MCH Overheat should activate automatically

[Archwizard]

Wait? You didn't like automatically sacrificing an animation-lock's worth of Overheated's 8s duration, dropping it from max 6 (8/1.5) shots to max 5 (slightly under 7.5/1.5)?!

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

[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.

[Shurrikhan]

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

They could reduce it down to its current shot count of 5 (and suggestions thus far have followed that line of thought) or retain its initially apparent maximum of 6, since MCH is undertuned anyways. I prefer 5, myself, if only because it starts to feel a bit too long/spammy thereafter for a "burst"-like mechanic.

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

It already does, just not in a way that's obvious to those who forget that the activation animation has an uptime cost of its own. It's fine, and the extra second (putting actual duration at 7.5, instead of 6.5) is probably appreciated by some high-ping players; it's just not as intuitive as it could be.

(That, and roundtrip ping times being added atop animation uptime costs shouldn't be a thing regardless.)

[Archwizard]

It already does, just not in a way that's obvious to those who forget that the activation animation has an uptime cost of its own. It's fine, and the extra second (putting actual duration at 7.5, instead of 6.5) is probably appreciated by some high-ping players; it's just not as intuitive as it could be.

(That, and roundtrip ping times being added atop animation uptime costs shouldn't be a thing regardless.)

The problem is that designing any high APM job is going to be punishing to high ping players -- you cannot eat your cake AND still have it too.
Even if you remove the Overheat window, you'd still have the Wildfire window which was designed with Overheat's APM boost in mind. The ping weight on MCH is reduced, but still exists within the kit -- unless you redesign Wildfire as well, but then you would unravel the necessity of Overheat creating fast action windows in the first place.

I'm all for OP's suggestion to reduce button bloat, but I think trying to make MCH more "ping friendly" might be overstepping a bit, inflating a simple QoL suggestion into a full rework.

[Shurrikhan]

The problem is that designing any high APM job is going to be punishing to high ping players -- you cannot eat your cake AND still have it too.

Not really, no. Actions per minute has nothing to do with it. The sole factor there is GCD-in-animations-time, much like the case with setting a good duration for a skill not to feel overly ping-punishing.

Again, though, without XIV's coding costing roundtrip ping atop the .5s animation lock, Overheated's 1.5 second GCDs would be enough to support double-weaving. (See FFXIVAlexander with effective ping set to 0; it can double-weave a Heat Blast GCD.)

I'm all for OP's suggestion to reduce button bloat, but I think trying to make MCH more "ping friendly" might be overstepping a bit, inflating a simple QoL suggestion into a full rework.

That depends entirely on your view of what constitutes a "full" rework. Was Delirium "fully" reworked when it was put on stacks, instead of just getting scaled down to a 5s duration to fit its new 60s CD? Was that change, IR's, Bunshin's, and Requiescat's likewise "overstepping". Should new SMN have gotten a brief duration in which to cast its summon-based spells instead of stacks?

Ultimately it's just a matter of which is more fun for the most players. Durations give urgency, often at little frustration so long as they're not particularly susceptible to ping and are both well past a given GCD threshold at normal SkS and far enough away from their next GCD tier as not to encourage reaching it and thereby making it tight again. Personally, I prefer that for many skills, including even Blood Weapon (i.e., giving it 12s duration [effectively just under 11.5s], still 5 hits, but far more comfortable, over giving 5 stacks of effect). But, stacks come with added flexibility that would well suit MCH's theme, kit, and button-flow (especially since its unavoidable 1-2-3 combo still needlessly uses 3 separate keys and they are not replaced by Heat Blast).

[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.

[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.