Bard or Machinist?

[NovaLevossida]

Recommendation: hop in Palace of the Dead and try out both in the post-caster level ranges. I prefer MCH between the two, but I also find it kind of annoying to have to place a turret down at the start of every fight (which is even worse in PotD since you're so mobile in there). MCH is the way to go if you have gotten tired of being a stationary caster on BLM.

[Id_Slayer]

Personal experience with both at 60! I played BRD from release through Heavensward, and wanted to try MCH instantly. I got it to 60 super quick, and then got kind of..."stuck" with it, because I didn't want to go back and level BRD on principle with the way they butchered the job meta on mobility. Trouble is, MCH is a completely different beast and I was no longer skilled or sufficient DPS in my opinion. I cleared all the coil tiers and primals pre echo every patch something new was released on BRD, and did it...decently. Not the best, not the worst.

These days most people probably don't expect the support jobs to bring the Deeps. It's going to be real easy to blend into the crowd of mediocre or sub-standard. Don't do that to yourself unless your conscious is ok with it. Otherwise prepare to study forums and tips/guides online, and practice practice practice. Use sky stone sea dummies to benchmark yourself as various iLvls. (ie. look at the minimum ilvl recommended for a fight, then when you get that ilvl, go fight the SSS dummy and see if you clear it. if you can't- you need to improve.)

I hold both of these classes dear to my heart and I hate to see people play either job for fun when ultimately their "fun" means they really pan-handle at dumpster diving for half the dps of every other dps class, fighting for dps scraps with the tanks and cleric stance'd scholars.

For something constructive -
BRD is closer to blm. MCH is closer to SMN. BRD/BLM run on a fairly regular rhythm with a few quirks along the way. MCH and SMN get complex with timing and micromanaging certain things, and you get punished pretty hard for making mistakes because the mistakes play out in the form of bad timing for the duration of a fight. BLM and BRD have an easier time recovering from those timing mistakes, IMO.

[TheMazrem]

WM takes time to get used to, but once you get over the fact that you've become an arrowmancer, you'll find that it's not as bad of a change as some people make it out to be. Most movement you've been doing pre-WM is wasted movement anyways, and you'll find that staying still and moving only when necessary, while a little less fun, is still very much manageable.

As far as the biggest differences between bards and machinists go, I find that bards are easier to play and have more stable dps, while machinists tend to be a little more tricky and far more bursty. Both can pull great numbers, but you'll work harder for those numbers on a machinist. Also, it's worth pointing out that bards generally work better with casters due to foes debuffing magic resistance, while a machinist's equivalent can do either melee or magic, but has a much smaller range for magic. Both are still very useful in any group configuration, but your going to shine your best with those types of groups setups.

[xanthos]

I find mch to be more complicated job to play than brd but both are good depending on how you play to fully benefit mch is knowing when to turn on gauss barrel for insta cast on hot shot lead shot and aoes if your a quick pace player and also knowing when to use your reload bullets and wildfire for brd you can use wm and iron jaws after using initial dots and movement would be an issue and the quick recast on bloodletter makes the job more beneficial when it triggers foe requiem would make it easier to do more dps for casters and mage ballad to revover mp for healers mch sucks at times beacause you got to know how to use your turrets and knowing when to hypercharge again knowing what turrets to use there both good range support dps its just how to trigger support commands at right times.