I disagree, especially after 1.18. I very much disliked random guard procs in XI, and the only guff I had with guard pre patch 1.18 is that it took time away from gaining TP. I like the idea of playing a defender, not an attacker with a shield.

Then again, I was against auto attack pre 1.18 as well, and how they implemented it into XIV was refreshing and wasn't quite the lull in combat that I was expecting. I'm still plenty busy looking for ways to pop Phalanx, Fracture, Jarring Strike, and Feint whilst participating in Battle Regimens. So while I'm uncomfortable from the outset of the news, I'm definitely not going to dismiss it as worthless backwards thinking.