The thing is, even in 1.0 and FFXI combat was exactly the same - in fact it was worse back then because combat was so much slower than it is in ARR, it was dragged out by long delays between being able to use weapon skills (as TP had to be built up, and ability timers were much longer), meaning you basically just sat there on auto attack for ages in order to use one weapon skill.

But I get what you're saying - AoE dodging is fine and all, but as enemies spam it so often, it gets ridiculous. And as bosses have such a predictable attack pattern, any challenge to it is destroyed once the pattern is discovered. A random element to it might go a long way to shaking things up a bit.