Just a Disgruntled Old Machinist Main Complaining

[Atamis]

I rather like the new MCH redesign myself. Yea i think some things should of been kept that wasn't but it is what it is. I didn't really like the old wildfire design, it had some good numbers and was a gateway to a good or bad mch, but it just didn't feel good to me when something happened that would stop the wildfire, be it mechanics, or someone else in the group dropping aoe in the wrong spot and now you run one way and the tank goes the other.

I think the ammo system should of been kept for the combo, it was a bit more interesting than just 1-2-3 and the reload animation was pretty neat, especially on guns like Ferdinand that had a special animation.
I do not miss the turrets particularly, the current one feels alright, and coming from a summoner its far better than the Egis. Though admittedly it feels lack luster and I am constantly missing the overload from being distracted (Thankfully you can pop it off with 0 seconds left quiet often, something that Bahamut and Pheonix refuse to do)
I still detest the hip mounted lunchbox but I am glad gauss barrel is gone. I didn't mind casting, but it felt like a terrible skill to use after getting used to not having it.

Thinks I would like to see kept going forward but improved:
Flamethrower should build heat, It should also allow movement, albiet slowed as well as be manually aimed. I don't see how shooting flames out of your gun wouldn't build heat, and standing still while you flail around just feels like an arbitrary restriction. I think flamethrower would have a particularly good spot as an AoE opener to quickly build heat to transition into crossbow, and also as a damage boost when used with overheat on. (make it blue high-pressure flames) - This could only be used after the initial pull as flamethrower would still be on cooldown obviously.
Autocrossbow spamming the button and the animation resetting so soon looks and feels rather jarring. I think it would be better if this was a long cast thing like flamethrower that just continually fires until overheat is over or you override it with another ability. See Monster Hunter Heavy Bowgun Wyvernheart ability for inspiration. I also feel it should also provide the cooldown reduction heat blast does, atleast for Ricochet.
Bioblaster should be available at the same time as Drill. AoE low level feels terrible as all you can do is spam Spread Shot and with how much power creep there is most content devolves into AoE slug fests.

I'm not sure how to best incorporate the turret/queen better. Playing summoner has already put a stand offish approach to pets as they are very unresponsive

[Ravenecroft]

Yeah you all bring up a lot of good points, its more of a mixed bag than i make it out to be, i suppose they took out so much at one time it really soured my impression of the job making me instantly think in glass half empty terms.

And yeah im also not a big fan of spam one button rotations that Shadowbringers introduced, main reason why new hypercharge annoyed me a fair bit. Same with the dark knight delirium spam. THOUGH its still better than the abomination that was dark arts. Overall yeah i agree with most points ya all brought up. I guess if they build upon it way more in the future machinist might come back to being really fun right now it just feels like they gouged out a bit too many abilities and gave back very little.

Thanks for the answers, makes me realize im not the only one here wearing a tinfoil hat yelling that new machinist is not flawless lol

[TankHunter678]

I personally find the new MCH to be a lot better then its past incarnation. A lot more fun, a lot less clunky, a lot less frustrating, a lot less punishing. Which is a mentality that has been shared with the huge increase in MCH players. As if we got MCH and Dancer introduced this expansion instead of MCH being introduced in HW.

I prefer the shift over to regular burst windows instead of having to dump everything into one window every 2 minutes. I like that the RNG has been removed, as that made the class feel frustrating to play when you were waiting on ammo cooldowns and the RNG was screwing you over. In fact my most regular thing to say about the old MCH was that it would be a great class if they just got rid of the RNG on the 123. I like that Overcharge is something I have complete control over instead of having to juggle heat to not accidentally waste it. Drill and Air Anchor feel good to use, especially with the ability to force one to be a Direct Hit Crit for huge damage.

Kinda wish we still had the ability to deploy the Bishop turret to give us an AoE Battery Spender. Could have changed it to fire chain lightning given current turret deployment mechanics. Then have it upgrade to a King with mortar launchers and an artillery cannon. I also wish that Grenado Shot came back as an upgrade to spread shot.

Overall I find the new MCH to be very enjoyable. Though I can understand your frustrations as the skill ceiling was dropped.

I do not miss the turrets particularly, the current one feels alright, and coming from a summoner its far better than the Egis. Though admittedly it feels lack luster and I am constantly missing the overload from being distracted (Thankfully you can pop it off with 0 seconds left quiet often, something that Bahamut and Pheonix refuse to do)

The turret and queen are designed to automatically fire off their overload as their last attack when they run out of time. The Overload command is only really there so that you can have them dump their remaining damage when you know the boss is going to leave the field in short order. Unlike SMN Egis MCH Turret/Queen is 100% independent.

[Fufufighter]

And the new overheat... first 50 times its ok. But the thing is you're hypercharging vastly too often so you spend around 50% of your time mashing heatblast

^
I quit lvling mch because of this... hypercharge+heatblast so boring