So I've been wondering if it's worth resubbing to this game after stopping in Stormblood. I've heard some good things, but I'm wondering if my biggest complaint is still valid - that being the game is grossly undertuned.
I think there are a few reasons for this. The damage values seem balanced around a more casual playerbase and tested on controllers. Playing this shit on mouse and keyboard where you can rapidly click through allies and enemies to CC/mitigate damage frankly felt like cheating. I did Savage Raids for 2 tiers in Stormblood and found them very fun. Unfortunately, it's the only content in the game that really pushed me to engage with the class mechanics on a remoyely deep level. As complicated as rotations can be in FFXIV, it seems like just about anyone can do 99% of the content just by mashing buttons. By the time I quit Stormblood, it was more than possible to spam roulettes without a tank or a healer. Every piece of content in the DF could just be utterly steamrolled.
Is this something you guys notice in the game, or has it gone away with the introduction of 5.0? When I saw things like the Trust system being announced, I worried that the systems were moving even further toward a direction where the game played itself. I think some classes allow for some truly fun flexibility (primarily healers), but by and large, rotations were just solely executed by each individual player. For a social game, FFXIV really took some pages out of WoW's pages in making sure that the players would not be actually playing around each other or having unique playstyles. Like WoW, it felt like players existed in their own little box, doing their own thing until the boss died. Things like Limit Break could have been reworked to allow for more interesting social play.
A lot of these issues only existed in things below Savage content, but for virtually every player, that was the game. Just more tab targeting WoW-esque busywork. If the endgame really is glamour-hunting, as many players joke about, then there isn't a ton of expression there, either. And even then, at that point, I figure I could just practice drawing. Am I only filling bars every week to earn gear that dresses up an avatar that no one actually cares about? I don't think there's anything particularly unique about that gameplay cycle.
Don't mean to disparage the game or the devs. The story and presentation of this game have always been nothing short of remarkable. I'm just wondering if I'm alone in thinking these things about FFXIV. I think if any "traditional" MMO could aspire to better things, it'd be this one. I'm a little let down by what I've seen so far.