Anyone else holding out hope for Machinist?

Hey all,

Just came back to the game recently after being out since early 2020 or so.

I've seen that there's been a LOT of changes since I left. I've been trying to get through the MSQ for once so I haven't actually been doing any of my classes that need leveling, so I haven't tested several of them for myself yet.

My question today is this:

Is there any hope for MCH right now? I really liked that class and if the forums and the class balance I've encountered in-game are to be believed, MCH is dead right now due to unsustainable GCD choices by the devteam.

There's a live letter tomorrow covering the next patch...does anyone think we might get news about a fix? Or does that kind of thing only come with the whole-number patches? (eg: 6.0, 7.0, etc.)

They haven't fixed MCH since they destroyed in in 4.0.

I'm not saying people are willing or should be willing to do HW style MCH, but a demi-caster like in pvp is probably more suitable in pve. I think SE got that backwards.

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Originally Posted by Zsolen

They haven't fixed MCH since they destroyed in in 4.0.

I'm not saying people are willing or should be willing to do HW style MCH, but a demi-caster like in pvp is probably more suitable in pve. I think SE got that backwards.

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Then I guess I've only played it since it was 'destroyed'...

I am - I don't think it would be that hard to improve it, even without drastic changes. More than increased damage, just making it more interesting to play. Its ocds aren't particularly interesting - those could use improvement. The autoturrett/queen could do SOMETHING other than just be there. Buff the party, buff ME - anything. Let me command the annoying thing! Let it explode dramatically in a big way rather than just, "eh, just ran out of steam - boom-ish..." It could get a bit more gadgety.

It's not just damage - it needs more flourish and choices, or more to do. But it doesn't seem like it needs an overhaul. Not a 'subtract,' more of an 'add some stuff.' Unlike classes that are packed & could use subtraction - this is in a good place in that regard.

As i see, a lot of people dont have any hope on SE to do a good ''balance'' on the jobs, every patch is the same thing, jobs becoming 2 minute burst meta (PLD is the next), fun skills being removed and jobs become more and more homogenized.
On top of that now we have the ''damage taxes'' direction from the dev team, so people are just giving up on MCH.

PvP job direction and identity feels so much better than PvE.

MCH is a PVP only Limited Job.

The job is dead. It lives on in PvP.

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Originally Posted by DefectiveMuse

Then I guess I've only played it since it was 'destroyed'...

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Yes, you only played broken iteration.
Stormblood could've been the best if it wasn't for this cubbersome heatgauge and Flamethrower.

ShB has taken a very good direction with Drill and Air Anchor, the uses of "machines" and its newfound thematic, but consider all that was lost:
-Wildfire Combo turned into a mindless heatblast spam.
-Interactive turret turned into a mindless robot.
-Ammos just gone to be replaced with a mindless battery gauge you'll mindlessly spend every 60s.
-All the remove support to never be replaced with anything.

MCH gained good things but lost a lot that was making it gameplay satisfying and valuable to the team.
I believe they can do great thing continuing with ShB iteration but EW dug the grave of the Automaton Queen with Crown collider and the kit got nothing but the disappointing Chain saw.

It's really amazing that they managed to make the job a disaster in PvE but somehow managed to make it enjoyable in PvP.

There are several things about MCH in PvP that it gets right that PvE MCH fails in. It's honestly baffling that it was made by the same team that made Crowned Collider.

- Wildfire is an actual impactful cooldown good for tacking on extra AoE damage. More importantly, it automatically triggers once receiving enough damage which for whatever reason PvE Wildfire does not do.
- The general feel of the job is more impactful and faithful to both the Gadgeteer and Gunner sides of Machinist. Scattergun feels like an actual shotgun, Blast Charge makes you feel like you're actually using a gun with weight to it and not a flip-floppy acrobat with summoning balls that shoot missiles or whatever the hell is going on with the nonsensical 1-2-3 combo.
- There is thought to how you use your turret. Not only does it create some decent area denial, it also provides utility to you and your team with shields compared to the glorified DoT that we have in Automaton Queen.

Oh, and the job actually does good damage in PvP, what a thought. I've said this before and I'll say it again, SE needs to take notes on PvP.

I mean I actually have a lot of fun playing SHB and EW MCH, much more so than I did in HW or SB. All it needs is number buffs, some minor tweaks to its AoE, and I think a more impactful way to use Battery (like getting in the G-Warrior!).

I know a lot of people who say MCH is great at PvP, but it's not really viable past Diamond. You can kinda' make it work in Plat, but as you reach Crystal especially it just falls off too hard with too many counters. All 5 of the melee are absurdly busted, NIN most of all right now, so you can't really do anything about them as MCH. You don't reliably hit 1+ mil damage enough (like other jobs can) in most given matches that aren't very long into overtime, and most of the time when you do hit 1+ mil damage, it's from Bioblaster and your turret so it's not actually killing any one or being significantly impactful enough. Their Limit Break takes too long to charge much like PLD, and no one falls for the Wildfire Heatblast Analyzed Drill Limit Break burst any more.

I speak this as a Crystal player who keeps trying to make MCH work, but just switch to RDM because it doesn't.