Shots Fired: A Machinist Guide

[Alahra]

I don't parse and I haven't tested not clipping them but this gives you insane burst at the beginning of the fight

I'm sure it gives good burst, though I'm also wondering what's the most effective way to use oGCDs when you're not going to be using Wildfire (because it's not up or because the target will die before it would expire, etc). It's relevant not only to damage buffs but also oGCD attacks like Head Graze (and soon, for me, Gauss Round and so on). I'm not comfortable enough on the class yet to reliably test myself (and honestly my consistency while parsing isn't high enough to really get down to accurate comparisons without making myself go nuts).

[SuzakuCMX]

*snip*

Everything but the oGCD buffs I use on CD. Their CDs are less than 30 seconds (except for Ricochet which is 60s). B4B, Hawk's Eye, and Raging Strikes I always save for Wildfire because Wildfire damage is applied after the damage buffs from those skills, making them much more effective (25% more effective on skill they affect!)

I don't know if it's optimal but it makes the class much easier to manage and lets me save my buffs for burst phases, and I haven't had any problems yet, though we'll see if that holds when I get to 60 and start doing Rav/Bis/Alex..........but nobody can say seeing huge Wildfire numbers isn't thrilling!

[Alahra]

-snip-

I'm not sure you're understanding my question. I'm not asking if we should use them on cooldown--obviously, in general, we should, except when saving for a burst phase. I'm asking when we should weave them in between other shots, and how safe it is to use more than one in between shots affected by GB (like Hot Shot > Lead Shot--one oGCD in between or two?). Without GB up, MCH's GCD is long enough since they don't have significant SS increases that they can do two without clipping, but it seems even using one at times can clip while GB is up, so I'm trying to figure out if clipping for MCH is as damaging as it is for other classes. For comparison, BLM generally uses oGCDs in between casts, but SMN uses Ruin II to provide the open GCD in which to use them.

[SuzakuCMX]

*snip*

The reason I'm not understanding your question is because you shouldn't be having to use more than one oGCD between casts when you're not setting up for Wildfire burst.

My normal keypresses for stuff is

Split Shot (Quick Reload) > Split Shot when Quick Reload isn't up [Slug Shot if procc'ed; happens 50% of the time] (1st oGCD damage) > Slug Shot [Clean Shot if proc'd] (Reload) > Split Shot (2nd oGCD damage) > Slug Shot (Reassemble) > Clean Shot (3rd oGCD damage) > Split Shot (4th oGCD damage) > Slug Shot > Clean Shot

This is just because it feels better and adds to the flow of the class for me. You can fit 2 oGCDs into a proc with GB up because it becomes instant, but then I find myself frantically mashing buttons which throws me off my game.

The overall DPS increase/decrease for delaying oGCD damage vs. clipping your next cast for a second oGCD is probably less than 25 DPS over the current fights, but it really messes up the flow of the class. I assume part of the reason it affected other classes so much pre-HW was because rotations were very strict with reapplying buffs/debuffs and DoTs, so if you had to delay your combo by an extra second to get another Jump in, your Disembowel would fall off before you get to the combo, your Heavy Thrust falls off in the middle of your combo, your Phlebotomize and Chaos Thrust fall off and you miss a tick every time, etc.

[Alahra]

The reason I'm not understanding your question is because you shouldn't be having to use more than one oGCD between casts when you're not setting up for Wildfire burst.

That essentially answers my question--the information in the OP was confusing for me because clipping is something you want to avoid at all costs on DPS, but the opener suggests double-buffing, and I wasn't sure if that was correct (since that part doesn't seem to have been touched since the GB changes--it was written before them). Whether or not the clipping is more harm than good for Wildfire burst probably requires a lot of testing to normalize the effects of criticals over time, but for general use, we should still avoid clipping. That's what I was trying to figure out.

[SuzakuCMX]

*snip*

I don't have any numbers to back it up, but I am VERY certain that clipping your casts in order to put up all available buffs before you use Wildfire is a DPS increase due to Wildfire increasing all damage by a further 25% after already applying all damage increases from buffs. Losing 1 or 2 140 potency casts prior to Wildfire is likely more than made up for by the 25% increase you get from Wildfire on the ~10 abilities you get in with all those buffs applied during Wildfire.

[Alahra]

I don't have any numbers to back it up, but I am VERY certain that clipping your casts in order to put up all available buffs before you use Wildfire is a DPS increase due to Wildfire increasing all damage by a further 25% after already applying all damage increases from buffs. Losing 1 or 2 140 potency casts prior to Wildfire is likely more than made up for by the 25% increase you get from Wildfire on the ~10 abilities you get in with all those buffs applied during Wildfire.

I'm largely curious because I'm a NIN main and Mudra GCD-clipping causes oddities for the class (like Fuma being as effective as Raiton in many situations, SS being absolutely horrible, etc). Before NIN I never would have thought GCD-clipping could have such an impact. I don't doubt that Wildfire puts out a lot of burst when you clip GCDs leading up to it, but I'm hopeful we'll see more testing. Sometimes math is deceptive so I like having numbers as a foundation.