MCH changes are unfortunate

[MomoOG]

People who don't play MCH wont realize it but the patch hardly did anything to make MCH competitive. 3% dmg gain on hot shot versus less Cool Down usage because less general heat gain will be minimal net gain. Getting to overheat on every wildfire now with barrel stabilizer change is minimal net gain because overheating was never that great to begin with. No love for MCH on savage release day

[Enla]

I just want my DoT back... ):

[Chiramu]

I have MCH and I liked the look of the changes personally.

[Syfurion]

Yeah... my hopes of MCH becoming useful again have been crushed.

[Nanopizza]

Yea, this change is negligible. Any increase in DPS we get from the improved hotshot is negated by being able to use cooldown less often.
The barrel stabilizer change is okay, allowing us to overheat everytime...if not for the fact overheating for wildfire is about the same potency as an auto-attack when you account for everything.

MCH needed a lot of love to be competitive. Sadly we've been grinded even further into the dirt underneath Bard's Shadow.

Summoners got it bad too, both MCH and summoner need so much love i'd actually say an emergency maintenance would be justified to help those two jobs out.

[AlexanderThorolund]

i'd actually say an emergency maintenance would be justified to help those two jobs out.

Keep taking the medication.

[RyuujinZERO]

For the laymen here who don't understand MCH and wonder what the fuss is.

MCH's basic 1-2-3 combo is different to normal classes' 1-2-3 combo, in that there is only a 50% chance that it will advance to the next stage of the combo. This can be raised to 100% through the use of ammunition, but this is generally reserved to specific burn phases. This RNG heavy rotation means their median filler damage is pretty unreliable. The addition of the heat gauge added a second, reliable source of damage equivalent to their #2 combo step's potency at the cost of 25 heat. This meant every 2-3 attacks, they'd get a 'free' attack equivalent in damage to having successfully advanced to step 2 in their combo, this made their damage more reliable overall during filler phases

The next important mechanic is that when their heat gauge is filled, they gain a further 5% (10% total) damage buff for a short window. This is combined with their wildfire window, which creates the burst phase that MCH rely on to get most their DPS out the door, however doing so means rapidly heating their weapon up as their cooldowns align.

The reduction in heat means that both of these above mechanics become more difficult - forcing an overheat requires additional shots, or the use of their incredibly lackluster flamethrower 70 ability, while they now only get a free cooldown shot every 5 GCD's, not every 2-3. This means there is a net loss in potency and a slight raising of the skill floor in this update. So all things considered the 'Buff' to hotshot really only serves to offset the loss of potency overall, and leaves MCH treading water. I'm fully expecting that there will be no noticeable increase to MCH performance in the FF logs.

I've also seen some people pointing to the huge increase in damage dealt by Overdrive; overdrive has a 120 second cooldown, and using it destroys your turret for 30 seconds; outside of very specific scenarios, using overdrive is a net DPS loss.

tl;dr - Square gave MCH more potency with one hand, but then took it away with the other leaving them in much the same place as before

[GrizzlyTank]

I want hotshot included in gauss barrel..

[ArtieTiger]

I't not fair SE says MCH and BRD need to stay in balance... but bards have their DoTs... and personaly I think MCH is more dificult, jobs like that deserve better DPS for the effort.

[Zojha]

I personally like the changes - Or rather, all of them except the heat reduction.

The CD reduction of Barrel Stabilizer are nice - for skilled MCHs, that means they could overheat every Wildfire. For less skilled MCHs, it allows them more leeway to fuck up with overheat. Great!
Loss of heat reduction on Quick Reload? That makes it easier to handle the heat, as it's one less thing to consider. At 50/55, it could get you into the non-heated area, that consideration is now gone.
Damage buff on hot shot is meh - It's higher numbers, that's never bad, but it doesn't fix anything.
Overload was situational before and it's situational still. Whatever.

The heat reduction, though... seriously, I don't get why they snuck that in. I'd rather they'd have made the un-heated shots give 10 heat as well - the new MCH thrives off heat because of Cooldown. IMO, the main issue is the design behind overheat. And their main response to it was to make it near impossible to do it by accident. *groan*