Last updated: 8/17/2019
Machinist Best In Slots
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Contents
A Machinist taking aim With a major rework of the class during Shadowbringers, Machinist has become one of the best DPS classes to date. Its complicated rotation was simplified, it has the highest damage output of the three physical ranged DPS classes while also remaining an excellent support class, and overall, is just super fun to play. Minimum 5 game Ffxiv Machinist Best In Slot rounds. Game restrictions apply. Maximum 50 Free Spins on selected games, credited within 48 hours of qualifying. Free Spins expire after 7 days. E-Wallet & Ffxiv Machinist Best In Slot Prepaid Card restrictions apply. SMS validation may be required. Full T&Cs apply. So Id like to say that this information is Machinist Best In Slot gear, not Bard Best In Slot Gear. And although their stat weights are probably the same, their gear stats per piece are not. For example, Machinist Goggles have Dex, Vit, Crit, Skill Speed, however the Aoidos Turban has Dex, Vit, Det, and Skill Speed. This is the best crafted set of armor and weapon that you can find and it can be purchased through the market board. ILvl 460 Deepshadow Weapon, Armor & Accessories The latest patch brought us the Phantasmagoria Tomes which can be exchanged for Deepshadow Armor in Eulmore (x10, y12) by speaking to Aymark.
1 Overview
2 Global Cooldown (GCD) Actions
2.6 Positionals
3 Off-GCD Actions
3.3 Do-More-Damage Buttons
4 Multiple Target Situations
4.2 Three or More Targets
5 The Opener
6 Optimization Station
6.2 Action Specifics
6.2.1 Geirskogul and Nastrond
6.3 Gearing Up
6.3.1 Best Sets Available
Dragoon is a very static melee dps Job. You have strict, long combos to execute and timers within those combos that need to be maintained. Unlike other Jobs especially other melee which rely upon a priority system for their basic GCD rotation, Dragoon instead has static buttons to press in a specific order with very little variance. Shadowbringers brings with it a new reliance on hitting proper positionals to trigger new skills. The Brains Behind the Operation
Eve Malqir (Ultros) the primary writer of this guide; always open to answering questions!
Contact: Evie1153 on Discord Twitch
Xiu Ye (Midgardsormr) the most active Mentor on The Balance Dragoon Discord
Provides the video content that will be sprinkled throughout!
Contact: Xiu Ye0560 on Discord Youtube Twitch Resources
Gear Comparison tool (More accurate, but slower version)
Allows you to fill in your current [Level 80] gear and melds and figure out roughly which set will perform better.
Rotation Builder tool
Allows you to input stats (either your characters stats or ones made with the above Gear tool) and then build a rotation with them to get a more accurate readout of your DPS. You can use this tool to compare multiple rotations with the same gear to see which one outputs more. This tool causes some substantial load, so be cautious when using.
Controller Guide
A simple guide to setting up your controller to play this Job. Old setups are listed within, but Ill be working soon to get updated ones in there!
Tethercalc by Platinum Xephera on Ultros
An incredibly useful tool that you can use to see which member of your party is the proper tether target. You just inject your fflogs link to the fight in question and itll tell you who you tethered and show you who was the best target. Before you ask any questions about how it calculates the damage in the 20s window: anything you think it might have issue with has already been properly solved. It may not be updated for 5.0 yet, but Im sure it will be before Savage.
The bread-and-butter of your rotation, so to speak, these are the buttons you press most frequently. Theyre broken down into several combo chains with various effects and uses. The Chaos Thrust Combo
This combo has our basic damage buff in Disembowel alongside our damage-over-time skill, Chaos Thrust . These two effects are essential to dishing out proper amounts of damage. The Full Thrust Combo
This combo uses our strongest weaponskill, Full Thrust , and thats about it. Its essentially just a filler combo whenever the aforementioned effects are active. Raiden Thrust
This action functions as a direct upgrade to True Thrust after youve successfully completed one of the above combos. If you land your proper positional on the final/fifth hit , True Thrust upgrades to Raiden Thrust ! The Coerthan Torment Combo
Our new and freshly upgraded area-of-effect combo now packs Coerthan Torment as a third hit finisher! This is primarily used when dealing with a group of enemies numbering 3 or more. Basic Rotation
Putting all of this together with the timers, we come out with one single string of actions. In general, under normal circumstances, we want to maintain this sequence of GCDs for as long as we are capable!
The Other Guy
Currently not used. You are safe to unmap it from your bar. With us having two 5-hit combo chains and this button breaking either combo at any stage and the longer runoff for combo maintenance, there is almost no way that this skill will ever find use. If it does, this section will add those niche cases. Positionals
Several actions in the kit deal more damage from the Side of a boss, and several deal more from the Rear . You want to be sure to set up to hit these for extra damage whenever possible. How do I know if Im at the Side or Rear of a target? The arrow at the top is the Front of the target. You get no special bonuses by attacking here, other than lots of bonus deaths for standing in tank busters and cleaves.On the left and right, you will find the Sides of the target. They account for 90 o of the target on either side, but you will generally want to stand near the base of the visible line.At the bottom of the image, theres a gap between the two Sides of the target. This empty space is the Rear . When standing at the base of one Side , it becomes easy to decipher between the two positions you either attack the empty space, or the line.Some enemies will have the Side mark wrapping their entire hitbox, with no arrow to indicate a Front . These target rings are special, in that you will get positional bonuses from every action without needing to worry about where you attack from. All the enemies in the Palace of the Dead, for example, have this special targeting ring. Side Positionals Fang and Claw deals 40 more potency from the Side . Rear Positionals Chaos Thrust and Wheeling Thrust deal 40 more potency from the Rear . Positional Parity
The DPS disparity between landing every single positional and missing every single positional is approximately 4. Meaning, if you would do 10,000 dps while hitting every positional, then you would only deal 9,600 if you missed every single one.
In other words: You should always strive to land every positional in any situation where it is easy to do so, however, there is a priority system to what you should be focused on while learning to optimize a fight.
Handle Mechanics
If you fail a mechanic, you lose the fight, so it doesnt matter how much DPS you gain if it causes you to miss a mechanic.
Stay Alive
Dodge death puddles, avoid standing in boss cleaves, etc. Dont die for DPS, because a death has a negative impact you wont overcome by keeping uptime up until you died.
Maintain Uptime
ABC A lways B e C asting. If your GCD stops spinning, you messed up. Assuming you are handling 1 and 2 properly, focus on keeping your rotation flowing and your GCD staying in constant motion.
Land Positionals
Never let your GCD stop spinning in order to make it to a position for your flank or rear positionals this helps no one and costs you DPS. Focus on landing positionals only after you have mastered the first three steps. Some fights and some strategies will require you to eschew positionals to handle mechanics, stay alive, or maintain uptime. This is okay .
It is not the end of the world if your group stacks on the face of the boss.
The DPS loss is not worth causing wipes over.
These actions have individual recast timers, allowing you to so-called weave them in-between your GCDs. Dragon Spaghetti Blood of the Dragon is our primary mechanic.Under normal circumstances, it should never fall off. Mirage Dive helps us gain Dragon Eyes to build toward Life of the Dragon . Eyes only open when Blood of the Dragon or Life of the Dragon is active. Geirskogul can only be used under Blood of the Dragon , and when you press it with 2 Dragon Eyes open, we enter Life of the Dragon . Under Life of the Dragon , Geirskogul becomes Nastrond .Ideally, you want to press 3 Nastrond before your Life timer runs out.When the Life timer hits 0, you return to Blood with 30 seconds remaining. Additionally, we can utilize Stardiver while under the effects of Life of the Dragon . We will always use exactly 1 Stardiver in each sequence. One Giant Leap for Dragoon Kind Jump and its big brother High Jump are our most important actions. Using it gives us the Dive Ready buff, which grants access to Mirage Dive . Without these friends, Life would be a distant dream. Spineshatter Dive crosses gaps and saves lives. Dont hold it for doing those things, though, because it does do a decent chunk of damage on its own! Dragonfire Dive also closes gaps and explodes damage on everybody.It should be used whenever available, except in the rare case where you will want to hit multiple targets before its back again. The new kid on the block, Stardiver ( STD for short) has a 30 second window in which to use it, each time its available. Your job is to decide when in that time is the best time to orbital strike some coward(s) . Note that High Jump , Spineshatter Dive , Dragonfire Dive , and Stardiver all have long animation lock, meaning you should never pair them with any other actions in one spin of the GCD.
Stardiver in particular has a significant animation lock. When using it, be sure to press it as soon as possible after your GCD. Even with good ping and early pressing, you might encounter clipping if your GCD is anywhere below 2.35. Please hear our prayers, Yoshi-P. Elusive Jump does no damage, so it has just one purpose: traveling long distances quickly, either to escape or to get back to the boss. Do-More-Damage Buttons Lance Charge is the strongest buff in your arsenal.You should always press this button as soon as its available. Dragon Sight should always buff High Jump , Spineshatter Dive , Dragonfire Dive , and the associated Mirage Dive . This skill requires a target in order for its full effect to activate. In a later section, we have included some helpful tips for using this. You can activate the skill without a target, but you lose the second effect entirely. Battle Litany is pretty much just used when its ready. There are times where holding it becomes beneficial. Life Surge doesnt affect the damage-over-time effect of our strongest Weaponskill, Chaos Thrust , so it should always be paired with Full Thrust , where it does affect the whole damage amount. Basic Buff Rotation
Our buffs fall on timers that function pretty well together in the duration of an encounter. Generally speaking, every six minutes our three buffs should automatically re-align. Talking in seconds, our buffs should align like so:
Time 0s
90s
120s
180s
240s
270s
360s
Buff Duration and Optimal Placement
If you have decent practice properly delaying your buffs within the gcd, you should, ideally, be able to get 9 gcd actions under each cast of Lance Charge , Dragon Sight , and Battle Litany , assuming your gcd is in our ideal Skill Speed window. Otherwise, you will get 8.
As our rotation is now 10 GCDs and our buffs last 9, we want to ideally miss only the weakest actions in our rotation with them Disembowel or Raiden Thrust while making sure first that we catch both finishers Chaos Thrust and Full Thrust and then that we catch both 4th and 5th hits Wheeling Thrust and Fang and Claw . That said, below is a graph.
The two rows beneath the GCDs show the total potency gain for using Lance Charge after the above GCD and catching the amount of GCDs listed in the left column. Color coded to show the trends. These values shift if youre using Life Surge on your Full Thrust . The numbers beneath it would shift in favor of covering that Full Thrust quite significantly. GCD 9 GCDs 636.90 638.55 577.50 631.95 615.45 636.9 633.6 603.90 631.95 615.45 8 GCDs 561.00 584.10 524.70 518.10 556.05 561.00 579.15 546.15 544.50 556.05
Using any buffs after the red spaces will cause you to suffer substantial losses.
The yellow spaces are reasonably good enough in comparison to red.
The green spaces guarantee maximum output of your buffs.
We will be operating under the assumption that the fact that our multi-target combo does not extend Disembowel buff is an oversight. Were the only melee that doesnt get that benefit, so its likely a mistake. Someday, based Yoshida will notice us and fix it. Maybe. Two Targets
When up against two targets, youll get more gains out of simply spreading your Chaos Thrust damage over time effect to both targets and keeping them both active. This is done by a simple modification to our basic rotation:
Target 1
Target 2
Three or More Targets
When dealing with any more than two targets, we want to roll into our Coerthan Torment Combo . You want to keep pressing High Jump , Mirage Dive , and all of the other buttons, especially Dragonfire Dive and Geirskogul , as they also hit multiple targets. Once you get your 2 Dragon Eyes , you can roll into Life and drop Nastrond and Stardiver to unleash destruction on a level where only Black Mage can compete. Should I use Disembowel ?
The answer to this question is kinda complicated . When you decide to use Disembowel during trash pulls, you sacrifice the potency of the above combo for two GCDs to apply a 10 damage buff to the subsequent four combos. The question of whether or not this is a gain is a very valid one.
The short answer is yes , you should be using Disembowel during trash.
The long answer is that using it causes you to lose potency overall if youre hitting 4 or more enemies with the above combo, but that potency is very easily made up by any of our various off-gcd area-of-effect actions Geirskogul , Nastrond , Stardiver , and Dragonfire Dive .
Applying Disembowel is 290+320 = 610 potency
Coerthan Torment combo is 200 potency per gcd per mob 400 over 2 gcds
Enemies CoT ppgcd Pot loss for applying DE Pot gain from applied DE Total loss from DE Potency needed to break even Potency needed per enemy Stardiver pot per enemy 3 600 590 720 -130 -1300 -433.33 440.00 4 800 990 960 30 300 75.00 426.25 5 1000 1390 1200 190 1900 380.00 418.00 6 1200 1790 1440 350 3500 583.33 412.50 7 1400 2190 1680 510 5100 728.57 408.57 8 1600 2590 1920 670 6700 837.50 405.63 9 1800 2990 2160 830 8300 922.22 403.33 10 2000 3390 2400 990 9900 990.00 401.50 11 2200 3790 2640 1150 11500 1045.45 400.00 12 2400 4190 2880 1310 13100 1091.67 398.75 13 2600 4590 3120 1470 14700 1130.77 397.69 14 2800 4990 3360 1630 16300 1164.29 396.79 15 3000 5390 3600 1790 17900 1193.33 396.00
Essentially: if, sometime during the duration of Disembowel , you will press off-gcds that sum together to equal the potency needed to break even (AoE skills only need to hit the potency per enemy column) then you should apply it.
At 3, it is always a gain. At 4, you just need 75 potency! Geirskogul alone is 270. Of note is even at 15, you still need less than 1200 the potency of 3 Nastronds .
This table also assumes that monsters will last the full (or most of the full) Disembowel duration.
The formula to directly generate the potency needed per enemy column, knowing the amount of enemies (n) is:
1600 6100/n
Because of the nature of this formula, it has an absolute maximum value of 1600 meaning that, no matter how many enemies you are facing, if you have over 1600 in per-target area-of-effect off gcd actions available to use in those 30 seconds, Disembowel is always worth using.
I know a lot of you have skipped ahead to this section, since you feel like you have a solid grasp on the fundamentals, and I think thats great! The primary use of the Opener is to prepare your cooldown alignment for the rest of the encounter. With our new Job design, its possible that well actually have fight-specific openers down the stretch, and theyll all be added here!
These openers have not been too thoroughly tested as of yet, so please take them with a grain of salt, and if you discover anything that flies counter to what we have listed here, please dont hesitate to ask! Standard [2.36-2.5]
This buff order gives much cleaner alignment with better GCD hits down the road. It mucks with the second Dragon Sight timing a little, but overall its better! Recommended for when were going somewhat slower.
You can delay Spineshatter Dive until after Geirskogul and shift Dragonfire Dive after Life Surge , but should only do so if that change will result in future alignments with raid buffs. This opener causes High Jump and Geirskogul to be separated enough so they dont accidentally collide too easily. Similar for Spineshatter Dive and Dragonfire Dive . Gotta go fast [2.35 and below]
The delayed High Jump looks strange, but ends up lining up better down the stretch. Everything is placed so that this speed tier feels more comfy than it would with things in different places. Its all designed with you in mind.
This section requires playtesting. We are in the process of fleshing it out, now. Thank you for your patience! GCD Rotation
Disengaging from the target can cause your rotation to get forcibly shifted around. When re-engaging (be it after forced disengages or because you felt like taking a lap around the arena), you always only have two options for what you will lead with. Nothing particularly changes, either way, since your ten-GCD sequence will never actually shift.
Disembowel has less than 10 seconds remaining:
Disembowel has more than 10 seconds remaining:
Thats, honestly, all there is to discuss, here. This is more of a judgment call, honestly anything up to around 12 seconds remaining could be clipped, but 10 is the basic cutoff for getting all 5 hits of your Full Thrust Combo with Disembowel s buff before it falls off. You would lose the buff on Raiden Thrust and Disembowel after the fact, but that can be overcome.
The only exception to this rule is if you are going to hit an off-GCD action in that period of time after Disembowel wears off. In that case, you absolutely will want the refresh beforehand. Action Specifics Geirskogul and Nastrond
The general cycle for Life of the Dragon is very straightforward: 30s 10s 10s repeat
1
2 Life
Not so obviously, following this rotation is not always optimal. If you do follow this throughout the encounter, your output will, in general, be just fine. Its just that there are some cases where you will want to delay your Life cycle by a single Geirskogul cast.
The basic idea is to choose between pressing Mirage Dive before or after Geirskogul when the Mirage Dive would fill your second Dragon Eye . The decision forces you to ask the simple question: Will my Nastrond and Stardiver fall under more buffs ( Lance Charge and Dragon Sight , primarily) by entering Life now, or if I enter in 30 more seconds, instead? You should be considering the remaining time on the recast timers for your buff actions when making this decision. The following chart should help to make it more clear.
Assuming you already have 1 Eye and High Jump is coming up soon: If at least one buff has less than 30s remaining If all buffs have more than 30s remaining, but at least one has less than 60s If all buffs have more than 60s remaining Nastrond and Buffs
Because our buff actions fall into a rather static rotation (as seen above), we can extrapolate these concepts over the course of six minutes and get a general Life of the Dragon Rotation so to speak, which shows us when we hold it and when we dont. This will only hold true if we have six minutes of continuous uptime that is, we can land every one of the High Jump , Geirskogul , Mirage Dive , Nastrond , and Stardiver hits listed in this visual representation, while ideally dropping zero gcds in that same window. As such, it is very rarely ever going to be the optimal approach, and the above chart will serve you better in most situations. Act 0 10 20 30 40 50 1m 10 20 30 40 50 2m 10 20 30 40 50 3m 10 20 30 40 50 4m 10 20 30 40 50 5m 10 20 30 40 50 6m
HJ
HJ
HJ
HJ
HJ
HJ
HJ
HJ
HJ
HJ
HJ
HJ
HJ
MD
MD
MD
MD
MD
MD
MD
MD
MD
MD
MD
MD
MD
1
2
1
2
1
2
1
2
1
2
1
2
1
G
G
G
G
G
G
G
G
G
G
G
G
G
N N N
N N N
N N N
N N N
N N N
N N N
S
S
S
S
S
S
After the final buff window, the rotation repeats from the 30s column, quite obviously.
As you can see, the only place we currently even employ this strategy is for our very first Life entry. After that, we just let the skills fall where they may and they naturally align neatly with buff windows. Keep in mind that this could change if a boss jumps out of the arena at an odd time, so you should still learn the general idea behind the priority system! Dragon Sight
You need to be close to the target of your affections to properly give them a buff. If the target moves away from you, however, you will retain your buff . So its really only their loss. You can usually just worry about activating the skill and then stop worrying about whether or not it stays on your target. As of this expansion, you can now activate the skill without a target , though this is NOT RECOMMENDED , because you will only receive the 10 damage buff, and the 5 buff will be lost for that use, completely. No one gets it.
This skill is notoriously hard to use, already. Optimal handling:
Mouseover (mo) macro if you play mouse and keyboard.
Soft targeting (up/down on d-pad) without a macro if you play with a controller.
Different options are listed below, with varying degrees of usefulness/ease of use.
Mouseover Macro Mixed Macro One Specific Ally /merror off
/ac Dragon Sight mo
/ac Dragon Sight mo
/ac Dragon Sight mo
/ac Dragon Sight mo
/ac Dragon Sight mo
/ac Dragon Sight mo
/ac Dragon Sight mo
/ac Dragon Sight mo
/ac Dragon Sight mo
/ac Dragon Sight mo
/ac Dragon Sight mo
/ac Dragon Sight mo
/ac Dragon Sight mo/micon Dragon Sight /merror off/ac Dragon Sight mo
/ac Dragon Sight mo
/ac Dragon Sight mo
/ac Dragon Sight mo
/ac Dragon Sight mo
/ac Dragon Sight mo
/ac Dragon Sight mo/ac Dragon Sight 2
/ac Dragon Sight 2/ac Dragon Sight 2
/ac Dragon Sight 2
/ac Dragon Sight 2
/ac Dragon Sight 2
/micon Dragon Sight
/merror off/ac Dragon Sight 2
/ac Dragon Sight 2
/ac Dragon Sight 2
/ac Dragon Sight 2
/ac Dragon Sight 2
/ac Dragon Sight 2
/ac Dragon Sight 2
/ac Dragon Sight 2
/ac Dragon Sight 2
/ac Dragon Sight 2
/ac Dragon Sight 2
/ac Dragon Sight 2
/ac Dragon Sight 2/micon Dragon Sight
Will simply place the tether onto your mouseover target. Just hover your mouse over the proper player in the party list and press the button and you cast it on the proper player. Optimal macro to use with mouse and keyboard . Mixes left with right to create a macro that would prioritize your mouseover target, but default to your preferred party list position/member. Useful if you dont trust your ability to mouseover, but you should really just practice that and shift to the mouseover one instead, eventually. Specifically targets whoever is at position 2. The number or party list can be altered as needed. Rather inflexible in use, but very consistent in execution. Can also replace the number with a specific character name, for static raiding.
For controller, I recommend learning to soft-target and dropping all reliance on macros.
For keyboard/mouse, I recommend 1-3 specific ally macros for reliable friends and a mouseover as a backup (or primary, your call). Gearing Up
As things appear to be right now, our stat priority has not changed!
Critical Hit Rate Direct Hit Rate Determination Skill Speed
I recommend you use the gear comparison tool in the resources section to actually get a better idea of how melds affect your DPS!
Just meld (with 6s; 8s have a 40 removal chance and you will want to save those for bis!) and wear highest item level gear, for now! Best Sets Available GCD Food Critical Hit Determination Direct Hit Skill Speed 2.45 Popoto Salad 3667 1814 2472 814 2.38 Popoto Salad 3520 1635 2106 1526 2.49 Robe Lettuce Salad 3605 1970 2772 440
The 2.49 set provides you with a particularly slow GCD speed for people who prefer that for one reason or another. You are also incapable of getting 9 GCDs (still unable to get fewer than 8, as well, assuming you dont delay any GCD) under your buff actions at that speed, so if youre feeling lazy about trying to push as hard as you can, its a very good alternative.
2.45 is, in my opinion, the most comfortable of the sets. Its slow enough for easy double weaves, but fast enough for 9 GCDs in buffs if you push for it. It will parse well (arguably the best among them under certain conditions), and just overall feels good.
2.38 is a bit faster than the above sets, but could theoretically also be the strongest among them. The faster speeds will make double weaving tougher with high ping, but also makes 9 GCD buffs much much easier than the 2.45 set. The rotation similarly feels nice and smooth and flows really well.
These three sets are interchangeable for your best in slot needs. The latter two (2.45 and 2.38) can actually both be built on one character and freely swapped between. The way Ive organized the melds is very particular in that they meld the exact same materia into every piece they share, so youll just need to swap which pieces you have equipped to change between the sets! Cool, right? Yeah, it is. DPS Comparison Between Sets
Below is a graph comparing the total DPS of each of the three above sets over time. Ive clipped out the opener to avoid having a super zoomed out graph to show the peaks (which are around 23,000, in case you were curious). Please note that the Y-Axis only shows values from 14,250 to 15,750 which results in seeing huge gaps between the mins and maxes which make the variation appear to be much larger than it actually is.
Ill be retooling rotations to get a graph that extends to 7 minutes to catch the 6:00 burst at a later time. How Fast Can We Go?
Our sweet spot for GCD appears to be somewhere between 2.25 and 2.47.
Life Surge s 45s cooldown means that once we go faster than 2.25, well start to severely delay it if we want to keep it on Full Thrust .
Chaos Thrust having a 24s duration means that if we go slower than 2.47, we will see noticeable dot dropping, between recasts. This, in general, will not be a significant issue, but it is worth noting.
4.X Intermediate Machinist Guide
Contents
1 Openers and Rotations
2 3 ammo opener
3 High ping 3 ammo opener
4 2 ammo opener
5 General rotation details
6 Fight specific tips
7 Gear
8 Credits Table of contents
This is an intermediate guide for lvl 70 machinists starting endgame. It will compile information from The Balance Discord and cover rotations along with general ability details. However, tooltips will not be covered as by level 70 you should be familiar with them.
Machinist is a class with a static 60 second rotation that involves little to no on-the-fly decision making or adjustments. Because all of Machinists cooldown timers align with each other (15s / 30s / 60s / 120s), they need to be always used in the same order with the same timing that is dictated by the opener. After the initial alignment, all you need to do is keep hitting every skill on cooldown to keep the rotation going and aligned. There are two general rotation types discussed below, 2 ammo and 3 ammo.
Visual overview of the rotations can be found here.
Differences between 2 ammo and 3 ammo rotations
The names come from the number of preloaded ammo used in the opener. A more practical difference is in the way Reload and Quick Reload are used. 2 ammo uses Reload to setup procs for Wildfire while 3 ammo uses Quick Reload.
Reload setup makes the Wildfire preparation longer for 2 ammo, but also allows it to use only 1 tick of Flamethrower, which can be used while fully mobile. On the downside, using Reload to setup procs for Wildfire means that it aligns again with Gauss Barrel + Barrel Stabilizer reapplication and cant be used perfectly on cooldown. This makes the rotation 61-62 seconds long and misaligns from Trick Attack windows unless the NIN is syncing up with Wildfire. Skill speed can be a problem for 2 ammo because of the Reload timings, the rotation only works smoothly at 2.45 GCD or slower.
3 ammo is able to setup Wildfire faster with Quick Reload, but has to use Flamethrower for 2 ticks, which means Flamethrower must be used while remaining still. This can be a problem for mechanics, but there are ways around it. 3 ammo rotation is also typically 61-62 seconds long, but it can be shortened by clipping one GCD to allow for better Trick Attack alignment and to choose between 1 or 2 ticks of Flamethrower. Clipping in this manner is generally not a dps loss at low skill speeds due to shortened rotation length and better raid buff alignment.
Neither rotation is strictly better or worse but 3 ammo is generally more flexible with varying amounts of skill speed and better at high levels of optimization due to raid buff alignments. 2 ammo can be better in high mobility scenarios and when downtime prevents strict raid buff timings.
Ideal skill speed range 364-848 (2.43-2.50 GCD)
3 ammo (Infusion) (Hypercharge) Hot Shot (Quick Reload + Gauss Round) Split Shot Slug Shot (Flamethrower 5 tick + Overheat) Split Shot (Reload + Wildfire) Clean Shot (Rapid Fire + Ricochet) Slug Shot (Reassemble) Clean Shot (Gauss Round) Cooldown (Rook Overload) Cooldown (Quick Reload) Split Shot Slug Shot Split Shot Hot Shot (Gauss Barrel + Barrel Stabilizer) Continue
Midfire Rotation
This mid-fight Wildfire setup is generally the same as the opener with some small changes in the preparation, highlighted in red below. You will naturally reach 70 heat with one Cooldown in the rotation before Wildfire.
70 Heat (Quick Reload) Split Shot (Flamethrower 2 tick + Overheat) Cooldown (Reload + Wildfire) Cooldown (Rapid Fire + Ricochet) Slug Shot (Reassemble) Clean Shot (Gauss Round) Cooldown (Rook Overload / Heartbreak) Cooldown (Quick Reload) Split Shot Slug Shot Split Shot Hot Shot (Gauss Barrel + Barrel Stabilizer) Continue
3 ammo can be shortened by one GCD to allow for perfect Trick Attack alignment by starting Wildfire preparation at 65 heat but waiting before Flamethrower until Wildfire cooldown has around 4 seconds left. This causes Gauss Round to move to the last empty position in the sequence and Overload to after the last Cooldown.
65 Heat (Quick Reload) Split Shot (Flamethrower 2 tick + Overheat) Cooldown (Reload + Wildfire) Cooldown (Rapid Fire + Ricochet) Slug Shot (Reassemble) Clean Shot (Heartbreak) Cooldown (Gauss Round) Cooldown (Quick Reload + Rook Overload) Split Shot Slug Shot Split Shot Hot Shot (Gauss Barrel + Barrel Stabilizer) Continue
If mobility is a concern, the 2 tick Flamethrower can be converted to 1 tick by forgoing the mid-rotation Cooldown which makes the rotation reach 95 heat instead of 65. This is a slight dps loss, but allows full mobility. Its important to note that you will need to wait longer before using Flamethrower than with 2 ticks and cant go back to using 2 ticks without delaying the next Wildfire slightly to wait for Flamethrower cooldown.
Proc optimization
Depending on what procs you have going into Quick Reload your GCD order will change to make the most out of them, however, all oGCDs should be used in the same order as before. The basic concept is to replace the procs you dont have with a Cooldown.
Online casino deposit 5 minimum . No procs:
(QR) Split (FT) CD (WF) CD Slug Clean CD CD or
(QR) Split (FT) CD (WF) Slug CD Clean CD CD
Slug proc:
(QR) Slug (FT) CD (WF) CD CD Clean CD CD
Clean proc:
(QR) Split (FT) CD (WF) Clean Slug Clean CD CD
Math for the proc scenarios.
Changes at high skill speed
Below 2.40 GCD the rotation will start clipping before Gauss Barrel reapplication after Wildfires. Using an extra unheated shot before Barrel Stabilizer will solve most issues. At even higher speeds GCD will also need to be added before Quick Reload at the Wildfire preparation.
This opener is only able to get 5 GCDs under Overheat because it interrupts Flamethrower with Wildfire instead of a GCD. However, it guarantees that all Wildfire GCDs are under the Overheat buff so it works best if you cant fit 6 GCDs into it because of high latency with the other rotations.
Ideal skill speed as low as possible
3 ammo (Infusion) (Hypercharge) (Gauss Round) Hot Shot (Quick Reload) Split Shot Slug Shot (Flamethrower 5 ticks + Overheat) (Wildfire) Clean Shot (Reload + Rapid Fire) Split Shot (Gauss Round) Slug Shot (Reassemble) Clean Shot (Ricochet) Cooldown (Rook Overload) Split Shot (Quick Reload) Split Shot* Slug Shot* Hot Shot (Gauss Round) Split Shot* (Gauss Barrel + Barrel Stabilizer) Continue
*example GCDs, use your procs if you get them
Midfire Rotation Machinist Best In Slots
This is a shortened rotation like the 95/65 heat version of the regular 3 ammo which means you will need to wait for cooldown timers before starting your midfire. It allows for perfect Trick Attack alignment even with high ping because of the natural room for GCD clipping. Theres a 95 heat version with Wildfire+Flamethrower entry and a 65 heat version with 2 tick Flamethrower entry.
95 Heat (Quick Reload) Split Shot (Wildfire + Flamethrower 1 tick + Overheat) Cooldown (Reload + Rapid Fire) Cooldown (Gauss Round) Slug Shot (Reassemble) Clean Shot (Ricochet) Cooldown (Rook Overload / Heartbreak) Cooldown / Split Shot (Quick Reload) Split Shot* Slug Shot* Hot Shot (Gauss Round) Split Shot* (Gauss Barrel + Barrel Stabilizer) Continue
*example GCDs, use your procs if you get them
After reaching 95 heat and using Quick Reload, wait until theres 1 second remaining on Wildfire timer before continuing. Using Wildfire+Flamethrower double weave allows you to get 6 GCDs under Overheat with good ping, but also guarantees that the 5 Wildfire GCDs are under it even in worse conditions. This is the more mobile version of the two because of 1 tick Flamethrower and allows for more latency-based clipping. Flamethrower and Wildfire can also be used the other way around to give more room for Wildfire duration and a more flexible heat entry.
65 Heat (Quick Reload) Split Shot (Flamethrower 2 ticks + Overheat) (Wildfire) Cooldown (Reload + Rapid Fire) Cooldown (Gauss Round) Slug Shot (Reassemble) Clean Shot (Ricochet) Cooldown (Rook Overload / Heartbreak) Cooldown / Split Shot (Quick Reload) Split Shot* Slug Shot* Hot Shot (Gauss Round) Split Shot* (Gauss Barrel + Barrel Stabilizer) Continue
*example GCDs, use your procs if you get them
Use one Cooldown in the rotation between Wildfires to reach 65 heat and wait until Reload has 4 seconds remaining on timer before using Flamethrower. Using 2 ticks of Flamethrower is slightly higher potency but less mobile. It makes you clip your GCD with the Wildfire application but since this is a shortened rotation it doesnt actually result in further dps loss unless you have very low skill speed and lag a lot during Rapid Fire. If the amount of latency pushes back your Wildfire cycle, you can use the 95 heat version to allow more room for clipping.
Proc optimization
Depending on what procs you have going into Quick Reload your GCD order will change to make the most out of them, however, all oGCDs should be used in the same order as before.
No procs:
(QR) Split (WF FT) CD CD Slug Clean CD CD or
(QR) Split (WF FT) CD Slug CD Clean CD CD
Slug proc:
(QR) Slug (WF FT) CD CD CD Clean CD CD
Clean proc:
(QR) Split (WF FT) Clean CD Slug Clean CD CD or
(QR) Split (WF FT) Clean Slug CD Clean CD CD
Math for the proc scenarios.
Changes at high skill speed
At high skill speeds its better to use the 65 heat version of the rotation for the higher potency since youll still stay below the 60 second threshold anyway. If your skill speed reaches ridiculous levels (faster than 2.40s GCD), you can add another GCD before midfire for a 70 heat rotation, but that will likely make you drift out of raid buffs due to the increased cycle time.
Ideal skill speed range 364-714 (2.45-2.50 GCD)
2 ammo (Infusion) (Hypercharge) Hot Shot (Gauss Round) Split Shot (Reload) Slug Shot (Flamethrower 5 tick + Overheat) Split Shot (Wildfire + Reassemble) Clean Shot (Quick Reload + Rapid Fire) Slug Shot (Ricochet) Clean Shot (Gauss Round) Cooldown (Rook Overload) Cooldown Split Shot* Split Shot* Hot Shot (Quick Reload) Split Shot* (Gauss Barrel + Barrel Stabilizer) Slug Shot* (Gauss Round + Reload) Continue
*example GCDs, use your procs if you get them
Midfire Rotation
You will naturally reach 90 heat. Alternatively you can use mid-fight Wildfire under the High Ping 2 ammo rotation which makes you reach 95 heat before 2nd wildfire and 90 from there on.
90 Heat (Gauss Round + Reload) Split Shot Slug Shot Split Shot (Flamethrower 1-2 tick + Overheat) Cooldown (Wildfire + Reassemble) Clean Shot (Quick Reload + Rapid Fire) Slug Shot (Ricochet) Clean Shot (Gauss Round) Cooldown (Rook Overload / Heartbreak) Cooldown Split Shot Split Shot* Hot Shot (Quick Reload) Split Shot* (Gauss Barrel + Barrel Stabilizer) Slug Shot* (Gauss Round + Reload) Continue
*example GCDs, use your procs if you get them
Proc optimization
Depending on what procs you have going into Reload your GCD order will change to make the most out of them, however, all oGCDs should be used in the same order as before.
No procs:
(Reload) Split Slug Split (FT) CD (WF) Clean Slug Clean CD CD
Slug proc with 2 tick Flamethrower (needs at least 85 heat):
(Reload) Slug Split CD (FT) CD (WF) Clean Slug Clean CD CD or
(Reload) CD Slug Split (FT) CD (WF) Clean Slug Clean CD CD
Clean proc (needs 90 or below heat):
Clean (Reload) Split Slug (FT) Split (WF) Clean Slug Clean CD CD
Math for the proc scenarios.
Changes at high skill speed
Generally 2 ammo doesnt work well with faster GCD speeds than 2.45s. Theres no way to completely remedy the clipping that starts to happen with Reload and Quick Reload timings without extending the rotation. Below 2.47 GCD the Reload before midfires can be pushed ahead 1 GCD similar to the opener and Clean proc scenario to avoid clipping, however the Quick Reload around 85 heat will start to clip around 2.44 GCD and below. The proc optimization for the 95 heat rotation is covered in the external link.
Ammo and Procs
Outside of Wildfire, ammo should always be used to gain procs if possible, but Reload and Quick Reload should never be delayed because of it. Ammo by itself is 25 potency, but gaining a proc with it is an extra 20 potency (50 chance to gain 40 potency on the following GCD), granted that youll have time to use it. Therefore ammo should always be used on either Split Shot or Slug Shot unless both Slug Shot and Clean Shot are already loaded, then your best option is Clean Shot.
Flamethrower and Overheat
Flamethrower ticks once per second, for a total of 11 ticks, and its mainly used to Overheat for Wildfire. To get 6 GCDs under the Overheat buff, the first GCD under it must be used as soon as the Overheat starts. Generally Overheat is started either with 1 tick or 2 ticks of Flamethrower and both require different timing.
When Overheating at 80 heat or above, time Flamethrower 60-70 into the GCD cycle to start Overheat just before your next GCD is ready. Otherwise your Overheat will start way too soon and the 6th GCD will not be under the buff.
When Overheating at below 80 heat, 2 or more ticks are required. This means youll be clipping your GCD cycle and will have to predict the last tick. Use Flamethrower as early as possible and input your next GCD as soon as Overheat starts to make fitting 6 GCDs into the buff possible.
Hypercharge
Hypercharge buff fits 7 turret attacks and inflicts the attacked target with a total of 6*3+10 = 28 seconds of Vulnerability if focused the entire duration. It should be used to cover the highest potency part of the rotation: heated shots and Wildfire. A good rule of thumb is to use it 15 seconds before Wildfire. Potion usage follows the same principles.
Turret Overload
Overload is best used before downtime or snap shot at the end of raid buffs. All raid buffs besides Dragon Sight affect turrets. Personal buffs do not, except for attribute boosting ones (potions / food). Wildfire does not collect Turret or Overload damage but raid buffs are used in conjunction with the Wildfire burst window, so generally Overload will be used there the same way as in the opener.
When it comes to downtime, a good rule of thumb is that if a disconnect is 15 seconds or longer, its better to use Overload for the disconnect rather than for raid buffs, because the practical cap for stacked raid buff multiplier is around 1.5x which would make the Overload gain 400 potency.
Overload condenses 30 seconds of Turret damage into a single instance and using it to cover a window of downtime is essentially equal to the turret never stopping its attacks. In 15 seconds Rook is able to output 400 potency which is the same gain as you would get from stacked raid buffs and longer disconnects will only increase the gain, up to the maximum of 800 potency with 30 seconds of Turret Reset overlapping the downtime window.
Bishop Overload is a 400 potency gain on 2 targets even without downtime or raid buffs and at 3 targets already a 1000 potency gain, which overtakes Rook Overload even with a perfectly matched downtime window.
Role Skills
As of patch 4.4 you can now equip all 10 role skills and dont have to choose.
Recovering from mistakes or death
Theres generally two ways of recovering from mistakes: delaying Wildfire or delaying an oGCD ability that has been misaligned. Assuming raid buffs timings havent been screwed up, the latter is usually the better option. So, if you forget to use an oGCD in time, the easiest way is to simply delay it until it comes up again in the rotation. That way it gets realigned to its normal position. If theres downtime or raid buff rotation has been misaligned, or the mistake is a small one GCD delay for one or more abilities, delaying Wildfire is a valid option to let the misaligned timers catch up to the rotation. This minimizes the chance of losing usages over the encounter but changes the Wildfire timings.
Recovering from death is simple when youre familiar with the rotation. The general idea is to get Hot Shot and Turret back up and hold all abilities that have a cooldown timer longer than there is time left on the Wildfire cooldown. This way all the necessary abilities are ready for the burst rotation and get realigned in their correct position when you use Wildfire the next time. If youre unsure what should be held back, its better to hold everything rather than nothing.
Barrel Stabilizer and Flamethrower should be among the abilities held, because the loss from unheated shots is generally lower than the potency loss of a Non-Overheated Wildfire (30 potency loss per GCD vs 800 potency loss from no Overheat). Just be prepared to do a longer burn with Flamethrower to Overheat from the lower heat count.
If you do use Barrel Stabilizer or Flamethrower accidently out of their usual place and want to keep Wildfire aligned with raid buff windows, your only choice is to do Wildfire without Overheat and realign the abilities for the next one. Replace Cooldowns in Wildfire with regular shots as necessary to maintain heat.
These will be updated as people find better ways to optimize the encounters.
O5S Phantom Train
Save the second Overload to use Bishop Overload on the adds. Avoid using long cooldowns on the train car ghost if youre forced to kill it. At low gear levels Wildfire might be necessary but its preferable if a WAR, RDM or NIN skips the phase for you.
Dismantle is good for mitigating Head On and staying close. If youre getting knocked back, pop Sprint beforehand to get quickly back in range.
O6S Demon Chadarnook
This is a near 100 uptime fight so use everything on cooldown. If youre using the 65 heat rotation, you will be able to use 2 ticks of Flamethrower before dodging the stacked AoEs when prepping your 3rd Wildfire, pop Sprint for extra safety.
Airplane (black paint) removes Turret from the battlefield, remember to resummon it.
Depending on rotation or delays, you might have to paint for Siren during Wildfire. Try to do it during your prep and have someone else finish the painting at the right time. Tight Wildfire cycle should allow you to finish burst before painting.
Dismantle is great on Demonic Howls, the one after Lullaby being the most dangerous one.
O7S Guardian
Bring Head Graze (Silence) for Ultros Stoneskin cast.
You will need to do a Hot Shot Flamethrower opener or hold Wildfire before Ultros if you get Biblio for first pattern because the boss jumps away before Wildfire has a chance to explode.
If youre doing a regular opener, you will need to be pre-shielded and stand on the side, away from the party, to reduce chances of being targeted by the first Magitek Beam because you will be unable to move during Flamethrower.
Dont use Wildfire on the Airforce adds. You should be able to get an extra use of Gauss Round and Quick Reload before moving back to boss for Wildfire when you end up delaying. If adds line up with your Gauss Lockout, ask for help as youll have trouble killing yours in time.
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Biblio is the only potential target for Bishop Overload depending on kill time. Ultros doesnt provide any gains since the boss will be untargetable for a period of time even after Ultros dies and Dadaluma aligns badly because of Hypercharge.
Dismantle is great for the AoE right after the second Airforce adds and during Biblio AoE spam.
O8S Kefka
The 2nd Wildfire needs to be delayed due to Graven Image so dont use Hot Shot after your first Wildfire, youll save a cast if you reapply it before the first Graven.
Overload should be used in the opener and then before X:45 on the fight timer to optimally cover for all the disconnects. When encounter time gets shorter, dont use Overload for the last Graven disconnect but save it for the end of the fight for better value.
When fighting against enrage, use Hypercharge on cooldown to get an extra usage. Otherwise coordinate with other raid buffs. Also hold 5th Wildfire until right after the 5th Graven to get another use at 6:25 with raid buffs. When you start killing below 6:35, start using your Wildfire before 5th Graven. This requires tight timings so 3 ammo is recommended.
Dismantle is great on the Light of Judgement, although the first one is tricky because its at the same time with Wildfire prep.
Remember to use your reloads during disconnects to keep alignments.
O8S God Kefka
Everything should be used on cooldown except for the Wildfire that aligns with the sleep and confusion tethers. If youre using 2 tick Flamethrower, use North / South position for skull tethers so you get it out safely during the first Forsaken.
MP is very important in this fight so use Refresh on cooldown after getting the first one out sometime between Celestriad and the first Heartless Archangel.
Use Dismantle on the Light of Judgement and plan other uses around that. Palisade is good for Ultimate Embrace when tanks are low on cooldowns and sharing the buster.
O9S Chaos
With Blaze pattern Wildfire the Dark Crystal. With Tsunami youll have to hold.
O10S Midgardsormr
Shortened HSFT opener and no-drift rotations can be used to try and hit 4 Wildfires on the boss before add phase, but its possible that a fast instance might make the explosion fizzle.
For normal opener and drifting rotations hold the 4th Wildfire and ask for a personal nail in the add phase to Wildfire solo while the party focuses on other ones.
Its possible to squeeze 2 Wildfires before Hot Tail but youll have to start Flamethrower before boss is targetable, go into your HSWF immediately when you can and do a zero-drift rotation with Flamethrower during the orbs. Doing this makes the rest of the Wildfires line up better with buffs but depending on kill time might not be worth the risk.
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The Ancient Dragon in add phase and boss after Hot tail are good targets for Overload.
O11S Omega
Hold Hypercharge during Level Checker to have a complete reopener when boss comes back. Do use Overload though. Reopen with 2 GCD prep or you might have trouble finishing your Wildfire if youre in the first group of people to be stunned by fists later in the fight.
O12S Omega-M and Omega-F
Overload in the opener and for each of the number phases disconnects.
O12S The Final Omega
Dismantle Ion Effluxes.
Suzaku Extreme
Shortened HSFT opener can be used to land a Wildfire before first jump, but you can only land 2 in total before the DDR phase. Reopen with 1-2 GCD prep to fit a full Wildfire before being stunned by mechanics later in the fight.
General stat priority
Weapon Damage Dexterity Critical hit Direct Hit = Determination Skill Speed
The reasoning behind this is that Critical hit is the best scaling secondary stat and with enough focus it provides higher expected damage than other stats. Direct Hit and Determination both offer similar linear gains with Direct Hit being slightly stronger for most gear sets. Skill speed is the least valuable stat because more than 30 of Machinists damage doesnt scale with it, on top of causing some rotational issues. The main benefit is that it makes the 6 GCD Overheat window slightly less tight.
Best-in-Slot
Choose your gear set based on what GCD speed gets you the most consistent 6 GCD Overheat and what rotation type youre most comfortable with. Faster GCD means easier Overheat timing and better raid buff alignment. Slow sets can use the shortened 3 ammo rotation for better raid buff alignment and faster cycle time if required or preferred.
Patch 4.55 gear sets
Hydatos Hat Crit overcap meld vs DH is better with 2 sources of crit buffs (DRG/BRD/SCH). Relic Weapon (ilvl405) with any non-SkS roll of at least 600 stats will be BiS.
2.50 gcd Tome Hydatos Set: http://ffxiv.ariyala.com/18LU9 2.46 gcd Raid Hydatos Set: http://ffxiv.ariyala.com/18LUB Other sets
Tome Gloves can be used for easier 6GCD OH, the Faster Set also uses a SkS meld to break the GCD tier. Crafted Gloves and Omega Head are good if you dont have Eureka gear.
2.44 gcd Fast Set: http://ffxiv.ariyala.com/17BFJ 2.43 gcd Faster Set: http://ffxiv.ariyala.com/17B4A UCOB 2.50 gcd: http://ffxiv.ariyala.com/183HE (ty fox and clem) UWU 2.50 gcd: http://ffxiv.ariyala.com/18BEP (ty clem)
Rotation and gear calculations
Low ping rotations assume 6 GCD Overheat.
High ping rotations assume 5 GCD Overheat. Machinist Best In Slot Wow
Document written by Lynn Nuvestrahl (Odin). Feedback, suggestions and questions are welcome at The Balance discord Machinist channels or at Lynn8794.
Special thanks
Bevin (Daddy Devito, Ragnarok)
Lavi (Lavieh Sevald, Sargatanas)
Fox (Fox Dyo, Shiva)
Sune (Sune Szihu, Balmung)
Clem (Clementia Kaiser, Ragnarok) Machinist Best In Slot Kit
Nemekh (Nemekh Kinryuu, Exodus)
Laqi (Laqi Thish, Sargatanas)
Orinx (Pimoh Orinx, Gilgamesh)
The TheoryJerks community
And everybody in The Balance Machinist community!
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Contents
A Machinist taking aim With a major rework of the class during Shadowbringers, Machinist has become one of the best DPS classes to date. Its complicated rotation was simplified, it has the highest damage output of the three physical ranged DPS classes while also remaining an excellent support class, and overall, is just super fun to play. Minimum 5 game Ffxiv Machinist Best In Slot rounds. Game restrictions apply. Maximum 50 Free Spins on selected games, credited within 48 hours of qualifying. Free Spins expire after 7 days. E-Wallet & Ffxiv Machinist Best In Slot Prepaid Card restrictions apply. SMS validation may be required. Full T&Cs apply. So Id like to say that this information is Machinist Best In Slot gear, not Bard Best In Slot Gear. And although their stat weights are probably the same, their gear stats per piece are not. For example, Machinist Goggles have Dex, Vit, Crit, Skill Speed, however the Aoidos Turban has Dex, Vit, Det, and Skill Speed. This is the best crafted set of armor and weapon that you can find and it can be purchased through the market board. ILvl 460 Deepshadow Weapon, Armor & Accessories The latest patch brought us the Phantasmagoria Tomes which can be exchanged for Deepshadow Armor in Eulmore (x10, y12) by speaking to Aymark.
1 Overview
2 Global Cooldown (GCD) Actions
2.6 Positionals
3 Off-GCD Actions
3.3 Do-More-Damage Buttons
4 Multiple Target Situations
4.2 Three or More Targets
5 The Opener
6 Optimization Station
6.2 Action Specifics
6.2.1 Geirskogul and Nastrond
6.3 Gearing Up
6.3.1 Best Sets Available
Dragoon is a very static melee dps Job. You have strict, long combos to execute and timers within those combos that need to be maintained. Unlike other Jobs especially other melee which rely upon a priority system for their basic GCD rotation, Dragoon instead has static buttons to press in a specific order with very little variance. Shadowbringers brings with it a new reliance on hitting proper positionals to trigger new skills. The Brains Behind the Operation
Eve Malqir (Ultros) the primary writer of this guide; always open to answering questions!
Contact: Evie1153 on Discord Twitch
Xiu Ye (Midgardsormr) the most active Mentor on The Balance Dragoon Discord
Provides the video content that will be sprinkled throughout!
Contact: Xiu Ye0560 on Discord Youtube Twitch Resources
Gear Comparison tool (More accurate, but slower version)
Allows you to fill in your current [Level 80] gear and melds and figure out roughly which set will perform better.
Rotation Builder tool
Allows you to input stats (either your characters stats or ones made with the above Gear tool) and then build a rotation with them to get a more accurate readout of your DPS. You can use this tool to compare multiple rotations with the same gear to see which one outputs more. This tool causes some substantial load, so be cautious when using.
Controller Guide
A simple guide to setting up your controller to play this Job. Old setups are listed within, but Ill be working soon to get updated ones in there!
Tethercalc by Platinum Xephera on Ultros
An incredibly useful tool that you can use to see which member of your party is the proper tether target. You just inject your fflogs link to the fight in question and itll tell you who you tethered and show you who was the best target. Before you ask any questions about how it calculates the damage in the 20s window: anything you think it might have issue with has already been properly solved. It may not be updated for 5.0 yet, but Im sure it will be before Savage.
The bread-and-butter of your rotation, so to speak, these are the buttons you press most frequently. Theyre broken down into several combo chains with various effects and uses. The Chaos Thrust Combo
This combo has our basic damage buff in Disembowel alongside our damage-over-time skill, Chaos Thrust . These two effects are essential to dishing out proper amounts of damage. The Full Thrust Combo
This combo uses our strongest weaponskill, Full Thrust , and thats about it. Its essentially just a filler combo whenever the aforementioned effects are active. Raiden Thrust
This action functions as a direct upgrade to True Thrust after youve successfully completed one of the above combos. If you land your proper positional on the final/fifth hit , True Thrust upgrades to Raiden Thrust ! The Coerthan Torment Combo
Our new and freshly upgraded area-of-effect combo now packs Coerthan Torment as a third hit finisher! This is primarily used when dealing with a group of enemies numbering 3 or more. Basic Rotation
Putting all of this together with the timers, we come out with one single string of actions. In general, under normal circumstances, we want to maintain this sequence of GCDs for as long as we are capable!
The Other Guy
Currently not used. You are safe to unmap it from your bar. With us having two 5-hit combo chains and this button breaking either combo at any stage and the longer runoff for combo maintenance, there is almost no way that this skill will ever find use. If it does, this section will add those niche cases. Positionals
Several actions in the kit deal more damage from the Side of a boss, and several deal more from the Rear . You want to be sure to set up to hit these for extra damage whenever possible. How do I know if Im at the Side or Rear of a target? The arrow at the top is the Front of the target. You get no special bonuses by attacking here, other than lots of bonus deaths for standing in tank busters and cleaves.On the left and right, you will find the Sides of the target. They account for 90 o of the target on either side, but you will generally want to stand near the base of the visible line.At the bottom of the image, theres a gap between the two Sides of the target. This empty space is the Rear . When standing at the base of one Side , it becomes easy to decipher between the two positions you either attack the empty space, or the line.Some enemies will have the Side mark wrapping their entire hitbox, with no arrow to indicate a Front . These target rings are special, in that you will get positional bonuses from every action without needing to worry about where you attack from. All the enemies in the Palace of the Dead, for example, have this special targeting ring. Side Positionals Fang and Claw deals 40 more potency from the Side . Rear Positionals Chaos Thrust and Wheeling Thrust deal 40 more potency from the Rear . Positional Parity
The DPS disparity between landing every single positional and missing every single positional is approximately 4. Meaning, if you would do 10,000 dps while hitting every positional, then you would only deal 9,600 if you missed every single one.
In other words: You should always strive to land every positional in any situation where it is easy to do so, however, there is a priority system to what you should be focused on while learning to optimize a fight.
Handle Mechanics
If you fail a mechanic, you lose the fight, so it doesnt matter how much DPS you gain if it causes you to miss a mechanic.
Stay Alive
Dodge death puddles, avoid standing in boss cleaves, etc. Dont die for DPS, because a death has a negative impact you wont overcome by keeping uptime up until you died.
Maintain Uptime
ABC A lways B e C asting. If your GCD stops spinning, you messed up. Assuming you are handling 1 and 2 properly, focus on keeping your rotation flowing and your GCD staying in constant motion.
Land Positionals
Never let your GCD stop spinning in order to make it to a position for your flank or rear positionals this helps no one and costs you DPS. Focus on landing positionals only after you have mastered the first three steps. Some fights and some strategies will require you to eschew positionals to handle mechanics, stay alive, or maintain uptime. This is okay .
It is not the end of the world if your group stacks on the face of the boss.
The DPS loss is not worth causing wipes over.
These actions have individual recast timers, allowing you to so-called weave them in-between your GCDs. Dragon Spaghetti Blood of the Dragon is our primary mechanic.Under normal circumstances, it should never fall off. Mirage Dive helps us gain Dragon Eyes to build toward Life of the Dragon . Eyes only open when Blood of the Dragon or Life of the Dragon is active. Geirskogul can only be used under Blood of the Dragon , and when you press it with 2 Dragon Eyes open, we enter Life of the Dragon . Under Life of the Dragon , Geirskogul becomes Nastrond .Ideally, you want to press 3 Nastrond before your Life timer runs out.When the Life timer hits 0, you return to Blood with 30 seconds remaining. Additionally, we can utilize Stardiver while under the effects of Life of the Dragon . We will always use exactly 1 Stardiver in each sequence. One Giant Leap for Dragoon Kind Jump and its big brother High Jump are our most important actions. Using it gives us the Dive Ready buff, which grants access to Mirage Dive . Without these friends, Life would be a distant dream. Spineshatter Dive crosses gaps and saves lives. Dont hold it for doing those things, though, because it does do a decent chunk of damage on its own! Dragonfire Dive also closes gaps and explodes damage on everybody.It should be used whenever available, except in the rare case where you will want to hit multiple targets before its back again. The new kid on the block, Stardiver ( STD for short) has a 30 second window in which to use it, each time its available. Your job is to decide when in that time is the best time to orbital strike some coward(s) . Note that High Jump , Spineshatter Dive , Dragonfire Dive , and Stardiver all have long animation lock, meaning you should never pair them with any other actions in one spin of the GCD.
Stardiver in particular has a significant animation lock. When using it, be sure to press it as soon as possible after your GCD. Even with good ping and early pressing, you might encounter clipping if your GCD is anywhere below 2.35. Please hear our prayers, Yoshi-P. Elusive Jump does no damage, so it has just one purpose: traveling long distances quickly, either to escape or to get back to the boss. Do-More-Damage Buttons Lance Charge is the strongest buff in your arsenal.You should always press this button as soon as its available. Dragon Sight should always buff High Jump , Spineshatter Dive , Dragonfire Dive , and the associated Mirage Dive . This skill requires a target in order for its full effect to activate. In a later section, we have included some helpful tips for using this. You can activate the skill without a target, but you lose the second effect entirely. Battle Litany is pretty much just used when its ready. There are times where holding it becomes beneficial. Life Surge doesnt affect the damage-over-time effect of our strongest Weaponskill, Chaos Thrust , so it should always be paired with Full Thrust , where it does affect the whole damage amount. Basic Buff Rotation
Our buffs fall on timers that function pretty well together in the duration of an encounter. Generally speaking, every six minutes our three buffs should automatically re-align. Talking in seconds, our buffs should align like so:
Time 0s
90s
120s
180s
240s
270s
360s
Buff Duration and Optimal Placement
If you have decent practice properly delaying your buffs within the gcd, you should, ideally, be able to get 9 gcd actions under each cast of Lance Charge , Dragon Sight , and Battle Litany , assuming your gcd is in our ideal Skill Speed window. Otherwise, you will get 8.
As our rotation is now 10 GCDs and our buffs last 9, we want to ideally miss only the weakest actions in our rotation with them Disembowel or Raiden Thrust while making sure first that we catch both finishers Chaos Thrust and Full Thrust and then that we catch both 4th and 5th hits Wheeling Thrust and Fang and Claw . That said, below is a graph.
The two rows beneath the GCDs show the total potency gain for using Lance Charge after the above GCD and catching the amount of GCDs listed in the left column. Color coded to show the trends. These values shift if youre using Life Surge on your Full Thrust . The numbers beneath it would shift in favor of covering that Full Thrust quite significantly. GCD 9 GCDs 636.90 638.55 577.50 631.95 615.45 636.9 633.6 603.90 631.95 615.45 8 GCDs 561.00 584.10 524.70 518.10 556.05 561.00 579.15 546.15 544.50 556.05
Using any buffs after the red spaces will cause you to suffer substantial losses.
The yellow spaces are reasonably good enough in comparison to red.
The green spaces guarantee maximum output of your buffs.
We will be operating under the assumption that the fact that our multi-target combo does not extend Disembowel buff is an oversight. Were the only melee that doesnt get that benefit, so its likely a mistake. Someday, based Yoshida will notice us and fix it. Maybe. Two Targets
When up against two targets, youll get more gains out of simply spreading your Chaos Thrust damage over time effect to both targets and keeping them both active. This is done by a simple modification to our basic rotation:
Target 1
Target 2
Three or More Targets
When dealing with any more than two targets, we want to roll into our Coerthan Torment Combo . You want to keep pressing High Jump , Mirage Dive , and all of the other buttons, especially Dragonfire Dive and Geirskogul , as they also hit multiple targets. Once you get your 2 Dragon Eyes , you can roll into Life and drop Nastrond and Stardiver to unleash destruction on a level where only Black Mage can compete. Should I use Disembowel ?
The answer to this question is kinda complicated . When you decide to use Disembowel during trash pulls, you sacrifice the potency of the above combo for two GCDs to apply a 10 damage buff to the subsequent four combos. The question of whether or not this is a gain is a very valid one.
The short answer is yes , you should be using Disembowel during trash.
The long answer is that using it causes you to lose potency overall if youre hitting 4 or more enemies with the above combo, but that potency is very easily made up by any of our various off-gcd area-of-effect actions Geirskogul , Nastrond , Stardiver , and Dragonfire Dive .
Applying Disembowel is 290+320 = 610 potency
Coerthan Torment combo is 200 potency per gcd per mob 400 over 2 gcds
Enemies CoT ppgcd Pot loss for applying DE Pot gain from applied DE Total loss from DE Potency needed to break even Potency needed per enemy Stardiver pot per enemy 3 600 590 720 -130 -1300 -433.33 440.00 4 800 990 960 30 300 75.00 426.25 5 1000 1390 1200 190 1900 380.00 418.00 6 1200 1790 1440 350 3500 583.33 412.50 7 1400 2190 1680 510 5100 728.57 408.57 8 1600 2590 1920 670 6700 837.50 405.63 9 1800 2990 2160 830 8300 922.22 403.33 10 2000 3390 2400 990 9900 990.00 401.50 11 2200 3790 2640 1150 11500 1045.45 400.00 12 2400 4190 2880 1310 13100 1091.67 398.75 13 2600 4590 3120 1470 14700 1130.77 397.69 14 2800 4990 3360 1630 16300 1164.29 396.79 15 3000 5390 3600 1790 17900 1193.33 396.00
Essentially: if, sometime during the duration of Disembowel , you will press off-gcds that sum together to equal the potency needed to break even (AoE skills only need to hit the potency per enemy column) then you should apply it.
At 3, it is always a gain. At 4, you just need 75 potency! Geirskogul alone is 270. Of note is even at 15, you still need less than 1200 the potency of 3 Nastronds .
This table also assumes that monsters will last the full (or most of the full) Disembowel duration.
The formula to directly generate the potency needed per enemy column, knowing the amount of enemies (n) is:
1600 6100/n
Because of the nature of this formula, it has an absolute maximum value of 1600 meaning that, no matter how many enemies you are facing, if you have over 1600 in per-target area-of-effect off gcd actions available to use in those 30 seconds, Disembowel is always worth using.
I know a lot of you have skipped ahead to this section, since you feel like you have a solid grasp on the fundamentals, and I think thats great! The primary use of the Opener is to prepare your cooldown alignment for the rest of the encounter. With our new Job design, its possible that well actually have fight-specific openers down the stretch, and theyll all be added here!
These openers have not been too thoroughly tested as of yet, so please take them with a grain of salt, and if you discover anything that flies counter to what we have listed here, please dont hesitate to ask! Standard [2.36-2.5]
This buff order gives much cleaner alignment with better GCD hits down the road. It mucks with the second Dragon Sight timing a little, but overall its better! Recommended for when were going somewhat slower.
You can delay Spineshatter Dive until after Geirskogul and shift Dragonfire Dive after Life Surge , but should only do so if that change will result in future alignments with raid buffs. This opener causes High Jump and Geirskogul to be separated enough so they dont accidentally collide too easily. Similar for Spineshatter Dive and Dragonfire Dive . Gotta go fast [2.35 and below]
The delayed High Jump looks strange, but ends up lining up better down the stretch. Everything is placed so that this speed tier feels more comfy than it would with things in different places. Its all designed with you in mind.
This section requires playtesting. We are in the process of fleshing it out, now. Thank you for your patience! GCD Rotation
Disengaging from the target can cause your rotation to get forcibly shifted around. When re-engaging (be it after forced disengages or because you felt like taking a lap around the arena), you always only have two options for what you will lead with. Nothing particularly changes, either way, since your ten-GCD sequence will never actually shift.
Disembowel has less than 10 seconds remaining:
Disembowel has more than 10 seconds remaining:
Thats, honestly, all there is to discuss, here. This is more of a judgment call, honestly anything up to around 12 seconds remaining could be clipped, but 10 is the basic cutoff for getting all 5 hits of your Full Thrust Combo with Disembowel s buff before it falls off. You would lose the buff on Raiden Thrust and Disembowel after the fact, but that can be overcome.
The only exception to this rule is if you are going to hit an off-GCD action in that period of time after Disembowel wears off. In that case, you absolutely will want the refresh beforehand. Action Specifics Geirskogul and Nastrond
The general cycle for Life of the Dragon is very straightforward: 30s 10s 10s repeat
1
2 Life
Not so obviously, following this rotation is not always optimal. If you do follow this throughout the encounter, your output will, in general, be just fine. Its just that there are some cases where you will want to delay your Life cycle by a single Geirskogul cast.
The basic idea is to choose between pressing Mirage Dive before or after Geirskogul when the Mirage Dive would fill your second Dragon Eye . The decision forces you to ask the simple question: Will my Nastrond and Stardiver fall under more buffs ( Lance Charge and Dragon Sight , primarily) by entering Life now, or if I enter in 30 more seconds, instead? You should be considering the remaining time on the recast timers for your buff actions when making this decision. The following chart should help to make it more clear.
Assuming you already have 1 Eye and High Jump is coming up soon: If at least one buff has less than 30s remaining If all buffs have more than 30s remaining, but at least one has less than 60s If all buffs have more than 60s remaining Nastrond and Buffs
Because our buff actions fall into a rather static rotation (as seen above), we can extrapolate these concepts over the course of six minutes and get a general Life of the Dragon Rotation so to speak, which shows us when we hold it and when we dont. This will only hold true if we have six minutes of continuous uptime that is, we can land every one of the High Jump , Geirskogul , Mirage Dive , Nastrond , and Stardiver hits listed in this visual representation, while ideally dropping zero gcds in that same window. As such, it is very rarely ever going to be the optimal approach, and the above chart will serve you better in most situations. Act 0 10 20 30 40 50 1m 10 20 30 40 50 2m 10 20 30 40 50 3m 10 20 30 40 50 4m 10 20 30 40 50 5m 10 20 30 40 50 6m
HJ
HJ
HJ
HJ
HJ
HJ
HJ
HJ
HJ
HJ
HJ
HJ
HJ
MD
MD
MD
MD
MD
MD
MD
MD
MD
MD
MD
MD
MD
1
2
1
2
1
2
1
2
1
2
1
2
1
G
G
G
G
G
G
G
G
G
G
G
G
G
N N N
N N N
N N N
N N N
N N N
N N N
S
S
S
S
S
S
After the final buff window, the rotation repeats from the 30s column, quite obviously.
As you can see, the only place we currently even employ this strategy is for our very first Life entry. After that, we just let the skills fall where they may and they naturally align neatly with buff windows. Keep in mind that this could change if a boss jumps out of the arena at an odd time, so you should still learn the general idea behind the priority system! Dragon Sight
You need to be close to the target of your affections to properly give them a buff. If the target moves away from you, however, you will retain your buff . So its really only their loss. You can usually just worry about activating the skill and then stop worrying about whether or not it stays on your target. As of this expansion, you can now activate the skill without a target , though this is NOT RECOMMENDED , because you will only receive the 10 damage buff, and the 5 buff will be lost for that use, completely. No one gets it.
This skill is notoriously hard to use, already. Optimal handling:
Mouseover (mo) macro if you play mouse and keyboard.
Soft targeting (up/down on d-pad) without a macro if you play with a controller.
Different options are listed below, with varying degrees of usefulness/ease of use.
Mouseover Macro Mixed Macro One Specific Ally /merror off
/ac Dragon Sight mo
/ac Dragon Sight mo
/ac Dragon Sight mo
/ac Dragon Sight mo
/ac Dragon Sight mo
/ac Dragon Sight mo
/ac Dragon Sight mo
/ac Dragon Sight mo
/ac Dragon Sight mo
/ac Dragon Sight mo
/ac Dragon Sight mo
/ac Dragon Sight mo
/ac Dragon Sight mo/micon Dragon Sight /merror off/ac Dragon Sight mo
/ac Dragon Sight mo
/ac Dragon Sight mo
/ac Dragon Sight mo
/ac Dragon Sight mo
/ac Dragon Sight mo
/ac Dragon Sight mo/ac Dragon Sight 2
/ac Dragon Sight 2/ac Dragon Sight 2
/ac Dragon Sight 2
/ac Dragon Sight 2
/ac Dragon Sight 2
/micon Dragon Sight
/merror off/ac Dragon Sight 2
/ac Dragon Sight 2
/ac Dragon Sight 2
/ac Dragon Sight 2
/ac Dragon Sight 2
/ac Dragon Sight 2
/ac Dragon Sight 2
/ac Dragon Sight 2
/ac Dragon Sight 2
/ac Dragon Sight 2
/ac Dragon Sight 2
/ac Dragon Sight 2
/ac Dragon Sight 2/micon Dragon Sight
Will simply place the tether onto your mouseover target. Just hover your mouse over the proper player in the party list and press the button and you cast it on the proper player. Optimal macro to use with mouse and keyboard . Mixes left with right to create a macro that would prioritize your mouseover target, but default to your preferred party list position/member. Useful if you dont trust your ability to mouseover, but you should really just practice that and shift to the mouseover one instead, eventually. Specifically targets whoever is at position 2. The number or party list can be altered as needed. Rather inflexible in use, but very consistent in execution. Can also replace the number with a specific character name, for static raiding.
For controller, I recommend learning to soft-target and dropping all reliance on macros.
For keyboard/mouse, I recommend 1-3 specific ally macros for reliable friends and a mouseover as a backup (or primary, your call). Gearing Up
As things appear to be right now, our stat priority has not changed!
Critical Hit Rate Direct Hit Rate Determination Skill Speed
I recommend you use the gear comparison tool in the resources section to actually get a better idea of how melds affect your DPS!
Just meld (with 6s; 8s have a 40 removal chance and you will want to save those for bis!) and wear highest item level gear, for now! Best Sets Available GCD Food Critical Hit Determination Direct Hit Skill Speed 2.45 Popoto Salad 3667 1814 2472 814 2.38 Popoto Salad 3520 1635 2106 1526 2.49 Robe Lettuce Salad 3605 1970 2772 440
The 2.49 set provides you with a particularly slow GCD speed for people who prefer that for one reason or another. You are also incapable of getting 9 GCDs (still unable to get fewer than 8, as well, assuming you dont delay any GCD) under your buff actions at that speed, so if youre feeling lazy about trying to push as hard as you can, its a very good alternative.
2.45 is, in my opinion, the most comfortable of the sets. Its slow enough for easy double weaves, but fast enough for 9 GCDs in buffs if you push for it. It will parse well (arguably the best among them under certain conditions), and just overall feels good.
2.38 is a bit faster than the above sets, but could theoretically also be the strongest among them. The faster speeds will make double weaving tougher with high ping, but also makes 9 GCD buffs much much easier than the 2.45 set. The rotation similarly feels nice and smooth and flows really well.
These three sets are interchangeable for your best in slot needs. The latter two (2.45 and 2.38) can actually both be built on one character and freely swapped between. The way Ive organized the melds is very particular in that they meld the exact same materia into every piece they share, so youll just need to swap which pieces you have equipped to change between the sets! Cool, right? Yeah, it is. DPS Comparison Between Sets
Below is a graph comparing the total DPS of each of the three above sets over time. Ive clipped out the opener to avoid having a super zoomed out graph to show the peaks (which are around 23,000, in case you were curious). Please note that the Y-Axis only shows values from 14,250 to 15,750 which results in seeing huge gaps between the mins and maxes which make the variation appear to be much larger than it actually is.
Ill be retooling rotations to get a graph that extends to 7 minutes to catch the 6:00 burst at a later time. How Fast Can We Go?
Our sweet spot for GCD appears to be somewhere between 2.25 and 2.47.
Life Surge s 45s cooldown means that once we go faster than 2.25, well start to severely delay it if we want to keep it on Full Thrust .
Chaos Thrust having a 24s duration means that if we go slower than 2.47, we will see noticeable dot dropping, between recasts. This, in general, will not be a significant issue, but it is worth noting.
4.X Intermediate Machinist Guide
Contents
1 Openers and Rotations
2 3 ammo opener
3 High ping 3 ammo opener
4 2 ammo opener
5 General rotation details
6 Fight specific tips
7 Gear
8 Credits Table of contents
This is an intermediate guide for lvl 70 machinists starting endgame. It will compile information from The Balance Discord and cover rotations along with general ability details. However, tooltips will not be covered as by level 70 you should be familiar with them.
Machinist is a class with a static 60 second rotation that involves little to no on-the-fly decision making or adjustments. Because all of Machinists cooldown timers align with each other (15s / 30s / 60s / 120s), they need to be always used in the same order with the same timing that is dictated by the opener. After the initial alignment, all you need to do is keep hitting every skill on cooldown to keep the rotation going and aligned. There are two general rotation types discussed below, 2 ammo and 3 ammo.
Visual overview of the rotations can be found here.
Differences between 2 ammo and 3 ammo rotations
The names come from the number of preloaded ammo used in the opener. A more practical difference is in the way Reload and Quick Reload are used. 2 ammo uses Reload to setup procs for Wildfire while 3 ammo uses Quick Reload.
Reload setup makes the Wildfire preparation longer for 2 ammo, but also allows it to use only 1 tick of Flamethrower, which can be used while fully mobile. On the downside, using Reload to setup procs for Wildfire means that it aligns again with Gauss Barrel + Barrel Stabilizer reapplication and cant be used perfectly on cooldown. This makes the rotation 61-62 seconds long and misaligns from Trick Attack windows unless the NIN is syncing up with Wildfire. Skill speed can be a problem for 2 ammo because of the Reload timings, the rotation only works smoothly at 2.45 GCD or slower.
3 ammo is able to setup Wildfire faster with Quick Reload, but has to use Flamethrower for 2 ticks, which means Flamethrower must be used while remaining still. This can be a problem for mechanics, but there are ways around it. 3 ammo rotation is also typically 61-62 seconds long, but it can be shortened by clipping one GCD to allow for better Trick Attack alignment and to choose between 1 or 2 ticks of Flamethrower. Clipping in this manner is generally not a dps loss at low skill speeds due to shortened rotation length and better raid buff alignment.
Neither rotation is strictly better or worse but 3 ammo is generally more flexible with varying amounts of skill speed and better at high levels of optimization due to raid buff alignments. 2 ammo can be better in high mobility scenarios and when downtime prevents strict raid buff timings.
Ideal skill speed range 364-848 (2.43-2.50 GCD)
3 ammo (Infusion) (Hypercharge) Hot Shot (Quick Reload + Gauss Round) Split Shot Slug Shot (Flamethrower 5 tick + Overheat) Split Shot (Reload + Wildfire) Clean Shot (Rapid Fire + Ricochet) Slug Shot (Reassemble) Clean Shot (Gauss Round) Cooldown (Rook Overload) Cooldown (Quick Reload) Split Shot Slug Shot Split Shot Hot Shot (Gauss Barrel + Barrel Stabilizer) Continue
Midfire Rotation
This mid-fight Wildfire setup is generally the same as the opener with some small changes in the preparation, highlighted in red below. You will naturally reach 70 heat with one Cooldown in the rotation before Wildfire.
70 Heat (Quick Reload) Split Shot (Flamethrower 2 tick + Overheat) Cooldown (Reload + Wildfire) Cooldown (Rapid Fire + Ricochet) Slug Shot (Reassemble) Clean Shot (Gauss Round) Cooldown (Rook Overload / Heartbreak) Cooldown (Quick Reload) Split Shot Slug Shot Split Shot Hot Shot (Gauss Barrel + Barrel Stabilizer) Continue
3 ammo can be shortened by one GCD to allow for perfect Trick Attack alignment by starting Wildfire preparation at 65 heat but waiting before Flamethrower until Wildfire cooldown has around 4 seconds left. This causes Gauss Round to move to the last empty position in the sequence and Overload to after the last Cooldown.
65 Heat (Quick Reload) Split Shot (Flamethrower 2 tick + Overheat) Cooldown (Reload + Wildfire) Cooldown (Rapid Fire + Ricochet) Slug Shot (Reassemble) Clean Shot (Heartbreak) Cooldown (Gauss Round) Cooldown (Quick Reload + Rook Overload) Split Shot Slug Shot Split Shot Hot Shot (Gauss Barrel + Barrel Stabilizer) Continue
If mobility is a concern, the 2 tick Flamethrower can be converted to 1 tick by forgoing the mid-rotation Cooldown which makes the rotation reach 95 heat instead of 65. This is a slight dps loss, but allows full mobility. Its important to note that you will need to wait longer before using Flamethrower than with 2 ticks and cant go back to using 2 ticks without delaying the next Wildfire slightly to wait for Flamethrower cooldown.
Proc optimization
Depending on what procs you have going into Quick Reload your GCD order will change to make the most out of them, however, all oGCDs should be used in the same order as before. The basic concept is to replace the procs you dont have with a Cooldown.
Online casino deposit 5 minimum . No procs:
(QR) Split (FT) CD (WF) CD Slug Clean CD CD or
(QR) Split (FT) CD (WF) Slug CD Clean CD CD
Slug proc:
(QR) Slug (FT) CD (WF) CD CD Clean CD CD
Clean proc:
(QR) Split (FT) CD (WF) Clean Slug Clean CD CD
Math for the proc scenarios.
Changes at high skill speed
Below 2.40 GCD the rotation will start clipping before Gauss Barrel reapplication after Wildfires. Using an extra unheated shot before Barrel Stabilizer will solve most issues. At even higher speeds GCD will also need to be added before Quick Reload at the Wildfire preparation.
This opener is only able to get 5 GCDs under Overheat because it interrupts Flamethrower with Wildfire instead of a GCD. However, it guarantees that all Wildfire GCDs are under the Overheat buff so it works best if you cant fit 6 GCDs into it because of high latency with the other rotations.
Ideal skill speed as low as possible
3 ammo (Infusion) (Hypercharge) (Gauss Round) Hot Shot (Quick Reload) Split Shot Slug Shot (Flamethrower 5 ticks + Overheat) (Wildfire) Clean Shot (Reload + Rapid Fire) Split Shot (Gauss Round) Slug Shot (Reassemble) Clean Shot (Ricochet) Cooldown (Rook Overload) Split Shot (Quick Reload) Split Shot* Slug Shot* Hot Shot (Gauss Round) Split Shot* (Gauss Barrel + Barrel Stabilizer) Continue
*example GCDs, use your procs if you get them
Midfire Rotation Machinist Best In Slots
This is a shortened rotation like the 95/65 heat version of the regular 3 ammo which means you will need to wait for cooldown timers before starting your midfire. It allows for perfect Trick Attack alignment even with high ping because of the natural room for GCD clipping. Theres a 95 heat version with Wildfire+Flamethrower entry and a 65 heat version with 2 tick Flamethrower entry.
95 Heat (Quick Reload) Split Shot (Wildfire + Flamethrower 1 tick + Overheat) Cooldown (Reload + Rapid Fire) Cooldown (Gauss Round) Slug Shot (Reassemble) Clean Shot (Ricochet) Cooldown (Rook Overload / Heartbreak) Cooldown / Split Shot (Quick Reload) Split Shot* Slug Shot* Hot Shot (Gauss Round) Split Shot* (Gauss Barrel + Barrel Stabilizer) Continue
*example GCDs, use your procs if you get them
After reaching 95 heat and using Quick Reload, wait until theres 1 second remaining on Wildfire timer before continuing. Using Wildfire+Flamethrower double weave allows you to get 6 GCDs under Overheat with good ping, but also guarantees that the 5 Wildfire GCDs are under it even in worse conditions. This is the more mobile version of the two because of 1 tick Flamethrower and allows for more latency-based clipping. Flamethrower and Wildfire can also be used the other way around to give more room for Wildfire duration and a more flexible heat entry.
65 Heat (Quick Reload) Split Shot (Flamethrower 2 ticks + Overheat) (Wildfire) Cooldown (Reload + Rapid Fire) Cooldown (Gauss Round) Slug Shot (Reassemble) Clean Shot (Ricochet) Cooldown (Rook Overload / Heartbreak) Cooldown / Split Shot (Quick Reload) Split Shot* Slug Shot* Hot Shot (Gauss Round) Split Shot* (Gauss Barrel + Barrel Stabilizer) Continue
*example GCDs, use your procs if you get them
Use one Cooldown in the rotation between Wildfires to reach 65 heat and wait until Reload has 4 seconds remaining on timer before using Flamethrower. Using 2 ticks of Flamethrower is slightly higher potency but less mobile. It makes you clip your GCD with the Wildfire application but since this is a shortened rotation it doesnt actually result in further dps loss unless you have very low skill speed and lag a lot during Rapid Fire. If the amount of latency pushes back your Wildfire cycle, you can use the 95 heat version to allow more room for clipping.
Proc optimization
Depending on what procs you have going into Quick Reload your GCD order will change to make the most out of them, however, all oGCDs should be used in the same order as before.
No procs:
(QR) Split (WF FT) CD CD Slug Clean CD CD or
(QR) Split (WF FT) CD Slug CD Clean CD CD
Slug proc:
(QR) Slug (WF FT) CD CD CD Clean CD CD
Clean proc:
(QR) Split (WF FT) Clean CD Slug Clean CD CD or
(QR) Split (WF FT) Clean Slug CD Clean CD CD
Math for the proc scenarios.
Changes at high skill speed
At high skill speeds its better to use the 65 heat version of the rotation for the higher potency since youll still stay below the 60 second threshold anyway. If your skill speed reaches ridiculous levels (faster than 2.40s GCD), you can add another GCD before midfire for a 70 heat rotation, but that will likely make you drift out of raid buffs due to the increased cycle time.
Ideal skill speed range 364-714 (2.45-2.50 GCD)
2 ammo (Infusion) (Hypercharge) Hot Shot (Gauss Round) Split Shot (Reload) Slug Shot (Flamethrower 5 tick + Overheat) Split Shot (Wildfire + Reassemble) Clean Shot (Quick Reload + Rapid Fire) Slug Shot (Ricochet) Clean Shot (Gauss Round) Cooldown (Rook Overload) Cooldown Split Shot* Split Shot* Hot Shot (Quick Reload) Split Shot* (Gauss Barrel + Barrel Stabilizer) Slug Shot* (Gauss Round + Reload) Continue
*example GCDs, use your procs if you get them
Midfire Rotation
You will naturally reach 90 heat. Alternatively you can use mid-fight Wildfire under the High Ping 2 ammo rotation which makes you reach 95 heat before 2nd wildfire and 90 from there on.
90 Heat (Gauss Round + Reload) Split Shot Slug Shot Split Shot (Flamethrower 1-2 tick + Overheat) Cooldown (Wildfire + Reassemble) Clean Shot (Quick Reload + Rapid Fire) Slug Shot (Ricochet) Clean Shot (Gauss Round) Cooldown (Rook Overload / Heartbreak) Cooldown Split Shot Split Shot* Hot Shot (Quick Reload) Split Shot* (Gauss Barrel + Barrel Stabilizer) Slug Shot* (Gauss Round + Reload) Continue
*example GCDs, use your procs if you get them
Proc optimization
Depending on what procs you have going into Reload your GCD order will change to make the most out of them, however, all oGCDs should be used in the same order as before.
No procs:
(Reload) Split Slug Split (FT) CD (WF) Clean Slug Clean CD CD
Slug proc with 2 tick Flamethrower (needs at least 85 heat):
(Reload) Slug Split CD (FT) CD (WF) Clean Slug Clean CD CD or
(Reload) CD Slug Split (FT) CD (WF) Clean Slug Clean CD CD
Clean proc (needs 90 or below heat):
Clean (Reload) Split Slug (FT) Split (WF) Clean Slug Clean CD CD
Math for the proc scenarios.
Changes at high skill speed
Generally 2 ammo doesnt work well with faster GCD speeds than 2.45s. Theres no way to completely remedy the clipping that starts to happen with Reload and Quick Reload timings without extending the rotation. Below 2.47 GCD the Reload before midfires can be pushed ahead 1 GCD similar to the opener and Clean proc scenario to avoid clipping, however the Quick Reload around 85 heat will start to clip around 2.44 GCD and below. The proc optimization for the 95 heat rotation is covered in the external link.
Ammo and Procs
Outside of Wildfire, ammo should always be used to gain procs if possible, but Reload and Quick Reload should never be delayed because of it. Ammo by itself is 25 potency, but gaining a proc with it is an extra 20 potency (50 chance to gain 40 potency on the following GCD), granted that youll have time to use it. Therefore ammo should always be used on either Split Shot or Slug Shot unless both Slug Shot and Clean Shot are already loaded, then your best option is Clean Shot.
Flamethrower and Overheat
Flamethrower ticks once per second, for a total of 11 ticks, and its mainly used to Overheat for Wildfire. To get 6 GCDs under the Overheat buff, the first GCD under it must be used as soon as the Overheat starts. Generally Overheat is started either with 1 tick or 2 ticks of Flamethrower and both require different timing.
When Overheating at 80 heat or above, time Flamethrower 60-70 into the GCD cycle to start Overheat just before your next GCD is ready. Otherwise your Overheat will start way too soon and the 6th GCD will not be under the buff.
When Overheating at below 80 heat, 2 or more ticks are required. This means youll be clipping your GCD cycle and will have to predict the last tick. Use Flamethrower as early as possible and input your next GCD as soon as Overheat starts to make fitting 6 GCDs into the buff possible.
Hypercharge
Hypercharge buff fits 7 turret attacks and inflicts the attacked target with a total of 6*3+10 = 28 seconds of Vulnerability if focused the entire duration. It should be used to cover the highest potency part of the rotation: heated shots and Wildfire. A good rule of thumb is to use it 15 seconds before Wildfire. Potion usage follows the same principles.
Turret Overload
Overload is best used before downtime or snap shot at the end of raid buffs. All raid buffs besides Dragon Sight affect turrets. Personal buffs do not, except for attribute boosting ones (potions / food). Wildfire does not collect Turret or Overload damage but raid buffs are used in conjunction with the Wildfire burst window, so generally Overload will be used there the same way as in the opener.
When it comes to downtime, a good rule of thumb is that if a disconnect is 15 seconds or longer, its better to use Overload for the disconnect rather than for raid buffs, because the practical cap for stacked raid buff multiplier is around 1.5x which would make the Overload gain 400 potency.
Overload condenses 30 seconds of Turret damage into a single instance and using it to cover a window of downtime is essentially equal to the turret never stopping its attacks. In 15 seconds Rook is able to output 400 potency which is the same gain as you would get from stacked raid buffs and longer disconnects will only increase the gain, up to the maximum of 800 potency with 30 seconds of Turret Reset overlapping the downtime window.
Bishop Overload is a 400 potency gain on 2 targets even without downtime or raid buffs and at 3 targets already a 1000 potency gain, which overtakes Rook Overload even with a perfectly matched downtime window.
Role Skills
As of patch 4.4 you can now equip all 10 role skills and dont have to choose.
Recovering from mistakes or death
Theres generally two ways of recovering from mistakes: delaying Wildfire or delaying an oGCD ability that has been misaligned. Assuming raid buffs timings havent been screwed up, the latter is usually the better option. So, if you forget to use an oGCD in time, the easiest way is to simply delay it until it comes up again in the rotation. That way it gets realigned to its normal position. If theres downtime or raid buff rotation has been misaligned, or the mistake is a small one GCD delay for one or more abilities, delaying Wildfire is a valid option to let the misaligned timers catch up to the rotation. This minimizes the chance of losing usages over the encounter but changes the Wildfire timings.
Recovering from death is simple when youre familiar with the rotation. The general idea is to get Hot Shot and Turret back up and hold all abilities that have a cooldown timer longer than there is time left on the Wildfire cooldown. This way all the necessary abilities are ready for the burst rotation and get realigned in their correct position when you use Wildfire the next time. If youre unsure what should be held back, its better to hold everything rather than nothing.
Barrel Stabilizer and Flamethrower should be among the abilities held, because the loss from unheated shots is generally lower than the potency loss of a Non-Overheated Wildfire (30 potency loss per GCD vs 800 potency loss from no Overheat). Just be prepared to do a longer burn with Flamethrower to Overheat from the lower heat count.
If you do use Barrel Stabilizer or Flamethrower accidently out of their usual place and want to keep Wildfire aligned with raid buff windows, your only choice is to do Wildfire without Overheat and realign the abilities for the next one. Replace Cooldowns in Wildfire with regular shots as necessary to maintain heat.
These will be updated as people find better ways to optimize the encounters.
O5S Phantom Train
Save the second Overload to use Bishop Overload on the adds. Avoid using long cooldowns on the train car ghost if youre forced to kill it. At low gear levels Wildfire might be necessary but its preferable if a WAR, RDM or NIN skips the phase for you.
Dismantle is good for mitigating Head On and staying close. If youre getting knocked back, pop Sprint beforehand to get quickly back in range.
O6S Demon Chadarnook
This is a near 100 uptime fight so use everything on cooldown. If youre using the 65 heat rotation, you will be able to use 2 ticks of Flamethrower before dodging the stacked AoEs when prepping your 3rd Wildfire, pop Sprint for extra safety.
Airplane (black paint) removes Turret from the battlefield, remember to resummon it.
Depending on rotation or delays, you might have to paint for Siren during Wildfire. Try to do it during your prep and have someone else finish the painting at the right time. Tight Wildfire cycle should allow you to finish burst before painting.
Dismantle is great on Demonic Howls, the one after Lullaby being the most dangerous one.
O7S Guardian
Bring Head Graze (Silence) for Ultros Stoneskin cast.
You will need to do a Hot Shot Flamethrower opener or hold Wildfire before Ultros if you get Biblio for first pattern because the boss jumps away before Wildfire has a chance to explode.
If youre doing a regular opener, you will need to be pre-shielded and stand on the side, away from the party, to reduce chances of being targeted by the first Magitek Beam because you will be unable to move during Flamethrower.
Dont use Wildfire on the Airforce adds. You should be able to get an extra use of Gauss Round and Quick Reload before moving back to boss for Wildfire when you end up delaying. If adds line up with your Gauss Lockout, ask for help as youll have trouble killing yours in time.
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Biblio is the only potential target for Bishop Overload depending on kill time. Ultros doesnt provide any gains since the boss will be untargetable for a period of time even after Ultros dies and Dadaluma aligns badly because of Hypercharge.
Dismantle is great for the AoE right after the second Airforce adds and during Biblio AoE spam.
O8S Kefka
The 2nd Wildfire needs to be delayed due to Graven Image so dont use Hot Shot after your first Wildfire, youll save a cast if you reapply it before the first Graven.
Overload should be used in the opener and then before X:45 on the fight timer to optimally cover for all the disconnects. When encounter time gets shorter, dont use Overload for the last Graven disconnect but save it for the end of the fight for better value.
When fighting against enrage, use Hypercharge on cooldown to get an extra usage. Otherwise coordinate with other raid buffs. Also hold 5th Wildfire until right after the 5th Graven to get another use at 6:25 with raid buffs. When you start killing below 6:35, start using your Wildfire before 5th Graven. This requires tight timings so 3 ammo is recommended.
Dismantle is great on the Light of Judgement, although the first one is tricky because its at the same time with Wildfire prep.
Remember to use your reloads during disconnects to keep alignments.
O8S God Kefka
Everything should be used on cooldown except for the Wildfire that aligns with the sleep and confusion tethers. If youre using 2 tick Flamethrower, use North / South position for skull tethers so you get it out safely during the first Forsaken.
MP is very important in this fight so use Refresh on cooldown after getting the first one out sometime between Celestriad and the first Heartless Archangel.
Use Dismantle on the Light of Judgement and plan other uses around that. Palisade is good for Ultimate Embrace when tanks are low on cooldowns and sharing the buster.
O9S Chaos
With Blaze pattern Wildfire the Dark Crystal. With Tsunami youll have to hold.
O10S Midgardsormr
Shortened HSFT opener and no-drift rotations can be used to try and hit 4 Wildfires on the boss before add phase, but its possible that a fast instance might make the explosion fizzle.
For normal opener and drifting rotations hold the 4th Wildfire and ask for a personal nail in the add phase to Wildfire solo while the party focuses on other ones.
Its possible to squeeze 2 Wildfires before Hot Tail but youll have to start Flamethrower before boss is targetable, go into your HSWF immediately when you can and do a zero-drift rotation with Flamethrower during the orbs. Doing this makes the rest of the Wildfires line up better with buffs but depending on kill time might not be worth the risk.
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The Ancient Dragon in add phase and boss after Hot tail are good targets for Overload.
O11S Omega
Hold Hypercharge during Level Checker to have a complete reopener when boss comes back. Do use Overload though. Reopen with 2 GCD prep or you might have trouble finishing your Wildfire if youre in the first group of people to be stunned by fists later in the fight.
O12S Omega-M and Omega-F
Overload in the opener and for each of the number phases disconnects.
O12S The Final Omega
Dismantle Ion Effluxes.
Suzaku Extreme
Shortened HSFT opener can be used to land a Wildfire before first jump, but you can only land 2 in total before the DDR phase. Reopen with 1-2 GCD prep to fit a full Wildfire before being stunned by mechanics later in the fight.
General stat priority
Weapon Damage Dexterity Critical hit Direct Hit = Determination Skill Speed
The reasoning behind this is that Critical hit is the best scaling secondary stat and with enough focus it provides higher expected damage than other stats. Direct Hit and Determination both offer similar linear gains with Direct Hit being slightly stronger for most gear sets. Skill speed is the least valuable stat because more than 30 of Machinists damage doesnt scale with it, on top of causing some rotational issues. The main benefit is that it makes the 6 GCD Overheat window slightly less tight.
Best-in-Slot
Choose your gear set based on what GCD speed gets you the most consistent 6 GCD Overheat and what rotation type youre most comfortable with. Faster GCD means easier Overheat timing and better raid buff alignment. Slow sets can use the shortened 3 ammo rotation for better raid buff alignment and faster cycle time if required or preferred.
Patch 4.55 gear sets
Hydatos Hat Crit overcap meld vs DH is better with 2 sources of crit buffs (DRG/BRD/SCH). Relic Weapon (ilvl405) with any non-SkS roll of at least 600 stats will be BiS.
2.50 gcd Tome Hydatos Set: http://ffxiv.ariyala.com/18LU9 2.46 gcd Raid Hydatos Set: http://ffxiv.ariyala.com/18LUB Other sets
Tome Gloves can be used for easier 6GCD OH, the Faster Set also uses a SkS meld to break the GCD tier. Crafted Gloves and Omega Head are good if you dont have Eureka gear.
2.44 gcd Fast Set: http://ffxiv.ariyala.com/17BFJ 2.43 gcd Faster Set: http://ffxiv.ariyala.com/17B4A UCOB 2.50 gcd: http://ffxiv.ariyala.com/183HE (ty fox and clem) UWU 2.50 gcd: http://ffxiv.ariyala.com/18BEP (ty clem)
Rotation and gear calculations
Low ping rotations assume 6 GCD Overheat.
High ping rotations assume 5 GCD Overheat. Machinist Best In Slot Wow
Document written by Lynn Nuvestrahl (Odin). Feedback, suggestions and questions are welcome at The Balance discord Machinist channels or at Lynn8794.
Special thanks
Bevin (Daddy Devito, Ragnarok)
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Fox (Fox Dyo, Shiva)
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Laqi (Laqi Thish, Sargatanas)
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And everybody in The Balance Machinist community!