The game is more dead than it was pre-3.1

[Ayuhra]

WoW is still there though if you want to play it on the side. I agree that ability bloat is an issue...but I'm content that they didn't completely change how the classes work with the expansion. WoW began to bore me when they gutted my favourite class and changed it every major patch/expansion to the point where what I liked originally no longer existed.

Maybe you want to have a talk with the Arms Warrior Community of WoW and how Blizzard made this Specc from super fun to the most freaking boring Specc in this world?

I do play WoW on the side but I think folks aren't understanding what I mean. I am arguing that WoW still feels good to play as opposed to Heavensward. I need an insane number of keybinds to play this game even remotely competently and I didn't need them in WoW, even before the Culling of Abilities that came in Warlords of Draenor. I'm talking less about fun and depth than pure physical accessibility here. I have nerve damage in my hands that limits my range of motion. I could still do Mythic raiding in WoW, but in this game as of Heavensward most dps classes are more than I can comfortably handle. I know my situation is not true for everyone but everyone must feel the ability bloat somehow.

Combine the bloat with a lack of lateral progression and I think we see some of the reason for the drop off. There is a LOT to do in the game but if your main motivation is increasing your item level you are going to be grinding your face against the same couple of things each day...and your effort will have been for not much come the next patch. I also think having more mounts drop in old dungeons and encounters would be fun. I would absolutely dive into more old content to get them.

The game needs to be BIGGER, more epic-ified in general. More streamlined rotations, more complex and interesting everything else.

For the record I think the team can achieve this, I see brilliance under even the things I don't enjoy. People clearly care about the project, hopefully they can patch it up in the next expansion into something wonderful.

[KitingGenbu]

snip

To be fair, WoW is honestly an easier game than this, but as I think you were saying its attributed to the abilities of the classes and wow has more ways to play a single class versus this one. Sure you can change classes in this game but what does that do for something you want to get leveled? Nothing. Classes in this game need more versatility to them. At least more dual classing like they did with arcanist so we can change it up job wise to level the class. Now we're starting to not even have classes anymore. Its like the team is on menopause or something. No passives. Recycled formula. Relics were for the casuals so I do not know why people think relic implementation will do anything about longevity other than 2.0's recycled system for a vanity item. I think how relics were treated in this game is what upsets me the most.

[Ayuhra]

snip.

I don't think WoW is EASIER so much as the difficulty in the two games is divided in different ways. . Here you need to do your rotation with mechanical precision and be hyper aware of your positioning. WoW is much more forgiving of individuals messing something up as long as the rest of the team is on the ball. Because of this it can afford to have much more interesting and complex encounter design. Mythic still has a low clear rate, however. I have yet to see any encounters that match, for example, Blackhand or Yogg-Saron or even Hans'gar and Franzok.

I agree with everything else you said. In other MMOs (not just WoW) there is a level of class customization. Usually one customization becomes the cookie cutter "best" but sometimes you can spec outside and still do well. Elder Scrolls Online has an interesting level of play customization. With proper allocation you can have a mage that fights dual wielding swords or a Dragon Knight with a staff and still pull good numbers. In both ESO and GW2 you can only have so many abilities on your bar at once but you can choose which abilities those are. It makes gameplay experimentation very rewarding. This is really the biggest fault I have with FFXIV. The Job system is cool but beyond that the classes are very rigid and their mandatory rotations are clunky and over long at times. It's too bad because with the Job System you could mix and match certain class abilities in interesting ways to have a truly customized experience rather than just having one or two mandatory things needed to play your chosen class at all.