Thread: Culling and restructuring skills to make room for 5.0 abilities

Originally Posted by Raikai

Wildfire removed because it's redundant with Overheat. The latter already fills the role of the "bursty burst in a short window" (obviously, the damage would have to be adjusted somewhere to make up for WF).
Gauss Barrel turned into a trait so it wouldn't "drop off" after an overheat. You'd still have downtime, but now without that meaningless button to press to reapply the Gauss.

Removing Wildfire from Machinist would be like removing Mudras from Ninja or Jumps from Dragoon. It's the Job's signature skill, even if Overheating is redundant towards the purpose of being a damage buff they should just rework that instead of gutting the Job's identity.

Originally Posted by Raikai

Wildfire removed because it's redundant with Overheat. The latter already fills the role of the "bursty burst in a short window" (obviously, the damage would have to be adjusted somewhere to make up for WF).
Gauss Barrel turned into a trait so it wouldn't "drop off" after an overheat. You'd still have downtime, but now without that meaningless button to press to reapply the Gauss.

So you'd rather remove the less criticized and more iconic damage cooldown than the auxiliary mechanic highly criticized for its clunkiness?

Honestly, I feel like we'd see relatively little perceived loss from the removal of Overheat. That's no reason to remove it, but, compare that to Wildfire, without which MCH would feel awkwardly lacking of not only something rotationally and aesthetically identity-driving, but a seemingly obligatory damage-buff cooldown.

I'd like to see both revised, honestly -- Wildfire to go off instantly before a jump (if the boss would go immune during said jump) or at least to have a manual detonation procedure, and to deal AoE damage on eruption, and something far more significant to add more noticeable gameplay prior to Overheat itself as to feel more dynamic and less like a subtle trap.

Originally Posted by Raikai

How is Wildfire more iconic than Overheat? WF being merely a timed dot... I don't see that being more iconic that the whole heat gauge/overheating/cooling down mechanic. Also the previous poster is a bit shallow comparing WF to Mudras.

My removal suggestion is only because both OH and WF behave almost the same (short time window to press all your keys), but if they reworked them, well it would be fine too.

Ignoring that you're calling me shallow while being comically wrong.

Wildfire has been the Cooldown the job is built around since the job was introduced in Heavensward. Despite the fact that it's functionally just backloading the damage dealt during a buff window like B4B rather than attaching it to the abilities used in the time frame, the people who main the job really like seeing those big numbers pop up when they execute a perfect Wildfire. People were mad at launch when Wildfires got smaller in exchange for getting more of them, because players liked seeing those big numbers.

Overheat is not that. The Heat system on Machinist has been derided for being initially useless at launch and after the first revision to Machinist because they undertuned everything to such an extent that a perfectly executed Overheated Wildfire was only a gain of about ten potency or so. After the second revision, it has been criticized for being overly latency dependent and extremely unwieldy to use. The entire history of the mechanic and everything around it has been negative. It is a sloppily implemented mechanic with a terrible history that virtually no one has anything nice to say about it.

Sure, Wildfire is simpler than the whole heat gauge, but that doesn't make Heat more Iconic. It's Iconic because it's the ability that has been what defines the Job since it was put in the game and it doesn't hurt that it's generally beloved by the player base whereas the Heat Gauge has a troubled history and is about as popular as the Lily's are for White Mage.

Originally Posted by Raikai

How is Wildfire more iconic than Overheat? WF being merely a timed dot... I don't see that being more iconic that the whole heat gauge/overheating/cooling down mechanic. Also the previous poster is a bit shallow comparing WF to Mudras.

My removal suggestion is only because both OH and WF behave almost the same (short time window to press all your keys), but if they reworked them, well it would be fine too.

There has scarcely been a single guide without the near immediate mention of "heavy burst around its Wildfire ability"; even official sources placed high aesthetic emphasis on it during its release. I can see how it wouldn't have that impression to everyone, but it's certain more broadly and deeply so than OH.

Calling them nearly the same in behavior, on the other hand, seems outright ridiculous. You may as well call BfB and LotD the same thing. They're synergistic, and each (especially OH) made more significant through the other's inclusion in a way that simply rolling one's bonuses into the other would not retain.