Shots Fired: A Machinist Guide

[Ryaz]

You could do it before the patch...

Yes, but in my experience you could only do it ONCE. The stack would fall off before QR was up again, especially if you had high latency. Now you can enter a raid, use Reload at the beginning and keep the stack going indefinitely without issue. Heck, if you have the time, you can use QR exclusively to build the stack to 5 (though it would take a minute and fifteen seconds) and save Reload until you go through your first chunk of ammo.

[Greywolfamakir]

Yes, but in my experience you could only do it ONCE. The stack would fall off before QR was up again, especially if you had high latency. Now you can enter a raid, use Reload at the beginning and keep the stack going indefinitely without issue.

With high latency or low lantecy, You could stack before the patch, just spam quick reload.

I play from EU, I have really high latency and I could stack ammo spamming Quick Reload before the patch.

MCH from Lucrezia with really low lantecy could do the same before the patch.

[Ryaz]

With high latency or low lantecy, You could stack before the patch, just spam quick reload.

I play from EU, I have really high latency and I could stack ammo spamming Quick Reload before the patch.

MCH from Lucrezia with really low lantecy could do the same before the patch.

Really? Every time I tried it the stack would fall off on me. Ah well, it's still much quicker to do so now and you get two extra ammo per minute. Which means 40 more potency per minute and more guaranteed procs during downtime, not mention an extra QR during Wildfire.

Though I still wish ammo did more for Lead Shot and Hot Shot.

[Serilda]

Sorry to interrupt the nice QR discussion but I have a noob question.

I've been spending more time on my Machinist lately (only level 51 at the moment) and I'm noticing that it's becoming quite a squeeze to manage my skills using the cross hotbar alone. I play on PS4 and prefer to use a pad, and I'm accustomed to playing casters. BLM in particular fits very nicely onto a few toggled hotbars even with the new level 60 mechanics, and with healers it's simpler as most skills fit neatly into specific categories, but MCH is proving a little tight for me already - especially as I have less preparation time between skills and there are so many cooldowns and procs to get used to. I have an unused bar up at the top of the screen to help monitor my buff cooldowns and it's noticably longer for MCH than any of my other jobs already (hoping I'll be able to play more instinctively soon).

I wondered whether anyone else has any tips for getting the most out of this job within the confines of the interface? At the moment I feel as though I'm reshuffling my abilities on a regular basis as I learn more about the best way to put each skill into action.

I could use more macros to save space (stacking macros, not macros with /waits), but I find them clunky and prefer to avoid them unless there's a big reason to put something in a macro over assigning it a button. I'm considering using a hotbar switch macro for Gauss Barrel, for example, though I don't yet completely understand how much time I'll spend swapping that on/off until I've unlocked the skill and tried it out on the field.

As some people seem to be dismissive about console gamers I want to say that playing on PC and/or using a keyboard/mouse for battle isn't an option; I don't even have a PC and ten years of playing XI makes me want to stick with a controller for this game. I have played other MMOs with a keyboard before so I know what I'm missing and I still want to persist with the pad. Thank you for understanding.

I'm not exactly an amazing player and I won't be bringing this job to any cutting edge content unless that improves, but at the very least I want to be able to solo and play with my friends without letting them down or growing extra hands. I've seen some great gameplay tips in this thread so in terms of the interface alone, does anyone have any good tips from their own experience?

[seekified]

Sorry to interrupt the nice QR discussion but I have a noob question.

I suggest using the Extended Crossbar system (enable in Character Config > Hotbars > Cross, then go to Sharing tab and untick crossbar 8). I can fit all MCH skills on two crossbars including crossclassed skills. Basically, keep all main rotation and attack skills on crossbar 1. On crossbar 8 which you can now access with L2+R2 and R2+L2 you put cooldowns and autoturret controls.

What I've also done is enable two vertical hotbars and moved them next to my crossbar and copied my cooldowns to those so that I can easily track the cooldowns without swapping bars all the time. I use this system with all jobs and it really flows for me. I main DRG which is another fairly button-intense job and ever since I switched to this method I have a lot more brain power left over for fight awareness.

[RiisWolf]

I'm not liking that you can get the Clean Shot Proc even if you never got the Slug Shot Proc.

[Phyllo]

I'm not liking that you can get the Clean Shot Proc even if you never got the Slug Shot Proc.

Think of it as a fail safe, machinist has a lot to keep track on and that micromanagement can sometimes lead to messing up like accidentally pressing slug instead of split, if such thing happens there is still a chance that clean procs so that your mess up don't end up ruining it all.

I'm not saying that it is the reason why, just that it can't hurt to have something like a net every now and then.

[seekified]

Think of it as a fail safe, machinist has a lot to keep track on and that micromanagement can sometimes lead to messing up like accidentally pressing slug instead of split, if such thing happens there is still a chance that clean procs so that your mess up don't end up ruining it all.

I'm not saying that it is the reason why, just that it can't hurt to have something like a net every now and then.

Indeed. Personally I find the Split > Slug > Split > Clean > Slug > Clean method described in the OP is more interesting/fun than the standard 1-2-3. As the OP also states it makes no difference to pps either way.

[Brimcon]

So I'm noticing in the document that was linked earlier that it has a wildly different opener than what was posted originally. Is the 123123 better than 121323 when used in that way with the buffs? I understand having Raging Strikes and the like up before your first Hot Shot due to "Putting your Running Shoes On before you run, not during" Analogy, but the rest of it feels strange. Maybe I just need to practice it more.

[Griffeth]

So I'm noticing in the document that was linked earlier that it has a wildly different opener than what was posted originally. Is the 123123 better than 121323 when used in that way with the buffs? I understand having Raging Strikes and the like up before your first Hot Shot due to "Putting your Running Shoes On before you run, not during" Analogy, but the rest of it feels strange. Maybe I just need to practice it more.

The opener in the OP is out of date. We have come up with a new and improved opener that increases overall opening burst and wildfire damage. The old one was behind by a good 500ish dps easily.

Document updated with the patch 3.07 changes. You should be able to Quick Reload at the 8 second prepull and have it up for the same part of the rotation. Going to test it more when I get home.

Edit: In retrospect it would just end up giving the potency increase to Hot/Lead Shot instead, I'm sure there's a way to fit it in somehow.

With this pointed out (yay coffee not kicking in) We may not want to use it in the opener. Granted we dont really have a spot we can fit it into the opening burst (If we put it after Hot Shot and Lead Shot it will be outside of the WF window. Put it before the opener and it will only buff the first Hot Shot impact damage)