Sure, if they are actually off cooldown, which they shouldn't be since they should be being used anytime they are available outside of a specific few instances.
All melee ranged GCDs like Piercing Talon should NOT break combos. Keep the lower potency than any melee GCDs, but I don't think that's a lot to ask. Overall I disagree with OP like many others though.
That's the only thing I agree on with OP. The ranged attacks already have laughably low potency and will never be the better choice for disengaging and avoided at all costs. That they break combos makes standing around doing nothing more efficient than using them which a major design flaw.
Otherwise I think melees are in a pretty good spot. They all have their unique flavour. MNK is fast-paced with lots of positionals, NIN is very high APM with more range options, SAM has a strict loop, DRG has jumps with animation locks and strict rotation. It makes playing each melee feel different and they all have a different approach to fights yet they are balanced nicely.
This, so much. They could get rid of positionals altogether across the board to add better mechanics instead.
I know there are people, especially monk fans, that would probably flame this to a crisp. But the structure of the encounters, the responsiveness and format of the combat engine (and not even factoring in the human aspect of bad tanks constantly gyrating the target for no reason) everything adds in to make Positionals an extremely awkward mechanic in XIV.
In theory, the act of moving your character to attack different sides of the boss is quite nice and engaging. In practice, in XIV specifically, I have my doubts.
Removing things because people are bad at them doesn't actually guarantee better mechanics will be inserted later. SE has already an incredibly negative track record on this. Removing positionals because there are terrible griefers among the tank population won't actually fix the problem with players of that nature. This game has a three-strikes-your-out system. Report these players and move on, I know people have been banned for stuff like this.
Positionals are easy to perform with practice, which is why SE designs encounters specifically to force players to move out of range or position to consistently land them. Skilled players who practice often will be able find gaps in the boss' strictly scripted patters in order to land more positionals than those who insist they only need to land half of them or less.
What next? Are you going to demand that cast times be removed from the game because boss encounters don't accommodate standing still for extended periods of time without being forced to move due to mechanics?
Rather than going back and forth endlessly about positionals, let's talk about a serious issue:
Complaint: NIN can't hide offhand weapon (ala paladin shield)
Suggestion: allow NIN to hide offhand weapon
(Yes, I recognize that this would likely take an inordinate amount of animation work.)
It´s getting old but still laughable how many ppl coming out of their holes and crying about positionals. It´s not like FF14 has a strict boss pattern, a strict rotation, laughable stack / spread RNG, bosses which port back to the mid at any big mechanic, and so on. Oh and on top you don´t even need to hit them all to finish any content unless your whole team sucks really that hard.
All in this games cries "Please play positionals to not get bored and fall asleep!". Don´t tell me it´s fun and engaging to play 123 + off GCD when the job gauge is full.
I should really start to copy and paste answers like this:
Better mechanics? You mean something like Mudra, which is unique but nothing but another button in your strict rotation? Or the dragoneye, which is nothing but 2 skills in the strict rotation?
Nothing has more impact to the gameplay than playing positionals. You´ll always have to adjust at any boss mechanics or to tank missplays. And even that has become braindead thx to perma-ports. Any "great mechanics", (and yes i´m still waiting for ideas from that 10 players coming up with the same sentence), will never be better as long as they rely on "click button X at moment Y", not even if it´s RNG procc bs. They won´t even add better boss mechanics, because 99% of all players are not even able to use stuff like Esuna or to use their head for any strategies, smart plays which are not guide / macro based. They would cry the hell out "too difficult". Please guys... please...
I really don´t understand why poeple actually play this game, when all what they want is to stay 24/7 at the boss and spamming 1 button. And "MÄÄÄH" if the tank turns the boss 1 micropixel then, because his cat touched WASD. "MÄÄÄH" if you´ve to move to stack with your healer. "MÄÄÄH" "MÄÄÄÄH" "MÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄH" or better mimimi?
SE should sell a baby-mode like this for any content in the mogry-shop together with some ingame teddy icon as permavisible loot instead of the mount. SE will get rich and better players don´t have to carry such carebears anymore through serious runs, i call that WIN WIN!