Quote Originally Posted by Renathras View Post
WhM comparisons
I am not trying to advance an agenda with rose tinted glasses like a lot of people enjoy doing, and do not especially think that jobs are especially easier or harder than before, because that's in actuality not a black and white answer. Some are, some aren't, but overall most are more accessible today, which may explain the usual bias on top of rose tinted glassed veterans having naturally grown better at the game as well (this is an actual thing that should never be underestimated). However, one objective truth that has been extremely simplified is the general battle system in general, and this was mostly started in ShB: everything that's not damage focused (enmity control, party resources control, MP and TP management individually and collectively, boss positioning, more thoughtful burst synergies and raid plans, etc) has been cut out of the game either in shb or in ew. This on its own removes a decent chunk on the teamplay and cognitive load required to clear content.

Now then, you're conveniently forgetting a lot of things that made WhM for example, more complex back in the days, even without talking about actual MP management and economy. Aero 1 was still used for mobility when it wasn't possible to cast stone. The job was also a lot less mobile and weave friendly (even in shb) due to the mass amount of full GCD casts, like for most healers. In short it required a LOT more thought to play skillfully just because of that fact alone. Cleric Stance was also a huge skill hurdle especially for casual players (and I'm not saying I liked it, I actually disliked it, it was annoying and clunky). You can't just say that the difficulty of applying damage on healers has remained the same, because it hasn't. And i'm not even speaking about SCH and miasma 2 optimization back then.