Quote Originally Posted by Altena View Post
Balance is the main reason I would assume.

Classes that have similar core mechanics = easier to balance.

Melee all have a Slashing/Blunt/Piercing buff, long DoT, short DoT, some sort of buff they have to maintain (Huton/GL/Blood)...
Normally this isn't a problem. Infact, the management of some of those things are why the melee plays different from each other; MNK requires constant uptime and free-flowing combos, DRG has two combos and oGCDs with animation lock, NIN has ninjitsu uptime. 3.x expands upon this by giving MNK chakra stacks for their downtime, DRG has BotD which is a beast of it's own, and NIN got...idk. But at the very least, while they share the same concepts (maintaining uptime of buffs/dots), the execution of it is different from each other, l which I really don't feel it's the case for BRD/MCH.


Take 2.x BRD and pre-51 MCH, all you'd really see different is the amount of procs the two get (BRD has procs through straighter shot too, what MCH does isn't anything new aside from their dps being more oriented to that), and wildfire. Post-50, they both get WM/GB which while it adds a layer of depth to the job, it's the same type of depth that really makes it feel like a shell-out when it came to designing the two jobs. Even from a "balance" standpoint, the mobility (and potential loss of dps because of it) is blatantly obvious when you're looking at BLM and SMN, alongside how they handle their resources and primary means of damage (aetherflow/trail with ruin3 mana vs umbral/astral and enochian).

Oh, there's the turret too I guess, but there's so very little interaction aside from hypercharge, it lends nothing to MCH's actual gameplay, esp in a boss fight where you can just put it in the center of the room and it'll always be within range.