MCH Primer for SB - An Early guide

[Zoof]

With SB being around for a few days and most of us at 70 for a day or three, we’ve had plenty of time to work out the kinks for MCH. This is a work in progress, and while we’ve put significant discussion into what we have so far, everything is fluid. As raid timings are cemented and skill interactions are found, these may change.

Here’s a guide for adjusting to the new MCH, along with our rotations and wildfires. This is aimed at MCH 60+.

As a preface, big shoutout to the guys in The Balance discord. Many members came together to do the legwork for theorycrafting, discussions and put hours into early spreadsheeting - all of that info culminating into the openers and wildfires we have today. This is the results of everyone’s efforts.

**Without further ado, here’s the entry guide to MCH for Stormblood!**

***If you're still in the process of leveling 60+ or are returning and don't know what to do with the new MCH, read the bit at the bottom!***

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**Heat**

Our new mechanic is heat. It’s pretty straight forward - Stay between 50 and 95 to use heated skills, using QR and CD to lower your heat level when needed.
The question becomes: When do I overheat? With the nerf from 20% -> 10% on the OH damage buff, the answer is sadly “Almost never”.
On single target, you’re going to be overheating on the 3rd, 5th, 7th etc Wildfires, or any long phase transition/end of fight. Any non-WF overheat is simply going to be Cooldown x5, as without ammo that yields the highest average potency/5GCD.
Try to Cooldown twice between each Wildfire, so your heat ends with an x0 during each WF. Makes it nice and clean.

Our new skills are Barrel Stabilizer, Overheat and Flamethrower, and will be shortened to BS, OH and FT from here on out.
In the spreadsheets, Split Slug and Clean are written as 1 2 3, respectively

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**Rook Overdrive**

Rook Overdrive should be used when the boss is going to be disappearing for 18+sec. it breaks even at 15 sec. Nothing more to it. We experimented with some some rotational uses for it but nothing seemed to work out.
Of course, use it at the end of the fight as well for a little extra damage.

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**Aoe**

Honestly, just go ham on spread shot at 3+ targets, and do your single target on groups of two. Put WF on a random mob in the pack and push all your buttons. WF a random mob, RF, Ammo, FT; you name it. Try to time it so your 60 sec cooldowns are back up in time for the boss - you’ll get a feel for it as you run each dungeon.
Don’t forget to Tactician and Invig!

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**Opener**

At the moment we're working with two openers, with the first being slightly stronger on paper but is susceptible to ping issues. The second may also align slightly better with Trick Attack, but we’re still unsure if TA will be after the 5th or 6th GCD in the NIN opener.

We’re going to use the ‘stronger’ opener as our baseline as it has a smooth execution that allows for plenty of ogcd space, as well has having perfect cooldown alignment for subsequent WFs

Here it is in image form:



GCD | oGCD
(Prepull)|GR + BS
HS |Reload
Split |HC
Slug |Potion
Split |FT 3 ticks -> WF
CD |Rico + RF
Clean |QR
Slug |Reass
Clean |GR
CD | WF Detonates

Here is the math behind it, as well as the second opener

*WF potency: 2478*

You will not be overheating in the opener as you use both FT and BS in the opener and have no way to recover. Overheating is a DPS loss in any situation where BS isn’t available.
Related to that:

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**Non-opener WFs**

This is the fun part. Do we overheat, or do we not overheat? Do we overheat every Wildfire and use FT to recover? Do we not overheat at all?
In a nutshell, we’re back to the 3.5 WIldfire + Mildfire rotation. Every other wildfire (past the opener) will be Overheated along with Hypercharge.

Here is the math for the three midfight WF variants we tried
All three attempt to emulate the opener as best as possible, as the cooldown alignment is near perfect:
The first is an Overheated WF with FT used to recover to 50.
The second is a non-overheated WF that doesn’t use FT at all.
The third is a non-OH WF with FT used to top yourself up to 90 heat, and essentially redo the opener in full. **This is the one we're going for.**


GCD |oGCD
Build 70 |/
HS |Reload
Split |HC
Slug |/
Split |FT to 90 -> WF
CD |Rico + RF
Clean |QR
Slug |Reass
Clean |GR
CD | WF Detonates

Build to 60-80 heat (if you hit 90 you should have CD’d earlier for some extra potency), with the goal being 70 heat off a hot shot.
Reload, Split Slug Split and hit FT right after that split. If you’re going from 70-90 heat you won’t even (or just barely) clip your GCD, since FT gives you 10 heat on activation and then 10 heat per tick. Since you’re essentially only using it for 1 second it acts just like a normal oGCD.
See how similar it is to the opener? That’s your goal for each WF - to emulate that opening WF.

**On your 3rd/5th/7th/etc wildfires**, you’ll be using FT to hit 100 heat (to overheat) and then do the opener as normal. This is the 4th WF in the sheet linked above.
You’ll be locked out of barrel just as WF detonates, and as soon as you can put barrel back on you use BS.
If you take a look at the first of the three comparison WFs, you’ll see that overheating without BS is a huge potency loss, even if you have FT ready to recover.

*Overheated WF potency: 2726*

GCD |oGCD

Build 70 |/
HS |Reload
Split |HC
Slug |/
Split |FT to 100 -> WF
CD |Rico + RF
Clean |QR
Slug |Reass
Clean |GR
CD | WF Detonates
Split |No-GB
Split |No-GB
Split |No-GB
HS |No-GB
Split |GB + BS

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**Leveling and pre-70**

Between levels 60 and 66, MCH may feel a little incomplete - especially if you're a returning MCH player. Here are the WF rotations you need to know while leveling:

*At level 60, your basic WF is:*
You can safely ignore heat as a mechanic - as long as you don't overheat just before a wildfire. Just take off barrel. You can try to align an OH with a WF, but it’s largely not worth the effort since you can’t lower your heat.

Reload -> Split -> slug -> split -> Reassemble + WF -> Clean -> Quick Reload + Rapid Fire -> Slug -> Ricochet -> Clean -> GR -> Split -> Split

*At 62:*
At level 62 you gain access to Cooldown. While you don't need to incorporate it into your opener, it's good to use for wildfires once you have heat built up. Do the above WF if you're doing a cold open, but if you've got 70 heat available:

(Reach 70 heat) Reload -> Split -> slug -> split -> Reassemble + WF -> Clean -> Quick Reload + Rapid Fire -> Slug -> Ricochet -> Clean -> GR -> Cooldown -> Cooldown

*At 64:*
The new Heated shots become available at 64. As a cold opener, you'd still want to use the basic level 60 WF as building up heat at this point still takes far too long. If you've got heat built up you should do the same WF as the above - it naturally makes use of the heated shots.

*At 66 you're able to finally do a cold opener:*
GR -> Stabilizer -> Hot -> Splt -> Split -> Reload -> Split -> slug -> split -> Reassemble + WF -> Clean -> Quick Reload + Rapid Fire -> Slug -> Ricochet -> Clean -> GR -> Cooldown -> Cooldown

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Again, shoutout to The Balance discord and everyone who helped develop what we have to work with today. It’s a culmination of everyone’s work for the past few weeks. Thanks Ephe, Bidoof, Nan, Kehare, Aiurily, Kiwi and everyone else who’s been participating in the hot discussion (and memes).

If you see any math errors feel free to point them out, or have any questions you’re welcome to drop by the discord’s MCH channels or leave it here.

o7

[Ephier]

You smell that...?



Smells like, buffs are coming. YOSHI PLZ!

In all seriousness, currently i309 with i320 weapon. MCH feels a tad undertuned. The damage it puts out is OKAY. Just messing around averaging around 60s~65s left on a12s dummy around 30s~35s on Susanoo dummy. Thats roughly 3195~3333 DPS. As said its not abysmal, just doesn't feel as high as it should be. Need to get relative data from BRDs to make comparisons, but from what I have seen, the damage is very similar. For the amount of utility that a BRD brings over a MCH, I believe MCH should do a bit more DPS.

10% Hotshot, 20% overheat, and if you feeling generous, 35% wildfire is all I want for Christmas.

[Id_Slayer]

Thanks! Going to try this out.

[poffo]

Well dont know about 70 but on 62 MCH. feel very underwelming.

[Greedalox]

Well dont know about 70 but on 62 MCH. feel very underwelming.

64 is where you start feeling some oomph. 62 is there so you can use your 64 trait effectively.

[Shortie]

I dont get how you BS on pre-pull.

Dont you have to be in combat to use that skill?

[Greedalox]

I dont get how you BS on pre-pull.

Dont you have to be in combat to use that skill?

I think it's on the countdown. When the countdown nears zero and the tanks initial hit lands is when you hit Gauss Round into Barrel Stabilizer.

[Inuk9]

I'm getting 12k damage wildfires with my openner on susanoo extreme.

[Greedalox]

Anybody have any feelings or tidbits towards Stat priority for new MCH? I've just been attempting to stack Crit and Direct Hit in the meantime. Is there anyone savvy with the subject working on Weights at all?

[ClusterDreams]

Love the guide. Totally changed up how I'm going to start my openers.