Machinist is a Physical Ranged DPS introduced through the first major expansion of the game after the relaunch of the game through A Realm Reborn. They are also the second Physical Ranged DPS in the game after Bard.

As a Machinist, they excel in ranged physical combat, utilising their guns and machinas in order to wreak havoc into the heart of their enemies. They do not need the aid of magic at all, and their skills do reflect that.

For this reason, this article would like to highlight ten of the best Machinist’s skills, whether it be because they have high DPS, serves a good party utility, or many more reasons.

10. Air Anchor

A guide on why one should play Machinist. See Air Anchor in action at 1:50.

Air Anchor is the first skill to be introduced in this list. It is an offensive attack that is often used by the Machinists,

Why Air Anchor is Great:

• Air Anchor is an attack skill that will deal a 580 attack potency to the targeted enemy. This is quite a high amount of potency, making it a powerful attack that should be used every time it comes off cooldown.
• Additionally, using Air Anchor will also increase the Battery Gauge by 20. Battery Gauge is needed by the Machinist in order to access some of their important skills, making this gauge important to be increased.
• Air Anchor has a 40 second cooldown, so Machinist can use this rather short cooldown to their advantage and use Air Anchor often, and making sure that their battery gauge won’t overcap. 

Air Anchor details. 

9. Barrel Stabilizer

A video guide on Machinist’s skills from 1 to 90. See Barrel Stabilizer in action at 27:50.

Barrel Stabilizer is an ability that is important in order to gain access to some of the most important of Machinist’s skills.

Why Barrel Stabilizer is Great:

• Barrel Stabilizer is a support ability skill that will increase the Machinist’s Heat Gauge by 50 when executed.
• Heat Gauge is needed to execute some powerful skills like Hypercharge, which in turn will allow the Machinist gain access to even more skills.
• Not to mention, Barrel Stabilizer is an ability that the Machinist can easily weave in between their GCD attacks, meaning that Machinist can easily use this skill between their original rotation, gaining the buff without having to break their combo.

Barrel Stabilizer details. 

8. Tactician

A simple video guide on Machinist. See Tactician in action at 5:10.

Tactician is the third ability to be featured in this article. It is an important support skill that is necessary for the party.

Why Tactician is Great:

• Tactician is a very powerful and popular support ability that is useful not only for the Machinists themselves, but also for the whole party.
• This is because using Tactician will grant a buff for the Machinist and their party members that will reduce damage taken by them by 10% for 15 seconds.
• This is very useful to use before taking a painful raidwide or when there are a lot of attacks going on, ensuring that the party member will be able to live longer by taking less damage from the enemies.

Tactician details. 

7. Drill

A video guide on Machinist. See Drill in action at 2:04.

Drill is the next offensive attack skill to be featured in this article. It is also probably the most popular of Machinist’s skills.

Why Drill is Great:

• Drill is popular for one reason; it deals massive amounts of damage, especially when combined with Reassemble.
• Drill, when executed, will deal damage with a whopping potency of 580. This can easily deal a lot of damage to the enemy, especially when targeting a boss.
• With its low cooldown of 20 seconds, Machinists will be able to use Drill often in a battle, slowly turning the tide over.

Drill details. 

6. Automaton Queen

A video demonstrating the Automaton Queen skill.

Automaton Queen is the next skill to be featured. It is a very cool skill that will summon an Automaton to the battlefield to fight alongside the Machinist.

Why Automaton Queen is Great:

• To be able to summon the Automaton Queen, Machinist will need a minimum of 50 Battery Gauge, although it is definitely better to summon the Automaton Queen at a maximum Battery Gauge as it will allow the queen to stay longer the more Battery Gauge the Machinist has, up to a total of 20 seconds.
• The Automaton will automatically attack the enemies with different sets of skills, some of which can be extremely powerful. Some examples are Arm Punch, Roller Dash, Pile Bunker, and others.
• Players can manually disengage the Queen by triggering Queen Overdrive, which will command the Queen to execute Crowned Collider. The Queen will then shut down after this attack. If by the duration of the summon of the queen the player does not activate this skill manually, it will automatically activate.

Automaton Queen details. 

5. Hypercharge

A guide on how to play Machinist in Endwalker. See Hypercharge in action at 5:50.

Hypercharge is the next ability skill to be introduced. It is an extremely important skill that will use Heat Gauge.

Why Hypercharge is Great:

• Hypercharge is an important ability that will use 50 Heat Gauge per use. Hypercharge will release the energy in the Machinist’s firearm and cause it to be Overheated, increasing the potency of single target skill for 20 for 8 seconds.
• During this period, Machinists will have access to special skills like Heatblast and Auto Crossbrow that will deal rapid fire attacks to the enemies. 
• Heatblast, in particular, when executed, will reduce the cooldown for both Gauss Round and Ricochet by 15 whole seconds, allowing the Machinist to be able to use them repeatedly during the overheat period, further increasing their damage output.

Hypercharge details. 

4. Chain Saw

A video guide on Machinist’s skills from 1 to 90. See Chain Saw in action at 43:25.

Chain Saw is the next offensive skill to be introduced in this article. It is a very powerful skill that should be used as often as possible.

Why Chain Saw is Great:

• It is a very powerful level 90 skill that can cause absolute devastation on the Machinist’s enemies.It will deal attack on enemies on a straight line that will deal damage with a 580 damage potency for the first enemy, and 65% less for the remaining enemies.
• Additionally, using Chain Saw will increase the battery gauge by 20, allowing the Machinist to summon the Automaton Queen faster.
• Not only that, Chain Saw has quite a low cooldown of 60 seconds, which allows the Machinist to use them often, especially in long raids and dungeons.

Chain Saw details. 

3. Reassemble

A video guide on Machinist’s skills from 1 to 90. See Reassemble in action at 5:15.

Reassemble is the next ability skill to be featured in this article. It is a really important one since it can multiply the amount of damage dealt by skills by a ton.

Why Reassemble is Great:

• Reassemble is a really important and powerful ability that should be used as often as possible. This is because using Reassemble will guarantee that the next weaponskill the Machinist will execute under the Reassemble effect will be a critical direct hit, enabling them to be able to deal a lot more damage.
• Reassemble is a great skill to be paired with other powerful skills like Drill or Chain Saw. This will allow the Machinist to make these powerful skills hit even harder with the help of Reassemble.
• Not only that, Machinist will have two charges of Reassemble that they can use frequently, with each charge refilling every 55 seconds. It is imperative that the Machinist use this often to deal the most optimal damage to the enemies.

Reassemble details. 

2 Wildfire

A video demonstrating the Wildfire skill.

Wildfire is a unique ability of the Machinist that will help the Machinist deal more damage to the enemies depending on the skills they were using.

Why Wildfire is Great:

• Wildfire, similar to Reassemble, will help deal more damage to the enemies, but in a different method. Instead of directly enhancing the potency of the Weapon Skill, Wildfire will instead deal damage based on how many weapon skill the Machinist successfully lands on the enemy under the effect of WIldfire.
• This makes Wildfire an incredibly compatible ability to be used along with Hypercharge, since Hypercharge will allow the Machinist to use rapid fire attacks and weave in Gauss Round and Ricochet a lot.
• Wildfire’s potency of attack will be increased by 220 with every weapon attack, and this effect will last for 10 seconds. This will motivate the Machinist to deal more skills during this period of time to increase the potency to maximum.

Wildfire details. 

1. Crowned Collider

A video why one should play Machinist. See Crowned Collider in action at 6:15.

The last ability skill to be featured in this article is Crowned Collider, a very important and powerful ability unique to that of the Automaton Queen.

Why Crowned Collider is Great:

• Crowned Collider will deal a damage with a whopping 780 potency to the targeted enemy. It is a very high potency damage, maybe even the highest among the Machinist’s skills.
• In addition, this already high potency can even be further increased depending on how high the Battery Gauge is when the Machinist is deploying the Automaton Queen.
• This makes it so that deploying the Queen while on maximum gauge is important not only to keep the Queen longer on the battlefield, but to also increase the potency of the Crowned Collider.
• Upon activating Crowned Collider, the Automaton Queen will shut down after the execution. If Crowned Collider is not manually activated before the duration of the summon of the Automaton Queen runs out, Crowned Collider will activate automatically.

Crowned Collider details. 

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