Bard and Machinist question

[Ninster]

Are Gauss Barrel and Wanderer's Minuet supposed to be up full time? I've been using them like that, but I had a Vault run where my partner machinist didn't have Gauss Barrel on at all. I thought about reminding him about it, but I also wondered if he knew what he was doing. For what it's worth, we cleared just fine.

[RinchanNau]

Sometimes it is better to turn off WM/GB to handle certain mechanics and large movements. It can also be beneficial to turn them off on adds that die quickly to prevent canceled casts. It's not optimal to have them always on and also not optimal to have them always off.

Badically, should be on 90 - 95% of the time.

[FaizeD]

It should be up most of the time, that MCH did not know what they were doing. The general rule: any movement that is longer than a single GCD = switch it off.

[Torunya]

After having stalked the main Machinist thread here for quite some time, I do believe the general consensus is that if you don't have any major weaponskills off CD (Ricochet, GR, Reload etc) then it's better to just toggle Gauss Barrel off for that short time until your important CD's are available again. At least some smart people who are good at math said so, I don't have the slightest idea.

I just keep GB on all the time. >_>;

[RiceisNice]

Toggling Gauss Barrel off when you have no oGCDs active to squeeze in extra auto attacks leads to a projected DPS gain of 8~20. I personally have never seen this increase on my end; MCH dps is still extremely varied with procs, crits and wildfire for me to personally attest that it's an actual dps gain if there is any.

For bard though, WM should be up at all times when applicable. There's no reason to stance dance if you're given the chance to stand still because the DoTs simply don't last enough enough for you to be able to squeeze in free auto attacks, and the nature of BL reset adds more to the benefit of having WM up at all times.

Pre-60 though, it's a bit different. At vault, MCH would not have ricochet which does add a little bit more DPS to GB. If he was not trying to fire blanks off cooldown or using head graze off cooldown, keeping GB off would've been more beneficial (though still not maximizing output)

[AskaRay]

For MCH I keep GB up pretty much constantly. The procs let me move more. With my bard, sometimes my lag gets particularly bad so taking WM off actually helps me a bit (I don't suggest this if you have minimal/no lag though).

[FoxyAreku]

There's a lot of lazy bards and MCHs who don't keep their respective buff up in dungeons. I can guarantee you though that you were doing way more damage than that other machinist if you were even halfway doing your proper rotation.

[SlyRoyale]

For bard though, WM should be up at all times when applicable. There's no reason to stance dance if you're given the chance to stand still because the DoTs simply don't last enough enough for you to be able to squeeze in free auto attacks, and the nature of BL reset adds more to the benefit of having WM up at all times.

I disagree with this. If there's no need for you to move around for more than 1 GCD, stance dancing is still a DPS increase. DoT timings aren't an issue if you time your stance dancing right (I usually do mine after Iron Jaws reapplication, ideally). While Bloodletter's recast may reset frequently, it is still dependent on RNG. A guaranteed 150 + 100 + 150 (if Bloodletter is available) potency attacks every 15s is about 10 more combined potency over a WM-buffed Heavy Shot + Bloodletter (400 potency vs. 390). If not, a Heavy Shot + auto attack is still 250 potency over a WM-buffed Heavy Shot. It's a slight DPS increase, but an increase regardless.

[Katchoo]

I disagree with this. If there's no need for you to move around for more than 1 GCD, stance dancing is still a DPS increase. DoT timings aren't an issue if you time your stance dancing right (I usually do mine after Iron Jaws reapplication, ideally). While Bloodletter's recast may reset frequently, it is still dependent on RNG. A guaranteed 150 + 100 + 150 (if Bloodletter is available) potency attacks every 15s is about 10 more combined potency over a WM-buffed Heavy Shot + Bloodletter (400 potency vs. 390). If not, a Heavy Shot + auto attack is still 250 potency over a WM-buffed Heavy Shot. It's a slight DPS increase, but an increase regardless.

Except then you can't use Empyreal Arrow. And EA is a 15 second recast and WM is ... a 15 second recast.

[SlyRoyale]

Except then you can't use Empyreal Arrow. And EA is a 15 second recast and WM is ... a 15 second recast.

You can use Empyreal Arrow. Once you get your auto attack in, you can turn Minuet back on and have access to Empyreal Arrow again. Depending on when you use Empyreal Arrow, it may still be on cooldown after turning Minuet back on.