One shot mechanics in Normal Raids

[Genz]

One-shot mechanics are a lazy solution to give an appearance of difficulty, because the devs can't do anything else : healers are too powerful, and healers have to be powerful because it's easier to balance and easier to play. And the jobs have to be easy to play because the game is awfully bad at teaching its players how to play.

(as a side note : one-shot in RPG have always been an error, because they simply cancel/bypass all character growth and customisation systems. But there isn't anything of the sort to cancel in FFXIV)

One-shots also create their share of problems :
- they have to be slow. When it relies too much on it, the whole fight become boringly slow and, per consequent, easy.
- Healers can't do anything about one-shot and vulnerability debuff. Over reliance on them removes meaning in the healer role. We become simple spectators.

PS : About E7 specifically, there is first and foremost a blatant design error with the mechanic explained in the status effect description...

[tdb]

(as a side note : one-shot in RPG have always been an error, because they simply cancel/bypass all character growth and customisation systems. But there isn't anything of the sort to cancel in FFXIV)

Being able to level up endlessly and beat any boss with brute force is hardly stellar design either. But in computer RPGs it often happens because the world is more or less static; the boss has nowhere else to be so it will patiently wait while you beef yourself up. A live GM would invent some way to beef up the boss as well or otherwise have consequences to the players' tardiness, but a computer program does not have imagination and can't respond to the player deviating from the expected course. One-shot mechanics are a method for game developers to keep the boss relevant no matter the player's power level.

As an aside, role-playing in computer games seems to have become conflated with numerical stat development. If a game has "RPG elements" it usually means the player can assign points into a handful of stats. Actual player-influenced character personality and development are seen very rarely.