Simplicity over complexity, time to change.

[Kazama]

You don't give a damn about PF, that's cool but since its a tool that is implemented, you cannot expect players not to use it. You like to walk 15 minutes to get to the instance's entrance, I don't and enjoy the convenience of entering from wherever I am in the game world. I don't think PF makes the game anti social at all. All it does is to eliminate the need for shouting and spamming for party invites in city hubs. I am in a group for coil, but thank you for asking. As a raid leader previously, there is no such thing as play as you want. If there is a way to make the encounter easier, you will choose that option. Unless you choose to build a campfire and host a dance party around Melusine, no group that is in the very least progression minded will not choose to farm that gear to totally trivialize that encounter making the whole gear/combat system balance out of whack.

Do I like walking for 15 minutes for no reason? No. Do I like a challenge in getting to an instance first? Yes. Have you ever played a game that required you to travel through dangerous territory every time you want to run an instance? I really don't see your point about making raid content easier either, sure of course people will want to take the easier road, for that one piece of content. If that means I have to spend a week or a month acquiring the necessary tools to do one fight, that would be a godsend in contrast to: beat previous raid > queue new raid > log off for 7 days. Do you like to simply rush from one endgame instance to the next with nothing in between? Unless the only thing you have ever experienced is instanced raids and know no other way I don't see how anyone in their right mind would love that.

There is absolutely every reason for an MMO to be balanced, pve or otherwise. It is ok for single player rpg not to be balanced because you are only dealing with NPCs and not human players. Imagine if there is a class in ARR that deals 20% more damage than the rest of the classes. Everyone would be playing that and nothing else. Imagine levelling a class to 50 and finding out there hey, we don't want you because X and Y class is better than you. Must be a nice feeling huh. The diversity in FFXIV comes from skill, and that really should be the defining factor in any mmo.

Um.... MNKs do deal about 20% more DMG than any other class when equally geared, cmon, you should know this with that High Allagan book. Imagine leveling a class and finding out people don't like it? Clearly you don't play that BLM of yours or have never played WoW, FFXI, RIFT, Aion, Tera. Again, you failed to read "Prefectly balanced" and you're stretching to extremes for examples. Skill in a game that requires next to none being the defining factor? What kind of drab and shallow rollfaceonkeyboard game did you come from oh former raid leader? All these grand ideas of what an MMO is or should be but have you played anything outside of WoW or one of it's clones? It really sounds like all you're interested in or ever experienced is raiding and you know no other kind of content outside of it. Open your eyes and look around at the world. No MMO is perfectly balanced or ever will be, nowhere is there a level playing field, never will we be without exclusion for one reason or another, there is more to MMOs than raiding. You're completely delusional, If anyone is high my friend, it's you over there in the rose colored glasses.