Thoughts on Bloodfest, 3 Cartrides and Gunbreaker Going Forward

[CKNovel]

Do you even read EVERYTHING you type BEFORE or AFTER you post it? Because I'm getting the feeling you don't even do that, given how you like to cherry pick things you PERSONALLY don't like.

Sonic Break would still have the DoT effect so you can't really use both charges within during the 20 seconds raid buffs because that would be a DPS loss long term, but you could use it during a second charge of No Mercy, which is also 20 second duration. And this is assuming 2 raid buff cooldowns don't get a second charge... but now that I said that's probably is what ends up happening.

Shurrikahn is correct there:

Do I wish all jobs were doing something more outside of the 2 minute via APM like for example giving Gunbreaker 2 charges on No Mercy, Bow Shock? Yes.

Bow Shock dot last 15s, you would use 1 charge at the start and the second at the end.
I fail to see how a second NM charge will change anything, you're still going to use it every 60s. It could slightly help for downtime, maybe...?

Sonic break, the question is very complex but Shurrikahn is partly correct. Depending on your team comp, you would cram both Sonic break in 2 minutes, within No Mercy window.
You could use one at the very beginning of NM and the second as the last GCD of NM, if you're lucky on the dot tick it's a straight gain, if not it's a loss.
And it's on the basis that no crits are involved, if you have a Scholar/Dragoon the gamble is worth taking.

For references, here's the number with a normal 60s and a 120s under a heavy buff comp:
60s Sonic Break (Full): 1086 potency
120s Sonic Break (6~7 ticks): 1035~1129 potency

[DRKoftheAzure]

Shurrikahn is correct there:



Bow Shock dot last 15s, you would use 1 charge at the start and the second at the end.
I fail to see how a second NM charge will change anything, you're still going to use it every 60s. It could slightly help for downtime, maybe...?

Sonic break, the question is very complex but Shurrikahn is partly correct. Depending on your team comp, you would cram both Sonic break in 2 minutes, within No Mercy window.
You could use one at the very beginning of NM and the second as the last GCD of NM, if you're lucky on the dot tick it's a straight gain, if not it's a loss.
And it's on the basis that no crits are involved, if you have a Scholar/Dragoon the gamble is worth taking.

For references, here's the number with a normal 60s and a 120s under a heavy buff comp:
60s Sonic Break (Full): 1086 potency
120s Sonic Break (6~7 ticks): 1035~1129 potency

You didn't factor in No Mercy ALSO having 2 charges alongside Sonic Break and Bow Shock also having 2 charges, which is what everyone that tries to cherry pick my suggestions/arguments seems to forget I even mentioned but they are pretending I didn't even mention No Mercy having 2 charges to try and win an argument that they know have no chance of winning unless I don't mention.

[Shurrikhan]

You didn't factor in No Mercy ALSO having 2 charges alongside Sonic Break and Bow Shock also having 2 charges, which is what everyone that tries to cherry pick my suggestions/arguments seems to forget I even mentioned but they are pretending I didn't even mention No Mercy having 2 charges to try and win an argument that they know have no chance of winning unless I don't mention.

If applying the first Sonic Break late in the server tick, you'd be able without losing any ticks to Sonic Break under your 2nd charge of NM and Searing Light, both.

Normally, this would encourage using the second ~29.5 seconds after the first if not for needing to recharge Cartridges, but because you've also given the GNB two charges of Bloodfest, you'd be able to replace the Solid Barrel combo at the end of your first No Mercy instead to better exploit 20+ second raidbuffs and Tincture while still getting in your second Blasting Zone, Gnashing Fang combo, and Sonic Thrust under NM.

Which, again, means that you'd end up having activity only for 40s of every 120s, based around the 2-minute cycle. Your suggested changes would make GNB even more polarized towards extremes of crowdedness and boredom.

Tl;dr: I'm not sure why Novel didn't assume a ~40s double-NM duration here, but the fact that you've put two charges on literally every offensive action greater than a 30s and less than a 120s CD is precisely why Sonic Break would end up being part of an extended 2-minute burst cycle, rather than still seeing use in separate mini-bursts. Yes, you could still get significant value out of Sonic even with reduced ticks, but you do not even have to sacrifice any ticks, because Sonic lasts only 30s while your double-NM would last 40s or faintly longer (due to again popping it only just before the GCD, since you can't be penalized for holding a non-initial charge anyways).

[CKNovel]

You didn't factor in No Mercy ALSO having 2 charges alongside Sonic Break and Bow Shock also having 2 charges, which is what everyone that tries to cherry pick my suggestions/arguments seems to forget I even mentioned but they are pretending I didn't even mention No Mercy having 2 charges to try and win an argument that they know have no chance of winning unless I don't mention.

But it changes nothing, if No Mercy has 2 charges you would still use a No mercy every 60s.
You only mentionned NM having 2 charges, nothing about changing cooldown or any other numbers.

This one is on you, no one there can read your thought through telepathy.

And worse even, if you had 2 charges on No Mercy you would still use both within the 120s burst window.
If NM wasn't changed and a second charge was simply added, you would actually use both charges in the opener, fit both Sonic Break (with even less potency loss), two Gnashing fang combo and the rotation would come back to EW rotation.

Because GNB burst is mainly through 60s windows, a second charge on NM would be worth nowhere but the opener.

We're not trying to cherry pick or create holes in your arguments, there are already legitimate massives holes already.
We're not against you, we're against the idea.

Tl;dr: I'm not sure why Novel didn't assume a ~40s double-NM duration here, but the fact that you've put two charges on literally every offensive action greater than a 30s and less than a 120s CD is precisely why Sonic Break would end up being part of an extended 2-minute burst cycle, rather than still seeing use in separate mini-bursts. Yes, you could still get significant value out of Sonic even with reduced ticks, but you do not even have to sacrifice any ticks, because Sonic lasts only 30s while your double-NM would last 40s or faintly longer (due to again popping it only just before the GCD, since you can't be penalized for holding a non-initial charge anyways).

You still need to rotate NM for 60s.
You would lose a Double Down in your NM window and cartridges to spend.

It's better to lose a few ticks of Sonic Break than a whole buffed Double down.

[Shurrikhan]

You still need to rotate NM for 60s.
You would lose a Double Down in your NM window and cartridges to spend.

It's better to lose a few ticks of Sonic Break than a whole buffed Double down.

Ahh, shoot, you're right; that is my mistake. There was one survivor of the 2-charge-ification. Whew.

[DRKoftheAzure]

We're not trying to cherry pick or create holes in your arguments, there are already legitimate massives holes already.
We're not against you, we're against the idea.

What holes in my arguments?

[Ixon]

To be honest, the only thing I really liked from ShB to EW GNB was Heart of Corundum. Double Down, while being great in dungeons, just became the thing that dictates my DPS in most content. Needing three carts for every 1 min burst while also needing one cart for the in-between Gnashing Fang combo just made the job unnecessarily more restrictive on fights with downtime(though the change to 2min Bloodfest did help this a little). The extra oGCD after Burst Strike is just kind of there, and while the extra Aurora can be nice to spread out amongst your party, I'd almost rather prefer one stronger HoT than two weaker ones you can't stack.

For 7.0, I'd like to have the cartridge flexibility back like it was in ShB. As in you only really needed one cart out of two max to get everything out on cool down in ShB, whereas in EW you need all three. I'd like to see some sort of return on Superbolide for the amount of HP you delete on activation. Not saying Superbolide is weak, I just don't like losing over 100k HP with with only HoC and Aurora to bring me back up while WAR's and DRK's practically heal themselves and PLD has no draw-back other than the cooldown time. Maybe just add a "Convert 25% of HP lost during Superbolide into a shield" so I am not out of luck if my Heart of Corundum doesn't crit. Sonic Break could go and I wouldn't miss it. It just kinda hangs there with no major purpose kinda like how PLD's feel with current Goring Blade. At least comparably buttons like Double Down or Bow Shock you can theorycraft with for maximum damage output on fights with multiple targets, Sonic break is just kind of there.

I think they should focus on making abilities with conditional uses similar to Heart of Corundum. Whereas you can use it within a certain time frame for maximum damage mitigation on yourself or another party member, or use it to quickly heal a low HP teammate before an AoE, or throw it on the main tank just for extra healing if you don't have a reason to use it within the next 25sec. I personally find skills that have more than one direct use case to be way more engaging and fun to use.

Also Yoshi, please stop the: mitigation for tank buster + tank swap + 2min burst. It's not fun, just kinda annoying.

[Atmaweapon510]

Gnashing Fang Continuation needs to grant a shield. Too often there are major mechanics happening at burst windows and having to eat multiple ogcds in a row for Continuation leaves GNB too vulnerable. Getting decent shield off would help ease mitigation requirements and bring GNB more up to par when it comes to sustain.

Double Down requiring 2 cartridges just makes the 2 minute burst phase way too annoying, especially when mechanics and skillspeed cause irregularities within your rotation.

GNB damage setups are also simultaneously too rigid, too slow, and paradoxically too busy. Maximizing every No Mercy window requires way too much time repeating your bnb combo just to build up charges with no release inbetween, and then eating up half of your ogcds during which you can't effectively multitask with your mitigations and taunt.

If I could fix GNB's general flow, I'd do the following:

• Gnashing Fang combo grants shield.
• Bloodfest is now a passive and causes No Mercy and Sonic Break to generate a cartridge.
• Gnashing Fang cooldown gets reduced to 20 seconds.
• Gnashing Fang gets a 2nd charge.
• Double Down is now 1 cartridge.
• Burst Strike no longer interrupts Gnashing Fang.

These changes seem to make GNB more hectic at a glance, but would really make the rotation much less stressful because of the following:

• 17.5 seconds of each No Mercy window is taken up by Gnashing Fang combo x 2 + Sonic Break. This leaves the final attack as either Double Down or Burst Strike.
• Gnashing Fang giving a hefty Shield greatly eases mitigation and general sustain requirements. You can afford to miss a mitigation in order to taunt, etc...
• 2 cartridges are supplied by No Mercy and Sonic Break, meaning you only need to stockpile 1 additional cartridge to maximize a No Mercy Window.
• 2 charges of Gnashing Fang gives you leeway to reposition your off-burst combo. You can use it to shield through specific attacks or spend an extra charge off-combo if a boss is going to be untargetable.
• Burst Strike not interrupting Gnashing fang means that you can compensate for skill speed drift by stockpiling additional cartridges before a combo; since the first hit of Gnashing hits for the same as Burst Strike, this allows you to stall the 2nd/3rd hits of Gnashing Fang before your No Mercy window so that Gnashing Fang's 2nd charge will come back up during the window at no dps loss. Since No Mercy + Sonic Break grant charges, you will *always* be able to do the second GF + Double Down/Burst Strike when you stall like this without bricking your rotation.

[4clubbedace]

Sonic Break and Bow shock being consildated would be great but would be hard to do so I think it is mostly unlikely. I dont think they will change the way 2 minute burst line up with big mechanics or TB. That is bad for any tank especially when combined with the second pot window.

If they add another cartridge in DT or give an upgraded version of double down they may need to look at increasing the no mercy window. Heart of light needs something extra, especially since it only covers magical damage which usually 1 of the 4 savage fights per tier has a boss that does mostly physical raid wide damage while the other 2 tanks have group mit for every fight.

HOL should have a small regen tacked onto it

[Mikey_R]

I'm not going to comment on GNB as it isn't a job I care to get into the complexities of, however, just 2 things to point out:

• Burst Strike no longer interrupts Gnashing Fang.

It never has.

• ...since the first hit of Gnashing hits for the same as Burst Strike,...

There might have been a change, however, as it currently stands, Gnashing Fang (380+200=580) and Burst Strike (380+180=560) do not share the same potency.