Positivity!

[Jeeqbit]

I see a lot of negativity on this forum for some reason. I do not understand it outside that "people come to the forums to vent and complain".

Correct on both counts.

Sometimes I just feel like i'm drowning in content and it is glorious!

But you are newer to the game. You said you had played WoW for 16 years, so imagine someone who has played FFXIV for 10 years. They have done all these things you described in that 10 years and now feel bored.

However, I do agree with you, that I don't get through even the new content as fast as they apparently do, because I still have PvP to grind (I've put this off), more Eureka Orthos to do, more raiding and ocean fishing to do, so maybe your idea that they don't do all of the content or don't try to get all of the new rewards such as mounts has some truth to it.

I don't see how people think Endwalker is bad, let alone the story or gameplay. I don't understand how the class mechanics are "2 min meta" / "bland, boring, and the same".

I agree about Endwalker being good, but the people criticizing the class mechanics in the way you described are not wrong and here's why.

Even SE has admitted they altered all the jobs to work within 2 minute bursts in statements and patch notes. But this is also obvious. Jobs that had varying bursts that began at different times (30s, 60s, 120s, 180s) or no burst at all and just had sustained damage the whole time, were changed to be bursty jobs at 60s or 120s, and therefore felt more similar.

Now the jobs may be more varied and different than what you are familiar with in WoW (I don't play WoW), but when people say they are the same, they mean how similar they have got compared to ARR and Heavensward.

• For example, Warrior had a cone AoE that behaved as a sort of positional. You had to aim it correctly so it hit all of the enemeis, or some would be missed. Now it's just a circle AoE like all other tank combos. Paladin had a sustained and varied 60s rotation but has now changed to be a 60s burst similar to Gunbreaker's to the point you can setup your hotbar almost the same way.
• Mitigation would be more unique (but ultimately useless). For example, we had Awareness that nullified critical hits (useful in big dungeon pulls, but not exactly your heaviest cooldown). Raw Intuition parried physical attacks... but not magic. Foresight increased physical defense by 20%... but not magic defense.
• Mercy Stroke was an attack you could only use when the enemy was below 20%. Paladins were one of the only jobs with a knockback immunity that also cured bind and heavy (in addition, Hallowed Ground or Holm Gang also worked for knockback immunity in many cases).
• Provoke was uniquely a Paladin ability, unless players unlocked Paladin and cross-classed it. Paladin had a proc called Shield Swipe, an ability called flash to get the attention of enemies (instead of having an aoe attack). Paladins had an ability called Convalescence to increase HP restored.
• Paladins reduced physical damage from enemies with their combo, while Dark Knights and Monks reduced magic damage with their combo.
• Dark Knights used to be the only tank with a gap closer.

The point is, all tanks have a 2-button aoe combo now and all of them are circle AoEs. All tanks have had those useless but unique abilities removed in favor of ones that mitigate both physical and magic attacks, and useless attacks removed, or merged together to become role actions (such as their stuns), and damage reduction combo effects were all merged into a role ability called Reprisal that reduces all types of damage from an enemy. All jobs have knockback immunity now, not just Paladin. All tanks have a gap closer, not just Dark Knight, which reduced some of its unique appeal.

When people say jobs have become the same, this is the sort of thing they mean. All of them have a familiar aoe combo that works the same. None of them have unique combo effects like they used to that could synergize together or be strategically paired. All of them have a gap closer, so you don't need to choose one job over another.