Lock and Load: The Reassembled Machinist Guide

[Myon88]

In one of the interviews YoshiP did, they talked about how "MCH DPS is actually not bad but the job is hard to play so people aren't reaching that potential", something like that.

I don't really agree but that's not relevant here, I guess in the eyes of the devs, maybe the timing fix for the display of the 1-2-3 procs would fulfill that requirement of 'increasing sustained DPS output'. You might say well that's not a real buff since it's only helping when assuming suboptimum play - I agree, but that's just what was said.

That, combined with the very real buffs to Gauss Round and Hypercharge would fit the bill for the kind of buffs they had in mind I guess. Maybe not an amazing amount of buffs (the Hypercharge buff is seriously pretty good though), but still buffs nonetheless. Don't forget they might view the TP cost reduction as a 'sustained damage increase' too, even though running out of TP is almost a non-existent problem in practice (who knows what Midas fights are like though).

Edit: Found it,

So we can have peace of mind for now (laughs). I understand that you'll be increasing the DPS for Machinist, but the DPS can be pretty high right now for players with good command of the job?

Yoshida: Yeah. However, only a small fraction of people are there right now, so we wanted to make some adjustments to operation of the job to make it a bit less difficult to get that return.

Of course, but part of the image of Machinist is that it is more difficult to play.

Yoshida: The original idea for Machinist was to create a job where operation was complex, but it could be strong in the hands of a skilled player. Compared to bard, it's a step up in difficulty and intended as an expert job. However, when players look at a job which has a more complex operation than other jobs, really the only thing they are looking at is how much DPS can it deal.

And because of the difficult operation, it may not put out as much DPS as expected.

Yoshida: In this difficult state, many players think "machinist is weak," and we want to make adjustments to get rid of this negative impression. However, it wasn't really a major adjustment.

I have to say I blame the interviewer for leading him on by saying "So MCH DPS is pretty good huh", /eyeroll. If he said it was bad, we'd at least get to see Yoshi say something like "No I think they're OK" and give a justification for why he thinks so.

[ZanzhizExaverion]

These buffs are actually pretty good. The Gauss Round change is a slight kick for MCH, but the proc change is actually really big because it makes the split second decision making of the job a little more lenient, which can increase DPS overall.

If you have more time to decide what to do, it makes the job a little easier to maximize.

The 5->10% buff in my opinion is huge, considering DRG is pretty much a staple in raiding, it's a big buff to really good/extended openers for the entire party, not just mages like Foes.

Looking forward to the changes. It seems really good.

[RiceisNice]

I have to say I blame the interviewer for leading him on by saying "So MCH DPS is pretty good huh", /eyeroll. If he said it was bad, we'd at least get to see Yoshi say something like "No I think they're OK" and give a justification for why he thinks so.

He'd more or less repeat what he said; the players using MCH aren't playing that well to pull out top performance.

These buffs are actually pretty good. The Gauss Round change is a slight kick for MCH, but the proc change is actually really big because it makes the split second decision making of the job a little more lenient, which can increase DPS overall.

If you have more time to decide what to do, it makes the job a little easier to maximize.

It won't increase dps for people who are already getting the procs in. It just makes it easier to maximize, but people are already maximizing to begin with.

[ZanzhizExaverion]

It won't increase dps for people who are already getting the procs in. It just makes it easier to maximize, but people are already maximizing to begin with.

Well, the thing is, the MCHs that are topping the lists were proof that MCH didn't really NEED buffs. Unfortunately Gods and 0 PingLords exist and get their procs updated before everyone else.

The buffs were to help lower-level MCHs to get in line with BRD. Considering BRD is kinda braindead to maximize, a little help isn't so bad.

[RiceisNice]

Well, the thing is, the MCHs that are topping the lists were proof that MCH didn't really NEED buffs. Unfortunately Gods and 0 PingLords exist and get their procs updated before everyone else.
.

The top of the lists consistently show BRDs being ahead of MCH, excluding factors like hypercharge affecting the MCH itself, and the overall damage increase that BRD gives to the healers in form of foe and RoD. You're looking at a comparison where BRD pulls consistently higher personal dps AND arguably provides stronger raid boost in a standard 2 melee/1 caster setup.

[Cetonis]

The top of the lists consistently show BRDs being ahead of MCH.

... no they don't. Everything from the 99th percentile down to the 70th has MCH a bit ahead on A4S, a little more ahead on Thordan, and BRD a bit ahead on A3S. A1S and A2S are fight designs highly unlikely to be replicated, so it's more or less fair to ignore them. The 100th percentile most-gamed MCH-boosted Bard parses also don't really matter.

MCH needed for HC to catch up to Foe, for Rain to matter less (check, thanks to materia) and for their valley DPS to be a bit better without greatly adding to their overall DPS. Instead SE did nothing about the latter, and made HC blow Foe way out of the water - to the point that BRD is now further behind MCH than the vice versa ever was on any normal-style fight.

[Judge_Xero]

MCH needed for HC to catch up to Foe, for Rain to matter less (check, thanks to materia) and for their valley DPS to be a bit better without greatly adding to their overall DPS. Instead SE did nothing about the latter, and made HC blow Foe way out of the water - to the point that BRD is now further behind MCH than the vice versa ever was on any normal-style fight.

The HC boost is pretty amazing. I wouldn't be surprised if people change their party comps to full melee with MCH. With how well MCH, DRG and MNK can AOE and if Tanks are still DPSing hard it's going to be a real game changer.

I'm not sure if that's a direction SE would be hoping for, but at least in a single caster with BRD, Foes, BV, ROD and Healer DPS it's hard to say which will be better. That is probably the greatest balancing act between BRD/MCH because of their difference in party dynamics is Full Melee VS Melee/Caster

[Cetonis]

The HC boost is pretty amazing. I wouldn't be surprised if people change their party comps to full melee with MCH. With how well DRG and MNK can AOE and if Tanks are still DPSing hard it's going to be a real game changer.

I'm not sure if that's a direction SE would be hoping for, but at least in a single caster with BRD, Foes, BV, ROD and Healer DPS it's hard to say which will be better.

I actually think if SMN didn't get the Ruin 3 buff, they might have been the ones left in the dust (in favor of BRD+MCH if no BLM was available). With the SMN boost and the BLM QoL to aid their progression woes, it seems SE is at least somewhat cognizant of the caster vs. triple physical + MCH situation.

Rain's debuff will be worth a lot less once materia is melded up, and Foe is very definitely worse than HC now in single-caster comps. So whether BRD is better for a given fight will depend on whether or not it allows them to leverage multiple targets enough to do at least +50 or so self-DPS to beat out Hypercharge.