Quote Originally Posted by Jamillion View Post
I feel like it was a bad move, but I will say the gameplay is noticeably different between bard and machinist. I dislike machinist very much but it was obviously designed with gauss barrel in mind (regardless of my feelings on the mechanic) whereas wanderers minuet doesn't feel like it really belongs on bard.
This: when I levelled MCH I actually didn't feel that much annoyed with the casting time, since that the combo is an instant cast and overall feels more fleshed out, much better planned and GB feels like a good addition, albeit an annoying one.

But yes I can't say the same about the bard: some skills are instant now but I just felt it more clunky and less fluid. My guess is that they really added at the last moment so that BRD and MCH weren't too different, because I think they were afraid that the MCH wasn't going to take off due to the casting time in comparison to BRD's free movement. That or they just had no idea.