Shots Fired: A Machinist Guide

[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