So... This is the "improved encounter design"?

[Valence]

Ehh, spec optimizations lack the easily conveyable rigid patterns of XIVs and APLs are generally unconditional and therefore oversimplified and so WoW specs will generally appear less complex, but as soon as one gets into adaptive and preemptive management, the complexity for fully optimization easily and greatly exceeds XIV's for most jobs/specs. And many of the mechanics are still plenty complex, just not necessarily from a DDR perspective.

Sometimes outside of the crazy apm, not gonna lie, I feel that I have more of a wow player profile in spite of being absolutely unwilling to get into it.

[Raikai]

Sometimes outside of the crazy apm, not gonna lie, I feel that I have more of a wow player profile in spite of being absolutely unwilling to get into it.

Is just because WoW's design philosophy has a bigger 'shelf life' (again mentioning this lol) than XIV's, simply because it actively encourages the players to think on the go and adapt to the variables offered.

Here we don't have anymore job depth in meaningful skill ceilings to strive for if we want, so after the initial hype of playing a new job, when it becomes auto pilot (honorable mention to VPR), it suddenly becomes monotonous.

Then what's left? The encounter design... but the DDR + puzzle aspect loses a lot of value after you solve it, granted every player in your group is on the same page. I honestly say my fun in XIV's encounters plummets as soon as it gets into reclear mode, even in an optimized aspect because by the time I get the clear, I'm already very optimized in most of the fight because we do need to repeat previous steps ad nauseum to get to our prog points - even more to a Party Finder raider (like myself) having to face player inconsistencies more often.

To me, they need to invest in a more dynamic design in one or the other. So far I don't think we have seen this in the Encounter design, and the job design sadly is in the backburner for 1 and half years. Will the next tier promote something that addesses this? Yet to be seen.