Game stutters if there's players

[Esk]

What is the load on your GPU/CPU/Ram when your playing?
I agree its probably the HDD traffic, but there are other possible causes too.

Its a combination of a lot of factors I would think really.
People expecting more out of a Pc then is realistic at times, bad code on SE's Part, Internet... yada yada yada
Yes an SSD will solve some issues, but that's true of any game/program that loads large amounts of data like this. But I do agree that FFXIV seems to handles it badly in this area as well as others.

A last gen SSD is a good investment for anyone with a 1/2 decent Pc though imo, but I do understand the cost issue, I only just jumped up to them as I'm finishing off my new rig to put off a huge liquid+air hybrid cooling project for my GPU's.
(by 1/2 decent I mean a 2nd gen Dx10 card and a good dual core or better)

I did had stutter Pre 1.18, although it does appear to be worse now in some areas.