Well...I think for the most part right now wildfire damage really comes down to crits in a raid setting. I've hit 9k+ (2.1/2.2k dps burst) wildfires and then averaged out to 1400 or so on the first phase in AS3 and then other times only had a 7.5-8k (2k dps burst) wildfire and hit 1500 or so on the first phase because of lucky crits/procs.

I'd say the most annoying thing about machinist is the pretty big variance the class has which is why I think they are doing the quick reload change. On a dummy parse It's not very noticeable or a big change in overall dps when you get unlucky but in a raid setting with party buffs/pots/food it can be a pretty big difference if you get lucky or not which is the most frustrating when you are trying to reach the same numbers every time.