There's a huge Physical range shortage in PF and Statics

[Connor]

Physical ranged as a whole needs looked at or just reworked entirely. The latter is 99.999% not gonna happen but honestly I think it needs to.

I mean how do they ever expect people to value a role whose only draw is ‘you can jump while you attack ’ even though every role can jump while they attack lol. What else does it have? DPS uptime? Like Summoner and Red Mage? Support? Like Dragoon and Reaper? Easy rotations? Tell that to Machinists lol

They certainly aren’t going to take us for Peloton or Damage Reduction Role Skill (Troubadour etc lol).

That seems like a symptom of a much deeper issue than simply potencies if you ask me. I worry that the devs are just going to repeat history and create a flip-flop buff war between Bard and Dancer where they’re constantly having to adjust one to compete with the other until one or the other - or both - reaches astronomical levels and they have to pop the power creep balloon and start again the next expansion, usually with significant changes (or removals) to their toolkit.

Do you think Yoshi-P stays in Heaven because he fears what he created? (phys ranged lol). It’s like the devs have this constant terror that ranged phys is going to break the game again so they just keep making it worse and worse so people don’t stack it lol.

Personally my opinion is that they should stop desperately trying to squish us into holes we don’t fit lol. They keep trying to balance the ranged physical role as if they’re full on pure dps in the same capacity as Ninjas, Dragoons, Reapers, etc. If they gave up trying to give us the illusion that we can be top dps and lean more into the ranged phys as the ‘support dps’, it’d have a reason to actually exist outside of just being a category for ‘attackers that aren’t as good as everyone else’. Machinist would naturally remain as the ‘selfish phys ranged’ that has no support capabilities so people who want to be a ranged without supporting can still do so (without having to become casters lol)

[Maxilor]

Why don't I play a Physical Ranged? Because I don't want to be a burden on my team.

As someone said already, playing a Physical Ranged is like being forced to take your little brother Trick or Treating with your friends because mom forced you too.

DNC was the most interesting class to me because it flipped the idea of a DPS upside down and focused on the Support and Buffing side of it, it brought everyone else up and people LOVED you for playing DNC because of it.

So yes to add my voice to the chorus, BUFF DNC and while your at it buff the entire role in general.

[CKNovel]

Physical ranged as a whole needs looked at or just reworked entirely. The latter is 99.999% not gonna happen but honestly I think it needs to.

I mean how do they ever expect people to value a role whose only draw is ‘you can jump while you attack ’ even though every role can jump while they attack lol. What else does it have? DPS uptime? Like Summoner and Red Mage? Support? Like Dragoon and Reaper? Easy rotations? Tell that to Machinists lol

It's kind of a basis that ranged role is just a subDPS and subSupport.
Deals less DPS and provide less support than any other role but it has worthless mobility only useful to themselves that only serves to run in circle in front of the bosses and we have yet to see mechanics to be baited since... O11S?

There is multiple solutions:
A - Give ranged more DPS to fit with the other roles
Mobility Tax is deprecated in a design where BLM has crazy utility, PLD can go on ranged mode half of its rotation and SMN exists.
Since people still plays BLM/SAM despite the jobs being undertuned, be reassured that "double ranged" won't be the meta even if Ranged DPS is through the roof.
The current Meta isn't Reaper + Monk. Surprise, there is less MNK than SAM, proving yet again that people plays the job they want.

B - Keep the DPS low, but focus on utility
Shielding, strong mitigation, healing...
Ranged are supposed to be "Support DPS" yet MCH offers nothing, BRD doesn't offers more than SMN or RDM.
Focusing on party survival can make the range role valuable to the group.

You could also give the ranged a gimmick like how Melees have positionals or casters have casts.
Right now, there is only 1 reason to play Ranged and that's the 1% stats buff. If it wasn't there, you would see less ranged.
I play the job I enjoy and I don't enjoy being the burden of the group.

[ExcMiddle]

.
You could also give the ranged a gimmick like how Melees have positionals or casters have casts.
Right now, there is only 1 reason to play Ranged and that's the 1% stats buff. If it wasn't there, you would see less ranged.
I play the job I enjoy and I don't enjoy being the burden of the group.

Note that I am coming on this w.o. any mch knowledge.

To me, this should be just that their rotation should be more busy, or in general the playstyle. For instance, shb bard did fit that bill with the dot tracking, the triple weaving in MB, ea drifting and in general paying a lot of attention for your following ogcds (and with how it became in multitarget where positioning became more important on top of the increase in intensity of the single target playstyle)

Dancer I always wished it would play a bit with the party list. If dance partner could for instance be assigned in the same manner as kardia and your standard step buff would linger on your previous partner at least for a bit so that you would have an incentive to swap around partners considering that you are refreshing the buff 3 times now in the opener.

The idea is that since they have instants like melee yet no positionals to worry about, their rotations should just be a bit busier in some sense.

But if they are to keep this as is, we need phys ranged mechanics (interesting interrupts, mechs where one mobile dps can help solve it.) And we could use a merge of the heavy and bind role actions into 1 and make a new role action to see use in raids.

[Maxilor]

I do kind of like the idea of BRD becoming the Raid Wide Buffer and DNC ultra focusing and becoming the single player buffer.

BRD gets an increase to it's raid wide damage buff potential.

DNC loses Technical Step but it gets replaced with a new buff that essentially turns your Dance Partner into a Super Saiyan damage wise, so choosing the right Dance Partner becomes even more important.

MCH can still be the selfish Ranged Physical choice, just increase their DPS.

[Derio]

DNC personal damage is so low that if your party doesnt properly utilize buff windows the job sufferes. MCH just simply doesnt do enough damage for how busy the job is.

Next expansion needs to have a physical ranged added because we need more options for that role.

[EverQuest]

I think it comes down to players don’t want to play the weaker class when u got Reaper who’s easy to play yet pumps out higher dps and has all the support a Bard / Dancer might bring. Then MCH who brings almost nothing to the table for group buffs is just not the shinning High selfish dps they are supposed to be. The 6.08 patch truly can’t come fast enough. I agree also that the “ranged tax” needs to go away it’s antiquated and does not reflect how we should be treating our dps now.

Problem is if the range tax goes away then so would positionals and half the melee mechanics.

Who would play a Reaper if Machnist brought the same damage and do all the mechanics easier as well.

I think without the tax you'd easily have prange at the top 3 of damage dealers with 2/3 of those classes also bringing massive utility. I've not really had any problems playing machnist if I wanted to over Bard as well. As long as your not widow licking you don't need a Bard for p4s and the damage check isn't that high especially as we enter nearly week 4. One group was going to make a case against me playing Dancer once, and that's probably fair ATM, but shouldn't be a problem next week.

Personally I find the tax fine could maybe be slightly less, but overall you really shouldn't have them producing the same damage as a samurai

If anything I'd ask for slightly more utility on machnist to justify my spot but also add a bit of flavor. Maybe something like "Paint the Target"
Target is marked in your sights 15-20S while marked all damage increased by 3% or something could even have it build batter or heat quicker or something.

-Machnist Main-

[EverQuest]

DNC personal damage is so low that if your party doesnt properly utilize buff windows the job sufferes. MCH just simply doesnt do enough damage for how busy the job is.

Next expansion needs to have a physical ranged added because we need more options for that role.

Busy? You basically hit 3buttons on CD and heat blast and robot when appropriate. Otherwise it's 1-2-3 time first time I've seen anyone say my job is busy.

[Quattrob]

Busy? You basically hit 3buttons on CD and heat blast and robot when appropriate. Otherwise it's 1-2-3 time first time I've seen anyone say my job is busy.

So fewer buttons = less busy? Busy could be attributed in how fast/how often you're pressing buttons and machinist you're spamming ogcds almost all the time especially in hypercharge.

[HappyHubris]

DNC personal damage is so low that if your party doesnt properly utilize buff windows the job sufferes. MCH just simply doesnt do enough damage for how busy the job is.

Next expansion needs to have a physical ranged added because we need more options for that role.

But then DNC, BRD, and MCH will be stripped further to craft the new job. This game doesn't need more jobs, it needs more refinement of existing jobs.