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

[RiceisNice]

I dunno, I don't find that WM feels "pasted on" but I'm not a bard main either so take that as you will. I think MCH is in a better place overall for various reasons, but BRD isn't bad off at all. Maybe there will be further adjustments? Who knows.

When the introduction of cast times doesn't mix well with BRD's previous gameplay (Specifically, using oGCDs that can have it's cooldown reset), and especially when it's functionally the same as gauss barrel, it definitely feels pasted. I'm sure DRGs/NIN would also feel the same if their 3.x skills were also around chakra stacks, or MNKs got their version of BoTD which gave them a 4th combo hit with random positional that further extends GL3, and an ability takes off half it's duration for instant aoe damage. This is coming from a former 2.x bard main; The two jobs draw so many parallels from each other that all MCH really does different is wildfire. Ammo at this point is an oGCD you slam for dps because it's a dps (and tp) loss otherwise, GB loses it's novelty as an "attachment" when BRD does the exact same thing, and the two otherwise watch for procs, maintain dots and buffs (all of which are independent of comboing)

Having a random derp-bard running around and dropping mechanics on you was annoying as hell.

That's less on the fact that BRD is able to move freely, and more on bad players in general.

Because the ability for ranged to move around freely without restriction and still deal damage was imbalanced. It was easier for Archer/Bard to pretty much ignore mechanics and continue fighting, meanwhile both Blackmage/Summoner and Melee have to do their dance and avoid doing DPS during certain parts. That's why Machinist/Bards get the charge abilities they get to balance it so that they need to be more mindful with enemy AOE effects rather than just run around like chickens with their heads cut off.

And despite that, they'd still consistently do less than casters and melee under ideal circumstances, and especially when the fight is known in-and-out. At this point, "unrestricted movement" is a poor excuse, especially when they've done away with that and BRD/MCH still consistently do less than the actual dps jobs (which then I'd chalk up for them being support-dps or w/e)


In the end, I'm more annoyed with how they handled BRD (the introduction of WM, and it doesn't work well with the job that we had to wait until 3.1 just for them to fix straight shot's proc time), how much they cut out of MCH from what they intially had planned, and just in general the poor planning behind the two jobs (because to this day, I'm still baffled to how they thought a 20% damage increase at the cost of auto attacks was going to lead to a dps increase, when auto attacks made up for roughly 20-25% of their dps at the time). There's no resemblance of a traditional ranged-physical dps anymore; they're all casters to an extent.