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

[Kanzer]

Sorry but that's just nonsense. It's completely counterintuitive. Say a boss ability has a 2 second cast, you're saying is that it's actually supposed to be a .75 second cast time.

If visual cues like cast timers and aoe indicators are not actually accurate, then why even include them? You can't be seriously suggesting that encounter mechanics are actually designed to be tuned towards integrating substandard reponsiveness,and that this is an acceptable approach?

I'm saying nothing of the sort. If a boss has a 2 second cast, then it's a 2 second cast, you have 2 seconds to interrupt it. And if you know it needs to be interrupted, and that locking yourself into an animation is going to possibly make you unable to get your ability off in time, then you wait for the ability, interrupt, then resume your rotation. You see? It's all part of that forming a strategy thing that the SE rep talked about earlier in this thread.

If you think about it, this system makes the most sense of all of them. Why should you be able to bash something with your shield while you're in the middle of swinging your sword down as hard as you can on it's head? It's a matter of doing what's necessary for your situation. If something needs to be interrupted or you die, then that becomes the priority, not your rotation. And if for some reason you can't stop your rotation (for example: Building threat) Then someone else handles that particular one. ADS for example, if you have two Paladin's then the offtank Paladin can interrupt and make sure not to lock themselves in an animation. Then when the offtank becomes the main tank, the other taunts since they no longer have to immediately worry about building threat.

System is fine, it's not bad design, it's just not WoW.

Oh, oh! Let me guess what that advice is. "You need to initiate the stun immediately when the mob uses their ability, so your animation will finish in time to actually stun it. In order to make sure you can react early enough, just auto attack behind the mob until it's time to stun." ISN'T THAT FUN!

If that's how you choose to ensure you get the job done, then by all means go for it. But anyone capable of paying attention knows generally when the ability is coming up and can throw in some DPS while waiting for it. Read above for my advice.

Have you been keeping up with the Titan thread?

This game could have some of the best combat systems in the genre. It really could. At the moment it's held back by server unresponsiveness and developers being firm on their position.

Yep, and I've done titan plenty, consistently even. I personally wouldn't have an issue with them reducing the .3 second location check to .1 or lower. I think it'd improve things, but that's completely irrelevant to this discussion.