Nerf, Buff, Change, New Class

[Khalithar]

Anyway, on to my actual response to your thread:

I was a drk main in FFXI and I absolutely loved the class, when it was to be released for FFXIV I had to go for it. I was disappointed (but not surprised) to learn Drk was going to be made in to a tank, SE has kind of made it clear (in my opinion) that plate = tank and Drk traditionally wears the heaviest armor. Also I agree with you that the nin weaponskills from XI were very unique indeed and added to the eastern feel of the game and the XIV version could use the same. Machinist isn't a bad idea, I like both the archery and gunnery option for ranged dps and while both classes feel and play very differently, GB/WM make them a little too similar in my opinion. A good part of that is wanting to be different to XI and the devs, for better or worse, seem to be sticking to their vision of how the classes should be. Which isn't necessarily a bad thing, "final fantasy" to you might not be the same as "final fantasy" to me.

I can't disagree with you on summoner, I've already made a lot of posts about how much I dislike what they did with it. To me, Summoner as a class should have been focused on the pet, the pet doing the majority of the direct damage while the summoner played support by buffing the pet, debuffing and apply some DoT's to the enemy, and healing the pet. Make the pet matter more than it does now where the pet is honestly just a glorified DoT. I'm convinced at this point that SE has abandoned the pet system for anything but glamours. Hopefully if they add another pet class (Beastmaster comes to mind) it will be more focused on the pet.

I don't mind the gear treadmill, that's the bread and butter for any vertical progression MMO. But one thing I don't like is that it's only two main dungeons, two dungeons is not a roulette to me, it's more like a coin toss. The highest level roulette should (in my opinion) have at least 7-10 dungeons at the minimum. You sound burned out on the gear/dungeon grind which is perfectly cool. I'd say take a break from the game and I don't mean that in a rude way, I think some time playing other MMO's or maybe some non-rpg like a platformer or a shooter might be a good idea.

I am personally alright with the heavily instanced and dungeon focused style of gameplay. I don't mind that at all and it's actually my preferred way to play. However, I will grant the point that designing huge zones that players only ever need to go through once or twice and then never need to visit again is a waste. Once you unlock whatever the newest dungeons are you can sit in whatever town you want and queue all day. I'm not personally a fan of open world stuff as I mentioned before, but I appreciate that people are and I stand by my assertion that these huge zones are a waste if you aren't going to use them.

As far as the formula goes OP, SE has found a formula and they're sticking to it. It's a very simple formula that appeals to a wide group of people and keeps things simple. But if you really want more stuff out in the world where other players are semi-involved. I suggest you try gathering and crafting, especially at 60, going through all the different zones, traveling to the places you need, making friends with other crafters and working together to create some of those really nice items and obtain rare materials. The crafter LS I'm in does way more cooperative gameplay and does a lot of (non-combat) stuff out in the world. It might be something to look in to.