Quote Originally Posted by Irenia View Post
Note that in context that quote does not blame the players for optimizing, rather this is something that the developers need to keep in mind when designing their games. Some players have fun optimizing, and you should never take that from them.

There was a GDC talk by one of the people who work on Magic the Gathering where he says that it is the dev's job to ensure that the most optimal, and the most fun options are the same. He likens it to the shot clock in basketball iirc (Before it was implemented, players would get the lead, and just kind of hold on to the ball. Boring, but optimal). Honestly, I'd imagine this train of thought was the reason why AST cards were changed, because many people had fun using all the cards, while it was optimal for sufficiently skilled groups to fish for the damage increases. So they brought the two inline to... mixed results.
Optimization and minmaxing will happen whether devs want it or not. There will always be a rotation that maximises damage for each class.

That being said, you can optimize around anything any rotation or gameplay, so why not just design classes with an engaging set of skills and forget about what players will optimize around.

1 button spell spam is not engaging.