My Eulogy for Machinist

[Jirah]

SB MCH was at a dead end... Because of how Wildfire used to work.
Every new cooldown they could add would be incorporated into Wildfire combo. Making the combo bigger and complex until you can't weave anything in there.
And at this point, it would be choosing what to cram into wildfire.

For a quick reminder, SB Wildfire was meant to eat all damage, not just GCD to increase its potency.
If I play MCH it's for its visuals and appeals, I don't care about any other DPS or gameplay.

One point about complexity:
Flamethrower and tick fishing is one of the most complex (and annoying) aspect of MCH.
It's not a fun tool to use in AoE or tick fishing case.

Casuals don't use it the optimal way, they don't actually care about the optimal way, yet they are adamant on keeping it.
If a button too complex was to be added, same scenario would occur.

Like how many of you probably experienced the "Healers shouldn't DPS" and any other jobs played wrong.
They don't care about optimizing complex rotations, but they fear its existence.

Ima go and say if WF were to change would SB have a chance to open its wings? And as much as I feel your pain, you seem to always bring up FT. If it were to be fixed to your liking in a patch would SHB be a win-win?

[CKNovel]

Ima go and say if WF were to change would SB have a chance to open its wings? And as much as I feel your pain, you seem to always bring up FT. If it were to be fixed to your liking in a patch would SHB be a win-win?

Let's see... No, sadly there is other changes for ShB rework to be a win. SB MCH would have needed a reworked heat gauge or an overheat button other than FT and a reworked FT to have a chance.

I'm going to change my opinion and say that I would like an ammo gauge back, as a 3rd gauge.
The reason for this change of heart is simple, it looks like SQEX wants to dumb down the gauge, WAR is going to be heavily simplified for example.
On the other hand we got GNB that had its gauge expanded and we had a taste of RPR shroud gauge, it's an ammo gauge+. That ammo gauge should be tied to actions like Hypercharge.
This would heavily ease MCH for everyone.

For me to consider the rework complete, I would rework Flamethrower but Wildfire as well.
MCH new actions don't merge well with old actions and Wildfire is one of them. Make it a heat spender and reduces its cooldown, the current form doesn't fit.
Changing wildfire to a heat spender would also ease MCH for everyone, it would mainly fix the heat loop.

If we imagine those changes to be implemented, plus Shotgun being a new CD and Buzzsaw an independent CD as well, I would consider the rework complete.

In short for me to consider the rework complete:
-Rework Wildfire to a more simple, interesting CD.
-If Wildfire isn't reworked, gives Barrel stabilizer charges to make it more flexible. It's too rigid to fit in the rotation right now.
-Rework Flamethrower to be a tool that you need to care about in the rotation. And delete its horrible "Tick per seconds" behavior.
-Make a new cooldown that revolves around heat (Wildfire being a good candidate)
-Expand hypercharge beyond spamming heatblast.
-Shotgun being a new cooldown that generates heat, giving it charges would allow a better control on the heat.
-Buzzsaw as a new independant, short cooldown.

Queen being a glorified dot could stay but if we get more of her presence on the battlefield overall, I believe it will fix itself.
It would change battery to be a "hold and release around every reassemble" to a real resource to manage. Getting an interaction would be cool as well.