Extremely disappointed with 6.1 MCH buffs

MCH was more than 5% behind BRD and DNC, the buffs amount to 2.4% which is not even half of that. MCH needs to do more damage than other physical ranged to be balanced.

MCH brings no utility to the group while both BRD and DNC have healing buffs, cleanses, heals, and shields. MCH has nothing. And still contributes less damage.

As if that wasn't enough, MCH has an anti-synergistic toolkit because Wildfire and Reassemble are unable to benefit from critical hit and direct hit buffs. So not only is MCH damage bad, its identity as a selfish dps that abuses raid buffs suffers because of crit/direct hit mechanics.

Additionally, MCH suffers from massive ping issues, issues that have been known for 4 years at this point. Ping was an issue in Stormblood, it was an issue in Shadowbringers, and it is an issue still in Endwalker. There has been zero improvements in the game mechanics to alleviate it.

NIN and now even DRK have been blessed with improvements to safe-guard against ping problems by adding charges and changing skill implementations, but not MCH, not after 4 years, there has not even been an acknowledgement of the feedback. In fact, at the start of Endwalker Yoshi-P said there is not enough feedback. What are we even supposed to do at this point to give any? None of it is being listened to.

To summarize:
- MCH is and continues to be the weakest ranged DPS
- MCH brings the worst utility to a raid group
- MCH rotation has anti-synergy with party buffs
- MCH has ping problems so only people near datacenters can play it adequately
- MCH has the lowest mobility out of ranged DPS

Edit: MCH is also the least mobile ranged DPS. DNC has En Avant, BRD has Repelling Shot (Now with 15 yalms!), MCH has nothing.

I'll never stop complaining about the Automaton Queen.

It's cool to see but not fun to use.
At the minimum, it's AI should be improved.

Flamethrower is also a relic and should be reworked.
I expected it for 6.0 but for some reason, Crown Collider and another charge of Reassemble was more important.

Outside these, I fully agree with you MCH needs these QoLs.
I'm getting tired of Yoshida saying the Dev read the feedback when the patchnote proves they don't even care about MCH.
6.1 buff is just moving things around to make it looks like they care.

How can I trust you when you disappoint and ignore us for years, now?
Even the JP side isn't amused with those changes.

Please listen to your community on this, SE. There has been MULTIPLE treads made by people (including the OP) about the ping issues that plague this job. Multiple easy fixes exist like simply reducing the animation lock on heatblast, gauss round and Ricochet. I get MCH is probably your least played job overall but some people truly want to enjoy it.

It needs more damage. These buffs while a good start still aren't no where near enough to make them compete with their peers. Especially since both bard and DNC will scale better when their team gets better. Heatblast on its own is barely able to compete with the base combo action and only out edges it due to its reset mechanic on our ogcds. Giving more potency on queen isn't what was needed. MCH was about 6% behind both bard and dancer, this isn't even half of what the job needed. Wildfire is still a very small part of our damage that cannot scale with crit or direct hit and is still one of the weakest 2 minutes. The PvP changes to the job look fantastic and bring back an old favorite of some in the form of bishop auto turret. Would it be possible to have similar changes done to the PvE side of things or at the very least make it competitive with the others?

You claim your view on balance should be bring the player not the job, yet it feels disheartening when my raid group has better kill times when I raid on either DNC or BRD who don't even have their raid weapons compared to my MCH which I raided with since HW. And it isn't a skill issue, I constantly rank in the top 50 MCH players in online rankings. Most of us aren't asking to become as strong as BLM or SAM but at least put us in a better place than last as a DPS that bring nothing to its team.

I get that MCH is no where near as popular as SAM or RPR and such and so little time is given to it but this is part of the issue. The job never gets to shine or have a spotlight. It's always dismissed as a secondary thought, or at least it feels like it. The last time where MCH felt like it was thought of was in HW. Most of stormblood it felt like an afterthought waiting to be reworked and then ShB's issues never got looked at to this day.

I am lucky I have a more hardcore static that doesn't force me to switch off my personal favorite job. A lot of groups simply just don't allow MCHs in them.

Machinist will always be the best aDPS physical ranged, while also being the worst selfish dps for being physical ranged.
That is not actually a paradox, but part of the role system. Only thing you could do is fight against the role system itself if you want to, taxes and all that.

MCH is in such a terrible position that it makes me ashamed of using it in my static. We're suffering even more now than before, devs. Why are you doing this?

It really makes me want to switch classes just because it seems SE will not listen until nobody plays the class.

it's ok, maybe after another 50 posts about ping issues as well as talking bout how some players are forced to use 3rd party tools just to be able to play the job at higher ping they'll have the feedback they need since apparently no feedback was ever posted about this /s.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Kitfox

It really makes me want to switch classes just because it seems SE will not listen until nobody plays the class.

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I went DRK for EW since I managed to snag the weapon. (Initially GNB but with 6.1 DRK...)
It feels good to be usefull to the team and not a dead weight because the Dev team doesn't care about MCH.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Malpercios

it's ok, maybe after another 50 posts about ping issues as well as talking bout how some players are forced to use 3rd party tools just to be able to play the job at higher ping they'll have the feedback they need since apparently no feedback was ever posted about this /s.

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Luckily my post history is full of the feedback so I can pull it back from the archives. Just need someone to translate it into japanese and fax it to their offices.

Feels bad. I've been a lurker for a while and I know how much time and effort you put into these and the balance. Thank you for trying... maybe one day we'll see changes.

I'm afraid people just don't care enough. People who can't play the class because of ping issues just quit without giving feedback. The rest of the people who still play the class are jaded from years of being ignored that they don't care to even hope for changes.

Yea pretty much. After playing MCH in PvP it's just a blast. Wildfire auto detonates after 3 Hits done it in which would fix the issue for higher ping players in PvE when you have to end on a drill which has delayed damage application. Bishop turret is back, one of people's favorite and it gives a shield... something a lot of people proposed as an idea for utility. PvP tools can be upgraded with Analyze which fits MCH's thematic way more than the heat gauge... and all tools fit a different purpose unlike how they are in PvE where they are just ...different shades of drills on different cooldowns. PvP machinist have cool cast bars that reduce our movement speed. This could be applied to PvE as well, giving some sort of skill to manage while allowing the job to be buffed in compensation.

I wish PvE MCH felt more like it's PvP counterpart, with the sniper riffle tool and all. It feels more creative.

Again, please read these. We might be few but we do care.

MCH needs some love to feel just right. Side from massive changes to the kit like mentioned above it needs these:

- Higher potency buffs overall. 600 on every tool, 200 on heatblast, 1800+ on Wildfire for instance would bring its DPS up to par with the rest. Wildfire still cannot crit or DH, making it one of the weakest 2mins in the game. It needs higher potency to compensate and feel like it does something. As it stands even with the buffs we just received it's just a measly 3.5% of our total damage.
- Fixing the ping issues that has plagued it for year. Some MCH mains have to resort to 3rd party tools to just be able to play at a fair level. While I know the game was meant to be played at a higher ping, this isn't really applicable to hypercharge. Giving it a stack system, while helpful, would not fit it's main issue. Heatblast, Gauss Round and Ricochet all need their animation lock to be lowered. Adding a 4th stack to the oGCDs would also help a lot.
- Flamethrower is weak. As we can see from PvP, a lot of channeled abilities can be used while moving. Applying this tech to flamethrower would help it, along side buffing it to feel like a legitimate 1min AoE burst.
- Most our AoE spells could use a bump as well in terms of damage.
- Queen's AI is finicky on multi target and doesn't prioritize the MCH's target even when a lot of conditions are met.
- Queen is a huge part of our damage but at the end of the day is just a glorified dot. We barely interact with her or command her when we are, at the end of the day, a person who should command machines.
- all of our tools feel all samey. They aren't diverse. I get it's easier on the balance side of things but it's a little disappointing in terms of gameplay.

Queen AI is actually a massive problem in fights with more than one target and invulnerabilities. At 100 gauge Queen is worth 2660 potency and MCH has *no control* if it's going to hit the right target or do zero damage. That's like randomly losing a limit break for no reason. There's way too much potency baked into Queen for the lack of control we have over it.