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Difference between revisions of "Mechanist - Condi DPS"

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* {{Trait|Mech Core: Jade Dynamo}} is the stronger (though more complicated) option if using '''Pistol/Pistol'''.
 
* {{Trait|Mech Core: Jade Dynamo}} is the stronger (though more complicated) option if using '''Pistol/Pistol'''.

Revision as of 20:05, 14 January 2025

The community gave this build a rating, making it top-tier: Great

Focused on: Condition damage

Designed for: Raids and Fractals

Expansions required: End of Dragons buildsJanthir Wilds builds

Difficulty:
Normal
This build was last updated on January 14, 2025 and is up to date for the February 11, 2025 patch.

Overview

Condition mechanist is a strong and versatile DPS build that is both a strong and simple version of condi engineer. The addition of the mech ensures reliable damage with minimal input, and the strength of signets allows you to replace kits and vastly simplify the rotation as you desire.

The plethora of viable builds means that this is a strong option regardless of experience level, and it allows you to gently increase the difficulty (and damage) as you gain confidence.


Skill Bar

Spear
Utility


Pistol Variants

Players who don't own Janthir Wilds cannot use spear, so Pistol/Pistol is the next best option. Pistols also have better ranged capabilities, which might be preferable on some encounters.

is the strongest option for the Pistol build, but using , you can dramatically simplify the rotation without losing too much damage.

If using

, replace with .


Skill Variants

  • The heal skill can be whatever you want, though some options stand out:
    • is very potent with as it has higher passive healing, which isn't lost upon activating the signet.
    • allows you to survive some one-shot attacks.
    • does an AoE condi cleanse when it is placed, which can be situationally useful.
  • If you want to totally avoid kits, use . Be aware that removing removes your main way of triggering both and , which means and should perform better, though the difference will be minor.


Template Code

[&DQMGJyY5RjUqDyoPhgCGAA4bDhsQGxobCRuJAQAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACCQE2AAA=]
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Specializations

  • is the stronger (though more complicated) option if using Pistol/Pistol.


Equipment

Head
Viper
Shoulders
Sinister
Chest
Viper
Hands
Sinister
Legs
Viper
Feet
Viper
Backpiece
Sinister
Accessory
Viper
Accessory
Viper
Amulet
Viper
Ring
Viper
Ring
Viper
Spear
Viper
Sigil
Sigil
Pistol
Viper
Pistol
Viper
Sigil
Sigil
Rune
x6
Infusion
x18
Relic


Non-SotO Relics

Unfortunately there aren't any good core damage relics for condi Mechanist, the best option being

, which does not affect your mech.

  • If running this, you would want to swap some pieces to Sinister stats Sinister stats such that you reach ~67% base condition duration, with bleeding and burning duration capped.
  • It may be recommended to pick an option that offers some utility instead.


Consumables

Food


Utility


Usage

Simpler Rotations

Mechanist's signets are very strong, which allows them to replace

/ and if you use the trait. This also allows you to use without losing DPS.

See the Condi Boon Support page for this rotation, and use

off cooldown - this should prevent you needing to use outside of the opener.


Video guide by Masel

Rotation example (J-Drive)


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

(skill 2), then jump into and use along with and if they are off cooldown.

The unique aspect of Spear is the Focused mechanic, which is applied by

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:


Rotation fundamentals

Your three biggest damage contributions come from

, and . When you activate a whirling AoE spins around you for four seconds, gaining a charge for each target hit. After this will activate and do damage according to its charge. The cooldown for the skill begins once you activate so using this skill is high priority, while you can afford to delay if needed (it lasts until is ready again).

Practically speaking, if you cast

and together, the charging time on means that it becomes available around the time that comes off cooldown. And as you always want to be following up with , your rotation should end up always casting these three skills together (alternating between and ).

For the rest of the rotation, try to finish your auto chains, while using the following skills off cooldown:


Due to your three main skills always being cast together, this gives the rotation a "loop" of approximately five seconds (with Quickness Quickness and Alacrity Alacrity). However your other grenade skills and

have a ~16s cooldown (with Alacrity Alacrity), which means that played optimally, these skills will end up shifting their position. You can look at the cooldown of and whenever you go into for . If the cooldown is under two seconds, you exit, do an auto chain, then go back into for them.

Video example


However, if you find handling kits tricky (or just prefer a neater loop), you can use the following rotation, which is a relatively small DPS loss over the optimal one:

Burst Loop

    1. Weapon Swap Weapon Swap

Filler Loops

Repeat this loop three times, then return to the Burst Loop

  1. or (whichever is available)
    1. Weapon Swap Weapon Swap
  2. x2

This rotation slightly delays using

to make the rotation loop properly. It also does not list mech skills or , which should be used off cooldown but have no cast time. You could set the mech skills to autocast, though this may be less effective than triggering them yourself.


Crowd Control

  • : 200 defiance break - 232 to your Focused target
  • : 232 defiance break - used for damage in your rotation, but the damage is low so you could hold onto it for CC
  • : Not a CC in itself, but it drops a lightning field that you could combo with for 100 defiance break.


Pistol Jade Dynamo rotation

Click to view Toggle

The Jade Dynamo rotation (using three kits) is very complicated and essentially boils down to keeping track of priority cooldown skills and switching into kits as necessary to maximise their uses. Downtime between kit swaps are filled with Pistol autos.


To make this manageable, each "kit" you swap to (for these purposes we consider Pistols to also be a kit) has a key skill that we ideally want to swap to and use every time it comes off cooldown, as well as some lower-priority skills that you use if they happen to be off cooldown when you swap. The skills you use in each kit are:


Pistol/Pistol
Key skills:

&
Other skills:


Grenade Kit
Key skill:


Other skills: &


Bomb Kit
Key skill:


Other skill:


You may notice that the cooldowns of the key skills (before Alacrity Alacrity) are 5, 8 and 12 seconds, which do not fit together very neatly. The full rotation then is not going to look very neat, but it can be broken down into a general loop with three sections:


Section 1

Cycle through each kit in turn, using all the skills named above in each. In general, the best order for kits will be

&

and have the same cooldown, so if we make sure to cast last on Pistol and first in then we can know that we only need to go into immediately after using .

After

, autoattack on Pistol until just before then do:


Section 2

Your key Pistol/Pistol should be coming off cooldown now so you can immediately go

& Pistol/Pistol

may not be available when you swap to , so auto with until it's ready.

After

autoattack on Pistol until just before , then:

Pistol/Pistol


Section 3

The final section is much like Section 2, but the cooldowns align slightly differently.

& Pistol/Pistol

This time, when

is available do

Pistol/Pistol

Autoattack on Pistol until

and are on a ~6 second cooldown then quickly swap into and use . Return to Pistol/Pistol after using and start again from Section 1 when and are off cooldown.


Rotation example (Jade Dynamo)


Winging It
If you find the structure above difficult to follow, you can use your Pistol cooldowns to prompt you to swap kits:

  • Every time you use , go into
  • has roughly half the cooldown of and , so use it once immediately before or after using these Pistol skills, then again when they are on a ~6 second cooldown.
  • Focus on the key skills so as not to delay your rotation.
    • When swapping to kits to use key skills, have a look at the remaining cooldowns on the other skills. If they are ready, then swap back to the kit and use them when you would otherwise just be autoattacking on Pistol.
  • Pistol skills should take priority.


General Tips

  • Make sure you're within 360 units of your mech before using F1-3 skills, or they will have a 50% longer cooldown thanks to .
  • Any of your other Pistol skills will interrupt , so it's best to use it last.
    • You can swap to during the cast without interrupting the skill.
  • During the wind-up of , it can be interrupted with . Either make sure not to press too soon, or use first.
  • Press all your mech skills off cooldown - you can save for CC if necessary.
  • If using , use it off cooldown. It is a very small DPS gain though, so hold on to it if there is any danger that the mech might die.


Ratings

This build has a rating of 5 stars based on 2 votes.
Log in or register to rate this build.
5 stars
MechaOG gave this build 5 stars • September 2024
With the addition of Spear, this build has certainly become top-tier. The spear skills complements engi condi playstyle really well and you can pull big numbers with this build.
4 stars
OfficerAndyGentleman gave this build 4 stars • July 2023
Enough options that most players will find a build they enjoy, and experienced players can play around with the confusion generation to push it even further. Also comes with all the usual advantages that the mech offers in terms of dps uptime.

Comments

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