New gap closers

I was watching the job action trailer and it looks like the devs are moving away from damage dealing gap closers. At least for faster paced jobs.

DRG seems to have lost spineshatter dive, DRK has lost plunge and GNB has lost rough divide and they have all been replaced by a new gap closer that looks similar to MNKs thunderclap. RPR’s ingress/egress seem unaffected, NIN’s shukuchi seems to have been changed into more of a backstep since I never saw them turn around (although this could just be job trailer movie magic) and Viper seems to be following the same trend as the others. Samurai didn’t show off theirs but they are already dps neutral due to kenki usage so it’s probably not changed.

I say only for fast paced jobs because PLD and WAR seem to have kept intervene and onslaught as they were.

I would say it is more for jobs that have/had a high amount of oGCDs. By removing the damage, they remove the need for them to fit into burst windows which starts to free up oGCD slots for other things.

One thing I do seem to recall reading for all 3 jobs is just how busy their burst window is, because of the number of oGCDs. Especially on DRK.GNB, this could cause an issue as it means less weaving slots, which means you need to move something to get potential defensive cooldowns in that window. DRG just had every slot filled, so it was just plain busy.

PLD and WAR do not have many oGCDs used for their burst, so they can more easily fit a gap closer in.

For the most part I like this change. Using a gap closer at the right time can feel very fun and satisfying, but when there is damage attached to them you're rarely if ever going to do that because you want that damage under your buff window instead.

What I don't like is that they replaced Spineshatter Dive with a generic dash on DRG. If you want a gap closer on Dragoon, the job all about jumps, why would you make that a dash and not a jump? I would much rather see them just remove the damage from Spineshatter Dive.

I was really hoping DRG would get a gap closer that was a jump that could be aimed. Alas...

But yes, while there's no reason a DRG couldn't "jump" horizontally to close distance, I was hoping for a flashier jump-looking move.

I think the removal of plunge and rough divide was a bad take. I get why they did it, but removing abilities really needs to stop.

I'm hoping the new gap closer is still called Rough Divide because that's iconic to gunbreaker but I like the potential to get defensive cooldowns in. Plus we're getting Lionheart and that's probably going to get weaved in somewhere.

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Originally Posted by RoadGGG

I think the removal of plunge and rough divide was a bad take. I get why they did it, but removing abilities really needs to stop.

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I'm not sure why they didn't just keep those abilities and remove the damage. They were all visually unique and suited the flavor of the job, now they all look identical.

Spamming gap closers for damage was kinda lame, but at the same time movement based attacks are very cool, and its not good to remove cool things from the game. However, the removal of damage from gap closers should provide the design space to better design space to better communicate to a player that a movement based attack IS for damage, but is risky because it affects their character's movement.

God, PLEASE don't get rid of the gap closers. Plunge is one of the coolest looking moves in the game and was one of the reasons I picked up the job way back when.

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Originally Posted by CidHeiral

I'm not sure why they didn't just keep those abilities and remove the damage. They were all visually unique and suited the flavor of the job, now they all look identical.

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I think likely due to the fact the animations involve an actual attack. It would honestly look goofy to see a DRK leap at an opponent, slam a huge greatsword down on them and there's absolutely no damage, tactile feedback, or anything.
I like the plunge animation much more, but I could easily see why they replaced them.