The problem with "Instant OFF GCD" abilities makes combat feel less rewarding.

[Jinko]

No, what I mean is that every ability has a hidden lockout time during which you can not use any other ability. I call this "animation cooldown".

You can observe this when using instant skill which does not trigger global cooldown (skills are not greyed out) and trying to use another skill asap, you will see that despite second skill not being greyed out, it won't go off for about 1.3 second has passed (until hidden "animation cooldown" is finished). This is seen in the video on youtube at ~22sec mark (spamming 1 skill after using 7th which is instant off gcd).

Ahh yea I see what you mean now, I agree that is annoying.

"Less rewarding" - Are you frikking kidding me? This game is so easy that there is NO sense of achievement anyways, GCD's aren't gonna fix it.

You clearly haven't got to Temple of Qarn have you ?

[Naks]

Now that we are getting feedback about ingame mechanics, any word if this will be addressed or considered? like giving us a option to have animation clipping or something, cos the random length between instant abilities is pretty annoying and frustrating when your trying to interupt a cast and cant intime due to having just used another ability, this is up there as annoying as being hit by aoe attacks after you have moved out of red zones with time to spare

[Jinko]

^ Agree these small little things build up and are what will put people off playing the game, both need to fixed.

[Zumi]

Off GCD abilities in FFXIV:ARR have a delay to them about 1 sec like the OP said. It just feels weird compared to other MMOs, where off GCD abilities are instant and you can chain them and they go off as soon as they are pressed. Like you can use as many off GCD abilities in a row as fast as you can press them or macro them together which you can't currently do in ARR.

Wish they would make off GCD abilities work like they do in other MMOs. This is one of those technical issues they sort of didn't get right.

[BrainWoodstock]

I have to agree it sucks so much activating them because they are not instant, how often i though i activated them only to see a second later i dident.

[Kletian]

I wish they were more instant as well. Like How Sneak Attack and Trick Attack could be one animation in FFXI

[Alemana]

you say "off gcd" so many times I stopped reading after the first bullet point.

[Shydo123]

Like people have stated, the worst part is if you want to chain 2 instants together you lose about 2 secs even though both are "instant" cast. It is still doable to pop an instant during the gcd but is annoying as hell. If it is an instant heal it is best to just wait until you are off gcd to press it because it might not go off during gcd. Hopefully they make these instant abilities instant!

[Naks]

you say "off gcd" so many times I stopped reading after the first bullet point.

I think thats because posts about this get derailed by people who dont understand the problem posting to say there is a 2.5 GCD, when clearly the issue isnt about those but the non GCD instant abilities, I play bard and trying to use Bloodletter is almost pointless because half the time you cant cast it before the GCD is over

[Althea]

Yeah this is pretty annoying. On my bard, I have about 6 "off gcd" abilities I need to hit. I obviously can't hit them all at the same time. By the time I got to the last one, the first one would have worn off before I even got to my DPS rotation.

I basically stagger my cooldowns in with my main rotation, so that I'm at least getting the damage benefit in increments in between heavy shots, venomous bites, etc. I force a refresh on my dots while I have all my cooldowns up, so that I get the full benefit. It's really inconvenient.

At the same time, though. It'd also be kind of ridiculous to be able to use 6 CDs at the same time (ie macro them together). BUT. The animation lock/delay has to go. Seriously. I'd hate to have to be in some sort of an interrupt rotation and be like "sorry guys, my character was being dramatic and doing some poses .. couldn't get the interrupt."