Don't listen to all the doom and gloom on machinist. Yes, with Gauss Barrel up, we have a few cast times. Two are only used every 30 seconds and the other is only used until you proc it (50% chance, mitigated by Reload and Quick Reload). Every other attack is instant cast when played properly. That means 90% of the class is instant cast. I've been tearing it up in Alex, even on straight dps checks, so I don't think we're doing badly at all.

As for the thread topic, my hope is that Samurai will be a 2h DPS class with a Great Katana if hey ever release it, but there's talk that it may be a tank instead. We'll see.