How about a non-support ranged dps?

[silentwindfr]

you finding escuse for ignore the main point...

in terms of mechanic, the bard and machinist haven't the same issue than melee... make them deal as much damage is simply idiot. if you want a full dps ranged, go magic and that will not change. they will not make a physical ranged dps that will have almost no constraint deal the same damage than the melee.

Nah, about 15 ft long. Loud enough to hurt your ears across the courtyard when it cracked and when it hit. Sent chunks of wood flying 20+ ft.

15ft long? don't want to see the movement needed for get enough power inside it.

[RiceisNice]

you finding escuse for ignore the main point...

in terms of mechanic, the bard and machinist haven't the same issue than melee... make them deal as much damage is simply idiot. if you want a full dps ranged, go magic and that will not change. they will not make a physical ranged dps that will have almost no constraint deal the same damage than the melee.

No, you're not taking the whole point into consideration beyond the damage numbers. And even if it's an excuse, so what? This is an argument/debate and that's how it's supposed to be going back and forth, unless you can disprove my point.

Lesser raid buffs, no stuns, lesser armor, limited ranged space anyways. (Yes, MCH has a stun... which is also only from melee range. It might just as well be called Failed Mafia-style Execution as Suppressive Fire, going by the icon.)

Mafia-style execution for 100 potency. Seems legit. Though in seriousness, all it does is shoot fuzzy...electric mist that apparently stuns them.

Indeed. And honestly one of the ways they could tune a "non-support" ranged DPS would be for it to have less utility than the others (that kind of balancing already sort of exists for MNK, which has higher theoretical DPS but less useful utility, and NIN which has lower personal DPS but much higher utility).

Such a DPS would likely compete with BLM/SMN for party slot, which might cause concern due to the fact that a lot of fights "require" magic damage (original T4 and T11 for instance), but given that Final Fantasy has potential to add melee casters (either Red Mage or Blue Mage), there are ways to prevent it from being a problem.

The discrepancy between, say NIN and MNK isn't really wide enough to objectively take one or the other. Although at the same time, DRG is practically needed because no other job in the game provides a piercing debuff for your BRD/MCH.

They could also get away with doing a spellblade or spitfire dps, magic damage without the restrictions of cast time or in melee range. If MCH was to be the pure-dps type without the support, they could have given them an ability to change their ammo to be attributed with magic and deal magic damage in place of a caster (and change functionality of their abilities). Or they could have made MCH blunt and be able to provide blunt resistance, so a MNK can keep using bootshine for a potency increase. You've heard me say this before, there's a lot they could have done with MCH if they were aiming for it to be competing with BRD or as a ranged dps, but instead they undershot it big time.