Machinist?

[Akyio]

So i'm thinking of leveling Machinist until SE fixes some AST issues, but what is exactly the situation with MCH now?

I saw a lot of them in the beginning but in 60 content I don't see any of them anymore and there aren't that many threads about it as well.
I love the turrets and the whole concept of guns and idea of being supportive-dps, but what role does MCH really fit in currently, or does this class also await changes like dark knight and ast ? Does it have anything unique and better to offer in support than bard ?
I'm not very familiar with DPS classes, but how much less damage does MCH deal in average compared to BLM or SMN?

[RiceisNice]

...

The process of leveling MCH is horrendously slow if it's not your first 60. Even worse if you leveled bard first because you'll come to the realization they'll play pretty much the same with WM/GB Considered. You're objectively dealing signicantly less damage than everyone else because you don't get your turret until 40 (its practically summoner without their summons at this point). After that, not much will really change up until lvl 54 for both gauss round and gauss barrel.

MCH is a ranged dps class. Unless you're going to do end game raiding or savage, you won't really use your support abilities all that much. Compared to bard, the latter is a bit more applicable outside of raiding due to foe req.

MCH and BRD are both objectively weaker than other classes in terms of damage output which is supposed to be out-weighted by something else they provide to the table, either mobility or support depending on who you ask. A lot of numbers also deviate toward bards having higher damage output than machinists but I personally have not seen this myself.

Other than that, they're still both capable classes but could use some QoL tweaks here and there to improve their gameplay (esp bard...)