it was one of the ones where you had these floating minions that would fly around with you.

That would be a Metaphysicist! I have only leveled one to 65. It is one of the harder professions in my opinion, but can do really well especially at higher levels if you know what you're doing. I got into pet professions very much because I got sick my pets aggroing every mob then I'd have to train out of wherever I was, pissing off everyone in the dungeon (like Temple of the Three Winds for example)

But I have seen some amazing MPs. I do have a level 211 Bureaucrat which is pretty fun with its XP buffs and such. That is the only profession with pets that I've leveled up past 200.

I can't believe that this super-hot girl that I had at the time was somehow trumped by an online game.

Same here, man. I just don't get it. I remember my ex would strip down to her underwear and straddle me on my gaming chair. I would be looking around her trying to see the screen saying "Come on, I'm in the middle of a mission!"

The bugs at the start were tough to deal with and I am surprised I stuck around.

Oh yes, for sure. The number of times I'd fall through geometry, not be able to zone, rubber-band back 100 feet, go link dead, all manner of glitches and annoying things that would get you killed in a battle that you've been fighting for a half an hour. So frustrating! I really don't know how I stuck with it. But there was just something special about this game for me.

no reason to strafe or seek a good position

There were even some skills in the game that really had no purpose such as swimming. You would raise these skills as a new player wasting precious IP only to later realize that it was a waste of time. Parry / Riposte seemed like that to me as well, but you actually needed to raise them to use certain weapons. However they didn't actually seem to do what they were supposed to which sucked, so people would just not use those weapons.

Strafing around is really kind of pointless unless you are trying to confuse people in PVP. I will say they did change one thing since the last time I played. They took away the ability to put /follow on a mob. This is super annoying because I used to hit the tab key to find a monster, hit q to attack it, and then used follow to run directly toward it. They were probably trying to add a bit of nuance to fighting I guess.

As for taking up a good position, you used to be able to get up on a cliff and attack a mob from above where it couldn't get to you. It would run around trying to get up there but not make it in time. Now, if you are at a position where the mob can't get to you, it's health will keep jumping back to 100% every few shots. This is pretty lame in my opinion. The only other option if you want to kill something way more powerful than yourself is to run around in a large circle while attacking it, hoping that it doesn't hit you. (kiting)

So yeah, this game sure does have a lot of weird problems but man, did I enjoy playing it back in the day. Just too bad about the girl. haha