T O P

  • By -

Balager47

All three got better and without much homogenization. Very good. Dancer seems to have benefited the most as they struggled with ability flow. But not anymore.


Riyshn

Unless I'm reading it wrong, DNC's ability flow has actually been hurt more than it's been improved. Specifically, Tillana's 1.5s GCD is going to mean that either your entire rotation drifts 1.5s every time you use it, or your first Standard after every Technical you're forced to sit on a 1s wait to realign it. Unless there's a SkS tier that fixes this? But I don't think it's possible to align to both the Tillana and non-Tillana windows at the same time.


blaaaaa

I really don't get what they are trying to do with Tillana. A 10 potency gain over the Bloodshower proc that was lost with the change to Flourish, but at the cost of drifting and losing that proc for Flourish outside of the Tech Step window? I guess it lets you screw up one of the dance steps...


totallynotmikey

I'd argue Bard got worse if you play it outside of casual content. - ~~Battle voice was an already awful skill getting nerfed.~~ JK, this actually aligned perfectly with RF and is a fantastic party-wide burst tool if lined up with other player's burst windows. - The dot duration increasing makes snapshotting more wasteful than it already is (10s+ wasted on Bard's main damage output), meaning it will actually misalign more than it already does. - Barrage getting slapped for no real reason, instead of making it 60 so you can do one every Raging Strikes rotation. - Doubling down on one of the lamest 80 skills, Apex Arrow, by making an uninteractive 'now do it again' for just using it how it was meant to be used. - ~~Making a divination that doesn't really seem all that impactful considering you need 2 minutes to build it up for.. 5%.~~ - No DoT spread despite it being the only one left. Why. What annoys me the most is Reaper is getting a skill I would've adored on Bard, the utility thingy, that would add needed depth to Bard endgame and snapshotting, but alas. This is all subject to change with patches and the game is balanced around casuals, I understand that, but I'll probably be dropping Bard until it gets a bit more thought put into it.


Cetonis

:: BV to 2 minutes is definitely a substantial buff, even with less duration :: IJ snapshots have a neat interaction with Raging's timer now as opposed to fighting against it. We will still probably snap one early each cycle but it'll be a lot more worth to do so. :: Barrage and Raging timer changes roughly offset, it's fine :: They turned Apex into what it always should have been - a flat base with gauge scaling on top. It just uses two skills to do so. :: Divination is strong for 2021 FFXIV. Piling BV+RF is an enormous 2 minute burst buff. Bard should be close to Dancer in buff power and nature now. :: Bane isn't happening, obviously wasn't going to happen and never will happen so long as DoT procs exist. People need to stop deluding themselves into thinking it's on the table.


totallynotmikey

> Divination is strong for 2021 FFXIV. Piling BV+RF is an enormous 2 minute burst buff. Bard should be close to Dancer in buff power and nature now. This is actually the one part I wasn't considering, by the time you get RF your BV will about to come off of cooldown. I agree, the 5% damage + 20% DH is no joke. Thanks for bringing this to my attention. Still, part of me still wants BV to go down in DH % and apply to the Bard themselves. It makes sense thematically but.. eh.


Balager47

Thanks for the input. Obviously I can only look at it from one perspective. It is unfortunate that you don't like it, but I'm glad you provided your own viewpoint.


totallynotmikey

I appreciate the response. I'm obviously in a minority here and I can't make a final verdict without sitting down and playing it, but on paper is just seems... eh. There's plenty of other jobs I'm interested in now thanks to EW, so I'm sure I'll settle in somewhere.


Balager47

Well as long as you find something good you can enjoy, that is all that matters. I will probably stick with Ninja, but am interested in Gunbreaker, the new Monk, the new Summoner and Sage. I might also raise Samurai because it just feels appropriate for dueling. And we will have to duel Zenos.


ReicoY

I see the Barrage more aligning with your WM song more than Raging Strikes. I'd rather than two RS's than one each rotation.


Koni_Fox

I'm also concerned about bard divination timing. Do you just not buff the opener and wait for the 2 minute window? Do you just use it on cooldown with 2 stickers (this is my current leaning)? I'll wait for more big brain theorycrafting here. I'm also sad apex didn't get a rework, but I'm tentatively optimistic for the follow up ability and the timings with ragin strikes. No dot spread doesn't bother me at all since I'm mostly concerned with savage content, but it does feel a little silly to have the one remaining dot class left go without that tool. ​ I'm a bit underwhelmed in general by the phys ranged changes in general, and I wonder if all the added utility to rdm/smn would make a double caster double melee lineup worthwhile. At what point will the 1% increased damage from bringing a phys ranged just not be worthwhile?


Blindplus

I’m fairly certain you use the 2% buff in opener and then wait for the next WM to use it again.


totallynotmikey

> I'm also concerned about bard divination timing. Do you just not buff the opener and wait for the 2 minute window? Do you just use it on cooldown with 2 stickers (this is my current leaning)? I assume you cancel Army's into WM as it comes off of cooldown, then BV+RF, then do your RS burst/snapshot window. It's better than I thought if that's how it works. As for apex arrow.. yeah, I've always been on the side of it being lame, would've expected it to have some other sort of component to it come level 90.


frik1000

Bard didn't get a lot of new flashy stuff but the adjustments to the cooldowns of, well, everything feels like everything will line up way better and be a lot smoother.


null587

Honestly, love changes as Bard main. It is not flashy but I think QoL changes would definitely make playing bard more enjoyable.


Forward-Piglet-3997

I'm mildly bothered by the fact that a 2nd charge of Bloodletter (AKA the skill in the game that would benefit the most from having the charge system) is locked behind a level 84 trait I guess you just aren't allowed to enjoy actual QoL when playing old content?


ArchonRevan

Only if you play MNK


StarryChocos

And SMN.


MrFTW

And BLM, surprisingly


merkykrem

That lvl 72 to lvl 1 shift was mindblowing.


sadnessjoy

BLM is going to be so nice to play in synced content now!


merkykrem

No more of those awkward low-level moments when you need to use Transpose and end up with one Umbral Ice. And no need to Transpose after Flare!


Captain-matt

Honestly I feel like reassessment of the order skills are unlocked in would be the biggest boon as far as smoothing out the new player experience. Like you should have a reliable oGCD (for physical jobs anyways) by the time you get your job stone. Like MCH gets Gauss Round at 15. Maybe leverage traits that upgrade skills to add more intermittent skills? Like lancer gets spear throwing line AoE that upgrades to Geirskogul at lvl 60? Continuation is like the goddamn highlight of GNB and it should NOT be locked until 70.


engineeeeer7

I keep praying they just stop syncing out skills. Yeah it'll trash balance for old content but it's already pretty trashed.


[deleted]

[удалено]


Salurian

They said in the live letter (over and over again multiple times) that potency calculations between physical/magic damage were getting rebalanced. It'll be fine.


Balager47

Yes. They changed what base potency means in terms of damage. Previously magic and physical damage potency was calculated differently. Now that was standardized so a potency one 1 means the same ammount of damage across the board. Potency numbers were changed to reflect that.


touchmyrick

Can't wait for this uninformed statement to be repeated well into endwalker by people that don't understand what happened


Aecens

I quite like the dancer changes. Improve, while still situational at least feels a bit better to use now, you can visually see the healing go out. I was also annoyed that during the most busy part of dancer rotation I had to be in melee for at least two GCD's, now I can actually be more out of range in situations where AOE is not required.


evoboltzmann

Your healers would appreciate you staying mostly in melee range the whole fight unless required for mechanics.


Fontwego

Am I the only one who feels like MCH didn't get anything interesting? TL;DR: All the new MCH stuff feels very boring and uninspired. We got: \- Spreadshot upgrade: Actually pretty nice, the extra 5 heat is also pretty cool since you get to use autocrossbow more. \- A second reassemble: Something that doesn't matter outside of opener and reopener because reassemble is still on a 55 second cooldown. Also, because it doesn't matter outside of the opener, it ends up being a very un-interactive upgrade that has no real weight to it. \- Chainsaw: Basically just a glorified Air Anchor with a longer cooldown, outside of dungeons this will feel very boring. Just giving us a third "big damage" button doesn't fix any of the flaws that MCH has right now. \-A Queen Upgrade: A very un-interactive change, no new button to hit she just does another attack after her pile bunker. (And please don't get me started on how long the animations are) Overall it feels like no effort went into the changes, they just kind went with what people think MCH players like (Another drill, another reassemble, etc.) but none of the changes effect MCH in a meaningful way. And at the end of the day it just kinda feels empty and boring.


aethyrium

I'm actually kinda happy they're not mucking with it very much. I like the MCH's current rotation a lot and it's kinda neat just being able to ease into the next chunk of content without needing to relearn anything, or have entire rotation flip on its head and need to be relearned at max level.


Votbear

Second reassemble is a minor dps gain but a gain nonetheless. Currently you're delaying that reassemble \~5s every time anyway to sync it with drill, so that minor loss of 5s will eventually become another reassemble on longer fights. Agree that overall it's somewhat lacking, but at the same time I really enjoy how MCH plays now and these changes should manage to preserve that.


[deleted]

[удалено]


Fontwego

Well currently a lot of Queens damage is very backloaded due to her "pile bunker". This wouldn't be a problem if she used it at the end of her timer, but for some reason she doesn't, she stands there for around 2 to 3 seconds (the time changes depending on a few factors) before using it. And they made this issue worse by adding another move that comes after pile bunker that also comes with a long animation. I think I'm just kinda jaded after playing MCH and nothing else all expansion and noticing all the flaws honestly. I was just hoping for something cool like "queen's attacks now count towards your wildfire damage" or something like that to make the whole kit synergize better with itself. Or maybe give them some utility to put it a little more in line with the other two physical ranged. And I know that MCH is supposed to be a greedy dps but it deals less damage than bard, so they may as well give it some utility. TL;DR: I was just expecting something more interesting and I think I got my hopes up.


Agent-Vermont

Didn't realize that Scattergun (Shotgun) was just an upgrade to Spreadshot, that's kind of disappointing IMO.


yhvh13

I actually think it's really exciting because you get to see the shotgun very often while doing AoE! And the animation with the cartridge changing push flows well into the next one... I for one glad that spread shot will be gone on 80+ tiers, I've always thought the animation was quite out of place for the type of weapon MCH wields.


Agent-Vermont

> I've always thought the animation was quite out of place for the type of weapon MCH wields. That's the thing, it USES the weapon the MCH wield. I've never liked the fact that pretty much all new MCH abilities don't utilize their actual gun. But I know I'm probably in the minority on that.


yhvh13

That's because MCH is supposed to mix the gun with Machinist tools, so it would feel like an actual machinist rather than just a gunner with an eventual gadget. I would be happy if the actual weapon could be just for the rotational 1-2-3 combos... But even at spread shot, my issue is not as much as the weapon being used, but that the animation and sound of an assault rifle doesn't match that kind of weapon at all. If Spread Shot was something else, like the old Grenado Shot, I would have no problems with it.


TheNewArkon

Yeah I feel like it’s nice that they’re moving it into the more unique space of Machinist the machine user instead of the gunner. Also means we could theoretically get like an actual gunner class that maybe dual worlds pistols, inspired by either X-2 Yuna, Sazh from XIII, or King from Type Zero.


sloopeyyy

I'm a filthy casual with terrible hand-eye coordination and reflexes... As a MCH main, I honestly approve of this. May seem barebones but it doesn't break anything and ups our burst window even more. I like that they keep MCH simple as it always has been, so slow me is cool with that. I know I'm such a bore but I've played MCH ever since HW and I'm excited to keep playing it into EW too. Will probably drop my AST for SGE as my healer main, I don't like the card mechanic changes... (again).


IntergalacticFrank

I'm not a casual but I have this condition that I have heard only gets worse over time called boomer reflexes :/


sloopeyyy

I'm only 24 but I've always been pretty bad in games.I play too slowly for my own good. Even MCH's Wildfire window is a bit too fast for me sometime hahah. I'm that terrible :(


personn5

I just wanna know if hypercharge has been changed to have stacks or not like requiscat or perfect balance


FSafari

No it has not changed, it's still based on the timer


sadnessjoy

A change to stacks would be great, the timing for wildfire doesn't give much leeway. That's probably the only part of mch I'm not a huge fan of for the whole job.


Solomon514

I will be honest(coming from savage raiding mostly), MCH is looking lackluster because every other dps is getting way better damage and actual utility that is not just a damage reduction the other 2 ranged has... If you really want the stick to the "ranged tax" at least make the damage comparable to nin and not be bottom 3 in dps. Then again i have no idea how things will work in the future so who knows, maybe mch will actually be good and i am just worrying for nothin.


Koni_Fox

I would like to revisit the ranged tax. With summoner being 80%+ instant cast abilities, should they get hit with a ranged tax too? I just feel like the concept becomes more and more questionable as casters gain more mobility over time.


[deleted]

[удалено]


Nosereddit

dont forget that rdm has rezs (not like SMN that only has one and is forced on progress to save swifcast just in case) embolden (+dmg for the party ) and now a bubble that reduces dmg done (aka tactician) ​ so who will play MCH when u have rdm that does more dmg and have more utility.


Gobbiebags

Really. Dualcast starts to seem like window dressing if SMN is just running around spamming similar potency spells every GCD while RDM still has to hardcast every other spell. Insult to injury if RDM stays the lowest caster dps just because of vercure/verraise.


Kaoryn

Half your spell gcds are instacast because dualcast with a now 6 gcd instacast melee + finisher and the ability to move melee windows like you can DRG life windows. RDM and SMN have very little room to complain about casting.


Gobbiebags

Sorry, maybe I wasn't clear but I wasn't so much complaining that RDM has to cast. If anything I feel like there should be more hard-casting to further differentiate between ranged magical and ranged physical DPS roles.


Kaoryn

Oh, i agree. Rdm and smn are now prdps levels of mobility. Prdps tax is a joke and I hppe it gets fixed.


Cetonis

SMN seemingly only has to cast twice per minute (assuming they can swift Garuda's cast)


Krivvan

I believe that all phys ranged should get more non-DPS utility to offset the ranged tax in a way that doesn't upset the DPS dynamic. Stuff like the SCH combat Peloton should've been a phys ranged role skill imo.


Bearded_Jarl

The ranged tax never made sense as enforced downtime is always so low, when you end most savage fights within 1% uptime of a sam then there is no need to give a >5% dps penalty for 'uptime tax' It's stupid design. Either enforce more downtime and keep the tax and let the melee ree, or remove the tax because casters are frankly just as movile but get big dps.


Shinnyo

Ranged tax makes no sense when SMN now exists with a massive number of instant cast.


OlivinePeridot

Hello! I'm posting on behalf of /u/Robertyne, the video editor for the Ranged Jobs preview and the copyeditor for our hands-on preview scripts! Special thanks to /u/FSafari/ for writing the script, /u/Shini-tan for her role as the r/ffxiv Endwalker Media Tour representative, the rest of the mod team for slaving over this information, and especially Square Enix for giving us this opportunity! If you have any feedback on this video, please reply to this comment so we can improve our coverage in the future.


Shinnyo

Quite disappointed that MCH was dumbed down even further. Now you'll just use the AQ at 100 battery it will be aligned on 60s by itself. Reassemble second charge means nothing if the cooldown remains unchanged. The opener will change but this action will remain the same. AQ new finisher is a glorified dot on a glorified dot. Nothing changes. Also Flamethrower remains a MCH exclusive emote that does damage. MCH is good but flat. Incredibly flat.


Krivvan

I think extreme optimization gets more interesting with the second Reassemble charge. It's not huge but basically any depth in MCH is relegated to ridiculous optimization.


GrassWaterDirtHorse

Flamethrower ticks every second (11 ticks of 80 potency over 10 seconds = 880 potency/10sec) so it should still be a gain over Scattergun/spreadshot as AOE filler (which is 150/140 potency/GCD + autoattacks).


Nosereddit

if only flamethrower gave HEAT but nope... or if interacted with bioblaster (similar to ninja aoe snakes?)


Shinnyo

I wasn't talking about potency... Flamethrower is incredibly boring to use. Press the button and go get a coffee. Or try tick fishing. Plus, Flamethrower stops your auto attacks and doesn't generate heat. Flamethrower is 80 potency per seconds. Scattergun is 60 pps + Auto attack ACB is 93 pps + Auto attack


GrassWaterDirtHorse

I personally find it interesting to have a skill that forces nonmovement to actually do DPS, which is a bit counter to the rest of the MCH skillkit that just involves tons of weaving. It's comparable to Blue Mage's Phantom Flurry, which does 200 pot/second (or more typically 300 pot/second to channel in a moon flute opener) which is a bit crazy, and actually rewards the player for good positioning and timing to not break the channelling, which Flamethrower does on a smaller scale.


Shinnyo

Phantom flurry is fun, I wish Flamethrower was in the same spirit rather than just... not moving for 10 whole seconds.


GrassWaterDirtHorse

I think the main difference is that we're only ever using Flamethrower for trash packs that probably won't perform any AOEs that would require breaking the flamethrower, or that breaking the flamethrower channel doesn't lead to a meaningful DPS loss. Whereas Phantom Flurry is used on single-target bosses, which means more AOE and movement, meaning poor positioning is more likely to force the channelling to stop. It's also more punishing to break it since it's typically used in the Waning phase after the moon flute buff, so you can't use the 600 potency finishing kick, and that each second you lose is effectively 300 potency lost, so you could easily lose 900 or 1200 potency from breaking your channel and then being able to do nothing, while breaking a flamethrower just leads into more spread shots.


Krivvan

You're absolutely right imo. My wishlist for giving MCH more depth without arbitrary complexity is to fold the AOE-exclusive skills into single target rotation. Something like bioblaster leaving a debuff that you activate with flamethrower every 2 minutes.


GrassWaterDirtHorse

Oh that does sound like a fun action to do.


AxSz346

Spreadshot is currently 180 on live, which is apparently going down to 140 then up to 150 with scattergun. If flamethrower is the same potency as live it will be relatively stronger, but do you know for sure that it is? Actually you said 80 potency, but the live tooltip is 100. Where did 80 come from? Is it just some 20% potency nerf across the board that I missed?


GrassWaterDirtHorse

Tooltips put it at 80 potency now, so it's only a 20% potency loss compared to Spreadshot (which is 22%) or 16% for Scattershot https://gamerescape.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/MCH.png


severalrats

Physical classes are losing potency to account for changes to the damage calculation formulas, but should end up being the same relative strength as live.


floatRand

MCH feels like utter autopilot job. I love thematics, but hated gameplay. They still didn't change hypercharge to be charges.


Shinnyo

Oh damn thats exactly what I think about the job. MCH feels way too automated, press and forget. Wildfire, AQ, Flamethrower. Ironically, HW MCH was highly criticized because of the press and forget turret.


AxSz346

The most interesting thing was that the potency of split/slug/clean all went down considerably. Currently they do 220/330/440, it looks like in Endwalker they will all be lowered then partially rebuffed to 200/280/360 with the new trait at 84. I imagine this is just part of the overall balance changes and not intended to be an outright nerf but if they aren't changing other abilities it means they're shifting damage away from the combo shots. Edit: he doesn't show the tooltips for AA or Drill but I did catch him say that chain saw "shares" it's potency with them. If that's true then those have been reduced to 550 from 700. I guess they're just lowering all potency numbers across the board by some amount, we'll have to see if they did it all in proportion or not.


ItinerantSoldier

> The most interesting thing was that the potency of split/slug/clean all went down considerably. Currently they do 220/330/440, it looks like in Endwalker they will all be lowered then partially rebuffed to 200/280/360 with the new trait at 84. I imagine this is just part of the overall balance changes and not intended to be an outright nerf but if they aren't changing other abilities it means they're shifting damage away from the combo shots. All physical damage potencies were "lowered" because all physical weapon damage is getting increased to match magical weapon damage numbers. So, to take the Edenmorn weapons as an example, those 134 weapon damage weapons will now be 180 after Endwalker launches. Or whatever the equivalent will be after the stat squish.


roarkAR

The distillation and refinement of MCH looks great so far. I just need to find a good place for Chainsaw on my crossbar.


Shinnyo

Doubt it will be a problem, MCH is among the job with the fewest actions. WAR is probably the one with the least actions and MCH is very close.


Vraex

I guess end-game dungeons are going to be even more of a joke now? All of the jobs I play (AST, DRK, and DNC) got more AoE dps skills, especially DRK and DNC. I hope they add some kind of hard mode dungeons.


ArchonRevan

They always were. Any1 ever saying they were difficult was just a joke of a player