Question, why does Bard and Machinist share the same core mechanic?

[Lemuria]

What they SHOULD have done for Bard was give them fresh new songs, like a haste skill, damage buff song, defense buff song etc. Then the job would genuinely feel like a Bard and less like a budget Ranger. Bard being a fun job with lots of mobility? Let's reduce their mobility with WM, give them cast times and rob them of auto-attacks! Barrage actually pretty powerful? Let's change it so it only works on a single weaponskill, and doesn't allow criticals! It's like they were trying to systematically dismantle the job rather than breathe new life into it.

It's honestly not that surprising that Machinist shares a lot of similarities with Bard. I think the creativity was all used up on Astrologian.

People exaggerate the movement impairment GB gives too. Guess it helps them make a point?

It's still an impairment though. Being able to move freely while maintaining damage was one of Bard's biggest advantages. It meant that no matter what crazy AoE you were forced to dodge it did nothing to your aim. In return, we got a weak damage buff which, at the time, didn't even make up for the loss of auto-attacks. They had to increase the damage by 10%, and even then it barely ties even.