Scy asked me what the positives and negatives were for both, so I said them. Of course there are case by case things that shift one way or the other. I didn't think I needed to write a freaking essay outlining every last scenario that can possibly occur and how the two differ. I don't want to write that. No one wants to read that. There's grey in the black and white but in a general sense the black and white does hold true.
Hypercharge's doubled regen potential is actually more seconds per BV CD than BV... So many things. I think an actual +/- list would take me forever.
Why would you use every Hypercharge for regen? You don't. You shouldn't. No one would. I already said the flexibility of Machinist is a big positive. I like what you said about swapping turrets and no, I don't think swapping turrets is hard by any stretch. However, it is something you must do. That's literally all I was saying about micromanagement. It doesn't matter how hard it is, all that matters is that it is more than simply pressing a button, waiting three seconds, and the buff is up. Difficulty is not a factor.
Okay, first off, how is that not a downside? Like, there's no upside to not gaining the effect of your own BV. It's literally 100% downside.
It's perspective, sure, but I've played Bard since 2.0 and I really can't say I've really cared about no BV on me since typically my TP management isn't much of an issue most times and ballad mp ticks are whatever. I don't consider it a downside because I just don't care about it. I don't think many bards do. Maybe I'm wrong.
The primary difference is one is more button presses to enable...
Besides that, I'd argue that "spot regen" and "using BV / Hypercharge on it" aren't the same thing but this is possibly a semantics point?
Don't underestimate the ease of fire and forget. Switching Ballad on and off is infinitely easier than switching turrets consistently. It's literally that easy and that primary difference is all of the difference. If that doesn't bother you, then fine. It's not something I'm super keen on, personally. I'm not saying they're the same thing since they're completely not the same thing. Turning on Ballad for a couple of mana ticks for a healer to get through to the next phase versus a 30 second commitment to songs.
So how is it a DPS loss to burn Hypercharge Promote here but not a DPS loss to burn BV here?
1. I don't really think relying on turret damage alone is a good metric for a DPS gain. 2. Bishop Hypercharge offense doesn't help Wildfire or the Machinist themselves, just the caster. If you're going to argue you can do both, you can do the same with Bard as well and odds are your duration can end up being longer, if not equal to the Machinist's. Enjoy that micromanagement of Promotion, by the way, flipping it on and off to a randomly timed auto attack of a robot to refresh things. It sounds good in theory but in practice it sounds like a logistical nightmare especially with the extremely short duration. I will say that trying to flip it off of Promotion for at least that very last magic vuln would be pretty cool.
However, there are very good points being made about Hypercharge Bishop > Regular Rook. I just would rather not put myself in that position because of the following.
I have no idea how anyone can say that a BV not spent on Foe's isn't losing out on a lot of damage while saying that Hypercharge'd Promote is.
Because I wasn't comparing BV Ballad to Hypercharge Promote. I was simply saying using Hypercharge in a defensive manner is not ideal or something I'd want to waste one of my TWO best offensive cooldowns on. That's the big thing. Hypercharge is one of your best cooldowns along with Wildfire and Raging Strikes. Battle Voice for Bard is more of a "who gives a fuck" button. It's not NEARLY as vital to Bard as Hypercharge is to Machinist. Not even close.
Also if you're going to argue something as silly as one server tick earlier then I can counter and say that when I turn Ballad on I can always make sure the Healers are in the field where if you're getting Bishop damage you need the Healers to be within x of the targets. I just think that argument is a little silly since it'll very rarely become as issue you need to deal with.
Maybe I just prefer the fire and forget mentality of Bard utility versus the swapping turrets and micromanaging every second of Hypercharge. Perhaps the latter is easier on keyboard, but I dunno.
This page makes me want to shoot myself and I play BRD and MCH.
Sorry, you can get back to people gloating about Twintania mounts soon enough.
