Lock and Load: The Reassembled Machinist Guide

[Myon88]

You wouldn't want to delay the use of hypercharge too long because every second it's not up, it's also a potency loss for the MCH in the form of turret.

That's the thing about Hypercharge though, it may say it lasts 15 seconds, but because it acts via the turret what you're really getting out of it is a discrete number of augmented turret shots.

Currently that number is 5. Whether you use it when the fight has already started (so none of the duration is wasted), or you use it in the prepull period like in our current opener, you still get 5 shots. The reason you still get 5 shots when you use it before the pull I explained above - and if you were to do it any earlier than that (Bfb, Hypercharge, HE, RS, (pull)) for instance, you'd lose a turret shot and only get 4, so where it is now is the sweet spot.

So what I'm saying is a 20 second duration might change where that sweet spot is. If you keep it in the same spot as now you might get, let's say, 7 augmented turret shots after the patch - but maybe the timing is such that if you use it after the pull in 3.2 (so you get your first augmented turret shot instantly) you might get 8 shots, who knows? That's an increase in damage and a valuable extra extension of the vulnerability debuff, and if that was the case we'd definitely have to move its position in the opener.

Of course we know the duration and we know the turret attack delay, so in theory you could do the math and know right now - but it's something I'd like to see for myself because things can differ in practice due to latency or general combat quirkyness.

[2.0][3.0] The effects for a number of weapons have been adjusted.

Armageddon fix please?

:O I just realized this might be referring to Armageddon too, if they're going to center Gauss Barrel properly that's a change I'll be very pleased in.

[Judge_Xero]

3.2 Random thoughts, with Gauss Round going from 180 to 200 potency, I wonder if I should revisit the slightly rearranged double-Gauss Round opener I was mucking around with in the early days of Heavensward. Some of you might remember it. Just eyeballing it, 20 potency doesn't look like it'll change a whole lot, but still.. interesting.

It'll be interesting to see where SE is going with the changes. The changes to Gauss Round is only a 1 Potency/s advantage (maybe 1.2 Potency/s if you include Wildfire) which is not enough single target to keep up with BRD.

The changes to the Turret though may help with that though. MCH will see a huge AOE increase with Bishop + Hypercharge (Turret Damage doubles + will get the additional 10% debuff damage VS Damage Doubles + 5% Debuff)

MCH may just even out with those changes when including melee damage.

[Kabzy]

I'm not a Machinist main, so forgive me if I've overlooked something. In a previos Q&A, they said they would increase the sustained DPS output of Machinists. A lot of people assumed it may have something to do with the RNG aspect of our 1-2-3 combo.

Looking at the actual changes though, it doesn't seem like this has been achieved or even attempted. A slight DPS increase with Gauss Round and Hypercharge, but otherwise it was only a bit of TP reduction. I don't see how this is helping sustained DPS.

[Myon88]

In one of the interviews YoshiP did, they talked about how "MCH DPS is actually not bad but the job is hard to play so people aren't reaching that potential", something like that.

I don't really agree but that's not relevant here, I guess in the eyes of the devs, maybe the timing fix for the display of the 1-2-3 procs would fulfill that requirement of 'increasing sustained DPS output'. You might say well that's not a real buff since it's only helping when assuming suboptimum play - I agree, but that's just what was said.

That, combined with the very real buffs to Gauss Round and Hypercharge would fit the bill for the kind of buffs they had in mind I guess. Maybe not an amazing amount of buffs (the Hypercharge buff is seriously pretty good though), but still buffs nonetheless. Don't forget they might view the TP cost reduction as a 'sustained damage increase' too, even though running out of TP is almost a non-existent problem in practice (who knows what Midas fights are like though).

Edit: Found it,

So we can have peace of mind for now (laughs). I understand that you'll be increasing the DPS for Machinist, but the DPS can be pretty high right now for players with good command of the job?

Yoshida: Yeah. However, only a small fraction of people are there right now, so we wanted to make some adjustments to operation of the job to make it a bit less difficult to get that return.

Of course, but part of the image of Machinist is that it is more difficult to play.

Yoshida: The original idea for Machinist was to create a job where operation was complex, but it could be strong in the hands of a skilled player. Compared to bard, it's a step up in difficulty and intended as an expert job. However, when players look at a job which has a more complex operation than other jobs, really the only thing they are looking at is how much DPS can it deal.

And because of the difficult operation, it may not put out as much DPS as expected.

Yoshida: In this difficult state, many players think "machinist is weak," and we want to make adjustments to get rid of this negative impression. However, it wasn't really a major adjustment.

I have to say I blame the interviewer for leading him on by saying "So MCH DPS is pretty good huh", /eyeroll. If he said it was bad, we'd at least get to see Yoshi say something like "No I think they're OK" and give a justification for why he thinks so.

[ZanzhizExaverion]

These buffs are actually pretty good. The Gauss Round change is a slight kick for MCH, but the proc change is actually really big because it makes the split second decision making of the job a little more lenient, which can increase DPS overall.

If you have more time to decide what to do, it makes the job a little easier to maximize.

The 5->10% buff in my opinion is huge, considering DRG is pretty much a staple in raiding, it's a big buff to really good/extended openers for the entire party, not just mages like Foes.

Looking forward to the changes. It seems really good.

[RiceisNice]

I have to say I blame the interviewer for leading him on by saying "So MCH DPS is pretty good huh", /eyeroll. If he said it was bad, we'd at least get to see Yoshi say something like "No I think they're OK" and give a justification for why he thinks so.

He'd more or less repeat what he said; the players using MCH aren't playing that well to pull out top performance.

These buffs are actually pretty good. The Gauss Round change is a slight kick for MCH, but the proc change is actually really big because it makes the split second decision making of the job a little more lenient, which can increase DPS overall.

If you have more time to decide what to do, it makes the job a little easier to maximize.

It won't increase dps for people who are already getting the procs in. It just makes it easier to maximize, but people are already maximizing to begin with.

[ZanzhizExaverion]

It won't increase dps for people who are already getting the procs in. It just makes it easier to maximize, but people are already maximizing to begin with.

Well, the thing is, the MCHs that are topping the lists were proof that MCH didn't really NEED buffs. Unfortunately Gods and 0 PingLords exist and get their procs updated before everyone else.

The buffs were to help lower-level MCHs to get in line with BRD. Considering BRD is kinda braindead to maximize, a little help isn't so bad.

[Israacf]

I'm kinda bummed they decided to fix Bards' casting animations, while leaving us Machinist with those plain animations and left us waving our gunwands.

[RiceisNice]

Well, the thing is, the MCHs that are topping the lists were proof that MCH didn't really NEED buffs. Unfortunately Gods and 0 PingLords exist and get their procs updated before everyone else.
.

The top of the lists consistently show BRDs being ahead of MCH, excluding factors like hypercharge affecting the MCH itself, and the overall damage increase that BRD gives to the healers in form of foe and RoD. You're looking at a comparison where BRD pulls consistently higher personal dps AND arguably provides stronger raid boost in a standard 2 melee/1 caster setup.

[Ossom]

Yeah Bards right now are on top of MCH. Hopefully the Gauss Round and Hyper Charge will help. I personally was hoping for a Potency increase on Clean Shot X Ammo since otherwise I really don't like using Clean Shot w/ Ammo even with Reassembled (Reassembled only adds like 10 Potency to the Increase Ammo Potency, so like 30 Extra Potency instead of 20).