Combat system is beyond saving.

[Jeeqbit]

The presence of tank mastery alone basically ruins coils even on mine specifically because the tanks just don’t take anywhere near as much damage as they used to

True, especially since we would often remove tank stance in raids to do more damage, since tank stance reduced all damage (both incoming and outgoing) similar to the adds in Thordan where you focus the one not in tank stance.

don’t need anywhere near as much upkeep which frees the healers up to do way more than they did when content was current

Regardless, when I've done them MINE (which was before the stat squish) I was still frantically GCD healing like crazy due to the lack of OGCDs. I don't think the squish was meant to affect 50 content either.

Minimum ilvl can't be trusted for old fights, the scaling is all off nowadays.

It isn't the same and nobody should think it's the same. But it's similar enough and usually still pretty challenging.

We've had potency increases and stat changes and abilities have been merged at lower levels making the combat less distracting, food doesn't sync properly, so sometimes DPS checks become a joke in certain fights. Often the mechanics, which were new at the time, were subsequently put into normal fights and duties (or done so in easier patterns) so you're more familiar with them than we were then.

But it's honestly satisfying enough and I'd respect MINE clears over all the people just unsyncing everything in this game.

No. Cleric Stance was the worst feature of combat. You were supposed to play based on the role you entered, not waste time switching.

I loved cleric stance just because it's a risk-reward thing but if you have a good feel for things, for timing and which risks are safe, it's never a problem.