The tragic state of Machinist

[Ruminous]

MCH will never be the "selfish" dps of ranged bc if it had the same damage as BLM or SAM then people would play them over DNC or BRD. Sure the party buffs are great but if MCH's personal damage was high enough, then it outweighs the rDPS of the other two.

Plus the devs values the ranged tax too much for MCH to be anywhere close to the top.

This, very true. But the whole "state of machinist is sad" should be substituted with "state of ranged phys is sad". It really isn't just a machinist problem, it's a problem all phys ranged share now.

[Deejudanne]

This, very true. But the whole "state of machinist is sad" should be substituted with "state of ranged phys is sad". It really isn't just a machinist problem, it's a problem all phys ranged share now.

bard is in a very depressing state

[Valence]

I literally registered for a forums account so that I could hopefully post feedback somewhere where devs might see it (if you know of elsewhere, feel free to let me know!) but I'm here to complain about the current state of Machinist;

Machinist has been done dirty this expansion, arguably the lowest damage out of ALL DPS jobs and they're supposed to be the "selfish" of the physical range DPS jobs. They really need to boost Machinist's damage by a decent bit, especially since Machinist has NO movement! Dawntrail has brought us content more challenging than before (which is great), but the more demanding the content is the more painful the reality is for Machinist to not have any sort of in-combat movement action besides sprint.

Before Endwalker, this could be arguably balanced since Machinist could hold its own with DPS but now it's just sad to not have any movement buttons and therefore be clutching your pearls, praying sprint is not still on cooldown, WHILE also not keeping up with every other DPS in damage. Feelsbadman. Machinist does not even have the party buffs/utility that Dancer and Bard both bring to the table, dancer also has charges of movement ability...

It's in a rough spot I'm really hoping Machinist can be balanced this upcoming patch.

Of all the points one could criticize on MCH, I can't say I expected somebody to actually complain on... mobility.

It’s wild to me that they’ve spent since Shadowbringers trying to force square Machinist into the circle hole for melee. Like it doesn’t matter how many bits you cut off it’s never going to fit properly.

Yet they insist on making it ‘pure selfish dps’ as if it’s somehow ever going to compete with the likes of Samurai, Black Mage (if properly balanced) or probably even Pictomancer. So it can’t compete in its own sub role because literally 0 support (Dismantle barely counts lol), can’t compete in other sub roles because of the ranged dps tax.

They desperately need to commit to either giving Machinists dps commensurate to the ‘pure selfish dps’ title, or give it support to compete with Bard and Dancer within its own role. Because otherwise it just kind of fails at everything lol, similar to Bard

MCH has always been at the bottom since shb relatively consistently, but it's not always been dead last with a gap either. BRD and DNC have always been good companions to it and frankly, the difference in total raid output contribution overall has always been relatively similar, with some swings here and there (I'll agree that MCH has had true low points in EW especially even compared to DNC/BRD). Currently for example, MCH is slightly above DNC even at higher percentiles, so saying it cannot compete within the rphys role sounds a little... over dramatic.

If we want to complain about MCH's damage, it's not a problem of the job, it's a problem of the whole rphys role, which SMN and RDM also share (but they can raise at least).

[LibitIncarne]

Of all the points one could criticize on MCH, I can't say I expected somebody to actually complain on... mobility.

MCH is the only physranged without any form of mobility tool.
It is one of two DPS jobs without a mobility tool. SMN's Crimson Cyclone doesn't count.
Scholar and Astrologian also don't have a mobility tool.

DNC gets 3 charges of En Avant.

[Valence]

MCH is the only physranged without any form of mobility tool.
It is one of two DPS jobs without a mobility tool. SMN's Crimson Cyclone doesn't count.
Scholar and Astrologian also don't have a mobility tool.

DNC gets 3 charges of En Avant.

And... you need a mobility tool when playing rphys?

Also, don't you dare associating BRD's pitiful backstep with a mobility tool; you'd do the exact same result by just running back. This is a gimmick at best. I like using it just to justify its presence on my hotbar and look fancy when bored though.

The real reason they hand mobility tools to certain jobs is essentially based on them having melee radius or skills. WhM for example, got one for that specific justification on AoE (probably didn't need it tbh but here you go), and SGE as well. DNC when introduced also got one unlike its 2 rphys cousins because it had a lot of melee action to justify as well. When it comes to casters, it's usually justified by cast times conflicting with mobility, which goes back to uptime constraints.

MCH and BRD and i'd say SMN as well, have no such constraints.