What is your favorite and least favorite combat CD skill in the game?

I like the idea of doing it across the jobs we play.

Warrior:
+Inner Release. The design isn't perfect but I enjoy it.
-Decimate. Hate the animation.

Monk:
+Forbidden Chakra because KAPOW.
-Riddle of Fire. You might expect to see Anatman or Fists of Earth here. The thing is those two are just not used. Riddle of Fire is a part of our rotation and of three damage-buffing oGCDs it is just really boring and I rather be balanced around not having it. Perfect Balance and Brotherhood are enough.

Red Mage:
+The melee combo. This is the one caster I can enjoy and being a sort of hybrid job is part of that fun.
-Mouilinet. As if to contradict the above. Just not very satisfying.

Favorite: shadowskin
Least: rampart

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Esmoire

I like the idea of doing it across the jobs we play.

Warrior:
+Inner Release. The design isn't perfect but I enjoy it.
-Decimate. Hate the animation.

Monk:
+Forbidden Chakra because KAPOW.
-Riddle of Fire. You might expect to see Anatman or Fists of Earth here. The thing is those two are just not used. Riddle of Fire is a part of our rotation and of three damage-buffing oGCDs it is just really boring and I rather be balanced around not having it. Perfect Balance and Brotherhood are enough.

Red Mage:
+The melee combo. This is the one caster I can enjoy and being a sort of hybrid job is part of that fun.
-Mouilinet. As if to contradict the above. Just not very satisfying.

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Hmm by job you say. Ok!

Warrior: +Fell Cleave - Buzzsaw noises baby!
-Mythril Tempest - It looks wimpy, and the axe seems to get smaller.

Dark Knight: +Carve and Spit
- Living Shadow - It was hard to pick something I don't like on DRK, and the only reason I went with LS is that I wish they'd make the shadow be a black copy of the player instead of Fray himself.


Gunbreaker: +Continuation
- Its AOE rotation - Couldn't pick just one, but they're all just spinning AOEs and feel lazily tacked on like they didn't intend it to have them, like they went, "Oh right it needs aoes. Spinning's a good trick!"

Paladin: +Confiteor - seems like an FFT Holy Knight reference
-Royal Authority - Never really liked it, it feels so prissy and outlandishly over the top. Much prefer Rage of Halone.

White Mage: +Holy
-Tetragammatron - Just seems like Lustrate with less impact. Like they put very little thought into its appearance

Scholar: + Broil II - Looks like Elfire from Fire Emblem
- Art of War - I don't straight up hate it, but it definitely doesn't feel like it was planned out

Astrologian: +Gravity - Hands down one of the coolest spells in the game in both look and sound
-Play - feels like an extra button we didn't need being added.

Samurai: +Hissatsu: Guren - One of the most satisfying AOEs in the game, especially now that it no longer decays at all.
-Hissatsu: Kyuten - Sound effect is satisfying, but I feel like all spinning aoes are lazy repeats.

Ninja: +Dream Within a Dream - It's the only thing that makes Aeolian Edge feel good at all. When you combo together DWaD, Assassinate into an Aeolian Edge, it makes the job feel acrobatic.
-Aeolian Edge: Already stated the reason. I wish they'd gotten rid of it instead of Dancing Edge. Dancing Edge had a far superior animation and sound effect.

Monk: +Dragon Kick - A jumping flip kick that is a GCD so its animation is not overwritten.
- Tornado Kick - Animation is actually cool as hell, but you never get to see it

Dragoon: +Dragonfire Dive - Iconic, crisp, cool.
-High Jump - Weird motion blurred version of regular jump. I miss regular jump.

Machinist: +Air Anchor - Literally the coolest weapon MCH brings to the table. It looks like something out of a superhero comic book that the supervillain uses to restrain his rival/archenemy.
-Automaton Queen - I actually find her very boring. Like she enters all dynamically, but then just punches the boss, and her big hit? A big punch with skinny arms. Meh.


Bard: +Empyreal Arrow - Laser looking arrow shot is cool. Sound effect is nice, very smooth.
-Iron Jaws - For such a useful move, its animation sure is boring to me.

Dancer: +Reverse Cascade - Vertical spinning laser discs cutting my enemy apart, what's not to love?
-Fan Dance II - Not a fan of the peacock feathers/shade of green used for this. It's ugly and covers up a bunch of stuff in pulls and makes it harder to see.

Red Mage : +Verholy - I'm a simple man, and Verholy makes a polestar explosion.
-Displacement - I like backflips, but I don't like backflips that are tied to damage and can cause me to easily clip the GCD.

Summoner: +Firebird Trance - It leads to Hellish Conduit and Fountain of Fire and Revelation with the Demi-Phoenix. It is incredibly satisfying.
-Titan Egi: Though chicken nugget can save my life sometimes with proper use of his shield, the fact that he can't tank anymore and is Ifrit -2 and Garuda -1 in terms of DPS just makes me sad.

Black Mage: +Foul - Hey, it's basically Nuke from the original final fantasy since it has no elemental alignment. It also doesn't haggle over MP amounts, yay.
-Leylines - The mechanic that turned BLM players into try hards like OG monks. Work around me, entire raid team. My DPS demands it! ugh.

Blue Mage: +Gobskin - My favorite shielding spell in the game. I love its description, animation, and the fact that it doesn't heal just applies the shield.
-Peripheral Synthesis - For being a cool as hell giant fist, with an additional effect that applies before the damage roll, this spell had all sorts of potential, but its debuff only works on trash :(

Favorite: Recitation
I love seeing those big crits that I can make happen after a decent cool down.

Meh: Anatman. I don’t feel the need to justify it.

Good idea to expand! Here, based on the jobs I play (Main MCH):

Scholar fave: Deployment Tactics - it may seem like a peripheral spell, but honestly is one of the strongest tools if you can play it strategically, which feels exactly what the Scholar fantasy should be, a good strategist.
Scholar hate: Seraph - Animation lock in and out leaves such a tight window to use the Consolation charges, it's really annoying to optmize its use, and it also create ghosting problems for the regular faerie. Plus it doesn't feel inspired at all - it works like a watered down SMN Trance.

Gunbreaker fave: Continuation combo. It's literally the only reason I love GNB other than the fact that is a tech-inspired job, which is the aesthetic I always go for in games.
Gunbreaker hate: Burst Strike and the fact that is a weaponskill and not an ability.

Ninja fave: Raiton - Feels visually and mechanically satisfying to end a mudra combination with that. Actually I think NIN is the job with most exciting buttons to press.
Ninja hate: Bunshin - Your big level 80 action being a fire and forget that is not even visually impactful... Feels like a slightly better Wildfire. Still brainless, that's why it's the most meh, for me.

Machinist fave: Auto-crossbow. The sound and visual is engaging. I wish they had this for the spammable regular AoE and something else for the Overheated variant instead of the boring Spread Shot, that doesn't even make sense with the type of firearm that MCH wields.
Machinist hate: Wildfire, because it's visually unimpressive and it's a brain-dead ability now. You just need to press 5 heat blasts + 1 weaponskill and you're done with it. This is basically the worst sister to Bunshin.

Dancer fave: Standard step - Yeah, it is a maintenance buff, but the huge bursty damage that comes with it makes it something exciting to push every 30s.
Dancer hate: Improvisation - The level 80 action is such a letdown, because it's extremely situational. Even Saber Dance feels more interesting than this.

Blue Mage (yes I'm adding this one) fave: There are a lot of interesting spells, but my absolute favorite is Abyssal Transfixion, simply because of the way it looks and the icing on the cake is the long duration paralysis.
Blue mage hate: Moon Flute hands down. I hate that the DPS optimization is tied to this piece of rubbish... It's such a bad design to have you literally do nothing for 15s. I'd rather have Moon Flute being a little weaker and with a cooldown, but letting you do your regular things for 15s, but with a heavy penalty in dps/heals instead.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Raikai

Scholar fave: Deployment Tactics - it may seem like a peripheral spell, but honestly is one of the strongest tools if you can play it strategically, which feels exactly what the Scholar fantasy should be, a good strategist.
Scholar hate: Seraph - Animation lock in and out leaves such a tight window to use the Consolation charges, it's really annoying to optmize its use, and it also create ghosting problems for the regular faerie. Plus it doesn't feel inspired at all - it works like a watered down SMN Trance..

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Deployment Kinda sucks since they trashed eye for eye and removed targettable pets. as you could deploy of them and cover the entire party was nice for certain mechanics where everyone is spread out.
it'd be nice if you could deploy catalyze as well as galvanise though give it some more use. maybe atouch op with recitation but then its still a 2 minute cooldown soo.
maybe even deploy excogition :)

Seraph i like however i tend to think rather than a flat duration it could be based on the faerie guage give it some real purpose and allow you to keep her active longer. though i do get peeved with the lag loosing skills. like angels whisper. seraph dissapears and the skill goes on cooldown without activating..

I tend to like ones that change up gameplay somehow, and dislike ones that are just 'do more damage' etc.

To take paladin as an example, fight or flight is boring, requiscat transitioning you into a spell burst phase is interesting.

Manafication is one of my favorites because of how it operates with red mage mechanics. You want to use it when your mana bars are in a certain range, high enough to get the full benefit of the cooldown but not too high as to wast mana and end up with 100/100 to not get the extra benefit from verflare or verholy.

Favorite: Midare Setsugekka. Like possibly the best "oomph" of slashes. Just hearing that ring lead-up into slick slash animation is just *chef kiss*

Least favorite: RDM LB3. I hope all the circles of hell take you. At the same time.

Oh, we're expanding the list? In that case...

• PLD
  (+)Passage of Arm = Must.Protecc!! And it's pretty. Why not?!
  ( -)Divine Veil = Ah yes... a selfless cooldown indeed. More than often left unnoticed by my healer & I don't want to waste a Clememecy just to proc it. Works best with SCH as your healer but still..eh...
• WAR
  (+)Inner Release = "Fell Cleave? Fell Cleave! FELL CLEAVE'D MUHEHEHE."
  ( -)Onslaught = Why oh why, you have a beast gauge cost reeeee. :mad:
• DRK
  (+)Abyssal Drain = HP syphon attacks has always been one of my favorite.
  ( -)Walking Dead = 'nuff said.
• GNB
  (+)Continuation Combo = "Yes yes, keep going yasss!!"
  ( -)Heart of Light = Isn't this a clone cooldown of DRK's...?
• MNK
  (+)Forbidden Chakra = Boom boom
  ( -)Fist of Wind = Basically ever since their rework: "why do you even exist, bruh?"
• DRG
  (+)Dragon Sight = Imagine scaring away an unexpecting fellow DPS, making them thinking they're going to die lmao.
  ( -)Stardiver = I want something more flashy :(
• NIN
  (+)Ten Chi Jin = Rapid fire ninjutsu, what else can be said?
  ( -)Shukuchi = Why won't you let me cross over gaps ;_;
• SAM
  I don't play SAM enough so I have nothing to say, sorry!
• BRD
  (+)All three songs = I like buffing, although rather passive in action.
  ( -)All three songs (???) = But seriously, am I deaf or something?
• MCH
  I don't play MCH enough so I have nothing to say, sorry! (1)
• DNC
  (+)Fan Dance I/II/III = They give me more buttons to press. At least they keep me awake.
  ( -)Fan Dance I/II/III (???) = But why do you always have to show up too many times especially during very tight burst window? -.-
• BLM
  (+)Aetherial Manipulation = I'm lazy to move.
  ( -)Between The Lines = Ever tried to teleport back to your Leyline to dodge bad stuff precisely when your Leyline runs out? Yep. I'm a sitting duck now on middle of AoE. Goodbye cruel world.
• SMN
  (+)Deathflare/Akh Morn = They're basically the same. Something about their animation is very satisfying to watch.
  ( -)Devotion = That feel when you forgot your pet is somewhere far away from you and the rest of your party. Or when they ghosted the ability.
• RDM
  (+)Manafication = Double the scorch, double the fun!
  ( -)Embolden = That feel when all your fellow DPS mates are casters.
• WHM
  (+)Assize & Asylum = Big fat damage & heal in one button. I also like how our character waves their staff.
  ( -)Plenary Indulgence = Yes it's powerful. Yes it can be useful. It just doesn't feel smooth to use an instant GCD prior from applying it for next Raptures or any of their AoE heals.
• SCH
  (+)Sacred Soil & Recitation = Both are saving grace to SCH's overall effectiveness.
  ( -)Dissipation & Fey Illumination = I've mentioned this before.
• AST
  (+)Horoscope & Earthly Star = Both are one of the few abilities that still retains Time Mage's flavor ever so slightly, being a potential delayed heals.
  ( -)Neutral Sect = Yes, you are powerful. Yes, you are very pretty. Yes, you're also lore-breaking. 'nuff said.

Favorite: Death Flare!!!! Perfect since Heavensward.

Least Favorite: Spread Shot. Don't even play Machinist and I don't like that skill. Looks so weak and way too much pewpewpewpewpew for my taste.