Bard - they broke my job

[RiceisNice]

...

You got the gist of it. If you compare split shot's animation with heavy shot, they are both skills that procs a buff to use another skill. The problem with heavy shot is that it's so long, you wont get the buff proc until after the GCD finishes. This isn't the case for something like Slug Shot or Heavy shot, but you never hard cast these abilities (so you always have a 2.5 second reaction time to wait for the proc), and there's no reason for you to ever mash clean shot after slug (unless you have ammo to guaranteed the proc).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TWvxvL13-K4

Like you can see it here, and I even canceled heavy shot's animation with bloodletter; I won't get the buff's bonus (instant cast and 100%) crit until the icon of the skill is highlighted, and that doesn't occur until after my heavy shot had started casting.

My suggestion would't work too well for machinist either, or really any class that makes use of procs, it requires the job to be designed around it. Let's say that we make the stance give a 1.5s GCD with 1.5 second cooldown, that'll never give any reaction time for procs. You can't get rid of cast times because you need something to make them remain stationary, otherwise it'd be a stance with no downsides. It'd only really work for bard the way it is right now because honestly they have no way of playing reactively to their procs anyway.