Disappointment With Machinist? Redux

December of last year when we first heard about Machinist being the long awaited gun class, I opened a thread to vent my disappointment, though, I'd much rather have my long awaited gun than not, so suffice it to say I was bound and determined to play the class we were given for it hell or high water.

Remaining optimistic, some six months later nearly to the day I am sadly revisiting the same topic.

Disappointment with machinist.

Am I really the only one who feels slighted on this?

First and Foremost, Thank you for my gun! I've been waiting a long time!

However... From a game play standpoint, if only very slightly from a lore standpoint, and now certainly from a dps standpoint.

Lore. First and foremost we have seen guns being utilized throughout Eorzea for the duration of the 2.X patches. From the Musketeers underneath the Marauder's guild in beta to the pirates seen wielding a gun and sword combo to Admiral Merlwyb's deft and impressive dual wielding which arrived not long on the heels--

--of a tease with the coming and long waited gun job.The pirates of Limsa have long been waiting their chance to come out barrels blazing and instead?Well... Instead we've been given what seems to have been intended as Bard 2.0 but really ends up being more like bard 0.8 in terms of both damage and utility. Which brings us directly to game play.

While initially as satisfying, the evolution to not bard begins with the arrival of your first turret which is responsible for the presumable rough 15-20ish % of your overall damage output, siphoning off of your personal dps and prepping for the true destiny which is becoming a "not song" and restoring tp over time.

It is as if the development for MCH was started with the question "How can we make a class that's exactly like bard but plays just different enough that it feels brand new?" In that sense I suppose they delivered to a degree. Where the class truly falls short is damage output. --

The term DPS should translate to exactly that. Unfortunately our newly delivered not bard shares a destiny with the superior clone it was derived from: Punished for having utility. Would having another ranged dps on par with Black Mage really have been too much to ask? Did the game really need another utility class that does the exact same things as bard in a roundabout, less effective way? I suppose the answer to those questions were yes and yes.

What we Not Bards are left with now is fighting with RNG procs instead of crit chance.
1 1 1 1 1 1. . . .

For a missed opportunity, I look to reloading. In an interview we heard that reloading would be something that could take place between battles. Unfortunately it seems that my bullets fall out of the gun miraculously should that be taken advantage of.
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Couldn't reloading the gun have been a centerpiece to the job? Since it creates a stable stream of procs, maybe turning reloading into a mechanic that has to occur at the end of a rotation and takes time to channel thus balancing the job through a steady cycle of loaded shots then a downtime of a reloading phase similar to the drop in dps that BLMs face with their umbral ice cycle. The burst of course still coming when we have rapid fire available for an instant reload.

With these points in mind, I'm sure it is vividly apparent that I'm not a developer, I have no vast insight into the intricate details of the mathematics of the job and just how much effort gets poured into balancing skills and bringing our new Not Bard to a playable state. I'm just someone who's been waiting a long, long time for the gun class to come to exist. It's why I started to play XIV in the first place, It's why I'll continue to play now that I finally have it.
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I'm disappointed; Am I really the only one? Finally that we now have a gun and it gets out-dps'd by warriors and dark knights, the fact that a big portion of my damage is wrapped up in a silly little turret, the missed opportunity of not being able to dual wield, being a pirate in any way or of revolving around RNG in order to be semi relevant, but I am happy.

Happy that I at least finally have the gun I've been waiting for in FFXIV, even if for some reason, somewhere along the line, everyone got together and decided that it should be the weakest damage dealer in the game and a diet bard knockoff.

Sorry for the self thread spam. /rant complete

If you played through Machinist's job quests, you'd find out is well more than simply using muskets.

Believe me I am disappointed with it, but not for storyline. I am disappointed because of the sheer lack of viability and the fact that if I spend time gearing it I will not be taken into raids because it is unviable.

And I was someone who hit 50 on MCH a little over 24 hours of prerelease being unlocked. It is ridiculously discouraging.


http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...to-level-42%29

Quote:

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Originally Posted by RiceisNice

If you played through Machinist's job quests, you'd find out is well more than simply using muskets.

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I feel like you focused on the very least of the concerns I touched on, ><

As an i180 MCN my only disappointment is the damage. 30% dmg for gauss barrel please and thank you.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Revy66

I feel like you focused on the very least of the concerns I touched on, ><

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Because I really do not feel like talking about all the problems with machinist. Talked it to death with my FC and other sections of the forum. All I'll say is that gauss barrel needs a buff to justify using it outside of AoE or pre-pull burst.

Hope they do something to fix this class :(