I’ve raided in EverQuest, World of Warcraft, and I’ve just begun in FFXIV - though Garuda HM and Thornmarch. I’ve seen enough to know - I’m not overly thrilled with this game’s heavily choreographed movement approach to raid encounters. It didn’t keep me interested in WoW long, and I’m even less inclined to play a WoW clone.

Yes, there are some gear checks, supposedly Titan HM is one… but the movement aspect is pretty much always more important, and it’s often not hard to out gear an encounter before you reach it… So in other words; gear checks are minimized, and you’re always left with “the dance.” Raid encounters don’t have to be this way – it’s just the way so many ARE that it’s hard to think about how they could or should be.

As a Whm I grabbed ilvl 70 gear basically as soon as I hit 50 (50 in all crafts), and I haven’t felt like my mostly unmelded gear has even remotely been tested… However, I DO feel that my ability to get out of the bad area is constantly tested.

Many of you would probably say it’s my problem that I don’t like it, or I’m not good at getting out of the bad area… but I don’t think that’s what all MMOs, and particularly Final Fantasy MMOs should be about.