Current problems with machinist and being constructive.

[Ameela]

I know some people are iffy about some sort of "complexity tax" (for the harder end), but if as it is today, MCH would be bumped to BLM levels of rdps, it would literally seize DNC and BRD for the phys ranged spot, and people would certainly prefer a full mobile ranged dps with a braindead rotation for the flex spot.

For that to happen, MCH would need a bit more meat and skill ceiling to their gameplay. Well, they have an opportunity in 7.0...

Just bring back HW Gauss Barrel.

[Raikai]

Just bring back HW Gauss Barrel.

You gotta be kidding! If HW Gauss Barrel was the same from SB (I didn't play MCH before that) that was the most pointless job mechanic ever. You had to re-equip GB just to access your normal things, it wasn't even like an exciting button to press like Kaiten (rip) or Reassemble.

[Ameela]

You gotta be kidding! If HW Gauss Barrel was the same from SB (I didn't play MCH before that) that was the most pointless job mechanic ever. You had to re-equip GB just to access your normal things, it wasn't even like an exciting button to press like Kaiten (rip) or Reassemble.

Oh nah HW Gauss Barrel gave you more damage at the cost of forcing you to cast when you didn't have ammo.

[Syln]

-Wildfire spread to every enemies within 10y of your target deal damage each time you hit a target affected by it with weapon skill + the current final burst

-Flamethrower let you move while channeling and become a weapon skill :3

[Seraphor]

I would give Wildfire a (personal) debuff like Trick Attack, increasing the potencies of Heatblast and Gauss/Ricochet.

Flamethrower I think should be the AoE equivalent of Air Anchor and share a cooldown.
Why am I forced to use a single target huge potency attack in a dungeon pull?
Have Flamethrower generate Battery gauge, maybe after the 5th tick so you don't need to channel for the full 10s.
Better yet, buff the potency for the first 5s from 80 to 100 so those first 5s are worth more too.

[AirlineFood]

I would give Wildfire a (personal) debuff like Trick Attack, increasing the potencies of Heatblast and Gauss/Ricochet.

Flamethrower I think should be the AoE equivalent of Air Anchor and share a cooldown.
Why am I forced to use a single target huge potency attack in a dungeon pull?
Have Flamethrower generate Battery gauge, maybe after the 5th tick so you don't need to channel for the full 10s.
Better yet, buff the potency for the first 5s from 80 to 100 so those first 5s are worth more too.

If they intend to keep it a selfish dps making wildfire like trick attack wouldnt be the worse, but i would also add lower it to a 60s cooldown instead of 120s so it operates even more like trick attack.

[Seraphor]

Momo Sama has a very well written explanation for why they can't do this.

In short, because of how SE has set up the Prange role, buffing Machinist up to Black Mage/Samurai levels instantly kills off any reason to ever touch Dancer or Bard. In an average party setting, Machinist actually does decent, albeit still on the low side. Meanwhile, Bard and Dancer are entirely dependent on their party. In other words, a Machinist doing say, current Black Mage damage, is always 100% better in PF than Bard or Dancer purely due to consistency. Not only do either one of them have to be above 90%. The party itself/Dancer Partner also needs to be good. We're starting to see this unfold with the Caster role right now. Black Mage is, objectively, better than both Red Mage and Summoner. What prevents it from dominating is the general difficulty of playing it well and combat raise.

SE has essentially pigeonholed themselves into a corner ever since they introduced Dancer. At this point, they need to simply scrap the whole "selfish" concept from Prange.

It doesn't need to be the same level as SAM/BLM, it just needs to be higher than it currently is so it can compete with BRD/DNC in a raid context. It can just abput compete ok in 4 man content, it just gets demolished by 8 man spread raid buffs.
It wouldn't hurt to tune it in a way that MCH beats the other two by a small margin in 4 man content so that it would stand a chance in 8 man.

It absolutely should remain a selfsh dps.
We don't have role identities anymore where a certain role is considered the damage dealer or support. Instead each role should have a range of options within it.
Melee have their selfish and their utility jobs, casters have their's, so should physical ranged.

[AirlineFood]

It doesn't need to be the same level as SAM/BLM, it just needs to be higher than it currently is so it can compete with BRD/DNC in a raid context. It can just abput compete ok in 4 man content, it just gets demolished by 8 man spread raid buffs.
It wouldn't hurt to tune it in a way that MCH beats the other two by a small margin in 4 man content so that it would stand a chance in 8 man.

It absolutely should remain a selfsh dps.
We don't have role identities anymore where a certain role is considered the damage dealer or support. Instead each role should have a range of options within it.
Melee have their selfish and their utility jobs, casters have their's, so should physical ranged.

you cant balance that, bard/dancers damage is dependant on other players you cannot account for others players damage against a 100% personal damage class, machinist will always have balancing issues compared to its peers because its a selfish dps, and it will always be excluded from PF because it doesnt bring raid utility, its beyond the dmg buffs that dancer/bard bring to the table Machinist just simply cant offer what the other 2 can beyond raw numbers. dancer can heal and mitigate and give a dps buff, bard dps buffs, can mitigate, and has a healing buff they both also have oh shit buttons for movement. machinist has.... tactcian even if machinist could keep up with there dps why would i bring a machinist over the other 2? i wouldnt.

[Seraphor]

you cant balance that, bard/dancers damage is dependant on other players you cannot account for others players damage against a 100% personal damage class, machinist will always have balancing issues compared to its peers because its a selfish dps, and it will always be excluded from PF because it doesnt bring raid utility, its beyond the dmg buffs that dancer/bard bring to the table Machinist just simply cant offer what the other 2 can beyond raw numbers. dancer can heal and mitigate and give a dps buff, bard dps buffs, can mitigate, and has a healing buff they both also have oh shit buttons for movement. machinist has.... tactcian even if machinist could keep up with there dps why would i bring a machinist over the other 2? i wouldnt.

So why do people bring BLM instead of SMN/RDM who have raid buffs?
Why do people bring SAM instead of othe melee who have raid buffs?

[ForteNightshade]

So why do people bring BLM instead of SMN/RDM who have raid buffs?

Because neither have enough raid buffs for it to make a significant enough difference. At least in ideal circumstances. Reiterating what I said before, Red Mage is actually lagging so far behind that it can't keep up with Black Mage. This is the first raid tier we've had in years where there's more Black Mage clears of P8S than Red Mage. Meanwhile, Summoner plays well into raid buffs enough to remain sort of relevant.

Why do people bring SAM instead of othe melee who have raid buffs?

Samurai is the poster boy for playing into raid buffs to huge benefit. It's synergy with Dancer rivals the Dragoon/Bard love affair of old. The key difference though is despite being extremely effective at utilizing raid buffs, it doesn't overshadow the other melee. In fact, none of the melee contribute much in the way of rDPS relative to their aDPS: i.e., they're all largely selfish. Case in point, let's look at Ninja. In P6S, at the 90%, it's rDPS and aDPS are roughly 100 apart. That's within crit variance range. Now look at Bard and Dancer. Both have well over 1,000 separating each category. Which means a sizeable portion of their entire damage profile is baked into raid buffs. You can't balance a selfish job around that big a margin.

In order for Machinist to even be close, it's aDPS would need to skyrocket. Which, in turn, makes Dancer and Bard worthless. Why play two jobs whose damage relies entirely on other players when you can play Machinist and easily do consistently better damage? It's the Dancer problem now except reversed.

Put simply, even in a bad party, Ninja can still contribute meaningful damage. Bard and Dancer can't.