Red Mages need some love

[maestroanth]

It'd come out to the same, because people will always try to find the meta (which will be found quickly), and buttholes will always use the meta to justify keeping people out of their parties.

That's a very pessimistic viewpoint IMO, but I do get it. In reality though, I only faced your "butthole" problem in WoW. I think it's mainly because Rift and DDO attract players that share my D&D pov whereas WoW attracted a more generalized demographic of player. Plus, MMO's with how much repetition there is, needs stuff for players to f*ck around with to keep it interesting. Plus, with talent trees you get certain combos that derive naturally that are optimal at various levels which makes the grind much more fun.

I mean, I actually get excited when I level up in Rift and decide what to invest my points in, but in FFXIV, I couldn't care less.....