Should Machinist Be Relocated or Reworked?

[Reginald_Cain]

I seriously think machinist needs to a tweak to be an option for melee spot 2 or get some sort of raid buff already. It's role and function clash hard. It is not buff loaded like the other phys ranged and not a melee or black mage in damage.

Should it remain the same as a good prog option since it wont rely on team mates but fall of when fight knowledge ticks up?

What should machinist be changed into with 8.0 on the horizon?

I like the current iteration minus auto crossbow not resetting checkmates and no aoe damage on the queen.

I'd like a mech mounting mode added. not like a full gundam but a mega man x ride armor from x1-3. I wanna see myself on the top so my glamour is visible unlike sch and reaper super modes.

[Reginald_Cain]

I didnt adresss the relocation part but I meant to ask if machinist should be reclassed as a scouting job and be worse than viper and ninja in 1 target and better in 2 target fight. Range tax is pointless when Viper was blowing up m6s at range.

[Azurarok]

I'm somewhat in favor of moving it off the pranged category since I figure one reason they can't really make MCH too strong is because that'd lock the pranged slot to them, but I kinda want the dps categories themselves changed up at that point.

Make all the non-raidbuff dps jobs its own category that gives its own party comp bonus, letting MCH properly compete with BLM/VPR/SAM instead. If MCH needs more complexity so be it (though I'd prefer not giving it range/mobility restrictions). Doing that could allow jobs like RDM/DNC to take a melee spot so they can keep uptime without them needing to bend those jobs to content like they did with manafication and flourish too.

[Connor]

It is weird that Machinist is stuck in a role designed specifically for ‘providing support for companions’ then giving it virtually no ways to provide support for companions lol.

At the same time though they’d probably give some ‘oh but spaghetti code’ reason as to why it’s impossible to change a job’s role designation. It would definitely make more sense in any other dps sub-role than phys ranged with how they balance it currently though.

Personally I don’t think Machinist having some actual support would be extreme homogenisation either; the game has literally no ‘debuff’ oriented class anyway, so why not make that Machinist? Then it can still be more offense oriented than the more defensive Bard, or Dancer which provides extra healing (outside of their standard damage+% raid buffs )

[Valence]

MCH kinda used to be debuff oriented at launch, and in fact had the most debuffs of any class: dismantle, rend mind, suppressive shot, headgraze shot, leg shot, foot shot (guess how many ended up as role actions after?)... And hypercharge vuln debuff.

And point blank if you want to count knockbacks I guess.

[mallleable]

Give MCH walking casts like it does in PVP, and let it be a proper pure DPS. The easy mobility that phys ranged have is a failed design concept, and needs to be done away with, and shoehorning phys ranged as a pseudo support role is also holding the role back. These are designs for a game that does not exist anymore. It's time to move on.

[Reginald_Cain]

I dont like walking cast. I'd rather they just get a channeled machine gun if we move in that direction.

[Azurarok]

I still think rotational complexities could be enough to make MCH not be an instant pick should it ever hit melee numbers, mainly RNG, compounded by things like old Wildfire where its damage scales off damage done so you need to manage resources and play around buffs even more carefully.

Range tax only really makes sense when there's enough moments where the other roles can't attack and lose enough dps to be a lot closer, but that heavily relies on content and the other roles keep getting more tools to keep uptime on top of that, so we instead have a higher skill ceiling on non phys ranged jobs while phys ranged get the easy label.

[mallleable]

I still think rotational complexities could be enough to make MCH not be an instant pick should it ever hit melee numbers, mainly RNG, compounded by things like old Wildfire where its damage scales off damage done so you need to manage resources and play around buffs even more carefully.

Range tax only really makes sense when there's enough moments where the other roles can't attack and lose enough dps to be a lot closer, but that heavily relies on content and the other roles keep getting more tools to keep uptime on top of that, so we instead have a higher skill ceiling on non phys ranged jobs while phys ranged get the easy label.

And therein lies the problem with phys ranged, so long as they continue to design it as the easy role, and what feels like 'the easy role for players who are bad at the game,' it can never be taken seriously. That mindset cannot be brought into 8.0.

[Azurarok]

And therein lies the problem with phys ranged, so long as they continue to design it as the easy role, and what feels like 'the easy role for players who are bad at the game,' it can never be taken seriously. That mindset cannot be brought into 8.0.

yes but I think saying that mobility restrictions are the only justifiable way to make a job difficult is a really narrow view, which you seem to be implying with your attachment to walking casts.