FFXIV's Systems Ain't That Deep, but They Could Have Been.

[Shurrikhan]

For me, personally, customization was that thing you go to icy-veins to let them tell you what the current Balance discord figured out within the current parameters of the game.

While the case for many (if less so for WoW than, say, less contextual choices like gearing), it's hard to blame that entirely on the system itself. Most going to Icy-veins, especially if/when doing less standard content (shorter fights or high-key Fortified with necessary focus damage, most forms of PvP, etc.) were leaving performance and/or fun (and usually both) on the table.

Which is... fine(?) but certainly makes complaints about such as such meta build being the only real option pretty laughable (given that it'd literally be inferior for what they were doing, and the difference wasn't that great even in the content the meta builds were intended for).

What I really despised about WoW was that special gear with neat stats and procs became useless in the next expansion.

I get that, but honestly have never had a problem with each expansion putting a novel twist on borrowed powers. Though you might lose a particular favorite temporary addition, at least there was always something new, usually of comparable quality.

If anything, I simply disliked when the layers of piecemeal customization became so disparate and/or unintuitive as to hurt accessibility more than they actually helped any sense of progression or customization.