Gear Master Remake

[NearLawlet]

Source: http://patchnote.dragonnest.com/category?patchnoteno=33

To all Gear Master players, congratulations! You finally got your major boost!

To all Shooting Star players, my condolences.

PREVIEW

[Summon Tower]
Summon all towers in a designated location at once. Attack power for all towers increase with skill level.
Replaces existing tower skills.
Previous tower skills are changed to enable direct usage as [Mechanical] skills.
Shortened duration means this skill should be preserved for critical situation (burst window).

[Extreme Tower]
Can only be used by consuming [Mechanic Gauge] bubble.
[Mechanic Gauge] bubble is obtained with each successful hit by towers.
When this skill is used, all existing towers will have Berserk status with slight change in appearance.
This skill does not extend tower duration.

[Class Mastery II]
After using [Mecha Duck EX], [Mecha Cannon] can be used immediately.
[Mecha Cannon] will be used by Academic Clone instead of character.

[Flag Cannon]
Active awakening skill with 2 cooldown charges (CTC).
Fire a shell to coordinate attack by summons and increase [Big Mecha Bomb] damage.
The cooldown for [Awakened Passive] Big Mecha Bomber can be fully recovered when this skill is used twice in a row and deal full hits.

[Awakened Passive] Mecha Duck
Parry effect is added to skill.
When parry is successful, a powerful [Mecha Fire] can be used.
[Awakened] Mecha Duck will also trigger Class Mastery II [Mecha Cannon].

[Class Mastery III]
*I honestly don't know why they wrote this here, so bear with me...*
Add invincibility and cancellation effect to Gear Master's arsenal.
In addition, Gear Master's attribute power is unified to its highest level.


SKILL BALANCING

ENGINEER
Increase MP consumption for all skills.

[Chemical Grenade]
Max skill level has been increased 10 > 16.
Damage has been increased 435% > 1606%.
Debuff duration increase with skill level.

[Rocket Jump]
The ability to throw grenade by pressing [General Attack] button during [Dodge] or [Dash] has been removed and transferred to [Gravity Grenade].
Max skill level has been reduced 21 > 10.
Damage has been increased 459% > 1940%.
Cooldown decrease with skill level.

[Gravity Grenade]
Skill can now be activated by pressing [General Attack] button during [Dodge] or [Dash].
Max skill level has been increased 8 > 16.
Damage has been increased 700% > 1738%.
Area of effect is increased at level 11.

[Flash Grenade]
Damage has been increased 459% > 1681%.
Superarmor has been increased.

[Gatling Tower]
Skill is replaced with [Mechanic Gatling].
Max skill level has been reduced 21 > 14.
Damage has been increased 1275% > 1580%.
Cooldown has been increased 0 second > 14 seconds.

[Cannon Tower]
Skill is replaced with [Mechanic Cannon].
Skill input has been changed to allow continuous usage and character no longer retreats from position.
Max skill level has been reduced 17 > 14.
Damage has been increased 731% > 1025%.

[Ice Pump Tower]
Skill is replaced with [Mechanic Ice Pump]
Max skill level has been increased 11 > 14.
Damage has been increased 1643% > 2135%.

[Mechanic Mode]
Skill is replaced with [Summon Tower].
Summon all towers to a designated location.
[Mechanic Chainsaw] skill is required to summon [Chainsaw Tower].
All towers have similar properties to their [Mechanical] counterparts, except [Gatling Tower] which has increased range.
All towers have similar damage to their [Mechanical] counterpart at maximum level.
Tower duration has been increased to 30 seconds.
Invincible towers.

[Skyline]
Skill is replaced with [Extreme Tower]
Skill can be used by consuming 70 [Mechanic Gauge].
[Mechanic Gauge] is obtained with each successful hit from towers.
Each tower will throw a different number of bombs.
Gatling Tower: 3 bombs.
Cannon Tower: 5 bombs.
Ice Pump Tower: 3 bombs.
Chainsaw Tower: 4 bombs.
Damage for each bomb: 1754%.


GEAR MASTER

[Chainsaw Tower]
Skill is replaced with [Mechanic Chainsaw].
Skill is enhanced to apply 20% additional damage debuff on enemy.
Damage has been increased 2851% > 3689%.
Cooldown has been increased 6 seconds > 21 seconds.

[Big Mecha Bomb]
Skill no longer increase damage taken by enemy.

[Mecha Duck EX]
You can summon up to 4 Mecha Duck by continuously pressing [General Attack] button.

[Mecha Bomb EX]
Gain 5 [Mechanic Gauge] when [Mecha Bomb] hits enemy successfully.

[Class Mastery]
Increase attack power by 30% for 5 seconds when [Extreme Tower] is used.

[Class Mastery II]
Use [Mecha Duck EX] to summon 4 ducks in a row to instantly use [Mecha Cannon].
[Mecha Cannon] is controlled by Academic Clone XD-29.
Damage: 24900%.
Cooldown: 40 seconds.

[Class Mastery III]
*One of the new effects is similar to Adept's [Elemental Mastery]. Probably to make up for Gravity Grenade, Mecha Shock and Ice Pump innate element.
Damage has been increased 300% > 1000%.
Recover 10% of HP and MP when [Air Shot] is used.
In addition, attribute power is unified to its highest level.

[Tower Recall]
*What the fish...?*
Skill is replaced with [Auto Pump].
Call forth Mecha Duck Self Defense Force to follow your character and attack enemy.
Duration: 10 seconds.
Damage: 204% per attack; up to 90 attacks.

[Mecha Cannon]
Skill is replaced with [Flag Cannon].
Fire a high-speed shell in front of Flag Cannon to coordinate attack by Mecha Ducks and towers.
Each successful hit will recover [Big Mecha Bomb] cooldown by 1 second.

[Awakened Passive] Tower Mastery
Skill is replaced with [Awakened Passive] Summon Tower.
Tower duration is reduced to 15 seconds.
Tower damage is increased by 200%.
[Mechanic Gauge] acquisition rate is doubled.
All [Mechanical] skills damage is increased by 300%.
[Mechanical Gatling] damage is increased by 900% and skill is enhanced to fire electrical bullets.

[Awakened Passive] Gravity Grenade
Skill is replaced with [Awakened Passive] Big Mecha Bomb.
[Big Mecha Bomb] damage is increased by 100%.
Add 100% additional damage when hitting enemy afflicted by [Flag Cannon] effect.

[Awakened Passive] Mechanic Mode
Skill is replaced with [Awakened Passive] Extreme Tower.
Increase [Extreme Tower] damage by 200%.
[Extreme Tower] cooldown is recovered by 3 seconds with each successful hit of [Mechanical] skills

[Awakened Passive] Mecha Duck
Enhance existing Mecha Duck skills.
Add parry effect when Mecha Duck is used.
When parry is used succesfully, character will use Mecha Fire instead of summoning Mecha Duck.
Damage: 20000%.


SHOOTING STAR

[Awakened Passive] Biochemical Experiment
*I suppose it's better than nothing...*
Damage has been increased 1050% > 3212%.

[Xenocho]

Thank you for the compilation

From a vid, it seems it's only Big Mecha Bomb and Summon Towers which contribute to the ulti bubble system. Tentatively. Correct me if I'm wrong.

i have yet to see how strong extreme tower is. So far pending a direct comparison video for further analysis.

[NearLawlet]

I only found two videos, but it seems some of the changes are bugged.

Flag Cannon does not reduce Big Mecha Bomb cooldown as per description, and Extreme Tower gives very little, if any, DPS boost for towers. The latter may, in fact, have caused Ice Pump tower to lose its innate ice attribute and Chainsaw Tower to lose its damage entirely.

If the patchnote is correct, then Mecha Bomb should also grant 5 Mechanic Gauge bubble with each successful attack.

[Xenocho]

In the video I saw, the user did not specifically tested those mechanics. He did upload a vid comparing extreme vs summon and it seems extreme is weaker LOL? Element shouldn't be a problem because in CM1 it seems they balance the attribute like adept's? Or am I reading that wrongly?

Meanwhile I did watch the entire vid and those 2 skills I listed were the only one which contributed to mechanic gauge. I think some stuff needs a fixing.

[atom100]

AAHH need to learn new playstyle. Is summon tower cd less than 15s? if not placing tower in moving target still a problem.

[NearLawlet]

The ducks themselves got little to no improvement. Most of the changes were emphasized on GM's own capability to deal damage (without relying on summons).

Unless you were referring to Big Mecha Bomb 'ducks' or something, in which case I stand corrected.

[Xenocho]

You are correct NearLawlet. With MM being the default and boosting those skills dmg significantly, GM is quite strong now esp with the MM Cannon spam. Unfortunately MM Chainsaw kinda died with the huge nerf to its CD when compared to the others.

In terms of ducks being boosted, the main attraction is having all 4 in one go and just letting it do whatever it wants, occasionally casting Mecha Bomb. However, I feel that the output from the ducks won't be that important due to having no DMG due to silly AI and its slow waddling movement.

[atom100]

Ducks will be more the companions than the towers in soloing dungeons after this revamp.
And we're back in spamming MM cannon days. assuming they won't nerf it again in the future.

[Xenocho]

Table Summary of GM Revamp:
Major changes in Sept 19 is the bonus damage from [Awakened] Summon Tower reduced from +200% to +100% and Extreme Tower damage from +200% to +300% and some board damage increment of 1754% to 2250%. Cannon Tower and MM Cannon damage is reduced slightly but it won't significantly reduce damage output. It's more of a filler when the core DMG/CT skills are unavailable.

Summon Tower is still kinda OP based on the Tower's damage being x2 due to the [Awakened] passive. This makes learning boss attack patterns, mech timings and controlling position of the boss to be very important for the Gear Master.

Not much else for me to say; if there is any error or anything you wish to ask, please do. I didn't include Gravity Grenade because it seems weak despite its buff; you are better off spamming MM cannon.

Refer below for some calculations:

Note: Chain Saw Tower still has its melee spinning damage which is a bonus 20% from the 3689% listed.

Video references

Overall skill display:

For some reason I cannot embed > 1 video as before, unsure why so here are the links:

Extreme Tower ULTI VS Summon Tower (Spoiler: Extreme Tower is weaker than Summon Tower)
http://<a href="https://www.youtube....H2Pxae8XaE</a>

LB13 F training ground + status (?)
http://<a href="https://www.youtube....5-z3onB4eA</a>

[Xenocho]

Completed the error in the table and corrected calculations.

[ElChubibo]

Well that's true. Extreme Tower gives a higher hit count but the damage was less. According to the patch note, activating Extreme Tower required strategy.. but based on the test I made, whether you activate it upon using Summon Tower vs activating before the towers are gone, it's just the same. I believe they will still do something about this on the upcoming patches

[Xenocho]

I think it was Summon tower which was mentioned to require strategy to be used, in comparison to previous method of just spamming tower then recalling it wherever you need. This time once towers are placed, you cannot fix a mistake for another 40s

[ElChubibo]

Hello guys!

Well just wanted to say Hi. haha.

[Xenocho]

Welcome. Feel free to join in anytime~

[Xenocho]

The GM dmg nerf is not that bad. In my table, the Summon Tower damage is vastly underestimated. According to the patch notes, [Awakened] Summon Tower damage boost reduced from 200% to 100%, which means coefficient is reduced from 3 to 2. However in my calculations, coefficient is already 2, so the damage is more or less same with tiny nerfs to Cannon Tower damage. MM Cannon effectiveness slightly reduced but it's not game breaking. GM is still very strong, especially if they fix Extreme Tower. I will update the table in awhile.

[NearLawlet]

Uh, it's probably worse than that.

The old Summon Tower can do hefty damage even without Extreme Tower, whereas the new Summon Tower can only surpass its old counterpart when combined with the new Extreme Tower, which is only available every 125 seconds (not sure if there's a cooldown plate for this skill).

So yeah, even if their damage is more or less equal with one another, the new ST + ET should deal significantly less DPS than the old ST + ET in the long run.

[Xenocho]

Actually, what I meant to say was that GM is still in a very good position based on the current table. Of course compared to the previous one, it's quite a bit nerf but clearly that the initial update one was pretty overkill

[NearLawlet]

I agree. The remake was a bit too much, even with the bugged Extreme Tower.

[Arrakis]

Extreme Tower now good skill, cooldown = 85sec.
CD Plate -20% and Special Attk Cooldown Rediced for Required combined level -15%.
Each successful hit by a Cannon Tower gives -3 sec to cooldown Extreme Tower.

Skill Rank DPS Serpentra Nest 13 Labyrinth (can be seen at the end of video).
1. [Awakened] Mechanic Ice Pump: 4,444,825,441,853 = 24%
2. [Awakened] Big Mecca Bomb: 2,217,946,475,629 = 12%
3. Additional damage: 2,063,926,587,227 = 11%
4. [Awakened] Extreme Tower 1,927,218,205,466 = 10%
5. [Awakened] Chainsaw Tower 1.672,035,014,413 = 9%

[NearLawlet]

I'm surprised [Awakened] Mechanic Cannon didn't even make it to top five. Was it recorded after the latest nerf to DJ Ice Pump?

[Arrakis]

Yes, after last nerf.

[Xenocho]

Thank you for sharing, its good info. It seems like there's not that much time to cast Mechanic Cannon so its neglected. It's only good as a filler skill when there's nothing to cast, which is a good thing.

I heard DJ Ice Pump is significantly improved with jade enhancement. Can you share some info on that versus the base skill?

[Bitezboi]

So I have a question, currently you can basically spam mechanic mode Gatling gun which has the little exploding grenades at the end and it seems to do a lot more than the Cannon mode does, however in all the videos all I see is people spamming the cannon. Does the cool down on the mechanic mode Gatling gun getting increased and that's why people use the Cannon mode?

also with the dream Jade be worth getting and what Crest do you think I should have? Because I don't believe getting any of the crest for the towers will increase the damage while in mechanic mode

[Xenocho]

Cannon is more flexible, decent damage, good range. Gatling has short range and the coefficient is not constant, depending on how much you spam the button and the char's animation when the skill is used. The damage difference is not day and night so cannon is just better overall.

Dream jade is good due to freeze effect, a direct upgrade with no loss except if you are bad at aiming your skills then the increased CD will be detrimental. The crests should be based on the top DPS skills, with CD being a good option for many of them due to lack of diminishing returns (in comparison to DMG plates). Based on Arrakis' post above, perhaps Summon Tower CD, BMB CD, Ice Pump CD, and the last one probably flexible.

[Xenocho]

Sorry, I didn't realise the plates were changed. So... for the plates I would probably go for
Extreme Tower CD
Summon Tower CD
Ice Pump Damage
Cannon ASPD (optional, will check out effectiveness)

I think other plates are not so useful based on Arrakis' post.