Optional Skill/Spell Speed modifier

I'm only going to mention Skill Speed in this post but I think it might as well apply to Spell Speed:

Materia aside, what if we could get a completely optional Skill Speed modifier that can increase your Skill Speed at cost of overall DPS. Have the DPS penalty be more significant than the dps gain from Skill Speed to compensate for the increased comfiness. So basically an option for those who just absolutely want to play with higher Skill Speed and don't care about meta.

This doesn't really have to change anything about the game. Materia will still stay the same and work the same way (the skill speed modifier will be on top of the materia and gear secondary skill speed stat).

It could either be a slider, or have multiple tiers, or just 1 skill speed turbo toggle that will do it for you. Idc, I just want the option for more Skill Speed and don't want it to be dependant of gear and/or what's possible with current patch (biggest frustration is that Skill Speed gets significantly nerfed when your gear is synced).

I believe this can make the game much more fun for some people/jobs. What do you think?

lol having an option to get the gcd down to .5 seconds would be funny. How I miss those windows with enh shammy

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Originally Posted by Darsien

What GCD are you looking for that is otherwise unobtainable?

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Around 2.0s I'd say. But I'd be satisfied enough with 2.1 or 2.2, even 2.3 if it means that it won't go above that with any sync.

Getting such low GCD is either impossible or difficult to achieve (unless job themselves give skill speed buff). Jobs at lower level for example suffer the most from slow combat but you'll never be able to get high Skill Speed on them. I just feel like it would be better fun if you get some kind of Skill Speed guarantee. Cause amount of Skill Speed you can max right now is greatly dependent on your gear and also on what's possible with current patch.

In general I'd like if FFXIV was at least base 2.0 GCD in general, though we'd have to see about unifying spell and skill speed into a single stat that also applies to action animations with how weaving is so core to the design of the combat system.

Something like this would be tremendous to balance. If you're attacking 20~30% faster than everybody else, your potencies gotta get hit massively to account for that, and then I think people would complain that there's no reason to use it, cause they can't see their fun big numbers.

I've hit about 2.18 as a healer before (synced down), maybe 2.16, and around 2.2/2.22 if not synced. All of this was during Stormblood with level 70/mixed gear.
I expect you can still do this. Going into a synced down duty, change all your gear so that it is above the item level sync, and so that each piece (or as much as possible) has there stats such that the speed attribute is the higher/already maximum stat. When you sync down, it seems to be that the higher the item level you're syncing from, you are given bonus points to the highest secondary stat on each gear piece. While synced you can test this by switching in and out an at item level piece, and an above item level piece of the same gear slot with the same secondary stat interval/distribution. The only number in the character window that changes is the secondary attribute that is maximum on the piece (becomes a higher number with the synced piece switched in).
Look through all the various dungeons, raid tiers, etc. to see what gear options there are for speed, then take as much speed as you can get to go into a synced duty below all of their item levels.

Likewise, you can also see that if you bring an above level weapon to a level 50/60/70 duty, duties that don't have an extra item level sync, your weapons become 130/270/400, not 135/275/405. And so if you change to an xx5 weapon there's also an increase there, but not necessarily helpful if you want speed

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Originally Posted by SamRF

I'm only going to mention Skill Speed in this post but I think it might as well apply to Spell Speed:

Materia aside, what if we could get a completely optional Skill Speed modifier that can increase your Skill Speed at cost of overall DPS. Have the DPS penalty be more significant than the dps gain from Skill Speed to compensate for the increased comfiness. So basically an option for those who just absolutely want to play with higher Skill Speed and don't care about meta.

This doesn't really have to change anything about the game. Materia will still stay the same and work the same way (the skill speed modifier will be on top of the materia and gear secondary skill speed stat).

It could either be a slider, or have multiple tiers, or just 1 skill speed turbo toggle that will do it for you. Idc, I just want the option for more Skill Speed and don't want it to be dependant of gear and/or what's possible with current patch (biggest frustration is that Skill Speed gets significantly nerfed when your gear is synced).

I believe this can make the game much more fun for some people/jobs. What do you think?

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SE would be unlikely to add such a modifier. It would lead to situations similar to the ones SE used as examples of why BLU is a limited job and not a normal job allowed to join normal Duty Finder groups.

If you want to experiment on your own with what's available, you could though you'd risk being removed from groups if your DPS suffered too much. Have you tried mixing gear of different ilvls to maximize skill speed and see how much of a reduction you can achieve that way? If your DPS doesn't matter to you, ilvl becomes irrelevant outside of it setting a cap for how much skill speed can be on the item.

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Originally Posted by Lethros

I've hit about 2.18 as a healer before (synced down), maybe 2.16, and around 2.2/2.22 if not synced. All of this was during Stormblood with level 70/mixed gear.
I expect you can still do this. Going into a synced down duty, change all your gear so that it is above the item level sync, and so that each piece (or as much as possible) has there stats such that the speed attribute is the higher/already maximum stat. When you sync down, it seems to be that the higher the item level you're syncing from, you are given bonus points to the highest secondary stat on each gear piece. While synced you can test this by switching in and out an at item level piece, and an above item level piece of the same gear slot with the same secondary stat interval/distribution. The only number in the character window that changes is the secondary attribute that is maximum on the piece (becomes a higher number with the synced piece switched in).
Look through all the various dungeons, raid tiers, etc. to see what gear options there are for speed, then take as much speed as you can get to go into a synced duty below all of their item levels.

Likewise, you can also see that if you bring an above level weapon to a level 50/60/70 duty, duties that don't have an extra item level sync, your weapons become 130/270/400, not 135/275/405. And so if you change to an xx5 weapon there's also an increase there, but not necessarily helpful if you want speed

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Thanks for the tip. I managed to get a WAR build to 2.18s GCD.

Monk can easily attain under 2 seconds.
Speed builds are in the game they may just not be the class you wanted.

This would be extremely difficult to balance. Remember, there are not just DPS GCDs but also healing GCDs. All our oGCD buffs have a duration that assumes you can fit X number of GCDs in them. For example, Lance Charge lasts 20 seconds and can fit 9 GCDs inside. If you're attacking 20-30% faster, you're fitting 12 GCDs inside.

This would make BLM a lot easier to play and also force people into using the "optional" speed modifier.

This would only work if the potencies are further reduced than just to compensate for the faster speed. Especially when jobs like Bard having a movement tax on their dps.

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Originally Posted by SamRF

Thanks for the tip. I managed to get a WAR build to 2.18s GCD.

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That's really not a great plan. You are gonna be losing a lot of crit and direct hit damage without much benefit from all that speed. The Balance recommends WAR's GCD be between 2.35-2.38 to make your Inner Release windows line up as well as possible and you probably aren't gaining an extra Fell Cleave during inner release because it's like 1 second gained from it. And even if you can, the loss of Crit and DH is still not good.

This would be a gimmick that would probably be barely be used:

* Monks exist and attack super fast
* The % can't be small or it would be worthless to use
* If the % speed is significant, square would destroy the potency in skills negating the benefit

Maybe casuals and people trolling would use it to mess around, but that's about it in my opinion.

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Originally Posted by Stepjam

That's really not a great plan. You are gonna be losing a lot of crit and direct hit damage without much benefit from all that speed. The Balance recommends WAR's GCD be between 2.35-2.38 to make your Inner Release windows line up as well as possible and you probably aren't gaining an extra Fell Cleave during inner release because it's like 1 second gained from it. And even if you can, the loss of Crit and DH is still not good.

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Obviously I'm not doing high-end content with that build. Just one for fun.

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Originally Posted by ClickOnce

This would be a gimmick that would probably be barely be used:

* Monks exist and attack super fast
* The % can't be small or it would be worthless to use
* If the % speed is significant, square would destroy the potency in skills negating the benefit

Maybe casuals and people trolling would use it to mess around, but that's about it in my opinion.

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I can see lot's of low level players stuck with boring rotation using it. Imagine coming from WoW and having to suffer longer GCD as well as boring rotation for a long while, as you're starting out.

so another person whinging about the gcd in this game. ok next.

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Originally Posted by SamRF

I can see lot's of low level players stuck with boring rotation using it. Imagine coming from WoW and having to suffer longer GCD as well as boring rotation for a long while, as you're starting out.

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So FFXIV should change to cater to people coming from other games? FFXIV has a 2.5 GCD because it was designed to have smooth and aesthetically attractive looking skill and spell animations. WoW animations are boring and basic because the GCD is so fast they can't make them last on screen for a long time. Imagine if the GCD was 1.5 or 2s, spells like Flare or Scorch would have to just be basic fireballs that flash for a second and then vanish. With a longer GCD you can have cool looking weapon attacks or elaborate spell animations.

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Originally Posted by Jonnycbad

So FFXIV should change to cater to people coming from other games? FFXIV has a 2.5 GCD because it was designed to have smooth and aesthetically attractive looking skill and spell animations. WoW animations are boring and basic because the GCD is so fast they can't make them last on screen for a long time. Imagine if the GCD was 1.5 or 2s, spells like Flare or Scorch would have to just be basic fireballs that flash for a second and then vanish. With a longer GCD you can have cool looking weapon attacks or elaborate spell animations.

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Just an option btw that is turnt off by default and you can turn on/off whenever you want. If the GCD is too fast for the animation you just go into animation lock, as is the case right now with oGCDs.

Since we're talking about GCDs from other games, I think there was some really crazy exploit with a warrior spec in vanilla wow that made them have to rework everything regarding GCD and DPS values. The guy was so good at exploiting the balance between skill speed and damage output, he ended up getting a job at "company that makes direct competitor to FFXIV."

Definitely would be a pain to balance this in FFXIV (and look janky) but it would be really fun to mess around with.

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Originally Posted by SamRF

Just an option btw that is turnt off by default and you can turn on/off whenever you want. If the GCD is too fast for the animation you just go into animation lock, as is the case right now with oGCDs.

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no you don't get to have it both ways. someone would find a way to cheat the system and have it on when it's not supposed to be.