Quote Originally Posted by HikariKurosawa View Post
The narrative that jobs are becoming the same lol. I ask you to explain why and you couldn't. I ask you to explain how you would do it differently and you couldn't. I'm not even sure what people like you want. Overly complex rotations that feel really annoying to execute, against a boss that has to be boring by design because the rotation complexity is so high? Rotations are more enjoyable and diverse than ever before, they removed a lot of annoying busywork that encouraged installing third party addons so the players could focus less on the boss and more on their annoying rotations.
Jobs are indeed becoming more similar to one another over time. They have increasingly pruned unique considerations in excess of their role templates without those role commons/templates becoming equally, if at all, more complex. Many nuances previously available to certain jobs have now been removed from the game in entirety or replaced by duller, more fool-proofed versions (see DoT-optimizing weave lengths on NIN before mudras/NJ were GCD-ified; see use of AoEs for range in difficult uptime scenarios, as used by Monk in fights like T9/T9S or later DRG in Neo ExDeath).

Rotations are not necessarily any more enjoyable now than in earlier expansions. Such is subjective, but if you are to treat this as an objective and universal truth, then, here's a countering anecdote for you. I sure as heck preferred SAM's rotations in Stormblood to now. I preferred the kits of SCH and AST in Stormblood to how their kits today. I preferred the flow and at least occasional banking optimizations of ShB DRG to EW DRG. I'm not fond of Paradox and preferred when B4-less rotational weaves were contextually optimal and we didn't have the bloat of Xenoglossy vs. Flare, Firestarter procs were vital to sustaining Flare rotations, Thundercloud procs were more integral to mobility, etc. Heck, I'm probably in the minority in even considering Endwalker nearly on par with late Stormblood Monk. Endwalker rotations on most jobs aren't awful, but neither is there any evidence that rotations are by large at their best.

Job rotations are also certainly not at their most diverse, to the point that I wonder how anyone who'd have played since Stormblood could even seriously consider the claim. Look at how MCH rotated in Stormblood and compare that to now. Look at any of the tanks. Look at how BLM used to play even more diversely, or how SMN used to handle trash compared to now. We're at likely the least diverse period of the game.

Nor were most job's rotations significantly more "annoying" now than they were before. Some had higher floors, yes, but for the most part, the difference was in sort of mid-tier optimizations that made far better use of aspects acquired over the leveling process (instead of the shallowed and/or disjointed mess we've increasingly made of it since StB). Our overarching rotational optimizations are every bit as complex now as then.

Third-party combat assisting addons are almost entirely in the vein of button consolidations, not auto-rotation. Think PvP combos. That's it. And they're plenty frequently used even now, so I'm not sure how you get the idea that replacing more nuance-capable aspects with yet more flavors of "Press CD version 1 if 1 target, version 2 if more than 1 target" has somehow reduced the number of people getting rid of bloat where they can. If anything, because there's that much more bloat now within our obligatory keys (instead of the mere likes of cross-class Featherfoot or StB Cleric Stance) and there are fewer use cases for anything out of lockstep order, those addons have become that much more useful (more buttons saved, more value from saved buttons, and fewer ways for consolidation to go wrong).

Nor do rotations having more pieces to work with/from constrain boss design. Hell, if increasingly trimming or devaluing those unique bits of optimization previously available to jobs allows for so much more interesting fights, what the hell is going on with our tanking and healing, or any mechanics not merely "move here by moment X"? Fights have increasingly become striking dummy tests done side by side with shared/allotted dance steps and the occasional scripted bonus action.