I started playing BDO recently and I'm in love with the character design, landscapes, combat mechanics, graphics, etc. However, the PVE content is soooo boring and repetitive!

So far it seems no matter how many mobs I take on all I have to do is hold down my left mouse button and watch everything die like a wet paper bag! Which seems a real shame, considering how many possible attack combos are avaliable. What is the point in having so many options when attacking mobs basically requires no thought what so ever, and doesn't seem to make any difference what button I press, they die just as easily.

Am I missing something?

yes

Maybe move out of the 220 AP spots.

you are level 21 

why not walk over to ash forest and tell me they still feel like paper bags. 

You will need a proper rotation to effeciently grind end game locations.  However, there is virtually no AI, no core mechanics, and pretty much low quality work for all mob interactions.  There is no proper aggro, group AI, etc.

Mobs will simply ONLY do the most basic interaction possible.  Like using a CC upon intiating combat or use (X) skill every 8 seconds.  There is very little effort or thought put into this area of the game.  I have created better systems myself which is pretty sad.

Pearl Abyss simply doesn't seem to be interested in this or just can't get it done.

The result is terrible for areas like Sherak and Aakman.  The poor quality design really shows up in these areas.  Essentially you just bypass all the garbage game design by playing classes that allow you immunity to their cc's or just cheese the game in areas like Crescents with 100% knockdown resistence so you ignore the problem.

Or you become so OP you just AOE mash everything so it doesn't matter.

It's one of the weakest design flaws in the game.

You will have a better experience when you gear up and go for places that have mechanics. Like basically everywhere that is above 260AP. Before that? Yeah, it's a grind fest.

All PVE combat is equally as brain dead level difficult. The only thing that makes grind spot A harder than grind spot B is that grind spot A's mobs have more AP, DP, and HP. But beside that they do the exact same thing as mobs in grind spot B. Once you've reached lvl 50 you will quickly realize there is zero challenge in PVE content in this game an only an endless grind that is unrewarding, mind numbingly boring, and offers nothing new at later and end game spots. This design choose is done to frustate the player an make them want to bypass the grind through the use of the cash shop. So to sum it up once you 've grinded one zone in BDO you've basically experienced everything this game has to offer in regard to PVE combat there nothing new or different waiting for you too experience in the next 100 grind zones.

This is why 80% of this game's playerbase play it like it a mobile game which is afk fish an minimize the game an let it play it self while you play a different game. Welcome to BDO I hope you enjoy the game.

Eh you're just at the infant stages of the game.  IMO, grind zones were really boring up until they introduced Hystria Ruins.  In most spots, you'll be (or should be if you're doing it right) mowing down mobs easily.  Kind of like what you're describing.  If you're on Seasonal and start grinding in spots like Polly's Forest and Kagtum's, you'll start to notice something --- the faster you clear packs, the faster you can move from pack to pack, the more silver you earn.  This is a hint of what BDO's monster grinding end-game is.

I feel the devs improved the "interestingness" (lol I'm bad with words, bear with me) of grind zones in the more recently released spots.  Spots like Hystria Ruins, Star's End, Tunkata (Turo's), Olun's and the various grind zones in Elvia Realm.  End-game grinding becomes efficiency, well, least to me and those focused on progression / income per hour.  In order to do that requires knowing how to use your abilities to proc damage modifiers, add-on modifiers, move pack to pack, pull mobs, avoid CC, all in an effort to produce the most amount of silver you can in a given amount of time.  OFC, once you learn these things and learn a grind spot's mechanics, it's not that sweaty, but it's way more "involved" than level 21 spots.

What makes it engaging and fun (subjective) is getting efficient at various grind zones that have ineresting mechanics.  These "interesting" (bad with words, remember?) spots, though, are mostly the later-game spots.  In early spots, like where you are at level 21, it's 100% braindead.  In mid-game spots where you're starting to gear up and need to start really making money / get rare drops, less braindead in that you have to plan where you'll be grinding and need to figure out the spot's mob rotations in order to make the most out of your loot scroll / EXP scrolls.  In end-game spots, grind zones start to introduce "mechanics" to shake up the grind, making being efficient more challenging and engaging.  A good example of this is the Red Orc grind zone in Elvia Realm, or Olun's Valley.  I'd suggest watching some streamers, you'll see for yourself how well you'll do holding down LMB at these spots.

In the end though, you're basically just running in circles killing things, though.  So if farming mobs isn't your cup of tea, you can always try any of the various lifeskills.  Why do we grind mobs?  For EXP and silver.  That's basically BDO's end-game for progression-based players. EXP and silver can be obtained in many ways though, so hopefully you find one you like.  

You're not missing anthing. PvE in this game is basically stat based with little to no mechanics. Most of the META PvE classes can ignore 95% of the CCs. If you don't have enough AP/DP you can't deal with the mobs. Once you pass a certain AP/DP you can put your brain on sleep and one or two skill most mobs.

Watched a Succ Valk in my guild stream himself taken off his AP till he was 200 p. He was killing the Star's End mobs like they was paper.

Far as mobs having interesting mechanics late game. If you are coming for a proper MMORPG that actually have mechanics, DPS races, heal and tank checks. BDO has close to none. Nearly everything in this game is a lazy gear and class check including fighting players.

BDO endgame is PVP / GVG focused. 

There is no PVE like normal MMOs. 

You won't ever have a boss that takes weeks of learning mechanics to defeat nor will bosses drop anything special besides a base item you need to invest billions of silver to make strong. 

I can argue even if PA made this type of content and they have tried (see altar of blood) the rewards are not worth the time spent so nobody does it unless they have a special event.

Since the end game gear mechanic revolves around enhancing gear that can fail, it is hard to see how they could possibly make complicated PVE content rewarding. Maybe it could garner x amount of silver (a large sum) or a TeT item, but even then you would have to Pen it. 

The main reason we have so many combos and moves is for PVP not PVE.