Why do the devs hate MCH so much?

[ASkellington]

Whereas, although MP has become easier to manage, almost to the point of only being an annoyance sometimes like TP, it's still very relevant because you eventually can't rez people anymore, even on red mages.

As Shurrikhan says if MP is to be an economy to be managed can't be locked to JUST ressing. Case in point - all abilities/skills that require MP costs on a healer are on the GCD. Guess what we don't heal with? If MP is to be something to properly managed oGCDs need have mana costs.

[Jeeqbit]

As Shurrikhan says if MP is to be an economy to be managed can't be locked to JUST ressing. Case in point - all abilities/skills that require MP costs on a healer are on the GCD. Guess what we don't heal with? If MP is to be something to properly managed oGCDs need have mana costs.

Yes, I agree with this. Healing essentially all happens off the GCD and white mages are really the only exception if they use their GCD instants. I think what should especially cost MP is situational abilities like Rescue, Surecast, Swiftcast, Benediction, Divine Benison, Asylum, Afflatus actions, Excogitation, Indomitability and Whispering Dawn, because routine abilities that you use off cooldown for damage like Assize are not really adding anything to the management beyond what spamming the GCD attack and dot is.

[Shurrikhan]

I think what should especially cost MP is situational abilities like Rescue, Surecast, Swiftcast, Benediction, Divine Benison, Asylum, Afflatus actions, Excogitation, Indomitability and Whispering Dawn, because routine abilities that you use off cooldown for damage like Assize are not really adding anything to the management beyond what spamming the GCD attack and dot is.

That seems a totally solid plan. I'm in.



A follow-up note and a question:

[Note] While it might not seem, then, that anything else needs an MP cost, it's better to think of these costs in terms of (shared) recovery time rather than just whatever cost is pained over the hotkey. If we recharge 400 MP per GCD, for instance, a 400-MP spell is MP-neutral. The difference is simply in the tuning point for rewarding (or reducing the opportunity cost of) downtime; the higher the floor MP cost and MP generation, the less downtime punishes a healer / the more shared resource time a healer recovers during downtime.

I would guess a good tuning point is "High enough an MP floor that some downtime can still be leveraged and, if truly everything went to hell in a handbasket, one could idle a little bit to milk out enough MP for another oGCD and thereby prevent a would-be death, but where there's otherwise/generally no feeling that attacks or other filler spells come at cost."
__________

[Question] How "free" should those abilities be? E.g., about how much oGCD potency per minute should one be able to milk out sustainable? How long, if hitting every possible ability as quickly as possible, should it take to go oom?

(Another small note here - you can allow for a higher maximum sustainable ppm or longer minimum time until oom if you also have some MP-costly attacks that are expected to be cycled on cooldown, since they'd combine to form parity.)

[Rein_eon_Osborne]

What do you mean an oversight? We just have to pay more mana for an upgraded animation. /s

[Ranaku]

Accepting bets now, will we get another wildfire potency increase or will SE actually give MCH something substantial this patch?

[Absurdity]

Accepting bets now, will we get another wildfire potency increase or will SE actually give MCH something substantial this patch?

If they're feeling very adventurous you're getting +10 potency on each of your 1-2-3

[Deceptus]

Accepting bets now, will we get another wildfire potency increase or will SE actually give MCH something substantial this patch?

I think if Wildfire was a guaranteed Crit-DH that would help, it's a long CD with a long buildup and takes a bit of skill to properly execute.

It should be rewarded with a big number.

[Darkstride]

Accepting bets now, will we get another wildfire potency increase or will SE actually give MCH something substantial this patch?

I'm so tired of Wildfire being the focal point of Machinist even though it's underwhelming (both in usage and the animation). If they want to hold onto Wildfire so badly then it needs some more interesting interactions. Flamethrower, for instance, is just dying for an actual purpose. Give it a Wildfire interaction.

[Raven2014]

I wish they do something about the rotation and animation too.

- The rotation has some of the coolest animation, but you don't get to see them finished more than half of the time due to the oGCD interupts, which looks really bland.
- I never understood the meaning behind the heat discharge ability, the same way as SCH's art of war. If it gonna be an important ability that we will spam often, at least make it look cool.


DNC, DRG are all classes with heavy oGCD weaving, but the animation flow are a lot smoother. In fact, on DNC the oGCD also feel part of the move. The oGCD on MCH is just a straight an interrupt, like you're playing with frame skiping.

[Deceptus]

"After a careful review of balance among physical ranged DPS jobs, we have decided to add party utility to machinist."

Now they can say they're not the "selfish" ranged physical and they can keep them at the bottom with DNC/BRD