Well that's just it, the game has become too materialistic.

When did it all become purely about the gear, rather than enjoying the actual game? Yeah the gear is usually what drives people to try stuff initially and what we want out of it, but I feel like too much emphasis is being placed on the shinies at the end rather than simply enjoying the experience. And that's only made worse when you finally do get that shiny, and then you have no reason to do it anymore and are stuck waiting for next event to come out. It's a vicious cycle that ultimately leaves content with little to no meaning.

It also means there's never any real difficulty or challenge anymore, it's simply about gearing yourself properly. CoP was great for that, because while the battles were rough, they weren't impossible - they merely required people to prepare for them and learn the mechanics of each fight. In general, if you played smart in XI, you did well. ARR so far has largely just been 'make sure you have the best gear and avoid the big red circles as you mindlessly spam the same 3 buttons over and over.'


You don't have to really concern yourselves with things like elemental weaknesses, making sure buffs are dispelled and the right enfeeblements are on the boss, no pre-emtpive magic like barspsells etc.. a lot of the depth of strategy has been axed and it's sad because XI's combat system was very basic.