Machinist needs help.

[Jirah]

MCH seems boring af to play, the only satisfying thing bout it is Reassemble + Drill. There is nothing fun about using hypercharge and wildfire, it doesn't give any satisfying BIG D Damage. Don't get me started on the Automaton Queen, that's the biggest BS useless crap ever and has never been any fun to use

So yes, Machinist needs work. I love the class, but hate the state it's in.

I’ll agree to essentially all of this. Drill (pointless fodder numbers removed) is kinda it’s only strong point like how DRK “TBN” was flaunted as the skill that made the job. And as we are aware singular skills don’t make a job! And just a I predicted, due to the fools who kept praising it, it remained the same without any QOL and got even more issues now.

I was thinking earlier on how screwed BRD was and one of the things that make it fun is the alignment for Finale phase, something I wished MCH for with its Blue skills. You need to spend and save BL stacks for the phase due to how the Buffs work. MCH lacking any structure has no such phase so just flat face spamming for its skills. But going far off topic. I’ll just say this, removing Crown, make its flamethrower fun, and aoe more closely tied still won’t win MCH over to me. Being the popular issues but the kit still remains a incognitive bore with its Qol enhanced.

[AC9Breaker]

Im pretty happy with how MCH is. The new opener was a little weird to get use to but now I love it and personally I didnt think addition of Chainsaw would make as big a deal as it it now. I'm constantly summoning my Queen which is good cause now I feel Im getting more usage out of it. I really like slugshot and how meaty it feels.

[Jirah]

Im pretty happy with how MCH is. The new opener was a little weird to get use to but now I love it and personally I didnt think addition of Chainsaw would make as big a deal as it it now. I'm constantly summoning my Queen which is good cause now I feel Im getting more usage out of it. I really like slugshot and how meaty it feels.

Cool but this isn’t a thread to gush over what we like

[CKNovel]

Im pretty happy with how MCH is. The new opener was a little weird to get use to but now I love it and personally I didnt think addition of Chainsaw would make as big a deal as it it now. I'm constantly summoning my Queen which is good cause now I feel Im getting more usage out of it. I really like slugshot and how meaty it feels.

Cool but this isn’t a thread to gush over what we like

I believe it's good to mention what we like as well.
Remember that a lot of liked feature were taken away from MCH.

I do believe the opener feels much better, it's a bit contradictory because it clearly goes against ShB MCH, but it's a much better opener.
Thought I don't understand what you mean by "I'm constantly summoning my Queen", the AQ summoning haven't changed. You summon the Queen every 60 seconds like before, except you now have 10-20 more battery per minutes and 1 queen during the opener.

Slugshot didn't changed so... Nothing to add on this I guess.

[Jirah]

I believe it's good to mention what we like as well.
Remember that a lot of liked feature were taken away from MCH.

I do believe the opener feels much better, it's a bit contradictory because it clearly goes against ShB MCH, but it's a much better opener.
Thought I don't understand what you mean by "I'm constantly summoning my Queen", the AQ summoning haven't changed. You summon the Queen every 60 seconds like before, except you now have 10-20 more battery per minutes and 1 queen during the opener.

Slugshot didn't changed so... Nothing to add on this I guess.

That was probably the point of my overall negative comment, this type of pointless hyping lead to MCH to be in the bin. Much more interested on what people don’t like and what can be improved than someone subjectively saying “I like it”

[AceofRains]

Some quick thoughts on Machinist since I’m about to hit 90 with it.

I like it a lot. It was my choice to level in ShB’s expac since the rework was very cool. It’s fun, and I’m not getting bored of the rotation. If feels on par with the Summoner rework in that regard.

1) The level 88 for Tactician, Troubador, and Shield Samba is unacceptable. I don’t want some bland trait that the other jobs in my role are going to get anyways. First off I think the role skill tab needs to be removed and just put all role skills right on the job. Tactician, Troubador, and SS could have easily had 3 different effects that do the same thing, Mitigation, Regen, and Shielding respectively. I really did not care for 30 seconds being shaved off Tactician. In fact I don’t want Tactician in its current iteration on Machinist. I was to be a selfish DPS, the Black Mage of rangers.. The less team utility the better.

2) That level 88 trait could have easily upgraded wildfire, especially into an AoE.

3) Queen Automaton needs her own job gauge. It is hard enough to keep track of everything going on the field. However it is the nature of the Queen that warrants this. Is it not the case that Summoner and Dark Knight can see the duration of a pet on their job gauge? Why is machinist any different? Queen’s duration actually varies with battery charge, because of that I need a system that helps me clearly see how long she will be out for. Timer is there I just never noticed it.

Edit: 4) Flamethrower. While not my worst gripe but I feel like I should be able to move and use this. It’s not like Ninja where I have mudras to just make another AoE field. The effect should be persistent, useable while mobile, and ends at recast, the end of the duration, or upon executing another action.

5) OP said something about Heat Blast charges instead of a time window. I like the idea on paper, but I prefer it as it is. The extra blast is rarely needed to get full stacks of Gauss Round, and being on a timer rather than chargers lends to the possibility of a skills speed based build.

Everything else on this job is satisfying and perfect to me, and I could even give a few ideas of where to take it at level 100 but that’s for another discussion.

[Dyvid]

So I haven't played MCH since the Heavensward days but I do have a few things. Just brainstorming ideas here.

1) Queen's Crowned Collider seems like it would be more suited to replace Roller Dash. It doesn't fix all the problems but it does help place it in a better position.

2) Wildfire is odd to me. MCH skills are mostly weaponskills now yet WF doesn't let you weave Gauss Round or Riccohet into it. Seems like a waste of potential to me. Also I'm not sure how people would feel about extending WF from 10 to 13 so you can squeeze 1,2,3 + Drill + Air Anchor into it. Also couldn't it be added to have an AoE effect?

3) Hypercharge is another one that confuses me. On one hand it adds potency to your main weaponskills yet it can also be used to bring GR & RC back up. Personally I think it would have been more interesting to lower the skill speed on the 3 main shots to really pump up WF.

4) Flamethrower is... hmm. I would have like to have it charge up your heat gauge so you can use it to build up auto crossbow (AC -> FT -> AC) but scattergun does that so... Maybe it could lower the recast timer of Wildfire? I don't know to be honest. Maybe a potency buff for AoE rotations.

5) Lack of party buff. Per SE's definition "Physical ranged DPS attack foes from a distance. They excel at inflicting sustained damage, and also provide support for companions." and yet it's the only one out of the three that doesn't give a damage buff. I'm not say it needs to be on DNC or BRD level but it would be nice to maybe have a small buff granted when the Queen when is out? Just my personal opinion.

[CKNovel]

Some quick thoughts on Machinist since I’m about to hit 90 with it.

I like it a lot. It was my choice to level in ShB’s expac since the rework was very cool. It’s fun, and I’m not getting bored of the rotation. If feels on par with the Summoner rework in that regard.

So I haven't played MCH since the Heavensward days but I do have a few things. Just brainstorming ideas here.

About Tactician What really bothers me is that RDM is free to get Magick Barrier on top of addle, rather than a trait that improves addle.
That trait should've been a way to differentiate each ranged from each other. MCH could have had a shield, BRD improve healing, DNC healing over time.
The trait is truly disappointing, if it put Tacticians on a 60s I wouldn't complain at all, it would've been amazing.

Wildfire is odd because it's just an empowered hypercharge phase. Wildfire being aoe is something that has been asked since HW as far as I can remember.
There is no "wildfire combo" anymore, in my opinion it makes the 2 minutes extremely rigid due to the cooldown being tied to Hypercharge.
IMO, wildfire is good to be reworked as a 120s CD that consumes heat or just be removed entirely.
That or put it on a stack system that reduces its count by 1 every GCD and explodes automatically at 0.

Hypercharge, I still don't get why it's still based on a timer while almost everyone got a stack based "stance".
The request was originally made because lagging players could not weave GR/Ricochet.
Spamming Heatblast is boring (another feedback that was ignored), putting it on a 3 stack would restore the job flexbility.

Flamethrower, I appreciate that you agree Flamethrower is a terrible tool.
However I think adding an effect on top of Flamethrower would just be painting on top of the problem. Making it synergize wit Bio Blaster, being able to move, adding a dot or making it generating heat...
The Flamethrower itself would not change and remain a bland "don't move, damage is automatically dealt in front of you, go grab a coffee or something".

The automaton Queen opening with Crown collider would make both its strongest moves outside of party buff, but that's better than 2 finishers back to back.
If they don't do it, the AQ is good to be scrapped next expansion. Honestly screw that glorified dot.

As for the MCH utility... I'm all for no rDPS. BRD buffs the whole group, DNC focuses on a party member, MCH bring nothing.
However, BRD and DNC participate to the party survival. IMO, if ranged could participate a lot more than other DPS to party survival, it would effectively make them "support DPS" once again.
And that would excuse their low DPS. But MCH brings nothing to the party and only has Tactician which makes it effectively the job that brings the least to the whole party.

SQEX is not communicating a lot, it's difficult to see if they even read those threads.

[Dyvid]

SQEX is not communicating a lot, it's difficult to see if they even read those threads.

Though they do gather the feedback, they won't communicate up front on the issues. We are still in "Beta Test" until 6.1.

About Tactician: I personally feel that SCH got what Physical Ranged should have had. I always wanted to use Peloton in combat as a unique means of damage mitigation. And as Ace mentioned, before ShB all PRdps shared the same defense buff in Role Actions.

Automation Queen: Having main'ed SMN for years I can see how rigid the Queen is. I feel that SE should remove Rook Overdrive and let Pile Bunker and Crowned Collider just be player commanded abilities that don't despawn the Automaton. And I'm still not a fan how 4 to 5 seconds is burned up just spawning the stupid thing. Don't start the timer until Roller Dash is used.

Flamethrower: Normally when you have an action that requires you to charge up and not move, your charging up to something but FT doesn't have that. Now I'm all for this type of action because you have to decide whether to move or stay still but it needs something to justify. Another idea was it place stacks of Damage Debuffs, 1 for each 2.5s. As you can tell I'm believe PRDPS should have raid utility to justify lower DPS where DNC has the move and MCH has the least, but not none. Just my personal feeling on the matter but you're not wrong also.

WildFire: Compared to AAnchor and Drill, the damage from it is laughable considering it's long recast time. At least give me enough time to put my 5 or 6 weaponskills into it. And AoE would be wonder even it's the standard drop off for other targets. That would give me a reason to use it in AoE packs.

[Dianoia]

Increase the time of Hypercharge by a couple of a seconds, but allow only 5 charges of heat blast to be used. I don't understand why this hasn't already been implemented? Is fighting latency supposed to be part of the enjoyment of the job?