I may be alone in disagreeing with that. There have been a spat of games lately that have taken a hybrid approach (Riders of Icarus being one example that springs to mind). It's primarily a tab-target affair but with the Action-Combat option tacked on - in the end, both felt horrible as a result of the attempted mechanics blend. I have no problem with the tab-target formula at all, and having played the likes of WoW, Allods Online and god-knows how many other tab-target MMORPGs, FFXIV felt like a nice blend when I discovered it (at least once I got into the 50+ range where the dungeon-pace ramps up). Before the tweaks to RR content (when mobs took 5+ seconds to perform tiny AoE's that could be sidestepped in one key-press), everything felt sluggish - then I was thrown into the likes of Ultima's Bane and everything changed.


Sure, avoiding huge/numerous danger-zones with a side order of casual not-bullet-hell doesn't make it action combat, but it damn well felt good after a decade of WoW, where basic tank & spank dominated for way, way too long. That isn't saying the formula can't be improved on - I'm just not convinced removing tab-target alone is an answer for it.