Combat system is beyond saving.

[xivYuiM]

Interpreting OP charitably, if they weren't referring to cross-class skills, perhaps they were referring to party comps.

...

TP was a great mechanic.

Finally, another TP enjoyer. It was a great mechanic that died too soon. Also, I was more referring to the fact that not every job had an objectively correct build that was always the right one to use no matter what. A couple examples being balancing strength and vit accessories on tanks in order to find the perfect balance between damage and HP and also how some black mages would prioritize spell speed vs raw INT or even build for a specific amount of MP based on their preferences.

[AlucaDragonheart]

A couple examples being balancing strength and vit accessories on tanks in order to find the perfect balance between damage and HP and also how some black mages would prioritize spell speed vs raw INT or even build for a specific amount of MP based on their preferences.

I loved equipping accessories on the Warrior that I wasn't "supposed" to, and creating an amazing powerhouse of an offtank.

[xivYuiM]

I loved equipping accessories on the Warrior that I wasn't "supposed" to, and creating an amazing powerhouse of an offtank.

Doing this during EX roulette was the some of most fun I ever had on this game after clearing T9 and T13 when they were relevant.

[Espon]

Half of the playerbase hasn’t even experienced the actual final fantasy XIV combat system that had things like:

• Aggro management
• Cleric stance and Multiple tank stances (3.x WAR was the best job in the history of this game)
• TP (sprint not draining it was a good change)
• Dungeon packs actually being a threat
• Multiple viable builds for all jobs
• Power level being driven by skill rather than solely depending on your gear ilvl

The list goes on.

A lot of your points makes it sound like you never actually played back in Heavensward and are just basing it off things you read online. Also what you find fun does not extend to absolutely everyone. I've been playing since ARR beta and many things you've stated in this thread I find as needless jank and am glad it has been removed or changed. There are many areas in this game I feel could use improvements, but bringing back old frustrating elements does not make the game more fun for me, it makes the game more frustrating and annoying to play.

Aggro management amounted to being in tank stance for a few seconds then being in DPS stance for the rest of the fight, and I never felt swapping in and out of Cleric stance was fun and engaging. All TP did was limit your AoE damage output, it was about as pointless as MP currently is.
Dungeons were never difficult outside a few of the old ones allowing you to pull all the packs from one boss to the other and being overwhelmed.
What build variety? Do you mean cross-class skills? The skills that only had a few good ones and you were considered trash if you didn't have them? Oh yeah I sure miss having to do tank swaps with other tanks that didn't have Provoke because they decided to go with a different cross-class skill (aka never bothered to level gladiator high enough)...yeah that was definite the peak of gameplay. Or how about those healers without Swiftcast that would just sit there for several seconds trying to revive someone?
You make it sound like skill is meaningless now. Item level always had a significant impact on your performance due to how much stats increase between raid tiers since this game only has vertical progression.

The thing with stuff like cleric stance is, it was optional. If you were doing any content that was the "normal difficulty" of the time then there was nobody forcing you to use it. If you were worried about activating it and then getting caught unable to heal enough then simply don't use it! It was a brilliant way for people who spent the time to learn the limits of their job to take the risk of turning it on to squeeze out extra damage when they could and, if done appropriately, they would be rewarded for doing so. There is nothing even close to that in the game the way it is today.

Everything is optional. I can choose to not AoE on packs or only spam a single healing spell and still clear most content outside of high-end raids, but that doesn't mean my party will like that I'm playing badly and significantly slowing things down. Healers were expected to use Cleric Stance, especially since all your damage was based on your INT stat and even since the very beginning healers were expected to deal damage.