To FFXIV Team From a Concerned Machinist

[Kitfox]

Don't worry MCH mains, us WHMs knows what it's like to see your peers buffed to the sky and you sit there forgotten until the next expansion "fixes" you and you're even halfway decent until they realize you're doing slightly good for yourself and buffs everyone else up again to compensate.....

;_;

It's not like BRDs have been buffed between the patches here. This is the inevitable outcome of their crit proc design that could be foreseen as soon as we had the ability descriptions at launch. I have no idea how SE could not have foreseen BRDs overtaking everyone in raid dps as the gear scaled up. Incredibly shortsighted.

I feel even more for WHMs, they're even worse off than MCH, with a broken job mechanic that was called out before Stormblood even launched. We all knew it was bad, SE said "Please trust me" and went on with it anyway. It is so sad, so sad that they don't listen to feedback. It's great to have a vision but sometimes we really do know better. It's going to happen again with BLU, I'm sure.

[Bonbori]

Since Yoshi mentioned that they're aware of MCH problems and will look into them in 5.0, I've been speculating what they could have in mind and there's one idea I've been tinkering with for the last couple of days that I feel could do a lot to both help with clunkiness issues and make MCH rotation less vulnerable to disruption while preserving the heat mechanics (in a more user-friendly way of course), possibly allowing MCH to avoid a full rework.

This assumes a speculative environment where all jobs are getting changed to a lesser or greater extent beyond my ability to predict, so the idea intentionally disregards any meta considerations and focuses solely on MCH's individual QoL and flow of combat.

• Wildfire is split up into two components: passive damage accumulation (trait) and active detonation (single-target ability) and now is tied directly to Heat.
• By default, the new Wildfire button is inactive and only becomes usable when the Heat gauge goes into Overheat and during the Afterglow phase (the brief period after Overheat ends during which the heat gauge is locked and Gauss Barrel cannot be reapplied, I don't believe it has an official name so I'm calling it Afterglow because Cooldown is already taken).
• While MCH is in Overheat, x% of all damage dealt by the MCH is compiled (and I would love a UI element that displays the accumulated potency)
• At any point, Wildfire can be activated to deal the damage compiled so far to the target. MCH doesn't need to wait the full duration of Overheat.
• Once Overheat ends, damage stops accumulating but Wildfire detonation remains useable for the duration of Afterglow
• Damage accumulation has no cooldown (although obviously it resets if not detonated in time), but the active Wildfire detonation probably still should to preserve MCH's cooldown synchronicity and keep burst windows predictable

In addition, of course, to rearranging levelling progression so that elements of the heat gauge get unlocked in a more logical order, with Cooldown unlocked at the same time as Gauss Barrel so that we don't get a gauge that's sorta just there and we don't get to control for a large chunk of the levelling experience and majority of pre-SB instanced content. Also, since Wildfire now requires the Heat gauge, it must be unlocked later in progression (ideally somewhere in the 51-60 range), which hopefully would mean that Heat is unlocked earlier, ideally somewhere in the 1-50 range.

• Intended results: By separating the damage accumulation window and detonation burst, MCH has greater control over when Wildfire detonates, and because it is no longer committed to a specific target ahead of time, it gives the MCH more flexibility during phase transitions/boss invincibility frames and add phases.
• Side effects: By moving Gauss Barrel earlier in level progression, a learning MCH can get used to Overheat windows before Wildfire, and when Wildfire is unlocked later and expands the functionality of the Overheat state, it becomes easier to put 2 and 2 together, making the job more intuitive and smoothing out the learning curve. Additionally, if the compiled potency accumulated by Wildfire during Overheat was visible somewhere in the UI, it would provide real-time feedback on one's performance, facilitating self-improvement without resorting to parsing.
• Additional provisions: Because Heat becomes more relevant at earlier levels, it would need to become more reliable without relying on the end-game Flamethrower ability, Heat generation must be as predictable as possible. Cooldown needs to be available earlier, preferably unlocked at the same level as Gauss Barrel, and there must be no RNG or inconsistency involved in Heat generation or reduction. The game should make it clear what abilities interact with Heat and under what circumstances.

[Elnidfse]

Uhmmm...I remember a lot of complaints by MCH since the beginning of the expansion though. Many people asked for a total rework because of how clunky FT is and how MCH performance is dependant on ping. But even if MCH didn't complain so much, I think devs should say something because honestly MCH is in a terrible spot right now. We have less than 6400 MCH parses vs almost 39k BRD parses. This speaks more than any thread on this forum.

I made quite a few threads before absconding for most of the expansion. They did indeed "fix" the problems with heat management and certainly "helped" with decision making by tweaking cooldowns. I became convinced that we weren't going to receive any changes for the job, so I unsubbed for the expansion. Things like showing raw math for our wild/overheat-wildfire did seem to get some acknowledgement, I guess. Back then there was one person violently defending that MCH was actually amazing back then, would be competitive in the public eye for the ranged slot, and the job didn't need to change at all. Looking back it was so silly how much time I wasted trying to explain simple numbers when none of the feedback would have ultimately mattered. A ground up rework (or whatever tweaks they have planned) isn't something you can throw out at the drop of a hat. All you can do is apply band-aid fixes until work ups happen again.

Unless you're warrior anyways. Main point being you can only beat the same horse for so long before you give up. Here's hoping they figure out what kind of identity they want to give the job. (here's hoping that's actually fun to play)

[Spiriel_Basanda]

I just don't want to be the bottom of the barrel again at the start for the 3rd expansion in a row since the job was made. It was so bad at the start of SB, I remember getting into a Susano EX fight through the duty finder. We cleared it without problems and his mount dropped. I already had the dog so I passed it, but one of the other seven people made it clear they didn't like me being there as MCH by saying "MCHs don't get doggos" or something along those lines before bravely leaving the group before I could respond. That was uncalled for, especially in a run so clean.

I don't agree with the earlier sentiment of removing Wildfire though. That's my favorite part of the job, seeing how high I can punch up that number every time I do it. I won't say Wildfire is without flaws, cause the boss going immune during it does indeed suck, but it is why I like the job.

[Elnidfse]

I just don't want to be the bottom of the barrel again at the start for the 3rd expansion in a row since the job was made. It was so bad at the start of SB, I remember getting into a Susano EX fight through the duty finder. We cleared it without problems and his mount dropped. I already had the dog so I passed it, but one of the other seven people made it clear they didn't like me being there as MCH by saying "MCHs don't get doggos" or something along those lines before bravely leaving the group before I could respond. That was uncalled for, especially in a run so clean.

I don't agree with the earlier sentiment of removing Wildfire though. That's my favorite part of the job, seeing how high I can punch up that number every time I do it. I won't say Wildfire is without flaws, cause the boss going immune during it does indeed suck, but it is why I like the job.

Wildfire of before was fine as it was less constricting as a noose. But constant wildfires on 1 minute rotations mean that missing a single cooldown has very real repercussions on both raid sync and wildfires down the line. (disregarding raids, it just feels terrible and somehow they made it far more punishing for any amount of ping) I like wildfire too. But It can't carry on like this with this joke of what we have now. Before the entire rotation was proc based sure but we were weaving constantly. Now we're just waiting on cooldowns and using none of the cooler abilities like RF or Ricc or even FT unless we're going to wildfire. Which again would be fine. Gone are the days of wild/mild and post jump flat out holds for the sake of sync. In are the days of 1-2-3 (featuring cooldown and gauss round) wildfiresetup. Went from playing on a Yamaha piano to slamming our face on a fisher price toy. The new MCH they've envisioned has none of the fun, none of the action, and none of the performance.

And the raid tier is already over. No matter what they do. The damage has been done. We've been like this for the entire raid tier. For an entire year and half a year more to come. Of course the time for venting frustrations is way way over. I hope they give me a reason to sub in the next expansion moving forward.

[Sylve]

I would honestly rather Wildfire be deleted entirely.
As it stands, Machinists have no core identity. Monks have their speed, it defines their kit. Dragoons have Blood of the Dragon. Summoners with Demi-Bahamut (love it or hate it). Bards and Songs. Red Mages with Dualcast.
All of those are Job defining. they are what they are because they do those things.
As a Machinist, what defining feature do we have? A one minute cooldown that requires the use of every single ability we possess in a 10 second window to do mediocre damage?


I think they should double down on the Heat mechanic.
Change Overheat into a 'stance' similar to Darkside, boosting damage at the cost of passively generating Heat while in combat.
Shots become Heated Shots when Heat is above 0.
Every 10 points of heat increases the potency of Heated Weaponskills by 10. Maxing out heat causes an emergency shutdown, losing Gauss Barrel for some time. (similar in punishment do a DRG failing to manage BotD)
Cooldown functionality remains unchanged, heat management and single target damage.
Flamethrower changed to be an AoE version of Cooldown. Draining 10 Heat per second to deal AoE damage. No recast, on the GCD. Damage tied to heat level. Starting high and getting weaker as you run out of Heat. Used in tandem with Spread Shot.
Wildfire changed to a self buff with no duration, capturing X potency of every weaponskill used, shown on the job gauge as a number. Press Wildfire again to launch the shot and start the cooldown.
Leave Turrets as they are, but give us a Glamor option for them. Theyre incredibly hard to see most of the time.
1-2-3 Shot mechanics would be unchanged along with Reload mechanics.

Machinist identity would then be Heat Management and a dps style that rises and falls based on heat management and Reload usage. Better MCH players would be able to keep Heat at high levels without triggering a shutdown.

Also, if the concern is that a Machinist would compete with Casters if buffed, change Role Actions like Palisade and Refresh to apply a debuff to affected targets preventing them from receiving those effects again for 2~ minutes.
Stacking the two together just costs you Caster Role buffs instead of doubling the BRD/MCH ones.

[Exiled_Tonberry]

Monks have their speed, it defines their kit.

I know this isn't even the main point of your post, but I couldn't help but mention it. Monk isn't even about speed anymore. Ninja and SAM is as fast, if not faster, than us and our main damaging CD slows us down to base CD speeds.

The most unique thing Monk has going for it is that it's the only job that is still so heavily littered with positionals.

[HyperiusUltima]

In regards to what was said above, that actually would make a lot more sense than the almalgamation of oGCDs that MCH is right now. As for your Wildfire...You’d have to put a Damage limit on it to balance it properly. If anything, we don’t need an infinitely stacking damage bomb. Instead, make Wildfire an instant oGCD that is a giant heat dump with variable potency depending on how much heat you generate. It’ll reset your Heat to 0, but gives MCH a reason to use Barrel Stabilizer so they can keep DPS.

[Elnidfse]

As a Machinist, what defining feature do we have? A one minute cooldown that requires the use of every single ability we possess in a 10 second window to do mediocre damage?

Well. Yes. Wildfire is and will always be MCH core identity. Problems with ping, clipping, sks, jumping, switching, and it's implementation in SB aside, it's a fun ability that used to have long term fight dynamics.
This post is about to get extremely wordy so bare with me.

Wildfire

They attempted to combat our between wildfire downtime by "speeding" up our wildfires. The intent was to make it easier to sync with raid buffs. We know now in practice that isn't what happened and our rapidfire double weaves are extremely terrible. There are other things. Reducing wildfire cooldown was a thing as aforementioned and that's fine and all but while they reduced the cooldown of our reload they didn't shorten the speed of our other cooldowns so things like Ricochet and Rapidfire is ONLY used during wildfire. We have 4 abilities that are only ever used in conjunction with WF. Rapidfire (which was always the case), Ricochet, Reassemble, and Flamethrower. If you count overheating as a CD and you should, because it's taking the place of our Hawks Eye, Blood for Blood, and Raging Strikes (albeit in a much better state) then that's 5 concepts tied to one action that we'll only ever use for that one action. And that's it. Conceptually while you are loading proccing, with the nerf to heat in 4.05/4.06 there is a lot more there's even LESS that we do in between wildfires than we had before.

[Elnidfse]

Disclaimer
A reality of wildfire is that it's only ever going to feel good WHEN we use all of our attacks with it and get to see our big number. All abilities forever are probably going to have to play into Wildfire as a result of this. While I can agree and acknowledge that this may limit what they can even DO with MCH I do feel it's healthy and should remain forever. Wildfire itself in HW felt like a minigame that only you got to engage in a bunch of times through a fight and figuring a good wildfire rotation was like solving a puzzle. The only thing I ever wanted was the ability to blow it up early, because losing the entire wildfire has never felt good.

The reason I've always advocated the wild/mild dynamic is because we get to use almost our entire kit hooked beyond wildfire and it played into our juggling act with OGCD timers while creating an active and adaptive playstyle. They could also have done this by letting us keep our 15 second wildfire to ease the burden on weaving (and letting rapidfire adapt a rotation that only requires a single weave). They could have reduced the cooldown of ALL of our abilities so that we could use them more often. They could have left WF at 90 seconds (because let's be honest it's not as if they're shying away from extended rotations what with DRG and SMN existing) and let us continue to have our OGCDs. They could have did the same and reduced our cooldowns to neat 15 and 30 second increments so that the supposed problem of "not knowing what to use and when" didn't exist. There's a ton of potential "solutions" (because I don't know the real balancing act that went with making ANY of our job decisions) that let us keep our wildfire while not making it hog 4.5 of our abilities exclusively to itself.

Side topic
Lockout
This is terrible. We're allowed to do damage for 10 seconds where upon then we don't even get to play SB or HW MCH for 10 seconds until we can attach our Gauss Barrel (HW) and engage in heat (SB). It's like being pacified after Berserk but having no means of cleansing the pacify. When the job wasn't about overheating every single WF this was fine. Now it's not. Especially the 3-5 abilities you're going to have to weave or double weave (one being Gauss Barrel on and Barrel Stabilizer) as a minimum. Again. If the goal was that lockout was a punishment for not doing well or a side effect for pushing damage before a jump like a tornado kick, that'd be cool. It's not though. So it's not. At least in my opinion. I mean come on. What happened to the Pacify from berserk again? Oh yeah.