Paladin had a good run RIP

[Karl0217]

Except it's not? Your implication that meta composition and strategies necessarily expose players to great risk is unfounded; it's often the opposite. Not only that, comparing it with the risk of injury or death in real life is plainly ridiculous.

The main issues I see are players being pressured/forced to play jobs that they may not want to and players overly relying on the community to solve/optimize encounters for them.

Following the meta will generally make the game easier, though it may not make it more fun.

Seriously? I make a analogy between two things (playing a multiplayer game/driving a car) to illustrate that getting people with beginners' knowledge and experience to try and perform at expert status tends to lead more to failure and unnecessary hardship for all involved. Saying that one has more serious real world consequences does nothing to detract from that point, in fact it is a red herring.

I gave one example, big pulls and Aoe spam, that is meta that a lot of times doesn't make the game easier or more fun because either the tank or the healer, or both, don't know how to handle it, or the dps never touch the AoE button, or that particular area or dungeon has a enemy composition that doesn't make it a good idea. I have seen people bully warriors in chat when they want to be the off-tank or don't feel comfortable being the main tank because warrior main tank is meta. I have seen warriors and paladins drop tank stance in Brayflox and Haukke even though they don't have a dps stance at that level, have trouble holding aggro and their damage mitigation tool kit is somewhat limited at that level because tank dps output is meta. I can go with these examples for awhile.

What makes the game easier and more fun is not blindly following the meta. It is effective coordination with your team mates and taking into account specific characteristics of each dungeon and trial.