Machinist
Machinist Full Guide
TBD
Machinist is a fast-paced ranged DPS that specializes in abusing raid buffs with flexible burst timings and maintaining uninterrupted DPS through most mechanics thanks to their mobility. This is a guide summarizing how each ability should be used, how the basic rotation is structured and how to optimize the class in raid settings.
Gearing
Updated for 6.05
Meld Priority
Openers
Modified Opener Examples
READ THE GUIDE FOR OPENER CUSTOMIZATION
Rotation Overviews
Tools & Resources
Give these a shot!
Log Analysis
xivanalysis is a fantastic site for an overview of your endgame encounter performance.
Frequently Asked Questions
Taking the edge off of learning the job
You can use Hypercharge freely when above 50 heat as long as four conditions are met:
- Drill and Air Anchor have more than 8-10 seconds on cooldown.
- You will not break your combo (it will break if you try to carry it over Hypercharge + Drill + Air Anchor).
- You have 0-1 Gauss Round and Ricochet charges stored.
- You are using Wildfire or will have enough heat for it later when you need it.
You want to use either 5 x Heat Blast or Auto Crossbow in every Hypercharge.
No. 1.5s GCD allows single weaves only.
Pair it with Hypercharge to get 6 GCDs into it. Wildfire can be used 1 GCD before or after Hypercharge but double weaving (Wildfire→Hypercharge) is the most ping friendly. It should fit 5x Heat Blast/Auto Crossbow + 1 GCD when double weaved or used 1 GCD before Hypercharge, OR 4x Heat Blast/Auto Crossbow + 2 GCDs if used after the first GCD in Hypercharge.
Before Wildfire to guarantee heat for Hypercharge, or after it to avoid overcapping. Generally it is best to avoid overcapping and it lines up 1-2 GCDs after Wildfire explodes.
Pair it with Drill or Air Anchor. Drill works best for cooldown alignment. For AoE use it on Spread Shot or Auto Crossbow against 4 or more targets since it doesn’t affect the DoT portion of Bioblaster.
During raid buff windows. The easiest way to keep track of them is to pair Queen with Reassembled Drill to hit a buff window every 60s. The timing changes a little bit depending on how much gauge you have:
- 50-60 battery → Summon 1 GCD after Drill.
- 70-80 battery → Summon after Drill.
- 90-100 battery → Summon before Drill.
It mirrors the buffs on yourself in real time. There are no snapshots, each attack is checked individually. Dragon Sight doesn’t affect Queen.
No. You would only ever do it if the fight or uptime window is ending before they would go off naturally.
Yes for AoE, except if the fight is about to end and you have to choose between Flamethrower and Hypercharge, then Hypercharge wins out.
- Bioblaster on 2 or more targets.
- Auto Crossbow on 3 or more targets.
- Flamethrower on 3 or more targets.
- Spread Shot on 3 or more targets (2 or more targets when below level 80).
The golden standard is hitting 5 Heat Blasts in Hypercharge and 1 extra GCD for Wildfire for a total of 6 in Wildfire while weaving a Gauss Round or Ricochet between every attack for raid buff gains. If you can hit the 5+1 GCDs while weaving only 2 times, you can avoid overcapping which is passable but not optimal. If you can’t weave at all or if you miss GCDs in Hypercharge or Wildfire, then your performance will be suboptimal.
Having a faster GCD tier can help with squeezing in extra Drills and Air Anchors in tight uptime window such as before E3S Maelstroms. It also gives you an opportunity in every Wildfire cycle to realign Drill and Anchor casts for some more flexibility or to fix a mistake in case you delay either of them by accident. Additionally, it can help reduce Drill/Anchor drifting caused by latency based clipping in Hypercharges.
SkS scales auto-attack and Wildfire damage and the gains can sometimes out-weight gains from other melds. The most efficient GCD speed depends entirely on itemization, what stats are available on gear, and what can be melded. It’s very possible to have a gear set outside of the efficient (2.50, 2.44, 2.38) GCD speeds still be the best option for the tier. BiS sets are calculated with the Gear Set Calculator Spreadsheet under Tools if you want to investigate it further.
