Machinist - When Playtesters Fail Their Job

[Enjuden]

I hate to say it, but leveling Machinist to 60 should be avoided at all costs as of this post (pre-buffs, /pray/ it gets buffs), if you do raid content For raid content, we'll consider EX primals and the Coils, eventually Alexander as raid content. As of right now, the DPS is so bad that it cannot function in raid content. There is only one reason to take it right now, and that is to buff the other physical dps on their numbers with overcharge on rook turret, or magic damage with bishop. Also the fact that we have twice the TP regen with overcharge compared to Army's Paeon with an Overcharged Promote (this is probably a bug among the few that machinist has, which these bugs both help and hurt the class).


It does not take a mathematician to figure out that you are doing worse than everyone else, even at optimum play. There is damage that simply does not exist compared to Bard. Our potencies are too little for what we have, and without something similar to Bloodletter procs, Machinists do consistently worse dps than Bard, /Bard/, let alone when you have to promote your turret for mp or tp gains.


Machinist at least plays differently from Bard, which is a good thing. They should have more potency on their attacks so they can deal burst damage, and they should have a pet to help keep the class together However, there is many directions it is being pulled in. A Machinist should, bare minimum be equal to Bards in DPS, but we simply cannot function without ammo. The class doesn't work without it unless we're stuck doing 140 potency single target shots. Without ammo, we are stuck with other abilities doing 140 potency, even less. I am burning everything possible with nearly optimal rotations, and playing similar to a Bard, but doing less damage than a bard. Why should I ever play a Machinist when the rotation is not only easier by far on a bard, but I do not get punished as severely as I do now?


Admittedly, Rapid Fire helps with some of these things, this is including the current bugs that remove the cast timer entirely when it comes to skills both in and out of combat not dealing with limit breaks. That includes gauss barrel, and some other skills. However, it is a double edged sword, since casting another skill too soon after rapid fire when gauss barrel is up makes us go through the entire cast. And it eats one instance of rapid fire on top of that to add insult to injury. And the worst part? Gauss is completely useless outside of a Wildfire/Rapid Fire rotation


Once we get Wildfire and our abilities to level 60, we are encouraged to burn everything onto it, every single CD, every off-gcd ability, every debuff and buff we have. Sure, we'll do 2200 or so damage off of wildfire and do around, oh, 13100 approximately in i154-ish?. But Warriors can do 11k crit burst now with Fel Cleave, and can Fel Cleave three times in their rotation. To restate, a tank does nearly the same amount of damage we do in a single button than we do when we burn every single buff, every single off-GCD attack, including the execution. Here's proof in case you do not believe me on the Fel Cleave number. http://i.imgur.com/ya8L3qB.jpg


On top of this, once we burn everything, we have absolutely nothing to keep us afloat aside from praying to RNGsus when it comes to dps. Bards get Bloodletter, Black Mages get huge burst on their spells. Dragoons, Ninjas, and Monks speak for themselves when it comes to their burst and overall dps, with their cooldowns both up and down. What do Machinists get? Nothing. Not a single, damn thing outside of a coin toss that doesn't even compare to Bloodletter should RNG not favor you in that moment.


For a DPS class, this is absurd. It is broken, and it is wrong to have released a class that functions so badly that a Bard in 2.55 best in slot beats a Machinist with level 60 gear in overall DPS, both with optimal rotations. Until a direction for this class is decided, they are impossible to fix, and straight number buffs is a band-aid to the core problem of the class. They want to be a burst class, and they want to be a proc class, but quite frankly they suck at both when there is little reward to the procs and not enough burst damage. A direction needs to be picked for them, and hopefully it puts them on a different path than bard, but if it helps them actually be useful it's great. The best I can think of right now is to give them boosts to their basic 1-2-3 (Split/Slug/Clean Shot). Have a rotation that auto boosts their potency, but make their ammo do more. A more complicated fix is to give ammunition more than a mere 20 potency buff to abilities not on the basic 1-2-3. Perhaps additional effects like a DoT or more potency on the DoT for Lead Shot? Machinist needs a buff /before/ 3.1. You can't have a class that functions so poorly that they are practically unplayable compared to everyone else for three months, during raid content that they should have been viable in at launch. It's just wrong.


TL;DR, Machinist is bad as a dps and out-dps'd by everything in this game right now.