How do "You" deal with timed abilities.

When I refer to timed abilities I'm referring to abilities such as Impact on RDM. I've had some RDMs tell me the avoid Impact all together. I can't count the times I've gone to cast Impact only to have my cast get interrupted because the timer ends. I've gotten to where I "try" to look at the status bar before I cast Impact but that seems to take a few more seconds of reaction time that adds up over the fight. Granted I'm not a savage player so maybe that doesn't matter lol. Anyway, how do you guys deal with or use timer based abilities like these and do you think anything needs to be done with them? For example should Jolt, the move that procs Impact, just upgrade to Impact when it procs and stay there till you use it? Should something else be done with them, like say as long as you start casting the spell before the timer runs out it wont get interrupted?

PS: This example only uses RDM but several jobs have these.

These are quality of life changes I'd like to see (on RDM at least). Because Impact is just a better Jolt, it could replace it like Ruin IV replaces Ruin II on SMN. And if Impactful falls off during your cast, you should not be interrupted either.

A quick tip is to never let impact fall off. So if you have been lucky enough with procs, and Impact is around 5sec remaining, use it anyway (or even before, if you go in your melee combo, to unbalance your mana and proc on Ver Holy/Flare).
Say you have balanced mana around 40 each, VerFire and VerAero both ready and around 20 seconds each, and Impactful falling in 5seconds, use Impact and dual cast your Verthunder if black is lower, VerAero if white is lower. In the best case, it did not proc, and you can go back on VerStone or VerFire. In the worst case, you will refresh that timer, while keeping an even potency.
Losing Impact and thus using Jolt II later is a slight DPS loss.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Mansion

And if Impactful falls off during your cast, you should not be interrupted either.

---

Always bothered me that they did that for FSH but not for basically anything else :\

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by BillyKaplan

Always bothered me that they did that for FSH but not for basically anything else :\

---

Fishing is thus the true endgame.

I dont really play red mage so I'm not too familiar with where Impact lies in their openers/rotations, but if its like any other ability tied to a 10s-30s status effect on the player, I would expect to cast it whenever I would normally cast Jolt since its the same cast time/mana but higher potency. At least, that's all i can gather from reading the abilities online.

RDM Impact is one of the unique processes you have compete control over, you decide when you want it to be active and can even reset the timer for it just by using Jolt II again. Saying that, Impact has a very generous timer to begin with so there isn't really any reason to keep hold of it, just use it when it's up because there are no real downsides to it, aside from that be sure to balance your mana correctly though.

My rule of thumb is that I only trust my impact timer if I've only cast two other procs (so, for example, verstone>verthunder>verfire>veraero>impact). If I've had another proc (always take verprocs over impact) or I've had to pause to mechanic, I go back to jolt.
That being said, I wholly support the idea of the buff not wearing off mid-cast.

As for "never use impact", that's terrible advice based off not being willing to "know" your class. Go for a training dummy for a bit to get a feel and you should already be able to understand roughly how long impact lasts since it's 100% player proc. 270 v 240 (230?) potency isn't a game changer but you're still losing unnecessary damage, especially when you shouldn't have to worry about it. As others have said, the timer is generous, you just need to be aware of where you are in your proc rotation.

I've made it a habit to glance at my Impactful buff with every few hardcasts I do. I still sometimes let it run too low and have it turn off halfway through my Impact cast, but that's just something that takes practice to judge ahead of time. It might also help to adjust your HUD to put your buffs near your hotbars; less distance for your eyes to cover while looking for procs.

If verfire/verstone procs more than once, or if I go to the melee phase, I glance at the timer and do a silent countdown.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Burningskull

I've had some RDMs tell me the avoid Impact all together.

---

Do not listen to whoever gave you that advice. There's no reason to not use free extra damage.

Generally speaking, when the buff's timer is around 8 seconds, I'd make it your hardcast priority. It makes sure you get to use it, as you don't want to waste the ability.

Generally speaking, I'm going to say your cast time is 2.5 on the gcd (to make things simple). After about 8 casts (this counts the dualcasted spells, as they're taking the gcd too), then it's been 20 seconds, assuming you have a 2.5 gcd, and should probably start getting ready to impact.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Burningskull

For example should Jolt, the move that procs Impact, just upgrade to Impact when it procs and stay there till you use it? Should something else be done with them, like say as long as you start casting the spell before the timer runs out it wont get interrupted?

---

Do a mix of this. It should still be timed, but if you start casting, it shouldn't take it away from you. And I only agree with replacing jolt II when the ability is up because...
1) Consistency with other skills (Ruin IV)
2) I can stop having to explain to someone that Impact even is a spell.

I enthusiastically support a QOL change to prevent casts from being interrupted by a buff timer running out mid-cast.

You do want to use Impact when its up, but usually I save it for an instance where I dont have a stone or fire available. So I may go Verfire to Aero, then Stone to thunder, but fire didnt proc, so then its Impact to thunder and if my black mana is getting to high, like more than a 15 point lead, then I can do a stone to Aero and even them up. I am probably not maxing out my dps this way or I am making it more complicated then it needs to be, but I usually don't end up with a gross imbalance around my melee combo time and from the 24 man parses I got, my dps is pretty well.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Kurando

RDM Impact is one of the unique processes you have compete control over, you decide when you want it to be active and can even reset the timer for it just by using Jolt II again. Saying that, Impact has a very generous timer to begin with so there isn't really any reason to keep hold of it, just use it when it's up because there are no real downsides to it, aside from that be sure to balance your mana correctly though.

---

There are plenty of times where your proc timer may get low. Phase changes, or a lucky string of Verstone and Verfire procs since Verstone/Verfire > Impact for building your gauge will often cause you to start running low on your Impact timer. With how it's coded now it's best to try and weave it in if you can, but they really should change it to where it doesn't interrupt the cast at all by the proc falling off. Even more so since the game smoothly goes into a hard cast of the Verthunder/Veraero if you got through most of the cast to queue the next ability up. To be honest I just don't think it was something they even thought of when designing the procs.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by SieyaM

You do want to use Impact when its up, but usually I save it for an instance where I dont have a stone or fire available.

---

Mostly this. The thing about Impact is

If you have Impactful, Verstone Ready, and Verfire Ready
and Impactful is about to fall off

Even if you have both Verfastspells Ready, t's a damage loss to cast Verstone or Verfire. If Impactful falls off, you have two procs left. If neither of those leads to another proc, you only got two procs. However, if you cast Impact, you will still have the two Verfastspell procs, so you'll get to cast three. It's the difference between

Verstone->Veraero, Verfire->Verthunder, Jolt II->Verslowspell
and
Impact->Verslowspell, Verfire->Verthunder, Verstone->Veraero

You want to do everything you can to avoid casting Jolt ever. This includes prioritizing Impact over a Verfastspell when the timer is at 8s or less.

How would it impact... pun unintended.... RDM if Impact was OGCD and was on a timer like Flechette but could only be triggered by casting Jolt or Jolt 2.