I don't really mind that bard and machinist do less damage than the other "pure" dps classes. It's a trade off since they can enable other classes to go longer and hit harder. But they still need to be able to pull their weight as a dps class, which currently they do not. So a 4-man party with only bard/machinist as dps can really struggle. And at levels below 40 machinists have it particularly bad because they're lacking their turret which makes up a significant percentage of their total dps.