Is Blm gonna be the only accepted range option now? :(

[IruruCece]

Pretty much this, it kills my enjoyment of playing machinist when I see a black mage outdpsing me by almost 3k even though my gear is better

I can accept black mage being the highest dps class, but not by a whole 2-3k, that's just plain ridiculous and makes me think of maining a different class just because of the huge imbalance.

The solution is to bring classes up to those heights, then, which they can and should do.

Your raid didn't fail because you weren't bringing more DPS. Your raid failed because collectively it dropped the ball somewhere, and you're the only person who is willing to try and place blame somewhere (on yourself) for it. Don't do that. If you're a Machinist kicking that much butt, better than most players in the game period, other players in your group need to also be stepping up.

Sure, you could look at the math and say "but what if I was a BLM", which plenty of other players have done. But the bottom line is NONE of the content in FF14 is hard enough to require specific comps, unless you're playing at the very edge of speed and overall performance in hopes of being a day 1/week 1 clear for Savage content. People ought to be able to play the jobs they like, and wonder of wonders, the game does allow for it.

Which is why I say again "screw those guys." A competent player who is willing to learn and keep plugging away at a challenge with a good attitude means a hell of a lot more to most folks than some jerk playing a "better" job. Bring the other jobs in line with those that are working well right now. I think the hard working mchs, nins, brds, dncs, rdms, and even the occasional Salty Sam, deserve it.