Combat system is beyond saving.

[Karen_Cerfrumos]

lol OP expects people to not have played in Heavensward
yeah it had failure states and the game now doesn't have failure states
it was also giga jank on every level and no there weren't "multiple viable builds", there was one way to play correctly
TP was also never a good mechanic, not since 2.0
stop rage baiting

[ty_taurus]

What has made FFXIV more popular has been its story and the different types of content that have been added since then. If job design had stayed the same since Heavensward, the game would still be as popular, and the casual audience would not be batting an eye. Heavensward was not perfect, and there are changes that have been better for the game since then, but the general level of complexity was not inherently a problem in need of fixing.

This current obsession with sanding down every edge in the effort to create the perfect smoothness will leave us with nothing in the end. And it’s not even meant to make the game easier for the casual player. All these changes aim to achieve is to make hard content easier for mid core players to clear faster.

[Jojoya]

Half of the playerbase hasn’t even experienced the actual final fantasy XIV combat system that had things like:

• Aggro management
• Cleric stance and Multiple tank stances (3.x WAR was the best job in the history of this game)
• TP (sprint not draining it was a good change)
• Dungeon packs actually being a threat
• Multiple viable builds for all jobs
• Power level being driven by skill rather than solely depending on your gear ilvl

The list goes on.

What makes things fun and interesting to some players is not fun and interesting to others. You might try to isolate these types of changes to just FFXIV but if you look at other MMORPGs, they've usually also made the same changes over time. It's because the majority of players just did not overall enjoy them.

Parts of your list I enjoyed, though I understand why others don't. A couple of your points I did not enjoy at all (Cleric stance sucked) or just generally disagree with (power is still ultimately driven by skill and not just ilvl).

You claim the things that have changed in this game has killed other franchises. Name them. Explain why this game hasn't been killed already.

I can tell you why it hasn't. It's because ultimately those things aren't important to the majority of players. The smaller percentage of players that want those things isn't large enough for any game to keep them in the long run.

How long are you going to keep hanging around telling yourself that the next expansion is going to make things better in your eyes when expansion after expansion it hasn't happened?
The past isn't coming back. Not enough players want it. Either learn to enjoy the game for what it is in the now, or continue to be disappointed because you're not getting what you want.

No one is gaslighting you. You need to understand that what you feel isn't representative of what everyone who has ever played the game feels.

[Kaurhz]

It's not that they want people to quit, but they absolutely do not want expression of skill, and nor do they want players to feel like underperforming or failing are options. Which is a shame, because regardless of what they do people are always going to fail and underperform, whether this be on a skill-level, or just a level of outright lazy, and I will admit they have slowly been trying to actually compensate for lazy as well.

There seems to be a struggle discerning between actual difficulty behind something, and streaming versus just outright being lazy or uncaring for playing at even a fundamental level.

It's unfortunate because even on a casual level some of these things were fun to engage with and interact with, be it stance swapping or making aggro-management being a party-wide responsibility rather than individual responsibility. It made things fun everywhere.

[Daralii]

MP management was also more of a thing. The maximum wasn't static and every job that used it didn't have half a dozen different ways to restore it or nullify spell costs. There were oddities that didn't really do much or make much sense(remember putting skill points in attributes?), but I genuinely miss things like playing DRG and needing to manage the duration of Blood of the Dragon.

[ty_taurus]

It's not that they want people to quit, but they absolutely do not want expression of skill, and nor do they want players to feel like underperforming or failing are options.

Meanwhile in Endwalker…

“Farther still existed a star without strife... ...where none remembered life's trials—or its joys. What its people had gained from ease, they lost to apathy.”

[caffe_macchiato]

Aggro management ALONE made this game fundamentally different. It was a deceptively in-depth mechanic that, while being immensely satisfying to master as a tank, required interaction from ALL THREE ROLES and really added a sense of teamwork to every encounter and was the SOLE REASON TO PLAY TANKS!!! Now tanks are just 123 drones that act as a (somehow) even less engaging melee DPS.

I was a WAR main during Heavensward and can confirm that it was a far different class. I spent a lot of time in dungeons during that time just because it was fun. I actually wanted to run roulettes. Now WAR is a pittance along with most other classes in this game.

It's not too late to change. Just don't buy DT, take an expansion off and do other things.

You and your ilk killed off every other MMO by incessantly spamming every forum, Reddit thread, comments section, etc. about how much better FFXIV was better than WoW and so on. FFXIV has a near-monopoly among MMOs and now you tell us to go back to playing those other games? The same games that you killed off?

You claim the things that have changed in this game has killed other franchises. Name them. Explain why this game hasn't been killed already.

World of Warcraft, I'm sure you would agree. Final Fantasy is another good one, I don't think Yoshi-P did the PS5 any favors. FFXIV is an exception to the rule because of the former's implosion and people spamming every single orifice of the internet with free shilling for this game. And the explosion of low-quality G'raha fans, big-titty modbeasts, "nightclubs" and assorted drivel that turned FFXIV into Idiocracy. I'm sure you're aware that turning FFXIV into a one-button porno game would probably rankle some people?

[TaleraRistain]

The thing with stuff like cleric stance is, it was optional. If you were doing any content that was the "normal difficulty" of the time then there was nobody forcing you to use it. If you were worried about activating it and then getting caught unable to heal enough then simply don't use it! It was a brilliant way for people who spent the time to learn the limits of their job to take the risk of turning it on to squeeze out extra damage when they could and, if done appropriately, they would be rewarded for doing so. There is nothing even close to that in the game the way it is today.

No it absolutely was not. There was a huge amount of community pressure to use cleric stance in dungeons. This whole idea now where people get mad when healers don't dps in dungeons? Happened back then, too. Healers have never be allowed to just focus on their given role.

[ty_taurus]

No it absolutely was not. There was a huge amount of community pressure to use cleric stance in dungeons. This whole idea now where people get mad when healers don't dps in dungeons? Happened back then, too. Healers have never be allowed to just focus on their given role.

What people were specifically annoyed with were healers idling for large periods of time and not helping the rest of the party when the healing was completely under control. Players that needed time to heal or who were learning mechanics not using Cleric Stance were completely fine.

[Vyrerus]

it was also giga jank on every level and no there weren't "multiple viable builds", there was one way to play correctly

It wasn't giga jank. But there certainly weren't, "Builds." Just Cross-class skills, which did have a few iterations per job that were better for certain situations.

Like you didn't always want your raid important cross class skills if you were soloing for instance, like in Palace of The Dead.

Certain cross class skills were better in dungeons.

But you could only set 5 at a time as a counter to button bloat, so most people looked up what they needed for raid, and then didn't bother with anything else. And a lot of people also just didn't bother. Every so often you'd run into a healer that didn't have Swiftcast unlocked from level 26 Thaumaturge.

Interpreting OP charitably, if they weren't referring to cross-class skills, perhaps they were referring to party comps. Heavensward wasn't the first time there was a meta party comp, because all meta comp means is what's best at the time mathematically (and actually changes on a fight by fight basis depending on what phases do).

It was however responsible for introducing one that was malms better than other ones, due to that comp stacking damage increasing debuffs on the monster. And that party comp was WAR DRK NIN DRG BRD MCH AST SCH.

Any road...

TP was a great mechanic. Resource management takes extra thought, and the better you were at it, the less you had to demand that a BRD or MCH use Army's Paeon or Muscle Relaxant to restore the party's TP. It also incentivized folks to deal in optimal skill speed builds, so that they didn't overvalue the weakest DPS substat. It also made death more punishing, to incentivize better play. More than that, TP MAKES SENSE. No physical fighter, however godly conditioned, can swing a sword forever. TP costs were relative to the difficulty of the action performed. Big AOE swings costed big TP because it's harder to swing your sword through multiple foes than it is to swing it through one. It's the same rationale as MP and AOE spell cost, which if my glance over incoming 14 changes, they're making it not cost more than single target... Begs the question of why keep MP at all? Literally it's about to be a resource that is only for limiting our number of raises with the cost to spells to just be to keep it consistent across casters.