is there a reason why there are so little MCH in this game compare to BRD?

why there are so little MCH? i tried both of them out and i personally feels like MCH is a very useful class to have in a group specially with their debuffs. when there are 2-3 MCH in a raid it seem like we burn the boss down a lot faster compare to having 5-8 BRD in a group lol. I really hope this class will get more love in 4.0 because BRD outshine this class by A LOT right now.... :(

My take: Bard was around longer so it has the advantage of player loyalty to a job in its favor over machinist. Mch is also harder to pull off well than bard so less people play it. And when mch was released it was really weak, so some of that stigma remains despite the changes making it much better than it was.

I agree with the above, and there is also the fact that there was a surge of BRDs leveling up when they were the "guaranteed a raid slot" Job so there were a LOT of BRDs leveled up.

I'm curious. You said it was weak at release, what buffs were made to bring it up to level?

Then there is the whole group who want to play physical ranged but who don't like guns in fantasy games

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Originally Posted by Chiraisu

I'm curious. You said it was weak at release, what buffs were made to bring it up to level?

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Patch 3.07
Quick Reload
Recast time reduced from 40 seconds to 30 seconds.
TP recovered reduced from 50 to 30.
The Quicker Reload trait now reduces recast time to 15 seconds.


Patch 3.1

Machinist Gauss Barrel
・Damage increase has been increased from 20% to 30%.
・Cast time has been reduced from 3 to 0 seconds.
・Recast time has been increased from 2.5 to 15 seconds.
Gauss Round
・Potency has been reduced from 200 to 180.
Ricochet
・Potency of the area attack has been reduced from 300 to 200.


Patch 3.2
Split Shot
TP cost has been reduced from 70 to 60.
The timing at which Slug Shot's icon flashes while under the effect of Enhanced Slug Shot has been adjusted.
Slug Shot
The timing at which Clean Shot's icon flashes while under the effect of Cleaner Shot has been adjusted.
Lead Shot
TP cost has been reduced from 80 to 70.
Hot Shot
TP cost has been reduced from 80 to 70.
Gauss Round
Potency has increased from 180 to 200.
Hypercharge
Duration has been increased from 15 seconds to 20 seconds.

The detrimental effects dealt by Rook Autoturret and Bishop Autoturret have been adjusted as follows:
Rook Autoturret's increased physical damage effect has been increased from 5% to 10%.
Bishop Autoturret's increased magic damage effect has been increased from 5% to 10%.


Patch 3.4
Reload
Now remains in effect until all ammunition is used.


Might have missed some. But the Gauss Barrel change was the big buff..

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Originally Posted by Jilliebeans

why there are so little MCH? i tried both of them out and i personally feels like MCH is a very useful class to have in a group specially with their debuffs. when there are 2-3 MCH in a raid it seem like we burn the boss down a lot faster compare to having 5-8 BRD in a group lol. I really hope this class will get more love in 4.0 because BRD outshine this class by A LOT right now.... :(

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One major reason is likely that you need to have some other class at level 50 (and having entered Ishgard) before you can even start playing MCH - and then it starts at level 30.
Many people will prefer to continue playing whatever their chosen job is throughout the game instead of first leveling MCH from 30 to 50 and then continue where you were.

Because MCH is visually unexciting and boring to play IMHO. Bad combo. They should've been flipping around like they're in the Matrix, with dual pistols or some shit. MOAR ANIME. I've said this before, but dual gun wielders in PSO2 are rad as hell.

Also the rng based dps and poor pet management tends to be a major turn off to most players. It was almost as if, when designing Mch, SE sat down and figured out what we disliked most about MMO's and then put it all in one job.

RNG based dps: Check
Pet you have very little control over, doesn't follow you, but is the center point for very important raid buffs: Check
Cast timers on a weapon that doesn't traditionally have timers: double check!

It was also supposed to satisfy those who were waiting for Musketeer...so it unfortunately had a lot going against it from the very beginning. Hopefully the 4.0 changes will help both Mch and Bard.

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Originally Posted by Linadae

RNG based dps: Check

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It's not really that heavily rng based. When you have a correct rotation you have bullets for a lot of things or you're reapplying things that don't need bullets. There is still some rng time but the periods of pure rng is pretty minimal actually.

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Originally Posted by RaizeGraymalkin

Because MCH is visually unexciting and boring to play IMHO. Bad combo. They should've been flipping around like they're in the Matrix, with dual pistols or some shit. MOAR ANIME. I've said this before, but dual gun wielders in PSO2 are rad as hell.

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For me I feel like mch has a cool aesthetic. Sliding the bullets in and firing is cool. Fire and explosions going all over, ricocheting bullets and such.

The new mech actions are pretty cool too. Pretty flashy flamethrower animation, a bullet spread that converge on a target, two machina that laser zap the target.

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Originally Posted by Yorumi

For me I feel like mch has a cool aesthetic. Sliding the bullets in and firing is cool. Fire and explosions going all over, ricocheting bullets and such.

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It's still very underwhelming compared to the bard.
But they definitely received some love for StormBlood!

I don't even play bard but like the natural, un-mechanised idea of firing arrows over the machinist. Just my two cents.

I simply didn't find it as interesting as BRD. It's an okay job, and I leveled it. I just prefer bows over guns. As someone already said, it's more "fantasy-like." Even on FFXI, I liked bow RNG over gun RNG. Come to think of it, FFXI's COR was a far more interesting gun job than MCH. AST stole their cards though.

I actually find MCH a lot more fun than BRD and Im thinking of switching my main to it. I guess I rather have gun than a bow. Im just so happy MCH is getting more explosions and no cast time.

People might prefer bows to guns. I have no interest in guns but I'll still level it.

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Originally Posted by Jilliebeans

why there are so little MCH? i tried both of them out and i personally feels like MCH is a very useful class to have in a group specially with their debuffs. when there are 2-3 MCH in a raid it seem like we burn the boss down a lot faster compare to having 5-8 BRD in a group lol. I really hope this class will get more love in 4.0 because BRD outshine this class by A LOT right now.... :(

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Because I tried MCH for 20 minutes after unlocking the job and I wanted to set my self on fire, jump through the window out of the 100th floor of a building and shoot my self in the head while falling ...

But bards, they play music for the lonely adventurers and bring warmth to their heart.

I believe I saw somewhere that MCH is the least played job. I think it's just because the Bard has so much more to offer...I mean what raid group or party doesn't like Foe Requiem or Mage's Ballad? You get all the coms for being the group DJ and playing all the hit songs

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Originally Posted by PogueX

I believe I saw somewhere that MCH is the least played job. I think it's just because the Bard has so much more to offer...I mean what raid group or party doesn't like Foe Requiem or Mage's Ballad? You get all the coms for being the group DJ and playing all the hit songs

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Foe's is definitely superior than a MCH's Hypercharge in certain party compositions; it's just more potent when coupled with Battle Voice. But MCHs do still have an equivalent of "Mage's Ballad." In fact, when it comes to TP/MP restoration the MCH is more reliable (in my opinion) than a BRD - since our Hypercharge doesn't eat our own MP pool to execute unlike Foe's.

More on topic, though. BRDs have been around a lot longer and I feel there's going to be player loyalty to it by far. I've played and mained both for a long while now, I think they're both a lot of fun - but at the moment MCH just feels more seamless with GB.