Bard or Machinists

[Tharian]

@Vicus: Truthfully we don't really know what the ultimate differences between Bard and Machinist are all going to be. We know SOME of the Machinists abilities and so far it looks like the Machinist will be more of a Debuff class like you said. However since we don't yet know everything that the Machinist is able to do, we can't be 100% certain that this will hold out to be true.

I would also like to point out that the Bard is going to be losing a really HUGE aspect of its support capabilities in Heavensward when it loses the Healer Limit Break. Instead it will be using a DPS-oriented Limit Break from Heavensward forward, which while that seems all well and good, it will limit the Bard's usefulness in certain situations.

As for which is actually more friendly to a White Mage? Well, they both get an ability that regenerates the MP of the party. However the Bard's version of that ability is going to be slightly stronger than the Machinist, so looking at it purely from the perspective of supporting the White Mage, the Bard will be the better class, hands down. The Bard also has an ability that increases the amount of damage magic-based attacks do; unfortunately the Bard can only use one or the other of these two abilities at a time, not both simultaneously.

As far as your second question, no, that is not far enough into the story to unlock the Machinist. You have to have completed the storyline that was released in Patch 2.55, which is significantly AFTER the bosses you said you have completed. Of the bosses you mentioned, the one that I believe is the furthest along is from something like 2.2 I think (don't quote me on that).

I will state that the Machinist draws its Cross-Class abilities from both the Archer (Bard) and the Lancer (Dragoon), so it would probably be a very good idea to max both Archer's and Lancer's levels out as it is possible that when we get access to level 60 we may be able to gain higher level Cross-Class skills, even though the number of Cross-Class slots won't be going up. At the very least if you plan on leveling Machinist you need both Archer and Lancer to be level 34 to gain access to all of the currently available Cross-Class skills.

[RiceisNice]

...

No one ever brings in a bard for healer LB exclusively, you're overexaggerating the usefulness of a healer LB (when it's arguably pretty garbage in most circumstances).

Both can bring something to the table that makes them worthy of a raid slot; Bards have their stronger song regen (at the cost of damage), while machinists do not suffer as big of a damage penalty in exchange for their weaker regens. Machinists also have more debuffs at their disposal to help mitigate damage with weapon break/mind shot.

[Tharian]

No one ever brings in a bard for healer LB exclusively, you're overexaggerating the usefulness of a healer LB (when it's arguably pretty garbage in most circumstances).

Both can bring something to the table that makes them worthy of a raid slot; Bards have their stronger song regen (at the cost of damage), while machinists do not suffer as big of a damage penalty in exchange for their weaker regens. Machinists also have more debuffs at their disposal to help mitigate damage with weapon break/mind shot.

I don't believe I ever stated that the Bard was brought in exclusively for the Healer Limit Break. What I said was that it will be losing some of it's versatility in certain situations... such as when Titan EX kills both healers, and all you have left is your bard and 3 bars on the Limit Break Meter...

Also... is that your signature that is making it look like I have a gnat crawling around on the inside of my screen?

[RiceisNice]

I don't believe I ever stated that the Bard was brought in exclusively for the Healer Limit Break. What I said was that it will be losing some of it's versatility in certain situations... such as when Titan EX kills both healers, and all you have left is your bard and 3 bars on the Limit Break Meter...

I would also like to point out that the Bard is going to be losing a really HUGE aspect of its support capabilities in Heavensward when it loses the Healer Limit Break. Instead it will be using a DPS-oriented Limit Break from Heavensward forward, which while that seems all well and good, it will limit the Bard's usefulness in certain situations.

This makes it sound like that it is a very important feature to bard. Even in titan EX, a healer really shouldn't be dying unless its a botched landslide (in which case, you can't res them anyway). Even then it's only one fight, it has almost no utility in coil fights where one death can ruin everything (t10 for example, and you're more or less going to die anyway because of the animation lock), or they died to
Also... is that your signature that is making it look like I have a gnat crawling around on the inside of my screen?

divebombs/touching the wall (which will kill them as soon as they res and debuff them no less)

Also, what signature ' ^'

[Tharian]

divebombs/touching the wall (which will kill them as soon as they res and debuff them no less)

Also, what signature ' ^'

"Huge" is not synonymous with "Only"

The signature that looks like a gnat walking in a figure eight... and I checked, it is actually an image in the section designated for your signature, which implies it is your signature... so you can stop trying to bluff :P

I will give you credit, when I first noticed it, it did fool me into thinking I had an insect on my screen... for about five seconds... then I got paranoid when I couldn't kill it... then I figured it out...

[Bigcat9715]

By the looks of it MCN is going to be the one holding all of the debuffs while BRD buffs the party.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1...lI1VGvrnl0/pub

[SpiritMuse]

No one ever brings in a bard for healer LB exclusively, you're overexaggerating the usefulness of a healer LB (when it's arguably pretty garbage in most circumstances).

Both can bring something to the table that makes them worthy of a raid slot; Bards have their stronger song regen (at the cost of damage), while machinists do not suffer as big of a damage penalty in exchange for their weaker regens. Machinists also have more debuffs at their disposal to help mitigate damage with weapon break/mind shot.

Yeah, I've used the bard lb exactly once - at the end of a dungeon when the boss was defeated and the lb had gone unused.

[Ephier]

I will state that the Machinist draws its Cross-Class abilities from both the Archer (Bard) and the Lancer (Dragoon), so it would probably be a very good idea to max both Archer's and Lancer's levels out as it is possible that when we get access to level 60 we may be able to gain higher level Cross-Class skills, even though the number of Cross-Class slots won't be going up. At the very least if you plan on leveling Machinist you need both Archer and Lancer to be level 34 to gain access to all of the currently available Cross-Class skills.

There will be no new cross class skills.

[Tharian]

There will be no new cross class skills.

your source if you please...

[RiceisNice]

your source if you please...

There's no new class abilities being added, only job abilties. No job skills can be crossed.