The State of Machinist in DT - Let's talk about it (again).

[brinn12]

MCH isn't competing with melees unless the gap widens so greatly as to be worth both the loss in raidwide constant primary stat benefit and LB generation. It's competing against other Physical Ranged DPS.



If they only buffed the underdogs in pure damage, then likewise NIN, DRG, and MNK would have been buffed to keep up with SAM/VPR, invalidating them. That hasn't been the case though. Nor has it ever been the case for any whole expansion's length.


Yes, there is. It's at most about 5% short of being balanced against the best in competition in ST, with that 5% needing to include substantial AoE buffs to make it balanced in multi-target fights. None of that has to do with lacking raid buffs, though; it's a simple tuning issue. We got hit with random AoE nerfs that frankly should have been aimed at Dancer, if anyone, and haven't gotten the basic minor potency buffs we need elsewhere.

You're missing my points here. This isn't about a simple 3% or 5% buff that fixes everything (this would take more than half an expansion to happen btw, since the biggest buff for MCH so far in DT was 2.5%) — it's about how Square Enix consistently breaks the game's balance through each expansion release.

While indirect buffs affect melees like NIN and DRG, those jobs contribute around 10% more damage than DNC or BRD, so a 5% buff has a comparatively bigger effect on the Physical Ranged, representing more of their damage. And when you combine buffs like Devilment, Standard and Technical Finish, the support contribution from ranged ends up exceeding a 10% buff.

This situation makes it nearly impossible for Machinist to keep up. By the time SE manage to fix the issue, the expansion is nearly over — and the next one breaks the meta again. I agree that a fix is mathematically possible, by just increasing some of the meaningless buffs MCH gets. But after 5 years of failed attempts, it's hard to have faith that the devs will actually commit to this. They are way too hesitant and see the job as a pure DPS which simply cannot perform well.