Disclaimer : This is meant to be a fun topic to vent/discuss ideas for Machinist. As we all know, they initially had planned for the job to utilize different attachments for different scenarios, but ultimately scrapped it and gave us GB (which sorta loses it's "attachment" novelty considering they gave BRD WM), and really their "utility" feels incredible under utilized when compared to BRD (having a weaker physical boost versus a magic boost) Balance is a whole nother can of worms, so the premise of most of the changes should only be kept in relation to their interaction with the game and other jobs (basically assume the numbers are balanced and ultimately, their performance is kept relatively the same, and in the case of number tuning that can easily be done with hot fixes anyway). And lastly, this topic is meant to be for a fun discussion of ideas of what it could have been. Perhaps even give ideas for 4.0 implementations.

Attachments
The job could have been designed around extensively using an attachment/stance system. Something you'd change depending on the circumstances, rather than keep on the entire time. Some ideas I had;

An AoE Attachment and a Burst Attachment
-AoE would convert all weaponskills to have an AoE effect, while reducing damage and increasing TP cost. This would be their "equivalent" of AoE damage, rather than getting a carbon copy of QN and WV.
-Burst Attachment would sacrifice TP efficiency for higher damage output. This would favor burn phases or otherwise where controlled burst damage is high desirable (such as add phases for wildfire), but the TP consumption is amped up to the point that it's not sustainable and ultimately a loss of dps if it's not utilized properly.

"Shotgun" attachment
Increases overall damage, but enforces a damage penalty when attacking from further from 5 yalms. Essentially makes you require a melee positioning when it comes to fight mechanics and party interaction. Being able to switch between the two on the fly, maximizing melee uptime and turning it off when otherwise would be important to maximize damage output.


Ammo/Charges

Clean Shot /w proc generates a charge when used with current GB
-The charge itself is used for GB-exclusive abilities such as gauss round and ricochet, or other abilities at varying costs. Stack management would become important when deciding on what is the most appropriate ability to use at the time, such as consistent single target, AoE, or single target burst

Ammo Effects to non-combo skill
Give a secondary effect to abilities like hotshot and lead shot. Effects could be a self heal, multi-dotting, or even resistance down (detailed later).

General

Hybrid Damage Type (have both piercing and blunt damage) and give Blunt resistance (with maybe +int down?)
The looks of MCH abilities themselves have spurred a separate discussion of whether or not it should be piercing or blunt. My perspective, you have the gun shooting so many different projectiles, its hard to consider it to be one or the other exclusively. So my proposal is that MCH has both piercing and blunt damage depending on what kind of ability it is (blanks and guass round would be blunt for example). They would also get a blunt-resistance down skill that will give them a partial boost to their dps, while synergizing with monks; it allows the latter to do bootshine every opo-opo instead of the weaker dragon kick (more so if you have a dork knight for delirium). Part of this would also address MNK's lack of direct synergy in any party composition since they are currently the only job with blunt damage.

Flank positional with turret positioning
This is still an afterthought for me, but allow turret interactions along with flank positional bonuses. Specific skills that do more damage when hit from the flank of the boss, but this is done based on the relative position of your turret rather than the player and boss. This could be either in the form of a turret ability, or a skillshot utilizing the turret (ricocheting in otherwords). Small idea I had, but it's not necessarily on the top of my list as the others.

Assuming the numbers are not an issue, what would your ideal MCH changes be? As mentioned in my disclaimer, this is meant to be a fun discussion on ideas on what they could have done for MCH, and possibly what they could implement in the future. Please also keep in mind with party interaction, as you don't necessarily want to make BRD useless or make 4 MCH raid the meta.