Thread: Machinist 4.0 - what do you think?

My thoughts:

Are turrets gone?
Yoshi did have a disclaimer that of course - we won't be seeing everything in this skill exhibition. So for now there's no way of knowing. Turrets are a core part of the Machinist's identity in my opinion, but I wouldn't rule it out. If they remain - then it's likely that Hypercharge and Promotion will have changed somehow. If they ARE gone, then it might be that the potential damage of the turrets has been shifted into other abilities, and/or heat gauge management.

Ammunition
So now it looks like we only get a maximum of 3 ammunition instead of 5. Not only that, but they get consumed when the new skills are used. One of them a kind of swift, show-off-y spinning shot, the next the row of exploding bullets, and finally 2 turret/nodes that fire lasers. Either ammunition now functions like Aetherflow in that these new skills can only be used with ammunition - much like Fester and Pain Flare etc on SMN - or it remains the same and the new skills are actually weaponskills, though I don't think this is likely. Honestly it's going to take a lot of getting used to this change if it is an Aetherflow system, not for that reason but rather having a less dynamic 123 combo (again, assuming the new skills aren't GCD). Overall if what I assume is correct, then I don't really mind this change.

Heat gauge
This is interesting. So firstly - the Heat Gauge only appears when Gauss Barrel is on (even though it doesn't have cast times now). Then the flamethrower skill is used, and the heat gauge increases 10 points every second up to 50 (the number corresponds to the % of the gauge filled). The colour of the gauge changes from green to red as it fills. Once the flamethrower is over, the bottom half is glowing red, and stops glowing red when the quick explosive shot is used after Spread Shot.
Note: the bottom half of the gauge could indicate when this skill is available to reduce heat (by 25)? Also this could be a Weapon Skill since it's the 3rd moved used under Rapid Fire, though it doesn't confirm it.

The weaponskills used prior to this exploding shot increased the gauge by 10, so we can probably assume each weaponskill except the flamethrower increases heat by 10 points. After this however the Heat Gauge doesn't change. The explosive shot reduced heat down to 45, but the floating screen skill took it up by 5 points to 50. Either it has a minor 5 point heat increment for using it, OR what I speculate may be the case is that it automatically sets your heat to 50% and readies the explosive shot (unless it's coincidence it flashed red at the same time). The screen skill could also maintain that 50% heat for a set duration, or simply every move used afterwards doesn't increase Heat anyway (off-GCDs?).

For those of you who play League of Legends, this reminds me a lot of Rumble, where you are rewarded with extra damage / effects for balancing your heat between 50-95%; and I would also speculate that there is a penalty for maxing it out. Likely pacifying you for a few seconds, or forcing off your Gauss Barrel (since heat only appears with it on) and putting it on a CD before you can apply it again. That does of course beg the question of whether you could take Barrel off before it overheats and reapply, though there may be a penalty CD for taking it off. It's unclear if certain moves can only be used at certain heat levels.

Removal of cast times / nerfing damage / shorter wildfire?
It's impossible to say if it affects their relative damage at this stage, since there's obviously a slew of new skills to account for. Nevertheless - I do suspect their damage may have been culled along with BRD due to the power creep both had in 3.X. One of the main complaints in early HW was that MCH was too much effort for the same payoff as BRD. In the ensuing buff-a-thon of both jobs their damage in spite of their plethora of support was....very very high. I suspect MCH along with BRD have been dragged into line a bit to go back to that "less damage but invaluable support" ideology. And MCH does seem to be simplified in terms of ammunition, based on most peoples' assumptions. Of course there's also the heat gauge to contend with, but whether or not that leads to another case of effort/reward discrepancy with BRD remains to be seen. They DO still retain Wildfire, albeit at a seemingly reduced timer.

Final thoughts, I think MCH is going to be one of the most-different jobs here....I'm fine with most of the implied changes - the retention of Wildfire keeps one of my favourite things about the job, and depending on how the heat management feels I can make peace with any other simplifications. Removed cast bars doesn't bother me too much, even though MCH was the one designed with it in mind in HW, and it seems doomed to be inseparable from BRD in some ways from now on.

[tl;dr]: I like the implied changes even though it's probably going to feel very different from now on.