Each expansion I get hyped and also worried about more skills.

[Ayuhra]

Oh, I read the chain. It's simply that this part (underlined above) did not come across, especially when explicitly calling WoW's rotations "much simpler" regardless of the spec or job being compared. Such would then rely on (A) what is exclusively "rotation" considering that the term in WoW also includes priority order, shifts therein, and many other elements of playflow, and (B) which of the included elements/criteria therein are weighed higher.

Personally, even friggin Arms spec, under certain builds (Collateral-Merciless, in a predominantly AoE fight but with frequent add appearances, for instance), will have every bit as tight and complex of macrorotation as an optimized DRG. It just has both a lower button ceiling (though not necessarily even a lower effective button ceiling, at least by any more than 2) and a higher effective button floor (rather than all but 1 of your GCD skills being effectively non-choices for 9 out of every 10 GCDs).

Honestly, for raid design, I'd say XIV mostly gives WoW a run for its money, though I wish it was a little less centered on DDR alone. Its the more mixed-encounter content like dungeons (M+, in WoW's case) where WoW's higher effective button floor really shines by comparison.

I guess I still feel WoW does have easier rotations and fewer buttons.

Skill in WoW (for me) can be in executing the rotation but also in knowing your abilities that exist outside the rotation. I main a Beast Mastery hunter for example so my class in WoW has always had a very easy rotation but in early versions of the game I needed to worry about pet happiness and pet skill training and ammo and tranquilizing shot to remove a berserk from a boss and jump shooting to effectively kite enemies. Even now in later versions of WoW I consider it skill that when I am in a corner I can't get out of I can use aspect of the turtle to avoid damage then jump, spin in mid-air, and disengage to fling myself backwards into the fray again. Mind control and spell steal are not on rotation but can be extremely valuable in certain encounters. Warlocks in BC Classic have a one button rotation but great warlocks should be aware of the rest of their kit like curse of tongues and banish. WoW has these moments where using non-rotational abilities is important and FFXIV doesn't have that. FFXIV barely HAS non-rotational abilities, the ones that exist are usually not usable in combat.

Unfortunately reducing the number of buttons per class in FFXIV and shortening rotations to add WoW style utility abilities would cause issues in class balance and change the way encounters are designed. It would become a different game.

[Shurrikhan]

Beast Mastery hunter

...is going to be the meme/classic example of simplicity for a reason. Still has more going on than Bard, though, imho.

Unfortunately reducing the number of buttons per class in FFXIV and shortening rotations to add WoW style utility abilities would cause issues in class balance and change the way encounters are designed.

Not... necessarily, no. That'd completely depend on what is removed, what is added, and even more importantly, how that trade works, exactly.

[Ayuhra]

...is going to be the meme/classic example of simplicity for a reason. Still has more going on than Bard, though, imho.


Not... necessarily, no. That'd completely depend on what is removed, what is added, and even more importantly, how that trade works, exactly.

Lol.

Beast Mastery has had moments of being fairly complex but it's the Meme Spec for sure. I started playing it in vanilla when it was the hardest spec in the game but I still love it. It's WoW's only mobile ranged class.

I've played every spec in the game over the years though.