DEVS: Please consider differentiating Bard and Machinist gear in the future.

Let's pollute the drop pool even further!

No, please. Hell, go the opposite direction - put ninja on brd/mch gear or add dex to mnk gear and put it on that. Dex does literally nothing for MNK now that it doesn't increase parry, and STR does nothing for Ninja, so there's no reason they can't share gear.

Don't think they should separate the two, but they could simply make more 'neutral' looking sets, while on occasion making shared sets that leans more towards one of the two aesthetics, respectively.

If this is all down to looks then there is already a solution glamour \o/

If it's about stats then let them share gear.

It's less a matter of stats and more aesthetics, as was mentioned. They are already too similar in playstyle at the core; shoehorning MCH into the look of BRD gear effectively robs it of further identity. It basically becomes "that other ranged DEX job" that way. And for SE who once reasoned that they didn't want to make gear/glamours universal so as to keep the aesthetics (of DoW/DoM overall) unique, it seems a bit of a step backward to have 2 (arguably) different jobs of a similar type simply mashed together under an aesthetic that particularly caters to one over the other.

Sure, we could arguably say the same for tanks, healers, and casters overall, but I don't believe the aesthetics are as one-sided with those as with the ranged jobs. And to address the (rather valid) comment about loot tables being further diluted, consider if you will that future jobs, as well as movement of older gear to dungeons perhaps (a la Darklight) will naturally dilute the loot tables. It's bound to happen, however much we might dislike that. Not to mention that simply lumping similar jobs together will result in issues not unlike what BLM/SMN constantly deal with, that being when stats cater to one over another.

I think tanks, healers and casters should be getting that focus long before the ranged do...

You think the aesthetics difference between a MCH and BRD is bad? try looking at PLD vs DRK someday. Your aesthetic issues are non existent next to their issues.

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Originally Posted by Belhi

In most cases NIN and MNK armor looks the same except for colours. I think Void Ark is the first different one

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It's not the first, though it's one of the only. NIN shared its Ironworks model with BRD, while MNK shared its model with DRG. There's also one set that most folks probably haven't noticed: Toxotes (from WP/AK Normal) has NIN on it, while the MNK set (the name of which I can't remember) does not.

As for the topic at hand, honestly, there have been a decent mix of "BRD" sets and "MCH" sets in HW, so far at least. Fusillier's from Fractal/Neverreap has a steampunk vibe, which is more fitting for MCH, and the Sky Pirate's Aiming set is also more of a "MCH" style, too. The Alexander gear also looks better on MCH naturally, because of the steampunk stuff. The leveling gear largely favors BRD's aesthetics, and I would say the Lost Thief (i185) is more fitting for BRD than MCH.

In terms of differentiating the two classes, I'd much rather they bring more differentiation to their gameplay than anything. I think style-wise there are enough ways to glamour them so they're thematically distinct.

please not, it would just further increase the amount of rng needed for specific gear pieces............

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Originally Posted by ThirdChild_ZKI

That's true, and while they too have their own aesthetics, it's safe to say tanks (generally) wear armor, healers and casters generally wear robes of some sort. But a Bard and Machinist's overall looks vastly differ. Just like a Monk and Ninja. If nothing else, while the jobs play similarly, they need not share the same look (that being exclusively Bard-like), no?

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If it is about look, Monk and Ninja gears share often the same look (just in different colors)

example:

http://img.finalfantasyxiv.com/t/5d6...280abe6_37.png

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Originally Posted by Brannigan

Let's pollute the drop pool even further!

No, please. Hell, go the opposite direction - put ninja on brd/mch gear or add dex to mnk gear and put it on that. Dex does literally nothing for MNK now that it doesn't increase parry, and STR does nothing for Ninja, so there's no reason they can't share gear.

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Agreed. We already have five armor types (Striking, Maiming, Aiming, Scouting, and Casting) for the four DPS slots in an 8-person raid, so a not insignificant portion loot that drops in instances is guaranteed to not be anyone's primary job. Even worse for groups that have both a black mage and summoner sharing the casting drops.

As other people have mentioned, I'd much rather then differentiate their gameplay than gear set; I don't have so much of a problem with their glamour because there have been enough diversity within the shared gear to do something (such as the sky pirates set and such), though I'd really wish they woulds top giving us robes, we don't need more reason to be reminded of how we're a faux caster.

On a side note though, our glamour endgame is still pretty damn lousy compared to the other jobs (esp MCH with the unchangable lunchbox and gauss barrel) because of the said robes, and even down to the crafted glamour. It gets pretty bad when the i160 and i180 crafted recipes (which are generally for glamour at that point since upgraded law was long accessible before the i180 was even added) is not only an old model that was already available to MCH/BRD, but said old model was shared with casters and healers.

http://puu.sh/mo5UK/51f7f85f85.png

Just look at the "shared models". Compared to that, MNK/NIN got something that was previously not available to them (Kirimu Coat which was previously exclusive to BRD/MCH), while casters, healers, tank and DRGs got entirely new models.