MCH Overheat should activate automatically

[Shurrikhan]

As for the finisher, you can even turn Scatter gun into a superior version during Overheat, let's say "Super shotgun".
Straight line AoE, makes Scattergun button relevant in single target situations.

Dragonfire. It's an actual shotgun thing and it'd be very, well, heated. Give it a nice short-and-chunky DoT. Longer-range narrow conal AoE still preferable, though, imo. (We already see tons of different cone-angles conals across the game, from 10 degrees to 180 [well, I suppose that's exactly where it stops being a conal].)

The Overheat starter being the first GCD of the Overheat phase, it should give 4 stacks of Overheat.

As long as the starter also gets the reduced GCD, this would be preferable, yeah. The threshold between what feels "significant" and what feels "spammy" can be as little as a 5th GCD.

[IronIngot]

So removing any button bloating and streamlining the burst would be something like this:

Opener (Grant 4? Overheat) > Heat Blast (x3?) > Finisher with DoT, everything being on the same button.

The combo could be AoE from start or get upgraded at 52 via trait and the Auto Crossbow would be removed or reworked into oGCD?

[Shurrikhan]

So removing any button bloating and streamlining the burst would be something like this:

Overheat starter and Heatblast can be on the same button, but the finisher needs to be on a separate button in the case you want to finish it early.

This. Turn Heat Blast into the finisher, too, on last charge, just for accessibility reasons, but also have the finisher as a separate button for early Overheated consumption.

The dot is fluff at best.

I don't think a DoT is problematic, but generally the earlier, the better. The idea of a finisher is generally that it ought to... finish, as would befit finishing something off.

It'd make more sense to have the DoT on the opener instead.

[CKNovel]

Overheat starter and Heatblast can be on the same button, but the finisher needs to be on a separate button in the case you want to finish it early.
The dot is fluff at best.

[Seraphor]

Not to burst that particular bubble, but without the animation, they would probably reduce the duration of Overheated anyway...

Then they should have already reduced it by 1s to prevent you fitting in a 6th GCD.

[Sylve]

I'd just be happy to see Wildfire trigger Hypercharge on activation.
AFAIK, we never use Wildfire without also triggering Hypercharge.
So it's just kind an awkward triple oGCD cast whenever it's Wildfire time.

On the topic of Hypercharges effect, why not have it change Split, Slug, Clean and Scattergun into Hypercharged versions you use once each with the 1.5s GCD and additional effects, then finish with Heat Blast resetting the Gauss/Rico cooldowns entirely.

[CKNovel]

I'd just be happy to see Wildfire trigger Hypercharge on activation.
AFAIK, we never use Wildfire without also triggering Hypercharge.
So it's just kind an awkward triple oGCD cast whenever it's Wildfire time.

You can even push it further:
Make it so Wildfire has no heat cost and triggers hypercharge.
Then remove Barrel Stabilizer because it now has no purpose.

Not only it's a QoL but it also fixes the rigid heat gauge.
If 2 buttons are meant to be always paired together, they merge them. They followed that for WAR and MCH old wildfire combo, why not for Barrel Stabilizer and Wildfire?
Is the desynchronize of the cooldowns done by design?

On the topic of Hypercharges effect, why not have it change Split, Slug, Clean and Scattergun into Hypercharged versions you use once each with the 1.5s GCD and additional effects, then finish with Heat Blast resetting the Gauss/Rico cooldowns entirely.

It's a good idea, faster 1 2 3 is always better than spamming 1 five times in a row.

[GrumbleBeard]

I'd rather they just remove heat blast entirely, along with any other instance of "press the button 5 times in a row" on classes.

[Shurrikhan]

It's a good idea, faster 1 2 3 is always better than spamming 1 five times in a row.

This would be fine, too, and even less bloated.

Hit skill, get x upgraded attacks. Sounds fine.

Only reason to do otherwise would be if, given the duration exceeding what's necessary for the number of shots, one would have reason to weave in un-upgraded shots within the period, but now that MCH lacks its unique combo mechanic (as it has since ShB's gutting), I don't see why that'd be necessary.

[Sorzai]

MCH def needs a change, the whole burst phase is boring. the ONLY satisfying thing is reassemble + drill, everything else is uninteresting