Linear, linear, linear

[Jojoya]

So the logic is because it'll get eventually boring don't try to change that and make it boring from the beginning.

Why have interesting abilities when someone will do the math and figure out the exact best rotation. Why figure out a boss fight yourself when you can watch a YT video.

The answer is always the same. Because some people enjoy it and play for fun.

Oh, I would love to have some serious choices when it comes to picking what abilities my character has available. Some of the best fun I had in WoW was playing my dorky bank alt mage in the open world with a really crazy set of talents back in Wrath. Couldn't deviate from the acceptable talent builds for my raiding characters but since my bank alt didn't raid and rarely did normal dungeons, I could get away with anything I wanted.

But I know why choice gets sacrificed - most players demand balance and the more variables involved, the harder it is to achieve that balance. The devs already have to try to find a balance for 19 jobs that the player base will consider acceptable. Now imagine if each of those 19 jobs had a dozen different builds available that also required balancing.

It would be great if SE simply told players "We've devoted a decade of job design to those of you who want jobs to be balanced. Now we're going to devote the next decade to those who want job customization and unique actions." I've been around MMOs long enough to know I'd rather have someone who knows what they're doing with their underperforming job in my party than someone who playing the current FotM but can barely get a base combo done and constantly has to be scraped off the floor. I'm a lot more likely to get the clear with the former.

The interests of players like you and me unfortunately get overshadowed by the vocal optimization crowd that will only choose their party comp based on numbers generated by players they'll never play with instead of including/excluding players based on their personal merit. I bet those who work on job design would likewise love the chance to incorporate some original ideas into jobs instead of having to worry about getting the job balanced compared to the others.

There are always the single player RPGs for creating fun builds. No need to worry about balance because aren't competing against others for a raid spot. If someone manages to come up with a ridiculously OP build, they don't have to worry about it getting nerfed into the ground.

The people that argue "but someone will figure out the best path!" are strangely often the ones pressing random buttons instead of the objectively mathed out best rotation *think emoji* They can freestyle their own "rotation" but somehow a multiple path dungeon is bad

Again, dungeons end up linear because of players. Players are the ones who want to get in and out of dungeons as fast as possible. Multiple paths are meaningless if the player base decides on a most efficient route and sticks to using it every time. There's no point in creating multiple paths if players aren't going to deviate from the optimal route. It's just a waste of developer time that could be spent on other projects.

Developers are usually more than happy to get the opportunity to flex their creative skills. It's the budget allocation given to a project that holds those opportunities in check.

Variant was a nice step toward creating meaningful multiple path dungeons but they still need a lot of work before they'll get there.

[Shinkuno]

Again, dungeons end up linear because of players. Players are the ones who want to get in and out of dungeons as fast as possible. Multiple paths are meaningless if the player base decides on a most efficient route and sticks to using it every time. There's no point in creating multiple paths if players aren't going to deviate from the optimal route. It's just a waste of developer time that could be spent on other projects.

Developers are usually more than happy to get the opportunity to flex their creative skills. It's the budget allocation given to a project that holds those opportunities in check.

Variant was a nice step toward creating meaningful multiple path dungeons but they still need a lot of work before they'll get there.

So why arent rotations 1 button yet that automatically cycle through the objectively best rotation? No, they design linear dungeons because its easy and cost-effective. Maybe other devs like the flex, square definitely doesnt. Stop excusing their lazyness with "but its the players fault "

[OM3GA-Z3RO]

So why arent rotations 1 button yet that automatically cycle through the objectively best rotation? No, they design linear dungeons because its easy and cost-effective. Maybe other devs like the flex, square definitely doesnt. Stop excusing their lazyness with "but its the players fault "

Uh... someone managed to make a working 1 button rotation macro for SMN.

Jobs are already slowly approaching to that point.