Complete MCH change…

[A-Omega]

Seeing how few weapon variations there is for the new jobs, I don’t see that being anywhere near as big of problem as you think. Make 4-6 variations for low level content and commit all real creativity for the expansion the change happens in. If they want to do more they can do it gradually.
If it was as simple as “make a second gun job”, why hasn’t it happened already? SE is aware the community would happily welcome a gun job…it’s why they gave MCH a gun to being with and especially after they put on a real display of what we really wanted. I believe the reason we haven’t is because they don’t want to trivialize MCH by adding a job that mains the same weapon. The easiest complicated solution is change the weapon on the job that doesn’t need it to exist.

[Limecat]

I want to see how or if they're changing Flamethrower. Right now, it's single niche use is "every single one of your CDs are down and you're still on a trash pack". Given that we're apparently getting more tool charges to pad more rotationing, even that will no longer be a thing. RIP Flamethrower, I wanted to set the sheeps and beetles and bats on fire, but SE wouldn't let me.

[Zofian]

They keep digging a bigger hole with MCH. As per the live letter, the last good/original skill, Gauss Round, is getting an animation replacement somewhere from lv92-100. Machinist was great up until lv54 when this problem started, the job completely deviates away from it's roots as you level higher and turns into some identityless nonsense. I thought the Auto Queen was cool, but then they went and reduced it's uptime instead of increasing it or turning it into a pet you can have out (and /glamour opportunities in future). Seeing as there is no hope for this job for the foreseeable future, time to finally bin the gear set, because inventory slots are a premium.

[Sjol]

I want to see how or if they're changing Flamethrower. Right now, it's single niche use is "every single one of your CDs are down and you're still on a trash pack". Given that we're apparently getting more tool charges to pad more rotationing, even that will no longer be a thing. RIP Flamethrower, I wanted to set the sheeps and beetles and bats on fire, but SE wouldn't let me.

Someone told me that channeled abilities hit more often than once a tick making the potency deceptive. At this point I really just want them to say the total potency over the cast time. The potency 110, duration 30 sec is a lot less useful than `1100 potency over 30 sec`

[KageTokage]

They ought to have just made Flamethrower work like BLU's Phantom Flurry where it has a weaker channeled portion and a large finishing hit that can be triggered whenever.

That way it could still have a use in single target scenarios.

[Valence]

Current flamethrower deals 80 potency every second, for a total of 11 ticks with 880 potency over 10s. Scattergun alone deals 750 potency over 10s for 5 GCDs, then you can add the value in heat gauge (50 gauge so a full ACB hypercharge ready to use, and ACB alone blows FT out of the water in damage output).

ShB FT was very, very barely above the standard AoE rotation, and had niche uses in dual targets where it had the edge (barely). With the introduction of scattergun, the general AoE rotation gained weight while FT stayed the same. I really do hope they did something to FT for Dawntrail because opening the job trailer once more with FT without changing anything would be a joke of very poor taste after so many expansions.

FT used to be incredibly powerful in AoE for the expansion it got introduced in, when used in combination with overheat (+20% damage snapshot covering the whole 10s debuff of heat gauge lockout).

[CKNovel]

Flamethrower can't crit/dh either, so if you crit/direct hit enough Scattergun it will jump above Flamethrower.
I guess now you'll do Reassemble + Chainsaw into Reassemble + Buzzsaw if possible, so no room for Reassemble + scattergun.

But the biggest problem is that Flamethrower remains a button to afk for 10 seconds.
Not pressing anything else for 10 seconds is simply against the nature of the game and just feels weird, unless you want to get a coffee.

I wish we could have Flamethrower to upgrade the 1 2 3 combo for a set number of GCDs.

[UkcsAlias]

Current flamethrower deals 80 potency every second, for a total of 11 ticks with 880 potency over 10s. Scattergun alone deals 750 potency over 10s for 5 GCDs

A bit unfair, since those 5 GCDs when averaged out end up taking more like 12.2 seconds, which might not appear as much, but is enough to reduce the damage portion effectively by 20% for same duration.

Not that it matters in the end result, since the 50 gauge allows you to wave in a lot more damage.

2 things they could do to improve flamethrower:
- Make it charge the heat gauge faster. Maybe 1 gauge per tick and target it hits (with 5 enemies this will then beat the GCD charging). This makes the comparison with other GCDs easier, and will guarantee it to be the stronger dps for mobs.
- Allow flamethrower to be affected by the hypercharge to increase its potency further like 150 (at a cost of not charging the gauge then). This damage then could also be for just a single target and be significantly higher (to make it better for most trials), for example 300 potency for primary, 150 for anything else.

Its niche use is fine to me, but at least it should be clearly on top then so people want to use it. Being forced to stand still is often a hazard on its own, and the current gain is not big enough to realy be worth it, especialy since its range is a lot shorter.

[Valence]

They do take exactly at best 10s, 1 GCD happens at 0s, 1 at 2.5s, 1 at 5s, 1 at 7.5 and 1 at 10s. A little faster if you're the fastest machinist in the west.

As much I'd certainly appreciate some intricacies like you propose, if they ever do something about FT, I wouldnt expect much more than raw potency increases...

[Mikey_R]

They do take exactly at best 10s, 1 GCD happens at 0s, 1 at 2.5s, 1 at 5s, 1 at 7.5 and 1 at 10s. A little faster if you're the fastest machinist in the west.

If you want to go that route, Flame Thrower would also get a GCD at 10s.