Bismarck.Dracondria said:
»It's better than cycling through a list of moves over and over again while avoiding red spots on the ground.
In 14 you have to do certain mechanics right or you die, in 11 you just stun most things and zerg it
Not to mention you can recover by kiting and raising if necessary, in 14 you're pretty *** so you have to pay attention (depending on the fight of course)
I'm pretty sure Magnus is thinking of pre-2007 FFXI when haste builds for every DPS didn't exist buy and large, and Weaponskill damage/atk food wasn't an option.
Also though, the battle content in XI differs in that you could take whatever you want to a fight or event, and there was generally some way to make it work, whether it was zerg/dot kite/sleep nuke etc. Also, each job could perform multiple functions/use multiple weapons.
It doesn't make it anymore skill based really, but in general, a lot less boring. I'm fairly certain Mag's actual complaint is that FFXIV is pretty much the same thing in every fight. When Mag used to play XI for cereals, it was when not every fight was Stun/PD Zerg.