Even if you have 100% freedom on stats and skills, people will find the most "optimal" or most used builds, so in the end it's an illusion too; everybody will use the exact same build on the exact same content.

Instead of making a double illusion system, they kept the base being the same, and then let you change stuff a bit, like letting you choose 35 stats. This way characters are always balanced and the raid team knows exactly how the jobs will work.


Maybe you've played games like Ragnarok Online, but that kind of freedom couldn't work here, because RO just has roaming MVPs and PVP, while FFXIV has dungeons,raids etc wich needs to be balanced and work properly for everyone, so the mechanics can work fine.

The choice is to change your job and/or use the rotation you want.