I can't be the only one excited for machinist?!

[Tharian]

I'm pretty sure when most people say Medieval Fantasy, they're really thinking Tolkien Fantasy.

Even then, read The Silmarillion, that stuff is crazy.

Meh, I still think of Harry Potter when I think of Fantasy... complete with flying cars, super sonic triple decker buses, and turbolifts

[pandabearcat]

I wonder if its going to be steampunk guns.

[416to305]

I'm totally excited for it but not sure if I'll get to playing it for awhile. I was playing Bard originally, and was saying to my friend I wish there was a class with gunblades like in FF8 and what not, and that's when he told me about the expansion as I hadn't seen it yet. So was insane excited about this. Then I tried healing and am addicted, haven't even touched my Bard since switching to WHM a couple months ago. So now I'm more excited to try AST but I definitely will be giving this new class a try as well. I like that it's not the same old fantasy type stuff, I mean did you forget about Praetorium and the other end game instances with the Empire where it's all machines and completely non medieval? It's not like this is suddenly going to throw things off, as the game already has tons of modern machines in it.

[Darkstride]

It's not like this is suddenly going to throw things off, as the game already has tons of modern machines in it.

The Final Fantasy series as a whole is mostly a blend of "medieval fantasy" that incorporates some form of machinery or technology. Magitek and other forms of mechanics are very present in FFXIV, so Machinist is hardly un-characteristic. I think it fits right in. The complaints are just player preference of what they think fits "fantasy" rather than what actually suits a Final Fantasy title.

[Saggo]

Meh, I still think of Harry Potter when I think of Fantasy... complete with flying cars, super sonic triple decker buses, and turbolifts

What if... what if that's the new flying mount?

[seekified]

I'm very excited, getting and gearing a machinist is the first thing I'll do once my DRG hits 60. Will be interesting to see what'll make you want one over bards and vice versa.

[Zophar]

I'm very excited, getting and gearing a machinist is the first thing I'll do once my DRG hits 60. Will be interesting to see what'll make you want one over bards and vice versa.

Just for the sake of endgame, it'll be that weapon break and mind shot. As far as more casual gameplay... I honestly couldn't say. Excited to find out though.

[Tharian]

Just for the sake of endgame, it'll be that weapon break and mind shot. As far as more casual gameplay... I honestly couldn't say. Excited to find out though.

There are a lot of reasons to take the Machinist over the Bard other than just those two things. While the MP and TP Regen of the Machinist is notably weaker than that of the Bard there are other benefits to it. The Machinist features a ranged Hard Stun, a Slow, Heavy, Bind, Knockback, and Silence. Where as the Bard only has a Silence, Jumpback, and Bind (Bard also gets a slow if you use Feint as a Cross-Class skill). This means that the Machinist's debuffs (as opposed to DoT's) are vastly more versatile than those available to the Bard. The main reason someone will be wanting the bard in end game content from now on will be for the songs, not for the debuffs that the bard can provide as the Debuff king will end up being the Machinist.

[Zophar]

There are a lot of reasons to take the Machinist over the Bard other than just those two things. While the MP and TP Regen of the Machinist is notably weaker than that of the Bard there are other benefits to it. The Machinist features a ranged Hard Stun, a Slow, Heavy, Bind, Knockback, and Silence.

Assuming we're still talking about endgame, I genuinely can't think of any endgame in which any of that is useful, other than Silence in T2,4, and 9, and heavy in t7. These are moves that bosses in endgame are generally always immune to. I don't see those abilities having much of any merit in even future endgame. Especially considering all of these things in theory share a timer. Not saying it's impossible. Just hugely unlikely.

[pandabearcat]

"Bring the player, not the class" is apparently not a philosophy of SE if this is a heavy consideration.