Mechanist - Alacrity Support Condi DPS

The community gave this build a rating, making it second-tier: Good

Focused on: Condition damage and Support

Designed for: Raids and Fractals

Expansions required:

Difficulty:

Normal

This build was last updated on November 18, 2024 and is up to date for the October 8, 2024 patch.

Overview

A condition boon support build for Mechanist. Provides permanent Alacrity and high uptimes of Fury and Might.

Condition mechanist is more complex than its Power counterpart and it suffers a lot more when simplifying the rotation or taking extra utility, but it could be viewed as a "way in" to the Condi DPS build.

Skill Bar

Spear

Utility

Weapon Variants

• Pistol or Mace with offhand Pistol is the best option for players that don't own Janthir Wilds.
  • Pistol is higher damage, but Mace offers a bit more defensive support.

Skill Variants

• If you find you need more Alacrity generation, you could replace Superconducting Signet or Bomb Kit with Barrier Signet.
• You can take Shift Signet instead of Bomb Kit for a much simpler rotation, but at a DPS loss.

Template Code

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Specializations

Trait Variants

• It would be a minor DPS gain to take Mech Arms: Single-Edge Cutters, but you would lose a decent amount of Might for doing so.

Equipment

Head
Celestial

Shoulders
Celestial

Chest
Celestial

Hands
Celestial

Legs
Viper

Feet
Celestial

Backpiece
Celestial

Accessory
Celestial

Accessory
Celestial

Amulet
Celestial

Ring
Viper

Ring
Viper

Spear
Viper

Sigil

Sigil

Rune
x6

Infusion
x18

Relic

• This setup has ~36% boon duration.
  • You could go as low as ~31%, but this is not recommended.
• If the +408 toughness from celestial stats causes problems, you can replace your gear with ritualist stats pieces instead. This will leave you with only +45 toughness from the .

Consumables

Food

• or ascended versions.

Utility

Usage

Spear Rotation

The basic structure of Spear's rotation will be very familiar to players of engineer: You finish your auto chains and use DPS skills off cooldown until you use Conduit Surge (skill 2), then jump into Grenade Kit and use Shrapnel Grenade along with either Freeze Grenade or Poison Grenade if they are off cooldown.

The unique aspect of Spear is the Focused mechanic, which is applied by Conduit Surge and refreshed by the last hit of the auto chain. You can only have a single Focused target, and hitting the target with Spear skills will trigger enhanced effects:

• The autoattack chain will apply Vulnerability
• Conduit Surge applies more Burning
• Lightning Rod ⇒ Electric Artillery deals more damage, and applies more Vulnerability and Burning.
• Roiling Skies deals (slightly) more CC.
• Devastator will hit the Focused target with Focused Devastation, applying more damage and Burning.

Rotation fundamentals

Your three biggest damage contributions come from Lightning Rod ⇒ Electric Artillery, Conduit Surge and Shrapnel Grenade. When you activate Lightning Rod a whirling AoE spins around you for four seconds, gaining a charge for each target hit. After this Electric Artillery will activate and do damage according to its charge. The cooldown for the skill begins once you activate Lightning Rod so using this skill is high priority, while you can afford to delay Electric Artillery if needed (it lasts until Lightning Rod is ready again).

Practically speaking, if you cast Lightning Rod and Conduit Surge together, the charging time on Electric Artillery means that it becomes available around the time that Conduit Surge comes off cooldown. And as you always want to be following up Conduit Surge with Shrapnel Grenade, your rotation should end up always casting these three skills together (alternating between Lightning Rod and Electric Artillery).

Compared to the DPS rotation, your mech's damage contribution is much weaker, making Bomb Kit significantly stronger than Shift Signet. Unfortunately none of your weapon skills line up neatly with Fire Bomb, making it harder to track the cooldown of this key skill. The cooldown on Fire Bomb is approximately one and a half times that of the core "loop" described above, so you can try to track its cooldown by shifting its position each loop:

1. Use Bomb Kit immediately after Grenade Kit.
2. Use Bomb Kit just before Lightning Rod/Electric Artillery.
3. Skip Bomb Kit on the third loop, then repeat the pattern.

Due to your three main skills always being cast together, this gives the rotation a "loop" of approximately five seconds (with Quickness and Alacrity). However your other skills have cooldowns that are not multiples of five, which means that played optimally, these skills will end up shifting their position. You can look at the cooldown of grenades and bombs whenever you enter those kits and try to fit them in around your other skills. Try not to delay the three main skills though.

Example Opener

Below is an example of an opener, which also demonstrates the three loop structure described above:

Loop 1

1. Lightning Rod
2. Conduit Surge
3. Grenade Kit
   1. Shrapnel Grenade
   2. Poison Grenade
4. Bomb Kit
   1. Fire Bomb
   2. Concussion Bomb
   3. Weapon Swap
5. Devastator

Loop 2

1. Electric Artillery
2. Conduit Surge
3. Grenade Kit
   1. Shrapnel Grenade
   2. Freeze Grenade
   3. Weapon Swap
4. Puncturing Jab ⇒ Rending Strike ⇒ Amplifying Slice
5. Bomb Kit
   1. Fire Bomb
   2. Weapon Swap

Loop 3

1. Lightning Rod
2. Conduit Surge
3. Grenade Kit
   1. Shrapnel Grenade
   2. Weapon Swap
4. Puncturing Jab ⇒ Rending Strike ⇒ Amplifying Slice x2

Video example

Video example (grenade kit only)

Crowd Control

• Roiling Skies: 200 defiance break - 232 to your Focused target

Mace Rotation

Click to view

The rotation below does not use Bomb Kit. See the Condi DPS page for this rotation - if you are using Pistol/Pistol you can follow it as written; if you are using Mace/Pistol then do an extra mace auto chain whenever you would use Pistol skills.

Opener

1. Crisis Zone
2. Barrier Burst
3. Blowtorch
4. Grenade Kit
5. Shrapnel Grenade
6. Poison Grenade
7. Freeze Grenade
8. Weapon Swap (or stow kit)
9. Energizing Slam
10. Mace Strike → Mace Smash (Mechanist) → Barrier Blast
11. Rocket Fist Prototype
12. Grenade Kit
13. Shrapnel Grenade
14. Weapon Swap (or stow kit)

Rest of the Rotation

After the opener, your basic loop is as follows:

1. Autoattack and use Energizing Slam on Mace until either Blowtorch or Rocket Fist Prototype are available - make sure to finish your auto chains!
2. Blowtorch or Rocket Fist Prototype - these should alternate between loops
3. Grenade Kit
4. Shrapnel Grenade and Poison Grenade (if available)
5. Weapon Swap (or stow kit)
6. Repeat

If you're fast, you may occasionally swap to Grenade Kit and Shrapnel Grenade won't be immediately available. In this case, use Freeze Grenade to fill the gap.

Other Rotations

As indicated above, there are a number of ways this build can be modified to suit the player, each bringing a different rotation. Rather than attempt to cover all of them, some general guidance is provided, from most to least complex:

• Pistol/Pistol with 3 kits - see the following video.
• 2 kits - Follow the Condi DPS rotation.
  • If using mainhand Mace, follow the same rotation but do a full auto chain each time you would swap to Pistol.
• Mace/Pistol with 1 kit - follow the rotation above.

General Tips

• Thanks to Mechanical Genius, if you are over 360 units away from your mech when using F1-3 skills, their cooldown will be 50% longer. It is therefore vital to make sure you are within range before using them or you will cripple your boon uptimes.
• You will need to use Crisis Zone to maintain Alacrity, but it can be delayed slightly if the Aegis is needed.
• Use Barrier Burst off cooldown. You can delay it by a second if it will coincide with Barrier Blast, as the internal cooldown of Mech Frame: Channeling Conduits would prevent the first tick from applying Alacrity in this case.
• If you are using Barrier Signet, use it instead of Barrier Burst in the opener, then use Barrier Burst one second after the final pulse of Barrier Signet. Make sure never to have these two skills overlap - this is to avoid the internal cooldown from Mech Frame: Channeling Conduits.
• Try to keep an eye on your mech, as it is a major source of Alacrity thanks to Mech Core: Barrier Engine. If it ends up more than 600 units from the stack, don't hesitate to use Shift Signet to force it to the correct location.