"We want 1.2x battle system back" aren't complains just stupid kneejerking.
Limit Breaks function the same manner as they do in every other FF game, powerful one time attacks. Is not perfect and needs to be better, but once again people were expecting skillchains or battle regime or something along the lines just because they want those things back.
I'm sorry, but I think there is a legitimate gripe with having 1.23 combat system (or more realistically, a combat 1.23-derived system, an improved one ideally) abandoned in favor with what we have now. I've come to agree with it only after playing and reading more about ARR. Just a few things on my mind: (which individually may not be a bad thing, but together make for a system that is lackluster and looks to be lackluster even at level 50).
Stats have been greatly homogenized, with skill speed and spell speed being useless on top of that. The only hope for gear to be somewhat interesting is a lot of creative action enhancements added to most of the high level gear, kind of a pipe-dream. I'm curious if people will just use the same materia for every slot. (This is entirely speculation, but I heard that all enemies may have the same evasion based on their level - throwing away a huge part of gear specialization, at least in 1.23.)
TP has basically been turned into MP, which is a downgrade if consider modern design, especially when even Thamaturge was designed to overcome that. There is just very little TP management in the game. It is more like stamina than something you build and manage. It is rather reminiscent of FFXI's... MP. Combos were an aspect of TP management, where you would get a lot more out of your TP if you were good at setting them up, creating immediate differences between players. That difference in management has been removed (along with most of the mobility, at least for Dragoons) and you are now left waiting for the game give you TP (or pushing Invigorate once you drop below x amount of TP, then wait however minutes to do it again). Cooldown timers also don't work as resource management quite like it did in 1.23. Consider that as a Dragoon that influenced my "rotation" naturally and made me look to ways to reduce the timer. I'm not going to touch the GCD, but it is weird Yoshi-P thinks that we need 7~ additional seconds to "decide" whether or not we should use the second or third part of a combo when those are only choices and we'll be using the same combo for most of the game. Moreover, he says that new players are so confused that they need this waiting time when they only have one or two obvious attacks or debuffs and maybe a combo ender for the first 10 levels.
Attacks are somewhat generic, few big moments can be drawn from them. Aside from a few actions (which often enough rely on a huge recast timer or the basis of the whole class), most actions are either a weapon skill with 100-150 potency with or without a DoT that you'll be spamming constantly (this includes spells for the most part, which have a harder time differentiating from WS than ever before), an combo move (which is sometimes complete garbage by itself, yet takes up a slot, a precious commodity if you are a controller player) that usually adds some more potency, a critical, or a DoT (gone is the TP management aspect, as I said above), or a buff with a small effect and a long recast (admittedly a common FF MMO attribute). It is all very samey, when you are chasing small differences with combos. Consider how there isn't even a single true multi-hit WS in this game.
Combine the two above, along with the weapon skills looking worse aftering being adjusted to match the added mobility in the game (made more necessary by action-based design, even though Yoshi-P says he is against that), and they just lack the satisfaction people have come to like about them in FFXI or 1.23 (even though the latter made them way more frequent). What happened to Chaos Thrust... is a tragedy... If "I dislike the combat system, but atmosphere is great" is a common feeling for players, then it is a shame they weakened the emotional reaction (i.e. mood, a.k.a. atmosphere) from combat. I think a lot of people put up with a lot of slow, tiresome aspects of FFXI's combat because it felt good to do stuff in it.
(If you ask me, I would be totally fine with old fashion immobile weapon skills, if 1) AoEs were less commonly a thing you are meant to dodge constantly, 2) if range didn't matter after the first second (i.e. never wasting TP, but kiting still creating issues), 3) actions like featherfoot, elusive jump, etc. canceling animations - perhaps forcing you to time it right so you don't lose your damage. Although one thing I should say is that I'm not proposing they bring back the 1.23 whole scale - that's very unrealistic. I'm only explaining why someone could feel ARR downgraded what we had in ARR.)
Aside from TP/actions, enmity is weird in this game. Granted, it wasn't so hot in 1.23, but the problem here is that it is hard to get excited about holding hate when enmity is given so freely. This may be a Paladin problem in particular, but this is working towards a lot of enmity being redundant (especially with Shield Oath). With such strong enmity for tanks, abilities like Quelling Strikes and Elusive Jump (along with good old fashion discretion) lose their purpose.
Some jobs landed the jump to ARR poorly.
What immediately comes to mind is Gladiator/Paladin, which popular thought says is by far the most boring class and the worst designed. With only one real main combo (thanks to Riot Blade/MP being rather useless), most of its actions being passive damage reduction that is redundant, and little to no synergy between actions, one could question why anyone would want to play one over a Warrior (aside from aesthetics, of course), unless SE is crazy enough to make encounters that require a serious turtle-tank. The design itself is just dull and messy. I saw a pretty damaging comparison between Paladin's (mitigation) actions in 1.23 versus ARR, I was going to recreate it, but it is seemingly very difficult to find a good wiki for 1.23 stuff. So copypasta:
Take a look at 1.23's mitigation skills
Aegis Boon - Fully blocks a hit and heals you.
Divine Veil - Raises block chance to 100% for the duration and spreads a regen effect to allies when Cure is cast on you.
Outmaneuver - Raises block chance and restores TP/MP on block.
Rampart - Raises defense. Is AOE. Generates enmity for every party member you hit with it.
Sentinel - Mitigates incoming damage and increases enmity generation during the effect.
Compared to now:
Sentinel - Mitigates damage.
Rampart - Mitigates damage.
Bulwark - Raises block chance, which mitigates physical damage. With most shields, worse than Rampart.
Awareness - Does nothing. Takes up a trait slot for extra badness.
Plus, all of the 1.23 abilities had pretty fast cooldowns compared to what we have now. Aegis was 45 seconds, Divine Veil 60, Sentinel and Outmaneuver 90, and Rampart 120. Now the shortest one available is the new, single effect only Rampart at 90 seconds, and Sentinel and Bulwark sit at 180.
http://forum.square-enix.com/ARR-Te...-lack-of-depth?p=846603&viewfull=1#post846603
The Bard concept worked a lot better in 1.23. Right now I don't know what the hell they are trying to do with songs. Dragoon got the short-end of the stick, in terms of fun an variety, compared to Monk (though the difference is not as bad as Paladin and Warrior). Just so happens those are my two jobs at 50 lol.
On top of all this, 1.23 was more unique and stood out. ARR is pretty bread-and-butter, arguably below some of the games it imitates.
What is likely to happen is that any complexity of this game will be based on boss gimmicks. Which is... alright, can be fun. But the combat system itself is in poor shape and using actions will be the least interesting part of the game for most jobs. On the bright side, notice I'm talking about liking 1.23 and not 1.0. I suspect at the very least Paladin will be changed a lot at some point.
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I do agree with what you said about the limit breaks though. However, that's just a sign people were desperate for a certain something that would make combat system layered and interesting. People still want to limit breaks to do that, because there is little hope elsewhere.
EDIT: Final Fantasy MMOs have always been the successor of old school JRPGs in terms of character. This is both a bad and good thing, but seeing how they won't be adding role-playing choices (which I know SWTOR explored), I'm okay with it. I believe the Warrior of Light in Dissidia was used to symbolize the main character of XI with the WoL and Prishe relationship. We are literally 8-bit era protagonists, which I find kind of amusing.
