More advanced battle system please!

[Tex_Mex]

If you are looking for an MMO that has a more complex, and action ability usage tanking style, I would recommend Tera. Tanking in that game is a blast and requires you to activate your "block" in real time, or else you can get smashed by bosses. There is something uniquely exciting, and unforgiving when you know that if you fail to block an attack, you can get one shot, even as a tank!

The downside is that because the game is more challenging, player skill levels vary wildly. But I played it for 6 months and had a blast with it!

[DoctorPepper]

They've pretty much stated that they don't want too much complexity in this game due to the large number of casual or less skilled people who are playing it.

Personally what bugs me the most is lack of complexity in gear stats, there are no special stats, just the cut and dry base stats with a small handful of substats.

I would love to see some unique stats on gear that do things like improve job abilities, allow you to attack multiple times during auto-attacks, allow you to reflect or mitigate certain types of damage occasionally, the possibilities are pretty much endless and things like this would make gear feel a lot more unique to me.

I would also love to see some expansion to the cross class/job skills, it feels really dumbed down at the moment getting to only pick from a handful of skills for 2 other classes. Combat would be a lot more fun to me if I could actually make semi-hybrid jobs. Obviously there would still have to be key skills that can't be used on an offclass but it almost feels like a nerf when you get your job crystal and lose all of the options available pre-30 to me.

[lololink]

It wouldn't work unless you rework the entire game unfortunately.

[Sumimi]

Personally what bugs me the most is lack of complexity in gear stats, there are no special stats, just the cut and dry base stats with a small handful of substats.

Unfortunately they went away from this as well. FFXI had somewhere in the ballpark of 6 main stats and 20 sub stats (+120 skill stats) that fit itself into a formula. Every time an action was done, entire equipment sets were swapped to optimize every action. As an example...as a Blue Mage I had two very different sets, and about 8 sets in total. The first was a pure STR set, which was to be used with Sneak Attack + Spell (Sneak Attack > Vertical Cleave ). The second was a pure DEFENSE set, used specifically to do massive damage to Kirin, an end game triggered boss (Sneak Attack > Cannonball).

People will always try to math their way to optimization. However, most people are against the idea of carrying around even 3 sets of gear per class with our limited armory space.

[Yshnal]

Chess is so outdated...

This is like saying that DA:O or D:OS combat suck because they aren't as action based as DAII, Skyrim, or Diablo, while in fact they have completely different and valid design choices that many people enjoy playing. Different styles for different players, I say.

Yes, you're comparing different kind of games (RPGs). FFXIV has taken a more classic (classic != outdated) aproach with his "turn" and stat based combat, and that doesn't make it bad per se. Different people have different tastes, after all, and the current system fits well in a FF MMO (it's quite similar to FFXII in some fronts, in fact). That doesn't mean, though, that it can't be improved and expanded (I miss playing with elemental resistances and weaknesses, for instance, or a more complex materia system).

[Yukiko]

With the actually given reaction time FFXIV can be counted as action game!
Well, you are right when you say its not the active action RPG style, but you can say its a passive action RPG style where you dont have to use skills for avoiding - simply moving is enough (LoS strategy)!

My problem is, that FFXIV in its current form is way too close to a hack&slay game, just like Diablo...
The holy trinity is a major issue and does not fit in a FF universe with jobs - just tell me one Final Fantasy (with jobs) where you had only tank, heal and damage?
We are missing CC (=CrowdControl), "real" Support, element wheel, status effects, item management (=potions, throwings)...
While FFXIV tries to have some of those skills, they destroy them with cooldown or requirements that makes the skill useless!

[Stihllodeing]

I think the op is kind of overstating it. But, with the direction the new classes are going it does kind of feel like "FFXIV ARR: God of War Reborn"

[Jennika]

The game is still in it's infancy, hopefully they start building on combat in Heavensward.

[Enkidoh]

What the OP was asking for sounds a lot like version 1.0's original battle system which quite frankly, just didn't work - it played nothing like how a FF game usually is, and came down to spending half your time button mashing the same ability over and over because the stupid stamina gauge that determined damage output just took too long to build up. Replacing it with a battle system that included auto-attack determined by the weapon's speed/delay stat (similar to the system used in FFXI) was one of the first changes Yoshi made upon taking over from Tanaka as producer.

Really, the FF series has always been turn-based combat, even the most recent titles have been to a degree. Only spin-offs and tie-ins like the Dissidia games are the only FF titles to feature more action-based combat. If you're expecting this game to change into an action RPG, then I'm afraid you'll be sadly disappointed.

[Reokudo]

TERA had one of the best tanking(As a Lancer) that I've ever experienced in an MMORPG. A sad shame the rest of it was bad.