Gunbreaker gameplay hope and expectations

I don't think it's necessarily as clear cut as that. Omnislash may have set the series precedent for high-speed Greatsword combat, but Lionheart (and later, Army of One) followed suit with Gunblades. I don't think the distinction is clear cut.

That being said, I think that there are little stylistic distinctions that you can draw between the two fighting styles. I would expect individual attacks from a Gunblade, while fast, to be slightly "burstier", while I'd expect a Greatsword aesthetic to go more along the lines of multi-hit strikes and after-image effects. I also would envision Gunblades to be a more mobile combat style, with abilities that help you jump into and out of combat on demand. Gaius and Regula are both fairly mobile when you fight them.

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Originally Posted by Lyth

I don't think it's necessarily as clear cut as that. Omnislash may have set the series precedent for high-speed Greatsword combat, but Lionheart (and later, Army of One) followed suit with Gunblades. I don't think the distinction is clear cut.

That being said, I think that there are little stylistic distinctions that you can draw between the two fighting styles. I would expect individual attacks from a Gunblade, while fast, to be slightly "burstier", while I'd expect a Greatsword aesthetic to go more along the lines of multi-hit strikes and after-image effects. I also would envision Gunblades to be a more mobile combat style, with abilities that help you jump into and out of combat on demand. Gaius and Regula are both fairly mobile when you fight them.

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I always found Squall's other finishers to be so much better.

Great Divide and Blasting Zone just seemed so much more brutal. Lionheart by comparison came off as way more graceful than Squall and Seifer came off as, while Firecross / No Mercy had just the right amount of flash and pizazz to an otherwise straightforward and brutal execution.

I hope from an animation aesthetic we get something more heavy handed.

I can see that. It's just that I wouldn't expect Gunblade combat to be as slow and heavy-handed as, say, using an axe.

I know that FFXV is fairly recent (and technically doesn't involve gunblades), but I'd be hopeful that they draw on some inspiration from Noctis' combat style for Gunbreaker. I'd love to throw my weapon and teleport to it.

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Originally Posted by Kabooa

I always found Squall's other finishers to be so much better.

Great Divide and Blasting Zone just seemed so much more brutal. Lionheart by comparison came off as way more graceful than Squall and Seifer came off as, while Firecross / No Mercy had just the right amount of flash and pizazz to an otherwise straightforward and brutal execution.

I hope from an animation aesthetic we get something more heavy handed.

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Sadly we've seen only the opposite thus far, piddling blanks with generic 'blue-white vague magic field' effects and flailing tantrum thrashes. But yes, that would have fit far more closely with what we saw from the trailer, and would have been incredibly attractive indeed.

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Originally Posted by LegolasT

DRK is the fast tank so don't see GUN being a fast tank that identity is already taken. DPS wise we have WAR so that's already used up. It would make more sense for GUN to be a energy tank that works to compliment the other three tanks or benefits for the DPS or healers. So far the tanks with the best synergy has been WAR and PLD which has left DRK out but with GUN it can be more creative

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Dark Knight is currently the fast tank. It's apparently getting a pretty extensive rework.

How extensive remains to be seen but I could see the entire fastest tank thing being moved from DRK to GNB (or WAR, or PLD,) especially if SE interpret not liking DA spam as 'not liking a high APM on DRK'.

Given that the feedback thread which prompted the 4.3/promised expansion rework begins with the line "DRK's main gameplay aesthetic is speed," I would hope that they don't gut it completely.

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Originally Posted by Lyth

Given that the feedback thread which prompted the 4.3/promised expansion rework begins with the line "DRK's main gameplay aesthetic is speed," I would hope that they don't gut it completely.

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You'd hope. Reworks so far have definitely been a bit of a hit and miss affair though.

There's a possibility for GUN to take over as "Speed" tank, given the weapon type lends itself to "Fast attacks".

Though, how likely it is, I can't say. As they do have precedent for making GUN more about controlled hits with trigger damage bonuses (Rather than APM spam a la DA)

Honestly, the biggest hope is that they decide to do something with DRK that isn't just leave them as the "Beige" tank that kinda does stuff, but not in a particularly exciting or interesting way.

Both in terms of defining their mitigation (Instead of having a bit of damage reduction here, a bit of lifegain there and oh, a shield on top because why not) as well as going more into their damage style (I.e. Speed Tank)

Like, WAR is the Crit Tank clearly, with forced crits and passive crit chance (I'd kind of like to see more crit synergy to be honest, but hey it's at least something as is)

PLD is the Hybrid damage Tank with both Physical and Magical damage phases (Perhaps a bit more magic damage during their standard rotation wouldn't go amiss)

So if DRK is the Speed Tank, hopefully a bit more focus and synergy with skill speed outside pretty much just Blood Weapon. Like maybe CD's that are reduced by SkS similar to Empyreal Arrow. More speed boosts, make SkS be one of their priority stats.

If they don't then DRK would continue to be trying to be "Speed Tank" due to literally... 10% SkS from Blood Weapon? Which hardly really seems like "Speed Tank" honestly... Outside of this there's only the perception of speed because of mashing DA so frequently.

Speed isn't just an APM thing. There's an upper bound on how fast you can make a job feel through mechanics alone. Your options, from a mechanic standpoint, are either to increase the number of oGCDs, or to shorten the GCD.

When you go from Berserk to IR, there's a clear progression in terms of harder hitting attacks. But what do you do with Blood Weapon and Delirium? It's not like you can increase the speed boost to make DRK progressively faster. You'd just generate more clipping. Shorter animation locks on oGCDs lessen the impact of this slightly, but there's only so much you can do.

That's why I think that the solution to "faster" is to generate more attacks per button press. Use Delirium? An afterimage hits for a second time every time you use DA (i.e. it's in the name - Delirium). Let Carve and Spit actually function as a three-fold attack. Throw out lots, and I mean lots, of numbers.

That in itself will let DRK be "fast" in a different manner from Gunbreaker.

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Originally Posted by Lyth

Speed isn't just an APM thing. There's an upper bound on how fast you can make a job feel through mechanics alone. Your options, from a mechanic standpoint, are either to increase the number of oGCDs, or to shorten the GCD.

When you go from Berserk to IR, there's a clear progression in terms of harder hitting attacks. But what do you do with Blood Weapon and Delirium? It's not like you can increase the speed boost to make DRK progressively faster. You'd just generate more clipping. Shorter animation locks on oGCDs lessen the impact of this slightly, but there's only so much you can do.

That's why I think that the solution to "faster" is to generate more attacks per button press. Use Delirium? An afterimage hits for a second time every time you use DA (i.e. it's in the name - Delirium). Let Carve and Spit actually function as a three-fold attack. Throw out lots, and I mean lots, of numbers.

That in itself will let DRK be "fast" in a different manner from Gunbreaker.

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This also opens up the avenue for more buff synergies. Flat potency boosts are less impressive for the ole Black Mage, but +20 per attack when the Dark knight's slinging out multiple strike attacks on the regular is pretty nifty.