I'm sad to see this game going the same route as SWTOR.

[Churchill]

The biggest gripe I have is that SE took the system 1.0 had as far as cross-class abilities and butchered it to where you could really just consider the 3-5 abilities you're going to use as mandatory. There really isn't much choice involved.

In 1.0, Bard had a different set of skills to use for each encounter and within that, their role within that encounter.

Monk could equip threat skills and tank content if required (most notably, the Black Mage Faction Quest, but also things like Ifrit or Skirmish).

Sure, in 1.0 a lot of the abilities were pretty standard but there were options.

More notably, this is just a butchered skill tree where you have zero choice. You have zero choice in gear progression. You have zero choice for melds. The game needed a non-laggy UI, better server latency/response, a more active (dodging) combat system, and more things to do once you were max level.

Instead, the game was turned into an 8-pack of crayola crayons where it still has poor latency/response times, the dodging is easier because every fight is scripted and there are less things to do at max level.

Probably my favorite part of 1.0 was the fact that I could get my class leveled in about 6 hours and then I could go back to doing something I considered fun. I didn't have to level the class in 6 hours, there were certainly options you could take for a slower ride to 50 and my first class I did exactly this. After that I chose the 6 hour route because it was mostly in support of my main, mostly because I wanted to see the other classes at 50 - not how they were at 20.

The game wasn't better because I had to grind endlessly, the game was better because I had something to do.

I play this game for 2 hours a week and the only time I played it for longer was when Turn 5 came back up.