Question about GCD

So I have read older threads about gcd. one side saying it was to slow. The other opinions said it had plenty of off-gcd top help make it faster paced (which I agree with. However, they also state in comparison to other games the slower gcd is because combat is more strategic at 50 for which abilities to use and when, which I havent experienced yet (except defensive cds sorta).
I have only played paladin and have done some raids and hard mode trials, nothing extreme yet. Is it higher levels when you must be strategic with abilities, not talking about mechanic of fight. Or is it the fact that I\\'m paladin, which is what I think.. If that is the case hopefully heavensward makes paladin players need to use a little strategy in their abilities.

Well there are certain fights where you must use stun at the right moment and such. Ifrit HM used to be one - back when people had i55-i70 weapon and i60-i70 gear. Many mechanics become trivial when we get better gear because we just wont take any damage. I have not done coil but I assume there are a lot more mechanics than in extreme fights.

Well there are certain fights where you must use stun at the right moment and such. Ifrit HM used to be one - back when people had i55-i70 weapon and i60-i70 gear. Many mechanics become trivial when we get better gear because we just wont take any damage. I have not done coil but I assume there are a lot more mechanics than in extreme fights.

The biggest one right off the bat I can think off is T13. Managing your CDs is important because when it comes to rapid hitting Flare Breaths, healing 3-4k damage per each is a lot better than 6-8k. I'm not the tank in question, but I've seen the silly heals. There there's always the final phase of T13. While it still mechanic-ish, you still need your CDs to survive the hard hitting things.

To say that you must use your abilities strategically is a bit misleading. In some fights some players will need to strategically use 1 or 2 of their abilities, sure. It never gets to the point where even half of your actions are decided by the course of that particular fight rather than just your regular rotation.

For a tank it's pretty much knowing when big hits are coming in a fight and preempting them with mitigation abilities (similar for healer) as well as when to stun/ silence certain abilities. Some fights will require more precise positioning and such as part of the strategy, but that doesn't really affect what abilities you use. Tanks also need to use provoke 'strategically' (as in, use provoke to keep the other tank from dying and he/she will hopefully do the same for you when the time comes).

For tanks, at higher levels it is only about mitigation/provoke timing (Off-GCD skills) and positioning.

Crowd control/debuffs are rarely useful right now, so your pacification/stun/silence abilities aren't used for those purposes.
MP is also not an issue for paladins currently, with only flash and stoneskin that use it ... neither of them need to be used often enough that your MP runs out, which makes the paladin branching combo (Riot blade) useless.

While paladins have a lot of tools, they are all rarely used so it reduces the job down to a 1-2-3 with mitigation skills. I blame the rest of the game for that instead of the job itself.

It's because you're a paladin.

Outside of Halone spam, you don't exactly have anything else that would be effected by the gcd that you would use in terms of 'strategic skill usage'. Everything else you have is off GCD, save for your stun, but at the moment I don't believe you'll be using that skill too much end game, save for something like Levi EX (If you even consider that end game anymore). Flash would be the only other thing really, but that just comes down to simple management, and half the time you will have plenty of time to sit through a gcd before you need to flash. That is, if you even need to, because circle of scorn is so much better and is off the gcd.

Those aside, everything else you have comes down to predicting when a large amount of damage is incoming, and using your buffs, which since you're a paladin, are all off of your gcd.

Warrior is the more.. 'strategic' tank at the moment due to having to manage your wrath stacks, and knowing when to inner beast, and getting the best use out of infuriate. Same goes for Unchained, Berserk, and IR, while FoF is more of a 'use it whenever because it's cd isn't very long to begin with' type of thing for Paladins (Outside of burn situations). Then there is also what is considered both tanks biggest 'Oh Crap' buttons, Hollowed Ground, and Holmgang. Hollowed Ground, you just pop and bam you're invincible for 10 seconds. Holmgang has a shorter duration, you still take damage, and you get rooted in place.

So out of the two, most things about the Warrior makes it the more 'strategic' playstyle tank. Hopefully Heavensward will change that with paladins, and I'm seriously hoping Dark Knight isn't a braindead tank job like Paladin is right now.

they're the same. you plan the same way in wow than you do here. there are mechanics that require you to hold on your cd's as much as there are times where you just go ham. i'm currently playing a guardian and feral druid and it's not as button mash-y as people in here make it out to be.

i kind of feel that lot of people here just get defensive if their game gets compared to others. more strategic lol.

As a Paladin there will be a lot of times where using your skills at the correct times will be the difference between your entire party surviving or dying. In end-game content you will begin to learn that there are times to actually queue up skills to be ready to pick up adds faster, or maybe you'll be a paladin that manages to switch in between Sword and Shield Oath successfully, I believe that Shield Swipe does more damage, even if the pacification hasn't done too much for me in the past. As many have pointed out some fights require you to use stuns, and I should also point out that at the end of pulls on the last mob you can stun them at about 25% hps and run to the next pull while your DD's finish them off. MP management, CD Management, and fight awareness are all vital to your success as a paladin, especially if you're planning on finishing the harder end-game content such as Coil.



So all-in-all, Yeah the GCD's speed makes it tactical in some points. However as you grasp the concept of each individual fight, you'll find a rotation that will almost always work and then from that point it becomes just hitting buttons in the right order.

Thanks for the responses everyone. Yeah so far with my experiences, the only things strategic wise for Paladin was
1) not exactly when to use defensive cooldowns, but rather when to save them for big hits
2)cover, I use it sometimes on the other tank
3) kinda provoke for tank swapping. It would be more so if I was having to grab adds that would be very helpful to use provoke, but shouldnt because id need to save it for tank swap.

I mean hollowed ground, provoke, etc.. feels more like a reactionary ability rather than having a strategic choice. It would be fun to have multiple abilities/combos that have different benefits and you gotta choose which one would make that circumstance better for you

most people who say the GCD is slow are former World of Warcraft players who miss the button mashing of the days of old.

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Originally Posted by AlexionSkylark

most people who say the GCD is slow are former World of Warcraft players who miss the button mashing of the days of old.

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It is a little slow. 2.5 seconds compared to WoW's 1.5 seconds. And no, in WoW its not a button mash, end game raiders still use rotations. :P

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Originally Posted by joe30174

It would be fun to have multiple abilities/combos that have different benefits and you gotta choose which one would make that circumstance better for you

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You should try Warrior, it's so much fun! :D