Idea for a new range dps gunner!

[CKNovel]

To me it just makes the Jobs less or simply not satisfying by mixing some other archetype with it. Would much rather prefer having full archetype even if it meant having less. Bard has it the worst imo.

I completely agree with this...
I'd love to have a Rune Knight or a Rogue and it especially feels weird with Ninja.
It can be understood with Warrior as it's basically an angry fighter with an axe.

But Gunner and Machinist are different jobs.
If you look at Machinist, there is Edgar and Mustadio that is a Machinist only by the title.
If you look at Gunner, you have Vincent, Irvine, Sazh, Balthier and Prompto who still uses machinery as weapons.

XIV's Machinist was supposed to be a gadgeteer but the name "Machinist" did not fit.
I also believe they should make a real Gun-user job, there is plenty material through the FF series and that already exist in XIV (Ivalice raid for example), however the game badly needs a new healer and I don't think adding a 4th ranged would be a good idea unless they rethink the role.

Machinist should focus on heavy machineries. I'd love to see Flamethrower reworked into a stance to maintain like Enochian, the 1-2-3 combos, Gauss round and Ricochet would be replaced with Flamethrower abilities.
Gunner on light tools and why not swapping through multiple guns, creating "stances" like the BRD and its different songs, except no procs and why not an improved ammo mechanic.

[Morningstar1337]

I think Guns (even if limited by certain constraints), like staves and Swords are diverse enough to be the weapons of multiple jobs. Specifically...

1. A hunting shotgun would be a Two-handed weapon which intern would be distinct from the Machinist Handgonnes, and fir the mostly fantasy feel of the game
2. The duel pistols is also plausible if unlikely (considering we have no dual wielding sword job yet), of course they will need a different type of handgonne and possibly changes to some MCH weapon like how NIN ensured the chnage of certain PLD weapon
3. Not to mention RWBY has opened the gates for different Gun+melee weapons hybrids to take inspiration (though the iconic Gunblade came from FF first and ways likely part of Monty Oum's) so more options like Gunbreaker are possible

[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.

[Morningstar1337]

The issue with BRDisthat the way theArmory system worksmeans that Jobs have to be tied to an actual weapon, and as such BRDneeding soemthing to work with,something that can be sued to realsiitcly deal damage, hence the Bow. The other alternative was making it a Magic DPS or scrapping it in favor of Ranger.

[dinnertime]

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.

You're talking about a game where flying bears, cats and elephants exist because of the power of believing in yourself. I'd be more concerned in different things.

But yeah, I agree the direction for Bard should've been more Bard-like weapon-wise than being mixed with archery but it's way too late for that. Anyway, that's not what this thread is really about.

[Sylve]

Why not both?
A dual wielding gunner with a Rifle for when things need to be extra dead. Call it a Magitek Gunner. Maybe originate it similar to how MCH was made for common Ishgardians to help fight the Dragons without needing Knight training, perhaps the Ironworks comes up with it to allow regular Domans and Eorzeans to better fight against the Garleans, with the Pistols designed for human targets and the Rifle for mechanized units.

Presently, The only job that has a Main/Offhand weapon is Paladin. With the Shield being required for Shield Bash. So I'd set it up so that we had Dual Pistols for Main Hand with a Rifle for the offhand. They'd drop in sets the way the Paladin stuff does (If the Sword drops, so too does the shield etc).

That'd let you glamor each side separately, while damage is only calculated via the Mainhand so as to prevent item level mismatches making things weird.

I'm thinking we utilize the criminally underused elements of Ice and Thunder. Per the suggestion above, for it to be used by common soldiers, the ammo for the guns would be crafted and handed out similar to how Thancred uses his Gunblade with someone else making the cartridges for him. The player would be able to make them without assistance as needed.

Ice for the Pistols, with the bullets being essentially icicle spikes.
Thunder for the Rifle, Making it somewhat like a Railgun rather than a traditional rifle.

For the gameplay, I'd make it a hybrid between the fast paced nature of MCH and the slow, heavy hitting BLM. To make it somewhat unique, It'd have fast GCDs on the Pistols with no oGCD shots whatsoever.
Filler combo could be something like:
1- Fire a shot from the left pistol. 1.5s recast/GCD
2- Fire a quick burst from the right pistol. 1.5s recast/GCD
3- Shoot a sustained burst from both pistols. 2.5s recast/GCD

AoE could be the MCH's old Grenado Shot (I just really liked that animation >_>)

Using the filler combo would charge Shells to be used in Rifle mode. 1 Shell per the first two shots, with 2 granted by the third. Could hold up to 12 Shells.
Switching to the Rifle itself could be a GCD Cast, something like:
-Fire both pistols on full auto for 3 seconds, switches to Rifle mode when the effect ends. Gives the "Frozen Barrel" debuff, slowing the GCD on Pistol shots for X seconds. (To encourage spending time in Rifle mode before switching back). Switches to Pistol Mode when used in Rifle Mode. Unused Shells are lost. (Encourages using all Shells prior to switching back)

The Rifle would be more akin to the Black Mage. Cast times would be utilized to mimic loading a Shell and taking careful aim (And giving an excuse to have some really hard hitting potencies). Different shots with the Rifle would vary in power based on the number of Shells consumed by the shot.
-Wide Shot: 600 potency cone AoE shot, 3 Shells, 2s cast/2.5s recast.
-Snipe Shot: 400 potency single target, 1 Shell, 2s cast/2.5s recast
-Charged Burst: 700 potency single target, 2 shells, 2.5s cast/6s recast.

The basic idea would be to build Shells in Pistol mode with a fast GCD, then switch to a slower, immobile heavy hitting Rifle mode to spend the Shells before switching back to Pistols.
The reason I'd base it on those Elements instead of regular bullets is due to MCH already being a more physical/mechanical visual experience with a fair bit of Fire theme thrown in with the Heated Shots and Flamethrower.
Wanted to make it more visually distinct and figured using Elements that are barely used by the one job that has them would give us more visual variety with effects in general.

Thats just something that popped into my head after reading this thread at work and thinking about it to pass a few hours of soul crushing boredom.