Machinist needs serious attention

[LittleArrow]

Thanks DreadRabbit for the response and your thoughts!

I know most of this thread has been discussing how low damaging MCH are, but there are more problems to this class than the damage (though that's a pretty big one and imo should definitely be addressed). Players have made comments about the effort it takes to put out the very little reward in dps.

After reading Ramath's post I questioned myself in why I ever accepted my BRD's dps being as low as it was during 2.0. In every MMO I've played (WoW, LotRO, Rift, FFXI, and many others) I can't remember there being such a disparity between ranged and melee classes being played by good players as the disparity I see in FFXIV. Sure, some classes were at times more OP than others. Those seasons of OPness though only lasted for a few months. Still, whenever I played ranged classes I never felt the way I feel on BRD and MCH, so why was I ok with it? Well, b/c BRD was so freaking easy to play. I didn't mind trading off my DPS by a reasonable margin so I could just enjoy a less stressful role in coil, which led to me doing callouts.

However, MCH is not BRD.

MCH takes more babysitting than any other class I've played in this game besides healing, and even then I think I could make an argument that tunnel visioning over 9 buffs and 3 procs is more babysitting than watching 8 health bars. MNK, DRG, NIN, and BLM all have their own method of complexity. If I'm expected to play MCH efficiently with the damage comparable to BRD, then this class needs to be edited to reflect that gameplay.

I enjoy going crazy with click buffs, but really the only 'new' thing with this class is basically an aetherflow concept. We get stacks that allows us to use our combos. This class needs serious editing. Skills need to be combined (like Blank + Suppressive Fire for example). There needs to be something to address the buff babysitting to make it fun.

I'm not asking for an easy class like BRD, but I am pointing out that if I'm going to do BRD damage the class should be less stressing over cooldown timers and more about having fun with them. This class needs a focus like PLD has been given. This class needs a focused theme. Yes we have guns, yes we have gadgets, but where Dark Knight was inspired by the likes of Guts (and the class feels very much like a selfish, dark, crazy run in and slash'em up sort of class), MCH to me feels like Yosemite Sam from Looney Toons, frantically firing off whatever I can to catch up in damage only to realize I'm not really doing much of anything in the end.