Idea for a new range dps gunner!

[dinnertime]

I really don't get the complaints about Machinist not being like a full blown gunslinger. It's not supposed to be. It's a Machinist.
It makes sense that Machinist uses a gun because, newsflash, a gun is a form of machinery. The new design philosophy solidifies the machinist aesthetic by using different other machinery which is what it's supposed to be.

One of the only jobs in the game that mixes two archetypes is really just Bard because thematically you don't see Bards use a bow and arrow pretending to be skilled huntsmen. Paladin in the RPG sense has always been idealized as some sort of Holy/White knight. Warrior is literally just Berserker in a different name. Ninja in FFXIV barely has anything thievish about it other than the Mug skill and using daggers.

Anyway, another job that handles a gun I still see being a possibility. I mean, we have two jobs that use a staff and cane, then a grimoire and codex which are essentially the same thing, then a handful of jobs using different types of swords.

[Shurrikhan]

I really don't get the complaints about Machinist not being like a full blown gunslinger. It's not supposed to be. It's a Machinist.

I've... only seen the opposite, to the point of many, as with Bard, wanting the its weapon elements relegated to a base class and all job skills focused solidly on machinistry (just as Bard would be focused on song once expanding past Archer).

[Cithaerias_pyropina]

I've... only seen the opposite, to the point of many, as with Bard, wanting the its weapon elements relegated to a base class and all job skills focused solidly on machinistry (just as Bard would be focused on song once expanding past Archer).

That would make both of those jobs look incredibly clunky in both aesthetic and theme, MCH less so than Bard.

A Bard insta-sheathes their bow and pulls a flute and harp out of literally, and I mean literally, nowhere to use Mage's Ballad, Army's Paeon, Wanderer's Minuet, Peloton and maybe Troubadour (I don't pay close enough attention to that ability to know), the harp and flute then disappears into the dark-void and they draw their bow, instantly, to pewpew Heavy Shots. That, to me, screams utter nonsense in the way of visual fluidity and design. If the devs wanted it to work, and work well, Bard would have strummed something on their bows to use those aforementioned abilities, but they never have even before Bard's songs were reworked in Stormblood.

Machinist doesn't suffer that badly from its "pre-50" abilities and weaponskills being disctintly different from its "post-50" abilities and weaponskills though.

Bard should have been a totally different job, like a music based healer or music slinging DPS with a few support abilities (Bard could and should have been what Dancer currently is), and Archer's job upgrade should have been Sniper or Ranger. And no, they shouldn't have been split branches like Summoner and Scholar. Bard should have been an absolutely different class and job altogether separate from Archer.