Why play Machinist over Bard?

[Zumocano]

MCH does not have archer as a base class and jobs can only cross-class from two classes. I'll say archer is all but required due to range but also it's the best dps cooldowns in the game. While pulling crossclass skills from a melee class doesn't really seem right, we're stuck with it. That leaves lancer, pugilist, and rogue as the second class to pull abilities from. I agree with Sasaki in that I'd rather have LNC, but there's also the lore supporting it what with Ishgard's ties to the whole lancer/dragoon thing. Pugilist and rogue make absolutely no sense at all.

Despite that, I do miss Second Wind and wish we had something to alleviate that cause I'm using a lot of potions. Why can't it be something like a different skill special to MCH, such as a med-kit skill that behaves the same way?

[ThirdChild_ZKI]

Citing lore reasons, Archer and Lancer make perfect sense. But in the end, it does leave us a bit lacking for self support. Perhaps some kind of First Aid function could've been built into the Aetherometer we carry, but alas, we do or die. . . Seems perfectly Ishgardian, lol.

[SasakiNori]

There's no instead implied. I did say "as well". I had ALL those skills and used them all as a Bard. Machinist is just completely locked out of the Pugilist skills by design. I say why make them the one physical DPS exception?

Every job can only crossclass from 2 classes. If it were for a crossclass buff, I'd let MCN just use Straight Shot from bard.

[Taimara]

One change I hope they make is make Quick Reload like Bard's Bloodletter. Cooldown refreshed on crits.

[MiniTofu]

I am asking extremely seriously here.

What does the Machinist bring that Bard doesn't? Aside from more mind numbing RNG in an apparent "1-2-3" combo.

[/U]

Different playstyle fit the players. MCH fits my playstyle not BRD sadly.

[Tharian]

Despite that, I do miss Second Wind and wish we had something to alleviate that cause I'm using a lot of potions. Why can't it be something like a different skill special to MCH, such as a med-kit skill that behaves the same way?

Interestingly I haven't really had to use any potions on my Machinist. Then again I have a healer spec'ed Chocobo, so that tends to keep me at relatively close to full health no matter what I am doing. The only times I wish I had Second Wind are in Solo Instances that I can't bring my Chocobo into. In Dungeons I almost always have a healer with me to alleviate that problem.

I will say that ever since they nerfed Rain of Death on Bard, I have been less than satisfied with Bard due to not having full access to my AoE suite the way I used to. As such I have found that my DPS on large groups of enemies has suffered. This makes me more inclined to play Machinist as it still has its full AoE suite.

[SasakiNori]

I will say that ever since they nerfed Rain of Death on Bard, I have been less than satisfied with Bard due to not having full access to my AoE suite the way I used to. As such I have found that my DPS on large groups of enemies has suffered. This makes me more inclined to play Machinist as it still has its full AoE suite.

Interesting to read this. I've found to be dishing out massive AoE damage with the change of RoD to be a BL proc as well to the point where I can compete with BLMs (admittingly their flare got nerfed too.)

[Tharian]

Interesting to read this. I've found to be dishing out massive AoE damage with the change of RoD to be a BL proc as well to the point where I can compete with BLMs (admittingly their flare got nerfed too.)

You know, you may be right. I may just have the macros I had originally been using set up wrong. I will have to consider how I have them set up. Thanks for the input...

I had originally had it set up so that Bloodletter was macroed to just about all of my abilities. But now that you mention it, I should have changed it so that instead of having the following set up:

/ac "Misery's End" <t>
/ac "Bloodletter" <t>
/ac "Wide Volley" <t>

I should have the following set-up:

/ac "Misery's End" <t>
/ac "Rain of Death" <t>
/ac "Wide Volley" <t>

I still feel like I am preferring Machinist over Bard, but with the change of Macro's then perhaps I can make the Bard still be viable post 3.0.

[Shneibel]

I am not fan of bow

[Obysuca]

My only concern is that I can't tell the radius of the turret tp/mp regen, but if it is anything like the radius of the graphic...it is way, way too small to compete with paeon/ballad.

From what I noticed, it extends quite a distance away from the turret. Not incredibly far, but you can be away from it and still get the refresh/regain. Not to mention, it stacks with paeon and ballad, though I'm not sure if 2 mch buffs stack, though when me and a fc member both used the tp one, we seemed to be stuck at 1k tp, even when spamming the AoE.

Have you taken account for the damage the turret provides? Even with gauss attachment making auto attacks null that turret is still doing constant damage. Plus you can buff it. With that in mind you'll probably break even with a BRD.

Don't forget that mch doesn't have to lower it's damage by a % to refresh/regain the pt either, whcih is an upside too. Also I've noticed, wildfire can deal some considerable amount of damage if used with lead shot and reassemble + cleaner shot