MCH: How to fix flamethrower

[jrollins89]

Let's be clear; Flamethrower is an absolutely garbage ability. The fact that it is our Level 70 "capstone ability" is a complete insult.
But Flamethrower is more a symptom of the problem than an anything. Fixing Flamethrower / making MCH AOE slightly better won't suddenly fix the job; but it certainly is telling that this ability has been left in this state for so long.

We can spitball ideas all day (a FLAMETHROWER not generating HEAT? CMON), but it won't matter at all if SE is still stuck in their "there isn't much we can change with MCH / the job is basically complete" views that they sprouted during the Endwalker pre-release tour, despite the the consensus between pretty much all FFXIV regional communities.

EDIT: Sorry for the "doom-posting" but man the handling of MCH has been frustrating.

[CKNovel]

Let's be clear; Flamethrower is an absolutely garbage ability. The fact that it is our Level 70 "capstone ability" is a complete insult.
But Flamethrower is more a symptom of the problem than an anything. Fixing Flamethrower / making MCH AOE slightly better won't suddenly fix the job; but it certainly is telling that this ability (which is almost universally agreed to be terrible) has been left in this state for so long.

We can spitball ideas all day (a FLAMETHROWER not generating HEAT? CMON), but it won't matter at all if SE is still stuck in their "there isn't much we can change with MCH / the job is basically complete" views that they sprouted during the Endwalker pre-release tour, despite the the consensus between pretty much all FFXIV regional communities.

Various ideas:

The Reaper Flamethrower
Make Flamethrower consume 50 heat for a Reaper like phase where your 1 2 3 are changed to "Flamethrower buttons".
You don't get possessed by an avatar, simply by the urge of using a bigger gun.

The Doom Flamethrower (Flame Belch)
Flamethrower is now utility, no damage and debuff ennemies in front of you.
You and every other player character attacking this ennemy will get a stackable shield.

The Barrel Stabilizer Flamethrower
Flamethrower is now 2 charges, don't need a target and grant 25 heat on use.
Bonus point, you can now remove Barrel Stabilizer and use it as a new animation for Reassemble.

The Flamethrower turret
Summons a turret that hover over your character. Everytime you attack an ennemy, the Flamethrower turret spew a cone of flames towards that ennemy.
Leaves after a certain number of GCDs.

Button Bloat Flamethrower (Don't do this)
Flamethrower now shares a cooldown with Air Anchor and is now a simple GCD in AoE.
Also remove Reassemble because button bloat I guess.

Yes, MCH is far from complete and I can't believe SQEX would actually say "We believe it's complete" while it's the most incomplete job with its tank rotation.
Wildfire is not engaging, Flamethrower is an emote with damages attached to it.
And thanks to that new Queen finisher, it's now even jankier.

[Eorzean_username]

(a FLAMETHROWER not generating HEAT? CMON)

Flamethrower did generate Heat in Stormblood, and in fact doing so caused it to work its way into the single-target rotation, which was... an experience.

For example, Machinist literally had to get pre-shielded and then stand away from the party at the start of an O7S pull, because you might randomly get targeted for a dodgeable laser during your opener... when you had to stand still and channel Flamethrower for the full 10 seconds.

Anyway, this kind of stuff was considered too much for people in the design of Shadowbringers Nu-MCH, and that's why it doesn't generate Heat any more.

ie, Any attachment of resource generation back to Flamethrower would (in the devs's minds, I'm guessing) have to not push FT into feeling mandatory on ST encounters. Which, you know... as you said, for a level 70 capstone action, that's... yeah.

[Shurrikhan]

But a true fix would make Flamethrower your Heat Gauge and make Auto Crossbow into an AoE Turret for Energy gauge.

I would love to see this, but as a disgustingly powerful limited-mobility mode like Ley Lines. The Auto-Crossbow (or, Auto-Ballista) would fire automatically, but would be reloaded by GCDs from the player, requiring that they be within 3 yalms of said Auto-Ballista. Naturally, once put down, the button for Auto-Ballista swaps to that GCD option. Hits like a truck. And is AoE.

And, yeah, stick Flamethrower hastened-GCDs on the Overheated/Hypercharged GCDs. I'd just add that (A) it should have a longer animation than is typical (seeming to take up the full 1.5s) and, if necessary, there should technically be two forms, by the same name and tooltip, with the latter form's animation mirrored such that it switches swing direction each time (so back-to-back uses look fluid).

[Keiisuke]

I would also like the animations and visual effects of this skill to be reviewed because currently, apart from the discrete little sound indicating that a damage tick has taken place on the enemies and a mush of red pixels, I don't feel like the skill does anything on enemies and it's really not engaging.

[Basteala]

Flamethrower is basically an AoE Goring Blade.

...Where you have to stand still.

And you're losing 10 seconds of heat generation, so you're probably netting less DPS than just scattergunning into auto crossbow.

They definitely need to buff the damage--the Bio Blaster idea is cool. Something where it generates heat, or does far more damage but *spends* heat wouldn't be bad either. It's kind of funny that a fire based attack has zero interaction with a heat mechanic, don't you think?

[Momo_Kozuki]

Gimme a Flamethrowing drone, plz.

[Seraphor]

They're not going to give us any more debuffs to apply, too many debuffs at a time is a big issue.


Flamethrower should share a recast with Air Anchor, and also generate battery when used.
It already feels bad using these big single target damage skills for gauge generation in your AoE rotation, so buff Flamethrower slightly, give it battery generation, and have you use that instead of Air Anchor in your AoE. Improve QoL by being able to move while channelling it. Maybe the first hit generates 10 battery and the 5th generates another 10 battery, so you can safely disengage after 5 ticks.

[Darkstride]

I actually think Flamethrower should have some interaction with Wildfire, given that the description of the ability is a "slow burning pitch".

[Selvokaz]

you mean it doesn't work like this already cause I've been doing that since I realized how Bio Blaster worked.
ie Assemble into Bio Blaster, then immediately use Flamethrower.