this calculation it came out to be around 1250 vs 1320 Damage with the favor in CS + AA. AA's are on a slightly longer CD though.

I'm not sure how much other buffs will change the equation but considering they effect AA's too it won't be that much.

Tunnel visioning is the only reason I wouldn't consistently hop in and out of GB. Especially when learning new fights. MCH can already be very tunnel vision-y without the stance dancing.

The potency gain on CS is really small but the potency you get from Split and slug shot fishing is really high. You could easily use Head Graze and Blank while not under GB and still be gaining a decent amount of damage and mobility.