As broken as it was, I still did like the foundations behind Final Fantasy XIV’s launch setup of abilities. The down side to this system, of course, was that it was a mess and a half and no part of it worked really well, something I talked about at the time. But it was neat to have a whole lot of weapon skills in loose affiliation, earning different traits to equip for larger changes to mechanics, and so forth. I liked the fundamental idea of building your own class over time. It didn’t work very well (or at all), but it was a neat idea.
Then again, I think we all have systems that we see as broken and not terribly good that we personally still like, even if we think games ultimately abandoning them were right to do so. So what about you, dear readers? What widely loathed system in an MMO do you really like? Even while you acknowledge that it is, ultimately, a flawed system that shouldn’t be part of the game?