How can we get more in depth character customization?

[KaldeaSahaline]

Not to be controversial, but can anyone familiar with WoW explain how they manage class customization yet the same would not work in FFXIV? Or do WoW players push meta and all run the same specs anyway? Are the dungeons/encounters very different than FFXIV so that is why it works? I hear these two games compared constantly and wondered if I might have some perspective as to why FFXIV is so limited when apparently every other MMO has more class diversity.

While there are cookie cutter builds, there is plenty of non-meta decision making in the talent tree. Class customization is handled largely via the talent tree. It's not perfect, and it has expansions where it does a good job for some specs,and a downright abysmal for others.

Using Ret as an example (This is a Paladin based melee DPS spec). I have 7 rows of 3 different choices. Not all rows are DPS based and not all talents are equivalent throughput. Some rows synergize with others making "builds" for different content. I.e. dungeons might like a specific setup more, or if you're low on haste (skill/spell speed equivalent) a talent might be more difficult to manage and thus less valuable.

You can also synergize with your team. Imagine if your raid is consistently struggling with doing enough DPS to kill a priority add. You can sacrifice overall damage by picking a weaker talent, to boost on demand burst damage. Alternatively, for hard dungeon content, you can have a situation where your DPS partners are both very powerful AOE classes, so you can tailor your talents to focus on ST damage while they focus on AOE.

There were two different styles I brought up that could work in the current systems like the split class/job/role they did with Arcanist/Summoner/Scholar. I know the devs whined that it was too much work but I could see this FFXIV's version of a talent tree, a job stone for that weapon which gives you a different role/playstyle. A change like that would only happen in increments though unless it was the whole focus of an entire expansion and I'm also aware that, even if they started working on it today, we wouldnt see it until maybe 7.0

So aside from the excuses presented by the devs, what would you guys think of that as a customization solution?

I didn't like it enough to comment on it. While I relish the idea of being able to play a PLD as a DPS, I don't think it does enough as far as 'customization' goes, because even then all PLD DPS will play the same at that point.